modding question: planet sizes

[dogscoff]

OK, so I'm making my own remix of proportions mod, and I want to add a bunch of new planet types.

I want to add another class of planet below tiny, for tiny asteroidal lumps that can be colonised but are too small for facilities. I was going to put these in orbit of regular planets and into asteroid fields. Thought they would be handy for cargo storage/ population growth/ establishing outPosts.

My question is this: What does the
Stellar Size:= Tiny
line do? Can I change this to some arbitrary value, or does it have to be one of the well-known values? If I leave it as tiny, am I going to have trouble generating systems?

Similarly, I'm going to want to add another size above huge (massive). I'm sure someone else has tried this, can it be done?

[geoschmo]

THe stellar size in the planetsizes file corelates to the planet size line in the sector types file. You can make new ones, but you have to use the same word in both files.

The are some issues with creating new planets and random system creation you shoud be aware of. We covered it in another thread. It's a fairly long thread, but I recommend reading it.

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin...3;t=007597;p=1

Geoschmo

[dogscoff]

Thanks Geo, I read that thread and understood about 20% of it:-)

First, another discovery. Adding a planet size smaller than tiny does cause the moons that are specified as tiny to come out as small as you guessed it might Puke.

But adding the new planet size has no effect on the player planets. An "average" start results in a medium planet, and a "Good" start results in a large planet. The same as the stock files.

I modified the systemtypes file and every where it called for Huge I changed it to Large, and every where it called for Tiny I changed it to the new smaller than tiny planet size. The results were better than I expected.

The planets that are specified as Large come out as Huge, like they are supposed to be anyway, and the planets(moons) specified as micro come out as tiny, like they are supposed to. So we end up with the new planet size and everything else exactly as it should be. And no need to add any new Huge planet sizes as you suggested Puke.

So basically, it will work if I carry out the strange tweak you list above?

Just to clarify: I'm not trying to make habitable ships or anything like that, I just want tinier than tiny moons that I can scatter around in orbit of planets and nestled in asteroid fields.

My planetsize.txt now looks like this:

code:

---

Name                      := Tiny Asteroidal body

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Tiny

Max Facilities            := 0

Max Population            := 3

Max Cargo Spaces          := 30

Max Facilities Domed      := 0

Max Population Domed      := 0

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 10

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0



Name                      := Medium Asteroidal body

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Tiny

Max Facilities            := 0

Max Population            := 6

Max Cargo Spaces          := 60

Max Facilities Domed      := 0

Max Population Domed      := 2

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 20

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0



Name                      := Large Asteroidal body

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Tiny

Max Facilities            := 0

Max Population            := 9

Max Cargo Spaces          := 90

Max Facilities Domed      := 0

Max Population Domed      := 3

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 30

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0





Name                      := Absolutely Tiny

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Tiny

Max Facilities            := 1

Max Population            := 290

Max Cargo Spaces          := 5750

Max Facilities Domed      := 1

Max Population Domed      := 20

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 40

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0



Name                      := Very Tiny

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Tiny

Max Facilities            := 2

Max Population            := 330

Max Cargo Spaces          := 6600

Max Facilities Domed      := 1

Max Population Domed      := 40

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 80

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0



Name                      := Tiny

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Tiny

Max Facilities            := 3

Max Population            := 380

Max Cargo Spaces          := 7580

Max Facilities Domed      := 1

Max Population Domed      := 60

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 120

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0



Name                      := Fairly Tiny

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Tiny

Max Facilities            := 4

Max Population            := 435

Max Cargo Spaces          := 8700

Max Facilities Domed      := 1

Max Population Domed      := 80

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 160

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0



Name                      := Quite Tiny

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Tiny

Max Facilities            := 5

Max Population            := 500

Max Cargo Spaces          := 10000

Max Facilities Domed      := 1

Max Population Domed      := 100

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 200

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0



Name                      := Extremely Small

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Small

Max Facilities            := 6

Max Population            := 575

Max Cargo Spaces          := 11500

Max Facilities Domed      := 2

Max Population Domed      := 120

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 240

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0



Name                      := Really Small

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Small

Max Facilities            := 7

Max Population            := 660

Max Cargo Spaces          := 13200

Max Facilities Domed      := 2

Max Population Domed      := 140

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 280

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0



Name                      := Small

Physical Type             := Planet

Stellar Size              := Small

Max Facilities            := 8

Max Population            := 760

Max Cargo Spaces          := 15200

Max Facilities Domed      := 2

Max Population Domed      := 160

Max Cargo Spaces Domed    := 320

Constructed               := False

Special Ability ID        := 0

---

And so on. I have padded out the standard tiny, small, medium to include a total of 30 planet sizes...

BTW, what's a Lagrange poitn?

[geoschmo]

EDIT: My post here was incorrect. Please disregard.

[ January 13, 2003, 17:49: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Ed Kolis]

What, you can make up new ones?!? How do they interact with items that depend on a stellar object size (tectonic bombs and such)?

[geoschmo]

Ok, lightbulb moment. I have made some new discoveries here.

The problem I was having, and others too apparently as they reported the same symptoms, was not that we were making a planet size smaller thean tiny as I first believed. The problem was we were placing the new sizes before the exsisting ones in the planetsizes file. This was screwing up the game.

You can add all the sizes you want to the end of the file and wont have a problem. They don't have to be in order of size.

Also, the stellar size does not have to be the same as the name. That should have been obvious to me from looking at the file, but I missed it somehow. The name in the planetsize file is what is called in the SectTypes file for the planet size so that has to be unique for each planet size. But you can have multiple planet sizes with the same stellar type. Stellar size is called from the system types file whenever a specific size is needed. Huge and Tiny are the only ones called for specifically in the stock system types file.

Dogscoff, your planet sizes will work I believe as you have them listed as long as you put them at the end of the file. However, since you have them all listed as tiny stellar size they may be used for moons occasionally when the system type file is calling for "tiny".

Ed, Yes, you can make new sizes. As far as how they intereact with the tectonic bombs and whatnot I thought I had that figured out, but I can't say for sure now. I will do some tests taking into consideration my new information and let you know.

Geoschmo

[geoschmo]

Ok, reagarding Tectonic bombs, those appear to work based on the oder of the entries in the planetsize file. So if you want your new planets to be destroyable you will have to pu tthem in order form smallest to largest, which means you will get the error I talked about in the other thread with specified planet sizes. This can be corrected though by simply modifiying the system types file and I suppose the components fril for the tectonic bombms accordingly.

Geoschmo

[dogscoff]

thanks geo, you're a geezer

[Fyron]

You cannot call for custom planet sizes specifically in SystemTypes.txt, or you will get Null Planets.

[geoschmo]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
You cannot call for custom planet sizes specifically in SystemTypes.txt, or you will get Null Planets.

Do try and keep up Fyron. We figured out what was causing that ages ago and have quite effective workaround for it. Actually what we discovered in this thread is there are two workarounds depending on whether or not you want the custom planetsizes to be destroyable in the game.

Geoschmo