How do you make custom races Metaverse compatible?

You can only change the Super Ability, HomeStar, pictures, names, and only use whatever starting points the race you are customizing started with. You can edit the ship type they use and the ethical alignment from 0 to 100 without tripping the flag, also. You cant change the starting techs, thats a no-no.

If you are editting a canned race, like the Yor, you can still change their super ability, homestar, etc. But you have to start a game and allocate your points, and select your political party and save the race. Then find the xml file, where you can edit the homestar, description, name, ethical alignment, etc without tripping the flag. THEN, reload the game and choose the custom race you just made and viola, no cheat flag tripped.

Thats very nice thing to do, when you want to play a pre-made race with nice stats ( like the Krynn) but you want to change the crappy Super Ability they start with, and give them a nice Homestar ( I recommend Iconis ). You can also change their ethical alignment if you dont want to be percieved neutral like the are.

I think I understand. Does that mean I need to start with one of the "stock" races in DA (e.g., Krynn), making the limited edits allowed by the program (e.g., to the race name, but not description, to the attributes, but not the techs), and save it as something else? I've not been able to change super abilities when editing a stock race and saving it as something else... but I guess that's not too big a problem -- you could always just select the stock race with that attribute to edit.

I'd obviously prefer to start a race from scratch, particuarly to allow changes to the race description and starting techs, but if that's what I have to do to stay Metaverse Kosher, then so be it.

Are you allowed to have multiple races with the same super ability in the same Metaverse game?

yes, you can have multiple races with the same Super Ability.

The following is a CustomRace xml based on the Krynn that I have used in some MV games, that does not trip the flag. I have tried to highlight major sections that can be altered.
I have the stats of the Krynn, Super Breeder ability, and New Iconia (called Atamo, your HW is dependent on your Homestar) as my homeworld.



Race Name="Atami Syndicate">
[color="#FFFACD"]ConfigVersion>25
RaceID>11
CivType>4
DisplayName>Atami Syndicate
Alignment>10
ShortEmpireName>Syndicate
RaceLeader>Dyshad Zykel
Homeworld>Atamo
Homestar>Iconis[/color]
GeneratedDescription>0

AIPersonality>8
DialogueTag>Krynn
Portrait>Gfx\Race\RaceImageT1.png
DefaultTradePortrait>Gfx\Race\RaceImageT1_Trade.png
DefaultTradeMovie>RaceImageT1_neutral.bik
FriendlyTradeMovie>RaceImageT1_happy.bik
UnfriendlyTradeMovie>RaceImageT1_angry.bik
UnitedPlanetsMovie>RaceImageT1_Small.bik
RobotMovie>NewsRobot_Alien
RobotImage>Gfx\Message_Alien
RaceMusic>Krynn_Theme

PoliticalParty>2
RaceColor>0,15,115,255
ShadowColor>221,146,172,255
UndefendedStarColor>0,15,115,255
DefendedStarColor>0,15,115,255
SectorColor>0,15,115,255
BaseColor>0,15,115,255
TrimColor>0,0,0,255
EngineColor>0,200,255,255
InterfaceColor>0,15,115,255
ShipStyle>Krynn Consulate Style
ModuleStyle>2
Tech>HyperDrive
Tech>IonDrive
Tech>Galactic Warfare
Tech>XenoIndustrialTheory
Tech>Xeno Engineering
Tech>StellarCartography
AIAbilities>50
Aggression>50
FinancialResources>100
CPUUsage>0

ECONOMICS>10
Ability0>30
WEAPONS>0
Ability1>20
DEFENSE>50
Ability2>0
SPEED>0
Ability3>0
MORALE>50
Ability4>10
POPULATIONGROWTH>0
Ability5>0
SOCIALPRODUCTION>0
Ability6>0
MILITARYPRODUCTION>0
Ability7>0
RESEARCH>0
Ability8>0
INFLUENCE>0
Ability9>0
TRADE>0
Ability10>0
DIPLOMACY>25
Ability11>0
HITPOINTS>0
Ability12>0
REPAIR>0
Ability13>0
SENSORS>0
Ability14>0
ESPIONAGE>50
Ability15>0
SOLDIERING>0
Ability16>10
INTERESTRATES>0
Ability17>0
PLANETQUALITY>0
Ability18>0
TRADEROUTES>0
Ability19>0
CRIME>0
Ability20>0
CABINET>0
Ability21>0
RANGE>0
Ability22>0
LUCK>0
Ability23>25
COURAGE>0
Ability24>0
CREATIVITY>0
Ability25>0
GOVERNMENT>0
Ability26>0
LOYALTY>25
Ability27>0
LOGISTICS>6
Ability28>0
MINIATURIZATION>0
Ability29>0
HOMEPLANETQUALITY>0
Ability30>0
COLONIZEHEAVYGRAVITY>0
Ability31>0
COLONIZEWATERWORLD>0
Ability32>0
COLONIZETOXIC>0
Ability33>0
COLONIZEBARREN>0
Ability34>0
COLONIZERADIOACTIVE>0
Ability35>0



The section that is in green is best modified in your setup screen as it pertains to ship color, logos, and the such. You could do it through here, but it seems like needless work.

