Questions concerning cities, moons, and system data

delV · Post by **delV** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:05 am

I am currently working on a small mod that will add a new system to the game and I have several questions concerning the universedata.txt and systemdata.dat files after reading through the documentation in the customization kit *.zip file:

1. Is it currently possible to control both the latitude and longitude of cities on a planet's surface via the universedata.txt file? If not, would it be possible to add this feature in future patches/releases?

2. Would it be possible to give each city a unique name such that landing at the city spaceport would produce a message to the effect "<Welcome to City, Region, Planet>"? If not, would it be possible to add this feature (I believe combining this with the city*.x files could provide finer control over the placement of custom city meshes)?

3. How does the game process the information in systemdata.dat? There currently does not appear to be any documentation indicating how this correlates with the information in the universedata.txt file. Are the -# entries at the beginning of each system description supposed to match the ReputationIDs?

4. I've noticed that while attempting to place multiple satellites around a planet that only the first defined with the -Moon block is rendered. Is there any particular reason why this would be the case? Is there a -Moon2 block that I am unaware of?

Thanks,
delV

[Edited on 6.16.2009 by delV]

[Edited on 6.16.2009 by delV]

verbosity · Post by **verbosity** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 11:20 am

Originally posted by delV
I've noticed that while attempting to place multiple satellites around a planet that only the first defined with the -Moon block is rendered. Is there any particular reason why this would be the case? Is there a -Moon2 block that I am unaware of?

Currently the system only allows one type of object ( for most objects) in each sector. you can have multiple moons in orbit as long as each occupies a different sector. There are several reasons for this ( none of which I could explain clearly, ). this hopefully will change in a future game.

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:02 pm

Hi delV, Welcome to the Game and Forum!;)

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:01 am

Hello delV, yes welcome to the forum and the Sim. C U in space soon.

Post by **Vice** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 2:28 am

1. Is it currently possible to control both the latitude and longitude of cities on a planet's surface via the universedata.txt file? If not, would it be possible to add this feature in future patches/releases?

Not currently, possible in the future.

2. Would it be possible to give each city a unique name such that landing at the city spaceport would produce a message to the effect "<Welcome to City, Region, Planet>"? If not, would it be possible to add this feature (I believe combining this with the city*.x files could provide finer control over the placement of custom city meshes)?

You could do something like that now with the illumination layer on the city. You could have a floating holographics banner next to the docking station displaying any message you like. The text message system simply welcomes you to the planet you've landed on, which could be expanded in the future with a 'PlanetCityName' attribute.

3. How does the game process the information in systemdata.dat? There currently does not appear to be any documentation indicating how this correlates with the information in the universedata.txt file. Are the -# entries at the beginning of each system description supposed to match the ReputationIDs?

You got it, it's linked to the 'ReputationID' value specified in the universe data file. The second numerical value specifies how many lines of data to load.

4. I've noticed that while attempting to place multiple satellites around a planet that only the first defined with the -Moon block is rendered. Is there any particular reason why this would be the case? Is there a -Moon2 block that I am unaware of?

It caps the maximum number of 'seamlessly accessible' high overhead objects per sector to avoid hurting performance too much (planets and moons being pretty significant objects to manage since they are interactive and seamlessly accessible, both by you and computer controlled elements). However, you can add more 'satellites' around a planet by using the scenery object system. Say for example, you wanted 5 or so smaller 'mini-moons' around the planet, you can simply specify the needed values in the same universe data file to include more spheres, each with custom textures if you like. You could even make one or more shiny and ice-like using the specular options.

delV · Post by **delV** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 3:24 am

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for your helpful posts and your generous welcome to the forums.

You could do something like that now with the illumination layer on the city.

I'm afraid I haven't quite learned enough about the details of the city.x file to have figured out how to implement this yet. Is there a tutorial, or a link to one, present on the forums?

Secondly, I believe I may have run across a bug in my experimentation with the systemdata.dat file. The infocard for the Sapphire system has been replaced with my latest entry, even though I have assigned a different ReputationID to the new system. I've attempted to fix this by reverting to the copy of the original universedata.txt and systemdata.dat files I had saved off. When the original files are used, I cannot call up the system infocard at all in-game.

Post by **Vice** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:34 am

I'm afraid I haven't quite learned enough about the details of the city.x file to have figured out how to implement this yet. Is there a tutorial, or a link to one, present on the forums?

