How can I make a gameplay mod for FA?

[Matrixmage]

Hello, I'm thinking about making a mod. Now the kind of mod I want to make is a gameplay mod (probably isn't the official name), in the same vein as Phantom-X. Now I have done some googleing on the matter of making one, but all the tutorials are on the SupCom wiki and are for making units, so I would really like some help if someone could point me in the right direction.

Very vaguely, some of the things I want to include:

1. Tweaking some buildings costs and build times.
2. Removing the ability to build certain buildings.
3. Make the game be able to start with everyone allied (like Phantom, I don't know if this can be done by disabling allied victory).
4. Have all players start with certain buildings pre-built.
5. Have stealth field gens block allies vision (more of a long term goal).

Thanks for any help given,
Matrixmage

[Matrixmage]

No one here can help? D:

[The Mak]

Well, items 1, 2, and 3 are on the less difficult side of things. I would recommend you look at Diamond Mod to get a feel on changing unit stats and obviously the Phantom Mod for the allied thing.

For item 4, take a look at the Mod that allows you to spawn with all the faction ACU's. That should point you in the right direction.

For item 5, I really do not have any idea. You may have to poke really deep in the game files and even then I do not think this may be possible. As a general rule, if you do not see it in the game yet it may not be possible. Think about it, an ally has access to all your vision and intel abilities. You may have to redefine all those abilities but I have no clue if all this is accessible in the engine.

[Matrixmage]

Well, items 1, 2, and 3 are on the less difficult side of things. I would recommend you look at Diamond Mod to get a feel on changing unit stats and obviously the Phantom Mod for the allied thing.

For item 4, take a look at the Mod that allows you to spawn with all the faction ACU's. That should point you in the right direction.

For item 5, I really do not have any idea. You may have to poke really deep in the game files and even then I do not think this may be possible. As a general rule, if you do not see it in the game yet it may not be possible. Think about it, an ally has access to all your vision and intel abilities. You may have to redefine all those abilities but I have no clue if all this is accessible in the engine.

Well ok, but the thing I need most help with is how to actually mod the game. I've done coding before, and I even have some experience with lua (which, if I understand, the the language used to mod the game scripts). So, thanks for the help, but I still don't know where to start. Sorry for the misunderstanding

-Matrixmage

[The Mak]

Visit the Mod Developer Support Forum and read through the sticky posts.

Then download some mods from the vault or directly from the Moho Mod Talk, especially the Blackops and their balance changes as well as the Phantom mod. See if you can understand what is going on in those files, how they are structured, etc.

I also recommend that you make a copy of all the files in your FA gamedata directory (end in *.scd) and extract all the files somewhere to reference them. *.scd files are just renamed zip files with no compression (Compression Method set to Store under WinRar). So to open them and see all their goodness, rename the file to .zip and just open them.

Also here is some other advice I gave to someone that is relevant. The mod I created is located here.

So in a nutshell, look at how other mods were done and copy what they did and understand how they did it.