To Starlost & LogicSequence

I've had a crack at modding Galciv2 with some success (for a novice) but wot i'm really looking for is a way to get into creating the ship models, skins etc. I found the lightwave website and had a look around, but I have no idea where to start or what to do.?

Can you recommend any sites that can help a beginner, with limited knowledge, to get into this sort of thing. I'd really like to be able to bring ship mods to Galciv2 without having to plead others to do it for me (and expand my brain a bit).

To Starlost & LogicSequence I've had a crack at modding Galciv2 with some success (for a novice) but wot i'm really looking for is a way to get into creating the ship models, skins etc. I found the lightwave website and had a look around, but I have no idea where to start or what to do.? Can you recommend any sites that can help a beginner, with limited knowledge, to get into this sort of thing. I'd really like to be able to bring ship mods to Galciv2 without having to plead others to do it for me (and expand my brain a bit).

well for starters Lightwave is A. not free, it's very expensive, certainly not something u want to buy to play around modding with. and B. Lightwave wasn't what the stardock guys used to make GC2 ships, it just so happens that you CAN USE lightwave to do it as well. Lightwave has a pretty hard learning curve, so if you're just starting out, i'd try something simpler, and more... free. Light the 30 day trial of 3D MAX, or perhaps Milkshape 3D. The latter of which is available for free, the MAX version is a 30 day trial. But the important thing is you need a .X file export plugin for these programs, so you can turn your model into something the game can read.

Now if you're new to modeling completely, it's a pretty tall order, so u'll have to start out with some tutorials and figure out exactly how modeling in 3D works. you can get some 3D MAX tutorials here: Link. If you still want to try Lightwave and somehow get a copy, you can get some tutorials from the Lightwave Group: Link. basically you can just google for tutorials on whatever 3d program you end up with.

Skinning and texturing is all part of modeling, there's no use me going into all of it b/c i would be writing a tutorial and there are pleanty out there you'll be able to find. It's just gonna take some learning if you've never used 3d modeling programs be4.

Best of Luck to ya! hope this helped

to LogicSequence,

thanks for the advice. It appears my bro has a copy of 3D max knocking about so I guess I'll start there

I think this has already been said somewhere, but it would be nice to have the tech tree screen be able to draw two techs leading to one tech nicely, because in function it works fine, but on the tech tree screen both required techs each lead to the tech they're both needed for individually.
Obviously not an essential thing though, and I see it could be quite complex if you had a lot of techs crossing over each other.

Also, is there any way to disable tech stealing either in the game or via modding of some kind?
And if there isn't, would setting espionage to a substantial negative modifier have any effect? Forgive me if this question has been asked before, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

I would make a new post, but the forum seems to be grumpy and won't let me make a new post.

o.k. some one kinda asked this allready, but here goes. i would like to create new ship hulls for the game and im unsure how to do it. im a lightwave user (version 8). i made a basic model, exported it to .x with a third party exporter, for an initial experiment i copied the s0_tiny model with its texture map to the mod folder, then i just replace the .x file with the one i created, then hmmm nothing it not work the ship is on the list but no model no nothing. i guess im doing something wrong but not know what. how do the texture maps work? i got 3 png files 1 tex, 1 bump, and 1 luminosity. does the exporter convert them too? and what is the .dds file i got no idea on that. my ultimate goal is to add the the current ship hulls not replace exsisting ones but dunno how to do that lol. any help or tips or web addresses with guides?