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Changes concerning modding in Entrenchment

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Changes concerning modding in Entrenchment

from Sins Forums

So modding and hardcodes has been a rather hot issue recently, and I figured why not start a thread to detail all the modding-related changes Entrenchment can bring. Anyone's welcome to add to the list as you notice things.

What I noticed:

- The new cap for number of squadrons on carriers is now 4.

- Ships can now have 5 abilities. Capitals still have the upgrade button on the UI that covers up the slot, but all the other ships are fair game.

- Research can change ship/building mesh appearance. Each entity file now has a listing of its mesh stages and what triggers them. Ships/turrets can use RESEARCHSUBJECTs, and Starbase entities can use their own upgrade triggers.

- Weapons can now be tied to research for unlocking purposes. For example you can have a ship with 2 weapons, but until you research a specific tech only one weapon can fire.

modding
200,851 views 88 replies
Reply #51 from Sins Forums Top

I just read everything Annatar found. Then I read it again. It was like a double take.

Then I think I had a gamegasm.

Reply #52 from Sins Forums Top

LOL I meant the Codder was you! Not me.

Object Desktop - Get all of our enhancement utilities in one suite
Reply #53 from Sins Forums Top

I updated the OP so it's more certain and added the weapon unlock thing.

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Reply #54 from Sins Forums Top

Can starbases be built out of frigate or capital ship factories? Or are they only deployable?

Reply #55 from Sins Forums Top

for the abilities on capitals does it prevent the usage of the 5th ability or does it simply cover up the UI (so an automatic passive ability would work in slot 5?)

Reply #56 from Sins Forums Top

Good thinking EvilleJedi

Reply #57 from Sins Forums Top

for the abilities on capitals does it prevent the usage of the 5th ability or does it simply cover up the UI (so an automatic passive ability would work in slot 5?)
In my quick testing, it appeared to work just fine. Still need to spend points on it.

 

:fox:

Reply #58 from Sins Forums Top

okay well this is good then, I have a lot of abilities that the ships start with and don't upgrade so they don't need UI components (IE passive abilities)

Reply #59 from Sins Forums Top

How do I use developer with Entrenchment?

 

I've ran into the 10 min minidump and I don't know why... I  was running Entrenchment before on Highest and didn't have any issues but now my mod crasshes at 10 minutes every time. Can't figure out what would cause that...

Reply #60 from Sins Forums Top

You shouldn't be able to use the dev exe with Entrenchment, it's probably an old code base. For the 10 minute crashes, might not even be mod related - try turning down the texture quality from Highest (the whole top row) and see if it helps.

Reply #61 from Sins Forums Top

I'm worried that when I ran the original developer it ruined my settings or something. I'm going to play vanilla entrenchment tonight and see.

 

And I used to play with "Highest" on all settings on Entrenchment and had no minidumps. Since I tried running developer my settings were reset to lower. I didn't have anything on highest, but I still lowered it to medium and I'm getting the 10 minute crash.

 

I'll try vanilla entrenchment tonight, if it works, then i'll just have to create a fresh GameInfo and start adding each ship/ability and test each one.

 

Thanks Anny!

Reply #63 from Sins Forums Top

Quick question:

Is there any difference between the forge tools 1.1 convertdata.exe and the 1.12 convertdata.exe besides the ability to convert entrenchment files? I saw that Annatar said the new one takes an extra parameter; however, from my own testing, the parameter count is the same for both files. If there is no difference in parameter count, then I can remove the switch between entrenchment/vanilla in my sins editor, making my life easier.

Please get back to me asap, thanks!

 

-Ian

Reply #64 from Sins Forums Top

No difference in parameters that I see.  Entrenchment files can only be converted by Entrenchment ConvertData.exe of though.

Reply #65 from Sins Forums Top

Awesome. That makes things easier. I will leave it up to the user to know whether or not they are using something compliant with entrenchment, since it is a 3rd party program to Sins Editor, I do not need to mess with it :D.

