Invalid probably means "use abilities" then...  Makes sense for capitals..

This could work.

That's odd as it should work, as it is a valid (no pun intended) frigateRoleType. Hrm, perhaps combining it with Heavy or Light could do the trick. I will attempt to test this.

Edit: It seems that even in combination with the Heavy roletype, ships still rush to bomb planets. Though it seems that the AI might, as a whole, preform better with the addition of this roletype, though this requires more testing.

MANUALLY EDITING MESHES IN TXT FORMAT

These are Left and Right oriented weapons, respectively, from the Illuminator
    Point
        DataString "Weapon-0"
        Position [ -27.531000 0.000000 -0.797713 ]  -X LEFT, -Z Rear; Faces Left
        Orientation
             [ -0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ -1.000000 0.000000 -0.000000 ]
    Point
        DataString "Weapon-0"
        Position [ 27.531000 0.000000 -0.797717 ]  +X RIGHT, -Z Rear; Faces Right
        Orientation
             [ -0.000000 0.000000 -1.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 1.000000 0.000000 -0.000000 ]

Front Oriented weapon from Illuminator
    Point
        DataString "Weapon-0"
        Position [ 0.000007 0.000000 79.560600 ] +Z forward set
        Orientation
             [ 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 ]

Rear Oriented weapon
    Point
        DataString "Weapon-1"
        Position [ -21.103998 19.282158 -55.494915 ] -X LEFT; -Z Rear
        Orientation
             [ -1.000000 -0.000000 -0.000000 ]
             [ -0.000000 1.000000 -0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 -0.000001 -1.000000 ]
    Point
        DataString "Weapon-1"
        Position [ 21.104492 19.282158 -55.494915 ] +X RIGHT; -Z Rear
        Orientation
             [ -1.000000 -0.000000 -0.000000 ]
             [ -0.000000 1.000000 -0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 -0.000001 -1.000000 ]

Exhaust Example
    Point
        DataString "Exhaust"
        Position [ 0.000000 -0.389800 -294.155914 ]
        Orientation
             [ -1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 0.000000 -1.000000 ]

CapitalShip Tech Mesh Hangar Points : angled forward
     Point
        DataString "Hangar"
        Position [ -15.876904 38.784996 305.145691 ]
        Orientation
             [ 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 ]
             [ 0.000000 1.000000 -0.500000 ]
             [ 0.000000 0.500000 1.000000 ]
     Point
        DataString "Hangar"
        Position [ 42.409424 -57.426571 228.552994 ]
        Orientation
             [ 1.000000 0.000000 -0.258819 ]
             [ 0.129410 1.000000 0.500000 ]
             [ 0.224144 -0.500000 1.000000 ]

Having looked over the TEC Capital Carrier, top hangars and bottom hangars, I need to preface this with GRIDDING those 9 numbers.

[A][B][C]
[D][E][F]
[G][H][I]

What do each of these sets of numbers relate to, how does each affect orientation?  I've observed the above and drawn some conclusions.  The arrangement of the values can't be without pattern or reason.

A and I, if A and I are +, then Forward Oriented. 
A and I, if A and I are -, then Rear Orientated.

G E C, if G is -, C is +, then Left Orienated. 
G E C, If G is +, C is -, then Right Oriented. 
+G decimal value means hangar orientation is angled just slightly to the right, if negative it would be rotated slightly left.  Not sure why C must be opposite of G.

As relates to the Hangars... I see they face forward, that the top ones are angled 45 degrees.  Values in F and H seem to deal with that.

E so far is always positive
Positions B, D are a total mystery.

I think I understand the basics.  I can put weapon hardpoints pretty easy if only Front, Rear, Left, Right oriented.  If the weapon hardpoint or hangar requires any rotation around X, Y, Z axis', I think I can get away with a little.

