This is the place to ask and recieve specific modding (mod making) questions and answers. If you have a mod making question, post it here.
If your question involves long snippets of entity files and the like, please don't paste the entire file contents here but put them at the incredibly easy to use http://pastebin.com and then provide the link to your paste in your question posted here.
Please do limit "just comments" here to brief posts please. If you don't know the answer or can't point to help--don't post. Please note that a random, uninformed guess isn't an actual answer.
You can refer people to another source--IF it actually helps answer their question. This could be in the form of links, outside sites, specific modding-useful programs, direction towards another post or poster, etc., etc.
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Thanks in advance for your help and cooperation. The reason for the rigid rules here is those this thread becomes a usable resource in the future to new people looking for answers.
NOTE: If an answer resolves your issue, please share it here. These answers will help others coming along later too. Karma is a great way to respond to people providing help without clogging the thread or bombing their forum mailbox here. Thanks!
OTHER SINS HELPFUL MODDING LINKS*
*Links are updated when requested.
The Soase Idiot's Guide
Confused? No idea where to even start?
Determined to work at it?
This is the place!
Sins Modding Wiki
ZombieRus's Eclipse Wizardry
Tutorials
MyFist0's full modding site.
Emphasis on modeling and
texturing.
REBELLION MODDING TOPICS
Rebellion Modding Q & A
Mesh Editing
Changing Diplomacy Files to Rebellion
IT REALLY HURTS MY BRAIN--HOW TO START
An Idiot's Guide To Getting Started
MyFist0's Modding Megasite!
MOD DOWNLOADS
ZombieRus5's Mod Yard
Directory of Planet Mods
STEAM
STEAM Sins Forums
DEVELOPERS
Sins Developer Journals Forum 2007 to Present
REFERENCE FILES
Research Modifier List
MyFist0's Exported Models & Files
Modifier List
Harpo's Converted Sins Reference Files 2011
THIRD PARTY TOOLS
3dS Texturing Toool & Tips
Ship Fleet Calculator
SoaSE Eclipse Plugin Project
Mesh Resizing Tool--courtesy of the Reqiuem team.
Harpo's Sins Utility Package -- Dropbox
The Sins Optimization Project (TSOP)
Artificial Unintelligence (Mod and AI info)
Sins Data Converter by BCXtreme
EXPLANATIONS & DISCUSSIONS
Rebellion Updates by Blair Frazier
How to Add a Fourth Race
User-updatable Ship Reference Chart
Sins Modding Dictionary
Adding phase Effects to other weapon types
Culture, Explanation/Discussion
Weapons, Explanation/Discusion
Shield Mitigation & Armor, Explanation/Discussion-1
Shield Mitigation & Armor, Explanation/Discussion -2
Graphic Chart of Sin's Counters
Annotated Guide to the Developer.exe
In-Game Map Creator
Weapons Banks & DPS
Combat Mechanics
Rebellion Shield Mitigation & Focus Fire testing
PARTICLE FORGE
Particle Forge Help Thread
GALAXY FORGE
Adding Artifacts
Working Template Examples
SemazRalan's Template Guide
Pirates Base Start Template
SOUND RESOURCES
[SFX] Black Sun SFX/Music Resource for Modders
MODELING & TEXTURING--SOFTIMAGE XSI, 3DS MAX
XSI Texturing, Tutorial
3dS Model Exporter
3DS Max Rigging, Texturing & Exporting, Guide
Modding/Modelling/Texturing/Converting, Tutorials
WIKI'S
Sins of a Solar Empire Official Wiki
If you really want the sound to play, I guess you could create an ability with autocast on, 0 AM cost, and a ridiculously long cooldown (we're talking 6 hours+ here, just to be on the safe side), and have the ability simply play the sound you want. It's a very dirty solution, I know (it takes up an ability slot + the player could be confused by an ability that is always on cooldown and doesn't do anything), but like I said, if you really want the sound to play...
Yeah, but I'm not sure you could get that to sound like a unit voice over (AKA in the HUD). Most ability sounds play in the game area, so you don't hear them unless the camera is close.
I checked it out and tried a few more diff combos but still no dice. I don't understand why this doesn't work. Maybe I am misunderstanding the exclusivity type? Wish I could figure this out
You may just have to do a toggle ability....
