Changing Starting Planet

from Sins Forums
Hello all,
I've been picking through the different GameInfo files and I've been unable to find a line dictating which planet type the player starts with. I thought it would be in PlayerTech, maybe under galaxyGeneratorInfo but its not. Nor is it in GalaxySetup. I've gone through every file I think it could be in and read all the lines.

It seems to me all TEC factions start with PLANET_TERRANHOME as their starting planet and there's no way to change it. I hope thats not so.

Has anyone else found a way to change the player's starting planet from PLANET_TERRANHOME to one of the others or a new one? (I don't mean just changing the properties of PLANET_TERRANHOME.)

Thanks!
modding
16,154 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
I'm not sure why you just dont modify it (I'm sure that you know how to based on your post).
Are you trying to make it so each player starts with a different planet type?

unlike with the ships, were modifying capitalbattleship would impact all of them, modifying terranhome, will only impact starting planets, although it would modify it for all players.





Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I'm not sure why you just dont modify it (I'm sure that you know how to based on your post).
Are you trying to make it so each player starts with a different planet type?

unlike with the ships, were modifying capitalbattleship would impact all of them, modifying terranhome, will only impact starting planets, although it would modify it for all players.








Yep I did modify it, but it changed it for every TEC faction in the game, I was hoping to change it just for the human player, not the computer.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Reason why It is even is cause the game needs to be fair to every player. As you have noticed while playing the game. The Terran planets are the most habitable. If we all started with different planet types, it would mean that we all start off with a different amount of resources. This will lead to some players getting the short end of the stick. It wouldn't be fair to those he get a volcanic planet to start. Starting planets need to be the same for these reasons...
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I also don't see why you would want this changed. It needs to be equalized for players of the same faction, different factions is another matter. It's nice when different factions have different requirements for gameplay. But changing the starting planet within a faction with the same requirements... I dont really know why that would be desireable .
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
I was trying to change it to see if it could be changed. I understand why everyone starts with the same planet, but I thought it might be interesting to start out with just an asteroid vs everyone else's Terrans for a change.

I would expect down the road when people are modding it will be useful to give the player a different starting planet from any one else with the same race.

I'm guessing no one else who has taken a look has found a way?
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
there is an unnatural parralellism in the way the programming regards player and computer. I would question whether or not its possible.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah it doesn't seem possible for the engine to differentiate between the player and the other TEC AI's playing in the game.

I wish it could, it would let me tweak the starting conditions for more roleplaying. Ex. Having the starting planet be "Old Earth;" high population, low resources etc.

Maybe it can be changed around for Beta2?
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
I wish it were possible to change the starting location based on player, not faction/race, especially for modding purposes.

There would be times that I would like to start from a different planet because I'm a young, upstart faction seeking independence from my imperialistic bastard masters in red coats.

It may make the game harder for me but that's sort of the point.
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
There are two levels of modding. Modifiy how the galaxy is generated or modify a specific galaxy. If you want to modify the starting planet/capitalship or whatever on a player by player basis you want to modify a specific galaxy. This is akin to creating a map in other RTS games. This is easily done by generating a basic galaxy and then editing a save game of it which you can make right at the start. You can then load the save game as a map. We'll look into better support for this type of modding much closer to release.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
yes they need the same starting planet for balance reasons but diffrent races may start with diffrent planets to balance them out like the vasari my get a realy crappy planet and so on.
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
There are two levels of modding. Modifiy how the galaxy is generated or modify a specific galaxy. If you want to modify the starting planet/capitalship or whatever on a player by player basis you want to modify a specific galaxy. This is akin to creating a map in other RTS games. This is easily done by generating a basic galaxy and then editing a save game of it which you can make right at the start. You can then load the save game as a map. We'll look into better support for this type of modding much closer to release.


I look forward to that time then, creating my own maps (Can you say Sol System?) will add ages of replayability to this game. For now I'll content myself with finding the biggest map my computer can run comfortably.
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
actually,i think you should have the possibility too start in our solar system and our part of the galaxy.at least when youre playing single player...also,i hope the game is gonna be multi player on a local lan and not only on the internet   
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
On XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\SavedGame\

But good luck reading the save games. A new game is dozens of MBs of text, and later in the games I've heard of files in the hundreds of MBs.