Ugg- rewrite time.  

SOA2, with every single aspect of the game changed and we are at 0 dev errors FTW. 

Well besides that menu error that showed up with 1.34 I assume. Also some of the AI exclusive/enhancement methods throw errors (even though they work perfectly), mainly in the research tree though.

Oh thats only if you dont have trinity, I forgot the team gets those. I don't    

No idea what you mean about those other errors because I have never seen them. 

That's not really that fantastic of an accomplishment as SOA2 minidumps everytime I activate it and start a game

Seriously though the messages don't handle many of the features that some mods use like 5th abilities on Capitals or moving starbases with factories. None of these cause minidumps but create endless streams of debugging popups that can't be turned off unless you disable all of them. It would be nice if ignore all really meant ingore all...

Ya been trying to hunt that fraker down since I came on board. Before my time error. But you are not a n00b and should know by now to restart after enabling. Another error I dont get so I forget 

I do agree that ignore all should mean ignore all and not haha FU.

You can't.  Only 5 Ability points, 0-4.

The beam setup is a one per file problem, and it only works from a singular hardpoint.  As there are not 8 ability points to list from, your attempt is bound to fail.

Since you can only have one beam effect per file, you need to have your initial charging buff file spawn x number of files, one for each beam.  As you want eight, you'd need to do a split stage and spawn four each from two in the initial file, 5 instant action limit.

If it can be done, it will be with an offset effect file.  I don't play with this stuff, so I don't know how, but should you be able to have a beam spawn off center, depending on the weapon layout, you should be able to fake eight points from four.  It will not always look right however, even if everything works just right.  Ships move, and draw the beam path off center, leaving it starting inside the ship, or away from the weapon entirely.

Check the Advent beam defense entity.  It uses four, split, offset beams in-game.

But as a weapon, not an ability.

Does anyone have any experience with the "DoPercOfMaxDamageToPlanet" overtime action used by Provoke Hysteria. In particular what types of entities it can be used on, since I seem to be getting minidumps for applying to to certain entities.

Wouldn't it only be usable on planets? At least, in SoGE, that's how it's used.

Well I thought it was supposed to be on an orbiting entity (unless I'm reading these buffs wrong for Provoke Hysteria), but I tried it both ways and I still have problems. The buff chain is getting started by a Cannon Shell (AKA Super Weapon) though, but I thought that just applied a buff to the targeted planet. I've never had any issues with it before...

I see. In SoGE it's used in a capital ship's ability, though admittedly I have no experience with Provoke Hysteria.

Is it an apply buff to self that the ability is used on?

Nope, it's an ApplyTargettedBuffToSelf, with enemy planets as the target filter.

Hmm yes, the planet still isn't getting the buff directly then, its just made the target of the ability while the buff itself stays on the caster. I might have to be clever with this one...

Hello guys, 

I am looking for a good step by step tutorial on to how to change unit icons in the game.  I found one tutorial and it made me more confused in terms of what alpha layers mean.  All that I am trying to do is to replace the ship icons with different sized boxes which I thought would be easy, but no luck so far.  I am using Gimp and the Races_Unit infocard and Races_Unit_Main.tga files from the sins of New Eden mod. 

Any Further explanation or walk through would be awesome, Thanks!

I wrote a tutorial for 3DSMax users for start to finish exports here, if you're interested in adding it to the OP.

Thanks--will post it up.

Not going into a detailed info about a specific mod and it might help to list what tutorial confused you as to not get linked to it again.

1st, if you want the ship button to be bigger you will need to change the brush size which is text in the Windows folder with .brushes extension.

Then you can erase the old button and put the new button in its place only if it fits without overlapping the next one. If there is not enough room you need to make a new .tga sheet or find room on another sheet and change the brush location.

Try looking at these links to see if they help explain.

http://soase.weebly.com/add-planets.html#Brushes

http://soase.weebly.com/add-planets.html#Textures & Icons

or something simular

http://soase.weebly.com/research-button.html

Dang,

Thanks again myfisto, 

http://soase.weebly.com/add-planets.html#Textures & Icons this one is great with all of the pictures to explain the layers to me.  I'll try to get working on editing tomorrow to fix some of my problems.  thanks Again!

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*ok, so little update.  I tried to follow the steps but I am uncertain if I need to play around with the DDS files or how to open them with gimp.  I kinda thought that I only needed to edit the Races_Unit infocard and Races_Unit_Main.tga  I got to this point http://flickr.com/gp/76434281@N02/hAG80G and saved into the game thinking that instead of the regular punisher siege ship showing it would instead show just a gray box.  am I missing something? Thanks!

there is 5 brushes for every ship, each is used in a differnt part of the screen, you need to do them all.

mainViewIcon "MAINVIEWICON_FRIGATE_TECHANTIFIGHTER"
picture "PICTURE_FRIGATE_TECHANTIFIGHTER"

hudIcon "HUDICON_FRIGATE_TECHANTIFIGHTER"
smallHudIcon "HUDICONSMALL_FRIGATE_TECHANTIFIGHTER"
infoCardIcon "INFOCARDICON_FRIGATE_TECHANTIFIGHTER"

fleet tree and main window zoomed out are shades of white which is transformed to team colour. Those are a pain in the ass to make good ones.

This isn't a modding question perse, but it has to do with a mod and I figure I'll ask here rather than make a new post.

I only play SP with the Distant Stars mod enabled, it is extremely good and I won't play without it anymore. The only problem is that it seems like the AI never gives a damn about rasing their reputation with me, no matter how long the game goes on or what difficulty setting they're set to. I can get 20.00 relationship with them very easily, and all of the techs in the Diplo tree, but I can never use them because in DS the AI never does anything to get me to the point where I can offer them pacts. Am I doing something wrong, or is this by design?

You'd really have to ask on their mod page, but do you have that problem without mods?

You should ask all future DS related question in the in the DS thread.  That's were all of us working on it watch and answer questions about it so that others who may be having a similar issue can find the question and answer without having to guess and look all over the place.  That being said...

This is something related to the core game, not the mod since we didn't mess with the pacts or anything related to them.  You have to offer them missions to complete just like they offer you missions, most notably the easiest one which is really the only one you can offer and get results from in a locked team game is the send envoy mission.  If you have 4 or 5 planets and you offer that mission, their rep with you will climb up once the envoys show up...

Yes you are doing something wrong, and yes this is by design, but not by us.  ;]

I added 5ive abilities  to a capital ship.  Two are FixedLevel0 and passive , three are capital ship abilities with two of them being "ultimate" abilities. One of the capital abilities has two levels (non-ultimate) and the other two have three upgrades (ultimates).

All work fine but they all show only a single  level.

I haven't experimented yet but is it the ultimate duplications or multiple ones with three upgrades causing the issue?

Thanks in advance.