This mod isn't even remotely done yet, not sure what you downloaded.

@ romeo, I suppose he downloaded the attachment in the original post. It's not anything you did, but it is there.



@ scottiedog2, did you follow the instructions in the original post, which say:

put contents in documents/endless space/faction folder to use

That attachment is not a mod, it is a set of custom factions. It is highly likely they don't work in the current version of the game anyway.

oooo well thanks you guys

davea wrote:
@ romeo, I suppose he downloaded the attachment in the original post. It's not anything you did, but it is there.



@ scottiedog2, did you follow the instructions in the original post, which say:



That attachment is not a mod, it is a set of custom factions. It is highly likely they don't work in the current version of the game anyway.

yeah i'm pretty sure this is the case, i haven't really touched this stuff in a while... good to see there is some movement towards 3d models and a proper mod rather than my cobbled together set of custom factions.



the main problem i can see was mentioned in another thread (i think) andthat is that the AI is custom built for each faction and as such can't currently cope with custom factions. That means that someone will have to figure out how to tinker with the AI to either tailor it to each new faction or make it able to adapt to any given set of attributes that a custom faction gives it.



i think that it might be a job best suited for the actual dev team, enabling AI custom factions... hint hint

Ok guys, so i've taken some time to put together 8 custom races from the 40k universe for you all to try out.



Each race seemed (luckily) to fit fairly easily into the 8 affinity's for the existing races with only a little creative storytelling in the race description to justify it.



factions are:

-The Imperium of Man

-Chaos

-Eldar

-Dark Eldar

-Orks

-Tyranids

-Tau

-Necrons



Keep in mind these are just a first run. I already have a few changes in mind but i wanted to get them all out there for people to give me their thoughts. Hopefully this grabs the attention of someone with a little more skill than i who can have a crack at some of the more difficult tasks in creating a full blown mod.



All you need to do to play them is unpack the contents of the .rar file into your documents/endless space/faction folder then they should be available from the race selection menu.

Enjoy!
40kFACTIONS.rar

Sounds interesting. Of Course Everything has to start at somepoint. And we will see how far it comes.

Graphics isn't possible... everything else is.



Well Warhammer 40k relies lots to squadsize fights in either space or in ground and that can be major problem. (You could make modules called SpaceMarines and give those huge invasion or invasiondefence values but it just wouldn't feel same than seeing person armed with huge axe hacking through endless army of Orks)

Hupailija wrote:
Graphics isn't possible... everything else is.



Well Warhammer 40k relies lots to squadsize fights in either space or in ground and that can be major problem. (You could make modules called SpaceMarines and give those huge invasion or invasiondefence values but it just wouldn't feel same than seeing person armed with huge axe hacking through endless army of Orks)

i must agree it would not feel the same way, but we have to work with that what we have, and i find the general idea of big mods emerging very good.



I Think the Warhammer Scenario could be a nice one. And who knows.. maybe amplitude will implement Ground Wars in the distant future.

I was thinking more along the lines of a mod set within the Warhammer 40000 universe, in terms of gameplay it would be (obviously) more like the Tabletop game Battlefleet Gothic, set in the 40k universe.



So basically we interpret the 40k factions as an entire race, rather than what would be represented purely on the tabletop.



For example, the Imperium of Man's fleets would be represented by our own models of Imperial Navy Vessals, the vast armies of the Imperial Guard would be represented by a massive defensive strength per population on Imperial worlds, the Adeptus Astartes (space marines) by heavily buffed Invasion strength of Imperial fleets, the Imperial rejection of technology and use of standard template constructs by a reduced research rate but increased production rate. the list goes on.

plainoldandrew wrote:
I was thinking more along the lines of a mod set within the Warhammer 40000 universe, in terms of gameplay it would be (obviously) more like the Tabletop game Battlefleet Gothic, set in the 40k universe.



So basically we interpret the 40k factions as an entire race, rather than what would be represented purely on the tabletop.



