Brand-new Modder in desperate need of help.

Download the Dev.exe. Use that for testing, when you load your mod with this ability it should give you a popup with errors. Its much easier to narrow down what is wrong.

Second, if your using the referance data from the Forge Tools, its out of date. And will dump your game. Im guessing thats whats wrong with your current set up.

You can download recent reference data by searching the forums. Also you can make your own by getting Harpo's Converstion Tools found in the Modding section.

If you're using the ForgeTools reference data to mod with that would be your issue. Sadly Stardock havent kept those files up to date and so they will cause an instant mini dump no matter whether your files are correctly edited or not.

There are a few threads around that offer full downloads of working reference data sadly I cant find one to link one at the moment. If your using Diplomacy the Diplomacy reference data can be found in the Distant Stars topic at the bottom of the thread.

Either way to make your own version of the converted data is quite simple and harpo has made a great little utlity here to use: https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/353296 although I dont use it myself so I couldnt provide any support for it im sure Harpo or any of the other members on the forums will gladly help you get it working.

As Carbon mentioned above the dev.exe is a great tool for finding little errors in your updates if you problem still eludes you and your reference data is fine.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, guys!

I tried a quick change, by swapping out my refrence data for the the refrence data from C:/program files/ Stardock Games/ Sins of a Solar Empire/ . It worked perfectly and didn't mini-dump. However, when I tried to preview my planet in the Map Designer, I couldn't get it to appear. Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong there?

You have to add your new planet the the GalaxySenarioDef file in both the GalaxyForge and the mod folder, in both the planet type and orbit body type sections.

Thanks!

Let me know if it works--I would like to check it out. That's an intersting effect for a planet.

Ok, I did that, and everything seemed to be working fine. However, it mini-dumped whenever I went to enable the mod. I think I did something  strange again.

So far, the files I have modified/created are:

PlanetTime.entity

AbilityTimeLock.entity

BuffTimeLock.entity

GalaxyScenarioDef.galaxyScenarioDef

Are there any other files I am supposed to modify?

have you edited your user.settings file to enable the debugs

from near the bottom of the user.settings file

LogOutput TRUE
ShowErrors TRUE

if they are false you just get dumped without the clues as to what happened, when the ShowErrors is true sins stops and puts error window up telling you exactly where in which file the error is and what sins is looking for

with the LogOutput true it places all the errors into a log file in the debug folder in the sins user space.

both are very helpful to modders

harpo

I don't want to intrude, but since harpo has brought up the error logging I'd like to ask a question.

I''m getting a:

Failed to find data file '
'. (SubPath = GameInfo)

error in the show error box, but the debug log is completely blank. It's fairly obvious to determine that for some reason it's unable to find an entity file I'm wanting to use. However, everything I need is there and linked up correctly. I've checked about 20 times. There are no syntax errors from what I can see at all.

I'm adding a Directional Shield to a custom starbase as a bit of practice. The Starbase has UpgradeType "StarBaseUpgradeTechDirectionalShield" as one of its Upgrade types and "AbilityDirectionalShield" as ability:2.

StarBaseUpgradeTechDirectionalShield is simply lifted from the Vasari version, with one edit, being that the ResearchPrerequisite is RESEARCHSUBJECT_STARBASEUPGRADEACCESS_TECH_DIRECTIONALSHIELD, that's it.

Similar to last time, the research subject is basically lifted from the Vasari, just that the block positions are different.

The entity.manifest file is completely up to date too, though I'd be minidumping right from the beginning if anything was wrong with it. The game runs fine until I construct the star base. I've got a couple other custom upgrades on it too but I know they're not the problem, since I've been upgrading the .entity incrementally. The problem absolutely has something to do with the directional shield. At this rate, I might do the entire shielding upgrade from scratch again.

Again, I'm not meaning to hijack the thread or anything; it's just that the circumstances are rather apt.

the entity files NEED to be in the gameinfo folder in the mod.

harpo

They already are, that's why it isn't making any sense.

Gah, double post.

is every filename in ThE saMe case?

harpo

I tend to copy and paste the file names themselves so that problem doesn't arise.

I've managed to find what was really breaking it though, I somehow managed to miss an opening quotation mark on StarBaseUpgradeTechDirectionalShield in the entity.manifest file. Typical to have something like that be completely undetectable until you've left it a while.

Thanks for your help though harpo.

 OK, this is going to sound stupid. I've been doing some reading on the forums and I understand that I'm supposed to modify the entity.manifest file. However, after two hours of searching my hard drive, I still can't find it. Where on earth is it?

the entity.manifest SHOULD BE in the root folder of the mod. as an example if you look in the distant stars mod's folder you will see the various folders of the mod AND the 6 manifest files brush,entity,galaxy,playerpictures,playerthemes and skybox. as a general rule of thumb you only NEED the manifests if you want changes to them ie entity.manifest if you are adding OR removing entity's, the brush.manifest if you adding or deleteing brushes etc...

harpo

Well, I've tried for two days, using every method I know of, and I still can't find the entity.manifest file anywhere, and my mod depends on three new .entity files (PlanetTime.entity , AbilityTimeLock.entity, and BuffTimeLock.entity). I'm assuming it's a very well-hidden file.

From reading the forums, I know that there is some sort of generator program one can use to automaticly write the entity.manifest file, but I have been unable to find the one for normal SoaSE (No, I don't have Entrenchment yet). Could someone point me to it?

vanilla sins does NOT use the manifests, but does require all files in the mod and can NOT stack mods.

harpo

Oh.

BTW, what did you mean by "does require all files in the mod"?

Basically, it means you must have every file the original Sins uses in the folders that you are modding. Just copy your GameInfo folder from your Sins of a Solar Empire folder (the orgininal game files, and do not change these!) and paste them somewhere else. Then put your modded files in that GameInfo folder, overwriting what is there. Then put that in your mod folder and it should work. Most people mod Entrenchment or Diplomacy here where this isn't necissary, so sorry for the confusion.

I mean the mod NEEDS all sins vanilla files that are referenced by other files so that you CAN play the mod. it has been this way since sins 1.00, just have a look at any of the mods for vanilla sins and you will see all the entity's, meshes, textures, brushes, sounds etc.

that is the reason i do not mod vanilla sins, I just play the vanilla sins mods when I do not want the starbases.

harpo

I copied a mesh from entrenchment to vanilla, but now the thing appears as black as the darkest black hole. What have I done wrong?  

It sounds like your mesh has no textures attached to it. Open the mesh file, in the second set of lines there should be;

DiffuseTextureFileName "whateverthethingis-cl.dds"
        SelfIlluminationTextureFileName "whateverthethingis-da.dds"
        NormalTextureFileName "whateverthethingis-nm.dds"

Go to the texture folder of the Entrenchment folder you copied your mesh from and copy the 3 whateverthethingis texture files and paste them into the texture folder of your mod folder

Another thing to consider when using Entrenchment mesh's in vanilla is that if you are copying capitalships or frigates they have extra hardpoints on them to allow for extra weapons & another ability so they may not be compatable with the entity file in vanilla.

I want a colonizable "planet" that is currently[planetTypeForResearch "Invalid"].  What other options are there for "Invalid" other than "Uncolonizable", "Terran", "Ice", "Volcanic", and "Asteroid"?  Can I use, say for example, "Wormhole" - I plan for 1 race in 7DS to be able to colonize this special planet -it will not be a wormhole, but a "Rift".

PM me please.