Evening all!
I posted some questions several months ago and got some very informative answers, so many thanks for that.
I was waiting to get a half decent PC before I downloaded the game and got stuck in to modding - and as I now have procured myself a good machine and downloaded the game, I'm ready to rock and roll!
I was wondering if any of the experienced modders here would find it an interesting challenge to make a comprehensive modding tutorial video for galciv 3? Basically to take us noobs through what you do to create a custom race in the XML step by step.
Though reading through the posts here and asking direct questions is very helpful, it's quite painstaking and there is so much jargon to trawl through - a tutorial video would be ideal.
A big ask I know, but if one of the old guard could put this together I know I, and probably many other galciv modding virgins, would be very much obliged to you.
Hope you can help
There's already a very detailed thread on how to make a race.
(Quick Edit: There is a race guide but it sucks, and the only good resource is this)
If someone starts an actual guide then I'll chip in. If there's a specifically aimed question I might be able. If someone does a video they've already done it so I'll cross my arms and pretend like I was a huge help invaluable to the process.
Anyway, for now I can't get my GC3 to stop that stupid infinite loading thing, so even when I feel productive I'll be catching up on making some starbases (guarantee Gauntlet will do that if I do ) but I enjoy helping out... If nobody else does anything then I'll give something a little more comprehensive, like a template with attached tutorials on what to do with them.
It gets easier though, whilst I'm not starting on a guide this minute I can promise you that fact. Just months ago I was asking where to even find the xml files, and recently I started experimenting with custom soundtracks for factions that already have tech trees and starbases.
I'll get back to you if I get time to do something, and nobody else steps up.
If you could give me the link I'd be greatful - but I have a feeling I know the one you're talking about, and though very detailed it contains quite a bit of jargon and assumes that the reader has at least some knowledge of coding/modding already.
Plus, I think a video would be much easier to follow for those without any modding experience.
I'm happy enough to learn the hard way but if you don't ask you don't get
I'm sure your arm-crossing expertise will be the backbone of the whole operation lol!
I'm sure it does get easier and thanks for the encouragement - I'm just being bone idle and looking for a quick fix if I'm being totally honest! The one thing stopping me from experimenting on my own is the fear of totally screwing the game up permanently. I suppose if I do that I can just uninstall/reinstall right?
Cheers for the offer to take this up if you can, like I said, i know it's a big ask
Very welcome! Every time I've modded or made games or music nobody's been there to help, so it's really difficult for me to just ignore people who want to go on that sort of path themselves.
I know this comment's sort of a waste of space, but it's worth mentioning that you can't mess up the game itself. The worst I've seen is an error message on startup that didn't impact the game caused by a faulty line in the Xitak tech tree. Orrrr maybe the fact that my Quarian faction did not work because I tried having a relic as a dead home planet...
The mods folder is read by the game if mods are enabled from the options, but unless you're making a total conversion the actual game files probably won't be opened in the entire modding process. I do like that compartmentalised style of GC3
I'm not sure if it would realistically be possible to make a "comprehensive guide to modding" simply because there is sooo much you could change in soo many areas, it's like asking for a "comprehensive guide to medicine". there are a handful of more narrowly focused ones like the race guide linked, naselus's recent one for ai modding & something ekse further back. I wrote a couple basic generalized ones during beta too
if you ever run into trouble trying to do things, your best bet is to just ask questions, we don't bite... much
Did my first mod last night! Increased allowable race trait points from 5 to 8 (I don't think 5 is enough to give each race a real individual flavour).
Fair point, now that I've been able to increase the available race trait points I suppose all I'm really looking for at the moment is help on creating custom ship sets - I've had a read of the threads on this and I'm going to have a crack at it but that's the one area that seems hugely complicated, and a video would be good to cut through the jargon. I was hoping Gauntlet wouldn't mind making a how to video the next time he creates one of his amazing custom races.
As a side question - is there a way of modding the available colour schemes available for ships? The base game seems to have only a limited selection.
One of the things with any complicated system is that it generates jargon. Learning that jargon is a necessary step in learning how to use the system. As Tetra says, we're perfectly happy to explain anything you ask us about... but yeah, making a comprehensive guide to modding is basically an enormous task, since there's a lot of different areas to play with and even as a group we haven't figured out how to do all of them yet - and you need to ask different people about different things, since we've all looked at different bits of the puzzle.
