So I’m tryig to get my custom faction several gameplay affinities.

First, what i'm trying to get:

1. gene hunter faction

2. which population grows like riftborn (only from construction)

3. has UE visual affinity (main quest, ships) 

4. can buyout stuff with influence

5. buys outposts with dust

From looking through the files I can tell that’s having more than 1 gameplay affinities is doable but requires a lot of modifying in a number of files and I actually can’t recognize them all I’m afraid. So any help what/where i should modify to be able to do this.

Hey there!

I believe merging all the gameplay abilities can be fairly easy, but maybe things will not work 100% fine as the game wasn't designed to handle SUCH POWER.

You just need to create a mod which adds a new gameplay affinity which includes the descriptors from each gameplay affinity you want:

<FactionAffinity Name="AffinityGameplayEverything" SubCategory="MajorFactionAffinity" Hidden="false" Custom="true" Cost="10">
   
    <!-- Copy the commands and other things from another Gameplay affinity here, stuff like the following one: -->
    <Command Name="TransferResources"               Arguments="EmpireManpower,1000"/>

    <!-- Add the descriptors you want from other Gameplay affinities here. -->
    <!-- Horatio -->
    <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityHoratio"/>
    <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityGameplayHoratio"/>
    <!-- UE -->
    <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityTerrans"/>
    <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityGameplayTerrans"/>
    <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="EmpirePointBuyoutUnlocked"/>
    <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="ProductionSpentGainedAsEmpirePointUnlocked"/>
    <!-- Lumeris -->
    <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityVenetians"/>
    <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityGameplayVenetians"/>
   
    <!-- Copy stuff from other factions like StartingFleet here -->
   
</FactionAffinity>

Look into FactionTraits[Affinity].xml in the Public folder of the game to see how the official factions are defined and how to complete the piece of XML above.

@MonAmiral: Thank you for your answer, that was immense help! But i got 2 problems.

1. I managed to get only UE and Lumeris affinities and not Horatio, tho it describes i should be able to genesplice populations. I can buyout stuff with influence and buy outposts with dust, but genesplicing functionality is completely missing (manage population button and genesplice button) even tho i added 

<SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityHoratio"/>
<SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityGameplayHoratio"/>

Here are some screenshots for clarity 

2. Turns out i don't need Riftborn gameplay affinity(i was able to get that one as well as UE and Lumeris but still not Horatio) but it's population traits (growth from production) any advice?

Also i'd like to keep minor factions interactions with influence and not with dust (guess it comes with lumeris affinity), but i guess it's too much to ask for. So i'd be fine with just gene splicing, growth from production and UE visual affinity (quest and ships).

I'll just add what I can, but I'm definitely not trying to take away from you getting a dev response.

As far as I understand, a lot of the affinity-related things are hard-coded. Some of the things you'd like to do probably won't be possible. The best you can do is assign the affinity to your new faction affinity and see what happens.

@lilyophelia: Yea, after all my attempts that was actually the way i felt before MonAmiral's answer.

Edit for pos 2 in my previous post: Though i figured i have to play with PopulationModifiersTraits.xml and somehow merge Timelords with Terrans, but i just can't figure out what and where i should modify exactly, cuz sometimes i just get my pop like "normal" terrans, sometimes i get my pop like riftborn with both constructible elements for the system (for pop and manpower) but then quest and ship hulls techs are for riftborn (tho my starting hero and ships still UE) and sometimes i get pops grow from construction with quest and ships for UE but with missing constructible elements (for pop and manpower) which i guess i have to unlock for my population empire affinity in ConstructibleElement_Industry[StarSystemImprovement].xml but yet again i have no idea how to do it properly.

Hey folks!

1. After inspecting the code, it seems that UE and Lumeris gameplay depends on the descriptors that are given by the traits, but the Horatio gameplay depends on the name of the gameplay affinity (each feature was implemented by a different programmer and this kind of difference is frequent).