The ability itself is already a toggle. The ability is toggled on to engage the defensive field making the ship invulnerable. What I am trying to do is make it so that if the ship fires it's weapons through the field while it is active it removes the invulnerability for a short duration. So the ability toggles buff #1 to self which then apply's buff #2 to target "onweaponfired" which applies aoe buff #3 that it supposed to remove the invulnerability from the Titan for a few seconds allowing the enemy to fire at it. Logically it should work but it isn't.
When you toggle invulnerability on, you also disable the weapons...I know it's not what you want but onweaponfired isn't probably going to give you what you want either unless you make a very complicated buff chain...
The only way onweaponfired is going to help you is if you put a buff on the target that then places another buff on the original spawner that takes away the invulnerability...you actually would probably want the ability to apply a buff to self (iterating very rapidly, making every 10th of a second) that then uses an OnCondition to check whether this "cancelling" buff is applied or not...the cancelling buff would have a short duration that would only be offset by how quickly the original buff to self iterates....
Of course, this is all going to be kind of moot if your titan's weapons have different cooldowns...
I'm only using the "CannotBeDamaged" modifier so the Titan is still able to fire it's weapons. With a buff chain like this I assume ApplyBuffToFirstSpawnerNoFilterNoRange goes all the way to the beginning regardless of how many "chains" there are. Is this correct? If so I will try using that for buff #2 again with some of the other combos I have tried since I first attempted to use ApplyBuffToFirstSpawnerNoFilterNoRange. Thanks for your assistance, been working on this off and on for a week now
On a seperate matter, I have found a mesh in 3DS format and textures for a shuttle I would like to put in this mod. Unfortunately I know nothing of modelling and when I tried to read the tutorials on it my brain almost melted. If someone who knows such things would PM me to help import this model, if it is not terribly inconvenient, I would appreciate it! I would be happy to buy you a few beers (or equivalent) for the assistance!
Thanks
Hallelujah I GOT IT! I am not exactly sure which change/combo worked as I made several at once based on a few ideas I had but it is working. Now just need to figure out the right balance. Thanks for all the help guys! Still looking for some help with the shuttle model if anyone is willing. So stoked right now lol
Know of any way to put multiple planets in 1 gravity well?
If it's two colonizable planets you're looking for, I think that's impossible; the best you can do is put the two planets' gravity wells extremely close to each other, possibly with a dummy, invisible object that buffs ships so they have instantaneous phase jump chargeup speed.
If you're OK with having one of the planets uncolonizable, you could always turn it into a "dummy" object (like a structure or neutral extractor) with a giant model and huge collision size.
And.........can be made a map without stars? another thing simulating the core from one galaxy would be better probably. Never I liked the idea from many planets in the same star.
Nope. You need to have at least one star, though it doesn't have to be connected to anything.
Help! I'm shockingly incompetent!
Seriously, I'm the stupidest shmuck to grace this green Earth.
I'm looking to modify a few ENTITY files (Like the one for the Kol, starbases and a few techs), so I copied them to a new folder. I tried to use the "ConvertData_Rebellion.exe" and... well... nothing.
Clicking it, running it, double-clicking, running as administrator, everything fails to open it, all it shows is a black box which flashes for a few milliseconds before closing.
From what I can make out when it's open, it says;
"Usage: convertdata type src dest [format]
-type can be mesh, particle, brushes, entity
-format can be txt, bin, defaults to bin"
Now, I know I'm overlooking something ridiculously stupid, but I'm at a loss. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
ConvertData_Rebellion.exe is a command-line application: you need to run it in Command Prompt. If you've never used Command Prompt before, there are quite a few tutorials online on how to do the most basic stuff eg. changing directories, program syntax. If you run ConvertData_Rebellion.exe by itself in Command Prompt, it'll display the program's syntax; the text you're seeing in the "black box that flashes" is the said description about the program's syntax.
Wow, so I was there, clicking on something like a dumbass for no reason. Great :/
lol, Thanks man/possible woman! Good on ya'!
And of course, "The system cannot find ConvertData_Rebellion.exe".
Well... shit.
I take it you didn't actually read some command prompt tutorials before trying your luck. As I said, if you've never used a command line before, read some tutorials on how to do things like changing your directory (it's "C:\Users\[Default User]" by default), copying files, deleting files, running programs, etc. A simple Google search for related keywords is all you need. If you ever forget the syntax of a certain command (eg. cd or mkdir), simply type it in without any arguments (or with the /? argument in some cases) and it'll show you a refresher (I quite often need this, since I'm so used to Unix/Linux's command line that I tend to forget the MS-DOS variants of essential commands).
