Getting started- Making a mod: "Improved logistics"

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/376221

The link will help you with what you need to know to get started on modding.

Thanks for that- i`m looking at all that stuff trying to figure things out.

I created a bat file to convert binary to text in my mod folder and it seemed to work, but when i opened the files they`re still gibberish..

There should be a converter in there somewhere.

Try harpo99999's tools as well if you need to.

i found the converter- used a batch file to convert all files but that didn`T do anything.

then i did a manual convert using the convert data from the gamefile witch also didn`t do anything.

I get the impression the commands are working- it`S just that nothing is getting converted.

I have harpos tools, but i`m not entirely sure how to use them yet- i`ll look into it..

I can`T make Harpos textbinner work- program fails and freezes my computer..:(

yeah I never could make harpo's tools work either

what is the other converter you are using?

You don't really need the binary to text converter unless you are wanting to reverse engineer someone else's mod.

First, download the complete set of reference files from here.

http://soase.weebly.com/modding-tools.html

If you are modding diplomacy then download the Diplomacy 1.2 patch reference files from here.

http://soase.weebly.com/diplomacy-12.html

i downloaded the reference files but it feels like cheating and it doesn`t help me with my borader goals which are now posted at the top of the thread..

I need to be able to do the conversion myself of the whole process will be pointless.

CURRENTLY I`M OPERATING WITH "ENTRENCHMENT"..

Though it appears that to redo the logistics part i need to use the reference files from original sins as well.

I`ve followed a number of ways of converting, but maybe i`m using some outdated "convert_****" file.

Found a place with a proper conversion software:

http://xtremestudios.net/portal/downloads.html

This turned out to be bugged and only worked a little while. I`ve now made my own set of batch files to convert the various file types

Yeah that is what I have and I thought that myfist0's weeble had a link up to it.

Seems the extreme studios converter works fine.

I\ve made the first iteration of my mod (number 1), but i can`t enable it.

The computer freezes.

I check the folder and then i enable the mod- i get a checksum and then the game freezes along with a mini-dump.

Found what the problem was- sins needs to redo all the files or something and needs several seconds per file.

I just deleted most of the files and the mod worked fine.

Now i need to integrate it with "requiem" mod before i move on to number 2 of my 3 goal project.

Some very high goals. If you need help fell free to drop us a line.

Sounds good mate..

I`m having some issues moving on to the second stage. This being my first day of modding i`m not yet comfortable with writing up my own entity files.

IS THERE A SIGN OR COMMAND I CAN USE TO REPLACE NUMBERS IN ENTITY FILES?

Explain a bit more please.

i`m on number 2 now.

I`m trying to achieve the following:

-Deploying a starbase provides 200 additional supply units and 1 additional cap ship slot.

I see a number of approaches to the problem but i figured the easiest would be to write up workaround that modifes the values in the "researchsubject" files regardles of what level the player has researched. This can be seen in the example below;

"HUDICON_RESEARCHSUBJECT_MAXSHIPSLOTSPHASE0"... Could i replace the 0 with something neutral?

If this is not possible i could try to write up a seperate entity that could be referenced in the starbase entity file, but i`m not sure how to do this yet. This is my first day afterall.

The third option is to modify the base value from the start of the game- i.e 100 supply units. If i can find that value somewhere i can write up a modification to that each time a starbase is deployed and it would be unaffected by player research, but i can`t find that value anywhere.

Is the starting 100 unit supply in the gameplay constants file or somewhere else?

This maybe your best option. The other two are not possible.

yeah- and it`s still not guaranteed it will work. I don`t understand these things well enough to fully appreaciate my options. I`ll need to read up on the topic and try to figure something out.

At my current low level of proficiency i perceive the following issue:

even if i write up a seperate entity to reference in the starbase file i`ll need a value to modify.

Actually i might have an idea.

I`m attacking the issue from an entirely new angle.

I`ve written a reference in the AbilityDeployStarbaseTech and i`ve changed the research prerequisites.

My plan is to write up a new buff.entity that will modify both "MaxShipslots" and "CapitalShipSlots". I`m working on the former for starters- I`ll insert the latter when i see whether i can actually do it.

issue now is finding out whether i`m using the commands properly or whether ability and buff commands work with research commands at all.. I don`t see why it shouldn`t work- so i`m hoping i can figure it out sometime soon..

And what is the significance of "smalleffectname" and "largeeffectname"?

I almost have this working.

