Custom Empires should be stored in each Mod Playset

[HFY]

Right now, mod playsets are occasionally useful, but they could be even better!

Current State:
- If you have a mod which provides a shipset, and your custom empire uses that shipset, then switching to a different playset (which lacks the shipset) will crash your game if you try to edit the custom empire.
- If you have a mod which provides origins, traits, different planet types, and so on, and your custom empire uses those options, then switching to a different playset (which lacks the mods) can permanently damage your custom empires when you switch back. You may need to manually reconfigure each custom empire to restore the previous content.
- If I start a game with no mods (e.g. to test a bug), most of my custom empires get trashed. This means I am reluctant to test bugs, and report fewer bugs than I experience. This is bad for both you as a company and me as a player.

Even Better state:
+ Your custom empires with custom shipsets won't even appear if you start the game with a different modset. You will never crash to desktop by editing an empire which isn't in the empire list.
+ Your custom empires with custom traits / planet types / origins / etc. will not be damaged by being loaded into a different modset which lacks that trait / planet type / origin / etc., and will be whole and undamaged when you switch back to the modset for which they were created.
+ When I make a new empty modset and start a game with no mods installed (e.g. to test a bug), the game does not trash my custom empires.


Implementation thoughts:
• Store custom empires in a namespace unique to each modset.
• Handle modset renaming gracefully.
• Back up modsets and custom empires in the cloud, like save games, to be shared between machines which share an account, just as Steam mod subscriptions and saved games are shared between machines on the same account.


EDIT: There's another benefit, which is that when you make a modset for a specific type of RP -- perhaps a total conversion to a popular franchise, or a different species palette (e.g. "space fantasy") -- the custom empires you create for that RP will not be polluted by your regular custom empires, and will not pollute your games with different RP preferences.

Tight coupling between custom empire set and modset seems like it will open up a lot of convenience, with no particular downside.

 

[GOLANX]

I still say there should be a checkbox to Override in the select an empire screen, it's not often but sometimes when you switch between mod, or the mod developer goes on vacation and you might convert the mod dependent empire to a new set.

 

[fourteenfour]

Considering the simple method they use to store custom empires, a text file named user_empire_designs.txt, I would think the better effort would be to insure the game does not crash when mods are missing, perhaps change the icon to red on the empire and on mouse fly over reveal that needed mods may be missing.

That would require it to interrogate the user empire file upon load but its a simpler solution than trying to maintain separate copies per mod set.

 

[HFY]

Considering the simple method they use to store custom empires, a text file named user_empire_designs.txt, I would think the better effort would be to insure the game does not crash when mods are missing, perhaps change the icon to red on the empire and on mouse fly over reveal that needed mods may be missing.

That would require it to interrogate the user empire file upon load but its a simpler solution than trying to maintain separate copies per mod set.

Remember that one key concern is being able to run a non-modded game without trashing my mod-specific custom empires.

I want to be able to quickly drop into a no-mods debug game, and then return to playing with mods.

This should be painless. It is currently very much NOT painless.