If I remember correctly, Super Warrior is 1, Breeder is 4, Hive is 7?? I dont remember the rest of them. Just look at the xml file for the stock races and it will tell you

The list of the Super Abilities is as follows,

Super Dimplomat 0 (Terrans)
Super Dominator 1 (Drengin)
Super Organizer 2 (Altarian)
Super Warrior 3 (Arcean)
Super Breeder 4 (Torian)
Super Isolationist 5 (Yor)
Super Trader 6 (Korx)
Super Manipulator 7 (Drath)
Super Hive 8 (Thalan)
Super Adapter 9 (Iconian)
Super Annihilator 10 (Korath)
Super Spy 11 (Krynn)

Just change the number in these brackets..SuperAbility[color="#FF0000"]0/SuperAbility[/color] to whichever of the above numbers you desire. Super hive and Super Breeder are perhaps the best two. ( i have deleted all the <> from the post but you will understand when you start messing around with it.)



The yellow part here, you change these? Where your + Strong Economy, i assume that is written here, (all the HTML screws up the text as it should be...)

CPUUsage0/CPUUsage
AbilitiesDescription+ Highly Productive
- Weak Research/AbilitiesDescription
SuperAbility8/SuperAbility
ResearchAdvantageEconomics/ResearchAdvantage

As you can see mine is + Highly productive, something to do with me using the Super Hive ability i guess, but if that can be changed, can - Weak Reasearch be changed as well, this is something left from the Krynn base settings i assume.

With yours changed to + Strong Economy, do you see a difference? Might be something i need to play around with.

no, there is no difference when you change the Abilties Description. This is what is listed for abilities. You'll never see it if you use the race for yourself, but you will if you make/use them as an opponent. Think of it as a Basic Reminder of what skill sets they have.

With the new TA custom races, it will be hard to make them compatible for metaverse. Custom tech trees will most likely be uncompatible.

guess we'll have to wait and see; though...making it incompatible kinda defeats the whole purpose of having unique tech trees and the ability to have a Custom Race

Ahh ok cool, in the race selection scren..Gothchya

Hmmm...

This has just recently come to my attention. So what is this all about anyway? It seems that this is being discussed in terms of customizing opponents but I'm under the impression that you can do this for your own race as well.

So does this mean you get to pick and choose pretty much everything? By that I mean can you pick any races starting planet, any races inherent racial abilities, any races starting technologies and any races super ability? And all this is OK for metaverse play?

Plus you can do the same with your opponents except instead of picking the best that every race has to offer in every catagory you could conceptually pick the worst every race has to offer for your opponents?

What kind of limits and controls are placed on this? This seems ultimately exploitable if not done carefully. Could someone please explain this to me?

Yes, it has come to my attention that this has been discussed in some circles. I would suppose I would be considered the "expert" on this for the Tyranny. So Mumblefratz, let me enlighten you for once

There are actually a lot of limits on what can be done. You can NOT give yourself or an opponent just any ability. In the case of using a Stock race as either your playable race or as an opponent you are given a strict set of parameters to work within. You can not change the base abilities or starting technologies. You can not alter the inherent bonuses.

Most things are things you can change in the normal set up screen such as race name, ship color, what you want to do with your extra ability points, things of that nature.

There are a select number of items you can alter here that you can not do in the normal race set up screen. Some are useful. One such thing is the "shortempirename". This is the title that is given to such things as your ships and fleets. Rather annoying to be the Grand Hegemony and your fleet to be labeled "Drath Fleet". Another one you can only do in the raceconfig is alter the DialogueTag. Since each race has its own flavor text, it may be inconsistent with your game. For example, it would be inconsistent for my evil breeding insects to use Torian text so i may alter it to Generic instead. Finally, and a big one for me, is the Race Description as this is the only place that can be altered.

