Modding SEV Thread Questions

[aegisx]

AI colonies...

-Main script calls function to give ship orders.
-If its a colony ship, it calls the colony minister function.
-The minister looks for a planet to colonize (doesn't seem to care about any details, just if it can).

The AI has a function to pick a colony type, what calls that? It also seems to base what colony type based off of how many other colonies of the same type there are?

[Captain Kwok]

aegisx said:The AI has a function to pick a colony type, what calls that? It also seems to base what colony type based off of how many other colonies of the same type there are?

The file Script_AI_ColonyType.txt contains the syntax for the AI to choose a colony type. In stock, it chooses a colony type based on a set percentage desired for each type. If it picked a resource type, then it would pick what resource by the value. Of course this meant a lot of times the AI was using good resource planets for stupid things. However, in the Balance Mod I switched this for the AI to pick a one of the resource colonies if the planet value was good to excellent and if it was poor in value to pick one of the other types based on a desired percentage in the empire.

[aegisx]

Kwok: Nice, Ill have to check that out.

What I was looking for is what actually calls the Pick_ColonyType function. Or is it event driven, so the internal engine calls that function onColonize() or something.

[Captain Kwok]

aegisx said:What I was looking for is what actually calls the Pick_ColonyType function. Or is it event driven, so the internal engine calls that function onColonize() or something.

The Script_AI_Orders_Ships.txt file has the colony minister choosing a planet from the colonizable list but I'm not sure how its determining which one to go to first other than maybe closest.

[aegisx]

If I remember right, it is just the first in it's list. That could be another useful place to mod, so they colonize more intelligently.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Next few questions:

1. Can small craft (i.e. fighters or “shuttles”) be given the ability to make warp transits now?

2. Can the same small craft be given the cargo ability to transport troops or other goodies?

3. If they can transport troops can they be set to land troops?

[Fyron]

1. Take a look at VehicleUnitTypes.txt and weep with joy.

2. They can act like troops and participate in ground combat. Dunno about actually carrying other units though. There isn't anything in VehicleUnitTypes.txt about it, but it would be really easy to test. Somehow, I doubt that units would be able to carry units, however, due to circular capacities and infinite storage space.

[Barnacle Bill]

I'm looking at the AI setup scripts and wondering how the Racial Traits section is used...

Do the "random empires" that get added if you select "Generate random computer controlled players" use this to determine their racial traits?

If so, I would assume that they do so in order as listed in the script, until the point limit of the game is reached. However, you can select 2000, 3000 or 5000 point limits and I've checked 4 races so far and they don't add up. For the Abbidon, Amonkrie & Cue Cappa it comes evenly to 2000 and 3000 if you add them in order, but the total list in the script is less than 5000. For the Drushocka, adding them in order jumps you from 1500 to 2500, and the point total of all the traits listed in the script is 6000. So how does this work -

In a 5000 point game, would the Abbidon, Amonkrie & Cue Cappa take additional traits based on something else (what?)to get to 5000? Or would they just soldier on with <5000 in a 5000 point game? Do they get something else for their unused racial points? In a 2000 point game, would the Drushocka skip over that 1000 pt trait at 1500 to get to the next 500 pt trait on the list, or act as if the list didn't contain enough traits to reach the game point total.

Similarly, do I assume correctly the neutral players use the "default" script? In that, the raciat trait section actually contains formulas - a list of if statements in the form...

if (Sys_Get_Random_Long(1, 4) = 1) then
call Add_Racial_Trait("Advanced Storage Techniques")
endif

How does this work -

Does it go down the list until it fills the point total for the game? Again what if it is 500 points under the limit and the next one it gets is a 1000 pt trait? What if it gets through the whole list without hitting the limit? Do the regular races default to this when their list contains fewer pts worth of traits than the game limit?

Also, I haven't seen any negative point trait being called out in the scripts...

[President_Elect_Shang]

Imperator Fyron said:
1. Take a look at VehicleUnitTypes.txt and weep with joy.

Finally... There’s no “weep” emoticon; that sucks?

Has anyone tested to see if it works though?

[Spectarofdeath]

Are we able to build or mod in a certain structure that can only be built once?