XML modding question

You can make custom star systems with very specific attributes, but I'm not sure about random generation.

You can make custom star systems with very specific attributes, but I'm not sure about random generation.

I did see that one, you could adjust the Home systems of the different races and thats about it. I have not seen anyway to even make custome maps. I noticed the thread where someone is making a map editor, that will be nice, though I would prefer a way to change the radom generator.
I noticed while playing that the stars in the game do have different sizes, so there must be something in the game that can alter the size of the stars. I guess if the only way to get what I want is to build custom maps, sobeit, how do you make custom maps?

*&@^&*^@

I hate this BBS.

I did see that one, you could adjust the Home systems of the different races and thats about it. I have not seen anyway to even make custome maps. I noticed the thread where someone is making a map editor, that will be nice, though I would prefer a way to change the radom generator. I noticed while playing that the stars in the game do have different sizes, so there must be something in the game that can alter the size of the stars. I guess if the only way to get what I want is to build custom maps, sobeit, how do you make custom maps?

Under \data\CustomMaps sit the custom map files.
They are simple XML formated text files, but with a different extension.
You can add custom planets and tailor star systems to your liking. It would be tedious (to say the least) to write out a large galaxy like that by hand (why a map editor is a handy tool), but it's do-able.
I don't know if you can insert custom worlds (other than homeworlds) but it appears from just looking through the files you can define the class, location and 'owner' star for planets as you like for custom maps.

As for resizing them, yes, size is an attirbute the custom maps for both planets and stars.

I don't think we as modders have access to the rules governing random map generation, so while you can make a custom map conforming to your rules, you can't get random maps following your rules.

don't think we as modders have access to the rules governing random map generation, so while you can make a custom map conforming to your rules, you can't get random maps following your rules.

Well thats better then nothing, I did eventually find out that I could open the maps the same as XML files. I did try to post some questions on the variable ranges of some of the options, but I had a hell of a time tring to post last night and got pissed, as noted in my last post and decided to quit before totally losing it.

A couple star options are what I wanted to know about, size, the variable was 75.000, I want to know what are the ranges? is it a percentage? so 100.000 would be max and 1.000 min? or can I go 250.000 on size and have a star take up an entire sector.

There were two other options for stars I didnt understand, Pattern? I guess is the plasme effect, its variable is 37.5000, what is the range? how high can it go and how low and what does going higher of lower do?
and Density, agian what are the ranges and what are the effects of changing the ranges?

Rotation? they are all set to zero yet the stars rotate?

and the very first line starname="star [0,0] . [8,7]" what do the numbers do?

Is the ingame mapgenerator hard coded or script based?

I have not gotten a star to look bigger than it does at size 75.0, scaling down is no problem.
Planets scale up as large as I wanted though (I tried up to 200, down to 5)
My diminutive size 5.0 yellow dwarf sitting next to my size 150 homewold looked a bit odd though...


pattern and density definately effect the look of the texture on the star. Density controls the size of the color diferences. The lower the density the larger the color patterns become. Only range I found here was 0.0 set it back to a default value (probably why objects with rotation = 0 still rotate as well), but with density = 0.01 I got a solid yellow star, at 100 each individual pixel was its own color section.
Pattern I can only guess is something like a seed in a random number generator, changing it will alter when and where color diferences in plasma effect appear.

The numbers in the star name don't actually do anything. They're for record keeping, or mental notes on where the star is. The first two are what sector the star is located in, the second pair is the actual x, y coordinates. The "x> "y> tags are what actually place the star on the map though.

Excellent, thanks freidog. So it seems to get the 'red giants' I will just have to down scale everything else (planets will end up very small) now I just need to wait until the map editor is done and I can build my galaxy. Red giants, white dwarfs, Binary star systems and no green/purple stars. Unfortunate that I will not be able to have random maps with my visual desires, but oh well.

Any recent news on the possibility of map editor for the game. I suppose you can create custom maps directly editing the xml files, but I don't see it as practical for anything other than maybe a medium sized galaxy. Even then, it would probably take a long while!

Any recent news on the possibility of map editor for the game

like gc2builder?

Link

gc2builder web site

Ah! Thank you!

Its exactly what I've been looking for. For future reference, do these boards have a search function tucked away somewhere?

Its exactly what I've been looking for. For future reference, do these boards have a search function tucked away somewhere?

Left side just below recent posts.