Help Upgrading ?

[r1t3]

I'm a gamer for the most part but also a coder and a modder
but i need help and im wondering if any is available.

SMAC is a great game and i love to play it, i espescially love multiplayer games, except for the godforsaken system Smac uses. Usually i just do a lan party to make it easier for me and my friends. Anyhow....

my first request is if anyone could supply me with files for SMACX. im not asking for the entirety of the game by any means, i had a copy of the planetary pack but the disk some how has been damaged. after weeks of extracting and combining files with mods and rewriting some files with false information i was able to get Smacx working but with some major changes in graphics and code, so i was wondering if i can build a list of damaged files, if anyone would be willing to email me them, i origionally was just going to buy another copy of the game seeing as Smac is $5 but found Smacx to be $100-200 so if anyone is willing to send me replacement files(when i find time to make a list that would be helpful)

next i would like to ask for any coders or modders who are willing to help me create SMAX2 a modification of Smacx

i've been planning it for a while and hopefully i can find a copy of what i had begun (my data was lost to a virus nearly killing my computer) i would like to continue work.

what i plan is to have

1. such things as a scroll list or massive drop down menu on the Faction selection screen, to hold my list of what i think was near 100 factions that ive collected over the years.

2. I would really like to enable the TCP/IP part of the software so that internet access works. I though about it and maybe i can find some useful files in the Civilization games as to how to succeed at this

3. I would like to enlarge the active factions. so that there could be as many as 14 factions in a single game instead of 7

4. i would like to enlarge the tech tree, though not entirely necessary.

5. i'm not sure if anyone else has any ideas but #1 - 3 are the most important to me.


so im looking for anyone who is willing to lend a hand or knows of any way to do anything targeted, more concepts are nice but what i really want is results, not speculation. so if you know anyway to solve the tasks i listed or if you have any fully developed additions or partially developed mods that you think should be included in the final project. that is what i wish to see..

[Seleuceia]

A SMAC 2 is already being created using the game Civ 4, though the project is already heavily under way...A SMAX 2 is to follow shortly after it's success...

[r1t3]

I guess i should have been more careful with the words i used. sorry, what i meant was to modify Smacx to a new level. Although the use of CivIV as a base for SMACX2 is a good idea and one i looked at a while back when i first heard that someone was trying to do it, its purpose is different from my own. what i am looking into is fixing some of the problems that exist it Smacx to make it better as well as implementing modifications. the reason for this is more or less i like the possibilities that surround the origional game. Though the CivIV-SMACX2 is a good idea a problem exists that i wouldnt be able to overcome. I believe that SMACX has the possibility with custom map maker to make a map of any size and once i figure out how to implement 14 player(or more) instead of the current 7 that SMACX allows the game will become unbelievably large and possibly a drain on resources. So the problem is "CivIV-SMACX2" design would be from what i can tell from CivIV a great deal more resource consuming than an upgraded version of Smacx

[Petek]

Hi r1t3,

You are correct that it's possible to create custom maps of almost any size. Using the techniques described in this thread I've created maps of up to 1024x1024. However, note that maps larger than a certain size (as discussed here), can be launched only via the scenario editor.

Since the SMACX source code is not available (as it is for Civ 4), modders are limited to changing certain text files (such as alpha(x).txt), creating new factions, etc. Some of the changes that you seek (such as adding drop-down menus and increasing the number of factions in a game) simply can't be done within SMACX. Those functions are hard-coded into the executible files.

[r1t3]

well this is depressing but i guess i should have figured as much seeing as i thought i tried everything anyway. Now i guess my only choices are to give up or to start work on a program to interact with smacx, though messy it may still have its possibilities but will mean alot of work and time o well thanks anyway
im asuming that
1. faction list enlarger
2. ease of TCP/IP internet
3. More factions ingame enabled for multiplayer above 7
these three are probably all hardcoded in the executables

1. can be done with an outside application,
2. may still be possible through outside application (not sure)
3. probably impossible unless a save editor (or if save files can be edited and/or map editor can be modified, to enable more than 7 bots.

any comment on these revised proposal / notions