I'd also, as an aside- like to know how to add weapons. I intend to put about half the firepower of a Garda onto carriers (Or the race-specific alternative.)

First; It's to be added to a STARBSE, not a frigate. I intend to give the TEC one a temporary Ion Bolt, one that'll use up most of the stations antimatter.

Second, v. 1.051 of Entrenchment.

I simply wanted it to be an addon to the upgrade tree- "Beam," "Missile," "Ion."

the ability would need an extra mesh to add the new ability's launchpoint(s), but it could be done.

also you will probably want to increase the number of upgrades for the starbase, and that is easy

harpo

Cos I don't know how to model yet. All I know how to do is fiddle with the .txt files...

Uh. Okay, I messed up something royal. This is gonna sound horribly newbish. Is there a guide, with examples, about this somewhere? I'm just not understanding it.

Ah! I don't think that it is possible. I think the UpgradeProperty - propertytype is hard coded. I could be wrong. You could try and put the "AbilityIonBlast" as a propertytype for your fourth stage, but no garenties that will work, I haven't tried that.

It may be that the only way is to use 1 of the starbase's ability slots.

Best of luck.

ability:2  is where i'd have to put it, i guess. To start with, I think I'll replace the 'auxilury government" upgrade with the "Ion" ability. Er, how do I do that- cos one's a constant and one's a weapon...?

okay, I seriously need help here. I can't figure out how to add it to the station.

Or not. Is there a step-by-step somewhere? x.x

no worries about delay! I've just been poking around, and causing minidumps. And here goes, I'm about to try this. I named it IonCannon.

Is there a way I can post the modded files, so you can take a look and tell me what I'm messing up? You obviously know a TON more than I do.

http://www.mediafire.com/?xawi0dz51yz

That's the dl link. Long live mediafire.

Ok! Firstly, you have to change your researchInfo count from 117 to 118 after adding the extra RESEARCHSUBJECT to the PlayerTech entity file

        Second your "RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_ABILITYIONCANNON" entity file needs the prerequisites changed to NumResearchPrerequisites 0 and remove the lines

   ResearchPrerequisite
        Subject "RESEARCHSUBJECT_FRIGATEACCESS_STARBASECONSTRUCTORTECH"
        Level 1

Also you need to move its location from where "AuxilleryGovernment" is within the defence Block-block 0 [ 3 , 2 ]. It can't be a StarBaseUpgrade. So it would be best if you change that back to AuxilleryGovernment in the StarBaseTech entity file also.

It will show up as an ability should be top row third button along when you select your starbase in game.

Relolcate your new RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_ABILITYIONCANNON to block 0 [ 3 , 0 ]

Then in your new "AbilityIonCannon" entity file, you still need to link it to the new "RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_ABILITYIONCANNON" file by including the researchPrerequisite

    NumResearchPrerequisites 1
    ResearchPrerequisite
        Subject "RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_ABILITYIONCANNON"                                                                           Level 1                                                   

        Don't forget to add your newly created entity files name's to the entity manifest file of your mod, and adjust the entitynamecount up the amount of new names you include.

Does the game crash when the Raloz comes out of the frigate factory or when it is supposed to turn into a starbase? What original file's did you use to make your RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_ABILITYIONCANNON file?. You may have inadvertantly altered 1 if you have been using files in the install folder, or if your mod's GameInfo folder has all the entrenchment files in it, and you copied parts out of those files.

[quote]Also, will the

nameStringID ""
descStringID ""
hudIcon ""
smallHudIcon ""
infoCardIcon ""

at the end of the ABility cause a problem?[quote]

Yes (although I don't think that is the cause of your crash), add the nameStringID and descStringID to the english file of the String folder in your mod folder.

thus;

StringInfo
    ID "IDS_ABILITY_IONCANNON_NAME"
    Value " Starbase Ion Cannon"
StringInfo
    ID "IDS_ABILITY_IONCANNON_DESCRIPTION"
    Value "Activates Argonev Starbase's Ion bolt weapon."

and also

StringInfo
    ID "IDS_RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_ABILITYIONCANNON_NAME"
    Value "Starbase Ion Cannon"
StringInfo
    ID "IDS_RESEARCHSUBJECT_ABILITYACCESS_ABILITYIONCANNON_DESCRIPTION"
    Value "Grants the Ion cannon ability to Argonev Starbase"

Remember to increase the Stringcount at the top of the file by 4.

The Icons are not so important. The new ability will just use the same button textures as "AbilityIonBlast". You could also use those for your "RESEARCHSUBJECT" button on the research tree. You could create your own but that would be extra to explain how, and we should concentrate on getting your mod running.

No, your new ability uses the "AbilityIonBlast" buff. It essentially has the same effects and damage. That can be changed later by creating new buffs for your new ability, but we should get the thing working first up.

On a side note, have you been using the Dev,exe?. I have found this to be helpful in sorting out problems in the past