Species Mods

--When looking at a Species mod, you will need your .species file to look something like this:
{
  "kind" : "elf",
  "playerSpecies" : true,
  "nameGen" : [ "/species/elfnamegen.config:names", "/species/elfnamegen.config:names" ],
  "ouchNoises" : [ "/sfx/humanoid/humanhurt_male2.wav", "/sfx/humanoid/humanhurt_female3.wav" ],
....etc
The big change is the "playerSpecies" : true, which allows your species to be assigned a button. as you may notice, this has changed from manually assigning an index number. If you look, the vanilla species still have this number. what that does is guarantee they are assigned a specific button. So with index : 0. they are assigned button 1, and index : 1, button 2 and so on. "playerSpecies" : true, just assigns the next open button, which is a huge improvement for these mods.

--The player.config should look something like this:
{
  "__merge" : [],

  "species" : [ "elf" ]
}
where elf is your species name.

--The universe_server.config should look like so:
{
  "__merge" : [],

  "speciesShips" : {
    "elf" : "/ships/elf/dropship.structure"
  }
}
replacing the elf with your species and file with yours.

--The quests.config should look like so

{
  "__merge" : [],
  "initialquests" : {
    "elf" : [ "elftutorial.gearup" ]
  }
}

--The codex.config like this:

{
  "__merge" : [],

  "initialcodex" :
  {
  "elf" : [ "controls", "elfprologue", "elforigins", "elfambition" ]
  }
}

When creating your mod though, you might have to deal with the charcreation.config. You might not. here are some options:

1) create your own. Doing something like this:
{
  "__merge" : [],
  "paneLayout" : {
    "species" : {
      "buttons" : [
        {
          "image" : "",
          "position" : [208, 0]
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}
this will merge your custom button into the game, and give your species a place to sit. this can be nice if your user only wants to use this one mod, and has no worry about conflicting button placements. As you can see, there is no id number, which is no longer necessary.

2) do not include this file, in the hopes that your user will have a UI extension mod like mine, which includes new buttons. This can work, and is very similar to the next option

3) Contact Xander Kau on the official mod forums, and endorse my mod. I will link yours, and you link mine. This is to make sure the user has easy access to a UI extension, and can easily use your species mod. My mod is the Simple Extended Character Creation Mod. You may want to include a dependency for my mod, under charactercreationmod, so that your mod does not activate without a proper button to assign the race to.