Modding is working now, thanks for the good info

[heemdream]

I must be drawn to games with a limited fan base (I run a website for Sierra's Baseball Pro 98 http://heemdream.net

I had space empires some time back and lost it in a HD crash. I had been playing space trader for handhelds and was looking for an improvement and found this game, I like it, the mods made it even more interesting.

After butchering a couple of campaigns, 8 bit sound files I added kept crashing the game, among other things. I finally figured out how the game files relate.

I was able to put a few ships from TPM (thanks to the tutorial) in the default campaign to start off. I have the falcon as a startup ship option, functioning similiar to ST Defiant (I have found several defiant x files on the web but they are too complex, or I just don't know how to add them)

It is a "tough little ship" with a lot of base strength to offset the limited tonnage I set for it so it would not be invincible.

It even has rapid fire "phaser cannons" that I have modded into the game. I kept the damage rate down and the range short because I kept destroying pirates quickly in my "shake down" tests.

Because I like to merge ideas, what I want to do is create a new category in the components field to behave like the "mercenary" field in Space Trader. Techincally, the person would be a component.

Without going overboard, I was thinking basic space trader "specialists"
Engineer-bonus for engines, and energy
Pilot-bonus for turn rate, acceleration
Doctor-Crew Regeneration, preventing death

Even a few aliens scattered about with a bonus ability that could be added, like one who could protect crew from psychic attack but who is a rare commodity.

Since this "person" would be a component, I know we can limit there availablity but is there anyway to limit, or randomize their ability level increase since the components do increase with the passage of time.

Or is this just a waste of time, since the available components do the job anyway?

Sorry for the long first post, and thank you in advanced for the responses.