New Units !!!

[SMIFFGIG]

Did anyone ever make any new units for this game, and if so where can I find them.

P.S. Are the units in AC .spr or .flc ???

[Cybergod]

You can design any new unit type (that is a predesigned unit that the AI or yourself would build) by modifying alpha.txt:

#UNITS
14
Colony Pod, Infantry, Colony Pod, Scout, 8, 0, 0, None, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Formers, Infantry, Formers, Scout, 9, 0, 0, Ecology, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Scout Patrol, Infantry, Gun, Scout, 3, 0, 0, None, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Transport Foil, Foil, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, DocFlex, -1, 000000000000000000000000
*Sea Formers, Foil, Formers, Scout, 9, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Supply Crawler, Infantry, Supply, Scout, 10, 0, 0, IndAuto, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Probe Team, Speeder, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, PlaNets, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Alien Artifact, Infantry, Artifact, Scout, 12,10, 0, Disable, 2, 000000000000000000000000
Mind Worms, Infantry, Psi, Psi, 1, 5, 0, CentEmp, 3, 000000000000000000000000
Isle of the Deep, Foil, Psi, Psi, 7, 8, 4, CentMed, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Locusts of Chiron, Gravship, Psi, Psi, 4,10, 0, CentGen, -1, 000000000000000000100000
Unity Rover, Speeder, Gun, Scout, 3, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000000000
Unity Scout Chopper, 'Copter, Gun, Scout, 4, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000100000
Unity Foil, Foil, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 100000000000000000000000

To add (a) new unit(s) change the number, in this case:

#UNITS
14

Change it to the number of new units you wish to add, and then insert a new line at the bottom of the units list, eg:

Unity Explorer, Hovertank,Laser, Scout, 3, 0, 0, SomeTech,-1, 000000000000000000000000

1st word is the unit name,
2nd is the string name for the chassis type (look up #CHASSIS),
3rd is the weapon module (look up #WEAPONS) and can include non-combat unit packages (eg Terraformer)
4th is the shield module (see #ARMOUR) btw "Scout" means "No Armour"
5th means the AI plan, look at the eplanatory text above these lines (put -1 for Autocalculate)
6th is the cost (0 = autocalculate)
7th is the carry capacity (by setting a different number from 0, you can create a supre carrier with a capacity of 10 for instance)
8th is the preq technology (short name eg. Ecology or IndAuto)

9h is the unit icon, which are taken from "Units.pcx", note - the game count the lines as numbers so if you wish to create a custom graphic (or use one already in "Units.pcx") take the mindworm picture as an orientation - it is in a line the computer counts as row 3, which comes after the Alien Artifact, in line 2 (-1 means that normal in-game graphics are used)

10th sector are the unit flags, I will rite up how to edit these later, but basically, they represent special abilities that you can mount on a unit. Note: by creating these sorts of custom units, you can select more than the usual limit of spec. abilities (2) and put 3 and more, amking some interesting units (but take care about the cost).


You can either put these objects into the game itself by placing a preq technology required for building it and/or you can give them away free at start in custom factions! This is quite useful in mod-making.

[Darius]

Cybergod gave a good explanation of how to pre-design units and hack them into the game. But SMIFFGIG, were you looking for more basic information about how to use the Design Workshop inside the game? Or perhaps useful units that other people have come up with?

[Straybow]

Since he mentions ".spr or .flc" he means unit graphics. The unit graphics are frames grabbed from 3D CGI models. I don't think anybody has gone to the trouble to add new unit graphics to SMAC.

[Cybergod]

Unit graphics for the pre-designed custom units are in Units.pcx. The caviar files I can see in the SMAC folder are 3D deisgns for weapons, chassis etc. but I don't know how to edit those...


Unit flags

I shall use Locust of Chiron as an example:

Locusts of Chiron, Gravship, Psi, Psi, 4,10, 0, CentGen, -1, 000000000000000000100000

Observe the flags at the end of the line - the 1 appears as the 6th number from the end. Now look at what abiity is it in #ABILITIES section:

#ABILITIES
Super Former
Deep Radar
Cloaking Device
Amphibious Pods
Drop Pods
Air Superiority

So Air Superiority is the 6th special ability from the top of the #ABILITIES list. Which is true since Locusts have an inborn ability to attack other air units. But somehow they receive no penalty when attacking ground units - this is to do with its PSI weaponry.

