Start Pylon Broken in game Mods...

[Lowell]

I as well as others seem to be having trouble getting the Start Pylon to work in any game mods. The_Particles_Within map Positrons has a yard building being fed from a start pylon toggled by a trunk port from a generator map. Everything is setup from what the Mod group believes to be correct. Others have been unable to use the start pylon in their mods as well.

I have made a "quickie" fix by adding a couple Solar Panels to power the building for now. I still have the start pylon toggled by the gate even though the solar panels are installed, it still and should kick-in; we have tried several different things trying to get it to work.

Here is the thread in the mod forum that was posted on the trouble...
http://forums.introversion.co.uk/darwinia/viewtopic.php?t=3254

Seeing as there is no moderator from IV on the mod forum I thought I would post this trouble here...

This post may need moved back to the mod section, under the Start Pylon thread...
Thanks
Lowell

[Lowell]

There still is no responce to the trouble that the Start Pylon will not work in game mods.

Everyone in the mod group has agreed that it will not work in mods. What is so different with mods using the building object from the game version where it works?

Thanks
Lowell

[martin]

Yeah, i agree with lowell that this needs fixing. C'Mon IV...

[xander]

There still is no responce to the trouble that the Start Pylon will not work in game mods.

Everyone in the mod group has agreed that it will not work in mods. What is so different with mods using the building object from the game version where it works?

Thanks
Lowell

Have you tried replacing main.dat with your files? Perhaps it has something to do with the data location? Just something to try...

xander

[Lowell]

Trickfred said he had copied the ( Yard ) map & mission full, still no go. In the game the start pylon toggles off of the generator gate, inside the Yard map. Power flows just fine there. I even still go back and watch it just to bang my head on the desk...

I have looked over the map and mission files from the yard and generator, along with the game. Everything I have is set the same on map Positrons. As a quick fix I added eight solar panels to power the manufacturing building there. My start pylon is still there and still set, but no go.

It should toggle off of a gate and fire right up. I could use it in several places if I could figure out how to fire it up. For some reason it just doesn't work. The (end pylon ) works. It toggles with the yard building and supplies power just fine.

[trickfred]

...I just tried the map in a mod... hmm... I'll try what you suggest xander... but I can't guarantee to soend much time on it, as I'm on a schedule now to release EW3.

[Lowell]

Have you tried replacing main.dat with your files? Perhaps it has something to do with the data location? Just something to try...

xander

Guess I didn't quite see what you ment, I'll open up the game dat and see. You mean replace the game, maps, and missions with the mods. ?
LoL I'll dig and see.

[xander]

Have you tried replacing main.dat with your files? Perhaps it has something to do with the data location? Just something to try...

xander

Guess I didn't quite see what you ment, I'll open up the game dat and see. You mean replace the game, maps, and missions with the mods. ?
LoL I'll dig and see.

Yes, that is what I mean.

xander

[trickfred]

Okay, here's what I did:

Dumped the entire main.dat, sounds.dat, patch.dat, etc. into my root folder, and ran the game in AAA. The Trunk that activates the PylonStart was team 255, but the CT was Team 2. Bust.

With a regular profile (and a hacked game.txt activating the yard level and giving a few upgrades), there was no Team 2 CT to create Squads/Engs at. *sigh*

(There's another interesting thing in there - the .exe must have something in it to turn those CTs on, since they're all Team 1 in the map files, but Team 2 when you get to the level - or am I just really groggy right now? The only entries to turn buildings online in game.txt are for Pattern Buffer, and they're set to '0' for online anyways)

After hacking the map and game.txt to make one of the two regularly available CTs/Trunks online, I sent over Engineers to the Generator Trunk/CT, reprogrammed it, and.... still nothing. No sparks, no visible juice, no eye candy.

I also tried making a mod with two levels - one with a Generator system, one with a Yard system, because I thought maybe the exe needed to see an online generator in game.txt before it would allow the pylonstart to work - but that didn't seem to work either.

I'm done, I've tried like 20 times off and on over the last year to get the damn thing to work.

Some things for someone else with more patience than me to try:

Maybe map ID number has something to do with it - like the souls heading down to the map instead of the other way around if the map ID is 10...

Maybe the trunk activating the PylonStart has to point to whatever ID Generator was, or to a level called Generator.

[Lowell]

Well, I've worked and worked on my start pylon setup on map Positrons. Even as Xander had said, adding the game files.

The Start Pylon still will not start when toggled by a starting trunk gate, or any building. I even tried to place it in my game text as a starting building...no good. Then I even "broke" my positrons trunk gate on map nucleus, just like the game had by removing the control tower.

So there is a problem with the start pylon for sure. The end pylon works fine.

I wounder what could have powered the one up in the game? Big puzzle.

Lowell

[Major Cooke]

Okay, here's what I did:

Dumped the entire main.dat, sounds.dat, patch.dat, etc. into my root folder, and ran the game in AAA. The Trunk that activates the PylonStart was team 255, but the CT was Team 2. Bust.

With a regular profile (and a hacked game.txt activating the yard level and giving a few upgrades), there was no Team 2 CT to create Squads/Engs at. *sigh*

(There's another interesting thing in there - the .exe must have something in it to turn those CTs on, since they're all Team 1 in the map files, but Team 2 when you get to the level - or am I just really groggy right now? The only entries to turn buildings online in game.txt are for Pattern Buffer, and they're set to '0' for online anyways)

After hacking the map and game.txt to make one of the two regularly available CTs/Trunks online, I sent over Engineers to the Generator Trunk/CT, reprogrammed it, and.... still nothing. No sparks, no visible juice, no eye candy.

I also tried making a mod with two levels - one with a Generator system, one with a Yard system, because I thought maybe the exe needed to see an online generator in game.txt before it would allow the pylonstart to work - but that didn't seem to work either.

I'm done, I've tried like 20 times off and on over the last year to get the damn thing to work.

Some things for someone else with more patience than me to try:

Maybe map ID number has something to do with it - like the souls heading down to the map instead of the other way around if the map ID is 10...

Maybe the trunk activating the PylonStart has to point to whatever ID Generator was, or to a level called Generator.

I tried everything he did, and gave up on making pylonstarts... i just went with the friggin---hey wait... Did you try putting a pylonend by the trunkport and set it to go through the trunkport?

Anyway, since I gave up on that, I just put a shit ton of solarpanels, cause i just didnt care anymore and it was quite pointless... (solarpanels on the map with my generator AND the yard)

[Lowell]

...that's what I did on Positrons, added about ten solar panels to power the manufacturing building...[yard building]

The "EndPylon" gets merged into and linked to the building for power. That works fine.

The start pylon is supposed to work by itself. On the games Generator level the last gate to the Yard map has just a regular pylon merged into the side of the gate. On the Yard level the Start Pylon is merged into the gate and regular pylons up to the end pylon at the yard building.
I sure wish it worked that simple for my Positrons map...