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ASK DANMAN - Question and Answer

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ASK DANMAN - Question and Answer

DANMAN GAMES

http://www.danmangames.com
from Sins Forums

Greetings All!

Throughout my time here playing and modding the game I have become quite knowledgeble in the overall aspects of the game and modding the game as a whole.  While I learn stuff everyday, I feel like I can teach and answer questions as well.  People have helped me along the way, so this is my way of giving back to the community.  So, if you have a question that you think I may know an answer to, feel free to post and I will reply whatever I know.  Feel free to ask about anything about the game, modding, or anything else in general, my head is full of useless facts and knowledge.  I have played most Space/Sci-fi games, love fantasy games (like Oblivion and NWN) watch just about every Sci-Fi & Fantasy TV show, and have a deep knowledge of science and history, especially ancient history.  I have a Marketing and Sales background, with a specialization in graphics and art.  I also know modeling programs, but use 3D MAX specifically for modding.

So, I leave it up to you, the modding and gaming community.  I will be listening....

DANMAN

modding
1,059,013 views 495 replies +3 Loading…
Reply #351 from Sins Forums Top

Can someone please help me i've tried othe posts but nobody answers me.

I need help with the CL (Custom Logo) it just shows up as a colored ( Whatever color chosen ) square when i load the game.

Any help at all will be appriciated thx

Reply #352 from Sins Forums Top

I've been trying to add a new race in entrenchment and I am wandering if you have to not only add the info in the string file but also in the entity manifest file?

 

 

Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #353 from Sins Forums Top

Yes, you have to add it to th entity.manifest

Reply #354 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Thoumsin, reply 23



Quoting xXx,
reply 19
-cl is your normal texture, -nm is your Normal Map(Bump Map), and -da control 3 things: Metallic shine(blue), team color bleed thru(red), and lighting(green).


 

Not more true from some time ago... the da red channel is switched with the cl alpha... since a lot of older model have a cl map without any  alpha, these model in game are fully colored in the team color... if you don't use team color, paint minimum one pixel of the alpha cl will resolve problem...
End of Thoumsin's quote

Actually Thoumsin, Alpha Channel on -cl is for player color in Entrenchment, red in -da is for team color for multiple player games where people have teams.  This I verified.

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Reply #355 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting xXx, reply 4
Actually Thoumsin, Alpha Channel on -cl is for player color in Entrenchment, red in -da is for team color for multiple player games where people have teams.  This I verified.
End of xXx's quote

 

From https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/329902 :

"New ship shader with colorsample.a swapped with datasample.r (Team and specular have reversed position)."

 

So red da is become the specular and alpha cl is become team/player color since 1.1... If i am wrong... Stardock, a lot of mod and Dan are wrong... ask Dan and it will confirm the switch...

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Reply #357 from Sins Forums Top

@ "XXX" & "Thoumsin",

                               Thankyou very much, you are a fantastic help and I appriciate it.

Reply #358 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Thoumsin, reply 5



Quoting xXx,
reply 4
Actually Thoumsin, Alpha Channel on -cl is for player color in Entrenchment, red in -da is for team color for multiple player games where people have teams.  This I verified.


 

From https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/329902 :

"New ship shader with colorsample.a swapped with datasample.r (Team and specular have reversed position)."

 

So red da is become the specular and alpha cl is become team/player color since 1.1... If i am wrong... Stardock, a lot of mod and Dan are wrong... ask Dan and it will confirm the switch...
End of Thoumsin's quote

You are correct in that they switched.  What they call Specular(Red) from -da used to be Player Color, and the Alpha Channel from the -cl used to Team Color.  So, if they reversed, that means Alpha Channel on -cl is now Player Color and Specular(Red) on the -da is now Team Color.

Reply #359 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting xXx, reply 8

You are correct in that they switched.  What they call Specular(Red) from -da used to be Player Color, and the Alpha Channel from the -cl used to Team Color.  So, if they reversed, that means Alpha Channel on -cl is now Player Color and Specular(Red) on the -da is now Team Color.
End of xXx's quote

 

???

 

From the 1.05 mod tools :

 

da red WAS team color and it have become cl alpha... of course, it is very possible that the Stardock documentation are wrong ( will not be the first mistake )...

 

By the way, i have always think that the specular who was the previous alpha cl channel was what make the difference between a matte paints and glossy paints... Again, maybe the term "specular" used in the documentation can be wrong... in some way, similar to nump map that they call normal map...

 

Maybe someone who know very good the internal of sins need to rewrite the Stardock documentation... update it to the last change and correct the numerous errors...

