------------------------------------
Strange Adventures in Infinite Space
              v1.3
        Modification Guide
------------------------------------

Created by Digital Eel - http://www.digital-eel.com/
Distributed by Cheapass Games - http://www.cheapass.com/

Official Website: http://www.digital-eel.com/sais/

Read manual.txt for general information about the game.

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            Introduction
------------------------------------

The latest version of SAIS (full version only) allows 
the user to create and use modifications, or "mods"
which can change various parts of the game. For example,
you can add new weapons and other items or modify 
existing ones. 

This guide contains basic instructions for installing, 
creating and distributing mods. If you intend to use
these features, you should read it carefully. In
particular, if you want to create mods you should
learn which files to distribute and how. 

Note that creating mods requires basic knowledge of the
operating system. In particular, you should be familiar
with creating and manipulating files and folders. Using
the MS-DOS command prompt is also necessary for some 
more advanced tasks.

Also, for modifying .ini files you will need a text 
editor (luckily Windows Notepad works just fine), and
if you want to create graphics you will need to have
an image editing program that can load and save Targa
(.tga) files. PaintShop Pro and Adobe Photoshop are
perhaps the most common. An image browser such as
ACDSee can also be helpful for looking through the
original SAIS graphics.

If you accidentally overwrite original SAIS files,
you'll need to reinstall the game. So be careful with
these things, and don't lose the CD!

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         Installing a Mod
------------------------------------

Typically (if the mod author follows our instructions),
a mod will be distributed as a .zip file that contains
all the necessary files in their appropriate folders.
Winzip is a good program for unzipping these files, and
you can download it for free at http://www.winzip.com/

In order to install a mod, open the .zip file in Winzip.
Click the "Extract" button, and browse to the "mods"
folder under your main SAIS folder. For example:
C:/Program Files/Strange Adventures in Infinite Space/mods
Make sure that "Use folder names" is checked and click
"Extract". If the zip file was properly made, this will
create a new folder for the mod and place all the files
in the right subfolders under it.

All you need to do in order to play a mod is to click
the "MODS" button in the start menu, select the mod from
the list and click "RUN MOD". From then on, the mod will
be active until you exit the game.

Note that while version 1.3 should be more stable when
using mods than earlier versions, bugs in a mod may 
still cause the game to be unstable. You might experience
occasional crashes when playing mods. In any case, we 
obviously can't test every mod that people put out on 
the net, so you use these features at your own risk. 

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          Creating a Mod
------------------------------------

Making a mod of your own can mean anything from changing
the firing rate of a weapon to replacing all the graphics
in the game, so we can't really cover everything here or
provide full support to everybody who wants to play with
this stuff. Basically, you're encouraged to experiment
and tweak stuff on your own. This part of the guide will
simply give you the simplest instructions on how to set
up the mod folders, how to modify files and so on.

Let's create an example mod called "turbolaser" that will 
simply modify one of the weapons in the game. It should
be enough to demonstrate how these things work. You can 
also study the two example mods that come with SAIS 1.2 
and see how they work.

Mod Folder Setup
----------------
Creation of a mod starts with making a new folder under
mods/ . The name of this folder will be the name of your
mod in the ingame browser. In this case, we'll make a 
folder "Strange Adventures in Infinite Space/mods/turbo".

As the mod will change some of the game data, we need
to also make a folder "mods/turbo/gamedata". As you might
have noticed, there's a "gamedata" folder in your main
SAIS install folder already. This is where the original
data files are located, and will be referred to as "main
gamedata folder". The gamedata folder of your MOD will 
contain all the data files that have CHANGED. Similarly,
if we wanted to change sounds or graphics, we would 
create new folders for them in the same way.

Editing INI Files
-----------------
Since we know we'll only need to change some weapon 
stats, we just need one of the .ini files, namely 
weapons.ini. COPY this file from the main gamedata to 
your mod's gamedata. Now we can edit the new copy of 
the file without touching (and possibly screwing up) 
the original game data.

Open the .ini file in any text editor. The regular 
Windows Notepad will do fine. You'll see a lot of
cryptic words and numbers that determine how each 
weapon operates. The one we're about to change happens
to be the first one in the file; Laser Beam.

The numbers we're interested are the firing rate (RATE) 
and damage (DAMG). We want to make it fire faster, but
do less damage to balance it out. You'll notice that
the default RATE is 7. This means it takes 0.7 seconds
to fire the weapon. Change this number to 3, and the
weapon will fire over twice as fast. Then change the
DAMG to 2, so it'll only make half the damage per each
shot. Save the file, and your first mod is done!

