Therax

Reply to Mesh files in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

[quote]Yeah that's the thing when I fill those fields for each material, I exptected the engine to use them but I'm not so sure anymore. It even makes sense, if you're just using color+data how would it know it's data and not a bump map. Plus discovering that there's normal maps makes it a certainty. Now I just have to find the material parameter that's responsible for setting that.[/quote] Wouldn't this just be positional? I.e. the first field is always the color texture, the second one th

Reply to Sound Editing in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

The only directories checked that get CRC checked are GameInfo and Mesh. I don't see an issue with making the sound banks more varied; the engine already differentiates between the different events when selecting sounds.

Reply to Mesh files in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

[quote]I take it then that the DA, and normal files wont load if you just use the color texture reference. Nah, that would be too easy, and wishful thinking on my part. Hope you find your solutions. Maybe the dev's can help you out if they aren't knee deep in NDA.[/quote] Actually, back in reply #43, you'll note that Code and I found that some meshes don't use the data and/or normal map textures. They just leave the fields for those textures blank (empty string).

Reply to Mesh files in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

So Code Herder, how's the progress coming? I've got a couple of 3ds's I'd love to see in-engine, even if they aren't textured.

Reply to Possible suggestion for more interesting lasers? in Sins of a Solar Empire Sins Forums

I like these beams. Check out around 2:25. [link="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhZQEvg1V0Y"]Nexus 2 Tech Demo[/link]

Reply to Dear Devs: The infinite economy makes me sad. in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

I'm with Annatar here. If the issue with the original system is that refineries are insufficient to replace extractor income as the asteroids deplete, then beef up the refineries. There are lots of ways to do this: 1) more refinery ships per refinery 2) increase refinery ship speed/acceleration 3) increase the frequency with which refinery ships can revisit an asteroid (i.e. reduce the time that an asteroid becomes "off limits" after a refinery ship visit) 4) increase amoun

Reply to About that Map Tool... in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

I suggest learning yourself a scripting language (Perl, Python, Ruby, Lua, ...) and making a program that iterates over all the possible combinations and auto-generates these files for you. Less work in the long run.

Reply to Phase Jump Modification in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

[quote] What about the Phase Gate Upgrades.... those speed up ship transit more 'selectively' perhaps we could apply part of that ability to a ship itself.[/quote] This unfortunately appears to be phase gate specific: [font="courier new,courier,mono"] researchModifier modifierType "HyperspaceSpeedPhaseGateAdjustment" baseValue 0.0 perLevelValue 0.20 [/font]

Reply to Feature Request: New Weapon Classes in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

I point to Civilization IV as a perfect example of why this doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing debate. The core game engine (3D engine, UI event system, multiplayer networking and lobby code, etc.) and executable are closed source. However, all of the game logic, including how buildings and combat behave, the visibility system, and the research system, are isolated into a DLL, and the code for that DLL *is* available. Civ IV's mod system even dynamically loads separate DLLs for each

Reply to Feature Request: New Weapon Classes in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

That would be entirely doable, but this really isn't the right thread to discuss it.

Reply to Weapon FX not displaying in large battles in Beta Feedback Stardock Forums

I've seen this issue even in relatively small battles (2-3 dozen ships in a gravwell), so it's definitely not just you, Major Stress. As others stated in the Technical Feedback thread, it isn't just weapon FX, it's everything that falls under the particle system, including exhaust trails, engine flares, and (IIRC) the blinking nav lights ("flair").

Reply to Feature Request: New Weapon Classes in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

Strike craft cannot attack planets or have abilities, so sadly, that won't happen without an engine change.

Feature Request: New Weapon Classes in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

Right now there are only a limited set of allowed weapon types. Taking from English.str: [font="courier new,courier,mono"]StringInfo ID "IDS_WEAPONCLASSTYPE_AUTOCANNON" Value "AutoCannon" StringInfo ID "IDS_WEAPONCLASSTYPE_BEAM" Value "Beam" StringInfo ID "IDS_WEAPONCLASSTYPE_CAPITALABILITY" Value "Ability" StringInfo ID "IDS_WEAPONCLASSTYPE_DART" Value "Kinetic Bolt" StringI

Reply to LordKosc's Vasari Mod (Truthful to the LORE) in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

Just think of TEC lasers as not true lasers, but laser-primed particle cannon. I think that's the "official" explanation for Star Wars "lasers" being bolts of energy. That seems to be the intended effect with the TEC lasers.

