[Question] Modability of Sins

im not sure about adding/removing weapons, but everything else you mentioned is moddable

sins has pretty much all the data stored in external txt files, so everything is moddable except a few things, also forge tools will come out (with release) that will "MAKE YOU WAFFLES!"

Very moddable. People figured out the exact stuff you are talking about within a few days of the first beta back in March. Open up one of the capitalship files in the gameinfo directory with notepad and it should be pretty selfexplanatory and if not, there are plenty of people here who know how pretty much everything works are in the middle of their own total conversions.

Edit: oops, didn't realize you didn't have the beta You can see some examples on youtube I believe or throughout this modding forum (videos and screenshots of B5, StarTrek, custom stuff etc).

Well, if things are made in text files, making a modding utility that adds a gui for users wouldn't be too hard. If that's how it is, I'll program such a utility for you folks when I purchase the game.

The modability* of this title thus far is unmatched. I say that as a person who has been doing mods for games since the early 90s. The devs are not creating unique mystifying file extensions, wrapping resources in proprietary containers or working customary industry voodoo crap to hamper or inhibit creative influences on the part of the community. They are in fact creating a new standard for such endeavors in my opinion as to how it should be done.

* a word is a word if the meaning is easily understood or communicated. The "proper" classification of it is often is in question, however given the general use of it in a sentence dictates that anyway it is really a ceremonial inclusion into a published book of words used as a reference that people get all huffy about. But that thinking is tantamount to an appeal to traditional wisdom or authority argument and both are unreasonable.

Good, I'll take good advantage of the ease of modding this game, then. Thanks for the info .

to second most of these people the question is not what CAN be moded it is what CANT be moded you can find anything you need just by looking through

I like the titles of this thread, so well stated

Space Empires series is just as good, if not better (number 5 made graphics, AKA models, more of a pain, but at least you don't have to worry about that when you add / remove weapons!)

I can not compare the two titles since I never played Space Empires. I have heard it was highly modifiable so it would be an interesting point by point comparison. If you are up to the challenge of doing so. You should also keep in mind that there are also complexity of systems to consider as well as implemented technologies and the skill sets needed to do something like a full conversion.

I guess I should have qualified my statement a little more. How is this...
The modability* of this title thus far is unmatched in my opinion which is based on nearly two decades of experience modding dozens of titles to varying degrees.

duck typing at its best. I get very very angry when people botch english to the point of incomprehensibility, but if the word doesn't exist in a more compact form than a sentence, make it! Also, I, a complete n00b when it comes to modding was able to read a .galaxy file pretty successfully, so i'd say this game is quite moddable, and the tools should make it many times more so.

It appears we have a programmer type here.

yes, I am, and very proud of it until I can teach myself how to do the graphics thiny people keep mentioning (next term of compsci should teach me that nicely).

I also have a question about a feature I'm not sure would be implementable. For a mod, we want to treat some ships like squadrons (i.e. a capitol ship has a set, non level-dependent number of them, and carries them through phase space). However, we want to be able to have these carried frigates be in addition to a standard, level-dependant number of fighters. Is this possible/feasible?

Cool. Always good to have another one here.

We have several mod projects in the works now so feel free to get involved in any that you like. All of them could benefit from more programmer skills. If you want to work on some utilities that would be awesome. We only have two guys working on that aspect of the modding community. If you want to get involved in any clans on top of any of that that would be great.

Regarding your question if I understand it correctly (just woke up), yes it should be possible since we have fighter groups and carriers so it should be possible.

hey got nothing to do with code but how big are the textures used for the standard ships (cap ships frigates/cruisers and fighters)? i think im geting the grasp of uv wraping and so was wondering for my texturer

You can open/edit the SoaSE textures with the Nvidia plugin for Photoshop, I think you will find the exact size depends upon the mesh being used.

i dont have photoshop but i ment are they 512x512 or 1024x1024 in other words how big pixel wise

It can handle very large textures but for memory purpose we've downsampled them all from their original form. We may release an uber-rez package in the future if there is enough interest.

In the game currently here a few averages:

Planets: 2048x2048

Capitals: 1024x2048

Frigates: 1024x1024

there will be defiantly a interest in larger textures.

oooh so fighters would be tiny but otherwise use 1024s as the standard size? i wana know for my bfg mod cos im looking at the cap ships and thinking that thats alot of stuff i gota fit onto that texture

edit wait i dident read the cap ship right a 1024x2048 how does that work? thats some seriusly large texture i have only ever seen a 1024x1024 and that was huge detail (the witch hunters mod for DoW) that is some seriusly big texture

Sins textures are huge for an RTS because we have to handle the extreme close ups we allow with our zoom. Most games will restrict it so you can't see how low the textures are.

You can get away with using 2048x2048 textures because of the mip mapping in the dds format. What mip mapping does for textures is the same as mesh lodding by using lower resolutions of itself the further out you zoom. When you are zoomed to see the entire fleet there is no need for full resolution because you wont see small details at that distance anyway. This saves system resources, and boosts framerates. The only time you will see a full resolution texture is in an extreme close up.

Yep, we use mipmapping extensively among a number of other tricks

Absolutely brother-man! The higher the better for those of us with more desktop real estate then mere mortals should enjoy.

I think like civ, user mods could take this game a long ways,...hoppfully some official mods too...even if its nothng major, I think a "Heres an offcial scenario mod" type thing once in awhile would be greatly appreciated!

I'd like the large texture pack also