Also i figured out where the problem is. The conversion was going fine i though but when i re-converted from bin to txt i found out a lot of information was disappearing. My additions to the ability file caused string, hudand item info to disappear.

 when i converted to bin it looked like this:

nameStringID "IDS_ABILITY_DEPLOYSTARBASETECH_NAME"
descStringID "IDS_ABILITY_DEPLOYSTARBASETECH_DESC"
hudIcon "HUDICON_ABILITY_DEPLOYSTARBASETECH"
smallHudIcon "HUDICON_ABILITY_DEPLOYSTARBASETECH"
infoCardIcon ""

When i converted back to txt it looked like this:

nameStringID ""
descStringID ""
hudIcon ""
smallHudIcon ""
infoCardIcon ""

I converted the english.str file to text and much to my dismay i discovered that the string i`m struggling with doesn`t exist in the string archive.:(

the string file IS in text, only the meshes, entitys, brushes and particles have bin AND text types, and if you want to add a string to the string file just duplicate the headers from one of the other entries, and add one to the string count at the top of the file.

harpo

I really need to thank Ryat and Harpo..:)

Gratefull for the feedback..

i have 2 issues at the moment:

1. when i rewrite the ability file the "namestring" and "descstring" as well as "hudicon" gets reset. Research prerequisites also get reset to 0.

2. I went moved a string file into my mod path and insterted my own strings into string file. This caused a "no string    found" error. i could still navigate the folders and managed to disable my mod, which removed the "no string found error"

The current conundrum presents me with a couple of questions:

1. Is there a registry file somewhere stating how many lines there are supposed to be in an ability file or what order the file should be written in?

2. The "no string found" occurred after i introduced the relevant strings to the string file:

"IDS_ABILITY_DEPLOYSTARBASETECH_NAME"
"IDS_ABILITY_DEPLOYSTARBASETECH_DESC"

   Not entirely sure how this caused a bug but I`ll figure it out.

The biggest issue is why my ability file keeps getting RESET when i convert it from TXT to BIN

I tried switching the above strings for the following:

IDS_RESEARCHFLOATMODIFIER_SHIPMAXSLOTS_NAME"
IDS_RESEARCHFLOATMODIFIER_SHIPMAXSLOTS_DESC"

didn`t work.

The ability file accepts when i add research prereguisites, but all other updates cause the "strings" and "huds" to reset..:(

1. Not sure without a better explanation

2. You need to make sure you go back up to the top of the String file  to where it says

NumStrings

    and at +1 to that number for every string you add in to the file.

(Number of line - 2) / 3 should also yield the correct count number.

Thanks for the replies, i`ll try to elaborate..

In regards to making the logistical updates i`ve been trying to achieve, i realized quickly in my experimentation i`d have to change the research figures themselves to have any chance of success.

My latest thinking was to set research prerequisites for lets say "just in time logistics" as a criteria for researching starbase constructor frigate.

Then i wanted to open the abilitydeploystarbasetech and add a reference, after the prerequisites, to "just in time logistics". The idea being to bump the "perlevelincrease" under "maxshipslots". I was hoping this would increase only the bonus for that particular level. Thus every starbase deployment would add 200 supply to "just in time logistics".

The smart thing was that this approach would not affect further research as bonuses from the other logistics levels would be applied on top of the current value for "just in time logistics" and build on whatever that number was, for the remaining upgrades.

The problem was that everytime i clicked convert, the "string" and "hud" info got reset to string "" and hud "".

In addition everything except my research prerequisite changes were also removed.

As GeoFan77 has suggested, there seems an incompatibility between ability files and researchfloatmodifier commands.

I`m getting the impression that "entitymodifiers" are hardcoded for "ability" files while "researchfloatmodifiers" are hardcoded for "researchsubject" files. In that case there would be a seemingly impenetrable wall between research and other aspects of the game.

I`ve been through "Ability", "Buff", "Researchsubject" and "objects" attempting various approaches to my goal. Through a rather large amount of trial and error, i have found no way of rewriting logistics to a more strategically interesting and flexible system.

Unless the developers loosen the grip on modding restrictions to allow for this, i don`t see any solution. Which is really depressing. I`ve still only been at this "modding" thing for a couple of days and don`t understand it all that much, but i believe i have been thurough.

I`ll be looking into the standard fare vanilla modding- gonna mess with requiem and make their SSD do everything i want

Thanks to Ryat Geofan77 and Harpo for the help:) Modding only really gets interesting when there`s actually someone there to answer those silly "getting started questions". Everyone has them and they can get annoying, but patient "elders"make for enthusiastic "youngsters"..

have you tried running the mod in text mode, ie without converting to bin?

and running in the dev.exe?

harpo