Request for Galaxy Map Modification

[Pogi]

Did you do all these gates yourself or was there a program to do it or what?...I was a bit dreadful of starting on the 300 gateless, but.. determined..lol

[baubsmyth]

I'm using XeHonk's Galaxy Editor. It didn't do all of the work for me, but it simplified things greatly for the actual universe map and the gates. I altered the 440001.xml by hand for changing the sector names, and removing the sector descriptions. I used the 00749.bod file from this file, which can be found in this post, to allow for actually seeing all of the new sectors in the galaxy map. I packed it all up using DoubleShadows X2 ModManager.

I was wondering why you guys didn't seem to be trying out XeHonk's Editor, then I realized that I had been linking the wrong file when I mentioned it my post on the first page. Turns out I accidentally linked a file that's pretty much useless for X2...

Anyway, give Xehonk's a try, the link is to the proper file now.

[NavaCorp]

Ahhhh, adding hundreds of gates to a full 300 sector universe is the perfect activity when your sipping caffeine, letting the gears of your brain slowly grind into place in the morning!

Anyway, here they are:

Full blank universe without gates

Full blank universe with gates

Thanks a lot: what I was looking for ages!

However, the cat/dat file is named 06 while the highest number in the X2-folder is 04: should I rename your cat/dat as 05 or leaving it as 06 doesn't create problems?

[baubsmyth]

However, the cat/dat file is named 06 while the highest number in the X2-folder is 04: should I rename your cat/dat as 05 or leaving it as 06 doesn't create problems?

Yes, but the original poster "Pogi", specifically asked for 06.cat & 06.dat. I assume he has something else taking up the 05s. As I'm sure you know, you can just rename the files, and they'll work fine.

Maybe at some point I'll play around with writing a readme, rename & repack the files, and release them in a new post as a "Modder's Resource/Tool".

Anyway, I'm glad they may be useful to you, and I look forward to some future releases by all of you!!!

[NavaCorp]

However, the cat/dat file is named 06 while the highest number in the X2-folder is 04: should I rename your cat/dat as 05 or leaving it as 06 doesn't create problems?

Yes, but the original poster "Pogi", specifically asked for 06.cat & 06.dat. I assume he has something else taking up the 05s. As I'm sure you know, you can just rename the files, and they'll work fine.

Maybe at some point I'll play around with writing a readme, rename & repack the files, and release them in a new post as a "Modder's Resource/Tool".

Anyway, I'm glad they may be useful to you, and I look forward to some future releases by all of you!!!

Thanks, I was tempted to rename it by my own but I wasn't sure if renaming a cat.dat could turn it not working.

[Pogi]

..@ baubsmyth...Well, well..That galaxy editor is a very powerful tool indeed!..I have a question though...I like the randomize sector option, but I noticed when using it to randomize a single sector, it destroys my gates in the process. I have tried different setting for the gates option 1.0 etc..Still the same result...If I can get it to stop destroying the gates when I randomize each sector, I could create a 300 sector map in no time!

Any advice?..Thanks

[baubsmyth]

Well, I haven't done a lot with the editor yet. I used it to change all of the "hull eating" nebulae from the original map a few weeks ago. I made the 300 sector map yesterday, and I filled it with gates this morning. I can say that it's not difficult to make/link jump gates. It took me about 30-45 minutes of constant clicking this morning to fill the universe with them.

If you click "Add Item" in the menu bar, then "Add Gates" from the menu, you will presented with a window that has two of your current galaxy maps side by side.

Click the first sector you want to create a jump gate in on the left map, then choose which gate you want to link(North, East, South, West) from the drop down menu beneath it.

Now click the sector on the right map you want the first sector to link to, and choose the gate(North, East, South, West) you'd like to link.

Click "OK" and you'll see that not only were the gates created, but now there is a line drawn between the gates you just made.

That's all there is to it. It sounds a little convoluted, but once you do it a couple of times, it's cake. Using this tool you could link gates several sectors apart as can be seen in the original X2 map. You could also do crazy things like linking the North gate from one sector with the East gate of another, and such.

Also I should note, if you are going to use this editor a lot, there are some issues with it that I know I've read about somewhere in these forums. Something to do with automatically generating a Boron station(maybe trading station?) but the editor actually places a Pirate Base? Or maybe it fills the station w/ pirate ships instead of Boron? Can't remember. If I come across the post again, I'll link it. Just make sure you double check all of your work.

BTW, keep up the good work on your mods!

[Pogi]

@ baubsmyth..Ok..thanks again....What I've noticed and like about this editor is that fact that I have a decent chance of keeping the economy intact on a huge 300 sector map...I am going to try a central trading hub theme again on this project...Going to disappear for a while...Got tons to do on this map and still scratcing my head as to where to start..lol

Cheers

[Pogi]

@ baubsmyth...Well in just a couple of hours I have laid out the 300 sector map and have them all filled with random factories-ships-backgrounds etc....gated as well. I used to have to "manually" put the gates in the sectors then start the game to "see" if they showed up..Took forever!..This Galaxy Editor from your link is a god-send for me...Just have to do a bunch of tweaking now and relocation of a few things edit etc..and walla!..A melt-down the ole computer map..lol

Found the problem you mentioned as well...The Split Trading stations have traded all their ships in for pirate ships..lol..Very fixable

Cheers