new to modding, care to help me out with some basic things?

[e1k3]

hey guys, i hope it is okay for me to make a thread for some really basic questions. if not, please tell me, or just remove it.

 

anyways, discovering that the love of my youth (aka tibsun ) is now freeware and there is an active modder base, i want to get into modding myself. after a little lurking around on the internet, my first (and probably not very original) ideas are:

 

- forgotten as a working faction with own units and structures

- rebuild the dropship bay

- rebuild the thread rating node

- make light towers useful (not just buildable) for all factions

 

now, my unsolvable problems:

i cant make selling structures work for the new faction, only things that use an already existing gdi or nod model can get sold. Unsellable=no or Sellable=yes dont seem to change anything. here is an example,

it was contained in the .rar i loaded. i just changed cost/hp/power provided and tried to make it sellable:

 

; forg power plant
[CAPOWR]
Image=CA0007 ;NAPOWR
Name=Salvaged Generator
Prerequisite=TECH ; to make it require Forgotten con.yard
Strength=600
Armor=wood
TechLevel=1
Sight=4
Adjacent=2
Owner=Forg,Special ; Special required to make 3rd faction work
Cost=200
Points=40
Power=75
Capturable=true
Crewed=yes
Explosion=TWLT070,S_BANG48,S_BRNL58,S_CLSN58,S_TUMU60
MaxDebris=6
ThreatPosed=0	; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
DamageParticleSystems=SparkSys,SmallGreySSys,BigGreySmokeSys
DamageSmokeOffset=450, 200, 300
TogglePower=no
Unsellable=no

 

i made the next one myself, yet it does not seem to work. note that i completely copied the GDI version and just changed the owner, name, [NAME], image and prerequisites, exactly what was did with the power plant. it appears as an invisible 1x1 structure without a cameo and can't get any upgrades, yet i would assume that is somehow caused by the upgrade system and i might just relay on the laser for now. help would still be appreciated of course!

 

;forg component tower
[CACTWR]
Name=Component Tower
Image=GACTWR
Strength=500
Armor=light
Prerequisite=TECH,CAPILE
TechLevel=2
Sight=4
Adjacent=3
Owner=Forg,Special
Cost=200
Turret=yes
Points=50
Power=-10
Sensors=yes
BaseNormal=no
Crewed=no
ROT=12
Explosion=TWLT070,S_BANG48,S_BRNL58,S_CLSN58,S_TUMU60
TurretAnimZAdjust=-45   ;WST 6/18/99 was 50 but cause z buffer problem: Component towers turret animation depends on what the player attaches :
HasSpotlight=false;
MaxDebris=2
ThreatPosed=30	; This value MUST be 0 for all building addons
DamageParticleSystems=SparkSys,LGSparkSys
DamageSmokeOffset=500, 500, 400
IsBase=no
HasStupidGuardMode=false

 

more basic things i'd like to know:

- if i want to add cameos to the game, where do i put them? where is the Cameo=XYZ set, in the rules.ini or somewhere else?

- are there public cameos for campaign units which i could make use of?

- where (and how) can i find the dropship bay model / cameo? i assume they are somewhere hidden in the files since it is also in the rules.ini (though disabled)

- where do i put said model once i have it, to make my game load it?

- is there a public place for community cameos / models i could browse for said model? i dont want to steal someones art, i just want to use them for my personal playground.

 

- lastly, is there someone out there who has ever made the dropship bay work? reading a little about it, it was supposed to drop a contingent of pre-game defined factory units on demand?

i assume that is impossible, so i my idea would revolve around this: make it a factory upgrade which produces copies of the gdi factory units which use the dropship bay image / model and can fly to the rally point. their primary would be to deploy into the actual unit you ordered, what bothers me is that i can neither transport several units in one dropship nor will the dropship return to the bay or fly out of the map because it just deploys. would appreciate ideas / working concepts here.

on a side note, could i make copied factory units which are Category=Soldier, yet still built from the factory / make them keep the larger selection frame inherent to vehicles, to fit several into a dropship? can i limit this to the dropship only?

- are there any settings to make the light tower behave like in the campaign? i just managed to make it do the regular sweep  to one side or a full circle spin (which was also heavily elliptic to one side, OCD wants me to fix that ). i would want it to play an alert, or make nearby units rally to attack its target from a further range than normal threat range or something along these lines. any idea / insight on the spotlight possibilities would be awesome.

 

i have so many questions  O_o i got a little carried away writing this whilst working on said problems so please excuse the wall of text. i would really appreciate your help, especially in terms of my 3rd faction and dropship bay problems. i didn't work on the threat rating node yet, so i will try to work that out myself, i could also share my work for anyone's personal use once it is finished in case someone ends up being interested.

 

edit: fixed my main problem (adding new structures to 3rd faction, turns out i'm just retarded (forgot to add them to BuildingTypes ). i do still need help regarding the component tower, the dropship bay and the general model / cameo questions!

[Allen262]

Tib Sun was some time ago for me but I can cover a few things.

 

A 3rd side is a pain in the rear end. Start with http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28461

 

The dropship bay building it self was to use a reinforce super weapon that never made it in the game. The dropship bay bay screen set up is coded but the mouse pointer did not load. I think Hyper may have fixed this but even so it only would work for single player missions.

 

The light tower logic is set on each light tower in maps settings and can't be made to work as a player buildable building right. The best is a work around http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31873

 

A clone of the component tower can't really be done as it has a bunch of harcoded logic that can be add to the clone.

 

For a Building to be sellable it must have a buildup. If it dose not have a build up is will be unsellable no mater if you put Sellable=yes on the building in the rules.ini

 

The cameos them self are put into a .mix file after they are converted to .shp TS format. Cameos them self are added to a unit or building in the Art.ini. The Art.ini will also have other thing you will need to do/edit for units and building.

[Nyerguds]

For most of TS modding you're probably going to have an easier time finding answers on PPMSite; it's, in its core, a TS modding community.

[e1k3]

thanks a lot for your answers! i'll start from the bottom:

- PPM: well okay, i will ask over there. thanks for the hint!

- cameos/models: that sounds a little obscure to me, i guess i will ask around on PPM for a more detailed instruction.

- buildup: so, can i just give it a random buildup and it will work? or is there more to it?

- component tower: that is disappointing. i will probably go with the laser + a custom weapon instead, assuming that is at least possible.

- light tower: ooohh that looks neat. love the radius indicator as well, i will probably make them for all my defensive structures if doable. thanks!

- dropship bay: played around with that tutorial a little, my game just crashes when i try that. i will probably forfeit the loadout screen and focus on making a predefined drop happen in any way. can the model/cameo be found in the game itself somewhere?

- 3rd side: i started with the exact tutorial you linked thanks anyways, turns out i was just stupid (forgot to add the new structures to the BuildingTypes) and made it work already.

 

thank you!

 

 

[Allen262]

You can use a buildup from any building as a place holder and it will be sellable.