QA on the Componet and Techarea files

[Docwho]

I have been Trying to add another are of engines. So ships could go faster. But if I add a tech in the techarea file it mess the whole file up in the game. but if I just at the componets on under an tech that is already there and up the numble of levels of that tech. I have no problems.

Also the solor sails not working right I think. If you make more levels of it and give it a 1+ per level. Something in that Formula????

Anybody else see the samething? Or getting something else to happen?

I would like to get help on fix figuring out how to add techareas so they don't mess up the whole file in the game.

Thanks.
Docwho

[Captain Kwok]

You can new tech areas to the bottom of the file and not screw up existing saved games. In general, the game remembers items by their positions in the data files, so inserting/removing entries is generally bad.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Yes what CPT Kwok said. You can add items to the end of the VehicleSizes.txt too. Although in the process of testing my Mod I have managed to add and even remove 1 ship size that was in the lower half. There weren�t any ill effects; however, I did not get to test this for more than two more turns before having to start over from a major change in the components. In other words just looking at the selection of ship sizes everything seemed fine but I never had the chance to build a ship from the list that was below the deleted entry. Was that confusing?

[President_Elect_Shang]

I just did another edit in the VehicleSizes.txt; this time a big one! I added in 12 hull sizes into the lower half of the file and the game had no problem recognizing them. What it wasn�t doing was showing the little icon in the research area. However, if I clicked on the specific tech area it would list the newly added hull size. This was done in a saved game about 30 turns in.

[Fyron]

You can safely add or remove items that are not currently in use, or that have nothing after them in the file in use, in your savegame. The issue is getting existing designs and ships screwed up by making the IDs they store point to different items; if there is nothing existent in the game using a particular ID, changing what it points to doesn't matter.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Cool I did not know that! Now why is it that the icons (bmp�s) you select to represent those techs won�t show up?

[Docwho]

I am trying to figure that one out. I want to add two new types of planets. And each will need a new are of research. I think I can add the planet types in to the game under Planet Physical Types.txt. But I am still trying to test that part of the program.

After I can add techs and components under them. I will get to them.

I know I am asking for a lot of help.

thanks.
Docwho