Hi,
I am trying to see if i can find a way for one ship to create another. I have tried copying the frigatefactory and CapitalshipFactory entities to ships abilities and squad areas in an attempt to try it, but it just crashes.
Is this not possible now?
I thought if i could make a planet, or asteroid portable, then that might work, but nothing in the planet files looks even remotely like a moveable ship.
Anyway, just wanted to ask and see what the experienced modders have found out. Maybe its already done, and i just dont know how. haha, wouldn't be the first time. There is so much to learn. Unless i can create a new entity file? Does anyone know if that is possible? That might be the way to go, if i knew how to do that.
Originally i thought making the frigate and capitalship factories mobile would be the best way. And it still may be, but at present i cant get the factories out of the gravity well. I was hoping to make them able to take along with the fleet.
Nice thought, but right now, difficult as heck.
Thanks in advance for the help, take care,
-Teal
Doubtfull.. AFAIK the only ships that can be created from other ships are the fighters from the carriers. Much of sins is hardcoded, and i believe this was attemted before with failure.
Actually, a guy named -Blackseraph- did this. What he did is he gave certain ships abilities that spawned certain frigates and cruisers. It was really cool actually, and if he updates 1.1 it gets even better since abilities can cost you credits/metal/crystal. What it was was a way to circumvent the 9 slot limit on frigates and cruisers, and it worked great. I think he gave the ability to spawn the spawners to the construction frigs, and then he gave each spawner 4 different abilities for 4 different ships. Like I said, real nice work.
It's possible. That's how we ake things like siege platforms and missile platforms (they are just frigates with no engines). And like SpardaSon said, you can do some other cool stuff with them as well.
Hey that's great news. I love seeing how people figure out solutions in modding. There are some really creative ways to achieve results.
To build on this, could we make hangars that build frigates/cruisers? Is it possible to make those cruisers/frigates not jump out of the grav well?
I'm thinking of making a militia where you can level up a hangar. 2nd level the hangar spawns 5 frigates 2 squadrons, 3rd level spawns 1 heavy cruiser, 5 frigates and 2 squadrons.
It would be pointless though if they could just jump out of the grav well and join another fleet lol.
No, you can't do that. What you can do is make strikecraft squadrons that are made up of frigates, cuisers, and I think even capitals.
If you open up the "SquadXXXXXXXX.entity" files you see a line called "FighterEntityDef". If you replace that with something that isn't a fighter, you may get a minidump (I haven't tried this yet TBH). However, of you make a specialized "FighterXXXXXXXX.entity" based off of an existing ship and stats, just converted to what fighters use, then chances are good you can have frigate/cruiser/capital strikecraft squadrons.
(You know, I have to see if I can make the Atlantian Hangar Defense spawn Avatars.)
It is also important to note that if you plan on your mod to be played in singleplayer as well, keep in mind that the AI is not really equipped to handle "exotic" approaches to shipbuilding. One of the early ideas I had for my mod is to have one of the factions as mobile as possible, with mobile ship production facilities (essentially ships with abilities to spawn other ships which is, as was mentioned, quite doable) - but I had to abandon that approach because I realized the AI probably wouldn't know which ships to build in which quantities, or if it would even get stuck at the beginning phase because it couldn't create a capital ship factory per se.
I see no problem with "hangars" which are essentially capital ships with no movement ability. You could level them up and adjust their "fighter squadron" building capacity just like they're adjusted with vanilla ships. But keep in mind that, unless I'm mistaken, each capital ships can have up to two types of fighter squadrons. So at least some of those ship spawning abilities would have to use regular ability slots and then you'd end up with a regular ship which can, if it can move, also phase. Unless you can spawn fighter squadrons directly via an ability, I have no idea about that.
The Vasari carrier capital spawns a bomber squadron with an ability
Yeah, I forgot about that. So I guess you could simply tie a custom fighter squadron using whatever ship meshes you needed to produce the effect Tkins wanted.
Depending on how Entrenchment handles Starbases' construction, it might even make it possible to give an entity the complete "frigate factory" ability, to make actual mobile construction bases/ships/whatever. Won't know until wee see it in action, though.
Wow really cool.
So those squadrons of frigates, how would they act? They would still have frigate properties right? Like they would move and act like a frigate, similar damage? I don't want to have a bunch of frigates flying around like fighters at super high speeds, turning on a dime type o' thing.
