Star Base Mods

As far as I know the only new starbases that have been added are for mods that add new races. For the regular Sins races modders tend to just mod the existing ones.

How hard would it be to add a tier or two of starbases?

What technology and tech skills would I need?

What exactly do you mean by tier? If you mean the upgrade teirs present on current starbases, all you have to do is change that starbase file. If you mean adding additional starbase types, minimum you would need to create the new starbase file, (recommened) add a research for it, change the Player(race).entity file, and create a new ability that creates the new starbase and then add that ability to the current constructor ships or make a new constructor ship entirely. If you want them to look different or have different abilities then the work increase from there.

By tier, I mean different starbases that become available in succesion on the Defense tree.

I also am interested on rendering new looking starbases with new or enhanced abilities depending on the specialization of the starbase.  I'm thinking that each race would have a support and physical type of starbases to go with the basic version. 

Esentially, I want to know how far a person can take this, if at all, and what would be required to do so.

Also, one problem I know I am going to need to fix first is creating new entity files.  Whenever I rename a current file, it defalts to a txt document and won't give me an option to save as an entity.

Tougher stuff could also be handled by my brother, if not by me, he has taken classes on designing games.

After you're done saving the entity file, just rename it, changing the .txt at the end to .entity.

Yes, I believe so.

Graphical work requires a bit more work as you have to make new mesh and texture files for each Starbase, but if you know how to do such things it is quite possible. Even if you don't with enough determination you can do it. Abilities take some time to figure out, but it's not so hard once you get the hang of it. Depending on the desired effect you will at least need to make a new ability file and possibly a buff file if it has multiple effects.

I usually just copy and paste a file I want to use as a base to another folder and then change the name using window's rename function. Sparda's method should also work.

Everygame is different but yes he could be helpful, especially if he knows how to model.

Anyways, of the top of my head files that you would need to create.

NewStarbase file

Starbase upgrade files to go with the new starbase (if you are using the same upgrades skip)

New Starbase construction ability

New Starbase abilities (if applicable)

Research for starbase and abilities

Any new meshes or textures

Files to modify

Player(Race).entity

Constructor ship of the race

entity.manifest file

String

I'll probably add more as I think of them, but hopefully that is a decent start. Try to do it in managable chunks, like get constructor ship to make a new starbase, then add the research, then start making it look different etc. Feel free to ask more questions.

Ok, now that I have a list, I'm going to start mapping out the project.  I'll report back once I have a plan.

This is a ruff outline of the abilities of the starbases that I want to persue and some questions that I have for making it happen.

Tier 1                      Pts    Abilities

Phase                      10    5

    Weapons               3    1 Directional Shield
    Toughness             4    2 Debris Vacuum
    Hangar                  3    3 Phase Gate
    Trade Port             1    4 Destabilize Hyperspace
    Block Colonize       1    5
    City Population       2
    Debris Vacuum       2
    Directional Shield    2
    Phase Gate            1

PSI                           10    5

    Weapons               2    1 Mass Disorientation
    Toughness             3    2 Meteor Strike Ships
    Hangar                  4    3 Meteor Strike Planet
    Trade Port              1    4 Destabilize Hyperspace
    Block Colonize         1    5
    Culture                   3
    Max Allegiance         2
    Mass Disorientation   2
    Control Meteoroids    2

Tech                           10    5

    Weapons                  2    1 Resupply
    Toughness                3    2 Self Destruct
    Hangar                     3    3
    Trade Port                 2    4 Destabilize Hyperspace
    Block Colonize           1    5
    Factory                     2
    Resupply                  2
    Self Destruct             2

Tier 2

Phase                          14    5

    Weapons                   1    1 Refinery
    Toughness                 1    2 Phase Gate
    Hangar                     1    3 Slot Boost
    Trade Port                 3    4 Destabilize Hyperspace
    Slot Boost                 3    5
    City Population          4
    Refinery                    3
    Phase Gate               1
    Culture                     2

PSI                              14    5

    Weapons                   1    1 Resupply
    Toughness                 1    2 Planet Vision
    Hangar                      1    3 Slot Boost
    Trade Port                  4    4 Destabilize Hyperspace
    Slot Boost                   3    5
    Culture                       4
    Max Allegiance            4
    Planet Vision              3
    Resupply                   2

