Where is the rest of the Forge Tool

You can already start working on adding a new race. If by the "rest of the Forge tools" you refer to an editor which handily removes any need to tackle the various .entity, .mesh, .ogg etc. files, I am not sure they will ever appear. I wouldn't count on such things if I were you.

The good news is, creating a whole new race is perfectly possible right now, you just have to roll up your sleeves and dig in the source files.

I just want to edit the current races. Replace the names and add a new image for them. Any info on how to do that?

I don't mean to sound ungrateful and didn't really want to sound like I was whining. I really appreciate what Stardock and Iron Forge has done. I love the fact that they dont' treat me like a theif, unlike some other companies. Respect your customers and the customers will respect you. I will always buy Stardock products.

But anyways, I just want to edit the current races, and maybe the random names they come up with when an AI controlled race is created.

Here are the things I want to do.

1. Replace the 3 races names with ones I want.
2. Replace the images of the 3 various races.
3. Replace the random name given to the races when creating a game.
4. Replace all the images for the given races including flags.

Now, can someone come up with a tutorial on how to do that or point one out to me if there is already one.

Thank You.

The best thing to do (and you need to do it anyway) is to download the modding package, you can find it here:
WWW Link

Read up on the pdf help file, it has a few starter pointers as to how things are changed and such.

After that, check out files PlayerPhase.entity (Vasari), PlayerPsi.entity (Advent) and PlayerTech.entity (TEC) to see how they are done. Basically, if you want to just change how things are called, you will also need to edit the english.str which is located in your installation directory in the \string folder. You can also open and edit that with Notepad.

Modifying a race can get fairly complex, because there are multiple files involved, depending on the task at hand. For example, if you want to change the name of the Vasari race to "Badass Muthas" you only need to find the IDS_PLAYERRACENAME_PHASE entry in the english.str and change "Vasari" to "Badass Muthas". Voila.

But, if you want to change research topic descriptions, or the names of various ships and modules, you will have to identify files which govern those items and then find ID string designations there, after which you find those in english.str and edit them.

For example, changing the name of the Vasari missile battery would go as follows:

In the PlayerPhase.entity file you can find the following line:

entityDefName "PLANETMODULE_PHASEORBITALMISSILEDEFENSE"

which means you have to open the PLANETMODULE_PHASEORBITALMISSILEDEFENSE.entity file next, where you will find the following two lines:

NameStringID "IDS_PLANETMODULE_PHASEORBITALMISSILEDEFENSE_NAME"
DescriptionStringID "IDS_PLANETMODULE_PHASEORBITALMISSILEDEFENSE_DESCRIPTION"

The first is the name of the Module, the second the description which appears on the build menu infocard. Opening the english.str, find those two values and change their values in order to have something else appear.

This is how you alter descriptions and names. Altering various capabilities (for example making the missile battery fire twice as fast) requires editing of appropriate values in appropriate files. Adding new models and textures is even more complex than that, but for starters I suggest you simply familiarize yourself with the way the system works - its intuitive really, not that hard to figure out.

Good luck!

OMG, that sounds complicated. So, um, Iron Forge, any way you can create a tool to simplify this?

What is this Iron Forge you mention. Never tried any of there space games before. On a side not however I have heard of this great company know as Ironclad that makes this wonderful game known as Sins of a Solar Empire.

err.. I mean Iron Clan.

IronClad you mean

Doh.. ya.. Iron Clad. I'm just so hyped about modding this game, I can't concentrate. So, anyone have a tutorial I can follow to creating/modifying a race with a different name and images?

Ironclad. One word.

ironfan

Give him a break... and answer his question, or move on.

I was also under the impression that more tools were on the way to simplify this process and allow a lot more 'easy' modding to be done.

Wow. They poor guy maks a small mistake and he get's schooled. Wonder what happens when people start flaming... NEways, it's incredible the changes to the game you can make with just a few changes to the TXT files. Probably one of the best/worst parts of being part of the beta. All that extra time to see how the files work together...then having to relearn it when the next phase of the beta came out. You can probably guess how much of a relief it is to finally have a set format for the files.

And just for you Ach, I have started working on just such a tool. Would be nice if we could get a complete explanation of all the option constants, but we'll see what we get when they release a real version of the tools. In the meantime, I still have plenty of work to keep me busy.

Thats good to hear Bink. Just popped in on that link that sh00ter posted, looks like they plan to release a 'finished' version, but no solid ETA as of yet.

Achillus, I'm afraid it doesn't get any simpler than what I already described. Adding/modifying a race is one of the more complex projects one can undertake. Understanding how the system works is crucial if you want to be successfull in it. I suggest you start small, maybe take one of the Player .entity files and make a "mirror" faction. Change all the names and descriptions to make a TEC race with an attitude or somesuch. It is good practice, and it will let you estimate the amount of work needed to make a completely new race, especially if you want to put in custom images and/or models.

In fact, I am doing just that, and it took me a whole day to grab all the tools, figure out the system, edit all the files needed to set up a test mod and finally get a custom ship model in the game.

Just a few friendly pointers, I'm not trying to discourage you, on the contrary! It may be a bit more work than just making explosions look gorgeous ( ), but at the end of the day it can get very rewarding.

Last but not least, if you want to play with custom images, I suggest you take a look at the \textures folder (you will need an image editor which can open .dds and .tga files or a converter) to see how they are done; for example, loading screens are contained within the Startup_Loadscreen0.dds (images) and Startup_Loadscreen1.dds (borders) files in the \textures folder and governed by the LoadScreen.window and LoadScreen.brushes files in the \window folder.

Good to hear that Bink. Looking forward to it. And Mansh00ter, I've been looking into the .entity files already. Seems a bit confusing. Hopefully, the tools thats going to be release soon will have all the info that needs to be changed. Or if a wiki can be set up that will point us to specific files that need to be changes for creating a new race.

Here's hoping that happens sooner than later.

As I am making a custom race for my mod, maybe I could post a few how-to guides along with the progress posts. That way those who are interested can see what was done and read how to do it. And I am sure other modders will explain their magic in time. Everyone is probably busy getting comfortable with the system right now.

In the meantime, I recommend you just goof around with the files. Best way to learn, at least for me.

Busy looking at all the entity files to figure out all the possible argument types for buffs/abilities Hoping IC will have time to release a complete listing, that would be awesome.