However, if I wanted to make a new missile hardpoint, have it oriented 45 degrees off straight forward and also angled 45 degrees up, I'd be really lost.  I'd also be equally hosed if I had to make a (choose facing) missile hardpoint that fired straight up or down

Can anyone explain the Orientation Positions in detail so those of us who want to manually hardpoint weapons, flairs, abilities positions and not have them be the basic Front, Rear, Left, Right facings?

I'll be doing a lot of testing and experimenting, but any help welcome.

Of the cuff, but as for the values having to be +/- opposites I imagine it's like rotating vertices of an object.  You can drag the top of a square plane for example by grabbing the two top vertices and rotating them--but when you do so, it skews the shape.  By grabbing the top and bottom vertices and rotating them around the object center, you get the orientation you want and preserve the shape as well.

That's my guess to what it is essentially doing--rotating around the object center so all vertices must be specified.

Can someone running vanilla SINS Entrenchment confirm whether or not the Psi Starbase has Weapon-2 that fire to the LEFT.  Weapon-2 are those little LaserPsi shots.

OK another question for the experts.  I have been making changes to starbases for the 3 races and things are going very well.  I have successfully implemented the TEC "Super Resupply" ability giving me in effect 4 levels of the Resuplly ability, since individual abilities are hard-capped at 3.

Next I have edited the Factory ability on TEC starbases to give 3 levels of upgrades; the first two function similar to the existing ones.  The third, however, is intended to add the ability for starbases to build capital ships.  I am having trouble figuring out if this is even possible or not.

In the file StarBaseUpgradeTechFactory.entity there is only one small snippet of code that I can see that has anything to do with giving the starbase the ability to make ships:

 upgradePropertyCount 1
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "FrigateBuildRate"
  value 1.500000

I can't see any other reference to this ability in the .entity files so I suspect it's hard-coded.  I tried adding a second property upgrade such as:

 upgradePropertyCount 1
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "CapitalShipBuildRate"
  value 1.500000

which I fully expected to do exactly nothing and I was not disappointed.

So my question is, does anyone know if it is possible to add the ability for a starbase to build capital ships?  If not I will start thinking about possible work-arounds.

Thanks!

To answer my own question, I found this post in another thread:

So it looks like I'll have to think about a clever workaround, or give up on the idea.

I don't think it is possible mortification, if I remember correctly I don't event think there is enough room on the starbase interface for a build capitalship button.

You can make an ability that can create a captialship, but it does not take into account whether you have available capitalship crews or not, and thus could be easily exploited. I think the best alternative for the upgrade is to make an ability that reduces construction time at the given planet for ever shipyard, including capitalship factories. In many ways that is much more powerful that simply getting a faster capitalship factory on a starbase.

Also, last shot for karma on this question.

Starbase capital ship builder work possible around

Make a copy of the PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALCAPITALSHIPFACTORY.entity and rename to 
PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALCAPITALSHIPSTARBASE.entity 

add the new structure to PlayerTech.entity and update the count

Change the mesh linked to PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALCAPITALSHIPSTARBASE.entity from
meshName "PlanetModule_TechOrbitalCapitalShipFactory" to 
meshName "StarBaseTech.mesh"

There are no weapons on the Capital ship factory though so you could try the abilities from the Gauss defence
 ability:0 "AbilityGaussDefenseMissileBurst"
ability:1 "AbilityGaussDefenseRailGun"
but this will use up star base ability slots

just spit ballin' here

Not to sure what you are doing here. Are you trying to create a new Bump Map?

While the bump map generator might require you make it from the -cl, it should make its own RGB which you save as the -nm. If it did not create an Alfa then copy the red channel from the new -nm and paste it into the Alfa channel.

The alfa on this channel is not needed to be different from the red channel so I can't see why you would make a new one. Some bump map generators just make an RGB though and SoaSE requires an Alfa and copying the red channel is the easiest method.

Here is not a bad video for normal or bump map but you might try to grey scale the blue channel on the last step and save as the -nm

So I open the -cl and create the normal map as per the vid
then open channels and copy the red channel to the alfa and convert to the blue channel to grey scale
save as the -nm and continue to edit to suit and save
 

@Lavo i've found a xsp data base:

http://www.blackpanthergroup.de/x3/XSP-Schiffe/

This has loads of ships for X3 reunion/terran conflict

Is this any good?

