Mystic Angel

Brilliant find, Aractain! I think this might have come up in one of our IM conversations, but I never got around to actually looking into it. I'll give your fix a go tonight and let everyone know the results. Edit: [e digicons]:')[/e] Bless you. All white artifacts have been removed from my ships! Tiny surfaces still stick out a bit because they obviously reflect light at a different angle, but all of the bugged graphics have disap

Yeah, I've done that. That's how I came to the determination that it's how light interacts with the model and not just a texture or mesh issue. It involves the tangent map, the specular texture channel, and the glossiness setting in the mesh file. It might also include the reflective texture channel. Unfortunately, I've yet to find the perfect combination. Apparently, the developers haven't either.

I'm not sure anyone can give you an answer for certain, but I can definitely say it deals with the model itself in addition to textures. I've come up with two possible causes, though there might be more. Before I really knew what I was doing with modeling and texturing, I used to weld all of the vertices together before exporting. I had a ton of those white artifacts. Now that I'm much more fluent in modeling techniques, when I create a ship from scratch or eve

Make sure you also change the starting value and the increase per level value at the bottom of the capital ship entity files. Otherwise, they'll never have a chance to reach their maximum fighter load. The previous two posters are correct, however. Strikecraft are the largest cpu hog in Sins in the mid to late game.

Off the top of my head, a probe-type fighter would need to function similar to the Advent homing mines. I'm not sure if a mine's explosive function can be fiddled with, though. This would be the only effective way of giving every ship a probe function without removing abilities from ships that are already fully equipped.

True, you could replace the hangar upgrade with an ability that spawns a single type of frigate, but that would then leave the starbase without an arguably important defense mechanism. As for scouting, it would be more appropriate in this instance for the Probe ability to have no time limit. I agree on Clairvoyance being useful for a permanent sensor probe launched from out of the system, however.

It's possible for it to be impervious to destruction. That's a simple bool entity modifier with a time restriction for the finish condition. I'm not sure about making it unnoticed. I'd have to take a look at roletypes and a couple of other things in the entity file. The only way a player wouldn't see it is if no mainview icons were assigned to the probe (otherwise the icon would be plain as day within the gravity well) in combination with something that doesn't

I've been meaning to take a look at the entire diplomacy system, since it's going to figure heavily into my mod. From what I can tell, the only place I've even found a reference to races in regard to diplomacy is the player entity files, and that's just racial relation modifiers. None of the pact-related research has any mention of specific races. I'm going to take a look at this over the next few days and see what I can come up with and what other alterations might be appre

[quote who="Carbon016" reply="15" id="2701246"] You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. [/quote] Please try to be a bit more diplomatic in your phrasing, Carbon. At the very least, I'm interested in knowing why you disagree. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe you're saying you want ships to still have the option of auto-attacking while remaining in place. I can definitely see the strategic benefit of having an option like this.

Interesting. I'm positive that type of information won't be released until after they're completely finished supporting the game in official patches. Even then, I bet getting it is a long shot. Still, if they'd be willing to hand that over once they're officially done, that would be a HUGE step for those of us with the initiative and the time.

Agreed. I've added another possibility for a mesh-related ability. At the moment, we can alter a mesh through the use of research or starbase upgrades, but those changes are permanent. I would like to have the option of having a ship shift back and forth between the original mesh and a secondary mesh through the use of an ability. Personally, this would help me achieve starship separation and recombination much more easily and definitely in simpler form than what I'm

I always enjoy a challenge, but this is turning into more of a manic crusade to overcome the lack of appropriate coding for the task at hand. In other words, I'm quite happy helping out. When I'm not pulling my hair out, that is. [e digicons];)[/e]

Update: I found the solution I'd been searching for. With the problem solved, the mod is now in the testing phase. Thanks for the input!

Thanks for the input Stress. I've been working on an ability for myfist that will simulate a behavior that automatically docks all fighters when no hostile targets are within the gravity well. I've got that part of it working perfectly, but there's an issue related to the advent homing mines that I didn't foresee. It's minor and doesn't have a huge affect on gameplay, but I think I can find a suitable workaround nonetheless. Myfist and I had discussed making it part

Yeah, I've toyed with the idea of the current frigate "levels". As far as I can tell, that's only accessible through ability spawnage. Like you, all I really want is a frigate that can level up to say 3 or 5. Others might want more, but I'd be happy with that. The idea for constraints is brilliant!

I totally agree with having a SpawnCapitalShip Instant Action that functions the same as SpawnFrigate. I would also imagine that making frigates level-able is going to be a huge time issue as far as coding. What do you think about giving Capital Ships the option to have frigate role types and stat count types? This might allow someone to transfer all current frigate entity info into a capital ship entity template in order to create frigates with levels. The only prob

That's awesome! I had wanted to provide something with that much information, but my mod is such a monstrous conversion that I didn't want to take the time. I've bookmarked your page as my new reference source and have re-promised myself to study up on your validation tools. I keep getting caught up in modeling and texturing, but I'm going to have to force myself to stop and learn your system. If I can do that, I know it'll make all of my entity work much more effici

I was thinking along the same lines as far as incorporation into the Optimization Project. It's taking a lot more effort for me to wrap my mind around this than I originally thought, though. I've got buffs getting reflected around ships like crazy, but it's almost to the testing point. Hopefully it'll be ready tonight.

I have what I'm 99% positive is a workable solution that doesn't require any ability slots be taken up on ships or planet modules. It will require a planetary ability slot, though. I'll test it out, and if it's acceptable within the limits of your mod you can use it however you see fit.

I've begun a list with some ideas belonging to myself and myfist0. Please add your own suggestions and discuss what the best options might be to request for modding-friendly changes in a possible future patch.

I totally agree. So far, I've found several references for squads, docking, and undocking. According to the words that are used for game event sounds, docking and undocking are both abilities. If that's true, we just need to find or have access to those ability files in order to make the necessary changes. I've also discovered that the action of launching squads can be disabled by a debuff somehow. I don't have any further details on that one, but it's what I'm

I'm afraid not. I had originally thought that since you weren't able to find anything in the buffs or abilities referencing the launching that there might be some trace in the UI set-up in the Window folder. Alas, no luck. I'll prod around in the entities to see if I can find anything. A second pair of eyes never hurts, after all.

You're going to want to place your new particle file into the particle folder inside of your mod version directory that's located in that app data location. Then just make sure the mod is enabled when you open up the game and you're good to go. Oh, and make certain the particle is replacing a current file (uses the same name) OR you've referenced a new particle name in one of the entity files.

The last modifier list to include research was Bailknight's, but it doesn't include anything added in Entrenchment or Diplomacy. So, in an effort to push this game to the brink and explore what it's capable of at its fringes I've been pouring over all of the modifiers for quite some time. I finally figured it was time to organize my material and my thoughts in hopes (maybe even somewhat desperate hopes) that I might find possible solutions for some of my more audacious goals.

I've spent countless hours pouring over all of the modifiers for this game in an effort to create some unique gameplay elements for my mod, but, as creative and open-minded as I've gotten, there are just some small bits of coding missing that would make life so much easier. For instance, I've been trying to figure out how to give a single weapon type an antimatter cost and the ability to be turned on and off (w