Galaxy Editor...

[Bulska]

I've opened the Galaxy Editor and the only thing I can do is sit there in my Nova and fly around ejecting stuff... I've been looking all around the forums for a while and I can't find anything that explains how to start
making a sector.

Can anyone please give me a decent link to a tutorial or any good explaination for someone who doesn't even know how to place stuff?

[Redjohn]

press Numpad Enter for GUI menus.. use arrow keys to navigate, it has all the placement and customization features... (that im aware of)

also theres a few guides i believe kickin around the X3 / X2 scripting and modding forums

[Roguey]

start it press the right enter key and go down to 'load patch universe' and press enter. It will ask you for a name, type in say "x3_universe" and the whole x3 galaxy will be loaded in. Now you can move planets, change the background and more. At least that should give you a good start. Use the sector map to move things, the right enter key to add things and the galaxy map for free jumps.

[Bulska]

yay I can build stuff, thanks! But if I want to place a sun it asks for alot of codes... and I dunno what they mean or what to fill in. I suspect it is the x-y-z axis but it asks more than 3 codes. Also how can I add ships that are mine?

[DIGSIN]

The first code it asks is for the sun model, there is only one model in X3 so any number will do.

The next set of codes are for the red, green and blue, dont worry too much about these yet, put 10 for each entry.

The next codes are for the sector position, i would suggest 1000, 1000, 100. Once your sun has appeared to to the sector map and position it with the number pad, dont have it too close to the center or X3 will crash.

The keys for moving the sun are 4,6,8,2 for rotation around the sector and + - for moving it in and out of the sector.Dont forget to change the sector view plane with "insert"

Right you have your sun positioned were you want it in the sector.

Now aim your ship towards it, so you can see the sun.

Go back into the editor by pressing the number pad enter move to the sector tab ( the one which says "all" ) scroll down so you are on the sun again and press "P".

Once you have pressed P you should see a new menu, here you can change the red, green and blue properties. Have a play with these while you can see the effect they have on the sun.

Remember you can only have ONE sun per sector.

To place ships which are yours, go to the add ships menu where the add sun is. Choose the ship you want and set it as player, which will probably show as Julian within the race menu.

[Bulska]

Now that is usefull! This is the info I've been looking for. Thanks really much, this helps alot. For placing a planet I think it works same as a sun?

[DIGSIN]

[Bulska]

Something is wrong, I've tried to place a sun, I've filled in the numbers you told me to, but there was no sun and when I pressed numkey-6 X3 crashed...

[Bulska]

Heh this is cool, I've made different background, a planet and a moon and the sun. Looks cool for me but if I want to place stations then the stations seem broken. I've placed a XL Solar Powerplant, and it didn't had secundairy resources, so I've found that button to add one, I did, but now it all is still not functioning. What to do? I really want to create a small living universe.

[Redjohn]

i seem to get the crash when trying to load sun too

I think it has something to do with the co-ords..

[DIGSIN]

bulska..when you place stations, most of the stations you can just tell it to load default wares. The solar power plants are a bit different, you have already loaded the primary resource, what you need to do now is also load the wares. As soon as you install any item onto a station it will automatically remove everything from wares, primary resources and secondary resources.

Redjohn....Once you have placed the sun, at the co-ordinates i have posted above, you will need to go to the sector view( via the map) and move it further out, use the - and + keys on the numberpad for this.
If the sun is too close to the center it will crash X3.

[Bulska]

thanks again, but I've made a Nova Vanguard and fitted it with lots of cool stuff but once I've copied it, I don't know how the paste thing works.

I want to build a small fleet and then place pirate scouts all over the place, just to mess around with xD

[DIGSIN]

[Bulska]

Okay cool thanks
Now the only thing I need to know (I think) is how to make a new sector, the sector I'm messing around in is Argon Prime, I wan't my own piece of space added to the whole universe.

[DIGSIN]

Now this is where things will start to get complicated for you.

Adding a new sector with Egosoft's galaxy editer is not easy, as you have to first work on a file called 00749.bod.

The easiest way to add a new sector, especially if you are just begining is with Doubleshadows X3 tools. If you have'nt already got them go here
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=103977

Download and install them. All these tools are a must have if you are going to start modding your game.

Doubleshadows Galaxy editer looks complicated at first glance, dont let this put you off, once you are familiar with it, it is easy to use.

Once you have installed the tools open up your map with the galaxy editer, then click on the universe map, which is on the top bar at the far right, this will show the whole map universe, left click and hold to drag the map around untill you find where you want to add your sector.

Right click and select add sector, once your sector is on the map double click on it to bring up the information in the main editer window, not the green sector window which will automatically open.
In this window you can change some of the information, such as which race will own the sector, we wont go into that too much at the moment, or you will start to get confused.

The green sector window you can use to add items to the sector, but with you just starting i would advise not doing this untill you understand a bit more about editing the galaxy.

You have your sector in the map now, so save it and close down Doubleshadows galaxy editer and start the X3 galaxy editer.

In X3's debugging menu select "connect sectors with gates" find your sector and click on it, then you have to decide which sector you are going to connect too.

The X3 gate verification will only allow you to connect a sector from North and South, or , East and West, So if you are going to add a North gate to your sector, it will have to connect to a sector with a space for a south gate.

Once your gates are added go back to the debugging menu and select "gate system validation" this will make sure that your gates are connected properly.

Now you should be able to go into your sector and start changing the sector information, nebulas, backgrounds, sun, planet etc.