Theo

I will take a look at your ships this weekend Theo

Could someone point to a convertXSI tutorial or something?  I've tried following the instructions on the SoaSE weebly, but they don't seem to be working...  I'm using the mod tool.

Also, how do you name nulls?

The only one I now of. What's the problem?

or you can learn how to use my ConvertXSI Script

Setting-up Meshpoints

This is a great out-of-the-box idea but it would ruin the rest of my mod as the starbase would either be defenseless or use up too many ability slots with weapon abilities.  So for now, Capital Ship building on starbases is out.

New question: I am trying to make a research item so that you can increase the number of available upgrade slots on a starbase dynamically while playing, instead of fixed at the beginning as it is now.  I have successfully created a new research item in the Defense tab but I am having trouble finding the exact wording to link to:

MaxUpgradeLevelCount

in the StarBaseTech.entity and other race's files.  I have tried:

researchFloatModifiers 1
researchModifier
 modifierType "StarBaseMaxUpgradeLevelCountAdjustment"
 baseValue 16.000000
 perLevelValue 1.000000

and also things like

researchFloatModifiers 1
researchModifier
 modifierType "maxUpgradeLevelCount"
 baseValue 16.000000
 perLevelValue 1.000000

and so forth but neither does anything in the game.  I can click and research but nothing happens to the upgrade slot max.  I can of course manually set:

maxUpgradeLevelCount 12 (changed from 8)

in StarBaseTech.entity and so forth and it works just fine.  I am stumbling around here in the dark trying to find the correct modifier name for maxUpgradeLevelCount.  Perhaps it is not even possible.  I remember reading someone else trying to do this but for the life of me, can't find it anywhere in the Mod forums.

Has anyone done this or know how to do it?  Thanks.

each star base upgrade stage has its own section which should have a NumResearchPrerequisites section that you link the research to.

StarBaseUpgradeTechToughness.entity

stage

	researchPrerequisites
		NumResearchPrerequisites 0

stage

	researchPrerequisites
		NumResearchPrerequisites 0

stage

	researchPrerequisites
		NumResearchPrerequisites 0

Change NumResearchPrerequisites to 1 and add the research

Just spit ballin' again  

myfist0 thanks you have been very helpful again.  However I think we are talking about two seperate things.

I have been able to make detailed upgrade paths for the individual starbase abiltiies linked to new research items.  So that part is working well.  However, I have only been able to hard-code the total number of upgrade slots available for the starbase, for each race.  I would like to be able to have research affect this number.

So, the normal value is 8 upgrade slots in total spread out among the starbase abilities.  Let's say I want the Vasari to be able to increase this value to 16 through reasearch.  As of now the only thing I know how to do is to manually edit:

MaxUpgradeLevelCount = 16

in StarbasePhase.entity which allows the Vasari to upgrade 16 times spread out among the abilities, right from the beginning of the game.  That's great, but I was hoping to make it cost something for players to unlock upgrades beyond the vanilla 8 slots.

I can't figure out how to link a research tech to this specific entry in StarbasePhase.entity, StarbasePsi.entity, and so forth.  This may not be posssible if it is considered a modifier.

So I was hoping maybe someone had already figured this out or knew for certain that it was impossible.  Thanks.

There is no command that can increase the level count for starbases by way of research.

Maybe for Rebellion.

Thanks for confirmng this.  For those interested, here is my planned workaround:

Higher level starbase upgrades will be linked to reseearch prerequesites in order to be available.  Let's say that the TEC starbases get 12 upgrade slots instead of the normal 8.  A player could fill all 12 with "normal" upgrades; or, they could resaerch some tiers of the "unlock advanced upgrades" research and then fill all 12 slots with advanced levels of Resupply and Factory, for example.

This doesn't work quite the same way as I'd hoped but does still present some interesting strategic options for the player.

