Oh, I gotcha... that makes sense.  

Couple quick notes/questions:

Excelsior model seems dark, even in lit conditions.

Is it possible to change the look of ships once they are retrofitted? (Retrofit button would actually be a new ship model button?)

Is it possible to give frigates names? A trek ship needs a name, even the poor bastards on frigates.

It is possible to swap meshes if a research has been completed.  However, unless the refits are actual hull changes and not just replacement and improvement of internal systems, there's no reason to change meshes for them.

This is not possible due to engine limitations unless the name was part of the texture, in which case it would be the same for every single ship of that class.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there different Nacelles on the refitted ships?

There were multiple changes to the Excelsior model for the Lakota refit, as well as other changes to the general design.

Mechanically it's a simple task to put the separate models in game, I think Stress even had the different models Sins ready at one point when planning to have the Lakota a separate elite version.  You get to eat two ships worth ram usage for one though.

Poor bastards?  The Klingons might have something to say about this.

This is a Major retrofit. it's hell expense and armor goes up 6 pts. A change in skin for a 6 pts increase would/is cool.

So does the model change when its retrofitted? I don't see it. And if this is possible, why with all the upgrades in all of Sins,  no model I know of changes the look of the model?

Starbases and defensive structures...

Lakota refit is a lot more than 6 armor points.  The ability does 6 armor, 100% shield regen, and 50% weapon cool down.  The Quantum Torpedoes are also enabled from that research, giving the Excelsior their third weapon type.

Forgot Starbases and structures, was to focused on ships. This ability to add on to models is limited to structures?

But the model does'nt change?

The TEC and Vasari starbases have six bleeding meshes.  The primary main mesh, one for each weapon level, one for trade, and then two more for the weapon levels and trade.  The Advent has twelve.

It simply switches out the entire model for a new one based on the requirements.

MeshNameInfoCount is in all ship and structure files, so any ship can be upgraded this way.  It is not currently done though.

well... The vasari colonizer's mesh is upgraded with the starbase research.

I was referring to the Excelsior.

Such a good likeness of the guy...

So i was playing a game where i sent a sovereign class assigned to it's own fleet and a norway cruiser, which wasn't assigned to a fleet, following it to clear a left over borg hangar defense.  the sovereign lost about 2000 of it's 18000 shields and was assimilated.  I had the norway set to auto cast it's anti assimilation ability also.  I thought that in order to be assimilated the sovereign would have to have lost all of it's shields and taken damage for a duration of 8 seconds.  was it random chance, or is there something that i'm doing wrong? Or maybe I found a bug.  Any thoughts?

Another bastard moment.

Looks like, which was obvious when I did it, I made the cruise missile types assimilate capitals as well.

This wasn't exactly intentional, why it didn't register when writing the ability, I don't know.  Maybe added to the patch list, will have to ruminate on it a bit.  In the mean time, anti-strike craft ships smoke them bad, usage recommended.  The anti-assimilation ability will prevent this from occurring, but only if it's in operation during the tail end of the effect.  You need at least two Norways alternating it to be safe.

If the hangars and portable version still present a problem(the additional assimilation capability is upgrade locked so make sure they're functioning before assuming it's prevented) even with significant strike craft and or anti-strike craft ships, let me know what kind of results you're seeing.

OK So I have learned a lot the last few days and I feel pretty comfortable handling most edits of the files I need too so I can set up my version of SOA2 just the way I like but before I go spending countless hours setting it up I need to have a few questions answered.

First I have noticed in my studying mention to a 2 gig limit on memory could someone give me a rough estimate on just how large things can get before hitting this limit. My creation will have a new map based on the FASA material thus Federation space alone will have nearly 600 planets is this too much? Do the number of planets in a map substantially take away from the 2 gig limit? Also I have been reading about the optimization mod would running this mod help or did SOA2 incorporate what was learned while building the optimization mod

Second I have successfully setup a planet the way I want it in the GameScenarioDef File under the Groups for Templates but it alludes me how to do it straight from the Galaxy Map file. I prefer to leave as much original SOA2 files alone thus not adding templates to the GameScenarioDef file but as I make the map it would be nice to just add in to the planet description under its personal template section how to setup the planet.

(Got Answer found it here)

https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/329520

And last Planet types and Tactical Logistics Slots I like to add a little more variety to the mix with some worlds having more and some less on the slots but I have yet found where such edits would take place are the slots per planet type hard coded? If not where would such edits be done.

Thanks in advance.

All of the counts are in the planet entity files, there is no function for variance within a specific type so if you want more you need to duplicate the files, five terrans, five asteroids, that sort of thing.

Entity counts will add a very small amount to your usage.  The entire directory for the actual entity files is only a few megs even in text format.  It's only that large because of the insane amount of stuff we've added in.

What adds the big numbers are mesh and texture files.  Where the entity directory is 3, the mesh directory is 163 and the textures are breaking 700.

