Adding Races

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Adding Races - 12/6/2011 3:22:43 AM

srmclark

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I was attempting to add a new race to Legends, but I'm not sure how to do it. The customization guide is not up to date. I really want to add a Roman Empire-like race, kind of like the "Tour of the Merrimack" series, Palatine Empire.

Thanks for the help.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/6/2011 3:23:51 AM

srmclark

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Disregard, I see now they have released a customization guide for legends.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/6/2011 3:25:53 AM

Nedrear

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It IS up to date.

1) Copy a race file out of the order
2) Give the .txt the name of your new race.
3) Edit the race textfile with the data you want
4) Put it into your race folder
5) Copy a policy text and switch the name like above and put your wanted setting inside, put it back like the other
6) Do the same for the character file
7) Edit the Bias file and add your race and their natural relations
8) Now you should see them ingame

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RE: Adding Races - 12/6/2011 11:44:41 PM

srmclark

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Okay, I did all of that. However, when I start the game now, it simply says "Distant Worlds has stopped working.." and shuts down. Does not even load the game.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/7/2011 12:09:39 AM

Nedrear

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You do that in the customization file and NOT the main file. Then you change the Theme INGAME. You could at least have looked at the modding guide.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/7/2011 4:13:48 AM

the1sean

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Nedrear

You do that in the customization file and NOT the main file. Then you change the Theme INGAME. You could at least have looked at the modding guide.

You could at least be civil.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/7/2011 5:07:17 AM

Nedrear

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I only mentioned - in a short precise term -, that the right path with a picture for the mod is shown in the guide he himself declared as found while my old post kicked in. After that he should have at least looked at it as to know where to mod.
Furthermore I guess we both have different terms of civil. I did not call him names in these events, only pointing out a seemingly flaw. Why I think the flaw might be correct? He did not prove the assumption wrong by adding "the game did not start before the modding either". Therefore he clearly modded at the wrong place. Based on that he missed to read the guide he found before, I set as a main guideline while following my steps.
Tell me where I missed beeing civil? If you mean the BIG LETTERS, they are my personal way of emphasizing parts of a sentence to increase their importance. Telling him that way he is in the wrong place and where to activate the mods is correct. In my eyes that is furthermore not uncivil.
So please contribute to the thread and stop criticizing my NEUTRAL ways of talking and analyzing. They are no attack on any code of conduct.

Yes you will read no "Hello" or "best wishes" or "highest regard" at the start or end of my posts. I write these in personal letters or messages. Furthermore you will not see me say any other empty phrases which will not contribute to the discussion as such. I present clear answers, viewpoints or criticism. Not more or less. That does not make an answer uncivil.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/19/2011 3:47:21 AM

Evrett

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Um ya..I'm having problems with this too..there is a lot unclear not only in the manual but in your instructions.

1) when you say race folder I'm assuming you mean the subfolder in my <customracename> folder. Is it called "race" or "races"? Should it include all the standard races as well or just my custom one?
2) Same with policy. I made a subfolder called "Policy" and copied a policy in there. Does it need the rest of the races too?
3) The character file is very confusing. The manual calls it "optionally a set of predetermined charecters" but includes it in the 3 files you must have. Its not really clear what this is used for..are these the randomly generated characters? I dont want to mod those so I put in a copy of another races.
4) There are a bunch of folders and files with differing capitaliztion. Does that matter ?
5) what does the race picture get named and what does it mean by "index"
6) The biases file isnt required by the manual..is it necessary ?

< Message edited by Evrett -- 12/19/2011 4:16:37 AM >

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RE: Adding Races - 12/19/2011 4:16:08 AM

Nedrear

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I'll write you a detailed mod guide after I took some sleep. I will put out the Pangalactic Commonwealth now and stop.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/19/2011 7:39:38 AM

Shark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Evrett

Um ya..I'm having problems with this too..there is a lot unclear not only in the manual but in your instructions.

