Phase Drive upgrade / Research tree modding Tutorial

How to "upgrade" ship speed in between 2 planets without changing the ship's in-game overall speed?
Let's create a new technology!
Really usefull on huge maps.

I found how it works, how the layout of the research tree work so you can add your research and rezise / move the 3 block that form the subcategories.
I know I'm not the first one to modify the Research tree, but I intend to teach you how to add this technology over any other mods.

I personnaly use "The Mars Effect" merged with 2-3 other mods for graphic, sounds and new planet types
I will provide my versions of the files. you can use the 6 research files.
But for the player entity and String files, you should manually modify them to prevent crash.


This mod is a "Do is a do it yourself"

I recommend downloading Winmerge from Winmerge.org
A powerfull tool to compare your files.
Use that tool to compare my files with yours to understand my modifications and paste them over your favorite mod


Here is the Step by step procedure on how to had a new research in the tech tree.

Files RESEARCHSUBJECT_HYPERSPACD.rar English.rar PlayerX.rar
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Tutorial In progress //
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

So here is the list of files you need to play with:
(names might not be totally accurate since I'm doing that by memory for now, it will be updated later)

Create: (use my files)
Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePhase0.entity
Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePhase1.entity

Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePSI0.entity
Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePSI1.entity

Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradeTECH0.entity
Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradeTECH1.entity

Modify:
PlayerTec.entity
PlayerPhase.entity
PlayerPsi.entity
English.str (string folder)


//////////////
// PART 1 //
///////////// OPTIONAL STEP
//You can use my files without changes
//Link: RESEARCHSUBJECT_HYPERSPACD.rar
//
//Learning how to make a new research file:
//First thing to do is copy a Research File and modify it, Here is how a created them
//Files to modify : Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePhase0.entity
// Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePSI0.entity
// Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradeTECH0.entity

//change the modifier type for this
researchModifier
modifierType "HyperspaceInSystemSpeedAdjustment" //the bad ass attribute found in an artifact
baseValue 0.000000
perLevelValue 0.250000 //will give 35% speed to all ship Hyperspace speed, you can tweak that number

//you can also modify
MaxNumResearchLevels 4 //will enable researching the same upgrade mutiples times

//Chose an Icon that please you, this one is not really appropriate,
//find one that is more appropriate looking at the 3 races research tree
hudIcon "HUDICON_RESEARCHSUBJECT_ARTIFACT_HYPERSPACESPEED"
smallHudIcon "HUDICONSMALL_RESEARCHSUBJECT_ARTIFACT_HYPERSPACESPEED"

//where do you want this icon to be?
//combat or non-combat tree?
//there is 3 category... Block 0, 1 or 2 ?? Personnaly use Block 1
//pos [ Column? , Line? ] 0 , 1 , 2 ... ?? Personnally I just extended the 2nd block for the Phase, ( block 1 )
//by putting pos [ 0 , 3 ]
//At the moment, this mean you will add a 4th line to you 2nd non-combat research window
//The icon will overlap with the 3rd Block until you modify the layout of your research window
researchWindowLocation
block 1
pos [ 0 , 3 ]
ResearchField "NonCombat"

//Here come the first problems, This is a link to another file : English.str
//if you modify this attribute without modifying English.str,
//you will get an assert and game will crash when you will hover your pointer over the icon
//Replace the correct attribute for each race
NameStringID "IDS_Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePhase0_NAME"
DescriptionStringID "IDS_Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePhase0_DESCRIPTION"

//
//
//***Incomplete Tutorial***
//Left to be explained:
//Prerequisites, MinimumArtifactLevel, Tier, researchBoolModifiers, researchFloatModifiers
//Attribute not covered: (self explanatory)
//BaseUpgradeTime, PerLevelUpgradeTime, BaseCost, PerLevelCostIncrease
//
//



//////////////
// PART 2 //
///////////// MENDATORY STEP
//You should Only use my files as reference
//Link English.rar
//
//Second thing to do
//Modify the file: English.str
//You will ADD 12 Strings
StringInfo
ID "IDS_Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePhase0_NAME"
Value " Write a short name for you research"
StringInfo
ID "IDS_Researchsubject_HyperSpaceSpeed_UpgradePhase0_DESCRIPTION"
Value "Write a pretty description about what your technology does"
//Repeat this step for all 6 research files, using the right names

//DO NOT FORGET TO UPDATE THE HEADER OF English.str (ie: NumStrings 5169 )
//The game will not see the 12 new strings of you do not update the header....
//This one gave me an headache yesterday, since I was not aware of it's existance
//This number varies depending on the mod you have currently updating with you technology
//You added 12 strings? (2 strings per files) then take your NumberString and add + 12 = ???? (ie 5169 + 12 = 5181)
//to tell the game you have extra strings.
NumStrings 5181

//////////////
//ok! let's resume what we just did:
//We created a new technology, it is now "functionnal", BUT it is NOT implemented in game yet
//Next step is to add the technology to each Race technological tree
//It will require lots of tries to resize each race tech tree


//////////////
// PART 3 //
///////////// MENDATORY STEP
//You should only use my files as reference
//But there are chances they will work without problems along with Sin Plus
//Link: PlayerX.rar
//
//Second thing to do
//Modify the file: PlayerTec.entity
// PlayerPhase.entity
// PlayerPsi.entity
//
//This is another tricky part. you got 3 race, each have a different technology tree
//You need to add 2 new technology per race.
//For the PlayerPhase.entity, you will need to modify the layout of the research window a bit.

/////////////////////////
// COMMING SOON //
/////////////////////////

Links:
Player http://files.filefront.com/PlayerXrar/;9825182;/fileinfo.html
String http://files.filefront.com/Englishrar/;9825180;/fileinfo.html
Research http://files.filefront.com/RESEARCHSUBJECT+HYPERSPACDrar/;9825181;/fileinfo.html