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DevnullMod for Space Empires V
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Background:
===========

This mod is intended to make a somewhat faster-paced, though still epic-scale 
game of Space Empires V while addressing some of the balance issues that I have
found in the weapons, facilities, and the tech tree.  Through the use of the
principles of miniaturization (i.e. the higher the tech level, the smaller the
component/facility) and durability (the higher the tech level, the stronger
the component/facility), and balancing, this mod attempts to introduce a new
feel to the game and give a somewhat faster pace to the timing.  Research starts
out a little slower, but has a much higher potential to build up, usage of minerals, 
organics, and radioactives is somewhat reduced in many areas and much more balanced 
in general (i.e. most things don't just use minerals any more, but a more balanced
mix of resources).

DevnullMod is NOT a direct port of DevnullMod for Space Empires IV, but there 
are a few of the same guiding principles.  The changelist is just as large, though
and I've personally lost track of where the mods have diverged.  Suffice it to say, 
DevnullMod for SEV is a new mod that gives a nod to the previous mod, but is really
a new and standalone mod.

This mod was built from a base of Captain Kwok's Balance Mod, V 1.09 and if many
of the files look familiar, that's why.  I have found Captain Kwok's work to be
invaluable and a vast improvement over stock SEV (for many reasons which I won't
bother going into here) and thus it was the best choice for a base to start from
for DevnullMod.  I have also included the readme.txt for the Balance Mod in order
to give the reader a better idea of the changes from stock that the Balance Mod
introduced.

A full list of changes for DevnullMod is in the history.txt file.

To use the mod:
===============

1.  Extract the contents of .zip file to the GameType folder
2.  If you downloaded DevnullMod-Basic, make sure you have all the appropriate Multimedia packs installed.  If you get lots of 
    errors when trying to run the game about missing files, it is because you do not have the multimedia pack installed.  Either
    download them or get DevnullMod-Full and reinstall.  See the Notes on the Multimedia Pack below for more details.
3.  When starting a new game, select "DevnullMod" to use the mod


Website and Contact Info
========================

DevnullMod author:
	Lee "devnullicus" Wilson
	(devnull at devnullsoftware.com)

Latest version of the mod can always be found at:
	http://www.devnullsoftware.com/se5


Attributions:
=============
-This mod was originally based on Captain Kwok's Balance Mod (http://www.captainkwok.net/balancemod.php) and though it
 has diverged a great deal, I would still like to thank Captain Kwok for his dedication and outstanding work in providing
 a base mod that most modders (including myself) have chosen to use instead of stock...for obvious reasons.
-This mod uses Fyron's Quadrant Mod 14, an excellent visual improvement for SE5.
-This mod uses a number of the multimedia packs from http://mm.spaceempires.net/index.php.  See Note below
 for details.  Also see SE5MultimediaPackLicense.txt for licensing details on usage
-This mod uses Dvoongar's Doctrines for better fleet and task force strategies
 (see http://www.spaceempires.net/home/ftopict-3301.html)
-All of the above have ReadMe's, History, and License Files included here.  See the appropriate files for details.


Some Notes on the Multimedia Pack
=================================
-This mod uses a number of the multimedia packs from http://mm.spaceempires.net/index.php.  There are two versions
 of DevnullMod - Full and Basic.  The Basic version does not include any files from the Multimedia Pack and if
 you downloaded the Basic Mod, you'll need to get and install the following mod packs into your SE5 folder:
 --Effects4
 --Models3
 --Planets3
 --PlanetSurface1
 --Systems1
-If you downloaded the Full version of DevnullMod, the above mod-packs are already included.  HOWEVER, since they
 are in the mod's folder hierarchy, they will override any versions in your regular SE5 folders.  If you downloaded
 the full version of DevnullMod and would rather use your own versions (or more likely, later versions) of the
 mod-packs, you'll need to download the appropriate mod-packs, install them in your SE5 folders and then delete
 the following folders/files from your DevnullMod directory:
 --DevnullMod\Pictures\Effects
 --DevnullMod\Pictures\Models\FQM
 --DevnullMod\Pictures\Models\GPT
 --DevnullMod\Pictures\Models\Lacota
 --DevnullMod\Pictures\Planets
 --DevnullMod\Pictures\PlanetSurface
 --DevnullMod\Pictures\Systems
-Be CAREFUL NOT to delete the files in DevnullMod\Pictures\Models as they ARE necessary for the mod to run and
 are not part of the multimedia pack.


Notes on Custom Race Sets
=========================
-I've made stub directories for a number of custom shipsets that are commonly used on PBW and elsewhere.  These
 stub directories contain only the minimum necessary files to make the shipset work with DevnullMod and they
 are NOT set up to work by default because if you do not already have the full shipset, this would cause the
 game to crash (*sigh*).
-Using custom shipsets without using DevnullMod AI files will severely gimp the race as standard AI scripts
 don't work well with DevnullMod because of all the changes to the tech tree, etc.
-To get a custom shipset that I've put together a stub directory for to work with DevnullMod, you'll need to do
 the following steps:
 1. Download the custom shipset.  PBW is a great place to get these from.
 2. Copy the appropriate directory 
    from DevnullMod\Empires\CustomEmpiresWithDevnullModAI\[RACE_NAME]
    to DevnullMod\Empires\[RACE_NAME]
-If you wish to set up a stub directory for DevnullMod for a race that I have not included a directory for, you'll
 need to simply create a directory of the same name as your race in the DevnullMod\Empires folder and then copy
 the DevnullMod\Empires\Default\default_main_script.csf and DevnullMod\Empires\Default\default_setup_script.csf
 to your new directory.  Then simply rename them to the appropriate names [e.g. [RACE_NAME]_main_script.csf, etc].
-The following Custom Shipsets have stub directories included with DevnullMod:
 --Cardassian
 --Colonial
 --Dominion
 --FedTNG
 --Ferengi
 --Hierarchy
 --Hiigaran
 --IA
 --Imperial
 --Klingon
 --RDMCylon
 --Romulan
 --Shadows
 --Tholian