Entry points and ordered pipeline

Section titled “Entry points and ordered pipeline”

This page follows the Create New Race window into race, species, homeworld, starting economy, technology and force creation. Each setup input is a value you enter, the state it changes at once, and the later step that uses it. Creation is a sequence of changes. An error is reported, but earlier changes stay. It is not an all-or-nothing transaction and not a general race editor. The worked examples are calculations, not values from a particular saved game.

Game rule options owns the game-wide options, their defaults and their uses. Sol, homeworlds and setup overrides owns physical homeworld selection and rewrites. Species engineering owns derived species. The colony lifecycle owns population identity and growth. Research, technology to deployment and ship design own later development. Object identity and reload explains saved IDs and rebuilt links.

New game creation loads the definitions, creates the black-hole systems and the first increment, then generates Sol without creating any race. It finds Earth and updates orbital positions and climate before it opens any race window. For each race of Number of Player Races in the Game Information window, it runs race creation on Earth as a player race, not an NPR, at the standard level, with the window shown, Cancel hidden, automatic technology allocation and automatic ship design off, the normal race type, no human NPR option, no NPR template and no starting tech minimum. The ordinary new-game player therefore begins on Earth.

Each created player race receives its own name record for every Sol body that lacks one. A failed player slot is skipped. When no player race is created, new game creation stops there, before NPR setup and the final save. Otherwise setup continues with the ordinary NPRs, and ends with a save. Race creation itself does not save the game.

The ordinary race creation runs in this order:

  1. Calculate the average player wealth figure, take a new race ID, mark creation as in progress, and store whether it is an NPR, its starting level and its automatic options. The race gets FCT_Race.RaceGridSize 4, FCT_Race.WealthCreationRate 100, FCT_Race.GovTypeID 1 and FCT_Race.ColonyDensity 2 + d6. A player race starts as “Player Race” with homeworld name “Earth” and flag flag0000.jpg. Hull and station images and the class, system and rank naming themes are random unless an NPR template supplies them, and one random commander name theme is registered at weight 100.
  2. Generate a native species, unless the human NPR option supplied an existing species. It becomes the race’s species.
  3. Create the home system survey record, set up its jump point survey records and get a homeworld population.
  4. Set a player homeworld population to 1000 million. Other races use their own rolled, template or level rules, described in identity creation and founding.
  5. Unless the race is pre-industrial, set up the starting installations and seed eleven mineral stockpiles.
  6. Calculate the starting build points, mark creation as confirmed, then show the window when requested.
  7. Handle Cancel or confirmation, apply the homeworld name, register species and race, create shipyards and record starting wealth.
  8. Apply the rank theme, create the first commanders and run promotions, grant homeworld and home system knowledge, and create the naval administration and empty player fleets.
  9. Grant starting technologies, optionally allocate RP and design components and classes, optionally create ground templates and formations, and create the shipping line.
  10. Assign commanders automatically, clear the in-progress mark and return the race.

They register their race and species and grant and design their own starting state, described in special race lifecycles. Whether the race is created for a player, the NPR setting (FCT_Race.NPR) and the special race type (FCT_Race.SpecialNPRID) are separate. Neither showing the window nor the player setting alone identifies the ordinary player path.

Dialogue defaults and input consumers

Section titled “Dialogue defaults and input consumers”

On opening, the Create New Race window marks creation as not confirmed, restores its position, copies identity, images and themes, fills the species list and shows the population and calculated economy. Cancel is visible only when the way the race is created allows it. New game player creation does not, and the Create Race button of the System Generation and Display window does. The window cannot close until Create Race or Cancel allows it. These are window guards, not validation that race creation repeats.

Opening does not copy the race’s survey and automatic settings into the check boxes. All of them open unticked, and ticking or unticking other boxes can then change them. The window does not show and keep every setting of the request. The Officer Graduation Age box always opens at 21. Choosing a species does not copy its graduation age into that box.

