How to add planets manually
Moderator: thunderchero
How to add planets manually
to add a planet to botf manually -- this is now a feature of UE 1.0.7dev4 thanks to DCER
1 extract planet.pst from stbof.res (use UE)
2 open planet.pst with a hex editor (set view width to 76bytes)
3 go to last byte
4 add to the end of the file a name for the planet eg NEW1 etc this isn't seen in game
5 at the 41st byte enter a name of a .ani file eg eart.ani
6 byte 53 must be 10
7 byte 54 must be 59
8 bytes 55 and 56 must be the planet index number (anything between 1200-5999dec) is good here DO NOT MAKE DUPLICATE ENTRIES!! this numkber is little endian 2 byte eg 57 04 is 1111
9 byte 74 must be between 09-0c inclusive
10 check all other entries can should be 00
11 add the 00 at the end twice ie 00 00
the above should have produced 76 bytes that look similar to the other entries
12 save the planet.pst file and import it into stbof.res (with UE)
13 open Edit -> Galaxy -> Planets menu scroll to the bottom of the list your new planet should be their edit its stats to make it what you want.
1 extract planet.pst from stbof.res (use UE)
2 open planet.pst with a hex editor (set view width to 76bytes)
3 go to last byte
4 add to the end of the file a name for the planet eg NEW1 etc this isn't seen in game
5 at the 41st byte enter a name of a .ani file eg eart.ani
6 byte 53 must be 10
7 byte 54 must be 59
8 bytes 55 and 56 must be the planet index number (anything between 1200-5999dec) is good here DO NOT MAKE DUPLICATE ENTRIES!! this numkber is little endian 2 byte eg 57 04 is 1111
9 byte 74 must be between 09-0c inclusive
10 check all other entries can should be 00
11 add the 00 at the end twice ie 00 00
the above should have produced 76 bytes that look similar to the other entries
12 save the planet.pst file and import it into stbof.res (with UE)
13 open Edit -> Galaxy -> Planets menu scroll to the bottom of the list your new planet should be their edit its stats to make it what you want.
Last edited by Peter1981 on Wed Apr 21, 2010 3:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
- jigalypuff
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- Spocks-cuddly-tribble
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Good work Peter!
but don't forget to increase the two bytes index value (bytes 00/01) in planet.pst (default: 0x45D) by the nunber of added planets, otherwise BotF ignores your new planets for random selection during galaxy creation.
but don't forget to increase the two bytes index value (bytes 00/01) in planet.pst (default: 0x45D) by the nunber of added planets, otherwise BotF ignores your new planets for random selection during galaxy creation.
I don't know how many bugs is too many but that point is reached somewhere before however many in BotF is.
no it really work just thought I'd post the discovery --
gotta be careful though if you duplicate the id you'll crash and there are some at 6000ish!!??
@tethys -- needs more testing (as always lol)
@SCT thanks forgot this, however i think ue will do this for you?
@Jigglypuff good luck I couldn't figure that out let us know how you get on.
gotta be careful though if you duplicate the id you'll crash and there are some at 6000ish!!??
@tethys -- needs more testing (as always lol)
@SCT thanks forgot this, however i think ue will do this for you?
@Jigglypuff good luck I couldn't figure that out let us know how you get on.
- Spocks-cuddly-tribble
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Hmm, I didn't see a reason why UE should change this value (before the new "add/remove planets from planet.pst" feature, of course).
Anyway I hope that you tested this (for example with unique planet ani's for the newly added planets -> watching random star systems on maps) before you requested the add planet UE feature...
Anyway I hope that you tested this (for example with unique planet ani's for the newly added planets -> watching random star systems on maps) before you requested the add planet UE feature...
I don't know how many bugs is too many but that point is reached somewhere before however many in BotF is.
@SCT don't ask me why UE does this I don't know but it changes the first 2 bytes upwards when you add planets... I agree there is no reason for this as UE stand but maybe a little future proofing? Yes I did test it with planets form tethys planet pack various types gas giants volcanics etc on a 59x32 map with ~800 star systems I didn't see any missing planets!
As alway further testing is very wise as for every animation you can have 108 (3^3 x 4)diffrent combinations for the same graphic .ani file so given that there are in my list well over 1000 planets som could be missing!
As alway further testing is very wise as for every animation you can have 108 (3^3 x 4)diffrent combinations for the same graphic .ani file so given that there are in my list well over 1000 planets som could be missing!
@SCT don't ask me why UE does this I don't know but it changes the first 2 bytes upwards when you add planets... I agree there is no reason for this as UE stand but maybe a little future proofing? Yes I did test it with planets form tethys planet pack various types gas giants volcanics etc on a 59x32 map with ~800 star systems I didn't see any missing planets!
As alway further testing is very wise as for every animation you can have 108 (3^3 x 4)diffrent combinations for the same graphic .ani file so given that there are in my list well over 1000 planets som could be missing!
As alway further testing is very wise as for every animation you can have 108 (3^3 x 4)diffrent combinations for the same graphic .ani file so given that there are in my list well over 1000 planets som could be missing!
I thought the answer would fit here better than the UE topic.
When UE reads planet.pst it reads it fully - ignoring the various counters. On save it then resets the total number of planets and the counter for each planet type.
This was meant to fix potential errors that could happen when hand modding.
When UE reads planet.pst it reads it fully - ignoring the various counters. On save it then resets the total number of planets and the counter for each planet type.
This was meant to fix potential errors that could happen when hand modding.