I would like to add the Vorlons, Shadows, Minbari, and other B5 races to a mod. However, I would like to balance these with the existing races in Supremacy. I have been using this website http://www.trekmania.net/temp_files/botf2_home.htm as the database for Supremacy (I am assuming this is used for the great majority of Supremacy).

I wanted to make Vorlon/Shadows more technologically advanced than the Borg (which at this point is a random event). However, I have no info on the Borg event. Is the Borg event using the stats from the original BotF game?

So, how would I make Vorlon/Shadow/Minbari techs?

Looking forward to the conjectural debate to come...

GB

P.S. Also wanted to make the Vorlons indifferent to diplomacy, but react savagely when attacked. Why attack? Just some of the best resources/tech in the game...How would I do this if possible?

Hey GeorgiaBoy, you are correct about Dafedz's database; I am indeed using it for the game information. However, since there is an update on the way, you might want to stave off modding the game for a while; any game updates will unfortunately overwrite any changes you make.

The random events are NOT yet programmed. Mike has created a rudimentary random event system that will be part of the next update, but it's only capable of generating one random event at the moment. That's why you can't find the Borg information. I also haven't implemented the borg ships yet so you won't be able to find those either!

I've never MADE a technology for the game before so i'm not 100% sure how to do it. The only reason why I even know where the techs are held in the files is because i've had had to fix some tech-related typos, so this guide is based on a lot of assumptions and guesswork based on what I know from making those changes. The editor also doesn't have a section that allows you to make/edit techs, so you will have to do all the work manually. I'll write a guide for you, but give me a few hours to do it coz it's going to be rather a long post, even by my standards!

You should also know that the techs are universal - you can't make a race-specific tech tree, at least not yet, anyways. If you created a tech for the Vorlons, ALL races will be able to research it.

Ok, this is what you need to do to mod the techs in the game.

Load up your Supremacy/Resources folder, then open the Data folder.

In the Data folder, look for a file called "ResearchMatrix.xml". Create a backup of this file in case anything goes wrong later.

Next, open up the ResearchMatrix.xml file. I'd recommend you open .xml files with Notepad if your computer doesn't yet recognise the file type; set Notepad as the default opening program to make life easier.

This is what the start of the file looks like:


Ignore the first five lines; this is all programming stuff that should not be changed. Everything after <!-- BIOTECH FIELD --> is what you do want to change though.

The techs are listed in order of type, so all the Biotech techs are first, followed by all the Energy techs, and so on. Just look for for the technology area tag, ie <!-- BIOTECH FIELD --> for the specific area you want to create; obviously BIOTECH FIELD means you're looking at the Biotech section.

Each of the tech areas has the exact same set of information - you just have to learn what each part means, then you'll find it easy to modify it. This is what a single tech area looks like:



The first line is the NAME of the tech. This MUST be written in capitals, and must start with RA_NAME_ then the name of your tech. The name of your tech is also held in another file, so this must be written EXACTLY the same as in the other file. If there are any typos, the game will get confused and won't display the technology correctly.

The second line is the name of the DESCRIPTION for your tech. This MUST be written in capitals, and must start with RA_DESC_ then the name of your techs description. The descriptions are located in another file and I will explain this later. Again, it must be written EXACTLY the same as in the other file. If there are any typos, the game will get confused and won't display the technology correctly.

The third line refers to the tech LEVEL. So for instance if your tech is tech 9, then you enter a 9 where the 0 is currently placed in the line above.

The fourth line is the cost of the tech, or the number of research points needed to gain the technology. I don't know if there are any limits on this number, but i've seen the game work fine even with numbers set in the millions so I think it's safe to set any number you want. Remember that the higher the number is though, the longer it will take to get it. Set it too high and people will just give up!

The last line is a piece of programming information and must be present to tell the game that there is no more info about that tech and to move on to the next tech level or type.

So now that we know what each of those lines mean, we can now move on to modding. I've not watched B5 before although I know a tiny bit about it, so i'll just make up a technology. If you want to replace an existing technology, follow my instructions here. If you want to add a technology, scroll down to the next section.





To replace a technology, you first of all must find an existing technology that you want to replace. In this example i'll replace the third Biotech technology, Biosynthetics. The principles will be exactly the same regardless of which tech you replace though.

I'll call my technology "Vorlon Genetics". It will be a tech 2 technology, so it will be third in the list (Remember, tech 0 is considered a level by the game) and have 6000 research cost.

First off, I need to find the Biotech level 2 entry. Once i've found it, all I need to do is edit the information that is already there. Here it is:



So to enter my new technology, I need to change it to this:



Once you've done that, save the changes and close the file.

Next, load up your Supremacy/Resources/Strings folder. You'll see a single file in there called "en.txt". Create a backup of this file in case anything goes wrong later.

Next, open up the file, and scroll about halfway down until you see this:



En.txt is the other file that I mentioned earlier, where the tech names and descriptions are held. It doesn't just hold this information, it stores a lot of other game information as well. The section I quoted above helps you find the info that we're interested in.

The next 40 lines are programming information. Ignore these. Scroll down to where it says [RA_NAME_BASIC_BIOTECH]. You'll see that this is where the names and descriptions are held for the techs.

Now since the technology we created was a replacement for Biosynthetics, we need to find Biosynthetics. This is what the entry looks like:



You need to now change the entry so it matches your new technology. So first of all, you need to change [RA_NAME_BIOSYNTHETICS] to [RA_NAME_VORLON_GENETICS]. You also need to change the name below it, so I will change Bio-Synthetics to Vorlon Genetics.

