Fenrisfil
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Joined: 6/2/2013
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I made a text document to help a friend upgrade their mod from Shadows to universe, I thought I'd share it. If I missed anything let me know.
This is just talking about the race text files, I may deal with other things later (or anyone else can feel free to jump in. I suppose the next thing would be directory structure). Anyway:
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN UPGRADING RACE FILES
Often when you had to put a numerical value to select something from a set list, you now have to reference lists in other text files. Choosing planet types, event types and win conditions won't have changed but any reference to governments, components, resources or racial groups will need double checking.
Racial Group
RaceFamily ;
If you haven't edited the racial groups you can leave this alone. Otherwise update it to match the racial group numbers.
Components
SpecialComponent ;
This line now directly references component ID numbers, if the race doesn't have a special component this needs to be
set to a value of "-1". If you set this as 0 you will have a serious problem as that is by default the basic beam weapon.
DisallowedComponentIds ;
This is a new (and awesome) addition that allows you to block a race from having specific components. Unlike the special component, this is a comma separated list of component ID's. If there is nothing to block, just leave it blank otherwise just list component ID's with a coma between each one. You don't need a comma on the end.
Governments
SpecialGovernment ;
PreferredStartingGovernment ;
These both reference the governments.txt file and the numbers will no longer match up with the pre-universe list. Once again "0" is the first item in the list so make sure you set "-1" if you don't want to specify anything.
DisallowedGovernments ;
This is a new entry and again it's a comma separated list of ID numbers (and again doesn't require a comma on the end). If you don't want to disallow anything you can safely leave it blank.
CanChangeGovernment ;
This is a simple Y/N. If it is set to No the race will always use what they start with. With that in mind you may want to restrict the governments available and set a preferential. You would probably use this for a Hive Mind type race who would only function under that guise, but take into account that a spawning empire may end up with any government type available to them (i.e. one created in game) and that will then be permenant.
Resource Bonuses
'ResourceId:
Like the other items the resource bonus options now refer to a list. However if you want to blitz this quickly and haven't changed the resource file around yet you can simply reduce each number by 1 to get to your original choice. Once again "-1" is the "no resource" option, 0 will be the first resource in the list. Fortunately the resource bonuses also require other things to be set (what type of bonus, how much, etc) so if you didn't use these previously you can probably leave them alone. If you did set resources however, they will all be offset by one and that could be a little strange in game.
Win Conditions
The most important thing here is if you are requiring a specific wonder for a win condition. These now refer to the full list of facilities, which means if you leave these numbers you will have a lot of races trying to win the game by building robotic troop foundries and regional capitals.
On a side note, the way the game processes these vary. If you set the ID for a "RaceAchievement" Wonder (facility type 12), then the research project that includes that wonder will become race restricted. If you set it for any other type of wonder/facility then the research path remains open to all. I can't say for sure yet if non "RaceAchievement" facilities will still trigger as a win condition but I don't see why not.
Finally there are a few win conditions that won't work right if you are planning to do custom maps. These are the ones that reference homeworlds (control the most/control yours). Starting worlds spawned with the empire capital present at the galaxy creation stage count as homeworlds, nothing else does. That means if you create the Sol galaxy, create planet Earth and then put your Humans there, it does NOT count as the Human homeworld. So if you plan on making any custom maps I would avoid these two win conditions. It's possible the "protect the leader" win condition will have similar issues, but I've never used that so can't say if it only works for leaders spawned on galaxy creation.
Plagues
ImmuneToPlagues ;
This is a simple Y/N. If you want to set immunity to specific plagues you have to do that within the plagues file (though be warned only one race can have a different response to each plague). This is of course perfect for mechanical or energy based races.
That's it, if I missed anything let me know!
< Message edited by Fenrisfil -- 5/27/2014 11:00:43 PM >
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Quick guides for upgrading mods to Universe - 
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