Basic questions from a grateful newbie

[maxand]

Hi my first post here. I've been looking for a pure and simple strategy game along the lines of Imperium (a board game which I used to play years ago), and FO seems to fit the bill. Big thanks to all the team who have worked on this so far. It's a bonus to be able to modify this when I get to know the game; right now I'm just starting to be able to play it and have a few problems, so all help is appreciated. I have skimmed the most recent newbie threads, also searched the forum without success.

Running FO 0.3.15 SVN 3727 on Windows 7.

1) Biggest problem right now - I can't colonize any planets!



As you can see from this pic, this is a single-player game with default settings. I sent the home fleet to Muphrid. The fleet contains a colony ship (the McHugh). The system map says "Select colony ship to colonize". As soon as I select the McHugh, this line disappears from each planet's description box but there is NO Colonize button. I've tried everything to "colonize" any of the planets but no success.

I'm also confused by the fact that the Quick Help states

Toxic, Swamp, Radiated, Barren, Inferno, and Tunda [sic] planets, as well as Gas Giants and Asteroid belts can’t be colonized or otherwise used in v0.3.13. They will not have a Colonize button even if a colony ship is in their system.

So theoretically Muphrid I should be the only eligible planet as it is Terran. Why isn't this so? (I realize the advice applies to 0.3.13, not 0.3.15.)

2) When I start playing, there is only one focus choice for my home world, Cannon I:



According to the Quick Help I should have both a primary and a secondary focus, or has this been changed now?

3) I also notice that this world is "medium radiated", which (see above) should mean that it cannot be colonized, yet it is! This is very confusing.

4) Confusing ship icons. MGyver said here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5074

Something graphical needs to be added to the list of ships in a fleet to discern their types; I accidentally sent a colony ship on a scouting mission.

Bigjoe5 replied:

There already is. Scout icons are small and pointy, warships are big and pointy, and colony ships are big and curvy.

This is obviously untrue. If you look at the top pic you will see the icon for the colony ship is exactly the same as that of the scout ship. This urgently needs to be changed. Is there any way to use different icons here?

5) I don't understand what Starting Species means. Is this referring to us or aliens? In the Galaxy Map (our) empire name is the Terran Imperium, so we should be called terrans, not Trith or Gyisache. Why only two species if this game can have 3 or more AI players? Only Trith have a human-like icon. I'd like to rename Trith to Terran, or have I got it all wrong?

Thanks for your assistance.

[Geoff the Medio]

You've quoted instructions about v0.3.13, but you're playing v0.3.15, which has several important changes. In particular, colony ships have a species, which is indicated by the text in brackets before the ship design name. In your case: (Trith). The Trith species like Radiated planets, so that is where you're able to colonize.

According to the Quick Help I should have both a primary and a secondary focus, or has this been changed now?

Yes; there is now only one focus per planet.

MGyver here:

Something graphical needs to be added to the list of ships in a fleet to discern their types; I accidentally sent a colony ship on a scouting mission.

Bigjoe5 replied:

There already is. Scout icons are small and pointy, warships are big and pointy, and colony ships are big and curvy.

This is obviously untrue. If you look at the top pic you will see the icon for the colony ship is exactly the same as that of the scout ship. This urgently needs to be changed. Is there any way to use different icons here?

I think Bigjoe5 was referring to the fleet icons on the map or the ships list, which should show those distinctions. If you want to use different icons, you can change premade_ship_designs.txt in the default directory to give the colony ship and scout designs different icons.

5) I don't understand what Starting Species means.

It determines the species on your starting planet and ships, including the colony ship (see above).

In the Galaxy Map (our) empire name is the Terran Imperium, so we should be called terrans, not Trith or Gyisache.

You can rename your empire when starting a new game... "Terran Imperium" is just the default, which doesn't change according to what species you have selected.

Why only two species if this game can have 3 or more AI players?

Because only two species were written. If someone wants to write more, they are free to do so and are encouraged to submit them for inclusion.

Only Trith have a human-like icon. I'd like to rename Trith to Terran, or have I got it all wrong?

You can add a Terran species to species.txt, or rename the existing Trith to Terran by editing eng_stringtable.txt. As above, they won't be very terran-like though, as they'll still prefer Radiated planets.

[maxand]

Thanks Geoff. I tried your advice and sure enough the Colonize button appeared as soon as I selected a Gyisache colony ship in a system with a Terran planet. think I'll have to make a copy of the Gyisache section of species.txt (within the same file), edit it to Human name and requirements (which at first glance seem remarkably similar), then point it to the human.png icon which someone obligingly included in the Species icon folder (even though there does not appear to be a ready made species with this name). Hopefully there won't be any further code fiddling to persuade FO to recognize a new single-player species. Uh oh, I just re-read your reply and I'll probably have to edit eng_stringtable.txt too.