It's pretty easy, a second mesh named 'citylights.x' is used for the illumination layer. You can use that to include floating holographic logos, building lights, or anything else you might want illuminated. Just put the citylights.x file with the city.x file and make sure to use the latest test build 1.103 available here: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4818

Secondly, I believe I may have run across a bug in my experimentation with the systemdata.dat file. The infocard for the Sapphire system has been replaced with my latest entry, even though I have assigned a different ReputationID to the new system. I've attempted to fix this by reverting to the copy of the original universedata.txt and systemdata.dat files I had saved off. When the original files are used, I cannot call up the system infocard at all in-game.

Double check your filenames and folder locations. If it still doesn't work, run the game's installer again to have it place the files where they need to be using the required filenames.

[Edited on 6-18-2009 by Vice]

delV · Post by **delV** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:07 am

I think I've managed to solve the systemdata.dat issue. Looks like i just needed to update the boundaries of the ReputationID region. Thanks.

delV · Post by **delV** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:31 am

While continuing to work on and test the new system, I've generated another set of modding questions:

1. In attempt to resolve the multiple satellite issue noted above, I ended up using the AsteroidCave object as one of the moons. However, I have noticed that when I attempt to actually enter the asteroid, my ship is destroyed once I reach the end of the entrance mineshaft even though there is plenty of space for the ship to fit into the cave and I have placed the asteroid sufficiently far enough away from the planet such that its gravity well is not an issue. Am I missing something about the behavior of this object? Is there an additional field that must be set to enable exploration of the asteroid interior?

2. While attempting to test out one of the asteroid belts, I've noticed that the belt appears on my nav screen, but the asteroid clusters do not appear when I jump into the sector where they should be located. I currently have the asteroid belt set up such that it is one sector away from one of the inhabited planets. Should this be placed farther way? Am I straining the game's ability to render these objects?

3. Is there a way to set one's initial reputation values for each faction in a particular system from universedata.txt (i.e.: such that initially one has good standing with the navy but the rebels are hostile)?

Daedalao · Post by **Daedalao** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 3:14 pm

delV to place multiple moons around a planet, place the planet in one sector and each of your moons in seperate sectors

Post by **Vice** » Sun Jun 21, 2009 3:37 pm

1 - Possibly the 'roof' parameter.

2 - They're probably there, just off in the distance. Depending on the size value you apply, clusters of asteroids can be at different relative positions. If you are in the middle of the defined region and don't see any, just pan around and look in the distance.

3 - Yes, the 'Reputation' value in the 'Local Nebula Backdrop and Reputation' code block for that system.

delV · Post by **delV** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 9:49 am

Hello again,
It's been a while since I've had much of a chance to play with the custom star system. However, after picking the project up again, I've noticed a few interesting results when tweeking the AsteroidCave object's values. The issue I had described in my previous post with respect to impacting the end of the mineshaft appears to occur whenever the CavePosY value is not equal to zero (the value is zero for all AsteroidCave objects in the default universedata.txt).

Secondly, I've noticed that the default universedata.txt for the EL 1.188 build contains a label marking it as a Universe Data File version 1.128. I'm just curious what differences exist between this universedata.txt format and the format used in earlier EL builds.

Thanks,
delV

verbosity · Post by **verbosity** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 10:00 am

Originally posted by delV
Secondly, I've noticed that the default universedata.txt for the EL 1.188 build contains a label marking it as a Universe Data File version 1.128. I'm just curious what differences exist between this universedata.txt format and the format used in earlier EL builds.

to my knowledge there isn't any other difference in format of the file, I'd requested a universe version in the file to help avoid errors that users were getting in my dynamic universe project ( http://www.verbsleagues.co.uk/dynamic/ ). the format of the file system itself isn't changed since the line with the version is a comment, if you're making your own system you can rename that line to help avoid any confusion.

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 6:53 pm

Originally posted by delV

The issue I had described in my previous post with respect to impacting the end of the mineshaft appears to occur whenever the CavePosY value is not equal to zero (the value is zero for all AsteroidCave objects in the default universedata.txt).

Very observant. Vice had to point that little fact out to me when I kept blowing up while trying to get inside a modded asteroid cave. I've since changed the Y value to zero and now all is well.