There are other things that you can only do in the raceconfig. One is select the Homestar. The Homestar is a locater for the game to dictate which star system, and in turn which HW, the race is given. The game only recognizes the stock systems and the one labeled "Custom". So it would be possible to give the Drengin the starting position on Sol. This could be useful in an AAR, such as a fallen Earth controlled by the Drengin Empire. The other main thing that can only be changed here is the Super Ability. Want to use the Krynn but hate Super Spy? You could switch it to Super Diplomat instead.

That being said, the game has a number of limits placed to prevent abuse.
The following is a list of things that will trip the cheat flag.

You can not alter the RaceID. No trying to use the stock Krynn as a different race. So no achieving a Racial Medal this way.

You can not add or take away technologies in the stock races. In a Custom race your techs can not exceed the value that you would start with (200 points I believe).

In stock races you can not alter the inherent bonuses, and can only give yourself abilities equaling in points to what would be available to you. For example, social production at 50% costs 5pts and you would have to both 5pts free and it can not exceed 50% as that is the highest value allowed in the game for that ability. For custom races, you can not give yourself any inherent bonuses, and can not exceed the value of the ability points given.

You can not give ANY negative bonuses.

Any other value that is not allowed to be changed WILL trip a warning before you begin a MV game. If you decide to play anyway, the game will be flagged with a cheat flag.


In short, here is what you CAN do with Stock races.

Change ethical alignment, race description, change shortempirename, change homestar system, change super ability, ability description (shows up for opponents +diplomacy -military; has NO effect on ability, its just descriptive)

That's it. Everything else that can be changed can be done either from the Race Setup Screen or the Edit Opponent Screen.

Any other changes WILL trip a cheat flag.


and oh, for the record, this can NOT be done for DL. You can NOT alter the stock races period.

Silver thanks for the explanation.

So to summarize the significant functional features ignoring the merely descriptive changes, you can take any stock race in DA and change their home planet and their super ability with that of any other stock race. You also get to pick the races starting alignment but you can't change a races inherent abilities or starting technologies.

OK so that seems fine but what about limits to creating custom "weak" opponents. Are you required to fully spend racial ability points and does every super ability in the game need to be unique or can multiple races in the same game have the same super ability?

I guess the final question is how did this come about. I mean it's one thing if Stardock felt that race customization needed a bit of a boost and specifically allowed these changes but it's another if this just happened to be an inadvertent hole in the cheat flag detection algorithm. Has anyone at Stardock given any indication that this is an intended feature that is approved for metaverse play?

well...I suppose one could create weak opponents in a sense. You can't make the stock races any weaker than they are, and technically any SA will give some benefits. So in theory a race with any given SA is better off than having SA's disabled.

As for weak opponents...now I would guess that you prolly go in and spend the remaining ability points for each opponent before starting a game to make the game more of a challenge. You prolly select Use CPU Intensive Algorithms, and if you were using DA I would assume that you go in and would put the AI Ability Bonus and Econ Bonus at 200% (the max). But I doubt most average players do this, are they cheating since they didn't use up all the ability points?

In reality though it would be no different than using the Custom Race (which is only given +6% Logistics in Dark Avatar, unlike in DL where it gets loyalty and soldiering bonuses) and making races that way. One could go in and make 9 races that are basically cannon fodder. And that's in the set up screen and WITHOUT altering the customrace.xml

Multiple races can have the same Super Ability. This is really no different than creating a Custom Race with the Super Diplomat and competing against the Terrans.

As for the flagging algorithms...it could be changed to flag homestar (the HW) changes but it has its limits due to the ability to have Custom Races. If every item in the config was flagged, then it would be impossible to use Custom Races in MV games at all (I don't mean altered races, I mean true blue Custom Races).

Forget about the weak opponents thing. In DL you can always choose Drath, Korx, Iconian instead of Drengin, Torian, Arcean for example, not really that much difference.

I guess the real question is, is this a Stardock approved feature for use in metaverse play?

After giving it some thought I have to assume that it is since as you say if you made these kinds of changes in a DL game then they would be flagged as a cheat. The fact that they aren't flagged for DA certainly implies that this is intentionally and specifically allowed. However if that's the case then why hasn't Cari or Kryo simply said so? Or perhaps they have and I'm simply unaware of it.

This conversation came up when someone asked the simple question of whether or not this was cheating. Given you have to edit files to come up with a configuration that isn't achievable from within the game, my first impression was that it could at least be preceived as cheating. Once I heard your explanation then it did seem more like an intentional race configuration feature and therefore perfectly legitimate.

