OK, I am not making a major mod or anything, just something for a few friends that lets Rebels or Empire be over powerful and fun.

Well I have some questions about what certain things mean because I change them and some things don't change in game:


<Tactical_Health>400</Tactical_Health>
Is this like a units health? I try changing it to higher but units stay the same health. What is it?

<Damage>60</Damage>
Is this how much damage a unit does? I tried raising it really high but it doesn't seem to make a diffrence.

<Shield_Points>2000</Shield_Points>
I am assuming this is for the Shield on ships, although it doesn't appear to work when I change it. Shields stay the same.

<Energy_Capacity>10000</Energy_Capacity>
I am guessing the same as above but just for units?

Do you have the files in the gamedata/data/xml folder?

If not, then it won't be loaded into the game.

Yeah they are in the right folder. I edited a binch of other lines in and they work like Refresh time for abilities....etc. Either that or I just don't notice the diffrence (or the Rebels are crappy even with editing).

So are all those things I pointed out right then?

Damage does not mean the damage a unit deals with its weapons. For larger ships the weapons are in a sperate file (hardpoints.xml) and the damage is specified in the actual projectile they use (projectiles.xml). The line should be something like <Projectile_Damage> (which you can also add directly to the craft or hardpoint... but then it'll get a little complicated to keep track of the different damage values ;)

Energy does not reflect the shield strength. The Shield_Points value should do it. And as far as tactical health is concerned... if you have a ship with hardpoints (frigate and up) the hardpoints have seperate health values that override the tactical health. If all hardpoints are destroyed so is the ship.

tac health is health, shields shields and energy is energy which is everything frmo moving to firing weapons.

dmg doesnt do anything in the units or squadrons files but is determined thru projectiles.xml

I would guess that damage is only used in autoresolved combats.

I think I may know what the problem is. Were you trying to edit "SQUADRONS.xml?"

If you edit a squadron, like the X-Wings, the game still considers each X-Wing a unit in itself. Try editing the files "SPACEUNITSFIGHTERS," "GROUNDINFANTRY," and "GROUNDVEHICLES."

Hope that helps!

Make the cnages on both, or it won't take effect.

Energy is the available power a ship has from it's reactor(s). Recharging weapons take energy, engines require energy to push the ships forward, recharging the shields takes energy, etc.....
I'm unsure if damage has any effect on overloading the powercore, such as shields taking damage and thus extra power is needed to strenghten them again, but ion bolts does drain energy, making the available energy lower to do all these tasks, and thus the ship may slow down, both movement-wise aswell as fire rate-wise.

5 energy recharges 1 shield.
each weapon bolt uses from 10 to 20 energy
missiles use 0 energy to fire
when energy is drained movement drops to 50%

<Tactical_Health>400</Tactical_Health>

This is the actual hit points for the unit.


<Damage>60</Damage>

This number is an abstract representation of how much damage the unit can put out. It is used for the AI (as a variable to dertermine fleet/company coordination) and for the autoresolve system.


<Shield_Points>2000</Shield_Points>


This is the actual shield hit points for the unit.


<Energy_Capacity>10000</Energy_Capacity>

Under the hood the game uses an energy system similar to the old X-wing simulation games. All energy weapon projectiles have an energy cost associated with them (as seen in Projectiles.XML) - every time the weapon fires it drains that amount of energy from the pool. When sheilds are damaged, they regenerate power from the energy pool at set intervals. If the pool is empty the ship cannot fire or recharge shields. Ion Cannon weaponry drains shields first and then energy.

Later in the project it was determined that the energy system was a little too complex to get across to players, so the units' energy pools were raised to very large numbers. The system is still in place and working, however, for those that want to play with it (you can find the global shield and energy recharge numbers in GameConstants.XML).

<Damage>60</Damage>

This number is an abstract representation of how much damage the unit can put out. It is used for the AI (as a variable to dertermine fleet/company coordination) and for the autoresolve system.

That's interesting. So, only Autoresolve and Damage values contribute to the Autoresolve function?

ok, so how would you edit the accuracy of the weapons hardpoints?

The closer to 1 in the different catagory, the better the aim.

For instance:
<Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance> Fighter, 70.0 </Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance>
<Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance> Bomber, 70.0 </Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance>
<Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance> Transport, 70.0 </Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance>
<Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance> Corvette, 7.0 </Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance>
<Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance> Frigate, 1.0 </Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance>
<Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance> Capital, 10.0 </Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance>
<Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance> Super, 1.0 </Fire_Inaccuracy_Distance>
This means that this weaponhardpoint is pretty bad against fighters, bombers, and transport, but very good against Frigates and superweapons. Not sure what superweapons would include. I'm assuming the Death Star. :p But I don't think that last value has any .... well, value in existing. :D
Anyway, it'll hit the fighters, bombers and transport, but very very seldom.
But against frigates it'll hit every (or very nearly) time.

Mind that inaccuracy is the opposite of accuracy, so, don't mess with the values :)

That's interesting. So, only Autoresolve and Damage values contribute to the Autoresolve function?

For the most part, though the autoresolve system also takes basic rock/paper/scissors into account (bombers<corvettes<frigates<capital ships<bombers for example) and I believe there is also some weighting involved that is hard coded. I didn't really have much contact with that system, so I'm not the best one to ask :)