Box or input Immediate effect and later use
Race Title / Race Short Name Set the title and short name. The title supplies the Navy name, the title plus “ Navy”. Create Race does not check for empty or duplicate text.
Homeworld Name Sets the race’s homeworld name, then the population name and this race’s body name after the window closes. The shared body is not renamed for every race.
Class Theme / System Theme / Rank Theme Set the themes. The rank theme is applied after confirmation. Class and system themes feed names generated later.
Name Theme When it differs from the first current theme, clears the list and registers the choice at weight 100.
Non-Player Race Sets FCT_Race.NPR. When ticked, creates the race, population and system AI controllers and a ground forces budget of half the Starting Ship Build Points. It is not the player setting already used for the population and species.
Industrial (Low Tech) Sets the conventional player level, or the conventional NPR level with Non-Player Race ticked. Unticked sets the standard level.
Neutral Race Sets FCT_Race.NeutralRace and the homeworld’s FCT_Population.ProvideColonists (1 when ticked). The economy reset of the start option events also stops after clearing when it is ticked.
Home System Geo Surveyed / Home System Grav Surveyed Set setup flags. After confirmation they give a full geological survey and a completed gravitational survey of the home system.
Auto-Assign Tech Points Later design philosophy allocation, for the standard and minor levels only. Automatic ship classes need it.
Auto-Design Ship Classes Components and classes are generated only inside the Auto-Assign Tech Points step at the standard or minor level. A player then gets no military ships from it.
Auto-Design Ground Forces A later step creates templates. Ordinary physical formations need an NPR.
Population (m) A number becomes the surface population. A positive value typed into the box also regenerates the installation defaults.
Shipyards Converted directly to a whole number and used when the actual shipyards are created. Not an installation count.
Starting Tech Points Read only at the standard level. A number is truncated to a whole number. A player value above the highest player starting total raises that total. Later allocation and instant research spend it.
Starting Ship Build Points A number is truncated to a whole number and stored in the balance, which can hold fractions. Instant ship and ground builds spend it.
Research Facilities, Conventional Industry, Construction Factories, Ordnance Factories, Fighter Factories, Mines, Automated Mines, Fuel Refineries, Financial Centres, Maintenance Facilities, Ground Force Construction Complexes, Deep Space Tracking Stations, Military Academies A number sets that installation quantity. No shipyards are created here.
Fuel Stockpile (litres) / Maintenance Stockpile (MSP) Set the homeworld’s fuel and MSP stocks, not deposit richness or production rates.
Species, environment and modifier boxes Change the selected species record, even one already registered and shared. See below.
Change Flag / Change Hull / Change Station / Change Image Store the chosen file name and load it from the Flags, ShipIcons, StationIcons or Races folder of the game. The file must exist.

Validation differs by box. Most number boxes keep their old value when the text is not a number, and Create Race continues. Shipyards, the seven personality values, the environment values and the graduation age do not. Bad text there shows Function #2574 and ends Create Race at that box, after the earlier boxes were applied, with the window still open. No check of all boxes runs first. Confirmation and closing happen only at the end of Create Race.

Typing a population regenerates the economy only for a number above 0. Create Race just reads the number and sets it. Setting a population turns a negative value into 0 and recomputes total population = surface + orbital. Typing and Create Race therefore differ.

Setting an installation quantity removes an existing entry at zero and replaces its amount otherwise. It creates a missing entry only for a positive amount. A negative amount for an installation already present is stored, and Create Race has no common non-negative check.

Ticking Non-Player Race ticks and locks the three automatic boxes and unticks and locks Neutral Race. Unticking it unlocks them. Changing Industrial (Low Tech) or Neutral Race rebuilds the economy defaults. With Industrial (Low Tech) ticked, the automatic boxes are unticked and locked and build points become 0. Unticked, they unlock and build points become three times annual wealth. Event order therefore matters.

Ticking Auto-Design Ground Forces ticks Auto-Assign Tech Points. Unticking Auto-Assign Tech Points unticks both design boxes. Ticking Auto-Design Ship Classes only ticks itself. It does not tick Auto-Assign Tech Points. The later creation checks still decide whether anything is generated.

With Non-Player Race ticked, leaving the Starting Tech Points box raises a number below 100,000 to 100,000. This differs from the 150,000 NPR minimum of installation setup and is not a general lower bound.

