RRRRRRIIINNG, this is the buzzer sound on the Gong Show.
Wrong!
You've got to play with the Thunderbirds in X-Worlds to discover that an island on a PQ17 like Scott can certainly build a factory dead smack middle of the Pacific ocean - indirectly since the 12 times wide line of tiles is as much horizontal as it can ever be.

Alright, that's enough.
Back to serious Modding work.
I'm busy - sorry again, Kryo.

The former is, but I do believe the latter is still used (for what little it's worth).



If there aren't enough 'land' tiles according to the RAW to accomodate the PQ, the game just starts filling from the equator out. That's ancient DL behavior.

Two facts *revealing a truth* are certainly better than one ill-bred dream.

Where was i, oh yeah - a dream.

So SirNastyofTang (or anyone else, btw), you actually showed up real interest in knowing about this whole "concept" i was yapping my mouth with the multiple posts above while waiting for someone's attention or comments?

Kay... seriously, absolutely?

The image below gives a relatively sharper vision over what i've been working on since last December.



If this proves to be too complex to even *try* coding, i'll simply return to my dirty hole overthere never to bother anyone with it, ever.

But, if you REALLY think there might be a chance in a million that this type of stuff could be pulled... keep on reading.

- Floaterus is habitable by all, Exomicron is Aquatic, Hole is Toxic and Cydonia... whatever you wish.

- A blue boxy for Aquatic stuff like Coasts & Reefs. A Purple one for Toxics, Volcanoes, etc.

- It would give a meaning to the Galactic Orbital Terraformer building.

- It would multiply the number of available tiles in the later stages (or even sooner!).

- It would provide a way to let the five Harsh planets add much more impact to their usual; you can, you can't, you're half way there, you will eventually earn some of the colonization results. Before and_or after, some situations or surface contexts allow you to.

- It would involve careful thoughts on the Queries representation and FINALLY, possibly cut the current **all prairies or else** gimmicky by force by letting us keep a Mountain, a Beach and a Volcano and slapping those with the green validating tags - only.

- It could, and i say this with some knife between my teeth, hand over an overwhelming power of control to the players while they evaluate potential for a 12x6 grid worth of tiles.

- THAT's what i would call *Custom* Planets.

So... whaddayasay, SD_Team. Up for another challenge?

Else, i'm just gonna go hide in the nearest abysmal depths and implode in tears for doing all of that for ziltch.

Back to modding - real actuality... rather than hopes and, dreams!

I mean, these people are very busy with something much more important than my 'ideas'.

A whole lotta week & love to all - LedZep.

I can happily report that the XW_TechTree now has two new thingy to research on top of the above Harshland Conditioning & Coastal Integration slots; Oceanic Expansion into the Abyss & Anti-Gravity Compensation to tackle up HG vortex.
In all theory, the galaxy just got bigger at the planetary scale instead of sector'ing immensily 45 parsecs worth all around.

Seriously, i just gave them a tag (* Implementation Pending *) and suddenly realized, i do NOT work for StarDock anymore than those actually responsible for design decisions.

Sooooo? Any comments, slams, swings, kicks, a wacky slap across this whole pile of junk tiles as they FIT the surfaces or squeeze into the planet wide red-to-yellow-to-green permission granted to have room to expand?

Or somethin' ???

Kryo?
Another smally question if you don't mind.

What would i need to edit or alter in the 'Satellite.fx' (10/07) file to bring back the previously available (DL & DA) transparency effect on Moons?

It looks as though an AlphaBlend condition was added in for reasons so obscure - an oxymoron, if there's anything closer - the BAT moon in TotA doesn't deploy its see-through black electrical features anymore but only on a greyed sphere which isn't the intention!

These fx, btw, may also contain some key tricks for alternate variations to the Homestars texturing or even the rings tilt... but that's for much later, probably.

I've got no idea about the effect files. Logic might, though.

So, please Logic... can you illuminate me or suggest a correction to that specific file?
I wonder if a simple copyover of the previous version would mess the engine so much, a crash should occur, in fact.
Thus, why i was asking.

Hey I don't know if I missed where you guys mentioned but in the custom maps how do I change (if I can at all) the color of the Star System and the size of the star. So far I've been following what you guys have said and I have been able to edit the planets well enough, but the star itself is being stubborn.

That would be "indirectly" possible only by creating an additional entry in the StarTypes.xml file where a new set of textures is given to a specific tag after the ones already there.
I did such stuff with a DarkStar (#8 slot)... but it can only be distributed at random in default maps or by editing a custom map file (CustomPlanets.xml can't detect those though, as Stars continually revert back to the default) for the system intended. (as explained in this thread Why always yellows...)