For example, Gauntlet knows a lot about ship sets and races - probably more than any of us. But he doesn't know much about AI modding, or what most of the stuff in globaldefs.xml does - you'd need to ask me about those, but I don't know a damn thing about event modding so you'd speak to either Tetra or Deathwynd about that, since that's what they've been prodding. Some areas just haven't been explored at all - few of us know a damn thing about map modding; we have vague understandings of things like map size, but when it comes to nebula shaping etc we can only guess at what the bit arrays mean.
Moreover, since many of us are still in the process of figuring out new things - for example, I've been looking at diplo for two weeks trying to get to the bottom of how it works - our time is yet more constrained. Writing it up in guides is better for this than trying to make videos, since we can write them as we go. It's akin to an academic discipline, complete with experimentation and technical terminology. You kinda need to meet us halfway - we're happy to help you out and answer questions, but you have to learn the basics of the jargon to understand our answers
Like Naselus said, all of us know parts of different things, for example... Gaultlet's race mod links to a guide to creating custom ship sets for custom factions. if you have specific questions, you have to ask them before anyone can say "oh it's xyyzz" or "umm... it looks like, I think xxyyzz"
Yea, a complete guide is futile, the game files and details will likely change continually as we get bigger and better features and such.
I might do a ship style tutorial video, but then I might lose my monopoly
Also I know ZERO about the AI, I leave that to the smart people like Naselus.
Well I don't want to do a complete guide, because it would take so much time, plus I've seen Xitak go a little unusable just because of how much the game has changed already.
However I could do a shipset tutorial! Might be able to fit in starbases, shipyards and so on WHILE STOCKS LAST
Maybe a small AI tutorial, but I haven't mastered it. I could maybe show how to make them nicer/worse to you, but don't expect an impossibly human commander who understands cultural starbases.
Also stuff like Planetdefs... I understand that side a small amount too. I could show you which art defines are good, which aren't, and how to place planets to get the effect you want (e.g. realistic orbits.)
Ok I surrender! Lol!
Thanks for the offers to help, I suppose I'm just looking for a place to even start atm. Thought I'd keep it simple and start with leader pics but I downloaded GIMP and cannot make heads nor tails of it. Then I thought I'd start with custom ship sets but that looks way to much like jumping in at the deep end!
Can I do the basics of each faction I want to create in-game and then mod them later, or is it better to mod custom factions from scratch?
GIMP is more simple than the alternatives, not sure how to help you there. You could make a copy of an existing portrait and work on it if you need the right resolution and something to work on.
Shipsets are actually fairly simple. You need a bit of patience to complete ships, but from there you can basically copy and paste ship names into an XML (warning: Not quite that easy, but close) and put it in the mod folder.
What I would do is create a faction in-game, get the colours and theme you want, then mod it from scratch to get a detailed and fine version closer to the 'main races' (such as Iridium and Terran)
Unfortunately, you cannot mod a custom faction made in-game. I discovered this after making all Mass Effect races with the in-game editor and then realising all the work was for nothing because I'd need to make them actual mod files. Basically decide from the beginning if you want to do it my way or Gauntlet's way.
Oh I just need to practice with it a little and maybe watch a couple of youtube tutorials - I have an unofficial aunt whose amazing with Photoshop so I may ask her advice. Do you know what resolution the main pics and leader thumbnails need to be? I know they need to be .PNG files - is that right?
Ahhh, so I can create a custom faction in the UI and then create a custom ship set in the XML independently? I've asked this on another thread so may as well confirm here as well! I don't have the vocabulary to ask this properly I'm sure but - is it the case that once you've designed your ships in the UI you can create a custom ship set in the XML which can then be applied to any faction (custom or otherwise) in-game?
Good idea. You'll get the hang of it quickly enough. All the tools are labelled and placed where you'd expect, I had no prior experience with anything more than Microsoft Paint and now I can make wallpapers and do manually done depth of field on photos. It shouldn't take too much time to learn stuff like Select by Colour that you might need for GC3 images.
PNG files, yep. The aspect ratio is what's important, but I can't remember them so I'd say to just do 1920x1080 for foregrounds and backgrounds, about 128x128 for logos and 532x532 for leader portraits.
Ships can only be made in-game. Shipsets can only be made in XML.
I'm just suggesting to try a game-made custom faction to test mod ideas first, because they're so much easier. If something doesn't look right, (for example the Bubblegum colour scheme either looks like magic or a child's toy depending on the sort of ship you want) then you can remember for doing the XML.
Once a shipset is done, a mod that shares the same folders will recognise it, and furthermore if the game picks that mod up it means it's all right. Basically shipsets will be selectable in-game as well as allocated to a mod race.
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