SE4 Modder Ver 1.76 (updated for ver 1.91)

[DavidG]

Just a heads up for anyone using this program:

If you open an existing mod that has several differnt components or facilities with the same name (such as P&N) SE4 modder will not view them correctly. ie in P&N only one Research Center I will appear in the treeview and when you click it what will be displayed is the first one in the txt file. I also encountered some problems if I made component that had the same name as a group. (Ie Creating a component called 'Weapons')

Due to the nature of the Treeview control I don't plan on fixing this so if you are using SE4Modder you should use start with a base that has unique component and facility names.

[Captain Kwok]

For modding in general - I think it would be practice if we all avoided using duplicate component/facility names. I believe it can cause some messed up things in game as SJ has mentioned earlier in the P&N 1.78 thread.

[dumbluck]

typo:

Hold your mouse over the "modified maintenance cost" value 1 area, and a popup box displays this message (emphasis added): "Percentage of normal maintenance (10%=110% of normal, -10%=90% or normal)

Not that this is a program crashing bug or anything....

Edit: found another one. No matter which mount I edit, then save, it always says: "You have edited < the Last component I had in the edit window>. Do you wish to save?"

[ November 17, 2002, 10:19: Message edited by: dumbluck ]

[DavidG]

Originally posted by dumbluck:
typo:

Hold your mouse over the "modified maintenance cost" value 1 area, and a popup box displays this message (emphasis added): "Percentage of normal maintenance (10%=110% of normal, -10%=90% or normal)

I'm going to have to blame that one on MM since that line is extracted from abilities.txt

I have noticed a lot of times it asks you 'do you want to save' when it shouldn't although I can save a mount in ver 1.53. ??

[DavidG]

Anyone like to help me with this:

One thing I've added to my new Version is an ability to filter out abilities that do not apply. So when you are viewing a component you will only be able to select abilities that will work on a component. You will be able to toggle this filtering on and off since I know occasionally modders knowingly add abilites that don't work for good reasons. I added this feature by editing the abilites.txt file and adding a "type :=" line with 3 options: Component, Facility, or System. (for Vehicles I assume if if works on a component it works on a vehicle) I was hoping someone with some modding experience could look at the new file and tell me If I've got anything wrong.

AbilitiesNew.txt

[CombatSquirrel]

Originally posted by DavidG:
[QB

I'm not really sure what you mean in #3. isn't this basically what you get when you view a tech? It shows you what each level will get you.

[/QB]

For me, I consider a component or facility obsolete if:

1) If a component or facility will be upgraded by use of the "Upgrade" feature under the ship construction window, or "Upgrade" button under the planet construction window
2) If a component/facility will no longer be displayed when the "Latest" button is actived either under the ship construction window,or the planet construction window.

What I mean is a new feature that would allow you to could enter a certain tech level (perhaps under your current tech tree setup, but with a "Latest" button), and the Modder would display only those components/facilities which would be shown by the SEIV engine as "LATEST" in the construction windows for design ships or facilities.

Only those components/facilites which do not have another component/facility at this particular tech level, or better yet, combination of tech levels , which makes them obsolete would be displayed. It would allow a snap shot of what a race will be upgrading to and utilizing at a particular point (tech level) in the game.

It would be sharp if this could be done; it would easily allow you see if your upgrade plan in a mod was broken or not. Allow you to see if your modded components will surplant the right other components at the right time, and if "this" will really ugrade to "that", when you finally hit the proper tech levels.

CombatSquirrel

[CombatSquirrel]

Originally posted by DavidG:

#2 Were you thinking just a list of all the item names in a certain family or a detail list.

Just an easy print out list:
FAMILY #: COMPONENTS IN FAMILY

9007
BaHa Agur Atomizer Compartment
Uniform Repair Room
Captain's Private Theatre

9008
BaHa Agur Weapons Locker
Ships Armory

And something similar for weapons families and facility families.

CombatSquirrel

[ November 17, 2002, 15:40: Message edited by: CombatSquirrel ]

[DavidG]

Well what can I say I got bored with all the testing so I just decided to post a new Version before I added some of the features I planned. (hoping some brave soles will do some of the testing ) This Version should look pretty much the same although it is radically different internally (due to some bad initial program design)

Some new features area

- Editable Intel projects

- Should be much better for 800 x 600 Users. Part if this is that the treeview is now sizable.

- Fixed the bug mention by PaladinX so you can now create new Groups. (this was a lot harder to fix than I thought it would be)

- Abilities can now be filtered (see post a few down) so you can show only Component abilities when editing a component

- other misc bug fixes that I really should keep track off.

- possibly various undocumented features due to radically different program design. (some people call these bugs)

As always feel free to post or e-mail me any bugs or suggestions

DavidG

[Instar]

Could you expand the pic scrollers to beyond 900? I downloaded the official pic set, and it has more than 900 components. Maybe you could have it just go to the EOF. Also, could you possibly make a "no picture here" kind of thing for pic numbers that do not contain a pic?

[ November 18, 2002, 00:17: Message edited by: Instar ]

[Instar]

My bad. No text here. EOF

[ November 18, 2002, 00:29: Message edited by: Instar ]