The following editing comments have been compiled and layouted by Marian Hartel.

General

• If you give your faction an individual name, you need to rename the *.txt file the same way, you name the *.pcx file.
• Additionally you need to replace all the occurrences of you overwrote in the faction file and in alpha.txt. Take care to spell them always in the same way in capital letters.
• Generally you should just change a file together with this tutorial, see if it works, play test it.
• If it isn't working (also happend to me), change it again and after that, try it again.
• If it is working, submit the file to the ACZone via email. Please include in the zip-file: a faction file, the changed alpha.txt, the changed *.pcx file and if you want a readme file.
• If you don't know how zip a file, just send me the files single.

General faction attributes

formal, desc, noun, masc/fem, sing/plural, name, gender, ai-fight, ai-power, ai-tech, ai-wealth, ai-growth;
the line has to exactly look like this; just replace it with your values:

• formal = Formal name of colony/group
• desc = Description of basic ideology
• noun = Plural noun
• masc/fem = Is faction's noun masculine or feminine
• sing/plural = Is faction's noun singular (Labyrinth) or plural (Gaians)
• name = Name of default leader
• gender = M or F (gender of leader)
• ai-fight = -1,0,1 (willingness to use force to achieve goals)
• ai-power = 1 or 0 (interest in power)
• ai-tech = 1 or 0 (interest in knowledge)
• ai-wealth = 1 or 0 (interest in wealth)
• ai-growth = 1 or 0 (interest in population growth)

Special rules

The special faction rules are always in the form: rule, parameter
The rules are the following:

• TECH = Free technology at start. Parameter is either a tech id (e.g. "Cen") to indicate a specific technology, or a number (e.g. 2) to indicate a number of player-selected technologies.
• MORALE = Morale modifier (if 0, indicates an exemption from negative modifiers from other sources).
• PSI = Percentage combat bonus for PSI Combat.
• FACILITY = Every new base gets this free facility. Param indicates facility (e.g. "4" is a Perimeter Defense) from the facilities list. Do NOT attempt to give satellites and secret projects this way.
• RESEARCH = Free research points per base per turn.
• DRONE = Extra drone at base (per "param" citizens, rounded down)
• TALENT = Extra talent at base (per "param" citizens, rounded up)
• ENERGY = Free energy reserves at start
• INTEREST = Energy reserves interest. Non-zero = constant percentage per turn (including negative) Zero = +1/base each turn
• COMMERCE = Increased commerce rate
• POPULATION = # to be added to population limit of each base for purposes of Habitation domes, etc.
• HURRY = Percentage change in costs of "Hurry" button on construction (e.g. 125 means 125% of normal cost, so 100 costs 125).
• UNIT = Extra free unit at start; param is index from units list (e.g. 0 equals Colonists, 1 Terraformers, 2 Scout Crawler)
• TECHCOST = Modifier % for tech research rate. (e.g. 125 means each discovery costs 125% the usual number of research points).
• SHARETECH = Gain any technology known to # other players
• TERRAFORM = Halves terraform raise/lower cost
• SOCIAL = Gives a modifier in the named social effect category ("SOCIAL, +EFFIC" raises the EFFIC rating by 1; "SOCIAL, --POLICE" lowers POLICE rating by 2);
• ROBUST = Halves the intensity of minus effects in the named social area ("ROBUST, EFFIC" halves minus efficiency effects in social model).
• IMMUNITY = Immunity from minus effects in the named social area. ("IMMUNITY, ENERGY" prevents minus energy effects in social model).
• IMPUNITY = Impunity :-) from minus effects from a particular social setting. "IMPUNITY, Police State" prevents all - effects from "Police State" setting.
• PENALTY = Opposite of impunity: doubles the negative effects of a particular setting.
• FUNGNUTRIENT = Modifier to NUTRIENT produced in fungus squares
• FUNGMINERALS = Modifier to MINERALS produced in fungus squares
• FUNGENERGY = Modifier to ENERGY produced in fungus squares
• COMMFREQ = Gets an extra comm frequency (another faction to talk to) at beginning of game. (Parameter is ignored)
• MINDCONTROL = Vehicles and bases immune to mind control
• FANATIC = +25% bonus on attack
• [B]VOTES = Multiplier for governor votes
• FREEPROTO = Prototype cost reduced to zero for this faction
• SOCIAL PRIORITY = (SCOCIO, modifier) Drawn from the political table above (see #SOCIO), these entries must exactly match the SOCIO entries in spelling. These determine the leader's social priorities.

Take Care: I realized that these special rules may only be on one line and this line may not extend I think 256 characters.

Conversations

The following wording should exactly fit into the following sentence. Otherwise the faction leaders conversation won't make sense.

[Together we shall both] preserve Planet's native life [and ...]
[My intent is] to guard, understand, and preserve Planet's native life
[She is bent on] stamping out all legitimate human development of this planet
[You seem bent on] stamping out all legitimate human development of this planet
[I shall not stand here while you] cripple any and all efforts toward human progress on this world
[She spends her time] dancing naked through the trees
[You spend your time] dancing naked through the trees
[I have been accused of] spouting tree-crazy prattle
[Your] tree-crazy prattle [does not impress me]
[Think how this could benefit your] environmental initiatives
[I trust your] pagan rituals [are proceeding to your satisfaction]
[It is customary to remit me a small] ecology tax [...]
[...for the services my forces provide in] preserving and cataloguing Planet's native life
[I shall instruct] my Environmental Police [to see that no such...]
[You are in contravention of] the Planetary Ecology Code

• At the point where you find:
  
  #FACTIONTRUCE
  #xs 440
  #caption $CAPTION7
  
  Create a sentence that offers a truce to another faction. Put this sentence into brackets
  
  Additionally give a sentence in brackets that provides a positve answer of another faction leader.
  
  After that give a sentence in brackets that provide a negative answer of another faction leader. If you want to name the faction leader after that sentence, write ", $NAME3!"
  
  
• At the point where you find:
  
  #FACTIONTREATY
  #xs 440
  #caption $CAPTION7
  
  Create a sentence that offers a treaty of friendship to another faction. Put this sentence into brackets. If you want to name the faction leader, write "$TITLE0 $NAME1".
  
  Additionally give a sentence in brackets that provides a positve answer of another faction leader.
  
  After that give a sentence in brackets that provide a negative answer of another faction leader. If you want to name the faction leader after that sentence, write ", $NAME3"

Else

• Inside the two words #BASES and #END place the names of all land bases that this faction is founding.
• Inside the two words #WATERBASES and #END place the names of all water bases that this faction is founding.
• Under the word #BLURP place the text the will be displayed when you chose a faction in the starting menu.
  Below that place a credit to your comment:
  
  ^
  ^ -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
  ^ "Planet Dreams"
  
  
  
  
• Under the word #DATALINKS1 place a faction description in the form:
  
  ^LEADER: {Info}
  ^BACKGROUND: {Info}
  ^AGENDA: {Info}
  ^TECH: {Info}
  
  
  
• Under the word #DATALINKS2 place a description in the form:
  
  ^Ability : {Description}

Originally posted on AC Zone. Posted here under permission of Marian Hartel