Playing with a Custom Race

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Game Setup and Hosting Topics

Designing races

You can use one of the races provided with Stars! or build you own, saving it to a file you can use and modify as often as you wish.

Learn the necessary procedures for custom races:

Creating and Saving a Custom Race

There are three ways to enter the Custom Race wizard, where you can create and save races for play in the current game and later games.

From the Basic New Game Setup

If you're using the New Game dialog to create a basic, single player setup:

1. Click on Customize Race. The Custom Race wizard appears.

2. Select the options you'd like to try, then click on Finish in the wizard. You'll be prompted to <tooltip text="save your race to a file">Race Description file -- name.rN
This file contains a race description created and saved using the Custom Race Wizard. N can be any number (you can actually use any extension, the default is r1.) You can specify a race file for each non-computer player in the game from step 2 of the New Advanced Game dialog. Once the universe has been created the race file is no longer needed. If you open this file from File (Open), the Custom Race Wizard opens.

The extension of .r1 is the default, and is not required.</tooltip>, allowing you to use the race again, or modify its attributes. The race is also automatically loaded into your current game.

If you wish to use the race again, you'll need to start the game using the Advanced Setup button on the New Game dialog. To learn more, read about Adding an Existing Race to a New Game.

From the Advanced Setup

If you are creating a new game using the advanced setup, use the following steps to create and save a custom race:

1. Click on Advanced Game in the New Game dialog.

2. Go to step 2 of the New Advanced Game dialog.

3. Left-click on the blue diamond next to the player position you wish to play. This can be an existing or empty position.

4. Select Custom Race>New... from the menu that appears. The Custom Race wizard opens.

5. Select the options you prefer and <tooltip text="save your new race to a file">Race Description file -- name.rN
This file contains a race description created and saved using the Custom Race Wizard. N can be any number (you can actually use any extension, the default is r1.) You can specify a race file for each non-computer player in the game from step 2 of the New Advanced Game dialog. Once the universe has been created the race file is no longer needed. If you open this file from File (Open), the Custom Race Wizard opens.

The extension of .r1 is the default, and is not required.</tooltip>.

Opening the Custom Race wizard from a Game in Progress

You can always open the Custom Race wizard during a game in progress. Just use the File (Custom Race wizard) menu item. This allows you to create or edit and save a race at any time during play. New races can only be added to new games, however.

Adding an Existing Race to a New Game

This is for single player games using the advanced setup or multi-player games. In a multi-player game, only the host performs this action. You can add a custom race to a game only during the setup.

Open the race file in step 2 of the New Advanced Game dialog:

1. Click on the blue diamond next to a player number.

2. Select Custom Race > Open...

3. Highlight a <tooltip text="race file name">Race Description file -- name.rN
This file contains a race description created and saved using the Custom Race Wizard. N can be any number (you can actually use any extension, the default is r1.) You can specify a race file for each non-computer player in the game from step 2 of the New Advanced Game dialog. Once the universe has been created the race file is no longer needed. If you open this file from File (Open), the Custom Race Wizard opens.

The extension of .r1 is the default, and is not required.</tooltip> (i.e., racename.rN), then click OK.

4. That race will be assigned to the chosen player position.

5. If the selected player position followed any unused positions, those positions will also be assigned to that race.


Editing an Existing Custom Race

You can edit any number of custom races at any time during play. You won't be able to use the changes until the next game, though.

1. Run the File (Open) command. The Open File dialog appears.

2. Navigate to the directory containing the race file.

3. Click on the file (i.e., racename.rN), then click OK to close the dialog.

The Custom Race wizard appears, with the race loaded and ready for editing. When you finish, the Save File dialog will appear to save your changes.

WARNING WHEN EDITING
If you edit the race name in a race file can cause the file to become corrupt. This is especially common when making the race name shorter than before. To get around this, when editing the race name, either edit it one letter at a time (saving and re-opening each time) or copy the race data into a new file by hand.