actually, i'm having the same issue of not having other races hulls in the 'other' subtab. i put the bat in galciv2/data and ran it there, and also put it in mods/data and ran it there. niether worked. the other comps are showing up fine, as well as the blank hull sizes. new game. even restored all the backup files before installing it. maybe i misread some nuance of your readme; i did just mention i'm dyslexic.

still, STOKED on no-art hardpoint extenders!

If you're using the 1.11 version, the batch file needs to be run in GalCiv2/Gfx/Models.

If you're using the 1.2 version, the batch file needs to be run in GalCiv2/Mods (not GC2/Data as the readme now says, sorry for the mistake).

Another minor update to last ngiht's update: The hardpoints on those new models are now oriented properly, so they all face topside-out, or away from the center point (instead of all facing the same direction).

wow! it just keeps getting better. i guess it was pretty easy to create those blank hull comps. i wonder what your feelings are/were about my ideas to renovate AI ship design & art, if you even had any.

again, that was to reconfigure the AI ships so there was only a couple available hard points, and add hardpoints to the functional comps so they stack - hopefully resulting is automatically designed ships that aren't so ugly. right now i need to focus on finding a new job, but after that i think i could start working on such a mod. my issue is that i'm in that grey area of technical savvy between hapless joe consumer and a power modder. but yeah, i guess the next step is to get a forum started for this.

...now if i could just get a copy of photoshop on my new computer, i could start making some alternate skins for the comps and planets (i'm so tired of every zero-PQ looking like jupiter, saturn, uranus, mars, "venus" or a big grey boulder). modding game scripts, i can learn to do. modding art, i really would love to do. too bad my last version of PS was an educational release (meaning i don't have the intallation disk). i wonder if it'd be possible to copy it directly from my old Win98 system to my new XP MCE computer... probably just easier to find someone with a copy.

anyway, sorry for clogging up your forum. you'd think i was an 80-year-old man, the way i ramble. update: downloaded the newer version for the corrected hard points, and ran your BAT file per your 1.2 instructions. it's working great! you weren't kidding about it taking a moment to load all those hulls in your ship designer.

I've no objection to redoing all the AI's base ship designs, but I don't really have the kind of time required for such an undertaking. Though really since the ship designs are independent of the components they are made of, you could just make models for the AI to use that have no external hardpoints, but do have several hidden inside so their piles of parts dont get scattered all over the ship.

Mini-update: Added a 'hardpoint cluster' item that consists of ten hardpoints in the same location, so you can place multiple offsets or real pieces from the same spot on the ship.

you could just make models for the AI to use that have no external hardpoints, but do have several hidden inside so their piles of parts dont get scattered all over the ship

i assume you mean doing that in the ship designer itself, right? the .shipcfg files don't have relevant hardpoint info i can discern. if you were thinking about using your hard point extender to sink all the hardpoints into the hull, that'd probably work for the most part. my only concern would be the difficulty of doing that for awkwardly shapen jewelry, small pieces and such. a "hard point cap" might be simpler and easier - just a no art comp with no additional hardpoints, which'd serve to clog up the existing hard points.

i could also use some confirmation on which ship designs the AI uses. i'm pretty sure they're located in data\ShipCfg, the files that are not named for the core designs, correct? all i'd need to do to for the AI to use one of my designs would be rename the custom art file, yeah? (that's assuming i don't use a base hull of a different style, unless i use it as jewelry using your mod... whew)

here's a thought. i read you talking about the ship style functionality due to sorting issues. from what i can discern, that feature is programmed mainly into the component files, raceconfig.xml and the prefix for the file names in info/shipcfg. i don't know if it'd cause a problem (crash) to rename a file designed in "0" (terran) as another style. but as long as i was playing a race with that style, i could use your hull mod for the hardpoint only hull to get around that.

getting to the point: do you think there'd be a problem in creating a mod to support 5 more ship styles? i'm not talking about base hulls per se, except your hardpoint-only bases, with only a style value appropriate for the new style values (if needed). style #5 is the dread lords hulls (i'm pretty sure) so maybe it'd only support 4 more styles. the idea is, even if we don't have 5 base hull styles, we can still have AI opponents each with unique-looking ships (rather than seeing the torians, drath and iconians will almost identical ships all the time) - just need to extend what your mod makes possible.

it's just a thought. i have the same issue of not putting in massive effort for a video game (at least, not unless i'm getting paid for it). designing ships is actually my favorite part of the game. i totally wouldn't mind designing a bunch of new ships as an end in itself, given a bit of time. with a bit of guidance, i could probably handle a lot of the other technical stuff myself.

Hands down the best, funest, and most useful mod out to date

I love the cluster hardpoints, now I can build a ship called "The Swarm" That is 10 mini fighters

ST

i did that too just for Ss & Gs. only mine was about 25 mini fighters.

do i smell a theme for new Thalan AI ship designs?

Is it in any way possible to get different versins of the mod that only add certain hull types? As a guy with fairly low system specs, clicking on extras for the first time usually takes about 2 mins each game. After that its fine. Since I only ever use the blank hulls, terran or drengin styles, is it possible to alter the install to only add those and the blanks?

Sure, just go into Mods/Gfx/Models and delete all the files that start with S1, S2, S3, and S4 except the Blank ones. Be sure you're doing this on the mods directory, not the main one, so you're deleting the models the mod adds and not the real ones!

i've just downloaded the newest version and i must say... IMPRESSIVE. the new offsets are going to be wild to build with.

Another minor update to last ngiht's update: The hardpoints on those new models are now oriented properly, so they all face topside-out, or away from the center point (instead of all facing the same direction).

ummm... what new models? i have the latest patch and the only new things i see are the hardpoint offsets.

The offests are the 'models' that comment referred to. Initially, they all were oriented up, instead of being properly set with their "up" side pointing out from the center of the ring of hardpoints.

More updates: I've added a 'Delta' formation of hardpoints so you can easily make ships that look like six fighters, etc. I've also broken the xml into multiple files so if you want to disable certain aspects of the mod, you can easily do so by just deleting the appropriate files. There are files for Blank Hulls, Hardpoint Offsets/Formations, Fake Modules, and one for each race's Fake Hulls.

I've added a 'Delta' formation of hardpoints so you can easily make ships that look like six fighters

Cool Thanks!!

ST

ah... ok

i saw some things added in the last GC2Types.xml. that came with the patch. though i never saw them in the game. i thought that the 'models" you were refering to, were those ones.

these things to be exact:

[code]

Quad-Antenni
SDSBonus1Structure1
SDSBonus1Structure1
Structure
Ship Jewelry



Hardpoint Claw
SDSBonus1Structure2
SDSBonus1Structure2
Structure
Ship Jewelry



Light Spire
SDSBonus1Structure3
SDSBonus1Structure3
Structure
Ship Jewelry



Extended Wing
SDSBonus1Structure4
SDSBonus1Structure4
Structure
Ship Jewelry



Giant Space Sproket
SDSBonus1Structure5
SDSBonus1Structure5
Structure
Factory Tested by G.J.



Graviton Pulley
SDSBonus1Structure6
SDSBonus1Structure6
Structure
Ship Jewelry

[/code]