If you add a duplicate version of the same mesh and texture running on a new entity file, you add itty bitty bit.  If you add in a whole new creation, you add a bunch.  Map files, being duplicates of existing assets, will not substantially increase the memory footprint based on their size.  You should be able to add a hell of a lot before getting up to vanilla diplomacy levels where dumping is a problem.

Thanks Again Psychoak that is good to know map size won't effect it that much you have been a big help. Curious does anyone know about templates I read all I could from that link I posted and tried many times to add a simple starting template to Terra (Fed Homeworld) but cannot seem to get it to function probably a simple caps error or tab error I sure I understand whats needed but the link couldn't show the proper formatting and all the links appear to be dead so I cannot download the files to take a look at them.

There are no specific "template" files to look at, just the existing body of work.  Crack open the planet file you're trying to duplicate, find the necessary information to edit, and save it as your new planet.  Then go into the GalaxyScenariosDef file and do the same for the required entries, changing counts to match your new additions.

Anything preceded by a count is fuzzy to some degree, every other line in the entity files will be needed with few, error captured exceptions.

Yeah well I was trying to avoid editing the GalaxyScenarioDef file According to what I have read I ought to be able to make an individual template for worlds in the Galaxy Map file right at the very end after the players section

Alright I pretty much given up on modding particular planets through the Galaxy Map File editing GalaxyScenarioDef's templates works just fine so Ill just do that

OK One last request for now. Ha Ha. As you all know I am trying to make a personal Solo version of SOA2 that will allow me to play the game with the limited amount of time I do thus while impossible I am trying to make it more like a turn based game versus a real time game. One element I wanted to include was currently I find that the Ships Hulls repairing in the field as they do, to be to unrealistic, I can see repairing some damage but when a ship has 1200 hull points and losses 80% of them in a battle I would prefer that the repair time be so ungodly slow that it would be best to send the ship to a repair yard or send a repair ship out to do the work.

Now I know the Shelby has the repair droids ability What I like to know is do all the races have something similair and do all drydocks have repair capability as well if so then I am sure it will be a simple matter of changing the hull regeneration rate on all ships to a level that will slow them down to that ungodly amount.

Also if possible is there a global parameter that would modify all regeneration rates on all ships in the game that of course would be most helpful as it would allow me to leave the original SOA2 ship files alone

Thanks Again

It already is.  Typical hull repair rates are 1/1000 of full points, so it's almost 15 minutes to repair that damage passively.  Conversely it's a couple minutes to jump two wells back to get 1500 hull damage repaired in a minute.

All shipyards do have repair, there are a few Starbases that do it as well.  As far as in the field repair goes...

Feds have lots of it.  The Excelsior Class has an upgrade for engineering teams to repair other ships, the Galaxy Class has a monster of one.  The Saber has a long delayed full shield restore you can use during down time.

Romulans have self repair on most of their ships, and equally powerful shield restoration from the Blackwind, again not something to use during combat.

The Dominion's Jem Hadar capital ships have slower than typical passive regeneration, needing to go home for shield restoration basically, the Barkus has a limited repair capability.  The Trade stations have a resupply type ability, not their Starbase.

The Klingons are the runts of the litter for on the fly repair jobs, very very bad.  They have equivalent repair capability to Feds from their Starbases.  The only remote work they've got is from the Victory Feast ability on the colony cap.  A fleet wide, long disabling shield restoration rate boost that finishes for a very weak repair.

Seems higher to me as it stands I hardly ever need any other facility to repair just jump system and then jump back and usually by then my ships are restored, besides as I said I just prefer the ships could not repair Hull damage without the use of facilities or at the very least a tender like the Shelby which has the necessary skilled workers and materials to do the job.

A Couple minutes to jump two wells back not anymore Ha Ha. more like 30 minutes.

Yeah I'll have to check them out  As far as Shield restoration goes I fine with the way it is I want my battles to take anywhere from a couple minutes to five minutes its just the rest of the game I want to slow down cause I need to document my decisions as I might get a hour to play and then have to put it down for a day or two and by the time I come back I don't remember what I was doing or what my strategy was.

What about their shipyards do they repair I guess if all they have is self repair I'll have to fix that
 

Mmmm Well as I said shield regeneration seems OK to do in the field ought not need facilities for that unless of course it was so how tied to anti-matter usage or something say ships has 2000 shield loses 1000 and it takes .15 anti-matter to restore 1 point shielding might even be cool if ant-matter didn't restore that fast ships would have to go in and fuel up so to speak.

Sounds like the Klingons are just about perfect then probably not much tweaking to do to them. Psychoak can you tell me what is the parameter that sets base Hull Restoration Rates in the game. I know research tiers increase this at every level but if a ships base were zero to begin with would the research have any effect?

PS Would it be easy to make a piece of tech that would be available to all races for repairing and then adding that ability to say the Constructors? Constructors I think make excellent repair and refueling vehicles in my mind.

And found my answer to one of the above question Correct?

HullPointRestoreRate 1.020000

Does anyone know of a strategy guide that explains what each ship and each cap ship ability does? 

As of now, the game is great but there's no way to figure out the details even with extensive experimentation. 

You asking about vanilla sins or a SOA2 guide?