How can I kick out spaceport functions completely ?

Thane of Cawdor · #1 November 4th, 2002, 07:38 PM

Well, would be nice if someone could tell me:

I want to make a MOD in which you colonize a planet, but not like in the normal gameplay
you just have the ressources on it you produce and store on it or bring to it with a transport.
There are no more any spaceports, each planet has to be managed on its very own.
To realize all this you will have lets say 10 times more space on planets and I would like to add "Livingspacefacilities", so you can have enough population to work in your facilities.
Now I need to know, how I can manage to kick out the spaceportsystem of SE4 completely. I already kicked out the spaceportfacility, but I did not yet manage to kick out the ressourcesharing in a system.
Perhaps I could create absolutely invisible ships of a non-interacting race, which orbit every planet and blockade it and then just kick out the blockaded-sign

So I would be glad if someone could help me with that. You then may also ask for some other additional changes

Jmenschenfresser · #2 November 4th, 2002, 08:00 PM

No way I know of changing the resource system.

You can change it to where space ports are obsolete...as in, everyone has the natural merchants trait...or whatever it is called.

But that won't allow for anything but an extra facility space per system.

Suicide Junkie · #3 November 4th, 2002, 08:05 PM

Even when blockaded, planets still pull resources from the empire's storage. Blockading simply renders the local resource facilities useless.

Thane of Cawdor · #4 November 4th, 2002, 08:14 PM

Well, I will try to go deeper into the SE4 source code, first I will have to encrypt the files, of course,... a lot of work to do...
I think it is not possible to do such changes in the normal text files, as I did not find a trigger to regulate the economic connection between planets-systems-empire

geoschmo · #5 November 4th, 2002, 08:50 PM

Rather than trying to get around the encryption and hack the game code, why not just make your own game and then you can set it up any way you want?

Geoschmo

Thane of Cawdor · #6 November 4th, 2002, 11:49 PM

Well, I just got too far with encoding the se4.exe, I cannot stop now

geoschmo · #7 November 5th, 2002, 12:14 AM

Sure you can. You simply stop doing it.

But at any rate, you are not likely to get any assistance on this forum for hacking the game code. And your offer to make changes other people request is a bit concerning...

Quote:

Originally posted by Thane of Cawdor:
So I would be glad if someone could help me with that. You then may also ask for some other additional changes

I don't wish to turn this into another thread about whether hacking or not is bad. I know many people, obviously you are one of them, feel it is ok to hack into programs. Whether or not doing so for your own use is considered piracy, I can assure you that doing so and distributing the files to others is seriously frowned upon. If you persist in discussing it here things could get ugly.

Geoschmo
Space Empires IV Forum Moderator

[ November 05, 2002, 00:24: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

mlmbd · #8 November 5th, 2002, 03:22 PM

Enough said, MAYBE?!?

You seem to be a pretty sharp programer. Why not put all that energy into your own programs? Make some money!

mlmbd

Thane of Cawdor · #9 November 5th, 2002, 04:16 PM

Hmm, programming my own game would just cost me too much time which I just do not have, but I have alreday started to make a webbased se4-like game with some friends, although there are already many.

Quote:

But at any rate, you are not likely to get any assistance on this forum for hacking the game code.

I never asked for it, did I ?
I asked whether it is possible with the normal moddable files to change the economic system in se4 completly. And as it does not seem so, I just tried to change it in the exe-file. If I wanted to hack it for public purpose I would have presented the source code of the game, which is a nice example for Delphi-programming at its best !

At those who now feel to need to have the source code:

I will not give it to you !!!

Just for those who are interested:
it costed me several hours, but I finally could change what I wanted, even without any programm errors when starting the game.

But it is not at all what I wanted, because I wanted to make a legal mod , which can be played by everyone.

So I am back at the beginning of this post

and open for any advice how I could mod the game to have an planetonly-economy, which would lead to a greater importance of transporters and the resulting transport-routes.

geoschmo · #10 November 5th, 2002, 05:30 PM

There is no way currently to do what you want unfortunatly without hardcode changes. Even by eliminating the spaceport component and taking out the merchant racial trait, all you will succeed in doing is eliminating resource production outside of the home system. Construction every where in the empire will still pull from the empire pool. There is no way to make production dependant on resources generated locally.

Geoschmo