Universe.xml Decoded

[AalaarDB]

Mostly anyways.

The universe file contains very little new stuff from the old X2 universe xml. In fact it contains significantly less in terms of size.

New:
f = Security level. Core sectors are marked with f="4", border are unmarked. Some stations are marked f="2" others are unmarked. The claimable ships that start there from the beginning of the game are f="1" (and race="12", which means neutral, which means claimable, as I pointed out in another thread).

size = Sector Size. This was an easy one. The number is the distance in units, where units are 1/500 of a meter, from the center (0) to one edge of the map, so double to get the distance from + to -. Previsouly the sector size was about 45.4km across, but as we know sectors can now vary in size.

m = Music track.

p = Population, -1 indicates population should be calculated.

neb and stars = Unused and bugged.


Missing or different:
Gone are the starting ships! This reduces the size a ton. The only ships I saw were the claimable ones.
Ships and stations are no longer assigned a subtype number, it is a plain text ID, making things very much easier.
Gone are fog color and distances.
Rotations can be above 65535, in fact 80693 is common in KE. Why this is I don't know, since rotations are still capped at 65535 so it is probably really 15157. It's probably a bug.

Did I miss anything? This was so easy I've only spent maybe half an hour on this - so it's quite possible I overlooked something rare.

[nuclear_eclipse]

m = Music track - it is unchangeable within the actual galaxy editor, but I have yet to experiment with it inside the file itself, although I probably will soon so as to try and include some cool freespace toons =]

p = population - '-1' instructs the game to calculate a population number, most likely based on sector attributes like planets, core sector, stations, etc. Any positive number is interpretted as an exact population number for the sector

neb and stars - nebula and star bitmaps - you can theoretically set these to other values, but anything but the default values results in graphical lighting glitches inside the game.

There is also a way to set the sector ambience colors, but I'm not sure where those values are stored or how.

Also of note is that sectors can ONLY have ONE sun! If you try to add more than one sun to a sector, all lighting for ships and stations is gone, resulting in all black everything, while planets lose their shadowing and 'darkside' abilities.

If I can think of more to add later, I will.

[X_x_X]

neb and stars:


unused, but should originally intend the power of the sun per sector and add some "hull eatingt" etc. nebulars to some sectors

[AalaarDB]

Ah, I had music turned off, I should have known though.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

Update on multiple suns.

Two suns or greater WILL function, however only one sun will act as a light source. The second just acts as a fancy lense flare.

[Reagger]

Is there an XML schema (xsd) or document type definition (dtd) for this file? I did some searching on the forum but didn't really see anything.

It would really help to validate what you create.

[UniTrader]

f="2" with a Factory -> the Factory is proposed and can be build by the GOD-Module. it will not be there in the beginning of the Game. when this Entry is not in the Factory Line the Factory will be there from the beginning of the game

PS seems to work with Docks and Shipyards, too but i haven't tested it InGame, only looked in the InGame GE