Welcome to Aldebaran 2.0.6, Aldebaran for Smax

Info can be found in the Alpha Centauri Creation Forums at Apoyton.net
I can be found there as well. PM me as 'smacksim'

This unizipping and short-cut making pascal-based installer is a nice freeware installer called Inno Setup Compiler. I reccomend it!

You do want to put this in the Smax Folder. The swapping scripts are based on that. It will create it's own folder there called Aldebaran2.

After this unzips everything to your Smax directory, let it launch the "Installmod.bat" file, which will put the mod in place. If you want to click on that by hand, it's in the
"Aldebaran2" folder in your Smax directory.

Also, the shortcuts placed on your desktop is highly reccomended. They will magically do all the file swapping you need to go from Aldebaran to Smax and back again.

Finally, I need a new job, so hire me away from making silly batch files!

-Smack

Installing Aldebaran: This download has only the files you need. Place the files into your Smax directory. This WILL replace original files, so either have a second install of Smax or backup your original textfiles. The graphics do not disturb Smax-vanilla. They can be left in the main folder even if you uninstall the .txt files. Enjoy-Smack

Notes on 2.0.6:

Minor tweaking to Peaceniks and Peacekeeper factions
Subtle changes in Social Engineering to even things out a bit
Tree Farms are a bit earlier now to avoid mid-game 'what to build now?' situation
help texts are on the way to being finished.
some other changes....

Notes on 2.0.5:

Super-AI factions now declare themselves more obviously with suffix SAI in the menus
Fit in 3 Aldebaran regular factions for players to play (the rest you have to add to #CustomFactions yourself if you want to play the human version)
The Player Factions currently available: Outlaws, Planetlovers, Peacemakers

Better Worldbuilder
Cleaner Graphics
Facilities: Pressure Dome, Probe Facility: Pushed back in tech tree
Ascent to Transc: Reduced from 2000 minerals to 600
A few more changes.

Notes on upcoming 2.1.0: I'm removing a lot of the humor and otherwise polishing it up. Seems that these things detract from the mod's ability to be taken seriously as a successor to Smax. It's bold to say, but Aldebaran is BETTER than Smax. ;)


Fileswatter 1.0
by smacksim who can be found on apolyton.net

Fileswatter is for swapping files on your machine. This is handy for 'mod' versions of any application. It is written in DOS for Windows machines. It is Free.


Fileswatter can: 

- Remember which version of a file list is in place in an application folder.

- Auto swap files and launch any application with one click.

- Swap local files between directories safely and automatically.

- Preserve original files on installation, for clean uninstallation.

- Generate and Maintain lists of original files and modified files.

- Work with any application that is configurable based on files.

- Uninstall and restore the original configuration, if asked.

Fileswatter is for swapping files locally between folders at the click of a button and then launching an application. This is handy if you use two configurations of an application but don't want two separate installations. Fileswatter will keep track of the original files, and preserve them, and keeps track of all the files it adds to the original directory so it can remove them. Specifically, this program was designed for swapping files associated with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire, but is easily changed to work with other applications. 

Installation of Aldebaran:

1. Run Installmod.bat if you haven't yet (you can tell by peeking in the data folder)

2. Done. Use the Shortcuts provided to run Aldebaran or the Original version. Fileswatter will keep track of the details. You can put the shortcuts anywhere of course.


Installation for your own mods (for Smax or Smac):

1. If you're reading this, you've unzipped and run the installer. This should have prompted you for the proper Smax directory. If you've put Fileswatter somewhere else, goto 'Running from another directory, and other Editing'

2. If you've downloaded this with a mod, such as Aldebaran, you are ready to go. Refer the Aldebaran section.

3. Put files to always swap in the Modswaps directory. These don't have to exist in the main application folder as well. Rather, these will always be swapped in and out of the application folder depending on if you are running the original version or the modified version.

4. Put files that can always exist peacefully in the application folder into the Modinstalls folder. This includes things like alternate-named faction graphics. If you are not sure about a file, put it in the Modswaps directory. This will insure it is not present when running the Original application.

5. Run Installmod.bat

6. Your mod is ready: Use launchmod.bat to launch it, launchorig.bat to launch the original, and uninstallmod.bat to completely uninstall it. Fileswatter will know when to swap the files. 


Installation for your own mods for other applications:

This should generally be easy to figure out from reading the above install notes. You'll need to change the target of the 'Apptarget' shortcut. Currently the installer checks for terranx.exe. Feel free to remove that line from the installer, or change it to check for your application of choice. Look for a more generalized Fileswatter eventually. If you can't use the program from inside the applications directory, for some reason, read the following Editing section.


Running from another directory, and other Editing

Currently, the Fileswatter folder should exist inside the application folder. In the case of Smax, this means it should be a folder on the same level as 'Saves' and 'Maps', etc..

I originally used lots of environment variables in the batch files, which would have allowed directory structure the greatest flexibility. It could even pick up the directory structure from a configuration file. However, I ran into DOS's apparent limitations on the # of variables it can use without complaining. The long and short of it is that if you want to run Fileswatter with a different directory structure, you'll need to do a find and replace on '../' to change the application directory. Sorry about that. Perhaps I could at least keep that as a variable without DOS memory problems. Maybe in a later version I'll go back to that model.


More notes:

A. It's convenient to use a shortcut to 'launchmod.bat' and 'launchorig.bat' and place these on the desktop, or wherever. Rename them as you like.

B. Fileswatter is 'naked'. IE, you can see and edit any of its files. Be careful about that. For instance, deleting the Data folder or keepme.txt can cause problems. So long as you only run the programs 'Installmod', 'Launchmod', 'Launchorig', or 'Uninstallmod', you should be fine.

C. Editing the files, for custom configuration:
Because it is written in DOS, all the files are editable in a text editor. Be sure you save .bat files as .bat files and for heavens sake, don't use something like Microsoft Word to edit the files, unless you are sure to save as plain text

D. Eventually I might make it more user friendly, but this is a working beta after all. I guess I'm going to call this shareware, in the off chance I decide to pretty it up and release it on a larger scale. This would mean bundling it with an OSX macintosh version, which I'm not likely to write anytime soon, as I don't have access to an OSX machine at the moment. So the terms are: Distribute and Use freely, but keep this readme.

E. I purposely don't use the 'choice' command in DOS because it's not natively used in all versions of DOS.

Eesh, I hardly know if anyone will ever use this program, so I'll quit the readme now.

-Smack (known as smacksim at apolyton.net)