At this point, you can try it out in the game. After
you activate the mod, go to the combat simulator and
choose ships that have laser beams. You'll notice that
the weapon now shoots another beam before the previous
one has faded away. If you want to prevent this, go back
to the .ini file and change the SPED parameter of the
Laser Beam to 2. This determines how long the beam is 
displayed. In this case the beam will be visible for 0.2
seconds. (If you modify other than beam weapons, the 
SPED line determines how fast the projectile or missile 
moves.)

Modifying other .ini files will change various other 
parts of the game, such as items and starships. 

Editing Sprite Graphics
-----------------------
Modifying graphics requires some more effort, as well
as the use of MS-DOS prompt. To illustrate this, we'll
change the turbolaser beam to a green color by
replacing the sprite.

We start by "unpacking" all the weapon sprites. This
is done in the main SAIS graphics folder. Launch the
command prompt and go to that folder. For example:

>C:
>cd \Program Files
>cd Strange Adventures in Infinite Space\graphics

Now we'll run the sprite unpacker:

>..\unpakspr weapons.spr

This will create a new folder under the main SAIS
graphics folder, called "weapons". This folder will
be filled with TGA images you can use as a reference
so you'll know what the sprites look like. Go ahead
and look at the images. If you have extra disk space
(who doesn't these days?), you can even unpack every
sprite in the game just to look at them:

>..\unpakspr *.spr

This will create a whole lot of folders with all the 
game's graphics in them.

Anyway, back to the laser. Looking through the weapon
sprites (or by looking at the SPRI parameter in the
weapons.ini file) you'll find that the laser uses the
image named "weapons/frame000.tga". 

Replacing this sprite in your mod works the same way
as the .ini file. Create a graphics folder for your
mod: mods/turbo/graphics. Under that folder, make
a subfolder for weapons: mods/turbo/graphics/weapons.
Copy the original sprite (frame000.tga) into that 
folder and open the new copy in your favorite paint 
program for editing. Without changing its palette, 
color it green and save. If you're in a hurry or 
otherwise lazy, you could just copy the original 
frame002.tga and rename it to frame000.tga - it's green.

Once this file is in place, run the game again and
activate the mod. The lasers will now all be displayed
using the new sprite.

Note that you can also add new sprites. For example, 
you could add "frame019.tga" to the weapons (the last
one in the original game is frame018) and change the
SPRI parameter in weapons.ini to "weapons 19". This
allows creation of entirely new weapon effects.

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         Distributing a Mod
------------------------------------

Before you distribute your mod, there are a few things
you should do. This is very important, so follow closely.

DELETE the mod's settings.dat and scores.dat that may
have been created while you tested it. This way the
people who download it will keep their own settings
when they play the mod.

MAKE SURE that there are no files included that you
haven't changed. For example, if you haven't modified
hulls.ini, don't put it in your mod. The turbolaser
mod we just built only requires two files. Everything
else will be loaded automatically from the original
game folders. Including unchanged files would only
add unnecessary size to the mod, as well as give people
who haven't paid for the game access to its art or data.

You should also attach a short text file that describes
the mod and includes your email address.

Assuming you have WinZip installed, you can create a 
distribution package of your mod simply by going into
the SAIS mods/ folder in Explorer, right-clicking on 
your own mod folder (e.g. "turbo") and selecting 
"add to turbo.zip" in the menu that pops up. This will
automatically create a zip file with your mod files and
subfolders.

If you're using some other program to zip your mod, just
make sure you include all the subfolders in such a way that
the mod can simply be unzipped to the SAIS mods folder, for
the users' convenience.

SAIS mods may only be distributed on a non-commercial basis
over the internet and other electronic formats. Magazine
cover CD's are allowed as they're considered "free extras".
We may also include SAIS mods, given the author's 
permission, in the free extras section of future releases
of SAIS CD-ROM or the official SAIS website. Original SAIS 
files may not be distributed in any way.

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Copyright 2001-2002 R. Carlson, I. Keranen and Phosphorous.
All rights reserved.

This software is provided "as-is," without any express or implied
warranty. In no event shall Cheapass Games or Rich Carlson, Iikka
Keranen and Bill Sears, collectively known as Digital Eel, be held
liable for any damages arising from the use of this software
