Designing Spoiler Components (Techs added through DB Edit)

[ChubbyPitbull (OP)]

Hello! I'm starting a new game and wanted to start my new race out with the advanced laser and other techs. I didn't see a way to do this through Spacemaster, so up-front want to say I added them by editing the DB to add the FC_RaceTech field to add the techs with a RuinsRequirement to my race.

Opening up the game again, I see I had the techs as I could use Compressed Fuel storage in ship design, and the various advanced laser/advanced railgun etc techs were unlocked  to research and I instant researched all of them. However, when I go to Design Tech, I seem to only be able to make regular Lasers or railguns, and there are no Advanced component design options. How do I unlock those?

Thanks!

[nuclearslurpee]

Someone who has been successful can chime in, but looking at the DB it looks like the reason it doesn't work is that the Advanced weapons are not actually in the same tech category as the normal versions, so they won't show up in the drop-downs. There is also no distinct component type for the Advanced weapon systems in the relevant DIM_ tables.

To make these work, again someone else can chime in with what has worked for them but the approach I would take is to modify the FCT_TechSystem table and set the TechTypeID of the Advanced techs to the same as the corresponding normal techs. For example, the Advanced Laser Focal Size techs have TechTypeID 148, while the normal Laser Focal Size techs have TechTypeID 15. Changing the former to match the latter should allow you to use both tech lines to design lasers.

[Droll]

Someone who has been successful can chime in, but looking at the DB it looks like the reason it doesn't work is that the Advanced weapons are not actually in the same tech category as the normal versions, so they won't show up in the drop-downs. There is also no distinct component type for the Advanced weapon systems in the relevant DIM_ tables.

To make these work, again someone else can chime in with what has worked for them but the approach I would take is to modify the FCT_TechSystem table and set the TechTypeID of the Advanced techs to the same as the corresponding normal techs. For example, the Advanced Laser Focal Size techs have TechTypeID 148, while the normal Laser Focal Size techs have TechTypeID 15. Changing the former to match the latter should allow you to use both tech lines to design lasers.

As one such successful individual I can say that this is correct. By changing the advanced variants tech type to be the same as the standard variant you can make the game add the tech to the drop down and use the weapons just fine.

The only exception is the advanced railgun which needs some extra work. Since you have changed the tech ID type to be the same as the standard railgun, the game will think that your advanced railguns are just normal railguns and give them a shot count of 4 when it should be 5. You can fix this but it pretty much means that for every advanced railgun you design, you need to correct the shot count in the DB to be 5 (or whatever it should be if reduced size).

[ChubbyPitbull (OP)]

Someone who has been successful can chime in, but looking at the DB it looks like the reason it doesn't work is that the Advanced weapons are not actually in the same tech category as the normal versions, so they won't show up in the drop-downs. There is also no distinct component type for the Advanced weapon systems in the relevant DIM_ tables.

To make these work, again someone else can chime in with what has worked for them but the approach I would take is to modify the FCT_TechSystem table and set the TechTypeID of the Advanced techs to the same as the corresponding normal techs. For example, the Advanced Laser Focal Size techs have TechTypeID 148, while the normal Laser Focal Size techs have TechTypeID 15. Changing the former to match the latter should allow you to use both tech lines to design lasers.

Thanks to both of you! I made these changes for the Advanced Laser and Plasma Cannonade, and now both Advanced techs are showing up correctly as you said in the drop downs for normal Lasers and Plasma Cannonades.

One surprise is that while choosing an Advanced Plasma Cannonade focal length versus the equivalent normal Plasma Cannonade focal length appears to have an impact in terms of damage/range/size, choosing Advanced Laser focal lengths vs. the equivalent normal Laser focal length appears to have no impact on any component stats. Are advanced lasers simply not yet implemented in C# Aurora? (1.13).

[nuclearslurpee]

Are advanced lasers simply not yet implemented in C# Aurora? (1.13).

No. They are just a holdover from VB6 like the gene modding techs and are not actually used in the game at all, as far as I know anyways.

[Droll]

Are advanced lasers simply not yet implemented in C# Aurora? (1.13).

No. They are just a holdover from VB6 like the gene modding techs and are not actually used in the game at all, as far as I know anyways.

You can however use DB editing to "implement" them yourself. Similar to what I mentioned with the whole railgun situation, you can modify not only shot count but also damage, crew req, power draw etc.