From SEWiki

Contents 1 Data Files 1.1 Game Settings 1.2 Empire Statistics and Racial Abilities 1.3 Map Generation / Space Objects 1.4 Research 1.5 Intelligence 1.6 Ships, Bases, Satellites, Troops, Units and Mines 1.7 Fleets and Formations 1.8 Combat 1.9 Graphic, Sounds and Effects 1.10 Flavor Text 1.11 Localization Files

Data Files

These Data Files contain all of the information used by Space Empires V. All of the files are plain text documents and easily readable in any plain text editor, such as Notepad. The files below are listed according to function or their associated game object.

Game Settings

Configuration files for the game environment of Space Empires V.

Filename	Description and Use
Settings.txt	Contain the settings for the game. There are a wide variety of options ranging from base sight values to simple UI tweaks.
DebugSettings.txt
Formulas.txt	Links the game to the formulas for Research Generation.
VictoryConditions.txt	The conditions for winning the game and their associated requirements.
ScoreWeighting.txt	Determines how much each Empire statistic counts when calculating the score.
HUDSettings.txt	Contains the UI settings for the Heads Up Dispay (HUD). This file actually only contains the locations of certain buttons and no other UI elements. All other UI settings are located in the Settings.txt file (see below).
MainFonts.txt	Contains the majority of the Font settings for the User Interface of the game. Many of the colors are not located here, however. These are located in Settings.txt (SEV)
HomeworldStartingFacilities.txt	Sets the facilities each Homeworld gets at the start of each game.

Empire Statistics and Racial Abilities

Empire Statistics are abilities and modifiers to specific game numbers. Most of these have abilities associated with them

Filename	Description and Use
GovernmentTypes.txt
RacialTraits.txt	The Racial Abilities (chosen at Empire Creation), their costs and abilities.
SocietyTypes.txt	Society Type Names, their associated modifiers and abilities.
Happiness.txt	Lists Happiness levels and their effects on loyalty.

Map Generation / Space Objects

These files contain the data for all objects associated with map generation. Additionally, these files also control the game aspects of these stellar objects.

Filename	Description and Use
QuadrantTypes.txt	Contains the information about Quadrants needed for map generation. This includes the generation method, which systems they allow, and the placement of warp points.
SystemTypes.txt	Map Generation file containing the different types of systems, how many stellar objects there are, what types they may be, and how they are positioned.
StellarObjectTypes.txt	The Game information associated with stellar objects. Stellar objects include stars, planets, nebulae, black holes, asteroid fields, and warp points.
StellarAbilityTypes.txt	Gives the abilities of the different stellar object types.
PlanetPhysicalTypes.txt	List of the Planet Types (Rock, Ice, or Gas Giant).
PlanetSize.txt	Sizes of the natural and constructed Planets and their statistics.
AtmosphereTypes.txt	The different types of Atmospheres a Planet can have.
WarpTransitTypes.txt	The different types of Atmospheres a Planet can have.

Research

Contained in these files are all of the technologies within the Technology Tree that an empire can research and the benefits they gain. Facilities and components are located here for several reasons:

1. They are managed by the Technology Tree
2. They contain configuration information relating directly to the Technology Tree
3. and a modder must know the Tech Tree in order to create effective facilities and components.

Filename	Description and Use
TechAreas.txt	This file contains the technology tree.
CulturalAchievements.txt	The effects gained by the Cultural Advancement part of the Technology Tree. When adding a Cultural Achievement, you must also create an entry in Tech Areas file.
EmpireGainedAbilities.txt
Facilities.txt	Contains all of the data for all facilities that can be created on a planet.
Components.txt	Contains all of the data for all of the components. This is probably the largest data file in the game.
ComponentEnhancements.txt	All of the data for Mounts.

Intelligence

This files are also tightly linked with Research. Since, however, Intelligence is such a strong aspect of the game, they have been listed separately.

Filename	Description and Use
IntelFocusAreas.txt	List of Intelligence Focus Areas and their descriptions.
IntelligenceAchievements.txt	Intelligence Achievements gained by researching the Intelligence Focus Areas on the Tech Tree.