Reply to Sins Live (Offline) in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Avoid the whole webcam issue: capture directly from your screen's display. http://www.free-codecs.com/download/VH_Screen_Capture_Driver.htm

Reply to Sins Beta 4 Technical Feedback - *POST HERE* in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

Vasari light frigates (Skirmishers) and heavy cruisers auto-cast their self-repair ability continuously when in combat, even if they haven't taken any damage. Since this disables their weapons and armor, this seems sub-ideal. Phase Missile Swarm seems to have no visible projectile effect. The Siege Platform, when dropped, does nothing. It cannot target enemy planets, nor any other ships. The running lights on Vasari Skirmishers often flash in perfect unison. They sh

Reply to Gas Giants and Uber Cobalts in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

Just look at the infocard. 305 dps from the beams at level 3? 439 dps at level 5? Not to mention that they have the Solar Radiation ability, so they continuously replenish their own antimatter and the antimatter of every ship in the system. Can we say "overpowered?"

Reply to Vendetta - a game mode for Sins multiplayer in Sins of a Solar Empire Stardock Forums

To further the RoN parallel, I move that the mode be renamed Assassin, as in Rise of Nations, just to avoid confusion of terminology.

Reply to More constricted firing arcs in Beta Feedback Sins Forums

I hate to resurrect this thread, but it's been two months, and given that Beta 4 is the feature-complete point for Sins, can we expect to see firing arcs make it in?

Reply to Idea: Gradually paying for stuff in Beta Feedback Sins Forums

I'm with P5yy here. An income/expenditure flow system works great in Total Annilation and SupCom, but in those games there is only one scarce resource, mass/metal. (There is a second resource, energy, but in most games it plays a much smaller role outside of the first 5 minutes of a game.) Trying to track income/expenditure for 3 scarce resources as in Sins is a recipe for trouble. There is also the issue of depletion in Sins. Even if you do nothing, and your opponent does nothing, a

Reply to Rotating fleet formations in Beta Feedback Sins Forums

Putting significant UI work off until a patch is always risky. Sure, Stardock makes patching very easy with SDC, but there are still plenty of people who will buy Sins at retail, and wonder why feature X isn't present out of the box. Many review sources (including magazines) make it a matter of policy to review games as released, not as patched. I don't want to turn this thread into a debate on patch policies, so let me instead say that being able to choose unit facing at the end of a

Reply to Mesh files in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

Bad news: it looks like firing arcs aren't actually based off of the emitters' exact rotation matrix. I made a ship with one turret pointed at 60 degrees right, and one pointed at 60 degrees left. In theory, with 180 degree firing arcs, this should give an arc of (-150,30) for the one pointed at -60 degrees, and (-30,150) for the one pointed at 60 degrees. Unfortunately, when I tested in game, both turrets could fire at any target in the (-90,90) degree range. It looks like t

Reply to Mesh files in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

[quote]Pretty neat find about the half plane firing arcs. I was 70% sure it worked that way but I hadn't gotten around to trying it yet.[/quote] I don't know what I was thinking when I called them "half-planes." A half-plane is a 2-D object. I think the appropriate term here is a " half-space ." But I'm glad you understood what I was talking about. [quote]The thing that concerns me now is multi-texturing (more than 1 texture she

Reply to Mesh files in Sins Modding Stardock Forums

[quote]To IC. What units did you use for scaling? are the ships "truescaled" EX: 1 unit in the modeling program = 1 meter, or did you make up something else for this?[/quote] Pulling up the Kol, the exhaust emitters for the engines are at -338 Z, and the emitters for the forward beam cannon are at 256, for an overall length of 594. I can't find any backstory information on ship sizes in real-world units, but a factor of between unity and 1 unit = 2 meters seems reasonable (Kol would have a

Reply to Targeting Woes: Blair's First Dev Diary in Sins Developer Journals Sins Forums

[quote]Therefore, the AI for certain ships needed another special list to organize strikecraft and this new list had to take priority over various other criteria like attack type and armor type.[/quote] Is this logic special cased to flak frigates only? If so, that may explain why I'm having such trouble with bad targeting when I add anti-fighter weaponry to other ships (such as capital ships). The dual-list system should really apply to all unit weapons, and those that can't shoot