Quick Questions Thread

[littleraskol]

One more quick question: How can you create an event restricted to empires based on preferred weapon type? I have tried the following and they don't work:

every_country = {
    limit = {
        is_country_type = default
        is_preferred_weapons = explosive
        }
    }
    #actual effects go here
}

every_country = {
    limit = {
        is_country_type = default
        if = {
            is_preferred_weapons = explosive
        }
    }
    #actual effects go here
}

every_country = {
    limit = {
        is_country_type = default
        if = {
            this.is_preferred_weapons = explosive
        }
    }
    #actual effects go here
}

 

[Mouthwash]

I've doubled every instance of fleet_slot_size in my files (Stellaris/common/ship_sizes) but I see no effect ingame. What am I doing wrong, exactly?

 

[Science-Recon]

How do you destroy a spaceport by effect. Or, moreover, how do you disable the starting spaceport? I've tried removing the modules and spaceport as a starting tech (which worked for fleets) but that hasn't worked.

 

[VX-145]

Is it possible to limit a government type, E.G. the "Military junta" or "Irenic Monarchy" etc etc, so that randomly-generated AI empires can't choose them?

 

[pheonicia]

Never mind, I actually made a few very stupid mistakes and I had never solved my problem to begin with.

 

[littleraskol]

OK, so, what is up with the rules for modifying colony ship cost?

I am making a mod that in part increases the cost of ships by 150%. I am using "spaceport_ship_build_cost_mult = 1.5" in a starting tech I made for this purpose.* It works exactly as I want for all ships except colony ships. For them, a 150% price increase apparently translates into making a 350 mineral ship cost something like 2100 minerals. That's 6x the normal price, while all the other ships have their costs multiplied by 2.5 as expected.

Trying to offset this with a special "shipsize_colonizer_build_cost_mult" tweak is possible but it's really difficult to work out what offset will work. They do not work like offsets for, say, stations. (See my comment at bottom.) If I offset colony ship cost by 0.6 (which takes a 1.5 multiplier back to 1 for stations), colony ships cost 875. Somehow +150% and -60% make them cost 2.5x as much? Other odd relationships I have noticed in trying to offset this:

-0.85 -> 93.7% cost (In game: 350 +150%, -85% -> 328)
-0.875 -> 78% cost (In game: 350 +150%, -87.5% -> 273)
-0.86 -> 87.4% cost (In game: 350 +150%, -86% -> 306)

I am not good enough at math to suss out what, if any, relationship there is here. There does not appear to be one. Maybe I am dumb and am missing something obvious... sorry for the slightly snarky tone but I have been banging my head against this wall for too long and it's completely confused me. In practical terms, I can probably live with the oddity of colony ships costs 22 minerals less in my mod, but it's so bizarre.

*Weirdly, this applies to stations as well, even though you don't build them at the spaceport, but that's whatever. I figured out how to fix that with an offset. For those curious: negative multipliers will reduce the total positive multiplier amount as a percentage, not be subtracted from other modifiers. So -0.6 offsets 1.5 because 1.5 is 60% of 2.5, if that makes sense.

 

[pheonicia]

Okay, so now I want to create a custom start screen for my empire, but I can't find the ones for the United Earth or Commonwealth of Man to use as an example in the stellaris files? Can someone point me to where they are?

 

[Mitchz95]

Okay, so now I want to create a custom start screen for my empire, but I can't find the ones for the United Earth or Commonwealth of Man to use as an example in the stellaris files? Can someone point me to where they are?

In the 00_prescripted_countries file, you'll see that the UNE has "flags = { human_1 custom_start_screen }". Copy and paste that line into your empire's file, but with your own unique flag instead of "human_1".

The actual text for the start screen is contained within a localization file, I_english (do a search for Start screen parts). Just write your own in a new file.

Finally, go to 00_start_screen_messages. You can see how the UNE and COM are scripted, just add your own to the list.

 

[Risa]

OK, so, what is up with the rules for modifying colony ship cost?

I am making a mod that in part increases the cost of ships by 150%. I am using "spaceport_ship_build_cost_mult = 1.5" in a starting tech I made for this purpose.* It works exactly as I want for all ships except colony ships. For them, a 150% price increase apparently translates into making a 350 mineral ship cost something like 2100 minerals. That's 6x the normal price, while all the other ships have their costs multiplied by 2.5 as expected.

