Modding SEV Thread Questions

[Barnacle Bill]

Kana said:
A general question...

When you make a mod, what process to you follow?
How much pre planning do you do? What do you do?
Which data file do you start with first? Second?
Do you start from scratch, or do you just type over other entries?

I've never actually published a mod, but I mod the heck out of the game for my own amusement.

The first thing is documentation. Weeks or months down the road, there will be another patch. In SEIV, there was the TDM mod, which I always used as the base for mine - and it had new versions at least a few weeks after any vanilla patch (sometimes in between). Then I need to update my homegrown mod. So, you have to keep straight exactly what you did, file by file. I use a text file for that...

I always start with the base files from the game or mod I'm editing. The first thing I do is to capture in my mod notes file what the big picture is - what I'm trying to accomplish. So I'll write at the top (above the file by file details) stuff like...

"BC1 - separate warships & auxilliaries. Need to restrict warship hulls to not include non-allowed systems. This would appear to be done via requirement Get_Design_Ability_Component_Count("<ability>") <= 0, where <ability> is the actual ability type of the component. Also looks like Get_Design_Specific_Component_Count("<component>") <= 0 would work, with <component> being the actual name of the component to exclude. The latter would be required to distinguish between fighter/drone launches vs satellite/mine launchers. Need to use Get_Design_Specific_Component_Count("<component>") to restict number of actual Supply Storage, Ordnance Storage & Solar Collector components individually by warship hull size, to allow a reasonable amount but preclude making warship-hulled ammo or supply ships. Want to restrict weapons on non-warships - how (maybe give all "auxilliary systems" the cargo ability with amount 0 and let the 50% cargo rule handle it)."

As you can see, I make notes to myself about what might work - helps me to remember why I did something. Then, as I note specific changes in the files I'll put "[BC1]" at the end of the change entry if that was in support of the "Big Change" described under BC1.

That done, usually I do the techs file first, since everything else depends on them. I try to test little bits at a time, because if you spend all day modding and then it won't load, it's hard to figure out what you screwed up. The modding docs are pretty sparse (even in SEIV - they are positively missing so far for SEV), so you have to run little experiments to see how things really work. Cheat codes are your friend when doing that...

[frightlever]

Captain Kwok said:
To use 20x15 hexes, you need to edit the SystemTypes.txt file so that no items are placed beyond ring 7 - that is what causes the crash.

When changing the system size, multiple the radius by the factor you change the size by. For example, 20/26 is ~ 75%, so the radius should be 315 etc.

I had a look in SystemTypes.txt and maybe I was being over-optimistic but I simply replaced any reference to "ring 8" or "ring 9" with "ring 7".

I can now generate a 20x15 system but there's just my homeworld and maybe a storm - no other planets or warp points.

Going the other way a 40x20 with a 720 radius gives the attached screenshot. It kinda appeals to me because at least it looks like the screen's being used efficiently in the 2D view.

Given that I'm determined to stick with the 2D view I assumed that making the screen smaller would make the icons more legible without obscuring neighbouring hexes so badly (since individual hexes will be relatively bigger). However now I'm thinking of sticking with the 40x20 and seeing if I can mod the icons to be more readable when pulled out as per the screenshot. I figure if I could replace them with simnple letters (like the old YSR) it'll be good enough. Not that I've even checked to see if those grafix are available to edit.

[shinigami]

Here's a cool one;

In SEIV if you wanted to tie a modified version of a standard component or facility to a racial trait you had to create a new tech area and a new version of the comp or facility. In SEV you can just change the original comp or facility like so,
Code:

---

 snip

Ability 1 Type                                  := Space Yard

Ability 1 Description                           := Can construct with [%Amount2%] minerals per turn.

Ability 1 Scope                                 := Space Object

Ability 1 Range Formula                         := 0

Ability 1 Amount 1 Formula                      := 1

Ability 1 Amount 2 Formula                      := iif(Empire_Has_Racial_Trait("Poor Builders"), 1000

 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 100), 2000 + (([%Level%] - 1) * 200))

 snip

---

By going this route you could easily have a Temporal race use the same spaceyard as all the other races.

Edit: added a linebreak for formatting.

[Suicide Junkie]

That would also cause the spaceyard rate to double as soon as the regular races invade and replace the poor builders.

[shinigami]

Yeah, that's true (and a great point), "Poor Builders" in this case must a race of mismanagers, put someone else in charge and things run smoothly. It was only intended as an example to show what could be done. If a modder were to use this technique he would certainly need to keep this in mind.

[CosmoLizard]

hello to all, one question

the racial abilities and race setup is in the "jraenar_setup_script.csf" file?? how can i open an csf file into a .txt???

the AI is stored in "jraenar_main_script.csf"?

btw there is any way in which some empires "hates" each to other??, i mean for example , humans that are somewhat neutral, but, for example, with the jraenar there is a "hatring" between both so there are more probabilities that both goes to war, is possible?

thxs

[AngleWyrm]

Script compiling is a one-way operation: From txt to csf.

Look in SE5\Utilities\ScriptParser\SE5EmpireScripts

[CosmoLizard]

thxs Angel, ...hmmm, noe, how i turn txt inti cfs??

regards

[Fyron]

By using the compiler one level down from that folder.

[pujal]

Answered.