I am trying to arrive at a new race that goes from simple Sower to mean Craver midgame from a tech. My first approach is a failure (an empire improvement with following descriptor):

[CODE]



[/CODE]



My alternative plan was to start my Sower Like race with Craver Affinity to begin with:



[CODE]





%FactionSpinDescription





AffinitySwarm

AffinityMappingSpinClans

TraitAlignmentNeutral;TraitSpaceBattle07Norm2;TraitPopulation04Norm1;TraitScience03VisibleNorm2;TraitScience03Norm2;TraitFleet05Norm1;TraitDefense02Alt2;TraitHero03Alt1;TraitSpaceBattle01Norm1;TraitBuilding02Norm1;TraitPopulation01Norm1;TraitEconomy14Alt;TraitScience01Alt3;TraitBuilding01Norm1;TraitEconomy10Norm1



[/CODE]



And add some kind of Variable like S=1 (Question 1 how to set new variables in xml).



Then modify this variable at a tech improvement S=0 and use the variable to mess with the Locust steps in the Registry File:



[CODE]

1- S

0;40;60

PlanetQualityImproved;PlanetQualityDefault;PlanetQualityDepleted

[/CODE]



Question 2 where in the program are the locust points accumulated? Is it in the Registry or hardcoded?



Many thanks for any advice or help.

Q1: Could have sworn I read somewhere you can't add your own custom variable. Still worth trying though.



Q2: "PlanetDescriptor.xml" search "LocustPointsUpdatePerTurn", its a property of ClassPlanet.



I'm looking at your codes, and I have no idea what you're trying to do at code level. Some of the tags you're placing within other tags have never been placed that way before in the xml files. Doesn't mean it won't work, but the hard code is rather strict about what kind of tags it expects at each level.



If you trying to change the behavior of an empire using a tech, I would recommend looking into Tech-activated event. Here's the description from a dev post:



"EventsToActivate:

You can add this for any technology. When you unlock the technology, it will start the linked event. You can point to any existing event in RandomEvent.xml; even one which is interactive or escalating."