Command prompt doesn't have a library of all .exe's on your computer: if you want to launch an .exe that is outside of your Windows folder, you either have to navigate to the folder in question before running the .exe (eg. 'cd "C:\Program Files\Steam"', then 'steam.exe', all without single quotes) or include the .exe's full path when running it (eg. '"C:\Program Files\Steam\steam.exe"' without single quotes). If you use a certain command prompt program quite often and don't want to type in its directory every single time, you can add its folder to your PATH variable; if you're interested, you can look that up as well.
You need to make sure the ConvertData, the files you want to convert, and the command prompt window are all in the same folder.
Believe it or not, I did. Didn't mention this anywhere. Again, thanks.
Nothing's ever simple, is it?
I was doing that wrong as well. Terrific!
I'll have to fix that, thanks again GoaFan
*Sighs*
This makes me sad and it'll make you sad. Can't find a single post which outlines what you actually write in the prompt. lol. I know, this is getting old.
I wrote "start ConvertData_Rebellion.exe entity CAPITALSHIP_TECHBATTLESHIP"
Please, to the point, then I'm outta' you hair; what exactly do I need to do in order to translate an entity file to text? Because wow, something as simple as editing a few lines of text shouldn't be this hard.
Close.
"ConvertData_Rebellion entity CAPITALSHIP_TECHBATTLESHIP.entity CAPITALSHIP_TECHBATTLESHIP.entity txt" should do the trick.
You may also find this bat file easier to use. Put it and the ConvertData_Rebellion.exe in the same directory, double click "Convert.bat" and it will automate all the command prompt commands to convert all the entity files in that folder.
Yes... YES! YES!!!
AFTER YEARS OF IGNORANCE, THE LIGHT OF KNOWLEDGE HAS GRACED MY FEEBLE MIND.
It works! You're a real lifesaver!
Based on the stuff you've been trying, the command prompt tutorials you read must've been quite bad. The batch files should do the trick for now, but they're a bit inflexible without .bat editing knowledge, so it's not a bad idea to still know how to execute the commands manually.
Command prompt works with one directory at a time: this is the directory you see to the left of the blinking cursor (directory = full folder structure). For any command/program you enter into command prompt, it will search both the Windows folder and the current folder for said command/program and return an error if it doesn't find anything. "start ConvertData_Rebellion.exe" would run the "start" command with the arguments "[current directory]\ConvertData_Rebellion.exe". Thing is, the "start" command has quite a complicated syntax and isn't required for ConverData to function, so you're better off just simply running ConvertData_Rebellion.exe to begin with.
Contrary to what GoaFan said, you don't need ConvertData in the same folder as your files, though having them be near each other cleans up your arguments a bit. If you have ConvertData in Directory A and the .entity files in Directory B, you can go about multiple ways of converting the .entity, for example: navigating to Directory A via the command "cd" and running 'ConvertData_Rebellion.exe entity "Directory B"\foo.entity "Directory B"\foo.entity txt', navigating to Directory B via the command "cd" and running '"Directory A"\ConvertData_Rebellion.exe entity foo.entity foo.entity txt', or just simply staying put and running '"Directory A"\ConvertData_Rebellion.exe entity "Directory B"\foo.entity "Directory B"\foo.entity txt'. If Directory B is simply a folder inside Directory A, you don't even need to type in the full path: for example, if Directory A is C:\Users and Directory B is C:\Users\Public, if you navigate to C:\Users, entering in "Public\application.exe" is enough for command prompt to know to look in the Public folder within C:\Users (the current directory). This stuff is command prompt 101, which is why the tutorials you read must've been quite horrible if you were unaware of these concepts.
Following ConvertData's syntax (running the program without any arguments will show the full syntax), you can also do things like outputting the converted entity to a different folder and/or giving a different name to the converted entity as well; with a bit of improvisation, you should also be able to edit and tailor the ConvertData batch files to your needs.
PS. Sorry if I seemed annoyingly arrogant by not giving you a straight answer; when it comes to using tools, I prefer that people actually learn all necessary foundational knowledge before moving on to using the tool: sequences and series before calculus, conditional statements and loops before objects, command line navigation and basic use before command line programs. Sure, it might seem like a waste of time, but when you need to use the tool in an unorthodox or unexpected way, you'll get stuck without the foundational knowledge (and "learning the foundational stuff when you need it" is slower and more painful than simply starting with it from the getgo).
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