I decided to repost this, as it's somewhat good-to-know information that likely isn't obvious at all to 99% of the users who want to play with editing techs.
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Nearly every technology references a
'master' tech tree. This tree is found under
Twilight/Data/English/TechTree.xml. The 'master'
defines many constants for every tech. Note that I said NEARLY every technology. Keep in mind that this tech tree is by and large the very same tech tree that was pulled right out of Dark Avatar. You will find many Twilight-specific techs at the bottom, however. Slave Pits and the Xalax Defense Coordinator, for example.
HOWEVER, do not be fooled. Several race-specific unique
techs are listed under their individual trees Invisible Hand is a Drath-specific unique tech, and is
only under
Twilight/Data/English/TechTrees/DrathTechTree.xml, and is not found
in the Master.
There is no rhyme or reason for why certain techs are specific to the racial tree, and others are in the master. I'm willing to bet, however, that the tech tree editor was created AFTER many Twilight technologies were already implemented. Techs added AFTER its inception were added to the racial tech trees. You will simply have to open the .xml files yourself and investigate. I recommend using Notepad++ (
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm )
The Master defines most descriptions, costs,
AI values, and the like. The heirarchy and prerequesists defined are almost all completely overwritten by the race-specific tech tree .xml file. Every
race-specific tech tree references the 'master' for missing data. The
race-specific trees override the master for purposes of say,
prerequisites, but for missing data, like descriptions, it asks the
master techtree.xml for that information.
The tech tree editor
is smart and is built specifically to handle the race-specific techs,
and will query general techs exactly as the game will. Additionally,
changes made to general techs will only be added to the race-specific
tech, and will not overwrite / override the 'master', unless you open
the master techtree.xml in the tech editor itself.
You cannot open the master techtree.xml in the tech tree editor by default. If you'd like to make changes to the master using the editor, you'll have to add the following
HIGHLIGHTED lines in the appropriate places.
I will note however that there MAY be unforseen side effects of editing the master file. It's unlikely, but I will point one thing I noticed while editing the tech trees by hand.
Racial tech trees contain SOME redundant data. I know for sure that Artificial Gravity is one of them. Even though this technology is a general tech, all, or nearly all the racial tech trees also define the
full Artificial Gravity technology. This means that you can NOT edit the master file to make changes to every racial tech, as the racial tech trees will override the master.
There's two ways to fix this. You can either edit each tree individually for these techs, or simply erase the conflicting, overriding data.
Finally, it's probable that there may be changes made to the tech trees in future patches. The easiest way to deal with this is to grab a program called CompareIt! (
http://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp3.htm ) Its use is rather intuitive, I'm sure you can figure it out. Note that you really don't need this unless you make sweeping changes to the tech trees and need an easy solution for integrating a patch and keeping your own modifications.
Have fun!
