Glassing Planets

from Sins Forums

I've been playing Sins for a few weeks now, and I've read topics on this board here and there for about the same amount of time, and I've become interested in creating a small mod for the game.

I was wondering if it was possible to dynamically change the textures of a planet during a game.  The reason for this is that I want to make a mod that'll add a special ability to the siege craft to literally glass a planet.  I haven't worked out the gameplay details completely, but glassing a planet would make it completely uninhabitable to anybody, including the person who did the glassing.  The player who just glassed a planet would get a culture penalty, because they just made an entire world uninhabitable and nobody really likes that.  Like I said, I haven't worked out all the gameplay details, such as where the tech would go in the tech tree, how much it would cost, how long it would take, etc., but I want to know if I can change the textures of a planet during a game to show that it has been glassed.  Otherwise, I'll work on allowing players to only figuratively glass planets.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.  Thanks.

modding
12,732 views 12 replies
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
That'd be interesting at some point, but I don't think there's enough material out (visual references at least) to make a Halo mod that 1) takes place in space 2) doesn't involve humans getting their butts kicked 90% of the time and 3) doesn't require creating a lot of material from scratch. Just the glassing. I think it'd make games a little more interesting knowing that a chokehold points can be moved. And because any game would benefit from more wholesale planetary destruction.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
I am going to announce a halo mod as soon as i can get some models ingame. If anyone can get the glassing effect done, i would love it in the mod
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I was wondering if it was possible to dynamically change the textures of a planet during a game.


I don't think it's possible. You may be able to hack a way around it using the entryvehicle entity files or the bombardment particles/textures, but it's unlikely.

I am going to announce a halo mod as soon as i can get some models ingame


Clearly, models are the only thing that make mods.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
Thanks for the sarcasm  ;p but seriously i'm working on it right now so it might be a little while longer, k
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
As far as making a planet uninhabitable? Doesn't the novalith cannon do this for a short time with its radiation debuff. Maybe it would be possible to extend the duration of the debuff so that it effectively lasts forever.

While it might not be possible to change the textures on a planet mid-game, perhaps it would be possible to have have some kind of effect animation (like the novalith cannon impact), that lasts effectively for the rest of the match.

I'm just guessing though. I have no real experience modding.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
As far as making a planet uninhabitable? Doesn't the novalith cannon do this for a short time with its radiation debuff. Maybe it would be possible to extend the duration of the debuff so that it effectively lasts forever.While it might not be possible to change the textures on a planet mid-game, perhaps it would be possible to have have some kind of effect animation (like the novalith cannon impact), that lasts effectively for the rest of the match.I'm just guessing though. I have no real experience modding.


I don't have any experience modding either, but I figure I'd start somewhere.

I was thinking about the using the Siege Frigate's Heavy Fallout ability as a base as far as making planets uninhabitable. If I can't literally glass planets, then I might as well figuratively glass them and get the gameplay features worked out. Thanks for mentioning the Novalith; I'd forgotten about that. I don't know if it's possible to make things completely uninhabitible, but as you said, effectively uninhabitable does the job too.

I don't think it's possible. You may be able to hack a way around it using the entryvehicle entity files or the bombardment particles/textures, but it's unlikely.


Thanks for that idea too. I'll definitely poke around in those files to see what I can do.

I was thinking about changing a planet's atmosphere's color or something along those lines if dynamically changing their texture isn't possible. I'm not sure if the atmosphere is a result of a texture or the lighting model though.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
Making the planet uninhabitable is as simple as copying the novalith cannon / imp. TEC siege frigate debuff, and simply setting the number of end conditions to 0. I'm not sure if you can set visual effects to loop, which would be the only way to permanently change the appearance of the planet. There is no support for changing the texture, but if you could figure out how to make the bombardment effect loop, you could envelop the planet in a permanent cloud of swirly flame, and that might be real neat. I'm not really sure how the weapon/bombardment/ability effects work, so I couldn't help you there. As far as the hostile culture thing... That would be a little harder to work. I don't think an act that originates from player A can generate any culture other than player A's. If it was an orbital structure, you might be able to give it a negative culturespread value... I'm not sure if that would do what you want it to, but it might be something to try.

My suggestion for balancing an effect like this is to tie it to a particular unit or structure, and set the cooldown duration to -1, or perhaps make it cost antimatter, and the have the unit unable to regenerate antimatter, thereby making it a one shot type ability.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
As far as the hostile culture thing... That would be a little harder to work. I don't think an act that originates from player A can generate any culture other than player A's. If it was an orbital structure, you might be able to give it a negative culturespread value... I'm not sure if that would do what you want it to, but it might be something to try.


My original idea was to put a penalty on that player's culture spread rate, but I need to dig around the text files to figure out where those variables are. I'll definitely see if a negative culture spread is possible; something as big as making a planet permanently uninhabitable needs some sort of large consequence to balance things out.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

:)  With the Starbases in Entrenchment now using abilities to upgrade and update meshes, like the advent culture ability adding the "crown" to the top of the starbase, my guess is that you can update meshes using an ability, and therefor you could "glass" a planet. You might have to drop a copy of the planet mesh into a editor, which one im not sure, the modellers here know the program though, and then re-color it to the way you want, then rename it. Then make your ability and when it is used it updates the planet mesh, and viola!! Instant glassed planet. Haha, im not sure it will be that easy of course, but its a thought, since the starbases are updating their appearance using abilities to change the mesh.  :)

-Teal

 

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Maybe you could do something like the planetary shield.  Make a ship or whatever it is you want that can create a planetary shield on the spot but change the texture to make it look like glass, and change the ability to make it uncolonizable.  You might need to keep an invisable producer of the glass there but I'm not sure since I never tried anything like this.