A puzzlement ...

[Elowan]

What I don't understand is why SEIV will not load an established empire if its civ. points are greater than the default. One would think that the settings would be changed when the increased points were detected on load-up. After all - the app knows that the points in the empire exceed the default - it just said so!

It's a pain in the *** to have to reset the points every time a new game is started with the same empire. The ability to read the reqs. would seem fundamental! Sheesh!!

[Suicide Junkie]

The empire file does not include any info on what to do if the points are too high for the game being played. Only the AI_General files do.

If you randomly generate an AI player, they will choose more or fewer traits depending on the racial points allowed.

The EMP just lists which traits were chosen.

SE4 is not going to make random changes to your race setup until it is under the limit, that would just be silly.

[Q]

Elowan that's why all my emp files are made for 2000 racial points!
However if you frequently use the same races at higher racial point settings make three emp files for 2000/3000 and 5000 points.
If you want to use a emp files that needs to many racial points how should your poor computer know where to cut racial points away? (Well it could read the general.txt file but that's only used if the race is included as a random computer player).

[DirectorTsaarx]

I think Elowan wants the game to detect the (for instance) 5000-point empire, and automatically change the game setting to be 5000 racial points. Rather than have to go to the game setup screen, manually set 5000 points, and then load the saved empire.

I'd go a few steps further and (like others before me) ask that the game remember our preferred game setup settings, so I don't have to change 10 things on 5 different screens EVERY TIME!!! (/rant)

[capnq]

Another workaround is to change the settings to the higher point limit, load the empire, edit it down to the intended value, then change the settings back. (Disclaimer: I haven't tried this myself; I don't know if the program will let you change the points setting after you've loaded an empire.)

But it's much easier to just save an empire with a name that indicates how many points you used to make it.

[Baron Munchausen]

This is a security thing. When you are starting a game there has to be very tight control, but there is no seperate option for just editing. There needs to be a seperate EMP file editor like there is for maps. Then we could have a 'load and revise' function that would save us all the hassle of running random games until all empires have been selected and manually saved.

[ August 19, 2002, 20:31: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]