 

By the way, i have greatly experiment with texture in the past ( 1.05 )... and discover that the blue da channel can be used for numerous thing...  by example, take a look at the two first pictures at http://sri-corp.com/Forum/index.php?topic=995.msg8662#msg8662 ... first one is a first step to a "invisible" ship... second one is more a "Ghost" ship ( no, bloom was not used )... but the best effect is show at http://sri-corp.com/Forum/index.php?topic=995.msg8963#msg8963 ( look at the picture )... for these case, i am using a special way to inject a real normal map in the blue da channel... all the detailed relief on the top was created using the blue da channel...

 

All my experiment was true until 1.05 ... but soon, i will be ready to make new experiment with entrenchment, once i have finish the basic texture of the UNSC Aegis fate... will report here once i have made them so people will have recent and accurate informations...

Reply #360 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Zero10oneSB, reply 7
@ "XXX" & "Thoumsin",

                               Thankyou very much, you are a fantastic help and I appriciate it.
End of Zero10oneSB's quote

 

Don't need to thank us... we are both from the 7DS team ( and you can see that we don't always agree on everything ;) )... these topic was started by Danman, the creator of 7DS... in some way, it is our duty to try help guys who post question here... our boss, Dan, have not always the needed time to reply to everything but several members of the 7DS team monitor these topic and try to help the best they can...

Reply #361 from Sins Forums Top

7DS Team,

I have several questions; I have Sins v1.17 (latest), but not Entrenchment. I am looking to add 1+ race(s) to the game, of my own design/creation. The race will have custom weapon types. All races will receive new strikecraft types.

Is the SC-type limit still 2 types per ship?

Can SCs have 2-4 weapons?

Can I add new weapon types, that are based on existing types, but with new effects/damage?

If the SC-type limit is now more than 2, what is the current limit?

Reply #362 from Sins Forums Top

Is the SC-type limit still 2 types per ship?
End of quote

No, you can have up to 3 different types per ship, and each ship can have a different 3. I'll use Star wars as an example. One ship can have x-wings, b-wings, and a-wings. Another can have y-wings, e-wings, and k-wings. Another can have a combo of the other two, x-, y-, and a-wings, etc. So for 5 capital ships you can have 15 different SC, but each ship can only have 3.

Can SCs have 2-4 weapons?
End of quote

They can have up to 3 weapons. This goes for all ships, they can have 3 weapons, but no more.

Can I add new weapon types, that are based on existing types, but with new effects/damage?
End of quote

 Yes and no. You can change the effects, but they have to be one of the weapon classes already in (ie laser, beam, missile, phase missile, autocannon, etc) You can have them do whatever damage you want, but as far as I know, only phase missiles can bypass shields.

 

Reply #363 from Sins Forums Top

Hello. I haven't tried modding but I just want to make the game a little bit more intresting. I like having massive battles and like strikecraft. I want to know if you can change the amount of strikecraft for cap ships, hangers, and light carriers. Also, I like huge fleets, so I want to see if I can make the ship supply and cap ship levels higher for more ships. Ty, and I hope your answer is yes because that would make AWESOME  battles.

Reply #364 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting ShotGunTM420, reply 13
Hello. I haven't tried modding but I just want to make the game a little bit more intresting. I like having massive battles and like strikecraft. I want to know if you can change the amount of strikecraft for cap ships, hangers, and light carriers. Also, I like huge fleets, so I want to see if I can make the ship supply and cap ship levels higher for more ships. Ty, and I hope your answer is yes because that would make AWESOME  battles.
End of ShotGunTM420's quote

For the number of strikecraft there is a line

"CommandPoints
 StartValue 1.600000
 ValueIncreasePerLevel 0.200000"

for capital ships, "baseCommandPoints" for hangers, and "maxNumCommandPoints" for cruiser carriers. Hangers and cruisers are pretty self-explainitory, for Capital ships StarValue is how many points it will have at level 1, ValueIncreasePerLevel is how much it goes up per level.

You can also change the number of strikecraft in a squadron. For the TEC fighers, you want to look in SquadTechCombat.entity You want to change the line"baseMaxNumFighters"

For increasine fleet supply +cap ship crews, you need to edit the research for them. TEC fleet is RESEARCHSUBJECT_MAXSHIPSLOTSTECH0, 1, 2, 3... etc

Capital crews are RESEARCHSUBJECT_MAXCAPITALSHIPSTECH0, 1, 2, 3... etc

In the one that ends with "0" baseValue is how many you start with, perLevelValue is how much it goes up when you research it. For all the files that don't end in "0", baseValue is zero, you can leave that.

