Content

A data pack can add to the game's tables as well as replace its files: new technologies of any kind, changes to the game's own techs and its six hulls, premade ship designs, and new planet types. Content is plain TOML, so it needs no code. The Arsenal sample has one of each.

Content files go in the pack's content/ folder, any number, any names ending in .toml:

mods/
  arsenal/
    mod.toml
    data/
      content/
        arsenal.toml

Files are read in name order, mod by mod from the top of the Options list down, so a mod can build on what an earlier one added. Content the game cannot read is reported when the game starts, and that entry is left out; the rest load.

Techs

A new tech

[[tech]]
key = "storm-lance"          # the tech's name in content files
like = 107                   # copy everything from tech 107, then change:
name = "Storm Lance"
description = "A beam that holds together at long range."
research_cost = 900000
prerequisites = [107]
damage_by_range = [700, 450, 300, 0]

• key names the new tech. Other entries refer to it by this key where a tech id goes (like, prerequisites, a fighter's weapons, a design's parts). New techs are numbered after the game's own, in the order read, so the same mods always number them the same.
• like copies a tech, the game's (by id) or an earlier new one (by key): every number, its picture, its research line, its name and description until you give your own. The new tech also takes the looks of the one it is like where the game picks art by a tech's place (a fighter's sprites).
• Without like, give class (star_drive, tactical_drive, sensor, ecm, weapon, shield, fighter, armor, special, improvement) and every field yourself; the rest start at zero.
• name and description are what the screens show.
• Any other field changes the tech: the fields every tech has, and those of its class, are in the content fields reference. A name that is not a field is reported and ignored.

The kind field decides what a tech is for:

A new tech joins the end of its kind: the game counts it the best of its kind where it looks for the latest one (the computer players' designs, a colony's defenses), and a mine field's or minesweeper's level is its place in its kind.

research_group puts a tech on a line of the research tree; a copy keeps its original's. A tech is researchable once its prerequisites (up to four tech ids or keys) are known.

Changing one of the game's techs

[[tech]]
id = 38          # the game's first star drive
rating = 3       # one more jump from supply

An entry with id and no key changes that tech in place. Two mods changing the same tech both apply, in order.

Pictures

A tech's picture is the first of its 36 animation frames in the tech pictures, with its 50x50 icon the one before. A copy uses its original's. For new art, add the pictures to the pack (data/art/tech/<id>.png, see data packs) and point picture at them.

Hulls

The game has six hull types, and that stays: their buttons, art and battle sizes are fixed. Their numbers and class names can change:

[[hull]]
type = 3                 # 0 to 5
capacity = 2500
structure = 900
name = "Heavy Cruiser"

The fields are in the content fields reference.

Premade designs

[[design]]
name = "Lancer"
hull = 3                 # 0 to 5
quality = 4              # armor class 0 to 4, as the design screen's buttons
parts = [
  ["storm-lance", 0, 2], # tech, weapon arc, count
  ["aegis-shield", 1],   # tech, count: a weapon goes in the bow
]

A part is a tech (id or key), a weapon arc (0 bow, 1 port, 2 starboard, 3 point defense; anything not a weapon takes -1) and a count. Human players get the design, in a free design slot, as soon as they know every part: at the start or when the last part is learned. One they delete comes back with their next tech. Computer players design their own ships and get none.

Planet types

[[planet]]
key = "crystalline"
name = "Crystalline"
like = 2                 # looks like atmosphere class 2 (0 to 4)
weight = 1               # as common as each of the original's five classes
breathable = "none"      # like, all, none or anaerobic
rating_bonus = 2         # added to the planet's rating: more population, more wealth

New planet types are drawn alongside the original's atmosphere classes while a galaxy is generated, so with them a seed gives a different galaxy from the original's. Without any, generation is the original's, draw for draw.

• A new type looks like, and is treated in battle and on the screens as, the class it is like. Its name shows on the Sector Display's planet panel.
• breathable says who can breathe it: as its look-alike class (like), every species, none, or only anaerobic species.
• Homeworlds are always one of the original's classes.
• weight sets how often it is drawn among rocky planets: 1 is as often as each original class, 0.5 half as often. Gas giants are left alone.

Saves and network games

Content is part of the game's tables, not of a saved game: a save loads only with the same mods. A network room shares the host's mods, content included (multiplayer).