For Ryat and mFist0 and the other experts, a quick question: any chance of getting the developers to change some of the hard-coded lmits?  Adding more tiers for things like research doesn't seem to be an issue with machine performance, which is why I assume the limits exist in the first place.  I was just wondering if anyone has asked for this from the developers.

It has been done before. The limits were already doubled once. Ironically not long afterwards issues with performance began to surface spinning out of control with Diplomacy. Wouldn't recommend it again.

Thanks again.  Another question:  I have been working on economic rebalance and using stats from actual game play will be very helpful.  For example, while trade income seems to be a linear weighted fuction, and planet income seems also to be a linear weighted function, the combination of the two seems to be more like a cubic fuction.  I'd like to get some exact data from the save file so that I can do some rebalancing via formula.

I have enabled the "Save Stats" option in the user.setting file, and so I get a binary stats file.  Now what?  I can't seem to get much information out of this file.  Does anyone have experience working with the Stats file?

They're actually constant but there are other things that affect them.  Planet income is affected by the population that is present, as well as the the 'morale' of the planet as well as distance from the homeworld.  Trade is affected by the number of trade stations on a planet, the number of trade ships completing their voyage, if they are a part of the longest chain or not, and cultural influence, and any trade pacts in effect.

Then there are the drawbacks such as pirates and enemies stealing your planet income while they are present, opponent's culture spam on a planet dropping it's output, and trade ships being destroyed, and fleet supply being increased.

If you're re-balancing the economics of the game, these are things you should know about...

Overall, you should get a gradually increasing line for the amount as you expand your empire, your population counts grow and your culture spreads, as well as adding more trade ports and trade ships and making that longest chain expand, and combining the data should look like cubing a number because two gradually rising numbers added together will look like a quickly rising number...  But that's not what's really happening.  Instead you're looking at numbers that are affected by several variables and not isolating those variables.  If you did isolate the variables, you would see straight lines that only jumped up when you added another income earner.

If you go into the gameplay.constants file and edit the values for planet allegiance to be 100 no matter how far away from the home planet something is, then you remove that variable from your data.  Play a game with the dev.exe where you build no trade ports and no culture centers and max out your planet population as soon as you colonize, now you're removing a few more variables from your data.  Turn pirates off and end the game before your opponent's culture or ships start to influence your economy and you effectively remove those variables.  If you look at your after game stats after letting it run for a few minutes, you'll see your income really is just a straight line.  One that only jumps up when you add another planet.  No curves.  No squares.  No cubing.  Just straight lines that step up.  Once you have your baseline data, you can do the same thing over again, but allow a variable in.  Like culture.  After you colonize, max the population and plop down a culture center.  You'll see the allegiance number climb above 100 and you'll see income increase as well.  Wash rinse repeat with only one variable each time to learn their specific effects.

once you have a full understanding of each variable and their effects, then you can start a meaningful rebalance.

The save stats are just what you see at the end of the game when you're looking at the graphs.  If you want to view them again, just reload the associated save file and quit right away.

Yeah that was what I was trying to do, I misunderstood the tutorial on your website (I think it was originally by Major Stress?). It made it sound like it was two different methods rather than two steps of the same one.

Anyways, now I have a quick question about team colors. Is it possible to have your team color blend in with the cl texture? Maybe I didn't do it right but where the alpha on my cl texture it just completely ignored the rest of the texture in game.

The best way to blend the team colour would probably be to use the eraser tool set to 50% or so.  I have not tested this though but it works with other graphic textures.

If you open a SoaSE ships -cl and look at the alfa channel you will notice different shades of white on black. Solid white would be solid team colour where if you use a slight eraser it would look more greyish, this lets some of the ships actual colour come through the team colour. Or zoom in close and use a 1 px solid eraser on the white and make a few scraggly lines to make it look like the team colour paint is cracking. Solid black is ignored and shows the ships RGB colours.

And yes that and old Stress tutorial modified slightly with screenshots.