For example, the Imperium of Man's fleets would be represented by our own models of Imperial Navy Vessals, the vast armies of the Imperial Guard would be represented by a massive defensive strength per population on Imperial worlds, the Adeptus Astartes (space marines) by heavily buffed Invasion strength of Imperial fleets, the Imperial rejection of technology and use of standard template constructs by a reduced research rate but increased production rate. the list goes on.

This rises up second question,



Unless we count Tau Warhammer 40k world is stagnant. There really isn't research nor progress (we can argue whether Tyranoids progress but honestly, even from them it's almost never completly new forms... amongst the Tyranoids there is no evolution, there is just ways to empty planets better).



Either tech trees should present progression to higher rank member inside of race (this gives interesting ideas) or players should from start have access to every technology unless they are Tau in which case research rate should be really high.

Also I'm fairly sure that Warhammer 40k doesn't know word: "approval" or "happiness". Civilians gets slaughtered by millions every day and they really don't have any option to complain about that.

(and then there are case of Tyranoids, Orks and Necrons which are just too unique... try to imagine unhappy Necron)



Last but not least is problem of tech difference between races and how each race uses technology.

Ork is first good example, their technology is just too confusing to present in any game. (I challenge you to present race which can hold weapon together just by beliving to it in any game)

Necrons are other, they are basically living robots.. they already own technology to rise buildings from ground and probably even move planets. Their shortcome in wh40k is that there is just too few of them... how one presents this in game.

Eldar is also, race which can happily just jump to out of planet if it gets attacked and move to some other planet. (not even speaking of Dark Eldars which are completly own topic)



There are quite many interesting things what one has to solve before making this mod...

Oh and biggest problem is that right now hardly any modder really is available.



This is another mod which could be created under 1 week if one would have team and good idea what one is doing.

As any other big Mod i wish u the best I am looking forward to see first results

@ Hupailija:



you bring up some fair points so i'll try work through each and address them in turn.



First, stagnation within the universe. i don't believe this is really the case. yes the tabletop game is set in the 41st millenium but there is also an established background that goes back as far as recorded history and before.



Again using the Imperium of Man as an example; if we take our start point as at the Emperors rise to power and search for the Primarchs then we can see clear advances in technology reflected in things such as the forming of the Adeptus Astartes into legions initially then into chapters post the Horus Heresy. The progression from the early Marks of Power Armour to that which we see in the contemporary setting. Mankind's progress could be charted perhaps not by their technological advances so much as their organisational advances and their sheer scale. What does it matter if your enemy has a single division of highly trained, crack troops capable of most any task when you can push countless armies of willing conscripts into battle and wear him down by attrition alone?



Other races of course will have wildy different approaches to the "tech tree" which would reflect their own unique philosophies and advances.



Secondly, so far as hapiness goes this is a simple numerical modifier in the game which can be tweaked such that it could simply become irrellevant for certain races (chaos for exampl) or re labelled to reflect a different aspect of each society (such as the Orks Waagh or the level of wakefulness of a Necron Tomb world for example)



I think i've elaborated sufficiently on the tech differences between races but i will throw out another example to illustrate the point. Methods of travel; this could be a tricky one to accurately represent in game. short of scripting a simple 'teleport to X system' with a random number of turns where the ships are off the map i don't know how you would properly represent warp travel. If that was possible though, how cool would it be (in the long run) to have an invasion fleet go missing in the warp for a hundred turns only to have it reappear randomly in a system that you had all but abandoned in the face of and advancing enemy. This is the sort of storytelling stuff we should shoot for. If that is unachievable then regular travel will have to suffice. wormhole travel could be restricted to eldar and dark eldar players only to represent the Webway, and free travel outside of regular space lanes could be restricted to chaos to represent their ability to travel through the warp unimpinged.



Like you said there are a lot of things which need proper attention given to them to do them justice but i believe that there is no important aspect which could not be reasonably simulated in endless space.

