add new empire
 

Some questions about adding new empires:

If I'm creatin a new empire, let's say the Earth Alliance, and I don't have a special AI script for it, how does the game decide:
1 which types of weapons the Earth Alliance should use,
2 which kinds of units it should build?

Will all new races I add and save as .emp files be similar in these two aspects?

And another one:
Will the game be able to chose my newly created empire randomly when it is saved as an emp-file?


I would love to have the ability to decide on weapons and units in the way of SE3.

Re: add new empire
 

The game will use the default AI scripts nested in SE4\AI folder. Also there are 3 different default AI scripts there (Defensive, neutral and aggressive). You can change them when you create those emp files (Use minister style option). Also, when you make those files and you have script for that empire select 'Use race minister style' option. Now AI will use those scripts.
As for random selecting empires, the computer can random select only those empires that have their pictures located in \pictures\races folder. So, if you make custom empire that uses Cue Cappa pictures, only Cue Cappa can be selected.
It is not possible to have two same empires randomly selected.
If you use this Cue Cappa custom empire, Cue Cappa cannot be randomly selected.
You can add them using emp files as existing empire, though.

Re: add new empire
 

Daynarr is right about the AI scripts. However, the basic/default AI has -AFAIK- only ONE! script for research and building ships/units/facilties and so on.
So, you can put in more Empires and let them be neutral, agressiv or defensiv, but they will all build and research the same things.
Only way around is to make your own race or use some MOD you can find here in the MOD section.