Races and SEIV folder structure

[sachmo]

I'm sure this has been covered elsewhere, but I'm a bit busy today and only have moments to spare...if I download an empire for a particular game, where should I extract it to? For example, I usually play with the TDM-Mod, do I put all of my empires under the TDM-Mod folder? What if I want to keep two sets of AI for one race?

[Phoenix-D]

Races go in the Space Empires IV/Pictures/Races folder. If you're playing a mod, they go into the (Modname)/Pictures/Races folder

So, for example, the TDM Modpack Eee would be:

Space Empires IV/Pictures/Races/Eee

Both the pictures and AI text files go in the same folder. If you want an alternate AI for the same set of pictures, you have to do some renaming.

Two ways of doing this. If you don't want the two AIs in the same game, just copy the race's folder and paste it somewhere else. Then put the new AI in the original folder, replacing the text files already in. To switch between the two, copy/paste the new AI out of the Pictures folder and the old back in.

If you want them both in at the same time, do the same. Except this time, paste into the Pictures folder, and re-name the folder. Now you have to go in to that folder and change every file to match the new folder name.

So: if you changed Eee to Eeek,
Eee_Mini_Escort.bmp would be renamed to
Eeek_Mini_Escort.bmp

and on down with all the other files.

Phoenix-D

[dogscoff]

Also, if you want a race from your unmodded game to appear in a mod, just put an empty folder for that race in the modded folder, ie

se4/devnullmod/pictures/races/vikings

This can cause problems though, because the game will then try to use an unmodded AI for the modded game.
If you have a mod-specific AI for it you can put just the AI files in the folder above and the game will still pick up the images from the unmodded folder. (se4/pictures/races/vikings)

[sachmo]

That's what I was looking for Dogscoff! Thanks!