Unnamed Mod + Technical Questions + Recruitment Hopes

from Sins Forums

Hi. Been gone for over a year. Came back.

So, a question first. Last time I was here, the best conversion tool for Sins was Harpo's, but I never really got that to work right... Is that still the only option for mass file conversion?

The reason I'm asking is because I wanna do a fairly low reaching mod. All my previous attempts at modding was shot down due to limitations presented by Sins... As such, I couldn't fight in solar systems instead of Planet Wells, or have the map be a galaxy, and not just a solar system...

I wanna add a few (ok, maybe a lot) of new ships, and defenses, and new battlestations (cause they OBVIOUSLY intended for more than one), and maybe adjusting or adding things that other people want.

Which leads me to bullet number 3. (4? 5? How am I counting this thing?) I want community feedback. Don't tell me you want to add your favorite Sci Fi race to the game, because I can't make Mass Effect into this. I just want some kool ideas, a wanted improvement, or anything else that you think just isn't in the spirit of a full conversion mod, like that Star Trek one.

Bullet Number 64. As of right now, my additions are small, and I could probably do it all by myself. But since I'm hoping to get a lot of suggestions, I might need a little bit more help. Just a call: If you'd like to help make a Sins Expansion Mod, and have cool ideas, why not help me out? Then two people would be deciding on what would be feasible, instead of my singular dictatorship over this. Or not. What evs. Comment.

modding
8,483 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

I would start with TSOP as my reference files and add the reduced strike craft and reduced tradeships add-ons for TSOP. Also reduce the mines per planet but double there strength.

http://soase.weebly.com/tsop.html

http://soase.weebly.com/tsop-downloads.html

The game lready suffers from late game lag and this will fix a lot of it before you start adding more into it.

Or get the reference files already converted http://soase.weebly.com/modding-tools.html

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Sure, yeah, I read up on TSOP, and I think it's great for wide reaching mods, however:!

I heard there was a few compatibility issues with adding TSOP to regular mods because of the reduce memory usage... More or less I want mine to be functional, and as I'm not making a huge mod, memory shouldn't be a problem... Really, I'd like to talk to the guys working on TSOP and really confirm the limitations before adapting it in.

Don't get me wrong. It's the number one thing on my list. I love that they've worked around Sins limitations to make the game run smoother.

Thanks for the suggestion.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

While Major Stress is the project lead and did the bulk of the work, I am also on the team along with SivCorp.

TSOP has NO limitations if your starting off with it. The problem is trying to merge already existing mods that were written around the original files. Stress found out that the .tga textures could be converted to .dds format greatly reducing the ram load but then all the brush files needed to be changed to reflect the new .dds extension. This is were the merging of existing mods can become an issue. 

So if you start off with TSOP as your reference files and add your work to it there will be a greater mod for it. Just compare the file sizes of a few of the textures from TSOP with the originals and there almost half the size while keeping the quality. Also the many many bugs and misspells and ram leaks that were fixed.

Oh ya, my new mod idea is the X3 universe meets the Eve universe. The models from those games are superb. But thats probably for Sins 2 with 64 bit.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Ah. I understand now. I'll definitely use TSOP as my first addition to my mod. Thank you very much.

Going on from your X3 mod, I was just with a friend last night, who was playing and modding X3 and I was amazed by the capabilities. With so many limitations, it's surprising people would rather mod Sins, but I guess it's personal preference. How easy would it be to import models from X3 and Eve?

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Sins is RTS which is completely different than X3 and Eves game play.

I am currently working on Eve models now and testing In-Game. X3 models is also possible and I will be working on them soon.

Some sins mods have 6 races but this is a very heavy load for the ram so you first need to decide what races and how many. Eve and X3 models are very high poly count so you may wish to limit there numbers by increasing cost and supply.

Making good decisions b4 you start will save a lot of grief and rework in the future.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Ah, well, I really wasn't planning on adding any new races. To make them look good, I would need a whole new batch of models, something I can't get my hands on, so I will just add a little to the existing three.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

That's awesome. Now when you say high poly, how high are we talking? Because having a high poly frigate seems... Wasteful, considering TSOP.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Well, those are Battleships, almost 2x the size of a SoaSE capital ship and they're over 10,000 polys so you might add it as a titan or something giving only 1 per race or with late game research.

I will work my way down to the smaller ships.

And yes you want to keep the models that are in many numbers very low poly count.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

I can shrink the models to frigate size, I did that trying to make Sins Solar Systems into Galaxies... I was able to shrink planets to asteroid sizes, but ran into a few technical difficulties in making it feel right. However, is there a way to reduce the poly count? At frigate size, some of those details will be unnecessary, so if we can reduce the quality, I don't think they'd suffer that much, right?

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Using scaling will not reduce ploy count, it just makes the polys smaller with the same ram load on the system. You need a 3d modeling program to totally overhaul the model.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

So, you'd need to completely redo the entire model... Modelling is one thing I've avoided doing so far. Well, I thank you for all of your help.