New Block/Tab in the Research Window

from Sins Forums

Hello SoaSE Modding Community,

This is my first post here. I am usually more of the kind "I read the forums as guest, mod the stuff I like and use it and never release it to the public".

Well most of the time it would not be a good idea to release my stuff cause I alter some mods to meet my "way of play" in a better way. Like adding more Techs or a new High End Tier for Ships or stuff like that... just planting the cherry on top you know.

I played the Mad Scientist Mod for Entrenchment and I like it. The bad thing, looks like the Mod Creator does not support the mod any further... so there will be no MS Mod for Diplo... :-(

I thought I could start something like this on my own... poked around a little bit in the Entities and I understand most of it... i wouldn't do the AI Stuff first :-D But the Tech Stuff and Things like that is very easy to handle... I just have one problem. Maybe I do not see it, because sometimes you don't see the Forrest because of the many Trees.

I can not find the Place I have to edit to get some new Tabs/Blocks into the research Tree... honestly help... where is it located? Or is it Hardcoded? (That would be a major setback, cause I want to make the Science Tree really big with many options available... maybe even triple the science tree of the mad Scientist Mod because I would like to add Tier 2 and Tier 3 ships that have more features and are stronger than their Tier 1 Conterparts (The Ships that are allready in the game).

And pls note... I am still planning, but before working on the mod I just want to learn more and this is a part of it.

 

EDIT: Typo ^^

modding
1,347 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

maximus84 the loation you are wanting is the playerRACE.entity files.

to see how the files in a mod differ from standard is the simplest way to find the info you need so that you can translate the mod up to diplomacy, and for the standard files you will want a set of reference files.

hope this helps

harpo

 

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Seems like I was blind ^^

I found it...

researchScreenData
 Combat
  blockCount 3
  block
   area [ 50 , 93 , 690 , 192 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropCombat0Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop "ResearchScreenBlockTierIndicatorCombat0Tech"
   title "IDSResearchScreenBlockTitleCombat0Tech"
   picture "ResearchScreenBlockPictureCombat0Tech"
  block
   area [ 50 , 295 , 690 , 144 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropCombat1Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop "ResearchScreenBlockTierIndicatorCombat1Tech"
   title "IDSResearchScreenBlockTitleCombat1Tech"
   picture "ResearchScreenBlockPictureCombat1Tech"
  block
   area [ 50 , 449 , 690 , 192 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropCombat2Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop "ResearchScreenBlockTierIndicatorCombat2Tech"
   title "IDSResearchScreenBlockTitleCombat2Tech"
   picture "ResearchScreenBlockPictureCombat2Tech"
 Defense
  blockCount 1
  block
   area [ 50 , 93 , 690 , 235 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropDefense0Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop "ResearchScreenBlockTierIndicatorDefense0Tech"
   title "IDSResearchScreenBlockTitleDefense0Tech"
   picture "ResearchScreenBlockPictureDefense0Tech"
 NonCombat
  blockCount 3
  block
   area [ 50 , 93 , 690 , 192 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropNonCombat0Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop "ResearchScreenBlockTierIndicatorNonCombat0Tech"
   title "IDSResearchScreenBlockTitleNonCombat0Tech"
   picture "ResearchScreenBlockPictureNonCombat0Tech"
  block
   area [ 50 , 295 , 690 , 192 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropNonCombat1Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop "ResearchScreenBlockTierIndicatorNonCombat1Tech"
   title "IDSResearchScreenBlockTitleNonCombat1Tech"
   picture "ResearchScreenBlockPictureNonCombat1Tech"
  block
   area [ 50 , 497 , 690 , 144 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropNonCombat2Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop "ResearchScreenBlockTierIndicatorNonCombat2Tech"
   title "IDSResearchScreenBlockTitleNonCombat2Tech"
   picture "ResearchScreenBlockPictureNonCombat2Tech"
 Artifact
  blockCount 1
  block
   area [ 9 , 49 , 776 , 631 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropArtifact0Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop ""
   title ""
   picture ""
 Fleet
  blockCount 2
  block
   area [ 7 , 62 , 784 , 328 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropFleet0Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop ""
   title "IDSResearchScreenBlockTitleFleet0Tech"
   picture ""
  block
   area [ 7 , 348 , 784 , 328 ]
   backdrop "ResearchScreenBlockBackdropFleet1Tech"
   tierIndicatorBackdrop ""
   title "IDSResearchScreenBlockTitleFleet1Tech"
   picture ""

 

And there...

numResearchFields 6
field "IDS_TECH_RESEARCHFIELD_COMBAT"
field "IDS_TECH_RESEARCHFIELD_DEFENSE"
field "IDS_TECH_RESEARCHFIELD_EMPIRE"
field "IDS_TECH_RESEARCHFIELD_DIPLOMACY"
field "IDS_TECH_RESEARCHFIELD_ARTIFACT"
field "IDS_TECH_RESEARCHFIELD_FLEET"

 

By the way I was misunderstanding something there... I don`t just want to add a block (like a sub category of Combat for example). I want to add a new button with a new Research Tree like the whole combat Tree... to be more precise a ResearchField like stated above. There are 6 now... is it possible to get it up to... uhm... 10 for example? Cause I have to sort some techs elsewhere cause of my Tier 1-3 Plans.

I am at the beginning of understanding the Structure of this data files. I've seen that many things have IDS Stuff like field "IDS_TECH_RESEARCHFIELD_FLEET" that are settled down in the english.str. So I know about the description stuff... but how do I really create a new Research field and bring it to show up in the game?

And by the way THX Harpo for your guidance and for your tools... I did use them to convert it to txt... Awesome work :-D

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

the best advice i can offer is add ONE new field/page and see if it works, if not then to quote the warning messages in sins/entrenchment/diplomacy 'BUG a programmer' at ironclad games.

the reason I am suggesting this is I have not seen this happen except in the expansions, not in a mod to date

I wish you the best of luck with this

harpo