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Author Topic:   Help With Custom Faction?

Bad Explanation posted 05-05-99 02:08 AM ET
I've been trying to perfect my custom faction, the Surly Underclass. They're kind of a Teamster-ish faction, and I thought it'd be cool to have part of their Datalink entry say:
"Snubbed by the Elite: Only get HALF votes in Planetary Council."
I've been using ACEdit, and trying to edit the faction file manually, too, but I just can't get this to work. I tried entering VOTES, 1/2, VOTES, .5, and VOTES, 0.5... and what happens is, the faction just doesn't get ANY votes. I check this by loading an old savegame, from late in some game, and then turning on the scenario editor and "reloading" the Surlies on top of whoever I was playing. I always hope to see my votes get halved; instead, I usually just get none. I could always make the entry say "Snubbed by the Elite; gets NO votes in Planetary Council," but a) that's not as funny to me, and b) it would make less sense, because you'd still get a yea/nay vote.
Anybody know if there's a way to make this trick work?
trippin daily posted 05-05-99 02:12 AM ET
Nope, Bad Explanation. The Best explanation I could give you is that the SMAC engine looks for a positive integer only. That is the most probably reason. The command they used to read that variable was set to read only real numbers. When it can't find one, it defaults to zero.
Trippin Daily
Bad Explanation posted 05-05-99 11:41 AM ET
How did this get double-posted?
GaryD posted 05-05-99 11:46 AM ET
No one knows, but it is a common enough phenomenon around here.
David Johnson posted 05-05-99 01:42 PM ET
Why not simply double the votes of every other faction?
GaryD posted 05-05-99 01:47 PM ET
Hey ! A lateral thinker !
Bad Explanation posted 05-06-99 11:46 AM ET
That'd work, but ideally a faction should be self-contained, so you can post it and have it work for everyone without too much extra tampering. I'm kinda into the idea of playing a game with all custom factions, too, and having to retool every faction I download just for the sake of my one little joke...
Tangent: The problem I've noticed with playing with more than one custom faction is that most people don't bother to make new art for their factions, so all your opponents look like the defalt ACEdit faction.
Goobmeister posted 05-06-99 11:58 AM ET
Did you try votes, 50 ? for 50 percent. How are Lal's votes represented as doubled?
just an idea
Goob
Bad Explanation posted 05-07-99 03:11 AM ET
oops! I meant to say that I *don't* want to have to change the stats of every faction I play against, then change them back when i want to play "normally" or vs. other players...
goob: you enter a "multiplier", which apparently has to be a whole number, to affect the votes; so you enter, VOTES, 2, to give lal twice the votes. This is why the natural way to halve it would seem to be VOTES, 1/2, or VOTES, 0.5, but these don't work. I recently had another idea; would VOTES, -2, work? It seems like sometimes they make positive and negative values work differently... does anybody know if that would work? I suppose I should just try it myself and see..
Lanke posted 05-07-99 10:41 PM ET
Bad E: Yeah, well, I noticed that the ACEdit default pics come with every faction. So when I create factions, I just zip them up WITHOUT any pic files. This is because making GOOD pic files is hard - I've yet to see a good one. In fact, I'm not trying to blow my own horn or whatever, but the new Canadian Faction pics which I am working on right now are best I've seen. I'd send them to you, but I need your email address.
Everyone: BTW, if you've read this, then consider it a forwarning for the Canadian Faction ver. 5, coming soon from myself. This will be the final version.
Also, I'd like to do the MP3 thing, but I don't have a mic. Anyone want to help? The whole quote is "I am Canadian.", with equal emphasis on all the words, said in a normal tone of voice. You would be credited.
From me,
Lanke
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Author	Topic: Help With Custom Faction?
Bad Explanation	posted 05-05-99 02:08 AM ET I've been trying to perfect my custom faction, the Surly Underclass. They're kind of a Teamster-ish faction, and I thought it'd be cool to have part of their Datalink entry say: "Snubbed by the Elite: Only get HALF votes in Planetary Council." I've been using ACEdit, and trying to edit the faction file manually, too, but I just can't get this to work. I tried entering VOTES, 1/2, VOTES, .5, and VOTES, 0.5... and what happens is, the faction just doesn't get ANY votes. I check this by loading an old savegame, from late in some game, and then turning on the scenario editor and "reloading" the Surlies on top of whoever I was playing. I always hope to see my votes get halved; instead, I usually just get none. I could always make the entry say "Snubbed by the Elite; gets NO votes in Planetary Council," but a) that's not as funny to me, and b) it would make less sense, because you'd still get a yea/nay vote. Anybody know if there's a way to make this trick work?
trippin daily	posted 05-05-99 02:12 AM ET Nope, Bad Explanation. The Best explanation I could give you is that the SMAC engine looks for a positive integer only. That is the most probably reason. The command they used to read that variable was set to read only real numbers. When it can't find one, it defaults to zero. Trippin Daily
Bad Explanation	posted 05-05-99 11:41 AM ET How did this get double-posted?
GaryD	posted 05-05-99 11:46 AM ET No one knows, but it is a common enough phenomenon around here.
David Johnson	posted 05-05-99 01:42 PM ET Why not simply double the votes of every other faction?
GaryD	posted 05-05-99 01:47 PM ET Hey ! A lateral thinker !
Bad Explanation	posted 05-06-99 11:46 AM ET That'd work, but ideally a faction should be self-contained, so you can post it and have it work for everyone without too much extra tampering. I'm kinda into the idea of playing a game with all custom factions, too, and having to retool every faction I download just for the sake of my one little joke... Tangent: The problem I've noticed with playing with more than one custom faction is that most people don't bother to make new art for their factions, so all your opponents look like the defalt ACEdit faction.
Goobmeister	posted 05-06-99 11:58 AM ET Did you try votes, 50 ? for 50 percent. How are Lal's votes represented as doubled? just an idea Goob
Bad Explanation	posted 05-07-99 03:11 AM ET oops! I meant to say that I don't want to have to change the stats of every faction I play against, then change them back when i want to play "normally" or vs. other players... goob: you enter a "multiplier", which apparently has to be a whole number, to affect the votes; so you enter, VOTES, 2, to give lal twice the votes. This is why the natural way to halve it would seem to be VOTES, 1/2, or VOTES, 0.5, but these don't work. I recently had another idea; would VOTES, -2, work? It seems like sometimes they make positive and negative values work differently... does anybody know if that would work? I suppose I should just try it myself and see..
Lanke	posted 05-07-99 10:41 PM ET Bad E: Yeah, well, I noticed that the ACEdit default pics come with every faction. So when I create factions, I just zip them up WITHOUT any pic files. This is because making GOOD pic files is hard - I've yet to see a good one. In fact, I'm not trying to blow my own horn or whatever, but the new Canadian Faction pics which I am working on right now are best I've seen. I'd send them to you, but I need your email address. Everyone: BTW, if you've read this, then consider it a forwarning for the Canadian Faction ver. 5, coming soon from myself. This will be the final version. Also, I'd like to do the MP3 thing, but I don't have a mic. Anyone want to help? The whole quote is "I am Canadian.", with equal emphasis on all the words, said in a normal tone of voice. You would be credited. From me, Lanke