A couple of FO odf questions

Yes, that is possible. In theory, any number of "tiers" are possible.

You'd have to ask the devs about how they've implemented the avatar feature.
But I'd guess that it's possible. Because with some avatars the starbase can build an extra unit, specific for that avatar. Which means that the starbase needs 2 different odfs when choosing between avatars.
So in regard of switching stations, the way I see it, it should be possible.
Choosing between A and B and then choosing between A1/A2 or B1/B2 should be possible too I suppose.

But again, you should ask the devs about it. I'm sure they'll be happy to help you out  

in theory the multi tier avatar should be possible but switching race names is not as far as i know it will just give you ctd

yep, multi-tier avatars should work. however, keep in mind that the avatars just replace crafts with one another and don't actually alter the techtree.

Let's say a player starts with an outpost and selects Admiral Mayson as her avatar and later on builts a spacedocks where she selects Picard as her sub-avatar. This won't add new built options to the construction ships already present for Mayson (although you could mimic this feature using buttonavailabilities) and doesn't grant new abilities to existing vessels (altough you could - to some degree - mimic this for special weapons).

The avatar choice just replaces the station where the replace weapon is on. As we are working on a new system for avatars which will work quite differently, allowing choices later during the game, these features will probably become available at some later point in development (they actually are already, but neither clean nor bugfree). But don't count on them please, as there are many severe issues with player-wide craft replacement and we are considering moving to another solution

As far as i recall, the new vessel always uses the same race as the replaced vessel.

i see

if you are looking for references on how to add build options depending on a certain techtree progress, check the romulan rhienn/generix. They become available at the yards once their research is done (in addition to be refittable from existing ships). The ODF command you will want to look at is the builditem availability.

special weapons feature a similar mechanic to show their buttons only if they are researched. Check the Borg Collective Features for reference. It is, however, difficult to actually change vessels or remove/replace abilities. Picard, in the above example, could grant all constellation class vessels the picard maneuver special ability, but he couldn't boost the shields of all galaxy classes by 200 - exept the change only affects vessels built after picard takes the seat.

Yeah, this is similar to the way I coded it for k_merse in his evolution mod.  He has a timer pod that replaces and certain things require that pod to be built.  If they require that pod to be built, and the timer progresses past the set time, the pod will switch to the next era, and that the option will no longer be available.  You might be able to build an upgraded version of it, and you might now have an option, per ship, to upgrade that ship to the new model.

Anyway, the tiers should work fine.  Getting them to be different races would be fine too, the only problem is that you would still be listed as united federation under the Adms Log, but your ships would bear the mark of whatever race you had them in, and probably use the sound files of that race.

hehe thats an idea i had for a era mod a friend was working on

looking forward to see the new avatar system wen its dne

and good luck with your mod majestic

Yapp, it works awesome. However,it needs a hell lot of coding to make everything work fine
But it really worth the effort because this system makes you able to use totally separated techtress if you want.

And the best part of it: You can make any upgrades automated!
You use the timer pod to replace itself into a replace pod. The replace pod's replaceweapon charges in a second and replaces itself with another timer pod (which replaces itself to another replace pod later) and any ship and station you want to upgrade into an upgraded version. Pretty awesome and it helps a lot if you want to order ships from totally different eras together.

didnt think auto replace obeyed techtrees

it doesn't but you can have things require the autoreplaced pods to be built.

Basically, what if your chassis upgrades automaticly upgraded them selfs.  Same basic principle.

you can't make it so ships automaticly upgrade themselves when you reach the next era. but you can make a button to upgrade them appear.  You can't make one replaceweapon affect another ship either, e.g. a replaceweapon can't return fighters to a carrier(unfortunatly) and it can't replace several ships already on the map with new ones(again, unfortunatly )  but it can be used to make new tech available.

Blade wrote:didnt think auto replace obeyed techtrees

They don't. But as long as there is no pod with the replaceweapon, it can't fire. The levels (eras) of the techtree are linked to the timer pods. You can build TOS ships only if you have the TOS timer pod for example. But when the replaceweapon of the timer pod triggers, the timer pod turns into a replace pod which replaces every TOS technology with TMP one (ships with new hull and weapons, new ODF values, stations with new buildilsts). And at the same time the replace pod replaces itself to a TMP time pod.
Of course this method has it's backsides too: You can't replace multiple ODFs int one (eg: if you have a separated Galaxy Class, you can't replace it into one Galaxy Refit) and you can't influence the refits, so you can't say if you need a Lantree, Soyuz or Miranda Class instead of your aging Surya Class.