Species selection and continuing modifiers

Section titled “Species selection and continuing modifiers”

A native species takes its ideal oxygen from the body’s oxygen partial pressure, its ideal gravity from the body’s gravity, and its ideal temperature from the average of the surface temperatures at apoapsis and periapsis (a moon uses its parent planet’s orbit). A player species gets an oxygen deviation of 50% of ideal, a temperature deviation of 24 degrees, a gravity deviation of 90% of ideal, maximum pressure 4, the name Human and the picture Race327.bmp. Its density, growth, research and production modifiers are 1. Determination, Diplomacy, Militancy, Expansionism, Xenophobia and Trade are each four d25, and Translation is five d10 plus a d6 minus 31. It is a generated species with its own ID and homeworld, not a lookup of a shared Human record.

The species list holds every registered species, each given sort priority 1, plus the body’s native species, sorted by priority and name. Choosing one puts that actual record on the homeworld population. It is not copied or limited to the new race’s species. The edit boxes then show its environment, modifiers and personality.

Create Race writes the species name, seven personality values, the density, growth, production and research modifiers, the environmental ideals and deviations, the pressure limit and the graduation age onto that record. Temperature is entered in Celsius and stored in Kelvin as the entry plus 273. Minimum and maximum temperature, oxygen and gravity become ideal minus and plus deviation. The body’s atmosphere and gravity are not rewritten.

Creation does not set the race’s species again after the choice. Registration checks the chosen population species ID but adds the originally generated species when that ID is absent. A listed species therefore normally stays shared. A malformed or unregistered choice can register an ID with the other record. The automatic ground steps also receive the originally generated species. Not every setup reference follows the choice.

Choice Effect during setup and later
Environmental tolerances Stored on the species for later colony cost and habitability rules. Editing does not terraform the homeworld.
Population Density Modifier / Population Growth Modifier Species values that last. Capacity and growth rules belong to the colony lifecycle.
Research Rate Modifier / Factory Production Modifier Keep influencing research and production. The package shown is not recalculated when the text changes.
Officer Graduation Age Affects how personnel ages are read. The first commanders take the home population’s species.
Personality Species-wide, shared when the same record is chosen for another race.
Starting Tech Points / Starting Ship Build Points Race balances spent after setup, not permanent rate multipliers.

See commander creation and environmental formulas and inherited fields.

Conventional and trans-Newtonian starts

Section titled “Conventional and trans-Newtonian starts”

Installation setup first clears installations, fuel, MSP and starting RP and sets the manufacturing population estimate to surface population / 4. With Neutral Race ticked, it stops after these clears, so a neutral setup keeps no earlier package. Mineral stockpiles are not cleared. Only changes made in the window apply the Neutral Race tick to the package. The first setup during creation always runs in full.

For the standard and minor levels, let P be surface population in millions. Research labs = floor(P / 25), capped at 50 for a non-NPR and 100 overall (see research labs). Starting RP = labs x (game time in years + 20) x 200 x Research Speed / 100 x species research rate modifier, truncated, with Research Speed from FCT_Game.ResearchSpeed. An NPR template then applies its tech points multiplier and minimum. An NPR is raised to at least 150,000, . A player total above the highest player starting total becomes the new highest.

Shipyard count = labs / 5, truncated. Academies = shipyard count / 5, rounded up. For the normal race type, the package is:

Item Quantity or stock
Ground Force Construction Complexes Shipyard count
Mass Driver, spaceport, refuelling station, ordnance transfer station, cargo shuttle station, naval headquarters 1 each
Infrastructure 200
Deep Space Tracking Stations 2 + P / 200, truncated
Maintenance facilities P x 0.3, truncated
MSP stockpile maintenance facility count x 200
Construction factories / mines P x 0.8, truncated, each
Fuel refineries / ordnance factories factory count / 4, rounded, each
Financial centres factory count / 2, rounded
Automated mines factory count / 5, rounded
Fighter factories factory count / 10, rounded
Fuel stockpile factory count x 30,000 litres

Rounding sends an exact half to the even neighbour. These are defaults the window can change. The installation catalogue describes each type.

The conventional player level sets 2 shipyards, P x 1.6 conventional industry (truncated), one each of military academy, ground force construction complex, naval headquarters, Deep Space Tracking Station and spaceport, five maintenance facilities and floor(P / 60) labs. The conventional NPR level has the same shipyard count of 2, industry, academy, headquarters and spaceport, but three ground force construction complexes, three Deep Space Tracking Stations, 25 maintenance facilities and no labs. Neither seeds fuel or MSP after clearing or sets starting RP.

