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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
Join Date 03/2006
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Just want to mod the custom race portraits and such

March 21, 2007 4:33:41 PM from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Hi. I don't know a thing about modding. All I want to do is be able to use any kind of portrait on the race select screen and in the background when you talk to that civilization, as I don't like the available selection of portraits for a custom race. Also if I could mod what they say that would be cool, like "prepare to be assimilated" every time you talk to them. Can someone point me in the right direction?
modding
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Stanley Tarrant
Belanos
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #1 March 21, 2007 4:42:37 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
If you want other portraits, just put some in your MyGames/DarkAvatar/GFX/Portraits folder. Then just cycle through the selector until you come across it.
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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
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Reply #2 March 21, 2007 9:02:12 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Thanks Belanos! Can I ask you: what is that a picture of? Some kind of rock beast?
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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #3 March 21, 2007 9:29:02 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
ok, there is something more I have to do. It isn't that easy.
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Stanley Tarrant
Belanos
Join Date 05/2006
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Reply #4 March 21, 2007 10:48:22 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Thanks Belanos! Can I ask you: what is that a picture of? Some kind of rock beast?


Obviously not a Babylon 5 fan. That's a Vorlon. It's what I've named the custom race I play with.

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Stanley Tarrant
CYBERNIKES
Join Date 01/2007
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Reply #5 March 22, 2007 1:12:15 AM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
You can edit conversations ,to reflect what you want said to you.

You need to back up your work first.Then choose an editor like notepad,do not use wordpad or any rich text editor.I use edit pad pro,its inexpensive and presents XML in a color coded format,which is much easier on the eyes than Notepad.It also does much more than that but thats another post.

If you want the buy screen to reflect your civ,you can edit the string files.
For example in stead of Mitrosoft,it could say Nike Financial,(my star system is named Nike-Omega).

In short this game is a Godsend for anybody who really wants to tailor their experience.

My single biggest suggestion though is read,CariElfs Modding guide,believe me most if not everything you need to know is covered there.

Hope that helps,Cheers!

(p.s)you can also assign whatever chars you want to your races by editing the race config xml.....also covered in her guide)
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Stanley Tarrant
alabrent
Join Date 03/2003
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Reply #6 March 23, 2007 4:41:15 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
I also, am having problems with this. I do not have a My Games, folder (as far as I can see). I have found GFX under the GalCiv2/Dark Avatar Folder in Windows Program folder but there is not a folder called Portraits, there is one called Races, but it doesn't have the minor races that I want to change. I have no idea what Belanos meant when he said cycle through the selector, I heard this said in other postings too. Where do I find the selector at? I didn't see anything about changing portraits in CariElfs Modding Guide.
Please can someone take this newbie through this step by step? I have no experience in modding, I just want to make this one change.
Thanks
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Stanley Tarrant
kryo
Join Date 05/2003
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Reply #7 March 23, 2007 4:59:19 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
I do not have a My Games, folder (as far as I can see)


It is found in My Documents.

I have no idea what Belanos meant when he said cycle through the selector


When customizing a major race at the start of a new game (for yourself or an AI), you can click on the arrow buttons below the portrait and logo to choose from all those in the game and in the My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\Gfx folder.

To change the portrait for a minor race, you would need to edit RaceConfig.xml or replace the base images.
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Stanley Tarrant
crow_t_robot
Join Date 02/2006
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Reply #8 March 23, 2007 5:00:42 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Thanks Belanos! Can I ask you: what is that a picture of? Some kind of rock beast?


Obviously not a Babylon 5 fan. That's a Vorlon. It's what I've named the custom race I play with.



A Vorlon? Must not be a Babylon 5 fan! For anyone that doesn't know what mine is, you must not be a Halo fan!
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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
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Reply #9 March 23, 2007 9:24:37 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Thanks Belanos! Can I ask you: what is that a picture of? Some kind of rock beast?


Obviously not a Babylon 5 fan. That's a Vorlon. It's what I've named the custom race I play with.




A Vorlon? Must not be a Babylon 5 fan! For anyone that doesn't know what mine is, you must not be a Halo fan!


I guess not.

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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
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Reply #10 March 23, 2007 9:28:11 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
When customizing a major race at the start of a new game (for yourself or an AI), you can click on the arrow buttons below the portrait and logo to choose from all those in the game and in the My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\Gfx folder.


I tried addiing in images to this folder, and I still get the default portraits. This is all I want to do - when customizing a race be able to use any picture as their portrait that I can throw in there. That's all. I have tried throwing in JPGs into that folder and I still get the same stupid pictures and not my own for customizing a major race. There is something more I have to do??

Can someone please tell me??
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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
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Reply #11 March 23, 2007 9:32:48 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
I found the folder. What format do the images have to be???
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Stanley Tarrant
kryo
Join Date 05/2003
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Reply #12 March 23, 2007 9:41:26 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
The images must be PNG format to be recognized by the game--JPEGs will not work.
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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
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Reply #13 March 23, 2007 9:46:12 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
ok I will try now. Many thanks! Is there an easy way to change JPG to PNG??
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Stanley Tarrant
kryo
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Reply #14 March 23, 2007 9:48:11 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Most graphics programs should allow you to save PNGs. Just open the JPG in one and resave it as PNG.
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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
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Reply #15 March 23, 2007 9:56:16 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
ok thanks!! I figured it out. Only one more thing: will this effect metaverse games? Also, I may have uncovered a bug: When I went though the normal galaxy setup to see if my pic was in there, (then saw that it was), I backed out to the main menu and saw that the metaverse option was greyed out and unselectable on the main menu. I restarted a game, selected metavers, logged in, and upon seeing that my pic was in there, I went back to the main menu and noticed the normal game option was greyed out. You guys know about this? Did I just uncover a bug if you go back to the main menu from galaxy startup??
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Stanley Tarrant
kryo
Join Date 05/2003
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Reply #16 March 23, 2007 10:22:30 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Only one more thing: will this effect metaverse games?


No, pictures are safe.
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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
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Reply #17 March 24, 2007 3:28:01 AM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Kyro, can you comment on the bug I mentioned in my last post?
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Stanley Tarrant
CYBERNIKES
Join Date 01/2007
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Reply #18 March 24, 2007 4:38:09 AM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Stanley

I know Kryo probably did not mention this because he assumes you just want to edit portraits,like you ask.However if you get ambitious and start editing logos or ship textures,you should know that while most programs will handle png ,it may not handle transparencies.

For example Arcsoft (Canon)will open,edit,import and export png,but will not save the transparency.

So lets say you load a logo png into an editor that supports png,but not transparencies,the logo will have a white area around it that will look funky.


Photoshop,Gimp,Serif...those support transparencies ,and some other I'm sure but these for certain.And gimp and serif both have vector support.
Good Luck..

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kryo
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Reply #19 March 24, 2007 9:39:22 AM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
I backed out to the main menu and saw that the metaverse option was greyed out and unselectable on the main menu.


I've seen that behavior myself before, but I'm not sure if it's intended or not. I wouldn't expect it to be a big deal either way, since you generally have which type of game you plan to play in mind already when you start the program.
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Stanley Tarrant
Stanley Tarrant
Join Date 03/2006
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Reply #20 March 24, 2007 12:11:39 PM
from GalCiv II ForumsGalCiv II Forums
Yeah its not a big deal. Definetely a minor bug. If you follow through with your game setup, then back out to the main menu, everything is fine. A minor bug.
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