Modding SEV Thread Questions

[Barnacle Bill]

What governs the availability of an empire to include in a new game?

I created a mod for my own preferences (essentially just settings.txt) and basically copied the Terrans to a new name. OK, I start a new game with my mod and run some cheat codes to look at the state of the galaxy - all the usual suspects are there, even though I did not copy them to the "Empires" folder in my mod. That's not really a problem for what I want to do (except maybe I'd like to turn off the Terrans until I've made my own flags, etc...), but what if I was doing a Star Trek mod or something where I didn't want the stock SE races in the game? Is there a way to turn them off in a mod without editing the standard SE data structure?

Also, one of the neutral empires turned up with the same flag as the Terran one that I'm using (temporarily) on my race. Doesn't it check to see if a flag is already in use?

[Captain Kwok]

The flag problem was corrected in a patch after the version 1.00 build.

The modinfo.txt file included with a mod can specify whether the default empires are added or not.

[Q]

What are the minimum files needed for a mod in SE V?
Just the data files?

[Captain Kwok]

You need a 192x192 image (can just copy the standard one) along with a modinfo.txt file. For the data files, you just need to include the ones you have modified.

[Q]

Excellent, so you can easily create test-Mods, where you only change a few items.
Thank you for you answer Kwok.

[Kana]

Captain Kwok said:
You need a 192x192 image (can just copy the standard one) along with a modinfo.txt file. For the data files, you just need to include the ones you have modified.

What image? Whats it do?

[Phoenix-D]

Its just an icon that shows up when picking a game type in the main screen. You don't actually need it- if its not there SEV uses the default icon.

[Captain Kwok]

It's the image displayed when choosing "Game Type". If you don't include one it might just use the default but I've never tried it.

[Phoenix-D]

A few modding tricks:
If you have a lot of components, some of them might be obselete at high tech levels, and unlike SE4 it doesn't seem like you can get rid of them.

But this isn't correct. All components take formulas for their requirements, and those accept "less than" as an option. So you can make a component that disappears once some research level is reached, and a better replacement becomes available.

Say you want the Cannon to appear from levels 1-5 in Projectile Weapons, where its replaced by the DUC. You'd put this in the requirement field:
(Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Projectile Weapons") >= 1) AND (Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Projectile Weapons") <= 5)

the (s are important- they let SEV know where a funtion like Get_Empire_Tech_Level ends.

[Kana]

Phoenix-D said:
A few modding tricks:
If you have a lot of components, some of them might be obselete at high tech levels, and unlike SE4 it doesn't seem like you can get rid of them.

But this isn't correct. All components take formulas for their requirements, and those accept "less than" as an option. So you can make a component that disappears once some research level is reached, and a better replacement becomes available.

Say you want the Cannon to appear from levels 1-5 in Projectile Weapons, where its replaced by the DUC. You'd put this in the requirement field:
(Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Projectile Weapons") >= 1) AND (Get_Empire_Tech_Level("Projectile Weapons") <= 5)

the (s are important- they let SEV know where a funtion like Get_Empire_Tech_Level ends.

If I understand how this is working...

Do you think you could do this in the Vehicle Size file, in conjunction with other vehicle models...?

So basically for example, you have a Original series Star Treck Constitution class ship, and then when you get to a certain level of ship construction, you could upgrade to the Movie era ship image, yet they are all in the say class level of ship?