That's because colony ship cost somehow gets boost twice. 2.5 * 2.5 = 6.25. This can also be observed in vanilla, as "warlike" ruler trait (-15% ship cost) reduce colony ship cost from 350 to 250-ish. (350 * 0.85 * 0.85 = 252.875)

Also, different multipliers here multiply. (1 + 1.5) * (1 - 0.6) = 1, so that's why -60% "cancels" +150%.

 

[pheonicia]

In the 00_prescripted_countries file, you'll see that the UNE has "flags = { human_1 custom_start_screen }". Copy and paste that line into your empire's file, but with your own unique flag instead of "human_1".

The actual text for the start screen is contained within a localization file, I_english (do a search for Start screen parts). Just write your own in a new file.

Finally, go to 00_start_screen_messages. You can see how the UNE and COM are scripted, just add your own to the list.

Thank you, I had been searching for l_english_start_screen_messages in the stellaris folder, instead of looking inside l_english for the message.

 

[littleraskol]

That's because colony ship cost somehow gets boost twice. 2.5 * 2.5 = 6.25. This can also be observed in vanilla, as "warlike" ruler trait (-15% ship cost) reduce colony ship cost from 350 to 250-ish. (350 * 0.85 * 0.85 = 252.875)

OK, so I'm not crazy, there's just this weird quirk for colony ships. Hm.

Also, different multipliers here multiply. (1 + 1.5) * (1 - 0.6) = 1, so that's why -60% "cancels" +150%.

This makes a lot more sense than what I'd worked out as the "formula." I did manage to work out that 0.6 reduces 2.5 by 60% but then couldn't apply it to colony ships.

So, if the boost is applied twice, then I need to think about how this works out for this formula. Presumably it's ((1+1.5)*(1+1.5))*((1+x)*(1+x)), where x is some negative value. I'll try it and see. Thank you!

Edit to add: Oh god, I'm seeing a quadratic equation, oh no.

Edited again: Jesus, now there are imaginary numbers, this was a mistake. (Or more likely, I made a mistake...)

Final edit: I don't think this formula as I've inferred it is correct because plugging in a near-fit value (0.845), I get a final cost reduction to colony ships of -85%, which uh, clearly does not happen (actually closer to -5%). Welp.

 

[littleraskol]

So, sorry to clog up the thread with my stuff, but I have discovered another oddity. As I mentioned, I'm using starting techs to apply bonuses and penalties to all empires. I'm doing this for maximum mod inter-operability and because I can't get events to grant modifiers for some reason. But this approach has all kinds of unforeseen issues.

Besides the colony ship thing I mentioned about, something really weird happens to space monsters if a starting tech modifies ship HP. First off, I did not realize that space monsters would actually get starting techs, but that wouldn't be so bad on its own, although it would make them tougher than I really want. Here's the problem: any bonus to starting ship HP applies to space monster max HP, and then applied squared to their "current" HP.

Specifically, if I use "ship_hitpoints_mult = 1.5" then all ships have 2.5x their normal HP. As expected and desired. But so will space amoebas (first example I noted of this). A Space Amoeba Mother will have its max HP go from 2000 to 5000, or 2.5x. Not what I intended, but not too terrible. However, their starting "current" HP will go to 31250, or (here it is again) 6.25x (i.e., 2.5*2.5) their new maximum HP (5000 * 6.25). So they sit around with 31250/5000 HP. Needless to say, this is a very tough nut to crack.

What... what can I even do about this. I guess I can't use starting techs, unless I can find a way to prevent space monsters from getting them. But I don't even know what's going on. And as I mentioned earlier, I can't get events to apply custom modifiers or techs. I'm stumped.

Edit: If anyone cares, I think what I will probably end up doing is add a few new technologies for empires to research (and which the AI will be incentivized to pursue) that will get ships up to the level of toughness I want, rather than using starting techs to make it so from the beginning.

 

[Risa]

So, if the boost is applied twice, then I need to think about how this works out for this formula. Presumably it's ((1+1.5)*(1+1.5))*((1+x)*(1+x)), where x is some negative value. I'll try it and see. Thank you!

