Re: Unit Launch options
 

You can find most of my non-yet working ideas around here as in below threads, but all of them need Aaron work:

Plague extension
Facilities building tree

And here for the sensor/cloak design:

Re: Modding SEV Thread Questions [Re: Q]
#453696 - Sat Oct 07 2006 03:20 PM

To know about the working one you'll have to wait for the release

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Unit Launch options
 

From the chat interview a few weeks ago:
Anyone come up with any work-arounds that will enable stackable afterburners? I haven't been able to find a way of changing the "Min function on the ability type" that Aaron mentions. I tried using Get_Design_Ability_Total and an AI Tag to set the combat movement generated by each component = to the total number of engines. I added this ability to both the individual engine components and to the vehicle hulls themselves and neither worked.

It's really annoying b/c I've used Get_Design_Ability_Total in both files before and it has worked (component-based crew AI Tag, and a hull requirement of having sufficient crew quarters/life support for the crew AI Tag).

Mod Logo
 

What is the format for custom mod logos when starting a new game?

When I create a bitmap for my mod logo it says it cannot find the file. I have checked the Mod Definitions and the name of the file in the text is the exact name of the bitmap file. I dont know what else to do. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

EDIT: Hmmm. I just changed the file format to jpeg and it works. What is the settings for bitmaps?

Re: Unit Launch options
 

Is there a command that lets you alter the maximum population of a planet? I can't seem to find one and would like to explore some population expanding gadgetry.

Re: Unit Launch options
 

PlanetSize.txt will allow you to control the maximum population a planet size can have; however, there is no ability which can be plugged into a component or facility to allow that number to be increased or decreased at a later time.

Re: Unit Launch options
 

Aren't there some organic stuff that allows you to 'grow' population...?

Re: Unit Launch options
 

Hmm...actually, after searching through all the files, I think there may be.

I found that in the MainStrings file. I'm going to tinker with it and see what it does. If it does what I want it to do, this could get real interesting.

If not, I'll just cut that feature from the mod and go from there.

In other news, I'm doing some tinkering with the Ringworld and Sphereworld. See, a Ringworld is supposed to have 6,000,000 times the surface area of Earth. A Sphereworld 100 times taht. So I'm plugging those numbers into the game and seeing what sort of mathmatical vomiting I get back.

That means that the maximum population ends up somewhere in the quintillions, by the way. More for the Sphereworld.

Re: Unit Launch options
 

How could you make a facility that increases population loyalty or how could you add this ability to troops?

Re: Unit Launch options
 

That would be the Planet Population Loyalty ability, I do believe. I'm not entirely sure a troop would be able to use it, but a facility should.

Re: Unit Launch options
 

Tried it with the urban pacification center where I added a third ability:

Ability 3 Type := Planet Population Loyalty
Ability 3 Description := Urban Pacification Center improves population loyalty in this system by [%Amount1%]% each turn.
Ability 3 Scope := System - This Player
Ability 3 Range Formula := 0
Ability 3 Amount 1 Formula := 1 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 0.5)
Ability 3 Amount 2 Formula := 0

This displays an effect of 5.5% increase of loyalty per turn in the system. But it does not work.

Re: Unit Launch options
 

Are you sure it is not per year instead of per turn ? (just in case)

Re: Unit Launch options
 

That may warrant some exploration, then. It may only work on a galaxy-wide or specific planet basis.

Re: Unit Launch options
 

Well I can’t recall ever seeing that line, and then again there are so many… I suspect this is an ability that is not yet in use. There are other abilities listed there that have no known effect but only testing will tell for sure!

Re: Unit Launch options
 

Yeah, that's the big one I'm tinkering with right now...if all else fails, I'm thinking having various technologies referenced in the planet size file itself. I assume pretty much everything can be a forumla, correct?

Re: Unit Launch options
 

As long as you see the word formula to the left on the same line! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Distance Increments?
 

Anyone have any idea what scale 1 hex is supposed to be on the System map?

I know that in combat the term LS, or Light-Second is as the increment descriptor of range. A LS being about 300,000km.

What is the total possible size of the combat area? I guess the maximum retreat area? I would assume what ever that number is the size in LS of the combat area, which would then be the rough area of a hex on the system map in LS.

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Don't even try to make sense of the numbers. It'll break your head. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Example: a frigate moving at 12 KM/s will, in reality, cross a LS in 25,000 seconds or about 7 HOURS. In SE5, that takes less than a second.

Re: Distance Increments?
 

I personally treat the ranges in combat as Km.

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Which means that a CSM fired from a laucher heavier than most current navy ships has less range than the missiles those ships carry..

Re: Distance Increments?
 

