This is driving me a bit nuts. I can't for the life of me figure out what it is that gates dust material weapons and armor. I've changed the lines:

[code]../ClassEmpire/ClassResearch,TechnologyEra4

../ClassEmpire/ClassResearch,TechnologyEra5

../ClassEmpire/ClassResearch,TechnologyEra6[/code]



to require Eras 1, 2, or 3 respectively, but while this causes dust material accessories to be available from the start of the game (Not ideal, but at least it's progress) it doesn't seem to do anything for weapons or armor. In the technology era files, the only references I can find to dust material weapons are these lines, which you find in the Era Definition blocks of eras 4, 5, and 6:

[code]



[/code]



But transplanting those lines to earlier eras seems to have no effect, nor does putting them in something like the TechnologyDefinitionWeaponCommonTier1 block.



I'm also having trouble with getting single researches to unlock disparate tiers of gear... I'm trying to set it up so that the TechnologyDefinitionWeaponUncommonTier1 block unlocks uncommon tier 1 weapons, and common tier 2 weapons (As one example, I'm trying to do several similar things), but oddly enough it unlocks the common tier 2 weapons, but not the uncommon tier 1 weapons. The armor definitions do the same thing, though the accessories seem to be unlocked properly...



Anyway, just thought I'd see if anyone's got any thoughts on these issues (Or has already tackled them before me).

could you list what files you are modding? in your first quote, those lines existed in all ItemDefinitions files ( Accessory, Base, Armor, Weapon). have you changed all of them?

The files I have in my mod folder are:

Simulation/DepartmentOfScience+Constructibles[Era1Technology].xml

Simulation/DepartmentOfScience+Constructibles[Era1Technology].xml

Simulation/DepartmentOfScience+Constructibles[Era1Technology].xml

Simulation/DepartmentOfScience+Constructibles[Era1Technology].xml

Simulation/DepartmentOfScience+Constructibles[Era1Technology].xml

Simulation/ItemDefinitions[Accessory].xml

Simulation/ItemDefinitions[Armor].xml

Simulation/ItemDefinitions[Weapon].xml

Simulation/PointOfInterestTemplates.xml

Simulation/SimulationDescriptors[EmpireType].xml

Simulation/SimulationDescriptors[Item].xml

Simulation/UnitBodyDefinitions.xml



The DepartmentOfScience+Constructibles[EraNTechnology].xml files contain only the technologies I've actually changed, which are the Strategic Resource Extraction techs (To move Uncommon to Era 2, and Rare to Era 3), and the Weapon and Armor technology definition blocks. I'm not sure what's changed since my last post, but for whatever reason (Though I swear I didn't actually change anything) those are all working now except for the Dust element. I've got it set up so that in Era 1 you have TechnologyDefinitionWeaponCommonTier1 (And the corresponding block for Armor as well, for each of these) which each unlock tier 1 Common items. Then in Era 2 you have TechnologyDefinitionWeaponUncommonTier1 which unlocks Uncommon tier 1 and Common tier 2 items. Then in Era 3 you have TechnologyDefinitionWeaponRareTier1 which unlocks Rare tier 1, Uncommon tier 2, and Common tier 3 items. And then in Era 4 you have TechnologyDefinitionWeaponCommonTier2 which unlocks Rare tier 2 and Uncommon tier 3 (It doesn't unlock anything in common materials, but when I originally started on this the plan was to unlock tier 1 of each rarity in the first 3 eras, and then unlock tier 2 and 3 of everything in Eras 4 and 5, and I didn't bother to change the definition name).



The ItemDefinition files hold only the blocks for Dust material items, all with the prerequesite lines changed.



PointOfInterestTemplates.xml simply holds the blocks for Uncommon and Rare strategic resource deposits, so that they become visible in Era 2 and 3, instead of 3 and 4.



SimulationDescriptors[EmpireType].xml is... actually I have no idea what it's in there for. I think maybe I had it in there when I was looking for how to make strategic resources appear earlier, and it never got removed. Gonna delete that now, because it's probably from like 5 versions ago and can't be helping anything.



SimulationDescriptors[Item].xml is there because I've changed every strategic material item attributes block to give different stat bonuses. I'm attempting a rebalance, though I'm still working out the numbers.



SimulationDescriptors[Technology].xml only holds a single added technology, TechnologyAccessorySlotBonus2 which adds an extra accessory slot when you research Signal Corps.



Finally, UnitBodyDefinitions.xml is there because I've gone through and changed it so that all of the units have head, torso, and legs slots for gear, instead of some lacking head or legs slots, or both.



I've also modded Gui/GuiElements[Technology].xml and WorldGenerator/WorldGeneratorSettings.xml, but those shouldn't be affecting this at all, and they're obviously not in the Simulation folder. The Gui file is just to move a few of the research items around on the research screen, and the world generator file changes the settings regarding min and max number of minor faction villages in each region.



The files I'd think are actually relevant would be the ItemDefinitions files and the DepartmentOfScience files. In the interest of clarity, and to save time, I'll simply attach those files here. The technology definition blocks are sort of inconsistently ordered at the moment because I've been trying different things to attempt to get the Dust material to unlock, but meh.
moddedfiles.zip

Ugh. Figured it out I think. As you mentioned, the lines in the ItemDefinitions[Base].xml file. I'd looked at the base items but hadn't realized it had base versions of the actual material applied items, with the prerequesite applied redundantly :/



Testing now.



Edit: Working now. You have to change the entries redundantly in ItemDefinitions[Weapon], ItemDefinitions[Armor], ItemDefinitions[Accessory], and ItemDefinitions[Base], and you need to change the item they inherit from to a tier 1 item, or else unlock tier 3 weapons/armor to make them available.