I followed the guide for adding custom traits and got a simple dummy one in and presumably working, but noticed that there was still a slight difference between the traits in the game and custom traits. Namely, for the traits affecting ship stats and such there is a styled EFFECTS box with the specific effects below. It must be auto-generated somewhere because I checked the localisation file and none of the text for those was in there. Would custom traits just never have those? Or am I missing an xml file that would let me add them and, for some reason, one that doesn't have any simple localisation support?



In any case, the relevant xml I added (repeats removed) in case I missed something basic that would allow the EFFECT boxes to generate from wherever:



FactionTrait.xml



[CODE]

TraitSpaceBattle08Norm1

!TraitSpaceBattle08Alt1,!TraitSpaceBattle08Alt2,!TraitSpaceBattle08Alt3





Improves Damage of Lasers





[/CODE]



EmpireTraitDescriptor.xml

[CODE]







[/CODE]



It's not the biggest of deals since in terms of getting the information across I could just add it to the descriptions for each level, but if there -is- a way to have the same EFFECTS box with the auto-generated text based on the property modifier descriptors, that'd be great.

Just to be clear, are you talking about the "+1 per opulation:" kind of auto-generated text?



I believe all you have to do to get that in is to make sure the corresponding trait files are listed under the Gui Repository in addition to their respective Descriptor Repository, here's an example:



[CODE]

Simulation/MMEmpireTraitDescriptor.xml

Simulation/MMFactionTrait.xml

Simulation/MMHeroDescriptor.xml

Simulation/MMSpecialModule.xml

Simulation/MMSupportModule.xml

[/CODE]



In this Gui Repository, the files MMEmpireTraitDescriptor.xml and MMFactionTrait.xml which contains additional entries for their respective base xml contains all the reference data the game needs to write those "EFFECTS" text. I figure this out one day when I accidentally left them out of the Gui Repository.

They were already there. I tried messing around with adding

[code]



5% LASER DAMAGE

[/code]



to the GUI section of FactionTrait.xml, but that didn't do the trick either. Not really sure on that, but I guess only techs and faction affinities used it in the default. I think I'll try something with a different path next time I test it just to see if it's only lasers that are messing it up, because right now it's already such that it's otherwise the same as the default Deadly Weapons/Human Weapons trait.



EDIT: I also noticed that most every other faction trait has a "%TraitSpaceBattle03Title" entry in the localisation files with the text FACTION TRAIT for all of them. Would anybody happen to know where that's even used? Didn't appear in FactionTrait.xml or EmpireTraitDescriptor.xml. Will probably just run a grep on it if nobody knows.

Just to clarify, are you talking about that effect text (see below)? Or is it something else?









%TraitSpaceBattle03Title, or trait titles in general are used when you hit the Empire Bonus button and when you mouse over the various breakdowns like FIDS. See below:

Yes! Like that! Could you c/p what you added to FactionTraits.xml and EmpireTraitDescriptors.xml to get that to show? I feel like there must be something simple I'm just missing. Oh! Off the top of my head I don't understand the Root=" part of sequences of traits. Didn't really see where the Root was actually defined for the default traits. The tutorial was kind of bare-bones on a lot of that.



As for the %TraitSpaceBattle03Title thing, it's not quite that. At least in terms of 03 in general, the title it uses for that is the 03Norm or 03Alt titles, but just plain 03 has its text set as just "FACTION TRAIT". That's the string I couldn't find used in any of the other files.

FactionTrait.xml



[CODE]



TraitSpaceBattleX04Norm1

!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt1,!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt2,!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt3,!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt4,!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt5,!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt6,!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt7,!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt8,!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt9,!TraitSpaceBattleX04Alt10





%TraitSpaceBattleX04NormDescription





[/CODE]







EmpireTraitDescriptor.xml



[CODE]













[/CODE]







Localization txt



[CODE]

Intense Beams (laser)

[SB04+] Intense Beams

Increases the minimum and maximum damage of beam weapon modules. BEEEAAAAMMMM!!!

[/CODE]



I'm 95% sure that what I mentioned is the "FACTION TRAIT" title text that you were talking about. If you look at the codes above, there are two "Title" strings. One for the trait customization screen and one for the Empire Factors/FIDS breakout screen. For all stock traits, the first title would say "FACTION TRAIT" while the second title is the one that shows up for the trait customization screen.