Still there is that nagging question, has anyone from Stardock specifically addressed this as legitimate to use for metaverse games? Given that this has been discussed for a period of time and that very little if anything goes on in these forums that SD isn't aware of then I would have to take the lack of any response here as confirmation that this *is* legitimate for metaverse play.

well they have talked elsewhere about protected file content; that there are certain files and such that can not be altered for MV use, such as the RAW terrains, technologies, etc.

Added to your query as why they simply haven't said so may also relate to anyone changing any file whatsoever (whether be image, movie, etc) runs the risk of crashing a game. I'm sure you've seen how people have gotten lost on even simple computer directions on here.

I saw Cari make a post before, not specific to this, but file alteration somewhere. Let me see if I can locate it again. Once I do I'll post a link here.

Being able to change the super ability seems exploitable; try the Yor (with their +20 miniaturization, mostly-not that their ability is bad) with Super Breeder, for instance.

I have to admit I'm toying with the idea of testing the Thalans with a different homestar...they may have a nice homeworld, but there are times I wish I had a (virtually) guaranteed second world only a couple of moves away.

Not that I've played in the MV yet, though.

Changing alignment is all fine and well, except for the fact that one could make a Saintly Yor (if you can imagine that), to stay out of wars for the first year or three; and then just choose all evil colonization choices to get over to evil.

Sorry to res a dead thread, but it doesn't seem quite dead yet.

Yor + Breeder, while powerful, doesnt seem like it would be some game-changing, powerful exploit. No more so than giving them say, super Hive. They get a bonus to military and social manufacturing as well, so giving them cheap factories is always fun.

I have toyed around pretty extensively with taking one of the stock races and changing the super ability and the homestar. From my experience, playing as the Krynn with the Hive ability and setting the homestar as Iconis seems to be the "most" powerful. And its not like my metaverse score tripled or anything. In fact it really wasnt any different than any other game.

From what I've heard here as well as specifically not hearing any complaints from any Stardockians, I have to conclude that this is a legitimate option that is intended to improve the overall race configuration process in DA.

As I had said earlier this came up in discussion as to whether or not it could be considered cheating. Given that it has been openly discussed and that it doesn't seem all that overpowered it's only reasonable to assume it's an intended feature that is perfectly acceptable for metaverse use.

how do I modify xml files?

Darth Nihilus

you can do it in either a text editor like Notebook, or if you have XML editor program. Depends on what you are trying to modify though really.

I'm going to have to think about this.  Changing the Super Ability or the Star System in the xml file could give you an advantage, although it would probably be slight.  The other stuff is mostly cosmetic.  Also, if you don't specify any extra abilities for the AI players, they choose their own bonuses.  If they're not, it's a bug.

For what it's worth we discussed this in the Metaverse League (FYI a group of 25 or so that gets together and plays a randomly selected monthly MV game).

Anyway our consensus was that being able to interchange star system, super ability and race was not considered to be all that earth shattering of an advantage and unless Stardock came out with a pronouncement to the contrary we would consider this to be "fair game".

However the concept of selecting weak opponents (so called straw men) also came up in the discussion. This was a actually viewed a little more negatively than simply "tweaking" your own race.

Iztock Bitenc performed an experiment where he did not reduce the AI's level but used only the in-game ability to assign racial abilities and the super abilty of opponents to the most useless selections possible. The result in his opinion was a game that reported as suicidal but in his words was definitely not suicidal in difficulty.

This actually gave us more concern than our initial concern about this so-called Advanced Race Configuration via a CustomRace xml file.

In the end there are a lot of game settings that we cannot verify in our league games so we just chaulked this up as another and went with the farily ambiguous rule that "Every MVL player is honor bound to ensure that the effective difficulty of any game they submit is accurately represented by the games posted difficulty".

Again just for what this is worth.

Only on a custom race's xml can this be done. Playing with a canned race's starting system or SA will and does trip the flag. Since this could be done with a custom race's xml and not a canned race we figured this was intent to give the custom race a bit more flexability.

The "straw men" mumble speaks of though, can be done in game and can make for some very dull AI, even on the higher levels.

Actually there has been a resurgence of the discussion on this topic and it seems that there is now some disagreement that simply tweaking via this so-called ARC is really just a "slight" advantage.

The argument is that with stackable inherent and racial bonus in DA that there is balance in the game between AI's with powerful super abilities having less useful racial abilities and the converse of AI's with less powerful super abilities.

The argument is that combining the most powerful of super abilities along with the best racial abilities *does* result in an Uber race that has significant advantage.

I'm not sure I see an end in sight to these arguments, however a clear pronouncement from Stardock could go a long way to resolve this.

Also so called "straw men" opponents based on selection of useless abilities and super abilities needs to be addressed as well.