RE: massive collaborative mod

[Phlagm]

It's not entirely out of the question that I've just cocked something up somewhere, but I can't figure out what it could possibly be. I also cant figure out why rearranging races in the game.ini file makes them show up or not. I'm assuming ones near the top show up in the game more (hence pirates ALWAYS seem to be there). But then this doesn't seem to be true for races in the simulator. I mean it may just boil down to a pseudo random generator never generating certain numbers, but who knows. I tried moving all the races to the bottom that only appear when forced onto the map: Terrans, Kawangi, etc. But then people started getting Muktians and Zorg at Hope. Since I put Terrans back at the top, I haven't heard of that problem again.

Maybe if I keep adding races I'll hit a sweet spot where the generator works again..if it even is that.

[sgqwonkian]

Oh, so you'd actually moved Terrans down on the list, Phlagm? I hadn't realized that. A quote from the Modmaker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"Add the filename of your race (pirate) somewhere after Terran (The Player's race must always be first on the list, and we're keeping the player as a Terran). Now the new race will be loaded when you run the mod..."

So absolutely, there's significance to the first Race listed. I'm just uncertain to what degree order matters after that.

Perhaps the system isn't "grab x at random" maybe it's something along the lines of "50% chance to get the first one, if not, skip down a line. repeat."

I note that in the default version the mainquest-only races are at the end of the list.

[Phlagm]

Ah, well I fixed that problem, as I deduced that was responsible for the flaky behavior. I did move all the mainquest races down, but still the cambrians weren't loading. I guess the weird thing is that in the intro screen, it loads guys at the end like mad. But as it currently is, it'll load Ravians and corrupted tan ru and gathans and everyone else, but no sphyrna, but before they were loading constantly. It boggles the mind

[sgqwonkian]

Swapping the following post to this thread where it may be more appropriate. I'll add to it the statement that the A & B thing could be done by just posting an alternate game.ini file, you wouldn't need an entire seperate mod.

Originally posted to another thread:
"I can't find the thread on your race non-randomization issues. Was it just in this thread? If so, you might want to post it as a seperate thread to lure Fingers into answering your questions.

In the meantime, here's my thoughts of a possible (admittedly kludgy) work-around for the non-randomized race issues you've been having:
You could publish alternate versions: 1.1A and 1.1B, for example. Make them identical, except for the order of certain entries in the game.ini file. Always make your changes to the A version, and then every so often generate a new B by taking the latest A and swapping around the order of a couple races.
Kind of annoying, I know, but it's at least a possible temporary solution until Fingers notices these threads and can post an explanation of what's happening and why."

[mantari]

This idea is hotttt. I was hoping someone would make a massive collaboration mod. There are a lot of small elements in certain mods that I really liked and wished I could pull them all together.