I think i've elaborated sufficiently on the tech differences between races but i will throw out another example to illustrate the point. Methods of travel; this could be a tricky one to accurately represent in game. short of scripting a simple 'teleport to X system' with a random number of turns where the ships are off the map i don't know how you would properly represent warp travel. If that was possible though, how cool would it be (in the long run) to have an invasion fleet go missing in the warp for a hundred turns only to have it reappear randomly in a system that you had all but abandoned in the face of and advancing enemy. This is the sort of storytelling stuff we should shoot for. If that is unachievable then regular travel will have to suffice. wormhole travel could be restricted to eldar and dark eldar players only to represent the Webway, and free travel outside of regular space lanes could be restricted to chaos to represent their ability to travel through the warp unimpinged.

Imagine the joy of both sides... when anything warps via warpspace it goes through chaos regions. Send army of spacemarines to somewhere, curse for noticing them to disappear for several turns... and curse even more when you notice that army of chaos spacemarines comes out to attack you from where those fleets disappeared (hey, we have historical documents that that happened atleast once before



But yeah, you are rising good point... When I think about Warhammer 40k I am thinking about tabletop/computer game time period and how that works, it's true that story is way bigger and starts way earlier. (though if game has spacemarines as a faction Emperor has to be "dead", adding tyranoid as a playable faction would bring it even close to our time (afaik tyranoid fleet become major threat quite recently) and Tau is also new race (no more than couple thousand years old)).



It's good idea that approval would mean different things for different races. Though I would probably add for chaos their closeness to chaos (if that makes sense). Dark Eldars is big question mark, how can utterly evil, corrupted, twisted creature which enjoys misstreatments be happy? (well ok, how can their slaves be happy but if we forget slaves it might even work





Actually this starts to be wonderful basis for good mod... I wish that there would be someone who would have time to create it :/

Quick research shows that Imperial surveys in M35 discovered the Tau homeworld with the Tau at approximately stone age advancement having only recently mastered fire. Expansion in to space appears to have occured late in M38.



Tyranids are a much later threat, with First contact reported within M41 although some sources cite M35 as initial contact.



All in all, i consider the most appropriate 'start date' to be at the beginning of M39 (that is, the year 38,000 AD).



I suppose 'favour' for Chaos could represent the favour of the Chaos Gods rather than the hapiness of the population, for Dark eldar Hapiness could work in reverse, the lower the hapiness of the slave population, the more efficiently their Dark Eldar masters are working them and thus the Happier the Dark Eldar are.



I really do hope there will be some kind of mod toolkit released for this game to make modding more accessible to the masses. At the moment this is all reliant on someone with the appropriate skills (not really me unfortunately) to devote the time towards enacting all these ideas.



I don't suppose there is anyone like that out there?





Oh and on another thought, maybe we could add a new missile class weapon 'Fighters' to try and build up the battles so that fighters engage first, then corvette's or 'Bomber' type weapons then the big ships engage for the finale.

Hupailija wrote:
This rises up second question,



Unless we count Tau Warhammer 40k world is stagnant. There really isn't research nor progress (we can argue whether Tyranoids progress but honestly, even from them it's almost never completly new forms... amongst the Tyranoids there is no evolution, there is just ways to empty planets better).



Either tech trees should present progression to higher rank member inside of race (this gives interesting ideas) or players should from start have access to every technology unless they are Tau in which case research rate should be really high.

Also I'm fairly sure that Warhammer 40k doesn't know word: "approval" or "happiness". Civilians gets slaughtered by millions every day and they really don't have any option to complain about that.

(and then there are case of Tyranoids, Orks and Necrons which are just too unique... try to imagine unhappy Necron)



Last but not least is problem of tech difference between races and how each race uses technology.

Ork is first good example, their technology is just too confusing to present in any game. (I challenge you to present race which can hold weapon together just by beliving to it in any game)

Necrons are other, they are basically living robots.. they already own technology to rise buildings from ground and probably even move planets. Their shortcome in wh40k is that there is just too few of them... how one presents this in game.

