Dev.exe

Well that thread was totally wrong, the dev has always allowed live updates.

I'm afraid there really isn't a way for spawning all the different starbases under the control of one player.

weird...guess I could look up the thread I was talking about, but if it hasn't changed at all, then yayz, lol.

EDIT: Looked up the thread again, turns out it was a bug....a really OLD bug...from last year, so...never mind then.

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/422841/page/1/#3135157

Ah yeah, that was from the Rebellion BETA. No one was really modding it then.

You could give yourself all researches through the Dev.exe (can't recall the exact commands but it is in there). You could spawn the necessary starbase constructors (not sure how well that works with the full research but no labs built.

Unfortunately there is no spawn structure that I'm aware of though.

Yeah, kinda wished there was a faster way to spawn structures. Seems like you do have to build the research structures to make the Starbase research active.

...So is the auto update thing disabled or something? I was trying to work with it and its not doing everything after saving files. :/

Also, could someone refresh me on which channels are what in the .da files? 

-cl is team colours

-nm is normal map (bump map)

-da is data

• (red = shininess)
• (green = luminosity)
• (blue = reflective)
• (alpha = light emitting)

If I recall correctly that's how the textures work.

CL is the base texture, but the alpha channel is indeed the team colors. 

Make sure you settings file isn't set to read only. The dev needs to rewrite your settings for the auto update to work. Delete the file if necessary.

That's it. You may want to make a copy of your default settings for non Dev.exe gameplay as the Dev.exe resets a few things (screen size among others).

Oh, misread his post...thought he said to set it to Read-Only and it was, lol. Guess I'll uncheck that then and try again later tonight. lol

And the settings reset doesn't bother me too much, I'll end up forgetting to do that anyways.

But yeah thanks guys.

EDIT: *facepalms* Well that explains why the Dev.exe isn't live updating, copies of the original files have to be in the mod folder first.

Ugh, wished there was an easier way to deal with skin making...having Photoshop and Dev.exe opened at the same time is causing lag. And can't seem to make a skin correctly for the Vasari Loyalist titan anymore. (it turns blue, lol...makes no sense since I never had issues with it before. xD)

You messed up the alpha channel, assuming your team color is blue.

Weird, the file didn't have an alpha channel...maybe Photoshop is being weird. I'll mess with it another time I guess, probably screwed up somewhere in the program's settings.

If it doesn't have an alpha channel, then the image is fully opaque which translates into full team color.

I would like to add that there are some things that Dev.exe has trouble auto-updating, some examples I have found.

-research window locations (prerequisite arrows will redraw depending on where you relocate the techs)

-build menu icon locations (i.e. if you move ships around in the build menu - done by moving ships around in the player.entity file)

-meshes (sometimes editing hardpoints works, but I have found that the game usually needs to be reloaded)

-adding / removing researches, ships, structures from a player.entity file (these won't be visually removed until you restart the game)

Most of the above requires a game restart to see how things look after changes are made, things like particles, strings, research prerequisites, textures, ship stats, etc.... do a good job of auto-updating when changes are made.

My apologies if you already knew this and I am telling you something you already know

Yeah I never mess with that stuff, not yet anyways.

Back to my issue, though...not sure what the deal is, but its Photoshop. For whatever reason its not showing the Alpha channel at all, tried loading another ship texture and it shows...even tried the original VL titan texture and it won't show. Not sure what's going on here... :c

...Anyone? :c

Not even re-installing Photoshop works...