Custom factions make the game freeze

[Method]

i wanted to add some custom faction to my game using the faction editor. when i put them in by clicking "add faction to game" and started up the game, it froze where you pick the faction. the choose faction clicky boxes didn't pop up, just the picture and quote of the last faction i played. when i removed the customs from the editor, the game worked fine.

has anyone seen this before? what do i need to do to fix this, put the factions in the the game manually? if so, how (isn't it something to do with the alphax.txt?)

[KrysiasKrusader]

TKG...,

I think your question would better be served in : Alpha Centauri > AC-Creation found at:

http://apolyton.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=24

eh ?

[Chowlett]

Not necessarily - I'd class this as General and Help.

I don't know the answer exactly though - but looking at alphax.txt, I think what you need to do is to place the file name of your faction at the bottom, in the Custom Factions section, like in the two previous sections.

What I can defitely tell you is that you need to stop using the Faction Editor - it's broken and always has been. You're much better off editing the facitons by hand. It's not too hard at all, particularly if you check what you're doing against an existing faction. alphax.txt has a list of the switches used at the bottom of it.

[Capt Dizle]

Re: Custom factions make the game freeze

Originally posted by TKG
when i put them in by clicking "add faction to game" and started up the game, it froze where you pick the faction. the choose faction clicky boxes didn't pop up, just the picture and quote of the last faction i played.

SMACX has two versions of the game, SMAC Classic and SMACX Crossfire. The interface used to load factions for each game is different. With Crossfire you have the "clicky" boxes to select factions. With Classic you indeed just see the picture and quote of the last faction you started a game with.

In order to load a custom faction with Classic I think you have to define the path by clicking "other" [found at the bottom of the screen left of ok]and typing in the name of the custom faction. This defines a path for the program to find the new faction.

Try creating a new faction and loading it into Crossfire first.

I have been able to use the editor, though it is somewhat hit and miss for me.

[Method]

i have SMAX but what i'm saying is that i can't select a faction or start the game or even go back, it just freezes. i end up having to go Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

so what i need to do then chowlett is add them manually to the alphax.txt? how does one do that exactly?

[Mongoose]

Best I know of at doing that is Googlie. PM him.

[Googlie]

Facedit works just fine, excpet for the feature to add the faction to the game.

Let's say you use it to create a faction called the cheeseheads. Click on "add faction" and what happens is that it puts the cheeseheads.txt file into your alpha centauri folder as well as the three faction graphics files. It also inserts the cheeseheads under the custom factions in your alphax.txt called:

cheeseheads

This will freeze your game

You need to manually enter alphax.tx and scroll down to #CUSTOMFACTIONS

There you'll find;

cheeseheads

You need to edit it to read:

cheeseheads, cheeseheads

(The game needs the faction name to be inserted twice as it is under the original factions list and the new factions list)

You should now be able to open the game, and on selecting factions, will find "cheeseheads" to be one of your choices.

(Note that under original smac, you'd need to replace one of the original seven factions with the cheeseheads for it to work)

G.

[Chowlett]

Thought it was something like that. Thanks Goog for getting me straight on that.

Does FacEdit really work perfectly except for the adding step? I thought it had other bugs as well.

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Chowlett
Does FacEdit really work perfectly except for the adding step? I thought it had other bugs as well.

I have found no other problems with it, but I have read in these and other forums that others have had issues with it. I suspect it's just familiarity and usage - like the scenario editor.

All 13 of my marine variants were done with facedit, as were the clone factions used in the Forum Wars series, Pirate wars, alien wars etc.

G.

[Method]

Marine Variants eh? if this is what i think it is i'm trying to do the same thing. just changing every faction to aquatic and giving them doc:flex.

thanks for the help googlie.

[Capt Dizle]

The interesting thing is that I was able to get the editor to work without adding the line in alphax. I looked and for example my modified Morgan faction, Mud Industries, was listed as muddy morgan in alphax(no comma). I didn't put it there, but I did put muddy morgan in the editor somewhere. This would indicate that two words would work.

Strange the life of programers.

[Lefty Scaevola]

I have read that the game will choke if you have more than 7 custom factions enabled. I have read and experienced that if you delete a custom faction which was used in the LAST game which you started (and is thus list in the .ini file) the game will choke when starting.