Shipset designing, Tips, Tricks, and Issues

[Kana]

Basically this is another way to look at the info already posted by Shinigami...This was posted over at spaceempires.net forum...

If you wanted to know how to create a shipset using the current number of ships, I have that below. If you wanted to add new ship models / types to the existing shipsets, someone else will have to fill you in.

There are actually 2 items to do (possibly); copy/rename an existing empire and replace a ship or unit into the empire. I wrote a step-by-step for each; I know it may be a bit tedious, but I figured it was better than skipping something.

Fyron may have already put something together, but I never checked . Personally, I try to test between steps to ensure I didn't screw things up.

Copying an empire:
1. open the empire folder (for stock it is directly in the "spaceempires\SE5" folder), copy and rename a folder
2. rename all files in the folder to start with the new empire name (a mass-file changer like CKRename is useful here)
3. Open each .txt file and "find/replace all" for the old empire name into the new empire name
4. Replace 3 race pictures and flags as wanted.

Replacing a ship in an empire (not a unit, currently)
1. Create a ship that can be exported to .x
2. Export to .x
3. Delete the file you will replace, and (optional) the texture for that ship
4. Copy the new ship .x file and (optional) its texture to the empire folder
5. Rename the .x file to the name of the file you deleted
6. Open the .x file and "find" for the extension of your texture file (if need be - it may be in the top lines)
7. Make sure the texture file name in the .x file is only the file name, without any file path
8. Create an overhead view of the ship - 500x704 pixels is the maximum size. This is the inventory picture, so you may want to make it greyscale to match the stock ships.
9. Edit the picture [Empire_InvPortrait_Ship.jpg] (respective to the replaced ship and empire) to match your picture.
10. Create an overhead view of the ship - about 38x38 pixels max. This will replace the small picture seen in ship creation or construction, and is usually in color.
11. Edit the picture [Empire_Shipset.bmp] (respective to your empire) to match your respective ship. The ships are in a rough order of type and size; the sure-fire way to make the correct changes is to check in the game for the proper picture. The pictures from left to right are:
Row 1: Frigate, destroyer, light cruiser, cruiser, battleship, dreadnought, carrier, transport , colony
Row 2: Space Station, Star Base / Base ship, Drone, Fighter, Mine, Satellite, Troop, Weapon Platform
12. Make 2 3/4 views of the ship - 128x128 and 512x512; The standard is for the ship to be heading towards the lower-left corner of the picture. Edit the [Empire_portrait_ship.bmp](128x128) and [Empire_portrait_ship.jpg](512x512) as you did for the previous pictures.
13. Edit the inventory slots to match the inventory picture. I use SE5Slotmodder, which is usable but crashes when I quit.

Replacing a unit in an empire (mine, satellite, drone, weapon platform):
1. Create an overhead view of the unit - 128x128 pixels.
2. Replace the unit picture in [Empire]_Unit_Combat_Texture.bmp (respective to your empire) (the order of the pictures is below)
Troop----Fighter
Drone----Weapon Platform
3. Continue with the "ship" steps 8 through 13.

You're done! (Next ship or unit!)

dang! I forgot about those - I'm adding them last and will basically guess and check (open [empire]_Ships_XFileClasses.txt, move engine lights forward/back, check in-game... same for weapon points)

The abbidon have 3 engine lights, if you want multi-engine examples.

I've found that for engines/weapons it's just a matter of determining what coordinates they would be located at if you placed them as part of the mesh (IE if an engine would be at 0,-10.75, 2 on your model you would enter those coordinates into XFileClasses for the engines location) Should work regardless of what 3d editor your using as they all save relative to thier own coordinate system (which would be why the XFileClasses has the scale option in it)