Starting technologies come from the catalogue. Standard and minor levels receive every FCT_TechSystem row with StartingSystem set and RuinOnly clear. Conventional levels receive the rows with ConventionalSystem set and RuinOnly clear. The grants write no event log entries and do not remove active, queued or paused research projects on the granted technology. A conventional NPR also gets 65899 (Conventional Composite Armour) and 65900 (Conventional Advanced Composite Armour). Other NPRs get 65739 (Science Department), 65737 (Main Engineering), 65738 (Combat Information Centre) and 65740 (Primary Flight Control). This grant is separate from spending starting RP.

Pre-industrial is a level set when the race is created, as NPR generation does, not an Industrial (Low Tech) outcome. It skips installation and mineral setup and the usual grant, grants the ground technologies 65778 (Light Infantry Armour- ARM 1) and 65811 (Personal Weapon: AP 1 DAM 1 SHOTS 1), and creates one regiment (“1st Regiment” onwards) per 50 million population, truncated.

Stocks, wealth and build budgets

Section titled “Stocks, wealth and build budgets”

Starting minerals are set before the window opens. For each mineral ID 1 to 11 with a homeworld deposit, stock = max(manufacturing population estimate x 40 x accessibility, total population x 2). A mineral without a deposit gets 1000. A non-NPR also records these as its starting stockpile mineral data. Nothing is subtracted from the deposits.

The homeworld colony step replaces deposits with homeworld minerals, at multiplier 1, only when no population yet occupies the body and it has no homeworld minerals. A shared Earth and later races get no fresh deposit rewrite each. Stockpiles stay per population.

Installation setup ends with build points = 3 x annual wealth for the standard and minor levels. Race creation replaces that at once with 4x annual wealth before the window. Other NPRs keep half of the 4x value as their ground forces budget and multiply ship build points by 1.5. An NPR template’s build points multiplier then applies. Opening the window sets the population text, which rebuilds the economy defaults, so the ordinary default shown already uses three times annual wealth. Later population and start option events can reset it again.

Annual wealth = (financial capacity + taxable workforce) x efficiency x W. The taxable workforce is shipyard workers plus workers of taxable installation types. W = political status WealthMod x race wealth creation rate x radiation production modifier x colony governor's wealth creation bonus x sector governor's quarter-strength wealth multiplier, and it is also multiplied by stability when unrest is above 0. The political status and the colony governor bonus are described on their own pages. See population tax and financial-centre income. It is not simply population or RP. Shipyards are created after the window. Starting wealth is then recorded from a fresh calculation, for every race , as Starting Wealth income (category 8). The build point basis and starting wealth can therefore differ without any edit.

Population changes in the window rebuild installations, fuel, MSP and RP but do not reseed minerals. Editing factories or species modifiers at Create Race does not recalculate every dependent stock and budget. The accepted package is the actual result, not one formula applied evenly.

Homeworlds and starting knowledge

Section titled “Homeworlds and starting knowledge”

Ordinary new-game players use the Earth created in Sol even with Known Star Systems (FCT_Game.UseKnownStars) on. Procedural and known-star selection and habitable-candidate rewriting happen in system generation and NPR placement, not in this window. The Homeworld Name box changes a name, not the physical homeworld. See Sol, homeworlds and setup overrides.

In Spacemaster mode the System Generation and Display window shows Create Race for the selected body. It runs the relaxed homeworld test, then race creation as neither a player nor an NPR, with the window and Cancel. The result is a controllable race with generated non-player species and population defaults, not the 1000 million and Human defaults. The click checks only the body and the test. Spacemaster mode mainly controls the button’s visibility. The relaxed test rejects the body with a message. Every message but the dangerous gas one names the limit. The rejections are:

  • gravity below 0.1 G
  • surface temperature below 203 K (-70C) or above 343 K (70C)
  • hydrosphere below 20%
  • a dangerous gas other than oxygen (any gas with DIM_Gases.Dangerous above 0) whose share of the atmosphere in percent is at or above DIM_Gases.DangerousLevel / 10000. The division drops the fraction, so the cutoff is 0 for every gas in the game database as shipped (the largest DangerousLevel is 5000). Any such gas therefore fails the body in any amount
  • oxygen below 0.05 atm, or above 30% of atmospheric pressure

Creating a population for a body first checks for an existing population of the same race, species and body. A new homeworld becomes capital and a colonist source, completes the body’s shared ground mineral survey and ensures the race’s body survey. After confirmation creation ensures that survey again. The full home system geological survey needs Home System Geo Surveyed. Home System Grav Surveyed separately completes the gravitational survey, which marks the jump point knowledge. Neither needs a starting ship.