EDIT
Is it possible to make ships spawn from planets? ie. planets spawn construction ships, could we add in frigates and cruisers?
No Tkins, they would have standard frigate stats like turning, speed, and acceleration. However, they would use the standard fighter AI in which they strafe then turn back around. And yes, it would be at a frigate's maxspeed/accel/turning.
And about planets spawning ships other than conships, I don't think its possible.
Interesting. How effective are they in combat when they act like that?
Devastating. I think Kiedjor did it with flak frigates of all units. Completely ripped anything and everything to shreds.
I felt Kiedjor's mod! I'm helping him with it!
Yes they do rip..and the vessels they ripped was my 100+ ship army vs 6-7 of his carriers... now only a few brave souls in escape pods scattered across space ! But he changed it back, and now the mod is a 180% degree turn from what it was before! But is 10 000....% better!
Proud to be his helper!
Justin S.
Ahhh... Thank you Major Stress, it is interesting to know. I suppose a lot hardcoded means better performance or less problems? I guess if i was a programmer i would think the same way. Haha, but as a minor capable modder, who has only just tweaked file values, then that is way over my head. But thank you for the explanation, it is always nice to know things.
Take care,
EDIT*
Never mind the below. I see now that you are responding to each comment as you read them so my response is no longer valid.
Also, I'd be glad to work on that mod together. I have no clue what to do at all but wouldn't mind learning from you so I can do mine.
Thanks!
Uhh Teal, did you read what Blair and Sparda said? It's the complete opposite of what Major Stress said!
Ahhhh... very cool, thank you for the answers, Im going to have to look at blackseraphs work, i appreciate all the responses. Usually i get these weird ideas haha, that are too far out. Im glad some of them are not too far out.
But since 1.1 release this afternoon, i really havent had much time to even think about modding, but i will eventually.
Thanks Blair and Company for a great update!! We all appreciate it. And thank you for the tip on how this might be approached. Appreciate it very much.
Take care and rest now, you deserve it,
Very very interesting, thank you very very much for letting me know about this. I think i saw some of blackseraphs work on the wincustomize sins mods site. i will have to recheck, but none of my old mods work with the new 1.1, but that is cool, i will just have to make some new ones? Thanks again SpardaSon21 for the info. Take care,
And keep Modding!!
You have a point, and i agree, it would be wonderful to have a "local" militia that was created for the gravity well. I have a mobile defense that i made from a cross-over of a frigate and module constructor, using the beam defense platform images. Because it was labelled as a module constructor it was confined to the gravity well, but had ability slots and weapon slots available for different weapons. I haven't tried yet to duplicate my mobile defense on 1.1 yet, so i dont know what it will entail, but it might be a way to get you your cruisers and frigates. However i dont know about the level thing. I havent done anything mod wise with levels. Anyway, if i can get mobile defense running on the new 1.1 i will let you know, and we can try it with what you want? Okie?
Edited: You are fine Tkins, i like your posts, interesting questions. thank you,
SpardaSon21, this is what i tried, or i should properly say, i attempted, but not "quite" in the same way. That is probably why i crashed instead of working. Your new fighterdef sounds interesting. Thank you.
Yes!! I would be happy to see if we can get it to work. Let me see if i can get my mobile defense back up and running on 1.1 and then we can try your mod based on if i can get the md to work? Is that okie? I'm still a newbie, a few months experience at modding, so im not close to anything these other people can do. But sometimes i get these neat ideas and with some luck and help i get them to work, haha, i've been fortunate. Anyway, it would be my pleasure to see if we can get your mod to work. Take care, See ya on the forum, holler at me if you want or need something.
Thank you Annatar Doesn't the illusionfighter ability also spawn, at least for a short time, extra fighters? I've seen it at least in the Advent, i dont know about the others.
Sorry for all the separate posts, i have a big mouth and talk too much, but wanted to respond to everyone and say thank you for all the interesting ideas and approches and tips.
-T
Escape pods now? Hmmm... i would be very very very interested in knowing about escape pods haha, that sounds neat, the ripping part too, haha..... but mostly the escape pod part.
Verry interesting i would love to have one day a race that can fly through space wit out home and build a fleet wit his own factoryships
also have a capital ship or heavy battle ship that can get into a systheme and deploys his escort would be awsome
I have a little experience in mooding i havent tried yet on Sins but if you wan any help i would pleased to help you
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
