@ AgentExeider
Erm... It already needs research to colonise. Its level 4, so its pretty high up. I am currently testing the AI as we speak, but I imagine, once they have researched it, they will colonise.

@ jfp3
Planetary bonuses will come, the next update will be both my mods in one pack.

An interesting idea for the advanced bombing tech, but so far I haven't seen a weapon that is more effective against a certain planet type, but I will keep it in mind.

To the point on 'using up' the asteroids, I'm not sure if thats possible yet, so we'll have to hold that back for the moment.

Thanks again for the comments, keep them coming. You never know, the next update/mod I make might have your ideas in it (with credit to you, of course ;)). Any other planet types people are interested in? So far I'm thinking a Barren planet, and a Forest world.

Its getting pretty late here (GMT, 2am), but tomorrow I'll write a walkthrough for creating a planet. Might be later in the day though, but I will do it tomorrow.

I've popped this question out before, but I'll try again, does you one know of a Modding Wiki for Sins'? We really need a place to start putting all these tutorials.

hmm, my idea for a new planet would probably be either an all forest planet like kashyyyk or endor from star wars,

a hive world like armageddon from warhammer 40k,

or u could have a war torn planet with craters blown into its surface, or even parts of the planet drifting into space but in orbit of the planet.

sort of like half the planet is intact, but the other half is destroyed and floating out into space.
that would be really hard to do though.

I always saw an ocean world's colonies to be underwater, so it would be tier 3 on the tech tree to research colonization just like everything else. Other traits would be:

1. Max population should start out low but research should give it a massive boost, say cap out at 100 normally but research could double it(on tier 5 perhaps?).
2. Since the majority of the infrastructure is on the ocean floor the planet should have an innate planetary shield effect against bombardment. Perhaps equal to an unupgraded TEC Planet shield.
3. Due to lack of landmass for launch facilities and for anchoring of space elevators combined with bad weather it would have less civilian slots(say 20), tac slots would be the standard 35.

Nice work and thanks for your efforts....It will make my games that much more fun.

Perhaps a Subterranean planet type:

-- More easily colonizable by one race than another.
-- Very defensible from orbital bombardment.
-- Low Pop growth, because of conditions forcing life forms underground (Poisonous atmosphere etc)

Now, I like the sound of that. The one thing I'm a little concerned with though is the one race over another option. Balance may suffer.

However, if I were to create another 3 planet types for a future update, then each race could have the edge at colonising a certain planet. I like that idea, and may use it.

@ Exsam
Much as I like that idea, I went on the thought that the colonies where land based at the poles. The ocean would be rough, and most probably filled with dangerous creatures, seeing as things can grow a lot bigger in water, than on land. But look out for your ideas on another planet type

Thank you, and everyone else for your input, its greatly appreciated.

I think oceanic planets would work well as being low population to begin with, but with many expensive upgrades (representing underwater colonies) to allow them to have a high population. A bonus to space ports might also help, as they'd probably have a lot of food to sell off. Food is pretty valuable on most planets.

HEE HEE HEE!!!!!!! THIS IS SO COOL, INSTALLING NOW!!!!!!!1

fyi, will this conflict with max teals planetary mod? or add on to it....

They are separate mods, therefore they cannot be active at the same time. However, if Max would like to incorporate mine into his, he is more than welcome, just as long as he give me credit and lets me know. However, merging mods without a tool to do it is very time consuming, and labour intensive.

How did you get a planet with rings?
I have been playing the game since the ealry Beta's and since then I have never seen a planet with rings, although I would see them in promotional videos and pictures for the game.

DANMAN

Rings? Open up your Planet###.ENTITY files and near the bottom look for:
ringsChance 0.000000
Change it to 0.500000 for a 50% chance for that planet type to have rings. 1.000000 and every planet of that type will have rings. 0.010000 and 1% will have them.

Thank you very much. I will try that out and see. Great work by the way, I am working on an "Atlantian" mod, and I think this will make a great home world for them. I am gearing the storyline that these guys are what the Vasari were running from, and they are the Vasari's ancient ancestors. Hence, they look like the Vasari for all extent and purposes as I don't want to get into reskinning the ships. that is way too much work for my schedule right now. Thanks again, and look forward to more.

DANMAN

I'm very pleased with the other mod you have put out, I know I will enjoy this one as well. You do some very good work by the way.

Something I think would be intresting but don't know how well it would work. Is Something like the astroid belt, only done with various blown up ships. After all we do tend to have some rather large space combats and there tends to be parts floating all over after most of them. Why shouldn't we encounter areas where there were previous engagements. I'm not sure how it could be worked in due to my lack of knowladge in modding. But I think it would at least be something intresting.