These flags do not choose deposits, change a physical star catalogue or grant another race’s knowledge. See exploration for survey records and later discovery.

Personnel, designs and physical forces

Section titled “Personnel, designs and physical forces”

The first commanders number max(300, academies x 10 graduates per academy per year x 20). They are generated without event log entries, then promoted without the time requirement. The chosen rank theme is applied first.

Every race created through this sequence gets a naval administrative command named after the title plus “ Navy”. A non-NPR also gets the Battle Fleet, Survey Fleet, Cargo Fleet, Colony Fleet and Shipyard Fleet. These are fleet containers, not five ships. A non-NPR also gets a shipping line, but not the paired ships of ordinary NPR setup, one Small Freighter and one Small Colony ship per 200 million population, rounded (an exact half goes to the even neighbour).

At the standard and minor levels with Auto-Assign Tech Points, creation initialises the design philosophy, reconciles installations with it, and only then, with Auto-Design Ship Classes, generates standard components and automated classes. The class pass covers the designs of the philosophy’s operational groups. For a non-NPR it skips any DIM_AutomatedClassDesign row whose KeyTechA or KeyTechB the race lacks. It holds back commercial jump tender designs (JumpDriveType 5, the Gateway in the game database as shipped) and afterwards processes the first of them alone, without that key technology check. Available definitions do not guarantee every automated class.

Only an NPR then creates its operational group fleets and assigns shipyards, which can create military ships and charge build points. Player automatic design ends with saved class designs.

Automatic ground creation first builds a template for each DIM_AutomatedGroundTemplateDesign row with positive StandardProportion, leaving out for a player those whose RequiredTechID the race lacks. It then stops for a non-NPR . An NPR forms round(ground forces budget / T x StandardProportion) of each template, where T is the sum over the built templates of template cost times StandardProportion. An exact half goes to the even neighbour. It attaches regiments and garrisons to brigade headquarters while capacity lasts. Ticking Auto-Design Ground Forces for a player therefore creates templates, not a purchased army.

The player template path is reachable. The window stores the Auto-Design Ground Forces box on the race before the ground forces step, which runs for a race with the box ticked or for an NPR. A race created without the window cannot set the box, so only NPR status leads it here. Pre-industrial races take their own ground steps.

Shipyards follow the level. The conventional player level makes one naval yard when the count is above 0 and one commercial yard of capacity 10,000 when it is above 1. Each further yard is a coin flip between naval and a commercial yard of 10,000. At the standard and minor levels each yard has capacity (2 + d6 + d6) x 1000, multiplied by 1.6 for an NPR and by 8 for a commercial yard, and d3 slipways. The first yard is naval, the second commercial, and each later one a coin flip for a player or naval on a d3 above 1 for an NPR. The conventional level sets the count to 2, but the box stays editable, so a larger typed count creates further yards. The conventional NPR level creates no shipyards here.

Spending remaining starting points

Section titled “Spending remaining starting points”

The Instant button on the Research tab of the Economics window shows in Spacemaster mode or with starting RP above 0. It requires a population (“Please select a population”) and a technology (“Please select a technology to instantly research”), completes it, and subtracts the full DevelopCost only when the balance was positive. It does not check that the balance covers the cost, so a final purchase can make RP negative. Button visibility and list eligibility are window conditions, not guarantees of the research completion.

The Instant Build button of the Class Design window likewise shows in Spacemaster mode or with build points above 0. It does nothing without a class or for a count of 0 and refuses prototype components (“You cannot create ships with prototype components”). It creates actual ships with fuel and maintenance filled and subtracts the class cost, truncated, per ship. Optional parasites and ground templates add work and costs. It neither caps the count at what the balance affords nor rechecks a positive balance between ships.

