Modding SEV Thread Questions

[tmcc]

Haven't tried yet but there are a bunch of debug flags which all default to FALSE in DebugSettings.txt

[President_Elect_Shang]

I have been working with the debug text but have not had any luck getting it to go. I have also worked with the little log that pops up when you run the mod. Problem there is I can't read any of the four entries it is reporting. All four problems are parse problems but I can't tell where they are located at?

Is there any programs that will check formula for parse-ability? The script parse utility is for making csf files right? I have tried it to no avail.

[President_Elect_Shang]

You can now have fractional engines for a ship. I made a ship with 2 engines, speed 8, by setting the engines per movement point to 0.25. Holds up in combat as well.

[Captain Kwok]

If the parser can't read a formula it spits out an error - ie too many parenthesis or something like or invalid operator and so on...

[Q]

Checked modified sensor fuctions:
A modded tachyon sensor with short range and a basic sensor with high range (but low sight level) on the same ship together will give the ship the maximum range of the basic sensor combined with the sight level of the tachyon sensor, which should not be the case IMO.

[President_Elect_Shang]

@ CPT Kwok: I know you had a thread started for ship changes (modding) or something to that effect but I would like to start a new thread for posting general tricks that have been found. For example:

1. You can make ship sizes that call for fractional engines.

2. I don’t use bridges (or master computer) at all and have worked around the hard coded restriction in SE5. To do this I have given the hull the ability control center.

Maybe if SJ can make this a sticky and others start posting tricks we can lay the ground work for a tips and tricks page for the Wiki master page.

@Q: That has got to be wrong; I would report it to Aaron.

@ Phoenix-D (well all modders): You have a good idea with the thread you started about grouping together and making a “Masters of the Empires” mod. Does anyone else like the sound of this too? The thought of your mod going head-to-head with a Star Destroyer or wing of Tie Fighters does nothing to stir your blood? I’m considering doing my part and I have to work around a complication when it comes to sharing my mod; which happens to be one reason why I didn’t in SE4.

P.S. to CPT K: I did work around the formula errors. I had to cut out each component one at a time; start the game to see if it had the problematic formula; wash rinse repeat till errors found and corrected. It is up and running even though I haven’t included all 16 tech levels and the components with them or the small craft, or the ships, bases …

This is getting long but I have one more trick to share. In SE4 I was plagued with the problem of how to create an External Ordinance Rack (XO Rack). The trick is it must fire drones at a controlled rate, must be zero tonnage, absorb one point (kt) of damage so the ship won’t become invincible, get damaged first along with the armor, and best of all the player (or AI) must be restricted to only placing a certain number of them on their hull designs.

Ok, that said I came up with half an answer in SE4. Only half because the AI never wanted to do it right. In SE4Deluxe I came closer. In SE5 I have finally hit on a solution. Limit the total number by (a) Fyron’s AI Tag solution or better still (b) restrict the component to only Armor slots. Now the player will need to choose if they want armor or an XO Rack. The AI question I have not attacked yet but it should be a simple matter of telling it how many it wants on a ship.

That’s it for now…

More tricks yet to be tested: A component whose cost is based on the size of the hull the component is being placed in. Larger ship means you pay more!

Cost and bonuses based on iif statements based on your current level instead of the generic steady progression in stock.

Really have to go now but please, share your thoughts! Is any of this useful or should I just give it up?

[Kana]

President_Elect_Shang said:
@ CPT Kwok: I know you had a thread started for ship changes (modding) or something to that effect but I would like to start a new thread for posting general tricks that have been found.

Maybe if SJ can make this a sticky and others start posting tricks we can lay the ground work for a tips and tricks page for the Wiki master page.

Really have to go now but please, share your thoughts! Is any of this useful or should I just give it up?

Sticky this thread as well. Always share your thoughts, especially if its something you dont think someone else may have thought of. Then they can use, or make them think of something else.

Speaking of which...I was reconsidering my Tholian web problem. From previous discussions, with the new damage types, I should be able to give web weapons the ability to slow down other ships/objects. To use them, it was disscused to use sats, drones, or even mines to be able to have a 'free standing web/terrain like feature'. Last night a thought came to me...

Can you set a seeker to have a zero speed? Then when launched, it would say in place, and basically be an obstacle to what ever is on its target list? Basically it would 'ram' any valid target that enters its 'square'. I havent tested it yet. Do you think it would work? Anyone else have a counter idea? Any way you think I can get this to work at range? IE: Shoot web out to range 10 and stay there as an obstacle?

[President_Elect_Shang]

Shooting a web to range 10 should be no problem and getting the seeker to sit still should also be easy. The problem I see is getting the seeker to ram. I think it will need movement of some kind to complete a ram attempt.

If I want to combine two statements in one formula; specifically Get_Design_Specific_Component_Count(“A”); how would I do that?

I have tried the OR operator and it doesn’t seem to work. What I am trying to accomplish is limit a player to placing a certain number of engine component A on a ship or a certain number of engine component B but not both. So far I can get the ship in the Vehicle Size text to recognize one or the other but not both. In other words I can restrict the number that can be placed by putting the restriction in two formulas but you can still place the max number of A and the max number of B. See what I am saying/asking? I don’t’ want that, I want either but not both.

[Suicide Junkie]

That is the way OR works. If at least one side is true, then the result of ORing them is true.

The simplest way to make it exclusive would be to add a requirement of (count(A)=0 OR count(B)=0)

If you want to handle more than just two types, then try checking to ensure that the maximum of the counts (IE the type with the most components installed) is equal to the sum of the number of engines installed of all types.
Eg: max(a, max(b, max(c,d))) = (a+b+c+d)

[President_Elect_Shang]

I thought about it more and decided to toss the idea out. There are a number of reasons why the “Paper” game works well with two different types of engines. I could mod both types to “almost” meet the paper game, but just “almost”. The problem comes from the military engine; which should allow a player to run them at full power but if they do so it would mean a random chance of the engine failing and needing to be repaired. The benefit to full power is double the strategic movement speed. It goes into a little more detail than this but the essential is I would need to create an engine that can be used to produce double speed (when the player or AI’s chooses to) with a chance to fail every turn. I don’t see a way to do that so I have tossed it out and built the restriction on max speed for the hull instead.

This could come in handy for other moders which want to use more than one engine type but control how many and in what combinations they may be legally used by the player and AI.