Modifying Planet sizes and tiles

from GalCiv3 Forums

Hi Folks

I'm hoping someone can help direct me in the right direction. My goal is to create 'super systems' ( i.e. Earth is size 30, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn are all size 20 and colonisable).

I've figured out:

How to increase plant sizes

How to mark something as colonisable or not

How to change the planet art so the plant actually has tiles

I have NOT figured out how to mark custom map tiles as terraformable of any level. Depending on the world art used despite being a class 20 planet only has 15 tiles available, and none can be terraformed at any level.

I assume it has to be a custom map, and there is a line out there which can mark how many level 1/2/3 tiles it has. I can't seem to find anything that seems right in any of the other 'planet' files.

Thanks

 Edited for a bit less poor grammar

11,660 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I think this would be a fun mod for all major races. I really want a truly custom home system for my minor race. Hope someone can point you to what you need.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top


I have NOT figured out how to mark custom map tiles as terraformable of any level. Depending on the world art used despite being a class 20 planet only has 15 tiles available, and none can be terraformed at any level.

I assume it has to be a custom map, and there is a line out there which can mark how many level 1/2/3 tiles it has. I can't seem to find anything that seems right in any of the other 'planet' files.
End of quote

As far as I can tell from looking at and modding the game files, there is no such mark or designation for maps that tells the game what "level" of terraforming is allowed for each planet. Except for the major race homeworlds, all the planets are (somewhat) randomly generated by combining bits and pieces from pregenerated planet surface art. What all of the various terraforming projects do is look at the percentage of land vs. water to decide if that particular tile may be terraformed.

For example, Soil Enhancement has this line:

<LandPercentageMin>0.3</LandPercentageMin>

For the most part, as you develop additional terraform techs, that LandPercentageMin number decreases; Terraforming Plant is 0.25, Habitat Improvement is 0.2, Resequencing Station is 0.15, etc. The best techs (Biospheres and Universal Soil Adapter) have 0.0 listed, meaning they can terraform ANY single tile.

This may also explain why your custom class-20 planet has only 15 useable tiles - the Land percentage is just not high enough beyond those 15 tiles.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I have the same experience as Sansiol. Though I find it confusing, the devs decided long distance space travel and other world colonization would be readily available  long before homeworld based aquatic undersea colonies.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

That's surface-ism right there. I want to colonize gas giants with cloud cities, think Lando Calrissian.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Thanks for the comments guys

That makes sense Sansloi. I remember another thread talking about land mass percentage now.

This means it should be possible to construct a custom map or flag water tiles as land somewhere. ill put it up here if I figure it out!