Novice Question - Adding Factions in Bulk

[Zeta Aki]

Apologies in advance - I did a search on adding factions in bulk but could not get a good answer. Looking in the Ultimate Faction Pack zip file, I see a bunch of .txt and pcx files but am not sure what to do with them.

Any links or guidance on bulk installing and activating factions would be greatly appreciated.

[bvanevery]

To my knowledge there's no such thing as a mod manager for SMAC.  You have to add factions manually.  Now, if you're just replacing the .txt files for existing factions that contain their rules / parameters, it's trivial.  My SMACX AI Growth mod uses that approach.  I'm not adding brand new factions to the game, I'm just changing parameters for existing ones.  Brand new factions, there's some additional files with "pointers" in them you've gotta do.  I've never done it, but it shouldn't be too hard.  Hopefully one of those factions you're interested in contains some instructions, but there' isn't going to be any "in bulk" process for it.

[Buster's Uncle]

Dump the faction files in the root folder for the game.

In alpha.txt for SMAC -or alphax.txt for SMAX- (open it in Notepad) near the bottom of the file you'll find:

; First item is file name, second item is search key.
; These should always be the same except for debugging purposes.
;
#FACTIONS
GAIANS,   GAIANS
HIVE,     HIVE
UNIV,     UNIV
MORGAN,   MORGAN
SPARTANS, SPARTANS
BELIEVE,  BELIEVE
PEACE,    PEACE

(And below that in SMAX:)

;
; First item is file name, second item is search key.
; These should always be the same except for debugging purposes.
;
#NEWFACTIONS
CYBORG,   CYBORG
PIRATES,  PIRATES
DRONE,    DRONE
ANGELS,   ANGELS
FUNGBOY,  FUNGBOY
CARETAKE, CARETAKE
USURPER,  USURPER

(ending with:)

;
; These are factions you want included in the startup list.
; These may also be chosen when a random faction is selected.
; First item is file name, second item is search key.
; These should always be the same except for debugging purposes.
;
#CUSTOMFACTIONS

-Find the faction names near the top of the custom faction .txt files, and add up to seven under #CUSTOMFACTIONS in the same format as the official factions, and you should have up the 21 factions to choose from in-game, seven at a time.

[bvanevery]

Hm, maybe I'll finally give that a whirl.  Using them in my SMACX AI Growth mod, the best ruleset available for the game IMO.  If looking at their stats, I think the factions are accomplishing a reasonable intent for whatever they're trying to do.  Or if they just look cool.

[Ryddle]

I have had more than 7 factions under #Customfactions and it seems to work. I just tested it with the eighth faction in the list.

[Zeta Aki]

Thanks Buncle / All - I will give this method a try.