Tech                             14    5

    Weapons                   1    1 Resupply
    Toughness                 1    2 Refinery
    Hangar                       1    3 Slot Boost
    Trade Port                 4    4 Destabilize Hyperspace
    Slot Boost                  3    5
    Factory                      3
    Resupply                   3
    Refinery                     2
    Culture                      2

Tier 3

Phase                       12    5

    Weapons                4    1 Directional Shield
    Toughness              4    2 Debris Vacuum
    Hangar                   3    3 Phase Beam
    Trade Port               1    4 Destabilize Hyperspace
    Block Colonize         1    5 Spawn Deffense Pod
    Phase Beam            2
    Debris Vacuum         2
    Directional Shield      2

PSI                             12    5

    Weapons                  3    1 Telekinetic Push
    Toughness                3    2 Capture Frigate
    Hangar                     4    3 Mass Disorientation
    Trade Port                 1    4 Destabilize Hyperspace
    Block Colonize           1    5 Spawn Deffense Pod
    Telekinetic Push         2
    Capture Frigate          2
    Mass Disorientation     2

Tech                            12    5

    Weapons                   4    1 Spawn Gauss Cannon
    Toughness                 3    2 Spawn Beam Cannon
    Hangar                      3    3 Self Destruct
    Trade Port                  1    4 Destabilize Hyperspace
    Block Colonize            1    5 Resupply
    Resupply                    2
    Self Destruct               2

I have a few questions:

Is it possible for a starbase to increase the logistics and tactical slots of a planet?

Is it possible for a starbase to act as a refinery?

The spawn abilities for the Tier 3 starbases will be like the spawn abilities of the Tech Capital Carrier and Phase Capital Planet Bomber.  Is their any way to regulate the number that can be spawned and where they are spawned?

Is it possible for the Phase directional field ability to protect only the front and the rear of the starbase?

Can the Phase Beam ability be programed to fire a linear beam without specifing a target?  In other words, the beam fires and anything caught in the beam will be temperarily disabled.

Can the Telekinetic push be used on frigates and the frigates take damage but are not destroyed if they collide with other ships?

Is it posible to make a stationary cannon that can only strafe left and right but not pitch up and down?

Is this list ugly or what?

1. No, the closest thing you can do is reduce the cost of planen upgrades with an ability.

2. I really don't know, copying a trade port starbase upgrade and changing the property "BaseTradeIncome" to "REFINERY". Also changing the cargoshiptype to a refinery ship and see if that does anything.

3. You can for sure change the number, I think they have to be spawned near the spawner though.

4. I don't think so.

5. I doubt it, the best you can do is give the attack and area of effect that whould disable ships near the target.

6. I didn't realize Telekinetic push did damage if they collide with other ships (are you thinking of magnetize?). Anyways yes it can be used to target and damage frigates, and if you combine it with the magnetize ability you might be able to get the collision damage as well.

7. I doubt it, though appearently starbases don't pitch up or down...

Are there any abilities that you would recomend adding to the starbases to make them more race specific or accomplish the tasks that they are ment to?

Tier 2 is a support tier

Tier 3 is for offense/defense

Really the best thing to do is just start playing with all the different buff types (Blair put up a list of them somewhere...) and see what you can come up with.

However, here area a couple that might help you get started.

TEC

Agricultural Pods - Gives extra tax income and increase the population growth rate of the planet it is orbiting.

Radiation Fields - Passive Ability; Deals minor damage to all enemy ships in range of the starbase/Possibly reduce enemy rate of fire slightly.

Rapid Orbital Construction - Gives a large bonus to Orbital build rate.

Vasari

Disruptor Strike - Fires a blast of energy that damages enemy ships within a radius and disables passive generation of enemy frigates (Probably too over powered if it could effect Capital Ships)

Nanite Debris - Passive Ability; Slightly repairs the hull of all allies in the gravitywell.

Resource Depot - Passive Ability; Increases the rate of gathering resources in the Gravity Well.

Advent

Magnetic Shielding - Passive Ability; Increases shield mitigation/shield regeneration rate and reduces Phase Missile Penetration.