Reply #365 from Sins Forums Top

hey Kyogre,

thanks a bunch for that. because many of the weapons I want will behave much like ingame weapons, with only certain exceptions, it is very nice to know what you've stated.

Another question though, is it possible to create new abilities based on existing ones?

Reply #366 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Whiskey144, reply 15
hey Kyogre,

thanks a bunch for that. because many of the weapons I want will behave much like ingame weapons, with only certain exceptions, it is very nice to know what you've stated.

Another question though, is it possible to create new abilities based on existing ones?
End of Whiskey144's quote

No problem, and yes, you can create new abilities. If you just want to modify an existing one (change damage from guass cannon, etc) you can do that, or if you want a completely new one, you can do that, too. You can kind of mix+match parts from existing abilities to get what you want.

If you want more info on that, I suggest you download the forge tools (click on "Downloads" on the top right of the site) and read the documentation inside. Some of it is a little out dated (namely the texturing info as stated a couple posts above) but it should give you enough info to get started.

Reply #367 from Sins Forums Top

once again Kyogre, thanks

just so you know, I already have Forge Tools 3, but I wondered if its possible to do construction in neutral territory with sins 1.17?

Reply #368 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Whiskey144, reply 17
once again Kyogre, thanks

just so you know, I already have Forge Tools 3, but I wondered if its possible to do construction in neutral territory with sins 1.17?
End of Whiskey144's quote

Wait... you don't have entrenchment?... hm, yeah, I see now that you have that in your first post. doh! X| That changes things.

As far as I know, in regular Sins, you are still limited to only 2 types of strikecraft per ship. You can still have more than 2 different kinds of strikecraft, but only 2 per ship. They might have changed that since the last time I modded regular Sins (a long time ago) so you might want to check that to be sure.

Again, as far as I know you can't build in neutral territory in 1.17. You could get around that by having an ability that spawns a structure, like the missile battery ability on the Sova Carrier.

Personally, I would suggest you get Entrenchment. Not only are starbases and the other stuff it adds lots of fun, it opens up a lot of neat modding abilities, like fighter movement for frigates, etc.

Sorry about that. I need to read closer next time;P

Reply #369 from Sins Forums Top

just fine kyogre

do you happen to know if a debit card can be used to purchase entrenchment?

Reply #370 from Sins Forums Top

whiskey144 if the debit card has a visa OR mastercard logo on it then YES, an alternative mentioned is paypal

harpo

 

Reply #371 from Sins Forums Top

thanks harpo.

that helps with figuring out how to get entrenchment

Reply #372 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Whiskey144, reply 21
thanks harpo.

that helps with figuring out how to get entrenchment
End of Whiskey144's quote

 

There is a other way to get Entrenchment... go to the 7DS forum at http://sri-corp.com/Forum/index.php?topic=1259.0 and PM me your information ( i am fileosoft there )... you will receive Entrenchment for free... only request is that you become alpha/beta tester for the 7DS mod... mean to you need to play with our mod and inform us of any problem that you found...

 

Be fast, since it is very possible that i will close our second "entrenchment for free" action soon...

Reply #373 from Sins Forums Top

Thoumsin,

thanks for that, that is just great for me! I don't know how much help I'll be, and I'll probably not find many, if any, problems with the 7DS mod (never tried it before); also note that sometimes people should also use parantheses to show what the abbreviations mean, I had to google PM and then look at it on wikipedia. Figured it out though, and everything is on track on my end.

Reply #374 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Whiskey144, reply 23
Thoumsin,

thanks for that, that is just great for me! I don't know how much help I'll be, and I'll probably not find many, if any, problems with the 7DS mod (never tried it before); also note that sometimes people should also use parantheses to show what the abbreviations mean, I had to google PM and then look at it on wikipedia. Figured it out though, and everything is on track on my end.
End of Whiskey144's quote

 

Check your e-mail box, you will find your serial send by Stardock...

 

7DS is the Danman baby... a huge one... it is for 1.05 but first alpha for Entrenchment 1.02 was released some time ago and the second alpha will be released soon... maybe for Entrenchment 1.03 ( will be your Entrenchment version )... so, you will need to wait a little but once the next alpha is out, simply download it and play... you see problem, simply report it... the 7DS team is a big team but we cannot have all type of computer/software configuration... and because we push the sins modding to his extreme limit, it happen that some system know problem...

 

About PM, i have think that you know the term since you was using these forum... PM mean personal message in the forum world...

Reply #375 from Sins Forums Top

Is their an up to date Galaxy forge with the Sins Plus planets in it? Or any version for that matter? I was just using the deadly forge but I lost the one on my desktop and the link for it is dead...