 

Thank you!

 

-Ian

Reply #66 from Sins Forums Top

The extra parameter was added a while ago. The first few versions of convertdata could only do text to binary, but eventually they made it do binary to text and added the extra bin/txt parameter to the command line for that :P

Reply #67 from Sins Forums Top

I must say I do like the visual upgradability feature, that is going to come in very handy for anyone working with flagships and not spawning an over powered ship too early in the game.

I am a little concerned over the structure of the beta entity files, specifically this section:

MeshNameInfoCount 4
MeshNameInfo
 meshName "PlanetModule_TechOrbitalGaussDefense"
 criteriaType "None"
MeshNameInfo
 meshName "PlanetModule_TechOrbitalGaussDefenseMissiles"
 criteriaType "Research"
 prerequisites
  NumResearchPrerequisites 1
  ResearchPrerequisite
   Subject "RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_GAUSSDEFENSEMISSILEBURST"
   Level 1
MeshNameInfo
 meshName "PlanetModule_TechOrbitalGaussDefenseRailGun"
 criteriaType "Research"
 prerequisites
  NumResearchPrerequisites 1
  ResearchPrerequisite
   Subject "RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_GAUSSDEFENSERAILGUN"
   Level 1
MeshNameInfo
 meshName "PlanetModule_TechOrbitalGaussDefenseMissilesAndRailGun"
 criteriaType "Research"
 prerequisites
  NumResearchPrerequisites 2
  ResearchPrerequisite
   Subject "RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_GAUSSDEFENSEMISSILEBURST"
   Level 1
  ResearchPrerequisite
   Subject "RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_GAUSSDEFENSERAILGUN"
   Level 1

That to me looks like the entire object mesh is being swapped rather than the missile and railgun being added to the TEC Orbital Defense Gun.

Would it be possible for someone to publish the .particle files please? Without making a comparison or examination of the particle file features or indeed there very presence you can't really tell.

Reply #68 from Sins Forums Top

I'd bet on meshes being replaced entirely. If there is no specific coordinate info where mesh parts should appear, the only logical alternative is that the meshes are completely replaced.

Reply #69 from Sins Forums Top

Well the co-ordinate info could be in the mesh itself if the object space is preserved between each mesh or there are dummy points defined for child or sub-mesh objects.

However the easy option will have been to just replace it as a single entity.

Reply #70 from Sins Forums Top

In case nobody noticed, the spawnCount line in the PlantModule entity files controls how many are built. It's how the TEC mines are set up.

Imagine, one typo and you're building ten Guass cannons for the price of one... it's limited by the number of log/tac slots though, and it seems that if you go over, you still pay full price even though not all the structures are built.

 

:fox:

Reply #71 from Sins Forums Top

:)  In the planet.entity file i believe there is a line for number of starbases built = 1, so like Kitkun said with the planetmodules, i believe a modder could set up more than 1 starbase per planet, or area.  :)

Maybe overkill, huh?  But it could mean positioning the starbases on both sides of a gravity well to cover more area.

Very very nice additions by the devs!!

:)

-Teal

 

Reply #72 from Sins Forums Top

Will the hardcoded limit on meshes/textures be expanded?

Reply #73 from Sins Forums Top

That to me looks like the entire object mesh is being swapped rather than the missile and railgun being added to the TEC Orbital Defense Gun.

If that's the case, might it be possible to change a planet's mesh in game, too? So we can have things like the Death Star that actually destroy a planet?

Reply #75 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting kyogre12, reply 23

That to me looks like the entire object mesh is being swapped rather than the missile and railgun being added to the TEC Orbital Defense Gun.
If that's the case, might it be possible to change a planet's mesh in game, too? So we can have things like the Death Star that actually destroy a planet?

 

That wouldn't work.  A Terran planet that got blown up would still have Terran planet stats, even though it looks like and asteroids belt.  The Death Star needs entity swaps to be able to be done in-game for that to happen.