The max the combat map can be set at is 5000 I believe. Now I took a ship of known speed (8km/s) and entered the combat area with another ship (in the simulator). I timed how long it took for the ship to travel from one side of the map to the other in a straight line. Yes I am nuts and yes I do have massive amounts of patience. It took20:97:655 but lets just say 20 minutes and 18 seconds or 1,218 seconds. Now using the old formula we get:

d=8*1218 which works out to 9,744 units. Far too short of a light second.

Did I do this right? Where is Fyron when you need him?

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Still is is useful information...that is about 1/30th of a LS.

Yeah I know trying to wrap your mind around the scale is confusing...yet it would see that would be a smart place to start making a game from. If you are going to use real measurments, then you should at least make sure they make sense across the board. If your using hexes, or units then use them. Once you quantify them, then your in a pickle...Now if we could actually change them in mainstrings.txt that would be even better...

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Well the first problem I see is that the combat is run on squares and the system is run on hexes. Unfortunately I think you are shooting for a level of realism that SE5 just can’t deliver. For my purposes I use these terms:

1 square in the combat map is 1ls (light second).
1 hex on the system map is 1lm (light minute).

Obviously this has its flaws, but as I said SE5 just can’t offer that up. Another trick you might try is to determine the scale of the combat map the best you can; you might find something I didn’t, and then adjust the system map to better match your needs. Finally while you are pondering all of this keep in mind that weapons won’t fire on system map so any scale over combat is for all practical purposes useless for the player. Just the modder as we try to lay out the systems.

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Sometimes I don’t understand why I want to do things the hardest way. I ran the distance test again and here is what I did. I sent the ships to opposite corners, aimed the weapons, and then checked the info screen to see what it said the distance was. Results:

9,499.79 km with each ship at its closest point to the edge of a 5000.0 combat map which meant there were 12 squares from each ship to the retreat line. This is in lines with the result I had which included these 24 squares.

Now light travels at 299,792,458 km/s so that means our combat map is 9,499.79 / 299,792,458 = 3.16878885592E-5. In terms us non-scientific just wanna play the game freaks can understand it’s about 9,499.79km or 5,902.8958383 miles. Ok Kana enough of this my head hurts now!

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Actually light travels at 299,792,458 METERS/sec. Which is 299,792.456 KM/sec. For all intensive purposes thats about 300,000 KM/sec = 1 Light Second.

So basically the combat map is 9,499.79/299,792.458 = 0.031687 = 3.1687 percent of a Light Second.

So the combat map is a max of approximately 9,500KM across. I assume the map is square. So that is 90,250,000 KM of combat area. Ok now my head is starting to hurt. I'm going to assume that each system hex is 10,000 km in size. 1 Million KM of area.

So basically the weapon ranges need to be in KM to match the speeds of movement which are in KM/sec, which match the combat time which is in minutes and seconds. So has anyone changed anything in mainstrings.txt to change the combat range descriptor to KM? Or are most of you just ignoring that it says LS, and think of it as KM?

Well this all actually helps me for both of my mods, I just now have to figure out how I want to implement the information.

Re: Distance Increments?
 

So that was 299,792_point_458! That web site was so hard to read! Um, MainStrings.txt! Well I suppose I need to setup a Knowledge Base for that next before I forget what I have already done. The MainStrings.txt seems to be the hidden key to unlocking everything you can do in SE5. I’m surprised no one else has modded it. Wow I really am pioneering some new ground here aren’t here?

Since I won’t be setting up that KB till later here is what I will add. I have managed to change text but you cannot delete any lines. Even if you renumber to close the gap up when you start SE5 it will complain the lines are missing and stop running. You can rename items but if they start up with a blue box as in the main startup screen you need to replace any text you remove with a place holder or the box will move to sit on the one above it. For example let’s say you want to remove the option for no warp points. You will need to delete the text then place something there (I placed “No Longer Used”) so the box that was no warp points won’t move up and sit on the box above it. You will be able to change the text to say km/s instead of ls. Just make sure it is not a descriptor for a formula, which I am not aware of any that use ls. Also if you need to know what formula descriptors you can use (an example of what I am calling a descriptor would be Get_Empire_Tech_Level) just look in the MainString.txt. It won’t tell you how to use it or which files it can be used in but so far every descriptor I have pulled from there works after figuring out how to plug the info in. Just remember that all of the descriptors listed there have had the capital letter removed and you will need to replace it. In other words using the same example I just gave Get_Empire_Tech_Level appears in MainStrings.txt as get_empire_tech_level. So you would need to replace the letters G, E, T, and L with the capitalized version. I will post all this more clearly (I hope) later today or tonight.

Re: Distance Increments?
 

About those descriptors, Did you get the description files from Kwok's yet, PES?

http://www.captainkwok.net/files/DescriptionFiles.zip

Re: Distance Increments?
 

I did thank you; but the main string contains all of them. I think it even has ones that aren’t working yet.