1) when you say race folder I'm assuming you mean the subfolder in my <customracename> folder. Is it called "race" or "races"? Should it include all the standard races as well or just my custom one?
2) Same with policy. I made a subfolder called "Policy" and copied a policy in there. Does it need the rest of the races too?
3) The character file is very confusing. The manual calls it "optionally a set of predetermined charecters" but includes it in the 3 files you must have. Its not really clear what this is used for..are these the randomly generated characters? I dont want to mod those so I put in a copy of another races.
4) There are a bunch of folders and files with differing capitaliztion. Does that matter ?
5) what does the race picture get named and what does it mean by "index"
6) The biases file isnt required by the manual..is it necessary ?

I'm going to post a screen shot of the the theme folder I am currently working in. Sometimes it is easier to show than to explain. AFAIK I have the theme folder structure done correctly. Just ignore the path, as this is my working folder, not the game ready folder, however, everything is as it should be in the folder.

#1 See the picture I am embedding, but yes you will have subfolders in your theme folder.

#2 You need only include policy files for those races you add or those whose policies you wish to change. In my theme folder I have simply copied over all the policy files...it is redundant however, only necessary if you make changes or add a new race (as best I can tell).

As to #3, as far as I can tell, you will have to define a set of characters for an added race, as the game has nothing hardcoded to tell it to generate random characters for an added race.

#4 Always a good idea to follow the form the coder used, it probably won't matter, but if it does you can save yourself a lot of heart burn in the end if you mimic what the coder did.

#5 Race pictures shoudl be named Race_XX and Race_XXa where XX is the appropriate number for the race you are adding. With the new system you specify this. Races already in game are numbered 0-21, so if you add races you pictures should start at Race_22, and in the race file you create your will point it to 22 here: 'Picture index: index of picture used for this race from race pictures contained in Images\units\races\ folder or Customization\YourTheme\raceImages\ folder
PictureIndex ;22

#6 Biases file is fairly easy, and I would include it to better define how you want the various races to react.

Attachment (1)

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RE: Adding Races - 12/20/2011 4:05:05 AM

Evrett

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hmm the charecter part looks like 10x as much work as the rest..do you happen to know how many characters needs to be added? Will it create no random charecters at all for this race ?

I'm getting an error in my biases file after I added my race saying there are more biases than races..I'm not seeing an error and the location given isnt anywhere near my added parts..can biases be left out ?

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RE: Adding Races - 12/20/2011 4:10:33 AM

Nedrear

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It will create all characters, though as a starting game character there only will be a leader and the spies. The others are spawning later. Therefore if an ambassador at start is wanted, put him in yourself.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/20/2011 5:06:14 AM

tjhkkr

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I'm going to post a screen shot of the the theme folder I am currently working in. Sometimes it is easier to show than to explain. AFAIK I have the theme folder structure done correctly. Just ignore the path, as this is my working folder, not the game ready folder, however, everything is as it should be in the folder.
#1 See the picture I am embedding, but yes you will have subfolders in your theme folder.
#2 You need only include policy files for those races you add or those whose policies you wish to change. In my theme folder I have simply copied over all the policy files...it is redundant however, only necessary if you make changes or add a new race (as best I can tell).
As to #3, as far as I can tell, you will have to define a set of characters for an added race, as the game has nothing hardcoded to tell it to generate random characters for an added race.
#4 Always a good idea to follow the form the coder used, it probably won't matter, but if it does you can save yourself a lot of heart burn in the end if you mimic what the coder did.
Listen to what he says about this
#5 Race pictures shoudl be named Race_XX and Race_XXa where XX is the appropriate number for the race you are adding. With the new system you specify this. Races already in game are numbered 0-21, so if you add races you pictures should start at Race_22, and in the race file you create your will point it to 22 here: 'Picture index: index of picture used for this race from race pictures contained in Images\units\races\ folder or Customization\YourTheme\raceImages\ folder
PictureIndex ;22
#6 Biases file is fairly easy, and I would include it to better define how you want the various races to react.

Nice piece of work here.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 1:13:33 AM

Evrett

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What does "more bias values than races in line 12" mean? I get this error when I try and load my custom race. I have an unmodified biases file in the DW root and none in the theme pack. Loading the normal game without the theme works fine. Adding a modified bias file with my race as 22 has the same crash.

