Question about entity modifiers, constraints, etc.

caudyr,

the only way to limit items other than starbases/mines is through the logistics/tactical slots required for the item, BUT from further reading of your post it appears that you want to re-create the phase scouts mod which was for sins 1.05, and i and others have translated to entrenchment. the trick is to use an ability to trigger the phase node. which is the only way to limit it to only once per GW.

harpo

Thanks for the info harpo...I have one more question in that case...are abilities executed in the order they are in the Ability window?

I.E. If the Explore ability is set on autocast and is Ability 1, will it override any other abilities that are also autocast and prevent them from firing?

Would setting the phase node thing as a passive ability rather than an activated one have it place nodes in each system...or does it have to be an activated one?

Reason I ask is the phase scout mod from sins 1.05...it doesn't autocast the new node about 90% if not all of the time when I reach new systems if I have Explore on autocast as well...

as far as I know, they execute depending upon availability regards cooldown (and AM where needed) and whether it is already active, all depending upon the conditions & finish conditions.

as an example the phase scouts mod with the phase to well autocasting will autocast on each well the scout goes to even with the explore autocasting.

harpo

Any idea why it wouldn't autocast, then? Most of the systems they pass through with Explore on they don't drop the stabilizer node in. =\

AbilityExplore has no finishing conditions btw...it has this though: aiUseTime "OnlyWithNoOrder"

The real question I guess is whether the node placing ability being set on autocast makes it view that as an "order"...or does it not and is it completely bypassing it, heh.

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured out what the issue was. The issue was that the phase stabilizer node ability wasn't set to passive AND autocast defaulted to on...soon as I did this my scouts were dropping the nodes like they should be at every system.

Thanks for the help and stuff...I'm not sure there's a way to do worm holes in vanilla sins (not sure about entrenchment and diplomacy), heh...since wormholes are only 2 connecting points, unlike the phase gates which can connect to any other phase gate (although I think that stars might get in the way, as I was unable to jump to any planets where I'd pass in close proximity of a star but not on a star path itself).

I think that I might have found the reason for the phase scouts to not autocast in each GW. the aiUseTime was set to  NotInCombat which would only happen in GW's that did not have any militia/pirates/enemies, I changed it to Anytime and it now casts in every GW

harpo

Yeah, in my case I had to remove the antimatter cost and delay sections of it and then it properly turned into a "passive" ability like it should've been...as well as change that.  I did get it to work, though.

Now I'm just trying to find out if there's a way to directly edit "EntityModifiers" via researching the "improvement". There are HyperspaceSpeed direct research modifiers for between stars and when travelling through phase gates...just trying to figure out if there's a way to increase the hyperspace speed through normal phase lanes, lol...I saw there's an ability that slows down the hyperspace speed of people traveling TOWARDS a planet system that the ship is in...so I guess it's probably possible to do it so that a ship (just the ship with the buff, though) will travel faster...just kinda hoping I can find a way to alter the speed on an empire-wide scale, lol...even if I have to build a module to do it...

EDIT: LMAO no sooner do I make the first edit to the post talking about looking for the hyperspace speed modifier do I locate it in the modifier list thread, I must've just overlooked it before. Go figure. >_<

Hello !

I allow myself to post here, even if I see it's a very old post...

I was looking for some advices in modding... I had the idea of allow evry races to build an use Stargates in systems they own.

The basic gameplay of lanes between planets is great at the beginning of a game...But just kill a game when you have have to deal with your empire.

So, the idea of you, allow the scouts ship to place warp gates, is just AWESOME !

But, I cannot mod that game. I tried, I'm still trying, but damm, that's not easy for a noob like me...

I have some serious issues understanding how to convert .bin in .txt, and then back to .bin... But anyway, that's not my point.

If anyone (or best, YOU, great Caudyr) have a mod like this hiding itself in his folders... May you post it here ?!

I would be soooooo thankfull !

Thanks for your time reading me !

P.S : I know there are mods with phase gates (like StarGate mod)...But i'd like to play the original game, juste with this little improvement....

I might revisit this idea as it was got me modding in the 1st place. Phase scouts allowed warping to far off planets and cold be made to build gates.  https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/sins_mods/63 and maybe harpos mod updayer?

Did you try harpos or bcextreme converter utilities? 

http://soase.weebly.com/convertdata.html shows the manual method.

Fast and helpfull !!

Thank you very much !!

Glad this was brought up--good reference and I hadn't seen it.

Here's a question that I imagine is a "no" answer but perhaps not: Can you create a phase gate or ability with a limit on how far it can jump?

I don't know if the game can count in-place phase lane distance and then relate it to a phase gate  but that would be interesting.  It would still preserve map strategy  and allow for the gates to be added as well.

I know the extended detection ranges count jumps and culture spread actually travels down phase lane length--maybe something similar as a limiting condition?

To answer your question, I imagine it would depend on whether jump distance can somehow be taken into account in abilities, which to my knowledge isn't possible. The phase gate itself works by creating an invisible phase lane with another planet that also has a phase gate.

These structures can generate some interesting scenarios, and laughs, when every faction has a phase gate which is set to work for both friendlies and enemies.

Glad to see other people interested in this part of the game !

Thank to this great tutorial http://soase.weebly.com/convertdata.html , I manage to create my first mod witch actually works ! Ok, it's very basic right now, but it's a good start

Now I'm trying to make  https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/sins_mods/63 this one ok to run with Diplomacy... Not a piece of cake.

Let me know if somebody wants to help !

That thing is so old it would be better to build anew.

Remember that Ent and Dip only require the changed files be added to the mod. This is because they use .manifests.

Its a good starting point for a new modder but it includes all the entities so big pain in the arse. Use notepad++ compare plugin to make sure any files you use from that old mod have all the lines required by Dip 1.2.

You can probably start with searching for the string shown in the mods picture in String\Enlish.str and copy that string set to your mods English.str and increase the count +1. Then use find in files to search for the IDS_XXXXX whatever that strings IDS line is to find the file in the GameInfo it links to, probably a research, could be 1 shared or 1 for each race. Import that research file to your mod then add the research line to each of the races entity you want (increase research counts). Then find the abilities and buffs required to make it work. Any new entities need to be added to the entity manifest and the count increased +1 for each.

Now you have to decide what ship gets the new ability. Open the old mods frigate scout entities and look for that ability.

If you plan to share the mod you can start a new thread but should give that old mods creator credit and a link to the old mod.

Use the DEV.exes to test. They're in the install folder.

Waow ! didn't expect that much help !

Thanks a lot !

I'll share my work and give credit to the old mods creator, for sure !...  If I get something working