Sadly the game engine only picks the 'yellows' slot by default, except for the Terran Sol found in CP.xml. Hint!

I got whatever colors i wanted for any simply by renaming the Purples as Yellows - ain't the most elegant solution but it certainly worked. I even went all the way Greens just for kicks once. Straight from a Mod folder, i might insist - you simply don't want to disturb the defaults as they are.

It is currently not possible

Oh well, it looks as though i will never be able to receive any answers from LogicSequence about any subjects too busy that he is promoting his Hi-Res_Graphics 2.0 mod or doing much more important favors to StarDock... it's alright i could detect the general attitude back in November last year as soon as i tried suggesting a new color (and better or too complex for some) picker for this wonderful game i mod (or rather currently and continually trying to understand the hows and whys of some essential features without having to delay my offers to players for months rather than days!) for also.
It's alright though, in the Satellite.fx case, i simply replaced the newest file (but flawed if you ask me, unless explained by anyone) with the old from my mod folder and it actually puts the BAT moon like it is meant to be.

BTW, MrKorx... the map editor allow for resizing of Stars but if the game engine itself doesn't pick up the ball and runs as it should, that's SD coders fault not ours.

Which reminds me of something else about the custom planets (gee, sounds familiar, isn't it?)

Here is what i want to do ***exactly*** for a specific secondary planet in CoSH to be given to General Grievous of the Kaleesh from Homeworld Kalee in his system around star K;

- Find an already equirectangular texture map of the Star Wars Death Star (pfftt, plenty of stupidly weird 3DS files out there, maybe i should buy it from ILM Lucas' studios directly) as it is shown semi-transparently reddish in episode V (or was it from VI?). Not the gray scale drawing found in the library here. No, a genuine DeathStar II with the missing under construction edges which would end up showing on the UV plane "indirectly" as space emptiness showing through stars and nebulaes in the background while spinning.

- Create a fake moon which mimics the greeny fluorescent firing sequence with the following descriptive values;
a) close enough to the planet surface so that it orbits half-sunk into it.
static also (like the Moon) and synchronized with the orbital speed of the Death Star planet underneath.
c) Locate the convex elliptic gun casing on the ecliptic (by modifying the longitudes ratios of the texture map if found anywhere or drawn from scratch patiently) so that its speed also coincides with the half-sunk laser moon above.

*** BUT, since the map editor shows it all to me that the above is possible and that the game engine doesn't.

Question, then: What am i doing wrong? And, if so tell me how to patch that map editor itself so that it no longer shows me fantastic effects that cannot be used - including the supposedly valid pathways tilts.
My video-card doesn't render these? Tell me.
Something's is missing in the code? Fix it.

-- In the meantime, i'll go make King Kong's jungle island with true breathing clouds above it. And the giant legendary Ape standing on a mountain top as seen from space; if Godzilla can be purple itself on a surface map, anything is possible.

Doas anyone know what happends to "unused" Systems and Planets from the customplanets.xml ??
I want to creats some special Systems for unsing in random generated Maps.

Did Galciv2 use systems of the customplanets.xml if there is noch race that use these systems by default?

Or more likely he's just not around, as has been the case for quite a while outside of the HRGM2 release.

Summer time is always a mystery to me... never took much of a true vacation myself when i was working full time in a long gone past!

One thing to be said about LS is that his HRGM2 is truly something of a reference when modders want to "enhance" their own stuff to higher standards. Not sucking up to the guy here, just plain evidence from the version i now have in the TotA mods folder.

But since i will *finally* upgrade to an entirely new PC early next month (Core2Duo Intel/2.8, 8600GS_512mb, 500Gig Drive, 3G_ram, VistaHomePremium, etc)... i'll be able to put all of this high-end stuff to its fast demands.

I'm crossing fingers GCII "trio" of SDC backups i zipped will install smoothly too.
Unless you'd recommend pulling everything off the initial jewel DL case and updating straight from SDC (or Impulse) bandwidth after proper activation on the new PC?

It's definitely a huge step away from the P4 and its low-end NV6600AGP - that's a given.

Besides, my MODs will get to be developped on a quality, efficient, productive computer with that switch.
About $900CDN (fair enough deal, in fact - since that includes a superb 22" panoramic LCD monitor!) well invested, i guess. All i need now is a 2Gig USB-FlashDrive to transfer essential files and_or backup folders with the design frameworks & a whole lotta patience and time to re-install the entire set of usual programs.