To add additional abilities, replace the "0"s with "1"s to correspond to desired special abilities...

[SMIFFGIG]

Straybow is right i did mean new unit graphics, shame no one ever went to the trouble of doing that, sounds quite difficult anyway.

Correct me if im wrong, but SMAC seems like a very uneditable game, am I right.. how does it compare to Civ3 (which IMO is very uneditable and moddable)??

Thanks for the help anyway

EDIT: typo

[Method]

smac is quite easy to edit...

[MariOne]

I'm the last one who should have a word to say on mods, as I never found any interest in them.

May I suggest one thing tho:
is there perhaps a difference in what you intend here, between "customisable" vs. "editable"?
___
In SMAC you can of course create any faction you like, by combining the available settings.
This is at least customisable like say MoO (or Stars!) races. Even *more* I'd say, as here you're totally free, you don't have a race score limit. So you can play with a super-charged faction if you like. OTOH you don't get any in-game compensation for designing an impossible faction.
Under this respect, Civs are *not civ-customisable AT ALL*.
___
Then you have units.
The main difference is that with SMAC you *already start* with the freedom to *design* any kind of units you want!
There's little point thus in customising units from the datafiles, except from making some units you had designed avilable by default to all factions...
I never bothered to do it, and I wonder how this would affect the (*) default unit marker and the 64 custom design slots availability.
Beware tho, that the game's default units use only ONE new feature over the basic components.
Should you design a default, say, Shard Hovertank, or Chaos Drop SAM rover, *which* tech you'd define as prerequisite?
Because you can easily have Superstring without MMI, or AdvSF without NanoMin...
You risk to make available a unit as default prior that the player discovered all the prereqs for all the unit's components...
This would entail a great reverse-engineering issue. The same mess the designers made when using a rover chassis on the default Prbe Team unit...
Here, if I were to change one thing in the units, I would make the default Probe Team an infantry unit.... want faster probes? Discover Mobility and design them!
___
Then there are game rules.
I was not into modifying the game parameters usually, and I don't even know whether there is such possibility for games like MoO or Stars!, leave alone MoM, Age of Wonders, etc...
Here in SMAC you CAN significanlty alrter many settings that determine the very essence of gameplay.
I overheard that there is for instance a "game parameters mod" which is having widespread success since a long time, not just some absurd tweak a player makes for his own amusement when he's bored.
It is called SNAC, if I'm not mistaken - I can't say you anything more than that, you'd have to search for it.

Then I know there had been some game rules mod trying to enahnce some feature that with the default setting was underpowered, like artillery for instance... That led to a whole series of PBEMs, IIRC.

So, I would say that SMAC is *extremely* customisable in that sense, even TOO much for my tastes.
I can't say for sure, but I doubt that CivIII allows you such freedom. From what I know, I would on the contrary say that CivIII developers made every possible effort to *avoid* that the players made any mod to the way the game played. They even "patched out" some tactics the designers had faild to figure out in the first place... everything to avoid that the game shallow AI was faced with something unexpected, so they could boats it was a strong AI.. hey, even I could design an unbeatable AI... at tic-tac-toe! NIM would already be a bit harder to do!
___
Finally, there's the GRAPHICS aspect...
Who could care less?
You're welcome to enjoy it, if you're more interested about how the game looks on screen, than at how the game plays... Maybe *this* is what you intend by "editing".
I never bothered of course, but I think to recall that many players succeeded in modifying the pcx files, I don't know using which tools (i.e. whether they're affordable/manageable by anyone...).
I have actually nothing more to say about it except one thing.
On the line of merely editing the graphics and the units names, there was my biggest mistake in purchasing a game:
CivToT.
What a RIPOFF!!!
Three game versions, each one playing *exactly* the same way to the original Civ, with units having the very same stats and doing the very same things, ditto for buildings.
The only thing that changed was the items graphics and names.
And they had the face to commercialise it a full game price... I really think those who designed and distributed ToT are BàSTARDS.

Of course, I should respect all those who find their amusement in mere exterior make-ups like that.
Actually, I blame them for creating a market for such ripoff products, in which *serious* gamers may fall if they're not very careful...

BTW, a copy of Civ ToT, practically mint, installed, tested 30 minutes and then disinstalled & shelved, FOR SALE...