Kryo, Boogie, anyone else at Art dept...
As i'm now deep into creating the entire X-Worlds (for DA only) fleet(s) of ships, there are a few 'questions' i might have about such things if you don't mind.
Note that i will make extensive use of some jewels (btw, many thanks to GenPants for his wonderful mods about these, and you for KHSM), and i will certainly need to maintain an optimal set of "addons" to create anything near what i intend to have. Sooooo...
1-- GC2Types.xml file has a Quad-Antennae model (SDSBonus1Structure1) which isn't available unless i could find it in a Gpants mod. There are five more too! Where are these other X models? (Graviton Pulley - sounds like fun)
2-- Is is true that the Survey-Colony-Miner-Freighter-Constructor (etc) default general ships **must** be listed as is in a custom style xml file? Or would it make more sense to simply revert whatever new values through proper editing of a special GC2Ships.xml? Mod wise, that is.
3-- I know you will probably swear by the Adobe StudioMax 3d programs for external design stuff, but that's for in-house SD developping staff. JoeSchmoes like me, simply can't afford such professional graphic tools. Comes, Blender & other solutions. Trick is, Compatibility issues with HarPoints, Texturing & UV Mapping elements. Any recommendations?
4-- I'm planning to have (or build everything from scratch, if anything!) a rather simplistic set of primary small models (with Hull & Trim coloring schemas, individually) to fill in some creativity gaps in the current pool of structures. Think of it as the "Block-Cube-Hull_6" extensions of more complex elements to work with. Lotsa design time right there. For shipyarders' freedom purpose, only. Refer to (3) above.
5- Is there a natural breakout memory limit on structural amounts that a ship can have without becoming too laggy in gameplay?
6- Can a Huge class be somehow retrofitted to show up as Medium size in the UI? The scaling factors between Tiny-..-Huge are too 'sharp' to my taste. I wished there would be a way to control these gaps as relative custom calibrations by choice... please.
7- The ShipYard could use a precision overall for Tilt/Yaw "balls" and structure resizing bars - so that we could, at least, get some editable Numeric fields for each. Try to symmetrically adapt two fat wings on an otherwise slim hull and you'll have a_heck_of_a_time trying to stick a tiny white arrow on any given cusp.
8- The ONE-Sticky hardpoint selection from the element in focus -- to the shown_built model is a wreck-neck-pain. Example; the Cylinder Ball has a SINGLE harpoint to drop it on the intended hull location. We can't place that structure using a middle section reference tag only. What could be missing is a multiple set of default attachment points that we would be able to focus on individually -- on many or all available structures.
9-- Red... plus, Green, Blue, Yellow HardPoints???
That's it for now.
You should see the currently developping X-Com FlagShip, it's gonna get really wild - once i'm through this whole project!!
Bryce 5.5 does a fair job at animating from camera perspective paths but it's slow as hell; that one's free from DazStudio.
There are also a number of other 3d "animators" that would fit that task as long as your meshes (grey on black background for techs) wouldn't get any textures or materials on it while you activate the 360o panoramic routine with whatever autocycling & recording options the prog allows you to use; Googgle is your friend, i suppose!
PS; I too, make extensive use of GenPants wonderful work on Jewels for the X-Worlds fleets plus a few of my own just for kicks!
Sorry? Did you mean to say it should work?
I agree, the only thing I can think of right now is that I may have some of the directories screwed up...but I don't think so.
Oh well.
Thanks Sole.
Sorry, please disregard my last post
It works fine for me, but if you should encounter trouble, open the shipconfig.xml, go to the bottom but BEFORE all the wired styuff @ the very end, and type in the following for each component you want to use:
<Structure Name="(Put whatever you want the internal name to be in here. Must be different for each structure!">
<DisplayName>This is what you want the structure to be called</DisplayName>
<Model>VERY IMPORTANT!! Copy and paste what is in this field on the mod EXACTLY into here!</Model>
<Thumbnail>This can be named anything, as the program will automatically create a thumbnail.</Thumbnail>
<Category>Structure</Category>
<Description>Put whatever you want in here.</Description>
</Structure>
Hi Scoutdog, thanks for the help. Can you tell me what these changes will do?
