Polarpawn

Join Date 08/2006

HOW TO: Model Ships in the Metaverse

Step by Step

How to get Custom 3-D ships into Galciv2 Metaverse - A fairly straight forward process, which should be easy for anyone to accomplish. Things you’ll need:

About an hour, so grab a cup of joe or cola and make yourself comfortable.
Software that’ll be handy- Notepad ++, a shareware program. I'd recommend that you google it and download it- Then go ahead and install it. Now once you've done all that go ahead and click on My Computer – make sure your address bar is open for your Explorer by going to view -> tools -> address bar (Make sure its checked) This well allow you to see where your at on the hard drive as you move around. (VERY HANDY) If you don’t see the address bar even if you have it checked, make sure the "Lock Tool Bar" is not checked under tools
Print this out if you need to go step by step. If you run into any problems feel free to email me by clicking on my name or posting on the forum. I’ll try to help you out.

Step 1. Back up the Galciv2 folder. This is a good rule of thumb when you mess with anything in a computer. And since we are messing with Galciv2, its backup time. What I do is simply goto the my C drive, click on Program Files, then Stardock, followed by Totalgaming. There the Galciv2 folder well be. Click on it and select Copy

At this point, I copied to the Desktop

Once this is complete, you’re ready for the next step. In order to get ships into Galciv2, you’ll need the Model files and Thumbnail file. In this Example I am going to use the Startrek2 Mod- Just released from Star Trek Mod Team,

you can find it by simply clicking on the Mods part of this forum, it'll be pinned.

metaverse

Locked Post

Advanced Search

Watch this post

Do not email me updates for this post Email me updates for this post

Successfully updated karma reason!

First thing to do is to goto the Mod folder in question, open it up and goto the GFX folder, then the Model folder. Open it. Select all.

Select Copy

Then back up until your in the root of the Galciv2 folder. C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\Galciv2. Open the GFX folder, Open the Model Folder- select paste. DO NOT OVERWRITE ANY FILE IN THIS FOLDER. (I have no idea what would happen- but its not a risk I would take)

After your thru, we head back to the mod folder- select the GFX folder again, open the Thumbnail folder-

Once again, select all and copy- then its back to the Galciv2 folder root… C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\Galciv2. Open the GFX folder, and open the Thumbnail folder- Select paste- If you get this box:

Again, I would select no- Do NOT overwrite- In this case as you can see it is the same exact file (Size/date/time all the same) so it would be safe to do so.

Successfully updated karma reason!

No you’ve done all the hard work- Your models and thumbnails are now in the game folder. Lets get down into getting them into the game.

Click back until you get to the Galciv2 root directory C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\Galciv2- Open the data file, and find the Shipcfg folder

Open it- your address bar should look like this:

C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Data\ShipCfg

Once that is open, I would recommend minimizing the window and heading back to the Galciv2 folder using another window-
C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\Galciv2\Gfx\Models folder.
To make this A LOT easier, goto your browsers Tools – Select Details, and then tell it to arrange icons by > Type

Tap back to your other open Browser window (C:\Program files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\Data\ShipCfg)

In this example we are going to change the human designs. If you want to change another design here is the key: s0_ Human, s1_ Torian, s2_ Yor, s3_ Dregin, s4_ Altarian, s5_ Dread Lords
Important to note- the humans are s0 as in s-zero, not s-Ohio- Common error to watch for. Here are the files we are going to change *Only .shipcfg files I know of that well get ships into the game

S0_ColonyShip.shipcfg (hull type: Cargo)
S0_CombatTransport.shipcfg (hull type: Huge)
S0_Constructor.shipcfg (hull type: Cargo)
S0_Defender.shipcfg (hull type: Small)
S0_Freighter.shipcfg (hull type: Cargo)
S0_Scout.shipcfg (hull type: Tiny)
S0_SurveyShip.shipcfg (hull type: Medium)
S0_Transport (hull type: Cargo)

In this Example, we will change the ship for the Transport- so find the S0_Transport.shipcfg, right click on it and select Notepad++, if you didn’t download Notepad++, you can simply open it with Notepad.

Now, that we are in the file, I normally highlight and delete all everything below BASE_HULL

Which leaves us with this:

Now, I go find the ship I want to use over in the second window (C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\Galciv2\Gfx\Models folder)
In this case, it’s a Borq ship

Then I simply replace the S0_Cargo_0 with S99_BorgCube
IMPORTANT REMEMBER TO LEAVE THE .X EXTENSTION

Successfully updated karma reason!

I repeat those steps with each of the ships I’ve listed. They will show up in game- then it’s a simple matter of selecting them from the shipyard and upgrading them. This well give you a blank that you can use again and again. Now for getting them into the game

Before I play the Metaverse game, I start up a game change it from “Normal” to “Battle of the Gods”- Head in. Open up the ship yard and yep its all there, now its time to start the Metaverse game

If your not in a hurry, then you can play a normal game, upgrading the core ships as they come up. I always save a blank model so I’ll get the ship when I reseach the correct tech. Since I am not patient, I will set the game to tiny, normal, fast research and easy with my tester user in the Metaverse. As you can see from the start my ships are there

Now lets move on.- First Invasion- Borg Invasion Transports supported by the Defiant, Sisko is getting ready to go med-evil on the Iconians- there resistance proves to be futitle

Nothing warms my heart as much as seeing Fringi Merchant ships suckering people out of there hard earned credits…

I love it when my Heavy hitters show up - thou no need won thru Culture-

agree to update to the Metaverse

And presto no cheat flag!

Hope this write up helps- Enjoy- I know I will because instead of testing this darn thing, I can play again!

Successfully updated karma reason!

Oops- my bad its Notepad++ not Notepad II, also once you get the blanks into the game, it might not be a bad idea to copy the shipcfg folder from the backup folder you made and paste it back over the shipcfg folder you made the changes too- That way you get to keep your custom mod ships, and don't have to look at the AI flying them around

Successfully updated karma reason!

Ohh shi--iit this is tight.

Thanks You!!

Monc34

Successfully updated karma reason!

Your Welcome- Just finished testing it on the new patch 1.31- Guess what?

it works!

Here's a pic of the ships in action... Now I just need to get a Star Destroyer to fly wingman...

Successfully updated karma reason!