A Desperate Plea to MM for Better Mod Support

Jubala · #1 January 11th, 2001, 03:09 AM

I agree completely with you ColdSteel. I have had a similar idea simmering at the back of my mind since the dawn of time (when I found out se4 ws coming and could be moded

) but never bothered to put it into words. Have you mailed this to MM?

Jubala · #2 January 11th, 2001, 03:30 AM

And another thing, savegames should also tell you what mod they are in when you load them. Maybe they should be saved in a savegame folder under the appropriate mod, or better yet, in folder named atfer the mod under the main savegame folder.

ColdSteel · #3 January 11th, 2001, 03:56 AM

Jubala,

Yes, I did mail it off to MM today. Your suggestion does sound good too. They could just stick the name of the mod as identified in the mod header file into the savegame as another variable. Easy to do except it may break savegame compatibility between Versions.

Maybe you could pass that suggestion on to them? I think it would be good if they heard support for this whole idea from multiple people.

Instar · #4 January 11th, 2001, 03:59 AM

Actually, the path.txt allows you to put the mods into separate folders. However, the game doesn't have any way of choosing which mod is run. You have to change path.txt before every game.

Tomgs · #5 January 11th, 2001, 04:21 AM

As far as I know the path.txt is only for modified files in the Data directory. A lot of things I modify are in the \pictures\races folder and also the AI folder so the path.txt doesn't help. I have 3 full installs of the game on my HD now 2 mods and the as patched 1.19 unmodified Version. The Data files if modified significantly will need to be addressed in the races folders to implement the changes or else the AI won't be able to utilize some of the changes. Especially if you create new technologies to research or new components to put on the ships or just change the components enough that the designs need to be modified.

Speaking of mods I was trying to modify the General.txt files for the races to min/max some of the races and it seems that they will ignore any numbers under 100 for their racial traits. Is there a way around this or am I just out of luck trying to give the AI a bonus to racial picks the way humans can?

Daynarr · #6 January 11th, 2001, 08:41 AM

quote:
Speaking of mods I was trying to modify the General.txt files for the races to min/max some of the races and it seems that they will ignore any numbers under 100 for their racial traits. Is there a way around this or am I just out of luck trying to give the AI a bonus to racial picks the way humans can?

You can try using emp files. Edit them so they have desired bonuses and then save them again (under new name preferably). Hyperion base had all the emp files for standard races (2000, 3000 and 5000 racial points). Unfortunately they are removed temporary from it because of some site changes, but when Hadrian puts them back, snatch them.

Or you can make them yourself, but that will take time and effort (several hours of copy/paste/edit).

Tomgs · #7 January 11th, 2001, 10:02 AM

Yea I know about making the emp files and I wouldn't mind the effort but I really like finding random races in the game and if I went the .emp route I would have to preset them. I guess I could but I would rather be surprised, I have a lot of downloaded races so I rarely get the same ones twice in a row now. It just doesn't make sense to code in a limit for AI's that is not present for humans and isn't even present for a .emp file AI.