This is the directory where I have the mod located
c:\ProgramFiles\Stardock\Totalgaming\GalCiv2\Twilight\Mods\default
Within that directory I have the GC2Types.xml mod by itself.
I'll try what you suggest, but I feel I may have done something wrong either on the initial installation of Twilight of Arnor, or when moving the mods to other directories.
Thanks for any help.
The <Description> and <DisplayName> fields are purely cosmetic, but the StructureName field is a bit odd. It sometimes does not show up in the game if you put various things in there. To be on the safe side, just put in some randon letters followed by a number in the 900's. (No spaces, I think.) Also, make sure the model name is the same as the one in the original xml. Otherwise, you look good.
Scoutdog, thanks for the help, I need a little bit more. For some reason I cannot find the 'shipconfig.xml' file. Any thoughts?
GC2Ships.xml is possibly the file you're looking for... i find that 'new' Structures when treated as components with prefix S99_xxx.X are much easier to insert for global accessibility to all Races at runtime, though. Customized ships needs only two files, AFAIK...*.shpcfg & *.xml unless you require the templates for AIs when creating Fleet Styles from scratch.
Indirectly the corresponding mod folder(s) can contain any configs & xmls & templates for individual ships instead of concatenating the entire sets into the above GC2Ships as general listing.
1) -- The starting ColonyShip (default and without the added components since i guess it's built from a pre-defined template, too) stays into the design list which isn't my intention at all. That one uses the proper hull configuration but it isn't a named H-Colony with its two IonDrives aboard. Something to look into, If you can give a hint, pleaaaaase? 2) -- Shouldn't it be possible to have ship templates that keep their components as pre-defined and be present as such in the eventual styles. Cuz, it looks like the _t suffixes is the trigger that rips them apart for AI use. Again, to maintain gameplay conditions as intended, my AI should or MUST have access to a entire set of pre-configured ships as templates but buildable starting with the already designed elements.
Soooo... Kryo, CariElf? Shouldn't anybody at SD really have some important comments or clear answers on the above simple TWO issues only?
Maybe i haven't explained myself clearly, hard to say;
3) -- Any of my Core ships *cannot* be upgraded by means of a Shipyard redesign process for such simple things as putting a new Engine on and resaving it... two results i got so far in this situation; A popup stating i can't upgrade Core Ships and secondly, Invisible ships if given new names.
I'm putting X-Worlds 06-A release on hold until i know some of the facts at least, please.
Thanks for the help, but you totally lost me on the prefix stuff. I'm not good with modding files at all! Is there a way you can give me a basic walkthrough?
I would like to enjoy some new 'jewel' mods but I'm having trouble understanding what order to do things in. I don't know the difference from the GC2ships.xml or the GC2Types.xml.
The GC2Types.xml is the mod I recently downloaded and it is saved in this directory
Thanks for your time, I appreciate the help.
Walkthrough? Take it all and more from an *Official source*... Carielf's mod guide which you can download from her flagged post above; https://forums.galciv2.com/118797!
or even, within this excellent reference package deal by our good friend, Macmatt; https://forums.galciv2.com/151102
S0 prefix is for Terran ships, S1, etc.
S99 are supplemental 'bonus' structures which are constantly available in the Shipyard to all Races when you play any as the regular human player.
GeneralPants Light jewels mod (or most other ones from the many!) has a good readme file that explains everything quite clearly, IIRC; Place files in a unique_dedicated_single MOD folder, only.
First things first.
Beautiful, thanks for that!
I'm bumping this (again) for some answers to reply #34, above.
Who knows - maybe i'll finally get lucky.
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