< Message edited by Evrett -- 12/23/2011 1:17:25 AM >

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 1:40:46 AM

Nedrear

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You really don't need two threads for this:

In your race text file it asks at the top for a race name. If you edit an existing race, than change your name there and in the bias at there place.
If you add a race, do the same, but don't edit the race in the bias, but instead add it below. After that add one number to all biases for your new race (1,2,3...21 now + 22) and to your race as well.
And yes modded races NEED a bias file in the theme folder.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 3:25:33 AM

Evrett

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Evrett

Adding a modified bias file with my race as 22 has the same crash.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 10:38:57 AM

Nedrear

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Well clearly you did not follow my instructions. Your race file IF OPENED, got a line with a race name. The exact same needs to be in the bias. Furthermore, if you add a race, you get a 22x22 matrix instead of a 21x21 matrix. Therefore you have to add a 22 at the end of the line above the bias and afterwards the bias towards your race of the others vertical below. Your main race needs these 22 numbers afterwards in its own column too. Maybe you got the spaces or colons wrong... or missed the whole "add a new bias line for race 22 vertical" part.
Furthermore the policy textfile name, the race textfile name and all the others need to be the same. Only difference: The whole name of the policy file is written in big letters at the start of a word.

E.g. Republic Of Sparta / republic of sparta - I simply follow the instructions of the Programmer here to be safe

The bias and race ingame name does NOT need to be the same as the textfiles. They are NOT connected. The three textfiles are connected between each other, and the bias is connected with the small answer in the second part of the race textfile.

I added dozens of races... therefore this way is absolutely correct.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 1:40:55 PM

Evrett

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I followed your instructions and still get the error. The bias file has the changes to the matrix, but with or without the bias file I still get the same error.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 2:00:59 PM

Nedrear

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Did you add all the race to the race folder? The bias file asks all that are noted and when it say "I got Ackdarians" but he got no race file he is pissed.
On the other hand if you say "I give the game Polish" and don't add same in the bias the game gets pissed "where the hell is my bias!"
If you add a race and put in the bias file another name than in the second column of the race file the bias gets pissed, as it can not dicern the target.

You know Screenshots of YOUR files - the three files names, the second column of the race file as the race name and an overall picture of the bias - would help.

< Message edited by Nedrear -- 12/23/2011 2:03:46 PM >

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 2:40:19 PM

Evrett

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Fixed it.. there is an format error in my original bias file that has the first two and the last two columns out of whack..I was keeping to that format but when I got rid of it in my custom bias everything worked. Should I correct it in the bias that came with the game?

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 3:04:25 PM

Nedrear

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No that works well by it's own. Leave the standard files in peace. The game worked right?
The "format" is not the error, but in this format there might be errors if a name is too long. I got that too. Just push them evenly with tab back, so that all are behind the longest race name and it will be fine... don't forget the number column above though.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 3:55:56 PM

Shark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Evrett

Fixed it.. there is an format error in my original bias file that has the first two and the last two columns out of whack..I was keeping to that format but when I got rid of it in my custom bias everything worked. Should I correct it in the bias that came with the game?�

If you have excel you can open the text files in excel and it will line stuff up for you. When you go to save it will give you a warning about comma delineated files, but if you go ahead and save it, it works fine.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/23/2011 3:57:29 PM

Evrett

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Yup all good now :) Thanks for the help. I guess notepad must open it funny for some reason.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/24/2011 4:15:35 PM

Evrett

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What does "Index is out of the bounds of the array" error mean. I got this when changing the picture of the slandor to a custom one that doesnt look so goofy.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/24/2011 5:45:30 PM

Shark7

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It means you changed your theme with a start file already done. I can't remember exactly where to find it, but in the same area with the save games is a file you will need to delete to fix it. Might want to bug report it and go to tech support forum, some one there might be able to help you fix it.

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RE: Adding Races - 12/24/2011 7:47:27 PM

Evrett

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got it fixed..I had a misspelled race name.

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