A race defines the attributes of a player faction, most importantly the available set of ships. In solo levels, players are assigned a race directly. In net levels, players can choose a race.
Ships are made available according to the race’s name, as described in the documentation for initials’ base and build fields.
Maybe.
If your plugin adds a new race, you’ll obviously need to define it. If not, and your plugin just uses existing races, you don’t need to define any.
Races are in the races directory and have a .pn extension.
The recommended convention for races is to name them with a three-letter code related to their name. In the factory scenario, the ten defined races are:
A race is a procyon file with the following fields:
| Field | Req? | Type |
|---|---|---|
| numeric | yes | ignored |
| adjective | yes | string |
| plural | yes | string |
| military | yes | string |
| homeworld | yes | string |
| hue | yes | hue |
| not_hue | no | array of hues |
| advantage | yes | string |
A historical value, not used by Antares. Ares identified races by number (e.g. 100 for Ishimans and 200 for Cantharans), but Antares references races by name (e.g. ish for Ishimans and can for Cantharans).
Descriptive strings for a race. adjective is used when selecting a race in a net game. The other three strings are only informational, and not used anywhere in Antares.
Hues describing the color of a race’s ships.
hue is the main color of the ships. When selecting an alternate color in a net game, hue is the default choice, and ships won’t be recolored if they match the player.
When selecting an alternate color in a net game, not_hue lists other colors which shouldn’t be allowed because they are too similar to hue.
A number describing the relative strength of this race’s ships. In the factory scenario, the Gaitori are 1.0, the Cantharans are 2.0, and the Elejeetians are 3.0.