Question about modding

[Timmah!]

Hello

just discovered this game and considering buying it. Before i do, i have several questions regarding its moddability.

Most importantly, is there a possibiilty to mod the game into space-based RTS? I assume its down to the color of those map tiles, like black instead of green, so i dont see much reason why not, but then again, maybe not.

Next question, can you mod in multiple different factions?

FInally, if one wanted to create say Star Trek based RTS, are there ingame gameplay mechanics which could be used to make it so? Just watching some gameplay vids on youtube, i see there are laser beams, shields, ability to repair units, which is good. I assume whichever way submarines work, that should be somehow to "fake" cloaking ability, if such thing is otherwise not there. What about things like teleporting and ability to take over enemy stuff? Are such mechanics ingame and are they moddable /adjustable?

Thanks in advance to whovever takes his time to respond

[SUSHIMAKI]

Well you cant change the tiles of the full game yet but you can for a custom map. I would suggest make a sea of stars with water tiles. I think i saw a space ships mod on the workshop.

I think custom factions is being worked on for a future update.

[LeeIzaZombie]

You can edit the vanilla tilesets to your heart's content, however custom tilesets is not a workshop feature (yet) but you can still have it modded on your own client at the time being.

Also yes there is a way to have multiple factions, for best results you can do it on custom levels, but for vanilla maps (unless modified) there are okay-ish ways to achieve that, for example:

Assuming every map has a command center and some builders prespawned, you can disable the builders from the game and replace the command center with a unit that builds a selection of factions and dies after it's built, only problem with this is that people can use the same factions, but modified maps can fix by having prespawned units by faction per team

[Timmah!]

Thanks for your responses. What about my third question, regarding abilities, can you little bit elaborate on that too, whats possible and what is not?

[SUSHIMAKI]

Well yes, thats what i meant with changing water with space tiles. You can then use submerge as a cloaking mechanic. You got shields, you got energy, laser shields, transfornations, upgrades. If you work hard enough, you can clearly make a star trek mod.

[Timmah!]

Thank you again. I bought the game today and played one skirmish match against single AI. It is quite fun, very similar in gameplay to Supreme Commander indeed.

I found out the submarines do have surface/dive button, which could be used for cloaking/decloaking - i did not pay particular attention how submerging affects visibilty though - i mean, i saw enemy subs even submerged, but i am not sure, whether this was down to some of my units possesing some kind of sonar/detection ability, or are the subs always visible? This is rather important in context of using the ability as star trek-like cloaking.

BTW you say, there are shields, but are they? I thought so, but it seems its just that laser shield, which is more like some kind of point defense laser, rather than forcefield?

[SUSHIMAKI]

No there are both. Look for the experimental hovertank.

I know its there. I used it often in my mods.

[Timmah!]

OK, so i fairly successfully created simple space map with my own tileset in TILES app and imported my first own unit into the game, based off Heavy Battleship.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/647960/screenshots/?p=1&browsefilter=mostrecent

Changed some bits in the INI file, like removing all the guns except the turret 1, which funnily looks sort of like firing photon torpedo, which is good, but other than that, this is quite a spanish village to me. The ship seems to sometimes move backwards, turn broadside to fire, i have no clue how to add shields the experimental hovertank has (since that one is not included in the available game files for me to look at and copy the needed part of the code, under assumption i would know which one), nor do i know how to add phaser beams for now....

Really could use someone to help me out with this....

[SUSHIMAKI]

The deployed turret mech has a shield. It is in the large mech folder named bunker mech i think. But look in the modding chat, tberes a pinned thread with a link to a chart of all current codes for unit ini.

[Timmah!]

Thank you, i will look into that bunker bot. Still, it will only solve my shield issue potentially, but then there are said beams, weird movement issue, firing arcs issue, etc... and thats just single unit... i have in mind 6 factions :-D
What do you mean by modding chat, discord? i signed there up last weekend, but i did not see there any link like that.

Anyway, 2 more questions about shields, on exp. hovertank they are highly opaque, and gain bit of visibilty for split second when hit. Can you make them completely invisible and only visible when hit? That would be the result i would like to see.
Other thing, is there a possibilty to mod some weapon to ignore shields? Like go through them and hit the hull straight? If yes, can this be made random, like say there would be 25 chance that the hit will ignore shields?

[SUSHIMAKI]

I meant, there is a modding sub forum on steam. I think the lower shield amount there is the less visible they are. I don't think shields can be ignored but laser defence can. There are some settings you can play with for lasers. I think it is not impossible to make star trek weaponry.

[corrodinggames]

You likely want to also look at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vEku_j8QwgsTzB5oMS_IDUiHfhzZVESeSrkyrS4tndk/edit?usp=sharing

shieldDisplayOnlyDeflection likely want to want for the shield. Cannot really do random skipping of shields. Cannot have weapons ignoring shields either right now but might be useful I'll add that in.

[Timmah!]

Awesome! Thanks both for response and the spreadsheet, i was unaware of its existence, nor the existence of Steam modding subforum. Thant might be of help.

And yeah, if you could please add that shield bypass possibilty, with the possibility to set the value for the chance of this happening, similarly to the way Phased Missiles work in Sins of a Solar Empire, it would be very nice and helpful.

[Timmah!]

Ok then, i added shields succesfully, only visible when deflecting incoming fire, thank you for advices again!

The laser / phaser beams though, that is more difficult. I would like to get classic Star Trek visuals, but so far, my beams are way too short. More like flashes. If i increase the projectile life, they last longer, but if the units firing them moves, the starting point of the laser stays in the original place, thus it looks like its firing from different point of the unit.

Additionally, i am clueless what the InstantReuseLast means, or better said, what its supposed to do in the context of the game. I used it, but the effect did not look like laser beam, until i wrote the laserEffect part of the code as well.

Finally, i dont know what mechanic, piece of code controls fire rate of weapons. The only 2 relevant things seem to be Life and Speed, but those control how long the particle exists and how fast it goes, not how often is it fired. I guess the recoil thing and energy usage might have some meaning in regard to fire-rate, i mean unit/turret cant fire unless it recovers from recoil offset, or until it regains energy, but for example my test unit has neither of these in its code and still fires. But i honestly have no idea, what piece of "code" says how often.

This concerns unit properties.

The other thing, how to put units ingame. Lets just say i have my custom map ready. Right now within Tiled editor, using the game´s own unit tileset i put on my map starting buildings/command centers for 2 factions (red and green) and one worker unit for each side. Clearly, there is some connection between the game and the tileset within Tiled, that the game can understand, that specific tile from unit tileset is meant to be say worker.

Now i want to create my own units and buildings, everything completely new with their own relations - like colony ship builds starbase which builds shipyard which builds excelsiors, defiants, akiras, enterprises....
I can create my own unit tileset with these units for TILED, but how do i make the game know, that if i put "Starbase" tile on my map, there should be Starbase at that place, where i start the game.

[SUSHIMAKI]

The custom tileset must be merged with your map. There is a button for that somewhere under the tileset screen in editor.

[SUSHIMAKI]

The attack and turret areas control fire rate with delay. In attack the targetOffsetSpread: 0 should make lasers no longer change targets when firing fast.