some newbie questions...

Krelian · #1 March 7th, 2003, 04:13 AM

Hi i got recently SE4... i played before SE3 and i have a question... in se3 u could build various space yards in starbases around a planet, and they build the things (like ships) together, reducing the build time.. now in se4 i have bought some space yard ships and i put them all together, but only 1 seems to be working, the rest stay iddle... how can i set up the space yards to make them work together?

Another thing... i like modding the game.. but if i make new ship sises, for example a ship bigger than the baseship, and I make 1 extra level in ship construction, the AI will research that extra level after baseship, and use the new ship sise? If not, where can i teach it to use it? i will have to modify each race one by one in /pictures/races ? or there is some general file that all the races uses to guide themselves?

What things can i make (modding) and the AI will automatically use ? ship components? factorys? mounts? nothing?

Thx, and sorry for the bad english -_-V

Slick · #2 March 7th, 2003, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Krelian:
Hi i got recently SE4... i played before SE3 and i have a question... in se3 u could build various space yards in starbases around a planet, and they build the things (like ships) together, reducing the build time.. now in se4 i have bought some space yard ships and i put them all together, but only 1 seems to be working, the rest stay iddle... how can i set up the space yards to make them work together?

Another thing... i like modding the game.. but if i make new ship sises, for example a ship bigger than the baseship, and I make 1 extra level in ship construction, the AI will research that extra level after baseship, and use the new ship sise? If not, where can i teach it to use it? i will have to modify each race one by one in /pictures/races ? or there is some general file that all the races uses to guide themselves?

What things can i make (modding) and the AI will automatically use ? ship components? factorys? mounts? nothing?

Thx, and sorry for the bad english -_-V

There is no way to make spaceyards cooperate in SE4. Only 1 spaceyard is allowed per planet, ship, or base. Each planet or spaceyard only has 1 build queue. You can't build facilities and ships simultaneously on a planet like in SE3. You could have a planet building facilities, with orbiting spaceyard bases building ships, though.

I will leave the modding questions to someone else.

Slick.

[ March 07, 2003, 02:23: Message edited by: Slick ]

Krelian · #3 March 7th, 2003, 04:23 AM

i forget to ask...

if i download a race (ship graphics and stuff) and the description says "for Version 4.0" for example... it is for 4.0 or older; or 4.0 or newer? (i know, a stupid question, but i downloaded one and it gives errors)

and another one related to the forums... where can i configure it to show oldest replies first and Lastest replies bottom? I want to read older Posts, like the newbie faq there, but reading from bottom to top in annoing

Thx again

Gandalph · #4 March 7th, 2003, 04:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Krelian:
Hi i got recently SE4... i played before SE3 and i have a question... in se3 u could build various space yards in starbases around a planet, and they build the things (like ships) together, reducing the build time.. now in se4 i have bought some space yard ships and i put them all together, but only 1 seems to be working, the rest stay iddle... how can i set up the space yards to make them work together?

It doesn't work like that anymore. 1 space yard has 1 build queue and adding more space yard ships will not decrease build time of the one queue, just give you more queues to build with.

Quote:

Another thing... i like modding the game.. but if i make new ship sises, for example a ship bigger than the baseship, and I make 1 extra level in ship construction, the AI will research that extra level after baseship, and use the new ship sise? If not, where can i teach it to use it? i will have to modify each race one by one in /pictures/races ? or there is some general file that all the races uses to guide themselves?

You have to mod the individual race files to include the new level of research, design, and build. That is to say, in your example, you would have to mod the race_AI_research.txt file to include the new research of ship construction. Then you would have to mod the race_design_creation.txt file to include a new design for the new ship size. Lastly, you would have to mod the race_construction_ships.txt file to include the new ship to the build queues of the AI.

Quote:

What things can i make (modding) and the AI will automatically use ? ship components? factorys? mounts? nothing?

Thx, and sorry for the bad english -_-V

The AI files have to be modded for almost, if not all, changes you make.

[ March 07, 2003, 02:26: Message edited by: Gandalph ]

Suicide Junkie · #5 March 7th, 2003, 04:30 AM

Actually in SE3, having more yards didn't speed up your build time on any one project.
SE3 would automatically distribute the purchased ships between the yards available and allow you to shift projects between them later. SE4 asks you to specify up front where you will build something.

Fyron · #6 March 7th, 2003, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Krelian:
i forget to ask...

if i download a race (ship graphics and stuff) and the description says "for Version 4.0" for example... it is for 4.0 or older; or 4.0 or newer? (i know, a stupid question, but i downloaded one and it gives errors)

That is for the Version of the ship set, not SE4. Ship sets made for non-Gold will generate errors when used in Gold because there are a number of new lines in the Gold Version in the AI files. You can fix them to be compatible with Gold by going into each of the mentioned files, and pasting the missing lines from the AI files of a default race. The AI files are located in Pictures\Races\Racename along with the ship set graphics.

Quote:

and another one related to the forums... where can i configure it to show oldest replies first and Lastest replies bottom? I want to read older Posts, like the newbie faq there, but reading from bottom to top in annoing

Thx again[/QB]

There is no option to do that. After a while, the format will grow on you.

Suicide Junkie · #7 March 7th, 2003, 07:06 AM

The "printer friendly view" (see bottom of page) will put the Posts in reverse order if you really can't stand the way things are at first.

[ March 07, 2003, 05:06: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

capnq · #8 March 8th, 2003, 01:12 AM

Step-by-step instructions for converting pre-Gold AI files to Gold are linked in my sig.