Custom Techtrees

I use the copy and paste technique its easier than coming up with one from scratch and just adding new techs as you come along but certain techs are a requirement.Like the ethics and the colonization techs.our something like this

Are the required ones automatically in the tree by default? IE: The Colonization techs?

The main TechTree.xml file has all the common technologies, and each racial TechTree references the techs in that file.  This allows each race to put a different spin on each tech (different name, different costing, different bonuses) if need be, without duplicating all of teh information in the main TechTree.  Then there are techs specific to a given race, which are only found in that race's TechTree.

You will find though that it's not possible to load the main TechTree into the editor.  Any changes you need to make in there you will need to do by hand.

Hey...where do I get that thing that displays the actual tech tree like that?

download it at www.i-mod-productions.com in the downloads section.

OK, I'm still confused... I suppose part of it is my fault, not being very specific on my question...

I have several custom races, that I'd like to make custom tech trees for. What is the quickest/best/most recommended way of doing this? Furthermore, can I edit the required techs (like the colonization ones) to change the name or descriptions? And if so, how?

There is no quick way to make a custom tech tree.  I would start by looking at an existing tech tree that is at least reasonably similar to what you want to do, then save it as a new tech tree (with a new name) using the tech tree editor.

You can rename technologies there without ill effect, because each tech has an internal name which is what is used by the game when deciding what pre-requisite is needed to research a tech.

As I said, when you edit a specific race's TechTree, any changes you make there will be recorded only in their tech tree.  Any information which isn't in there is looked up on the main TechTree.

When you load up a tech tree in the editor you'll notice at the top left two boxes under the little Tech Tree heading.  These read Internal Name and Display Name.  You need to change these before making any edits at all.

OK. That answers those questions, one last question, where are the existing tech-trees stored in the GalCiv II sub-directory?

Thanks in advance.

GalCiv2\Twilight\Data\English\Techtrees should be the place to look.

When making a mod though, it seems that you need to throw the files in Data\Techtrees, not Data\English\Techtrees.

I'm not seeing a Data/TechTrees folder... There's the Data/English/TechTrees, but not Data/Techtrees.

Oh right, make a mod folder (a subfolder of Mods, to keep things organised) and set the game to use that mod folder.  Add a file in the mod folder called ModDescription.xml (use Notepad and paste the code below).

It should fill in the necessary folder structure once you've loaded it once.  Otherwise, make the necessary folder structure and save your modified files in there.

To actually use the game's mod folder selector you may need a mod from here.

Did that, still didn't find a Data/TechTrees.

Can I just make a folder called "TechTrees" in the Data directory and go from there?

Yeah.  If you really want a pre-made directory structure though, check out Galciv2\Mods\Default, that should have everything.