Race Modding Problems in DA

from GalCiv2 Forums
Wasnt sure if I should post this here or in Modding - decided on here because its more of a bug than an error on my part.

I have downloaded some custom races to play as and ive noticed that my gripes about Custom Races that I aired before 1.2 of Dread Lords is still there.

Starting with the custom races i notice that the problem of star systems appearing with the same name as the home world of the custom race instead of as the names specified in their XML files.
Example for the Trionosis Combine race i DLed their homeworld is Trionosis and the star is specified as Trios but it appears in game as planet = Trionosis and star = Trionosis; superficial I know but its no less annoying that it hasnt been fixed yet.

Additionally ive noticed that while you can now change a star name in game - example i can now correctly change the star name to Trios - I can no longer change the names of any planets that are not colonised.
So any gas giants/asteroids in Trios system remain as Trionosis (whatever) instead of becoming Trios (whatever). This strikes me as strange as I could change the names of all planets in Dread Lords but can not in Dark Avatar.

Also the custom races appear to use the generic custom race star systems and not the specified ones in the CustomRace.xml. For example Trios is supposed to be a 3 planet system with the Class 9 Homeworld, and two Class 7 planets - it appears in game as the general 4 planet system with one Class 9 HW and one Class 4 planet with 2 Class 0 planets.

Also as I started previously I dont particularily like some of the names for the Major Civilizations and like to change them for example Terran Alliance to Earth Alliance and Arcean Empire to Arcean Star Empire - just cos they sound better.
But given these problems I cant do any of this; only the things changed in MapRaceInfo.xml are changed in game - anything changed in RaceConfig.xml (and obviously CustomPlanets.xml) doesnt register.

This leads me to ask - what is the point in making the game so moddable that you can add in your own custom races when half of the information for these races doesnt appear; and any changes you mod to this so called moddable game dont appear in the game - whats the point?
3,460 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Both those files work perfectly fine when you change them (RaceConfig.xml and CustomPlanets.xml) if you would like to send me the file or copy and paste the file I can help you out...if you can wait until tomorrow I can just give a detailed explanation of how to do it...

but we have altered those both for the Star Trek Mod and I know they work and register....

Two things to remember..always start a new game...if you putting it into the mod (highly recommend never changing the stock files)...well if you are putting it into a mod, its best to back up your Custom Race files, into another folder, and begin fresh, just good practice.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also the custom races appear to use the generic custom race star systems and not the specified ones in the CustomRace.xml.
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The default 'custom race' star system isn't used because it's not actually properly linked (star names in raceconfig and custom planets are mismatched, IIRC). If the game doesn't find a system definition matching the reference in raceconfig, it generates a default 10/4/0/0/0 system named for the race, as you've experienced.

Custom star systems do work properly if you correctly link the names, last I checked.

Do bear in mind that if you change a race in RaceConfig.xml directly, you need to delete any corresponding .customracexml files from My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar before the changes will be reflected in the game (those files contain in-game customizations and override the raceconfig.xml settings).
Star Control: Origins