I then need to change the description below it. So I must change [RA_DESC_BIOSYNTHETICS] to [RA_DESC_VORLON_GENETICS]. You can change the description below to anything you want. So this is what my new technology will look like:



Once you've done that, save your changes, and close the file.

That's it! Now test your new technology in the game!





Adding a new technology is a bit different to editing existing ones. I believe the game is capable of having up to 255 tech levels, so that's a total of 1530 techs in total - 255 tech levels x 6 tech areas = 1530.

I've just tested the game and you CAN have uneven numbers of techs - if you add a tech to one area, you DON'T also need to add one to all the other areas.

In this example i'll add a tech to the Biotech area. The principles will be exactly the same regardless of which tech area you add to though.

Again, I'll call my technology "Vorlon Genetics". Since there are already 12 tech levels, my new tech will be tech 13 technology, so it will be fourteenth in the list of biotechs (Remember, tech 0 is considered a level by the game) and have 1671600 research cost.

First off, you need to find the last Biotech entry, which is Silicobiology. Once you've found it, all you need to do is copy the Silicobiology entry, then paste it in again after the original Silicobiology entry. This is the entry:



So first off, copy and paste it in again so you end up with this:



Now all you need to do is edit the second entry so it instead has the info that you want to put in. Since i've already described what I want my new tech to be, this is what it would look like:




Once you've done that, save the changes and close the file.

Next, load up your Supremacy/Resources/Strings folder. You'll see a single file in there called "en.txt". Create a backup of this file in case anything goes wrong later.

Next, open up the file, and scroll about halfway down until you see this:



En.txt is the other file that I mentioned earlier, where the tech names and descriptions are held. It doesn't just hold this information, it stores a lot of other game information as well. The section I quoted above helps you find the info that we're interested in.

The next 40 lines are programming information. Ignore these. Scroll down to where it says [RA_NAME_BASIC_BIOTECH]. You'll see that this is where the names and descriptions are held for the techs.

Now since the technology we created is a new Biotech tech level, we need to find the last Biotech entry which is Silicobiology. This is what the entry looks like:



First of all, copy the entire Silicobiology entry and paste in a second copy after the original Silicobiology entry.

You need to now change the second Silicobiology entry so it matches your new technology. So first of all, you need to change [RA_NAME_SILICOBIOLOGY] to [RA_NAME_VORLON_GENETICS]. You also need to change the name below it, so I will change Silicobiology to Vorlon Genetics.

I then need to change the description below it. So I must change [RA_DESC_SILICOBIOLOGY] to [RA_DESC_VORLON_GENETICS]. You can change the description below this to anything you want. So this is what my new technology will look like:



Once you've done that, save your changes, and close the file.

That's it! Now test your new technology in the game.


And just to make sure it's possible, I had a go myself:



Sorry about the thumbnail, it's a really big image so I thought it would be easiest to just thumbnail it. Click on the thumbnail to see the full size image.

...Now see if you can do the same thing. Good luck.

Well done, the new version is quite impressive.

Is it possible to transfer advanced technologies to less advanced systems? Meaning can I use the transport ship to send Type 9 Mass replicators (and the like) to a newly colonized system. This way is don't have to bring every system through the tech evolution.

Also, what do you think about an "All" button for the minor races?

The techs that a Colony ship produces is based on your current level of development and the starting size of the new colony - systems that have high growth rates will start with more structures to compensate for the reduced time you will have to build additional buildings. There is no way that I know of to change these buildings.

I don't understand what you mean about the All button. Could you explain it a bit?

Yup, ALL the minor races. Meaning in the main menu, when you choose how many minor races you want.

I believe the choices now range from sparse to many. The "many" option shows lots minor races, but several are left out. It may be needed that an "All" setting is only allowed with the "Huge" Galaxy option and "Dense" Stars ... that way there is enough room for all the races.

Actually, the number of initial structures depends on the Work Force (starting pop) of the colony ship, not the growth rate.
That also means you can actually set the number of starting structures of a colony by editing the Wrok Force parameter - you'll also change starting pop though.

Not really possible. Since there are various map sizes, the number of minors is set as a "percentage" of systems in the map. You couldn't really have 140 minors in a tiny map, could you?

True, which is why the question you quoted of mine still applies. The ALL could only be available for the "HUGE" map ... which is 80 by 80 last I heard. Even if all 140 minor races were in the Alpha and Beta Quad portions of the map, it would still only be 140 systems out 3200 squares (40x80) ... which leaves plenty of room for empty systems in addition to minor races and other celestial events.

If there will be no "ALL" feature on the game menu, could it bea setting in the editor? When will the editor be released, so that we can make out own maps?

It's not definite that Mike will make such an editor - all I know is that he is "considering what to do". IF he decides to do it, (And I see no reason for him to not do it) then it could either come as a future editor update, or it could be a separate editor entirely that is dedicated purely to map editing.

Theditor version 3 is still in the works, but that doens't necessarily mean the map editor will be in there. But Mike hasn't really given me much in on what exactly editor 3 will be like. There are several bugs in editor 2 that i've notified him about, and I sent him a big list of changes or additions that myself or others have thought of. His plans for the Intel/Personnel side of the game will definitely have impacts on the editor though; several current options will actually need to be removed. I can't go into detail about these removals because he's asked me to keep quiet about the whole Intel/Personnel system for the time being, but i'm not talking about drastic changes, and it will likely only be people who are particularly familiar with the editor that will even notice the removals.

I'll talk to Mike when I can, but as he's busy it might take a while to get a response.