Quick Questions Thread

[littleraskol]

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

Update: I, uh, seem to have inadvertently solved the problem in the course of testing for it? No idea how but I suspect that I was somehow double-declaring a variable. But I really am not sure. What I do know is that changing the nature of the tech doesn't undo whatever was bolstering space monster HP. My awesome start test game remains haunted by horrifying godlike space amoebas, oh well!

 

[littleraskol]

The higher tier wormhole techs list this as a modifier: "ship_ftl_wormhole_speed_mult = 0.25

The wormhole drive itself doesn't upgrade, so this seems like it must be an empire modifier or a modifier to the stations. But what would be likely to happen if you put it on a modified wormhole drive component? Or would it be better to use the aura modifier, "ship_windup_mult"?

Edit: Something odd I noticed is that if I have a faster "version" of a kind of FTL drive (in this case, a hyperdrive), then mixed fleets will traverse hyperlanes at the fastest speed. To clarify what I mean, I'm working on a kind of quick light scout vessel. These can mount all the normal FTL drives, but also faster, specialized "recon" versions that let them move between stars more quickly. I had expected that scout ships built with "recon" drives wouldn't be able to join fleets of ships with the normal version, but they do. Further, the entire fleet benefits from the recon speed enhancements. Why is this? I suspect the game determines what counts as a "different drive" according to the tech prereq.

 

[pheonicia]

Is there any way to look inside mods I've downloaded from steam in order to see how they work? Making my own mod would be much simpler if I had a completed product to look at. Inside the mods folder they're all .mod files which doesn't help much.

 

[littleraskol]

Is there any way to look inside mods I've downloaded from steam in order to see how they work? Making my own mod would be much simpler if I had a completed product to look at. Inside the mods folder they're all .mod files which doesn't help much.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\281990

 

[pheonicia]

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\281990

Man, today has made me feel really bad about myself, lots of little mistakes that I could have avoided if I had taken my time and thought things through. Thank you for the help.

 

[Mitchz95]

Is there any way to look inside mods I've downloaded from steam in order to see how they work? Making my own mod would be much simpler if I had a completed product to look at. Inside the mods folder they're all .mod files which doesn't help much.

Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > workshop > content > 281990.

 

[littleraskol]

Man, today has made me feel really bad about myself, lots of little mistakes that I could have avoided if I had taken my time and thought things through. Thank you for the help.

Haha, I literally had that folder open when I saw your post, so I just copied the path. No problem, though. It's far from an obvious location tbh.

 

[Mouthwash]

Guys, editing the files in the game's own steam folder is supposed to change things, right? Does it get overridden somehow?

 

[shinyarceus4]

Guys, editing the files in the game's own steam folder is supposed to change things, right? Does it get overridden somehow?

It is indeed overwritten by your version.

 

[Risa]

Guys, editing the files in the game's own steam folder is supposed to change things, right? Does it get overridden somehow?

Yes, it changes things, so long as you don't leave backup there.
Mods will override changes in game folders, of course.

 

[Mouthwash]

It is indeed overwritten by your version.

So how do I actually change things?

 

[littleraskol]

Gonna cut down some other stuff I mentioned before into more manageable and direct questions:

1. How does the game determine what counts as a "different FTL drive" for the purpose of fleet composition?
2. Is there any way to alter how wormhole drives work (basically windup speed) on the level of ships rather than stations?

 

[pheonicia]

The leader for my empire is invisible and I have no idea why, this is the block of text from my file

ruler = {
name = "Veronica Serdak"
gender = female
portrait = "humanoid_05_female"
texture = 0
hair = 5
clothes = 2

And this is the one from the UNE in the prescripted countries

ruler = {
name = "Dolores Muwanga"
gender = female
portrait = "human_female_05"
texture = 0
hair = 1
clothes = 0

I don't believe that it's the hair and clothes that are the problem because the space elves (humanoid_05) have options for those numbers. I tried changing texture to 1 and -1 but it didn't help. I'll provide a picture for reference.

 

[Kingtrin]

Gonna cut down some other stuff I mentioned before into more manageable and direct questions:

1. How does the game determine what counts as a "different FTL drive" for the purpose of fleet composition?
2. Is there any way to alter how wormhole drives work (basically windup speed) on the level of ships rather than stations?

