modding-guide

made by domenico. edited by jonathan, dec 17 2009.

-Table of contents-

1. Prelude

2. Mod Stuff

2a. Add Symbols To Your Online Name

2b. Move Stuff Around

2c. Mod Star Ownership Colours

2d. Change The Colours Of In-game Text

3. Image Modding

3a. Basic Rules Of Modding Images

3b. Overview Of Images

3c. Unused Images

4. Everything Else In Modding

1. Prelude

Remember to back up any file that you want to mod. I suggest making a folder in your Pax folder to store the original files.

(However, if you ever want the original file back and you didn't back it up, you can always reinstall the game.)

Remember to mod the game only when it’s off. Restart the game to make the effects of your change take place.

Remember all files and images I refer to are in the Pax Galaxia folder, or wherever you installed Pax. On a Mac, you have to right-click on the Pax Galaxia application, then "Show Package Contents", then go into Contents then Resources. Also, on a Mac, the chat logs, temp_config file, and maps are located in ~/Library/Application Support/PaxGalaxia instead.

Remember to read all of what to do before doing it.

Comment at the bottom of this page if you have any suggestions or questions, or would like to contribute to this guide.

Stuff may change from version to version. This guide was made for the newest version of the game at this time (1.15.3).

I take no legal responsibility for any damages that may occur when modding the game and am not responsible for you doing anything suggested here because it may violate terms and conditions. You also agree not to sue me by reading on past this point.

2. Mod Stuff

2a. Add Symbols To Your Online Name.

Want to stand out online? Why not add stuff that you can’t otherwise add to your screen name? Why not put some exclamation points at the end or something?

1) (windows) Open the file called “temp_config.txt”

(mac) go to ~/library/application support/paxgalaxia/temp_config.txt

2) Look for TMP_online_name = ""

Between the two " ’s there should be the name last put in the name box in the game.

3) Put whatever you like in that. Remember you can only put 8 characters. Also sometimes it doesn’t show in the game if you put a “*” at the beginning of it inside the box.

4) Save and close the window.

2b. Move Stuff Around

To move stuff around there’s no better place “ui.txt”. Keep in mind that it’s kind of pointless to move buttons and stuff around. But if you really want to - keep the following in mind. 1) The X value of stuff changes how left and right the object is. 2) The V value changes how high and low it is. 3) Read the ; tips to know what stuff is. 4) if their isn’t a ; tip then change the values, open the game and look around to see what it changed.

2c. Mod Star Ownership Colours

Want to make the star ownership colours bolder? Well look no further then the “colors.txt” file. In this file you can change a variety of things. You can change the colour of players and how transparent it is.

1) Open the file “colors.txt”

2) Look for:

o_r0 =

o_g0 =

o_b0 =

o_a0 =

There will be a bunch of them with different stuff after the r, g, b, and a. The number 0 (in this situation) dictates what player your changing it is. 0 is for white, 1 is for red, 2 is for green, 3 is for blue, 4 is for purple, and 5 is for yellow.

The letters stand for how much that colour has a one of the 3 primary colours. r stands for red, g stands for green, b stands for blue and a stands for transparency.

3) Change the value after the equal sine to change the colours. I suggest using a professional program or look online for tools to get the 3 numbers you need. It goes from 0 to 255. Adjust, restart the game and adjust again to get what you want.

4) Change the value of a to change the transparency of that player. 0 is highly transparent and 100 is barely transparent. Adjust, restart the game and adjust again to get what you want. I suggest 45.

5) Save and close the window.

2d. Change The Colours Of In-game Text

Change the speech text colour of people online and text colour on stars.

1) Open the file “colors.txt”

2) Look for:

r0 =

g0 =

b0 =

There will be a bunch of them with different stuff after the r, g, b. The number 0 (in this situation) dictates what player your changing it is. 0 is for white, 1 is for red, 2 is for green, 3 is for blue, 4 is for purple, and 5 is for yellow. The letters stand for how much that colour has a one of the 3 primary colours. r stands for red, g stands for green, b stands for blue.

3) Change the value after the equal sine to change the colours. I suggest using a professional program or look online for tools to get the 3 numbers you need. It goes from 0 to 255. Adjust, restart the game and adjust again to get what you want.

Btw when you see:

rgov = 125

ggov = 255

bgov = 255

The same modding rules apply BUT this is the light blue colour of the narration of the game.

4) Save and close the window.

3. Image Modding

3a. Basic Rules Of Modding Images

Here are some basic rules of image modding.

1) Always save in the same type as of image you modded. If it’s .jpg then it will only work as the same name. ex thafilename.jpg.

2) You will have to use something better the MS paint to edit the .tga images.

3) Most images have a black and white counterpart. This is so that the game knows what is and what isn’t transparent. The black is the transparent part. If an image have a part to it where it goes slowly from black to white that’s where in the image that it’s half transparent. An example of this is the border of the arrows in the image arrowa.tga.

4) Some images work as a template for a pattern. For example the image X1.tga works as the back of the main menu. If you put something wrongly over that box pattern you can get some crazy ugly results.

5) Try to stay to a theme when changing images. Also it’s a good idea to stay to the same light blue colour in a theme because some of the in-game text colour can’t be changed and the 2 bars in the lobby screen are editable but not an image.

3b. Overview Of Images

Coming Soon!

3c. Unused Images

For some reason there are unused images in pax. They are as fallow on windows:

e3.bmp, e5.bmp, shot2.gif, dfg.jpg, gcm.jpg, gt.jpg, shot1.jpg, shot3.jpg, shot4.jpg, shot5.jpg and icomac.png.

Do not mod these images. They aren’t even used in the game. Why mod them? There may be more unused images not on this list so make sure that your not image fabricating for nothing.

4. Everything Else In Modding

Remember anytime you see a “;” in a txt file the stuff after word is something by Dio on what the next stuff dose. All of the stuff is pretty strait forward to edit, and is mostly stuff like adding new tips.(help_ui.txt) The only thing is some times there is no tips. If so, then experiment and start the game to see what you changed.