Up till now I haven't seen a description text field showing what types of planet each species likes/dislikes; the only solution is to read species.txt. Have I overlooked one somewhere? The logical answer would be to have a hover tooltip or at least a text field openable by R clicking the species. I'd also like to suggest (though this isn't the Suggestions section) that default setup include Trith, Gyisache AND Human.

If you want to use different icons, you can change premade_ship_designs.txt in the default directory to give the colony ship and scout designs different icons.

Haven't looked at the premade_ship_designs.txt, so hopefully this will fix it. Is there a later SVN than 3727 in which someone else has already done this, to save me the trouble?

[Geoff the Medio]

There are many missing features, including in-game descriptions of species. The latest SVN actually has an in-game encyclopedia, but it doesn't give any useful information about species automatically; it would need to be hand-written, and this hasn't been done yet.

The latest SVN is 3991, but I don't think any relevant changes to premade_ship_designs.txt have been committed.

[maxand]

I feel more emotionally involved with this game if it turns into us humans 'gainst them alien critters, so decided to turn the Gyisache (who require much the same conditions as humans, but strangely don't look like us at all) into Terrans. This works easier than trying to make Terrans out of Trith, who, although they resemble us (iconically), prefer to live on radiated planets (maybe they're mutants). Here's how to go about it, using a text editor.

Code: Select all

--------------------------------------------
C:\Program Files\FreeOrion\default\species.txt
--------------------------------------------
Change SP_GYISACHE to SP_TERRAN (case sensitive)

Species
    name = "SP_TERRAN"
    description = "SP_TERRAN"

...
(keep Gyisache, i.e, Terran, environments the same, i.e., human-friendly)
    environments = [
        type = Swamp        environment = Poor
        type = Toxic        environment = Hostile
        type = Inferno      environment = Hostile
        type = Radiated     environment = Hostile
        type = Barren       environment = Hostile
        type = Tundra       environment = Poor
        type = Desert       environment = Adequate
        type = Terran       environment = Good
        type = Ocean        environment = Adequate
        type = Asteroids    environment = Uninhabitable
        type = Gasgiant     environment = Uninhabitable
    ]
(Change this line from gyisache.png to terran.png)
    graphic = "icons/species/terran.png"

---------------------------------------------
C:\Program Files\FreeOrion\default\buildings.txt
---------------------------------------------

Change SP_GYISACHE to SP_TERRAN


------------------------------------------------------
C:\Program Files\FreeOrion\default\eng_stringtable.txt
------------------------------------------------------
Change SP_GYISACHE to SP_TERRAN:

####################
# Species          #
####################

SP_TRITH
Trith

SP_TRITH_DESC
Bereaved xenophobic telepaths.

SP_TERRAN
Terran

SP_TERRAN_DESC
That's us


---------------------------------------------------------
C:\Program Files\FreeOrion\default\data\art\icons\species
---------------------------------------------------------

Rename [i]trith.png[/i] to[i] terran.png[/i].
Rename [i]gyisache.png[/i] to [i]trith.png[/i] (suitably alien-looking)

As for ship icons in the fleet box:

Create a 256 x 256 pixel PNG image of a scout ship, named scout.png. (Google images for scout ship and modify to need; as long as it's for your private use, this should be OK). Paste image into C:\Program Files\FreeOrion\default\data\art\misc folder, NOT the hulls_design folder.

Open C:\Program Files\FreeOrion\default\premade_ship_designs.txt and alter the second last line in this section as follows:

Code: Select all

ShipDesign
    name = "SD_SCOUT"
    description = "SD_SCOUT_DESC"
    lookup_strings = true
    hull = "SH_STANDARD"
    parts = "DT_OPTICAL_SCANNER"
    graphic = "misc/scout.png"
    model = ""

Repeat using different icons for other ships such as Colony Ships, etc.

[eleazar]

The latest SVN actually has an in-game encyclopedia, but it doesn't give any useful information about species automatically; it would need to be hand-written...

Is there a text file for this? I'm not seeing anything...


Also for those brave souls who are customizing the species for themselves, i've made a ton of species icons, which are included with FO, but not yet used. Chances are one of them will match your favorite alien species pretty well.

[Geoff the Medio]

The latest SVN actually has an in-game encyclopedia, but it doesn't give any useful information about species automatically; it would need to be hand-written...

Is there a text file for this? I'm not seeing anything...

It will display whatever stringtable entry is specified in the species definition. For example, Trith have

Code: Select all

description = "SP_TRITH_DESC"

and so that string is shown in the encyclopedia.