Ships, Bases, Satellites, Troops, Units and Mines

Filename	Description and Use
VehicleSizes.txt	Lists the Ships, Bases, Troops, Units (Satellites and Mines). Includes their statistics and abilities. By default, every vehicle has a technology requirement and sometimes two or more.
VehicleUnitTypes.txt	Takes the Vehicles from VehicleSizes.txt that have the types Satellite, Fighter, Troop, or Mine and lists their capabilities and storage statistcs.
Strategies.txt
RepairPriorities.txt	Lists, in order, the priority in which component types are repaired on a vehicle.

Fleets and Formations

Fleets are groupings of Ships. While these files do not contain actual Fleet information (unlike the other types), they contain the strategies, formations, and tasks that can be assigned to a given fleet.

Filename	Description and Use
Formations_Fleet.txt	Determines how Ships are positioned in a Fleet.
Formations_TaskForces.txt

Combat

These file contain the information necessary during combat. This data includes Damage Types, Combat Strategies. , and even Combat Experience.

Filename	Description and Use
DamageTypes.txt	This file lists the types of damage a weapon can do. Damage Types determine how and which parts of an object is damaged in combat.
ShieldAndArmorLevels.txt	Lists, in order (from weakest to strongest), the armor and shield levels. This determines, largely, which protections a weapon must bypass when attacking an object with mulitple types of protection.
Strategies.txt	Lists and affects the behavior of Ship, Units or Troops.
ShipExperience.txt	Determines how Ships and Fleetsgain Experience. While most experience is gained for combat, this does include other methods of gaining experience as well.

Graphic, Sounds and Effects

These files are used exculsively for the graphical and sound effects in the game. While some of the other files link directly to 3-D models and 2-D images, these files are exclusively for these purposes.

Filename	Description and Use
BitmapEffects_GroundCombat.txt
BitmapEffects_GroundSectorView.txt
BitmapEffects_SpaceCombat.txt
BitmapEffects_SpaceSectorView.txt
BitmapEffects_StellarManipulations.txt
BitmapEffects_System.txt
Combat_Ground_Facility_XFileClasses.txt
Combat_Ground_Surface_XFileClasses.txt
Combat_XFile_Classes.txt
SoundEffects.txt
XFileClasses_Stellar.txt
Combat_Ground_Surface_Details.txt

Flavor Text

These files provide text and names for various in-game elements. They are essentially lists of name and types used either by the game or may be chosen by the players themselves for their colonies, ships, etc. They do not affect the interface or functionality of the game in any way.

Filename	Description and Use
AllianceNames.txt	This file contains all of the pre-supplied Names a player can choose when they create an alliance.
ColonyTypes.txt	This file contains the list of pre-supplied Colony Types a player may choose.
Demeanors.txt	This list of demeanors describes the general attitude of that empire. (chosen during Empire Creation)
DesignTypes.txt	The list of Design Types for ships, bases, troops and units. This is not to be confused with the ship types or ship names. This is simply so the game can filter for specific types of ships as the player designates their types.
RacePhysicalTypes.txt	List of Racial Physical Types. (chosen during Empite Creation)
RaceNames.txt	Pre-supplied names for the Race of the Empire. (chosen during Empire Creation)
EmperorNames.txt	Names for the emperor. (chosen during Empire Creation)
EmperorTitles.txt	A list of titles for the emperor. (chosen during Empire Creation)
EmpireNames.txt	A list of empire names that can both used by the computer for empire creation or may be chosen by the player for their own empire.
EmpireTypes.txt
EventText.txt	The text for various
IntelligenceText.txt	Contains the text displayed when an Intelligence success or failure occurs.
TreatyNames.txt	The pre-supplied list of names that can be chosen by the player when asking for a treaty.
SystemNames.txt	Used by the game to randomly select names for the systems in the game.

Localization Files

These files are provided to create localized versions of the game. If they turn out to be moddable (unlike in the English language version of Space Empires IV Deluxe), they could also be used for total conversion mods, for instance by replacing the three resource types with "ironium", "boranium", and "germanium"!

Filename	Description and Use
HelpText.txt	Contain the settings for the game. There are a wide variety of options ranging from base sight values to simple UI tweaks.
MainStrings.txt