The Instant Build button on the GU Training tab of the Economics window needs a population, a template and a positive count at the “Enter Number of New Formations” prompt (default 1), not cancelled. It creates each formation and subtracts the template cost, truncated, only while build points remain positive. A multi-formation request can cross below zero, and later formations are still created without deduction. Normal construction has its own rules, see queued construction versus instant creation.

Worked examples and partial outcomes

Section titled “Worked examples and partial outcomes”

Standard start. Take game time 0, Research Speed 100%, species research modifier 1, P = 1000 and the normal race type at the standard level. Labs = floor(1000 / 25) = 40 and RP = 40 x (0 + 20) x 200 x 100 / 100 x 1 = 160,000. The defaults give 40 labs, 160,000 RP, eight shipyards, two academies, eight ground force construction complexes, seven Deep Space Tracking Stations, 300 maintenance facilities, 60,000 MSP, 800 factories and 800 mines, 200 refineries and 200 ordnance factories, 400 financial centres, 160 automated mines, 80 fighter factories and 24,000,000 litres of fuel, before any edit.

Starting minerals. With manufacturing estimate 250 and accessibility 0.8, the stock is the larger of 250 x 40 x 0.8 and 1000 x 2, which is 8000. At accessibility 0.1 the first term is 1000, raised to 2000. A missing deposit gets 1000. Changing the population to 500 in the window then recalculates the installations but not these minerals.

Conventional start. P = 1000 with Industrial (Low Tech) for a player gives 1600 conventional industry, 16 labs, two yards and the small fixed support package. Fuel, MSP and RP are zero after the reset, and the window zeroes build points. Confirmation grants the conventional technologies and records starting wealth. It does not restore the standard four times package.

Ship designs without automatic RP. Tick only Auto-Design Ship Classes. Create Race stores it, but the later Auto-Assign Tech Points check fails, so no components or classes are generated.

Rejected body. With no body selected or a failed relaxed test, the Create Race button stops before race creation starts. An error later in creation differs, because IDs and population and survey state may already have changed.

Malformed box. A non-numeric Shipyards text fails after names, themes and options were applied. A non-numeric fuel text keeps the old fuel and Create Race continues. Neither is an all-or-nothing rejection.

Cancellation. Cancel marks the window cancelled and closes it. Creation removes the homeworld population and returns no race, without clearing the marker that a race is being created or undoing earlier changes. The System Generation and Display window then restores the body’s earlier mineral deposit list, a limited repair rather than a rollback.

Persistence and limits

Section titled “Persistence and limits”

The game saves StartTechPoints and StartBuildPoints in FCT_Race with the identity, RaceStartingLevel, NPR and continuing race settings. Loading reads both as whole numbers, although build points can hold fractions in play, so fractional build points do not survive a reload unchanged. FCT_Species stores the ideals and deviations (Oxygen, OxyDev, Temperature, TempDev, Gravity, GravDev, PressMax), personality, modifiers, GraduationAge and the species, homeworld and derived species IDs. Loading rebuilds minimum and maximum ranges from them.

The geo, grav and three automatic settings, the confirmation mark, the Shipyards count, the race’s setup links to species and homeworld, and the marker that a race is being created exist only during creation and have no FCT_Race column. Their effects survive in what they created, which is technology knowledge, population, installations, stocks, survey records, commanders, yards, classes, templates, formations and ships. A loaded population takes its species from its saved species ID. Loading rebuilds saved state and does not run race creation again. See saving, loading and reconstructing references.

Creating a race again is not a retry. It takes new race and species IDs and can add another race and population on an occupied body. Creating a population for a body first checks for an existing population of the same race, species and body. It reuses a population only for that match, so a new race ID or repeated race name is not merged. Opening the window against existing records is not read-only. Opening clears confirmation, choosing a species replaces the population’s species, and option and population events clear and rebuild the economy.

The result depends on loaded definitions and catalogues, image folders, random rolls, game time, Research Speed, Difficulty Modifier (100 = Normal) (FCT_Game.DifficultyModifier), the existing races and species, and window state. An error during creation shows Function #1654 and returns no race. Several steps show their own error and give back no result or zero. Nothing restores setup state changed before an error.

Concept map

Section titled “Concept map”

Resources

Section titled “Resources”

Related community documentation and developer posts. These may describe a different game version.