FreeOrion

can we get a description of what techs do in basic english. none of this effects stuff that is source or not the source what ever the source is

There is a short description for all techs:



The longer Effects text is autogenerated in most cases, but not all (look at Mining Engineering, for example). If you'd like something with more detail than the above for all techs, and more readable than the autogenerated text, feel free to write it. It's not a priority right now for me, though.

i mean the effects part of it is written in some sort of archaic version of english understood only by those most versed in programming language or something. i dont know half the time if what i am building effects only the planet it is on or the entire system it is in or what

i have to know what it does before i could write anything. for instance take the effect text of "the living planet" i honestly dont know what it effects. i know it boosts science and somethng else but just what is the extent of the effect. the wording isnt clear cut. i need something like "the liviving pl;anet gives +5 farming on the planet it is built and a +2 farming to all other planets in the system and a +x boost to health for all planets in your empire" not the living planet effects all things that are not the source. and gives this other effect for all things that is the source.


if i knew exactly what these things did i would be happy towrite you guys up some clear cut descriptions of what each tech does

You can look at the tech effect descriptions in techs.txt and translate these into readable english. The format is described on the wiki effects page, though it's a bit out of date... but not so much as to be useless.

The part you're interested in in the tech description is the effects groups. For example, the description of effects for Mining Engineering is:
(It's mentioned in the earlier part of the description that the bonus is to max mining, though it should probably be restated in the effects part, actually...)

The tech effectsgroups definitions that correspond to that description:

A bit of information is assumed (omitted) from the description, like that the effects only work on planets that the player who researched the tech owns, but this is stylistic.

It probably looks a bit daunting, but after looking at a few effects groups, the meaning should be fairly easy to figure out.

here is the tech descriptions. i will write one for the buildings as soon as i can find thier file. please feel free to correct my probably multiple spelling errors.

hmm it wont let me attach the txt file so i will paste it here
here is the tech descriptions. i will write one for the buildings as soon as i can find thier file. please feel free to correct my probably multiple spelling errors.

hmm it wont let me attach the txt file so i will paste it here


viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2010&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=30

The buildings are in buildings.txt. I leave it to you to guess what's in specials.txt.

Stylistically, I'd prefer "get +5" or "receive +5" and not "gets a +5" or "will get +5" when describing meter-altering effects.

Also, say something along the lines of "Planets with X focus...", not just "X focus..."

The descriptions need to be put into the tech description strings in eng_stringtable.txt. Again, look at Mining Engineering for style. Its description is in the string labelled PRO_MINING_ENGINEERING_DESC, which is about line 2990 in my version of the file. The human-readable name of each tech appears above its description, as a separate stringtable entry.

Entries are separated by blank lines, so you can't put any newlines or blank lines into the descriptions. Instead, newlines are indicated by \n in the text of the description.

If you could stick the effects info into the stringtable file, that'd be useful.

personally i dont care about stylitistically, i care about can it be read by someone who just fell off the back of the short bus.

I'm nitpicky with such things... but I said "I prefer" and not "I insist on", and I would much rather have readable descriptions than none.

Yoshi, I took your provided text and improved on some spelling, capitalization, and sentence structure.

Please advise if I interpreted something wrong.

___________________________________

Stellar Tomography

All planets of your empire, that have a primary focus on science, will receive a research bonus relative to the type of star it is in proximity to.

Planets around a blackhole will receive a +4 bonus toward research
Planets around a neutron star will receive a + 3 bonus toward research
Planets around a blue or white star will receive a + 2 bonus toward research
Planets around a red, orange or yellow star will receive a + 1 bonus toward research

Distributed Thought Network.

All planets of your empire, with a primary focus on science, will receive a + 5 bonus toward maximum research.

Self Rotating Crops

All planets of your empire, with a primary focus on farming, will receive a +5 bonus toward maximum farming.

Habitation Domes

All planets of your empire, with an environmental rating of poor or adequate, will receive a +2 bonus toward maximum population.

Urban Farming

Any planet of your empire, with a primary focus on Industry and a minimum prudction of 20, will receive a +2 bonus toward maximum farming.

Enviro Mining

All planets of your empire, with an environment rating of good, will receive a bonus if the planet's Primary Focus, or Secondary Focus, meets the following criterea:

Planets with a Primary Focus of mining will receive a +2 bonus toward maximum mining.
Planets with a Primary Focus on balanced will receive a +1 bonus toward maximum mining.
Planets with a Secondary Focus on mining will receive a +1 bonus toward maximum mining.

Mining Engineering

All planets of your empire, with a primary focus on mining, will receive a mining bonus based on planet type.

Barren or Inferno type planets will receive a +4 bonus toward maximum mining.
Desert, Radiated, or Toxic type planets will recieve a +2 bonus toward maximum mining.
Tundra or Terran type planets will receive a +1 bonus toward maximum mining.

Exo Bots

All planets of your empire, with a primary focus on industry, will receive an industry bonus relative to the size of a planet.

Small or tiny sized planets will receive a +4 bonus toward maximum industry.
Medium sized planets will receive a +2 bonus toward maximum industry.
Large sized planets will receive a +1 bonus toward maximum industry.

Fusion Plants

All planets of your empire, with a population on them, will receive a +3 bonus toward maximum industry.

Orbital Infrastructure

All planets of your empire, with a population on them, will receive a +5 bonus toward maximum construction.

Subterranean Construction

All planets of your empire, with a population on them, will receive a +5 bonus toward maximum construction.

Colonial Economics

All planets of your empire, with a primary focus on trade, will receive a + 3 bonus toward maximum trading.

Ethereal Economics.

All planets of your empire, with a primary focus on trade, will receive a +5 bonus toward maximum trade;.and a -2 decrease toward maximum construction.

Fleet Logistics

All planets of your empire will receive a +5 bonus toward maximum supply.

looks ok except it shouldnt be "a population on them" if i put that in...my very bad heh it should be any planet with population on them instead.

I am sorry i havent managed to finish the building descriptions yet. i havent had quite the abundance of time i had hopes. plus there are more of them and thier descriptions are quite often quite convoluted. sorting out exactly what they are supposed to do is harder

You don't have to do them all at once...

re: population on them,

Just say "Populated planets" or "Populated planets controlled by the researching empire" or somesuch.

Don't say "your" or "you", as the techs will work for any empire, not just the player's.

yeah but i presume that the person reading the description will be the controlling empire. in case of things which effect all empires equally i dont say your empire i say any planet. saying things like "your planets or planets in your empire" help people like me read descriptions like this. instead of saying sources owner which confuse people like me

But again, the tech will work for all empires, not just the one being controlled by the player. What if the player discovers an enemy empire has researched a tech, so reads the description. It won't (likely) affect only the player's (your) empire, so "your" is misleading.

It's also less professional-sounding (arguably) and breaks the (my) preferred tone... tech descriptions should, imo, be a bit formal, so not refer to the player in the second person.

And I'm not suggesting removing all indication of which empire(s) are affected by the tech... I'm just want it rephrased a bit.

So how about instead using "this empire" to specify the empire that researched the tech, "all empires" or "any empire" for all empires, and "other empires" for empires other than the one the researched the tech?