AlexanderIII, a question about creating new units

[mikejohnson1]

For my SMAC2 modpack I added some new unit types. First off I added the needlejet colony pod, mostly for the AI. I still haven't tested to see if the AI actually uses the new colony pods. The Needlejet colony pod seems to work fine. I ran into problems when I tried to create Psi-Infantry. I set the perequisite to centauri psi, and the new unit does appear in the datalinks, but it doesn't appear in the design window, and in fact it becomes difficult to design new psi-units in the design workshop. Here's a copy of the unit line from Alpha.txt.

Psi Patrol, Infantry, Psi, Scout, 1, 0, 0, CentPsi, -1, 000000000000000000000000

If you know what's wrong can you please let me know.

[AlexanderIII]

The reason you cannot see the psi units in the design workshop is twofold: a) they will only appear in the design workshop if you right-click the unit and select 'help' in the base production unit list, which then sends you to the design workshop.
b) Until you have acquired CentPsi, the unit with will not appear in the design workshop even if you do the above. It might also change the name to one selected from the autodesign. In that case all you have to do is rename the unit. Maybe your faction had not attained the tech. Also, for new units designed with #UNITS in alpha.txt, the autodesign does not recognize them, so you will not be prompted whether you want to see the new units, etc.

Also, if using units with custom graphics in the units.pcx file, the design workshop will not display the new graphics, since the custom units use sprites (.pcx) -- notice that on screen the worms do not rotate to face a new direction -- not caviar files, which is what the design workshop uses. Which is why mindworms, isle of the deep and locusts of chiron do not appear in the design workshop if you click help on the unit.

[mikejohnson1]

I've figured it out. The reason my unit doesn't appear is because for some reason the game considers Psi Infantry to be native life. Psi Infantry appears just fine in the production roster. And when I do battle with
Psi Infantry(the basic design I put in Alpha.txt, not the one that you can build with the design workshop) and gain a level up it uses the native life levels(boil, demon boil.)