Techtree Additions

posted on September 28th, 2011, 2:01 am

Something I was thinking about when looking at my ENT era mod.

All us modders know that in the techtree files, if you set a unit to require another before it can be built you need to list that unit (FED_Outpost.odf) for example. It's very inflexible. What I would like to see is an option for an or option.

Basically the idea is say you want to be the larger yard, you could have two ways of getting there. In the techtree you have the OR option where the requirements for the second yard is to have say Starfleet Engineering or the first yard. So in a nutshell as long as you build one of these you can get the second shipyard.

That is just a basic example and not a recommendation that it be included for this units.

I do not know if it's possible or even how much work in involved in such a feature, however I think it would be a nifty feature for some units and incredibly useful for mods.

posted on September 28th, 2011, 2:07 am

It happens to be that in fact, a better technology tree system is being developed   

posted on September 28th, 2011, 3:21 am

It happens to be that in fact, a better technology tree system is being developed   

do want

posted on September 28th, 2011, 9:08 am

yep, something similar is on todo

posted on September 28th, 2011, 9:39 am

Couldn't you do a work around where you make 2 identical copies of the big yard, one needing engineering, the other needing small yard?

You would then have 2 grey build buttons in con ship menu. Could you have the build buttons be invisible until their respective requirement is met?

Then you would have neither be grey. Could a third dummy build item be grey until a new item takes its place. Or maybe have the dummy item disappear disappear when one of the 2 tech requirements is met?

posted on September 28th, 2011, 1:39 pm

yep, something similar is on todo

It happens to be that in fact, a better technology tree system is being developed   

Thanks guys, I look forward to see what you come up with. 

Couldn't you do a work around where you make 2 identical copies of the big yard, one needing engineering, the other needing small yard?

You would then have 2 grey build buttons in con ship menu. Could you have the build buttons be invisible until their respective requirement is met?

Then you would have neither be grey. Could a third dummy build item be grey until a new item takes its place. Or maybe have the dummy item disappear disappear when one of the 2 tech requirements is met?

One could possibly do that, I am not sure about having the buttons invisible before you can access it though. I don't know enough about all the FO commands to be able to say. I spent the last 10 years modding A1 and A2, but am new to FO. However my aim is not for ships but stations.

My idea is that I want the Starting Starbase to be a unit that has a cap of one, with the outpost being a buildable one. However if you get blown to pieces by the enemy and have to rebuild I want to be able to start up with just an outpost, so you don't have to re-start with a Starbase again, perhaps even have it that the Starbase can't be built, only a starting unit. 

posted on September 28th, 2011, 1:56 pm

In C++, the [Shift+] is used to signal or in bytewise operators.  Try using something like:

Code: Select all

fed_akiraY.odf 1 fed_chassis2.odf|fed_chassis2Y.odf

There is no guarantee that it'll work, but it's logical to start there since C++ uses the [Shift+] character to signal or.  Again, no guarantee that it'll work, but it's worth a shot.

By the way, can't wait for the new technology tree system to come out.

EDIT:
PS:  The browser may copy only the [CR] or [LF] newline characters so it's not recommended that you copy the above code as the proper newline character format is [CR][LF].

[DOCa Cola]

posted on September 28th, 2011, 2:41 pm

Last edited by DOCa Cola on September 28th, 2011, 2:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

there are no 'hidden' functions in the current techtree files that can be achieved with a text editor. internally the current techtree implementation has the same limitations as the techtree files

posted on September 28th, 2011, 3:41 pm

So much for that theory.