Added Delnar Eriske's thorough Artificial Unintelligence thread to header links under Third Party Tools.  Geat explanation of AI performance in game with mod files included.

my 1st time talking into a video tutorial, be gentle 

So, there's this Boolean in star entity files called isWormhole...anyone know what it does or how it works?  I've set it to true for every star, but ships still do the normal jumps between stars...I even put a lone wormhole in a map to see if it would pair with the star and it doesn't... 

Ok, I keep having a issue with Particle forge, upon clicking on the .exe, it boots up but does nothing but sit there without actually opening the program itself. I have tried validating my game files multiple times to no avail, and I am at a loss on how to fix the issue.

Anyone who can lend a hand pleas do! 

You might have to create a custom map and actually create a wormhole link between the Stars (create as phase lane, then select the phase lane and change its type to wormhole... assuming it'll even let you create the phase lane between stars like that).  Additionally, you may need to manually tell your ships to fly at the star as if it were a wormhole (for the first run).

I have a custom map/mod I use for myself where I have some worlds that are completely isolated from the rest of the map save for a wormhole link, and then modified their entity files to set these planets' isWormhole to true.  Works wonderfully (in my opinion) for creating a map where all you have to worry about is the combat.

If there's interest, maybe if I can polish it up some I can upload it for others to see.

2005 C++ Redistribs as well.

Ohh... I get ya now.  Yeah, I don't think there is an automatic method.

EDIT: Quick thought... I'm at work, so no Galaxy Forge or game files... but you can manually place an "Occupied" world using Galaxy Forge... I'm just wondering if the Occupation victory condition would use it, or still create one of its own?  Or even if it does create another one, if the one you manually placed will still count?

bringing old rebellion 1.1 mods and Diplomacy mods up to date and sins Developer gives me

 "Assert @ D:\projects\SINS\SinsRebellion\main\CodeSource\GS/Entity/Interfaces/IBuff.cpp(4109)

false"

but Eclipse has no warnings on validate-Rebellion.

Can't find much on Google, there is a thread with a similar error on diplomacy but no answers.

also wondering what I need to do to make a Beam ability like cleansing brilliance, shoot from multiple ability ports on a ship, rather than just point to point beam.

so I get 8 beams rather than just 1.

like a missile barrage but with beams.

I tried

instant action 2x

instantAction
    buffInstantActionType "ApplyTargettedBuffToSelfNoFilterNoRange"
    instantActionTriggerType "OnDelay"
    delayTime 2.000000
    buffType "BuffBeamBlastActivated1to4"
    effectInfo
        effectAttachInfo
            attachType "Invalid"
        smallEffectName ""
        mediumEffectName ""
        largeEffectName ""
        soundID ""

instantAction
    buffInstantActionType "ApplyTargettedBuffToSelfNoFilterNoRange"
    instantActionTriggerType "OnDelay"
    delayTime 2.000000
    buffType "BuffBeamBlastActivated5to8"
    effectInfo
        effectAttachInfo
            attachType "Invalid"
        smallEffectName ""
        mediumEffectName ""
        largeEffectName ""
        soundID ""

then

BuffBeamBlastActivated1to4

BuffBeamBlastActivated4to8

numInstantActions 4
instantAction
    buffInstantActionType "PlayPersistantBeamEffect"
    instantActionTriggerType "OnDelay"
    delayTime 0.000000
    hasWeaponEffects TRUE
    weaponEffectOriginType "Targetter"
    weaponEffectAttachInfo
        attachType "Ability"
        abilityIndex 1
    weaponEffectImpactOffsetType "RandomMesh"
    canWeaponEffectHitHull TRUE
    canWeaponEffectHitShields TRUE
    weaponEffectsDef
        weaponType "Beam"
        burstCount 1
        burstDelay 0.000000
        fireDelay 0.000000
        muzzleEffectName ""
        muzzleSoundMinRespawnTime 0.100000
        muzzleSounds
            soundCount 1
            sound ""
        hitEffectName "CapitalAbility_BeamBlastImpact"
        hitHullEffectSounds
            soundCount 1
            sound ""
        hitShieldsEffectSounds
            soundCount 1
            sound ""
        beamEffectSounds
            soundCount 1
            sound "EFFECT_BEAMBLAST_ACTIVATE"
        beamGlowTextureName "CapitalAbilityBeamBlast_Glow"
        beamCoreTextureName "CapitalAbilityBeamBlast_Core"
        beamWidth 250.000000
        beamGlowColor ffffffff
        beamCoreColor ffffffff
        beamTilingRate 3.000000

with abilityIndex 1 - 8

8 beams pour out... then......  never end....  until the game crashes!

and I had to change my finish conditions to allow for using 2x delay 2.000000

since you can only have 5 instant actions and 3 periodic actions....

I was considering an overtime action with some sort of recursive loop that calls a new PlayPersistantBeamEffect at a new hardpoint till "time elapsed = ~~"

the default scripts are made in vb, so almost everything vb will work. Just google "vb if then" and try some of those examples.

here is some basic if then's http://soase.esy.es/Scripts/XSI/Buffs.vbs

Buffs will first look if there is a rootpoint under scene root, if not, create it. Then it does the same for Above, Aura & Center, leaving the user to just raise/lower the Above and Aura nulls.

I have made a script for importing from max but the tangents apply never worked, you can copy or create the UV but connecting to the tangent always failed. I always do them manually so connecting it is basic.

Is there a tutorial somewhere on how to build the kind of map you see behind the main menu?

Got another item for the things that make Sins crash list. Trying to spawn a trade port structure at an uncolonizeable planet will crash the game, even though starbases can trade just fine.

That's what I was doing. Doesn't matter how you do it, whenever the game detects a trade port structure on an uncolonizeable planet, game minidumps. It's just like giving fighters shields. 

I ended up just using a starbase though that made me have to make copies of every planet I wanted it on and increase the starbase limit by one.  Tedious.