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Are we sure that the Combat Radius can only be set to a Max of 5000? What are you basing this info on? I mean if it lets us change it in settings.txt I could in theory set it for any number unless there is something hardcoded that would prevent it. I assume you've tried 5000 PES? Has anyone else tried anything over 5000? I will have to consider doing some tests myself... I can see the only downsides that it make take up some more FPS on the slower systems, and all the ships and such will end up being really tiny in the zoom screen, but we can adjust that as well. Is there a max zoom amount? I ask because I want to know how much room in combat I have to work with, or can make to work with. Of course I think it was mentioned that weapons have a max range of 500 anyway which I just remembered, and the game will only display up to 300. Bah...

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Right the max combat of 5000 is hearsay from one of the Beta Testers. I have tested the combat map at 5000 and it is insanely large. Even with combat set at 7 minutes the two sides couldn’t reach each other at my max ship speed of 8km/s. The ships were very tiny, so tiny I had to use the weapon range ring just to locate those little dots and zoom in! I have no idea what the max for zoom range is although there must be one. Setting the combat map larger wouldn’t cause me to be concerned about the FPS. I would be worried about multiplayer games where combat never happens but the turn takes for ever to run because a ship is trying to flee the whole time. Remember that with SE5 v1.17 combat will continue until time runs out. If you set the combat map to 5000 you will need to increase the combat time so all players have the best possible chance to fight and even force retreat on another player if that is their goal. If the ship can’t reach the retreat line and the time runs out retreat never happens and you will end up with a series of battles taking place in one system hex when it should have been spread over several. Also if you increase the combat time the turn processing will surpass most any humans’ tolerance level if there are one or more AI empires. I know you are aiming for reality in your mods but; like the Matrix, you are still bound by the laws of this reality Neo. You can bend them but they won’t break! Just try to keep these things in mind so you don’t end up building a great mod that dies because it takes forever for the first turn to process!

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Darn you Daggit...There is always someone busting my modding bubble...Yeah small size would be a problem in a simo game, but the time/retreat thing could be an issue...I guess I will have to severely scale down everything even more...I seem to be limited by range of weapons in SEV anyway so I will have to just start from there.

On the plus side, while using a search function on mainstrings.txt, it seems that you can change the moniker for ship speed so you can have it in km/s or G's, or even warp factors if one wants...That will help with my sanity some...

Re: Distance Increments?
 

I said that in an earlier post. I even changed the startup screen so that “No Warp Points’ was replaced with “Not Used”. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Sorry to flatten your designs there http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Shouldn't we try to make life easier for everyone down the road by making new threads for new questions and discussions, and let this one retire gracefully?

Re: Distance Increments?
 

You know that is a fine idea. Lets all move out to the main forum. The discussion can happen there and the Knowledge Base can form here. Now if I can just take a break from my project to work on sorting the info in this thread and a few others “out there” a wealth of info will be compiled.

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Might I suggest wikiing it?

Re: Distance Increments?
 

I think he wants to have it in an organized format so that he can do such a thing...Since its my original thread, I guess I will have to help in such an endevor...

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Even between the two of us I think a little more gray will grow! Wiki would be good also. I mean how much more work could it be to paste here and there?

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Well we do want it to look good and make sense...so cut and paste might be alittle messy...

Re: Distance Increments?
 

Summarize with proper credit?

Re: Modding SEV Thread Questions
 

Roger Dodger...
Well there are currently 30 pages...How do you want to split it up? I take the first 15 and you the last 15? Basically I started the thread, so I deal with the pages 1 to 15, and you get 16 to 30 since alot of those are your questions. Also I guess we need to split them up by category. I assume we are going to do it by data file name?

Re: Modding SEV Thread Questions
 

AI not Colonizing

When starting a game that allows colonization of breathable planets only, the AI doesn't colonize a single planet more than what they have at the start of the game.

I have tried to find why the colony ships are skipped when the construction queues are being set up, but haven't been successful.

Is this a bug that has to be patched, or can it be fixed via a mod?

Zed

Re: Modding SEV Thread Questions
 

Here is the link to the copy and paste of your question here

Good question and I am not sure if it is a bug. I am going to copy and paste this into the main forum since it isn’t really a question about modding. I suspect it has to do with the AI not being able to remember things once out of sight. In other words what I suspect is that the AI sees a planet it can colonize, moves out of range, and then forgets before it has even had the chance to send build orders to the queue.

Re: Modding SEV Thread Questions
 

Uhuh, perhaps I've gone blind but there's a few settings I'm having trouble finding: Where can we specify the general maintenance rate for ships, buildings and units?
And where can we specify the 'starting build rate' for planets? I.e. when they don't currently have space yards.

Re: Modding SEV Thread Questions
 

Settings.txt has all the base maintenance rates, as well as the basic build rate.

Re: Modding SEV Thread Questions
 

Thanks, the wording must've fooled me a little the first time around.