No no no. spaceport_ship_build_cost_mult applies twice on colony ship, while shipsize_colonizer_build_cost_mult applies once correctly. So If you want every ship cost at 2.5 times (that is, +150%), set the two value as +150% and -60%. If you want colony ship cost unchanged, set them as +150% and -84%. [ 1- (1 / (2.5*2.5)) = 0.84 ]

 

[Risa]

Specifically, if I use "ship_hitpoints_mult = 1.5" then all ships have 2.5x their normal HP. As expected and desired. But so will space amoebas (first example I noted of this). A Space Amoeba Mother will have its max HP go from 2000 to 5000, or 2.5x. Not what I intended, but not too terrible. However, their starting "current" HP will go to 31250, or (here it is again) 6.25x (i.e., 2.5*2.5) their new maximum HP (5000 * 6.25). So they sit around with 31250/5000 HP. Needless to say, this is a very tough nut to crack.

Now this is getting interesting. I think it worth a bug report, if you are sure you can isolate this problem and easily repeatable.

 

[littleraskol]

No no no. spaceport_ship_build_cost_mult applies twice on colony ship, while shipsize_colonizer_build_cost_mult applies once correctly. So If you want every ship cost at 2.5 times (that is, +150%), set the two value as +150% and -60%. If you want colony ship cost unchanged, set them as +150% and -84%. [ 1- (1 / (2.5*2.5)) = 0.84 ]

Ah, I see, checks out with the approximation I made through trial and error, but it's good to have the real-deal number. Thanks again. (All that high school math I revisited....)

Now this is getting interesting. I think it worth a bug report, if you are sure you can isolate this problem and easily repeatable.

The other weird thing about this is that if you change the value of ship_hitpoints_mult and reload the game, their max HP will adjust itself, but their current HP will not. So if I set the value to 0.5, their max went down to 3000 but their current remained at 31250. So does this mean that something happens to set their starting current health value when they spawn based on a HP multiplier?

It is in any case consistent that changing the value changes their displayed max HP, but I'll have to mess around with starting some new games to see what happens to their initial current value.

Edit: There is also the possibility that there's an interaction with some other mod I'm running, so I'll check for that too.

 

[Mouthwash]

I've doubled every instance of fleet_slot_size in my files (Stellaris/common/ship_sizes) but I see no effect ingame. What am I doing wrong, exactly?

This doesn't seem like a difficult question at all. Why aren't my edits to the game's code doing anything to the actual game?

 

[AlphaAsh]

This doesn't seem like a difficult question at all. Why aren't my edits to the game's code doing anything to the actual game?

Perhaps you have a mod over-riding Stellaris/common/ship_sizes.

 

[Mouthwash]

Perhaps you have a mod over-riding Stellaris/common/ship_sizes.

I play vanilla. Could the location of my game be affecting it? It's C:/Games/steamapps/common/Stellaris.

 

[Talanic]

Haven't created any mods before, but I'm attempting my first. I've an understanding of how to set up the file structure (done some programming in the distant past, so I'm not completely lost in the woods) but I'm not certain my idea is actually possible in Stellaris.

The idea is to change upgraded buildings' increase from flat numbers to a percentage bonus to the tile that accomplishes the same thing, making buildings built on appropriate tiles significantly more important while not changing buildings built on empty tiles.

Example of how it currently functions:
A basic power plant provides +2 bonus to power on the tile. A Power Plant I provides a +3 bonus, and a Power Plant V provides +8.

Built on a 2-power tile, the basic provides a total of +4, rank I gives +5 and the rank V gives +10.

Example of intended effect:
A basic power plant provides a +2 bonus to power on the tile. A Power Plant I provides a +2 bonus to power on the tile, then multiplies power gain on the tile by 150%. A Power Plant V provides a +2 bonus to power on the tile, then multiplies power gain on the tile by 400%.

Built on a 0-power tile, the modded building provides exactly the same power as the unmodded building does.

Built on a 2-power tile, the modded buildings would wind up delivering exactly twice as much power.

Ideally, this multiplier would also apply after adjacency bonuses were applied as well.

However, when I look at the building defines, I see the ability to apply modifiers to the planet but not to the tile. Am I missing something?

 

[shinyarceus4]

Is there any way to spawn a system at the center of the galaxy via an event? I had an idea to spawn a dummy ship, force it into MIA (because MIA ships go to the center of the galaxy), then spawn a system where it is, but apparently you can only find the location of a ship in a system.