28-02-2001 10:30									#1
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Hi SMAC-Hackers,

after playing all these years I'm starting to think about doing some Creation for SMAC/X. But what can you Actually do? Where do I find a good intro into the world of manipulating and changing AC?
One detail-question: Can you create new Terrain Enhancements (and maybe even reserve them for one faction)? That would be great.

any help appreciated..

	28-02-2001 00:24									#2
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Well, I am a bit of a hacker myself, so to empathise my agenda on 'free flow of information'...

The main thing you need to edit is the alpha.txt or alphax.txt file. This is the secondary core of the game (primary being the TERRAN.EXE or TERRANX.EXE file for which I can't find any way of editing). You can edit world sets size, amount of fungus, global warming (get the latest patch if you've got SMAC), starting/ending year, nutrient intake, movement rates, artilery ranges, various (MANY of these) combat modifiers, Progenitor victory conditiond (SMAX), etc.

You can change RESOURCE information, for example you can change the amounts of nutrients/minerals/energy various squares give you (like monoliths, base, ocean, farmed (on land), terraformed (sea only), borehole , forest , bonus squares and even the amounts that Recycling Tanks give you!)

About the TERRAFORMS - I don't think you can make new ones but you can edit 'old' ones like changing preq tech, enabling to build monoliths and to anable some enhancements to be built in the sea (imagine a Mag Tube in the sea).

You CAN change, but with really CAREFUL planning, the WHOLE tech tree (which I actually did in my mod and I'm putting it up to my new website, when I build THAT ), the weapons, chasis, reactors, shields and all of their powers. You can even create custom units with their own graphics which you can put for only one faction if you'd like to, or you can put allowed to build after preq tech.

You can change special abilities' and facilities' names but not what they do. The only time I was able to modify a new facility in my mod, was when I created 'Wormhole Drain' which gave you -4 maintendance at that base.

You can fiddle with the SE and change their effects and preqs, but can't edit the actual effects a +1 ECONOMY or -2 POLICE does for example. You can also edit what each Specialist does and when they become available and obsolite. In my mod, I pu that drones disappear when you discover Treshold of Transcendance! But then the challenge of it was gone...

Finally, you can edit landmark names (eg. 'Moonsoon Jungle') and when do different council proposals come up.

PHEW! I hope that sumarises it all your initial couriocity desires! Of course there are MANY more things I need to add to this to make it a full SMAC/X EDITOR GUIDE but this is all, for now .

	28-02-2001 01:10									#3
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Thank you so much Cybergod (a sensation of awe at your name),

it gives me an idea of what's happening. One important question: all of these things you mention, can they be changed globally or individually for each faction?

	28-02-2001 21:54									#4
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It's all globaly except for the custom units which you can give to their faction files, for a plain example (which is impossible in unedited game) put UNIT, 30 in the file.

Now there are loads of stuff to fiddle with in the scripts.txt and the individual faction files. Infact all the text files can be edited (with careful pre-planning).

One thing: no matter what I do, the AI just cheats on the Transcendi level...

	02-03-2001 04:17									#5
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Yea, that's true. It's the reason I don't like to play Transcend anymore. Not that I'd avoid the challenge, but it's no fun when you can't calculate things. You destroy a unit, next turn it is sitting right there again. Doesn't make sense.
Thank you for all the info.


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May the fungus be with you...