Eldar is also, race which can happily just jump to out of planet if it gets attacked and move to some other planet. (not even speaking of Dark Eldars which are completly own topic)



There are quite many interesting things what one has to solve before making this mod...

Oh and biggest problem is that right now hardly any modder really is available.



This is another mod which could be created under 1 week if one would have team and good idea what one is doing.

Well, you can't add new technology, but (and i'm taking strictly the imperium of man as example) you can "earn the right to use that technology". A basic transport ship it's easy to obtain since it's a common and replicable technology for the techpriests in mars. But if you want some ancient bigass flagship, well you have to earn the right to use it.

Hupailija wrote:
Graphics isn't possible... everything else is.



Well Warhammer 40k relies lots to squadsize fights in either space or in ground and that can be major problem. (You could make modules called SpaceMarines and give those huge invasion or invasiondefence values but it just wouldn't feel same than seeing person armed with huge axe hacking through endless army of Orks)

I'm not quite informed but.. why ? It's a game limitation ? Any clue if it will be implemented the possibility of 3d modelling for modding ? Because pretty much all the mods that comes to my mind that i would like to play implies Graphic chenges (it will suck if the Galaxy Class ship would look like exacltly as a dreadnaught,... and it will make a star trek mod simply awfull). And.. pretty much all the mods for every recent game imply that you can at least ADD some sort of 3d modelling.



Geez, if i think on how it modify Sins of a solar empire the "Star trek : sacrifice of angels" mod, it still make me quite happy (if you never played that mod in that game, it basically add all the "star trek combat mode".. so the ships doesnt simply stand in formation and attack by pointing at the target but they "fly around", since they have phasers and photon topedoes all around the ship.).



Same problem would be here, it will suck (even if the "text part" of the mod will be awesome) if a Nyds mothership will look exaclty like a Tau or Necron or Chaos ship.

It's mostly because modding in this game is so beginning and it was created by team which didn't had anything to base this.

They on this version did break assets file to xmls.

Next version they let us add icons and race portraits.

I'm fairly sure that in under half of year they will let us add new ship images. (actually you have to ask from babylon 5 project how they will be doing it)



I myself don't really care how some ship looks for me it's more important to have different race mechanism and different experience with every race. Then again this can be mostly because I lack any kind of artistic sense of anything

Too soon?



But seriously, a set of custom Races initially, custom skins to follow if it's possible or someone knows how (think battlefleet gothic style ships for example).



Eventually every race would get its own tech tree appropriate to it's fluff.



faction list purely off the top of my head:



-The Imperium of Man

-Chaos

-Eldar

-Dark Eldar

-Orks

-Tyranids

-Necrons

-Tau



I think it could be interesting to see how far we could push the envelope here.



EDIT: first draft of custom races attached. put contents in documents/endless space/faction folder to use.

Ther0 wrote:
Geez, if i think on how it modify Sins of a solar empire the "Star trek : sacrifice of angels" mod, it still make me quite happy (if you never played that mod in that game, it basically add all the "star trek combat mode".. so the ships doesnt simply stand in formation and attack by pointing at the target but they "fly around", since they have phasers and photon topedoes all around the ship.).



Same problem would be here, it will suck (even if the "text part" of the mod will be awesome) if a Nyds mothership will look exaclty like a Tau or Necron or Chaos ship.

I'm glad you mentioned SoA! Endless Space gives me a very 'Homeworld' vibe for some reason - and SoA was by FAR the best mod for that game. A triumph really.

I would love to help out you out with this mod. I am a huge Warhammer 40k buff and i have worked on other mods before, mainly on the writing and the ideas.

Hi skynet, any help you can give would be great. it's just starting out at the moment but as you may have seen above i've already put together some custom races. do you have any experience with .xml editing or anything like that



EDIT: I just found out i'll be unavailable for at least 3 weeks so if anyone wants to have a go at putting some stuff together it'd be great to come back to progress! bye for now though!