Anyways keep up the good work.

Thats always good to hear Raven, my next one is a combination of the two, with a lot extra.

I will keep that in mind, what you suggested. My 3D design skills are extremely limited, but it does give me an idea. Thanks for your input.

Dan, feel free to use the Oceanic planet, just remember me in the 'Thanks to...' section

Thank you all for your feedback, it is very helpful, and always welcome.

I really like the idea of this mod, and as soon as i get the hang of the game without it, I am definitely going to download it.

Also, can't wait for the walk threw on creating a planet. Would love to try and make one myself

Since you said you wanted ideas for a mod, I was thinking it would be cool to add moons and use them to give bonuses to the planet and the overall empire (I hope this isn't in already, I would feel very embarrassed...). You could get a mid level tier research that would allow you to colonize it, and it would allow you to increase the max population on the planet. Also (with additional research) you could add things on the moon to, say, quicken resource production and research/build speed by a small amount (the research overall, but the build speed is planet only), like add research lab kinds of things and, say, a building to coordinate project development/resource extraction?

My two cents.

Here's a thought for you Uzii, and this goes back to your other mod.

Would it be possible to trigger planetary abilities with a bonus? Reasoning: The bonuses we are currently seeing only affect the stats of the planet. To effect the gravwell and anything inside of it requires the planet to have an ability. Those are not hard to make, but the idea being you get a certain bonus causes the planet's ability to come online, like say...Lunar Explosion (-2 Civ slots, -100 planet health, -10 pop cap, -10% ship movement due to debris). Your thoughts, 'cause I'm at a wall.

...the bright side of this...if we can't figure out how to work the meat of this post...at least it's another bonus idea.

@ shnitzel5
The walkthrough, which took an hour might I add, is here. Reply #4.

Well, I have a planetary bonuses mod out also, and that has Moons in it. However, there is no visual effects, just stat increases for the planet. Creating meshes is out of my league at the moment, maybe in time I may venture into those realms, but not now. I will keep it in mind, thanks.

@ Bink
I don't think bonuses can trigger abilities. They are pretty limited to what they can do, from what I've seen. However, reading your post has given me an idea, but I have a bad feeling that it might be hard to do. I wonder if research can unlock another level of exploration on a planet. That way, once you research it, you could then explore the planet further and open up more bonuses. Something to look into...

Thanks for you input both of you, much appreciated.

Hi, I am a newbie to the game and have just 1 question. When you do modding, how does it work? If I update the game when a new release comes from the company, do I need to reinstall the game or will the mod stay there when I update?

Im sorry to ask these stupid questions, but I dont want to mess up. This mod looks great and would love to add it to my game. There was also a new mod for some new techs I saw on the main download site, and was thinking of those. But considering im not saavy on dealing with them, dont want to take the chance of messing up and losing the saved games/maps I already have.

I think a gaseous planet would be interesting. It could have low population but high defense - projectiles more easily burn up in the dense atmosphere, and beams/plasma also interact more with the atmosphere and loose some of their potency. Could have standard tactical/logistic slots, and be very high in the research tree - 5th or 6th and with only 1 or 2 upgrades, but have more resource asteroids around - like maybe 6. Oh and the gravity well could be bigger - under the assumption that gas planets are much bigger than solid/liquid ones.

Btw, the mod does look nice, I'd test it out but I'm still getting my feet wet (pun not intended ;)) with this game.

Adding in more lvls of exploration is as simple as adding in additional population lvls...or any of the other planetary upgrade for that matter. The engine deals with the exploration percentage just like squadron percentages. Now, how to lock them until you research a particular tech...good luck. Again, the variables might already be there just not shown, or it may be just like my idea. In that respect, I wish us both luck.

@ Grayhorse_1
Enabling a mod I think temporarily disables you normal save games, as they won't be compatible, but I'm not 100% as I haven't tried it. Can someone else verify?

Also, when an update for the game is released, you should be able to still use your mod, but any updates from a patch that effect a file which the mod has, won't be changed when you enable the mod. If that makes sense.

@ whiterabbit007
Very good idea sir. There are already Gas Giants in the game, but they are un-colonisable normally. That should be easy to include, you may see that in the next update.

@ Bink
Yes, I've seen the exploration bit in the planet files, but I'm a bit worried we won't be able to add, or unlock, another level with research. I'll look into it when I get some time.

Thanks again for everyones feedback. :CONGRAT:

Your welcome. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to post it here or message it to you.

Thanks for the planet modding tutorial! Definitely going to try it out (after i download the first file )