As you mentioned previously with the mixed composition it is likely that the game does not really understand mixed FTL upgrades. This is probably something the engine can't handle since you also can't mix together different FTL types. One Possibility - it just prevents different FTL's from mixing, then it only looks to the first ship for the speed. This would make sense from a computation-saving standpoint.

I assume you want the ship component to be the deciding factor, similar to how warp and hyperlanes work? On the surface it seems like the modifier is in the same category as other empire-wide modifiers, but the wiki doesn't list it in the modifier section. Further reading for the psy jump drive has "ship_ftl_jumpdrive_range_mult = 0.50", but this is clearly for the ship scope. As such, the name of the modifier can be misleading and something like "ship_ftl_wormhole_speed_mult" may work in multiple scopes. The FTL itself is hard coded and the wormhole station doesn't look very flexible either, but try plugging that wormhole modifier directly into the ship_modifier section for the FTL component itself (component_templates\00_utilities_drives.txt) and see if it works.

 

[littleraskol]

Thanks for getting back to me!

As you mentioned previously with the mixed composition it is likely that the game does not really understand mixed FTL upgrades. This is probably something the engine can't handle since you also can't mix together different FTL types. One Possibility - it just prevents different FTL's from mixing, then it only looks to the first ship for the speed. This would make sense from a computation-saving standpoint.

It's weird because it really is defined as an entirely different component with a different key. The only drive-type-specific thing that was the same was the prerequisite tech. So I created a new starting tech to enable the variants I wanted (so that the variant drives required both). The game still let the fleets mix, but from my limited testing, the fleet didn't get the bonus. Could have just been a fluke. I'd prefer that they not mix at all, but barring that, if they mix and the bonus isn't applied fleetwide, that's fine.

I assume you want the ship component to be the deciding factor, similar to how warp and hyperlanes work? On the surface it seems like the modifier is in the same category as other empire-wide modifiers, but the wiki doesn't list it in the modifier section. Further reading for the psy jump drive has "ship_ftl_jumpdrive_range_mult = 0.50", but this is clearly for the ship scope. As such, the name of the modifier can be misleading and something like "ship_ftl_wormhole_speed_mult" may work in multiple scopes. The FTL itself is hard coded and the wormhole station doesn't look very flexible either, but try plugging that wormhole modifier directly into the ship_modifier section for the FTL component itself (component_templates\00_utilities_drives.txt) and see if it works.

Yeah, I tried something like this and had odd results. I used ship_ftl_wormhole_speed_mult but didn't set is as a ship modifier. Or maybe I did and it didn't work so I made it a general modifier? Don't remember but I can try that again. What seemed weird is that all ships would take 20 days to pop from a system with a wormhole station to one without, but 16 days to pop back. Which is significant seeming because the modifier was for -20% warmup length. Maybe it already works that way in the base game and I never noticed though.

I guess I could give wormhole variants some other advantage related to speed and just change the fluff, but... blech.

 

[Science-Recon]

Hm. If you remove the starting tech for the different ship types, you don't get them as a starting ship. Trying to do this for the spaceport, however, has odd results:

Tried removing the techs for spaceport modules, spaceports defaulted to railgun. Tried removing the modules from the files by comment, the spaceports then used the swarm missiles. Tried removing those,and now there is still a small black box in space, 28 combat power and no modules.

I can't find any other way to disable them, and it seems that paradox overlooked a destroy_spaceport effect.

 

[Danter72]

Does anyone know if it is possible to allow the construction of space stations, such as mining and research, outside of the borders of an empire?

 

[Kingtrin]

Does anyone know if it is possible to allow the construction of space stations, such as mining and research, outside of the borders of an empire?

Yes and there is at least one anomaly which does/did this for a mining station, but as it doesn't fall under anyones control it is rendered entirely useless.

 

[Danter72]

Yes and there is at least one anomaly which does/did this for a mining station, but as it doesn't fall under anyones control it is rendered entirely useless.

Thank you, I already gave border extrusion to space stations so that wouldn't happen, but I guess the event simply spawns a mining station in the middle of space, I want to allow empires to construct any stations outside of their borders in the same way they do it inside them. You can do it with wormholes and frontier outpost so I am guessing it is either hard coded or I can't find the variable.

 

[littleraskol]

Don't mean to spam the thread, but I just want to see if anyone who knows the answer just didn't see my post earlier: How can you create an event restricted to empires based on preferred weapon type? I tried a few ways already and none of them work.