Some Questions regardng Faction Creation.

[JarlWolf]

I have been trying to make my own faction for a while, and while I know how to operate Face Edit to a marginal extent, I do not know how to fully, and properly import it into the actual game (either the original SMAC or its expansion, Alien Crossfire) and I don't know how to put in custom pictures for leaders or faction insignia's.

My idea was to basically create a Pseudo Communist faction, called the Crimson Comrades, which would be taking the idea of a communal type society that has only one social class and all surplus resources are compiled and shared. Seeing as how this idea is very idealistic, and how a futuristic communal society in this sense might be practical with sharing of resources keeping colonists relatively equally supplied and so forth, and he stringent pressures of the environment making personal wealth a luxury and Individualist Enterprise seen as a way of exploiting resources for yourself.

The society's main traits are this.

2+ Support, the compiled resources and large amounts of cooperation allow more units to be supported, as resources are distributed upon need on a equal basis.
1+ Industry, the combined efforts of the communities and their relative autonomy in their function ensure that production is kept rather high.
-2 Economy, The lack of Private Enterprise stings the progress of the generation of wealth, and the fact that resources are spread makes individual wealth a slim, if impossible possibility.
-1 Efficiency, human nature and the faults associated with it make this system have flaws in terms of balanced work ratios.

Free Tech: Centauri Ecology- The Leader, Vazheli Vatzev, was the head Janitor on board Unity, and he had necessary clearance to get into the equipment rooms during the time of the Unity's sabotage, and he made sure he and his fellows took Terraformer blueprints with them.
Free Facility: Among other things, when the chaotic dispersion of the Unity was happening, the Comrades grabbed blueprints for recycling systems, which made sure the could immediately setup facilities for recycling resources, as well as foregone citizens. His experience in mechanical engineering and his resourceful jury rigging as a Janitor also made sure that the new facilities were implemented early within the communities.

May not use Free Market economy model
(Preferred, but not limited to, is Planned economic model.)

As for the picture, I have a pictures of my own I could use, of which I will link in a little bit.

[sisko]

I do not know how to fully, and properly import it into the actual game (either the original SMAC or its expansion, Alien Crossfire)

once you have the text files ready it is quite simple.

for SMAC you have to open the alpha.txt file, search for the #FACTIONS section and replace one of the original seven with your own faction. here's an example:

Code: [Select]

#FACTIONS
GAIANS,   GAIANS
NOMADES,  NOMADES
UNIV,     UNIV
MORGAN,   MORGAN
SPARTANS, SPARTANS
BELIEVE,  BELIEVE
PEACE,    PEACEin this case, the Nomades are replacing the Hive. this will tell SMAC to load the text file nomades.txt instead on the hive.txt (also the graphic files).

for SMAX it is the alphaX.txt file and you can do the same as the above either in #FACTIONS or #NEWFACTIONS (replacing one of the existing 14 factions) or add a new line (e.g. NOMADES,  NOMADES) in the #CUSTOMFACTIONS section. if you chose to add a custom faction, you will find it in the "Choose your faction" screen in the drop-down menu.

I don't know how to put in custom pictures for leaders or faction insignia's.

for this you will have to wait for our specialist Buncle who will be happy to guide you in the custom graphics field.
he lives in the US and should be online in 2-3 hours.
until then, if you have some free time, you can take a look at his thread here: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=1237.0
there's a lot of useful info in there for you.

..the Crimson Comrades, which would be taking the idea of a communal type society that has only one social class and all surplus resources are compiled and shared.

y'all wave your proletarian hats for the Crimson Comrades!

[JarlWolf]

Right, understood. I will be following your instructions for adding a new faction in Crossfire. I don't want to remove any of the original factions. The only faction I honestly do not like is Cha Dawn, and mainly because I find his faction to be not only too similar to the Gaians in their ecological standpoint, I also find diplomacy with Cha Dawn is like hitting your head against a Brick wall. Even Miriam Godwinson was more diplomatic then him, and she's an aggressive fundamentalist at the best of times.

So if anyone is being replaced, it's Cha Dawn.

[Buster's Uncle]

So, your creative angle is a utopian communist society, the way Marx intended.  I like this.  To the extent the Hive is actually communist, Yang appears to have fallen into the Lenninist perversion of communism, with a cult of personality around the leader - which is fundamentally against the central egalitarianism of true communist Ideals.  The Free Drones are more about those  ideas and Ideals than the Hive is.

You want to try to hint that your janitor is first amoung equals, not Glorious Leader.

Here is a communist logo someone had me whip up for the Hive a long time ago.  Do chat me up in the Graphics thread with any art questions left after you've caught up on your reading.

[Buster's Uncle]

...You'll save time if you go here http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=articles;cat=6 Modding resources in Articles.  All my tutorials are also posted there, and you'll save time.  The thread is really for questions and discussion...

[Pickly]

Alsop, here's a useful link to some text file editing info:  http://alphacentauri.us/fac-tool/faq.htm

As for the faction, gameplay wise it seems very hive like, would also be interested in hearing how it works out.

[Buster's Uncle]

That stuff at Dreifels' site you linked is just pure gold.  We have something in the works to try to wrap up a graphics course in a nice package vaguely along those lines.

[Kilkakon]

Any progress on this Jarl?

[JarlWolf]

Computer crashed a while ago, still recovering files, though I do have all the images and what not worked on *except the bases* but everything else is in order, I just have to re do things.

[Green1]

After my OMTing on Fallen Enchantress, I have come to an epiphany on custom factions/ custom leaders. That particular 4x has a WORKING faction creator and leader creator implemented inside the game itself. It also enforces balance on a point system. That way, once FE gets MP up, someone could take a custom faction and compete with it without worring about being exiled by the MP fanatics for cheating. Not even Civ has that. SMAX does, but I have heard it is buggy as hell and unintuitive.

We (or some bored coder)  should really at some point make a better version of FACEDIT one decade for folks that do not want to go through lines of text.

[Buster's Uncle]

You're talking about ACEdit, only updated for X and able to run on W7 - and maybe a some graphic componants added...  I really miss having the use of the ACEdit.

[Rainbow Lizard]

Also, in SMACX there is a specific place for custom factions so you don't have to replace anyone. Of course, you still can, but some people like Cha.