Doing a simple mod in SEV

[RonGianti]

So, it appears we will want to futz around with a few things, right out of the box (like getting a 255 system map!). But we've been warned not to mess with stock.

So, what do we have to do to make our own mod just to make some simple changes?

[Fyron]

1) Go into "GameTypes" folder.
2) Copy the "Standard SE5" folder, name it what you like.
3) Open the "Mod_Definition.txt" file in your new mod folder, configure the name and such.
4) Create a "Data" folder inside your mod folder.
5) Copy any data files you wish to edit from the SE5\Data folder into your mod's data folder.
6) Edit the Data files in your mod folder.

[Suicide Junkie]

In more general terms, you can add just about any folder from the SE5 root into your mod folder, and the game will use those files instead of the defaults.

[Fyron]

Note that any missing files will be read from the default folders, so you do not need to include all files in a folder.

[RonGianti]

Just wanted to give this a bump because its SUCH a good idea to not mess with the default files, and to always make a MOD to test things with instead of changing the default game.

I spent HOURS playing 5 games in a row yesterday, most of which kept crashing. The only changes I made were to make the large galaxy 200 - 250 systems instead of 50 - 100. Seems like a simple change, but if I had just edited the core files, I may never have figured out what the problem is. When I stopped using the mod, the problems went away...

[Captain Kwok]

Have you noticed when generating those larger quadrants if the warp points are all being connected?

[RonGianti]

It looked to me like they were. I had it Generate the Galaxy and I watched it get generated before the game started. I didn't see any systems with no connecting points.

With 200 + systems, you have to use the zoom in map feature, since there are so many systems, they get smooshed together and its harder to click on the one you want...

[Grumble314]

I've found that it will connect the warp points in large maps IF you change the Maximum Number of Systems as well as maximum number of systems for large quadrant.

[Spoo]

RonGianti said:
Just wanted to give this a bump because its SUCH a good idea to not mess with the default files, and to always make a MOD to test things with instead of changing the default game.

I spent HOURS playing 5 games in a row yesterday, most of which kept crashing. The only changes I made were to make the large galaxy 200 - 250 systems instead of 50 - 100. Seems like a simple change, but if I had just edited the core files, I may never have figured out what the problem is. When I stopped using the mod, the problems went away...



Did you increase the number of system names? It was noted in another thread that there are only 100-some system names in the stock game.

[Kamog]

That galaxy generation button causes the game to crash if you click it multiple times. I have increased the number of systems to 255 and generated a new map. I didn't like how it looked, so I clicked it again to generate a new one. This time the map was created much more slowly. It got slower with each new map, and then after one or two more tries, the game crashed with an access violation.

The reason I kept generating new maps because I don't like to have my warp lines crossing each other. In SEIV, I used to keep regenerating new maps until I got one that doesn't have any warp lines crossing. In SEV, you can't do that because it crashes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

[RonGianti]

Spoo said:
Did you increase the number of system names? It was noted in another thread that there are only 100-some system names in the stock game.



I did. I grabbed the systemnames.txt that someone posted here (sorry, forget who!) and used that. It has something like close to 300 names, iirc.

[StarHunter5]

Kamog said:
That galaxy generation button causes the game to crash if you click it multiple times. I have increased the number of systems to 255 and generated a new map. I didn't like how it looked, so I clicked it again to generate a new one. This time the map was created much more slowly. It got slower with each new map, and then after one or two more tries, the game crashed with an access violation.

The reason I kept generating new maps because I don't like to have my warp lines crossing each other. In SEIV, I used to keep regenerating new maps until I got one that doesn't have any warp lines crossing. In SEV, you can't do that because it crashes. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif



It appears that when you generate a new map the game does not clear the memory of the last map, therefore every time you generate a map it uses more and more memory until the computer runs out.
The game should check to see if there is a map in the memory and if there is a map it should free that memory, that should solve the problem.
However that is something that has to be done in the program, so that means they will have to fix this in a patch.