Limiting planets to 1 facility (for SE2-ism mod)

[Ed Kolis]

So I was trying to make that SE2-ism mod I may have mentioned, and since SE2 doesn't have the concept of facilities, I just limited planets to 1 generic "do-everything" facility... However, this seems to cause some problems during galaxy generation, as at 42% through the game setup process, I got an access violation... I suppose this is because of the homeworld requirements? I gave larger planets more facility space and that seemed to help (a bit - now it gets to 43% http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif), though now that means homeworlds will be much more powerful than usual since no other planets can have multiple facilities (the facility includes a spaceyard ability http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif)

I did also reduce the cargo storage of planets to zero; could that have any effect on anything? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/confused.gif

[geoschmo]

The homeworld facility requirements is a top down list. It won't put more facilities on a planet then the planet can hold. If you have the sector type file setup so the planets have one facility space, then your homeworlds will have one facility, the first one on the list. There is nothing "wrong" with that change alone. I've made mods that restricted teh number of facility spots and had no poblems. Whatever is causing your error is something else. It might be the cargo thing. I've never tried setting cargo space to zero. Doesn't seem like that would be a problem though. Probably yo've made some other change by accident that's causing the error.

[Ed Kolis]

Well, it was SOMETHING in planetsize.txt... replacing the one I had with the stock one fixed things...

edit: Aha, it was the fact that I removed ringworlds and sphereworlds! Apparently the game requires those entries to be in place... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Alneyan]

Well, did you remove the Ringworld and Sphereworld Generators in components? These two entries require a constructed planet (1 and 2 respectively), so I guess it would be a problem if you kept them while removing the constructed planets.

[Ed Kolis]

I tried that but the game crashed anyway... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Ed Kolis]

All right, Ringworlds and Sphereworlds will just be *unresearchable* http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/evil.gif

Now, how come I can't get the game to start me with Tech Level 20 on a high tech start??? It always starts on level 1... I even tried putting the colony techs back in so the game would not default Tech Level to 1 even though it's supposed to start higher... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

[Fyron]

Hard to say without a file at hand...

[Ed Kolis]

Sure thing... see attachment http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[geoschmo]

Nothing obviously wrong that I can see. You shold get level 20 in a high tech start. We can't test it onour machines though without the rest of the modified data files.

[geoschmo]

I pasted that Tech Level tech area into stock files and I get level 20 on a high tech start. Level 5 on a medium tech start. Seems to work fine.

[Ed Kolis]

OK, here are the rest of the files. I just included a slightly modified AI (no research but Tech Area) so I don't get those annoying AI errors when I start a game...

I know about the extra blank line with "--todo--" in between in components.txt; that's where I Last stopped working on the components http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[geoschmo]

Ok, I see the problem you are having now. The cause is the colony modules in the components file. If you remove those form teh file then you can start at level 5 or level 20. Of course then you can't colonize any planets. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

What is it you are trying to accomplish there? Perhaps if I know how it's supposed to work for the mod I can come up with a way to duplocate that in the mod. I've never played SE2.

Geoschmo

[Ed Kolis]

What's wrong with the colony modules? Does the game automatically start me at the level of the first colony module in Components.txt or something?
What I'm trying to do is give all players the ability to colonize any planet from the start of the game, since players in SE2 could do so (it had no rock/ice/gas; planets were of various types like Terrestroid and Methane-Burning which determined their approximate value, much like in Master of Orion).
Heh, and I call myself the SE4 mod advisor... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[geoschmo]

Ok, I don't know all the ins and outs myself. I just know colony tech is hinky. There are some hard code rules that can easily be broken in a mod that cuase problems.

I made a couple changes to the tech area and components files that I think do what you are trying to accomplish. Basically insteaad of using the Tech Level as a requirement for the colony modules I gave them each a requirement of all three colony techs. Then I changed the tech area file and made all three colony techs start and raise level as 1, instead of the default of 0. This works in my tests. The player starts out with all three colony modules, and medium tech you start with Tech Level 5 and high tech you start with 20.

Don't really know why it works this way, just that it does.

I'll attach the files if I can figure out how. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
EDIT: Ok, files attached.

Geoschmo

[Ed Kolis]

Hey, thanks! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif