Tommymac

Join Date 03/2006

Question on Exporting/Importing Ship Designs

Sorry if this has been asked/answered, I tried to find it but could not.

Are there explicit directions on how to export ship designs from the game so others can use them in their games? (Not talking about new 3d models, just the ships one normally creates in Shipbuilder.)

Questions I have:

What files should be copied? Where should they be copied from/too (folder/file path)?

How can we make sure that others can see them - i.e. I know only humans can see human ships etc. so what settings do I have to put in a 'read me' to allow others to see them?

Is there a way to export designs that any race can use?

I have created base hulls with 'jewelry only' to export - so they are not dependent on any tech but hull sizes - is this a good way to go? (That way others should see them and can add whatever woopons, engines, etc they have avaiable.)

TIA - sorry for the newbie questions - but I am a newbie....

On Edit: meant to put this in the GC2 Modding forum - not sure why it did not post there.

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What files should be copied? Where should they be copied from/too (folder/file path)?
There are two files for each ship that needs to be copied. They show up in the My Documents/My Games/GalCiv/Metaverse/Ships directory, or something similar. Note that Metaverse changes to Single if you've created the ship in a single player game.

How can we make sure that others can see them - i.e. I know only humans can see human ships etc. so what settings do I have to put in a 'read me' to allow others to see them?
The ship type (as in human style or dengrin style), the ship size, any mods you need installed, and the techs required

Is there a way to export designs that any race can use?
Not sure

I have created base hulls with 'jewelry only' to export - so they are not dependent on any tech but hull sizes - is this a good way to go? (That way others should see them and can add whatever woopons, engines, etc they have avaiable.)
That's the best way to go. Far more useful than having it with components on it

On Edit: meant to put this in the GC2 Modding forum - not sure why it did not post there.
It did post in the modding forum, but it also posts in the main forum. The main forum lists all posts from all subcategories. It is intentional

-Dewar

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Thanks Dewar - that is the info I need!

I have spent more than a few sleepless nights making and designing a whole Terran Fleet from scouts to transports to huge hulled nightmares; thought it would be nice to share if anyone is interested. As soon as I can make some time to make some screenies and write up a brief background for each class I'll post it up somewhere.

Now I am keeping my fingers crossed ver 1.0x ships will still be useful in 1.1 ...

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There was a ship compatibility issue between version 1.0 release and version 1.0 x. They assured us that this would no longer be a problem, so your empty hulls should carry over just fine. Still, I'm not sure how the old ship designs are going to work with the new rotation stuff.

-Dewar

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Still, I'm not sure how the old ship designs are going to work with the new rotation stuff.

There are new tags in the shipcfg file for yaw, pitch and roll. The default is 0 so old design should work. New user created ships are stored as a shipcfg (this is what it looks like) and now an xml file instead of some binary format file (with what components it actually has). The only problem that might occur is if that old binary format is not supported in the new version.

Is there a way to export designs that any race can use?

Each ship style has different hulls with sometimes very different hardpoint locations. Using S99_ for these doesn't work like it does for custom models, and the ship doesn't show for any style. You can copy/rename the design's .shipcfg for all the other ship styles, but it will look exactly like the original (won't use each style's models). This means if you design a terran ship and rename it to be available for the drengin style, it will still look like a terran ship not a drengin ship.

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The only problem that might occur is if that old binary format is not supported in the new version.

Looks like the game automaticly converts the .shipclass file into .xml

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Ok, I have a further, more complex question.

I have made a bunch of blank hull types - hoping they would show up for the race they were designed for when the hull type was researched. A few should be avaialable at the start - i.e tiny and cargo hulls.

But they are not - for example, reading the text tree I find that my base constructor hull will not be available until Warp Drive IV (and 4 other advanced techs) is researched - even though it does not have ANY engines equipped on it. In fact it is nothing but a hull and jewelry. How can I get this to show up at the start of the game...I want to use it in place of the core constructor, but not replace the core ship - just have it show up in the user designed ship section. Is there a way to change one of the files to remove the tech requirements other than hull size for these base hulls I have designed? (They are all that way - each will not show up until several advanced techs are researched besides the hull form... but none has any engines, weapons, defense or sensor modules installed.) Using Quickview plus the contents of the constructorbase.shipclass file contains the following:

æConstructorBaseConstructor BaseConstructor Base HullUD_ConstructorBase0ÿÿÿ77IonDrive

Warp Drive IIExtended Life Support

Warp Drive IVWarp Drive VBasic Life SupportZ

.....

Can I just edit this file with a hex editor to remove those entries for the higher techs safely? Or is there an easier way.

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Just wanted to reply to my last post that I upgraded to 1.1beta v2 and now the shipclass files are now .xml and easily edited - thanks syneris for the heads up!

Seems that when you make a 'clean' upgrade (and not start from scratch first) of a design that already had components attached, the required techs carry over, even though the blank design doesn't have any components. Editing the new ship .xml files to remove the tech requirements seems to fix this. now most of my base ship designs are showing up when only the hull size tech or tech that includes the core hull is researched.

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