Adding races

from Sins Forums

Alright.. my eyes are tired from scouring the forum for answers to a basic "How to" for adding races to the game, I thought I'd throw this out there.  The best I could come up with on a search is a short tutorial for 1.03 which didn't work when I tried it.  I have Entrenchment 1.041

Does anyone have a breakdown of the files that are needed?  I haven't even got as far as seeing the new race show up so I can choose it in the Game setup.  My goal was to duplicate the Tech race with a different name and then go from there (mod the ships, modules, etc) but I can't seem to get step one done.

I need to know what file changes I absolutely need to make and which ones are cosmetic (names of ships, etc?)

I've gave the "new" race a "PlayerType" line in the GalaxyScenarioDef" file and created a Player.entity file for it (a dup of the PlayerTech.entity file with the raceNameStringID changed.  I'm certain those are necessary, and obviously I'm still missing something since the race doesn't show up as a selectable.

Keep in mind I'm just trying to clone the Tech race at the moment.  I've been editing most of the files in the GameInfo folder for some time now, so I'm not a noob at modding, but this is the first time I've tried to fiddle around with adding a race.

And please don't direct me to another link/thread unless A: you know the link still works and B: You know it solves my problem with 1.041 and isn't old instructions for an earlier version.

Thank you

modding
4,294 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Did you add the new player.entity file to the entity manifest file?

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Well I thought I had, but I guess not.  I had gone back to the vanilla game to start over in case I had done something unrecoverable, so I can't be sure.  Since it's working now, that was probably what I missed.  Well, back to creation.

Thanks again.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Adding a new faction is a pain if you dont know what you are doing, but it looks like you got the general idea.

For adding a copy of a tech faction you just need the playertech.entity renamed to your new faction. The english.string edited with your new factions name added, and your new factions player.entity added to the entity.manifest. That "should" be it. If you added on to your new faction (new ships, research, or ability's) you may need what you added listed in the entity.manifest as well.

Many entitys are co-dependent on other entitys (for research, ability's, strike craft, etc. etc.) Sifting through them all is a daunting task. When you add your new ships do not put any research pre-req's, strike craft, or abilitys on them until you understand how they work, and you are ready to add them. One miss spell, or missing entry will make wierd things happen, or will send you right back to your desktop (as you may have found out the hard way).

Check your Entity Manifest's, and make sure your new Player"Newracename".entity is there. If not then add it, and add 1 to the number at the top of the list. Then try it again. Always add to the number at the top of the list for every string, or line you add. If you remove a string, or line subtract from the number, or you will get errors. If you see a number at the top of a list and you change the lines. Make sure the number at the top matches.

You can use developer.exe to check for errors, or missing files if you didnt know this already. It should be where you installed sins.

 

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Major, reply 3
Adding a new faction is a pain if you dont know what you are doing, but it looks like you got the general idea.

For adding a copy of a tech faction you just need the playertech.entity renamed to your new faction. The english.string edited with your new factions name added, and your new factions player.entity added to the entity.manifest. That "should" be it. If you added on to your new faction (new ships, research, or ability's) you may need what you added listed in the entity.manifest as well.

Many entitys are co-dependent on other entitys (for research, ability's, strike craft, etc. etc.) Sifting through them all is a daunting task. When you add your new ships do not put any research pre-req's, strike craft, or abilitys on them until you understand how they work, and you are ready to add them. One miss spell, or missing entry will make wierd things happen, or will send you right back to your desktop (as you may have found out the hard way).

Check your Entity Manifest's, and make sure your new Player"Newracename".entity is there. If not then add it, and add 1 to the number at the top of the list. Then try it again. Always add to the number at the top of the list for every string, or line you add. If you remove a string, or line subtract from the number, or you will get errors. If you see a number at the top of a list and you change the lines. Make sure the number at the top matches.

You can use developer.exe to check for errors, or missing files if you didnt know this already. It should be where you installed sins.

 
End of Major's quote

 

Oh yeah.  CTD's are my main debugging tool :)

I got the ability to select the new race, but I also noticed that the UI is all messed up.  It's not looking for the Tech info cards and window dressing.  Is there an easy way to fix that or is this worse than I thought? (I already knew it was going to be tedious)  The Developer.exe gives me a ton of "missing label" warnings and many of them don't look related.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Missing text label errors are your english string. The game is looking for a line that isnt there.

Again make sure you added the correct number on the top of your strings. It looks like your english.string may be messed up. When you add at the top where it says number of strings its per "string" not per line. I made that mistake and found out the hard way :p

Also look in the galaxydefscenario file. If you added to that, then you need to make sure the numbers on the tops of the lists add up.

You need to add a player themes and a player pictures entity for your new faction. Just copy/rename tech again, and add to the themes and pictures manifest. I dont see how your UI could be messed up since it is using Tech's player themes.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah.. it's all good now.  I puttered around and ironed out the minor details.  Now I got a dup of the tech race and can start thinking up new ships.  Thanks guys.

I like the indea of the english.str file (and the entity.manifest file) but it sure is easy to miss stuff.