Antimatter Reserves - Gives extra antimatter and allows it to transfer a lot of antimatter to allied forces.

Drone Swarm - Spawns extra Strikecraft Squadrons for a limited time.

I'm trying to make strabases produce both resources and trade. I'll let you know if I come up with anything.

I already have a resource producing starbase in my mod through an ability.

Hmmm... and I guess to upgrade that you'd have to do it through research. I was really hoping to make it purchasable per starbase.

Not really. Abilities can gain levels based on starbase upgrades kind of like capitalships, but I'd have to know how gruntmaster made his ability to know for sure if it is possible.

Hah, I was thinking about posting about something similar.

My only gripe with star bases is that they really are combat oriented, which means there's very little incentive to start placing any away from your front line. I was toying around with an 'Orbital Colony' variant Starbase that wouldn't have any combat related features (beside hangers and a primary weapon), but could instead act as a trade port, laboratory, broadcast centre, a refinery as well as having its own source of resource income.

I don't suppose it would be possible for a structure to contribute to an empire's total population, but you could probably simulate it through an upgrade.

I don't think it can act as a research lab or a refinery directly, but as gruntmaster said it is possible to use abilities to gain resources. The game doesn't actually care about population, it just uses that number on planets to calculate tax income, which you can get a Starbase to contribute to.

This is how the ability looks:

The Ability:

TXT
entityType "Ability"
buffInstantActionType "ApplyBuffToSelf"
instantActionTriggerType "AlwaysPerform"
buffType "BuffTitanStarBaseYggdrasilResourceSelf"
effectInfo
 effectAttachInfo
  attachType "Invalid"
 smallEffectName ""
 largeEffectName ""
 soundID ""
needsToFaceTarget FALSE
canCollideWithTarget TRUE
moveThruTarget FALSE
isUltimateAbility FALSE
maxNumLevels 3
levelSourceType "StarBaseUpgradeLevel"
sourcePropertyType "AbilityALevel"
aiUseTime "Invalid" - this makes more sence when you look at the upgrade at the buttom.
aiUseTargetCondition "Invalid"
isAutoCastAvailable FALSE
isAutoCastOnByDefault FALSE
pickRandomPlanetToExploreForAutoCastTarget FALSE
ignoreNonCombatShipsForAutoCastTarget TRUE
onlyAutoCastWhenDamageTakenExceedsPerc 0.000000
useCostType "Passive"
researchPrerequisites
 NumResearchPrerequisites 0
nameStringID "IDS_ABILITY_TITANSTARBASEYGGDRASIL_RESOURCE_NAME"
descStringID "IDS_ABILITY_TITANSTARBASEYGGDRASIL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTION"
hudIcon "HUDICON_PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALMETALEXTRACTOR"
smallHudIcon "HUDICONSMALL_PLANETMODULE_TECHORBITALMETALEXTRACTOR"
infoCardIcon ""

First buff:

TXT
entityType "Buff"
onReapplyDuplicateType "PrioritizeNewBuffs"
buffStackingLimitType "ForAllPlayers"
stackingLimit 1
allowFirstSpawnerToStack FALSE
buffExclusivityForAIType "ExclusiveForAllPlayers"
isInterruptable TRUE
isChannelling TRUE
numInstantActions 0
numPeriodicActions 1
periodicAction
 actionCountType "Infinite"
 actionIntervalTime
  Level:0 1.000000
  Level:1 1.000000
  Level:2 1.000000
 buffInstantActionType "ApplyBuffToSelf"
 instantActionTriggerType "AlwaysPerform"
 buffType "BuffTitanStarBaseYggdrasilEarnResources"
 effectInfo
  effectAttachInfo
   attachType "Invalid"
  smallEffectName ""
  largeEffectName ""
  soundID ""
numOverTimeActions 0
numEntityModifiers 0
numEntityBoolModifiers 0
numFinishConditions 1
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "OwnerChanged"

Secound Buff:

TXT
entityType "Buff"
onReapplyDuplicateType "PrioritizeOldBuffs"
buffStackingLimitType "ForAllPlayers"
stackingLimit 1
allowFirstSpawnerToStack FALSE
buffExclusivityForAIType "ExclusiveForAllPlayers"
isInterruptable FALSE
isChannelling FALSE
numInstantActions 0
numPeriodicActions 0
numOverTimeActions 1
overTimeAction
 buffOverTimeActionType "EarnResources"
 earnRate
  Level:0 5.000000
  Level:1 10.000000
  Level:2 17.500000
numEntityModifiers 0
numEntityBoolModifiers 0
numFinishConditions 3
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "FirstSpawnerNoLongerHasBuff"
 buffTypeToQuery "BuffTitanStarBaseYggdrasilResourceSelf"
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "OwnerChanged"
finishCondition
 finishConditionType "TimeElapsed"
 time
  Level:0 300.000000
  Level:1 300.000000
  Level:2 300.000000

Note that a TimeElapsed finish condition is needed since it is an overTimeAction also that credits is generated seperately (EarnCredits) and that it isn't possible to earn metal and crystal seperately

The star base upgrade looks like this:

TXT
entityType "StarBaseUpgrade"
stageCount 6
stage - The first stage is before the upgrade is bought, so the star base has this ability at level one when it has been constructed
 price
  credits 0.000000
  metal 0.000000
  crystal 0.000000
 upgradeTime 0.000000
 nameStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_NAME"
 descStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_DESC"
 researchPrerequisites
  NumResearchPrerequisites 0
 hudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply0"
 smallHudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply0"
 infoCardIcon ""
 upgradePropertyCount 1
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "AbilityALevel"
  value 1.000000
 upgradeBoolPropertyCount 0
stage
 price
  credits 0.000000
  metal 0.000000
  crystal 0.000000
 upgradeTime 0.000000
 nameStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_NAME"
 descStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_DESC"
 researchPrerequisites
  NumResearchPrerequisites 0
 hudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply1"
 smallHudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply1"
 infoCardIcon ""
 upgradePropertyCount 1
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "AbilityALevel"
  value 2.000000
 upgradeBoolPropertyCount 0
stage
 price
  credits 0.000000
  metal 0.000000
  crystal 0.000000
 upgradeTime 0.000000
 nameStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_NAME"
 descStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_DESC"
 researchPrerequisites
  NumResearchPrerequisites 0
 hudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply0"
 smallHudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply0"
 infoCardIcon ""
 upgradePropertyCount 1
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "AbilityALevel"
  value 3.000000
 upgradeBoolPropertyCount 0
stage
 price
  credits 0.000000
  metal 0.000000
  crystal 0.000000
 upgradeTime 0.000000
 nameStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_NAME"
 descStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_DESC"
 researchPrerequisites
  NumResearchPrerequisites 0
 hudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply0"
 smallHudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply0"
 infoCardIcon ""
 upgradePropertyCount 2
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "AbilityBLevel" - a secound ability so the resource has a total of 6 stages using 2 abilities
  value 1.000000
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "AbilityALevel"
  value 3.000000
 upgradeBoolPropertyCount 0
stage
 price
  credits 0.000000
  metal 0.000000
  crystal 0.000000
 upgradeTime 0.000000
 nameStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_NAME"
 descStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_DESC"
 researchPrerequisites
  NumResearchPrerequisites 0
 hudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply1"
 smallHudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply1"
 infoCardIcon ""
 upgradePropertyCount 2
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "AbilityBLevel"
  value 2.000000
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "AbilityALevel"
  value 3.000000
 upgradeBoolPropertyCount 0
stage
 price
  credits 0.000000
  metal 0.000000
  crystal 0.000000
 upgradeTime 0.000000
 nameStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_NAME"
 descStringID "IDS_STARBASEUPGRADETECHRESUPPLY_DESC"
 researchPrerequisites
  NumResearchPrerequisites 0
 hudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply0"
 smallHudIcon "HUDIconStarBaseUpgradeTechResupply0"
 infoCardIcon ""
 upgradePropertyCount 2
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "AbilityBLevel"
  value 3.000000
 upgradeProperty
  propertyType "AbilityALevel"
  value 3.000000
 upgradeBoolPropertyCount 0

And that is what it looks like.

Very. Nice.