installing custom factions

[Bella Hella]

i posted this under the "creation" forum, but it doesn't seem too active, so i'm posting it here....

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so i just went to networknode.org and got some cool-looking factions for SMAX. i unzipped the files and put them in the directory with all the other factions. then i saved alphax.txt somewhere else to make sure i didn't lose the important data. in the game alphax.txt, i typed in the faction names under custom factions, like i'm supposed to. so i open the game, all excited about playing these new factions. everything seemed to go ok... i selected start game, random map, etc., and it was fine until i got to the part where you select your faction. instead of opening that screen, one of the new factions' profiles showed up with the opening quote. confused, i exited, opened alphax again, and deleted the line with that particular faction. i tried opening the game again, and the same thing happened. so i deleted every custom faction from aplhax and tried opening the game. this time the same thing happened, but with dierdre's profile and opening quote.

is there something i'm missing?!?! i finally just used my backup copy of alphax and deleted the one that had the new factions. ggggrrrrrr....


what's going on??? has this ever happened to anybody? i'd appreciate any help, thoughts or ideas anyone might have as to how to make this work.

thank you!

[Scipio Centaurus]

You opened SMAX, right? This sounds familiar, but it's been so many months... You did list the faction name twice - comma separated - in the custom factions section of alphax.txt?

Might help if you copied the text in your modified #FACTIONS, #NEWFACTIONS and #CUSTOMFACTIONS sections of alphax.txt into a post on the thread so we can see what you've got? Also the exact filenames of the custom faction you added.

[civcop]

Me too

I also posted in the creation forum and it didn't look real active still. If I want to change a faction's name, info and (perhaps) attributes, can I do so by simply modifying the appropriate text files, ala Civ 2? For instance, I'm thinking of changing the Spartans to a faction of my choice. I don't care about the leader picture graphic, just the basic info about them. Also, if I change the leader gender of the faction I am playing as, does that also change the leader's graphic image? For instance, if my wife chose to play a MP game as the Hive but changed the gender at the start, does Mrs. Yang (or whoever) appear to the other players when they have contact with the Hive?

[Googlie]

Civcop:

The short answer is "no". The graphic remains the same (as do all the text blurbs - e.g. change Corazon Santiago to General Steve Muckaluk or whatever, and still it says "polishing her gun barrels" - it's not that dynamic)

You can add factions with their own leader graphics, of course, as vel did with his seven alernate factions and many others have as well. So you could have a female Yang with, say a Deirdre graphic if you created a 'female" custom Hive faction.

G.

[civcop]

Thanks

Thanks Googlie. Firstly, since seeing the fembots in the Austin Powers movies the phrase "polishing her gun barrels" describing Santiago seems rather naughty

Okay, so I could simply download a single created faction and alter the text files on it to suit what I'm coming up with, right? Basically, I let someone else do all the heavy lifting and I tinker with it. That is profiding the leader graphic is male (which is what I want).