It means you'll have to overwrite the Horatio gameplay affinity (instead of calling it AffinityGameplayEternal, call it AffinityGameplayHoratio, but it'll replace the horatio).
What it also means is it's currently impossible to create a new gameplay affinity which allows population splicing because of the game architecture.

2. Riftborn (TimeLords in XML) don't grow because of the Modifiers in the ClassPopulationStarSystemAffinityTimeLords SimulationDescriptor (SimulationDescriptors[Population].xml):

It sets the property ShouldPopulationGrow to -1, which means it will be ignored for population "natural" growth.

It also removes its own PopulationCount from the value of PopulationWithGrowth on the system, which prevents errors in some situations

You need to add the following lines in a SimulationDescriptor, and reference the descriptor in your population's PopulationModifiersTrait as seen in PopulationModifiersTraits.xml:

<Modifier         TargetProperty="ShouldPopulationGrow"           Operation="Force"    Value="-1" TooltipHidden="true"/>

<Modifier       TargetProperty="PopulationWithGrowth"       Operation="Subtraction" Value="$(PopulationCount)"                      Path="./ClassStarSystem" TooltipHidden="true"/>

As for the ships & quest, their prerequisites look mostly like this:

<PathPrerequisite Flags="Prerequisite">EmpireTypeMajor/ClassPopulation,ClassPopulationEmpireAffinityTerrans,PopulationMajor</PathPrerequisite>

It checks whether the Major population of the empire has the SimulationDescriptor ClassPopulationEmpireAffinityTerrans on it.

This descriptor is given by a PopulationModifierTrait in PopulationModifiersTraits.xml, given by a PopulationDefinition in PopulationDefinitions.xml, referenced at the end of a MajorFaction in Factions[Major].xml.

It's a lot of work to create a whole new faction, but you'll agree it's worth it!

Wow that's indeed a lot of cool and useful info! Now i actually understand some things i'm doing :D Thank u very much! Might take me some time to sort it all out tho!

I actually managed to get what i want with some (cheating)minor editing and some help from WeaponizedCaffeine in the discord. It's a bit clunky still (like some missing gui elements, can't boost my colonization speed(cuz my options are for food type pops) and my production growth pop still gets a luxury resource booster) but i can live with that for now. But all that wouldn't be possible at all without your incredibly useful and informative posts @MonAmiral (thank u again so much!). Now i can feel i'm tagged TotallyUniqueBrokenOPCustomFaction in discord for a reason.

With all this help and useful informaton i feel like even such a newb like me can dive deeper into all this modding stuff (i'll try not to pester u much tho :D)!

For now, thanks for making my dream faction come true! <3 

Well, several years have passed since this Thread was created, but better late than never.

Ok. Don't pay attention to other posts above. You don't have to create a new Faction to "splice" Affinities.

It is quite easy to do that in 5 minutes. So, here are the steps to "splice the Splicer", with United Empire and with Lumeris (and any other Faction and combinations):

1) Open FactionTraits[Affinity].xml (it is recommended to make a backup copy first) 

2) Scroll down until you read <!-- HORATIO -->

3) Look for the subcategory <!--COLONY DEFAULT BUILDING -->

4) In a line below <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityGameplayHoratio"/>, copy this:

        <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityVenetians"/>

        <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityGameplayVenetians"/>

        <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityTerrans"/>

        <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityGameplayTerrans"/>

        <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="EmpirePointBuyoutUnlocked"/>

        <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="ProductionSpentGainedAsEmpirePointUnlocked"/>

5) Inside the Game, create a Custom Faction with Gene Splicing Affinity. Everything else could be customized as you like.

That's it!! You'll have a hybrid Faction with Gene Splicing, System Buyout, and Influence purchases. This can be done with any Faction and combinations, and the proper lines for each one are in the same file. Just look for the <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="Affinity_______"/> and <SimulationDescriptorReference Name="AffinityGameplay_______"/> under each Faction in the .xml file, and copy the desired ones under the Horatio traits (or any other Faction, if you are not looking for Gene Splicing).

Of course, game mechanics would not play well with some combinations. Sometimes is a matter of trial & error, until you find something that fits your needs.

Good Luck and Have Fun!