Custom Ship Sets - Weapons/Equipment placement

Great news chum! You don't need to place any equipment at all!

The game will place the components it wants... To the aether. Basically they will be present in the ship and work, but completely invisible. 

It's a great feature and I wish it could work in-game. 

Blueprint files direct the choice of equipment notably. 

Ah Gauntlet - glad you're here!  Thanks for the info - and as I have you, one more question!

How on earth do I create an XML file?  I'm following this guide - https://forums.galciv3.com/465834/page/2/#3595318

And in it it states -

Part 1: XML Setup

1. Create two xml files in your mod's Game folder: ShipClassDefs_NEW.xml and FactionShipStyleSetDefs_NEW.xml (Where NEW is the name of your faction/style).
2. Find the game's version of these files in Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steamapps\common\Galactic Civilizations III\data\Game. Copy the xml for one faction's entries (Terran, in this guide). (Note: Be sure, of course, to include the starting and ending elements for the each xml file, including the schema declaration). 

Ah well.

Yes, renaming the file extension on a file should do it.

 BUT

Easiest thing? Copy an existing file that already has the coding you want.

I recommend you dissect my mod to help you learn. For example, your going to have make a shipdef file... I did so and reorganized the listing of ships within to be more naturally flowing, as you have to do a lot of edits in that file.

Was thinking of making a video tutorial on shipsets soon. I'll let you know!

Right ok, so basically copy the entire file Steam\Steamapps\common\Galactic Civilizations III\data\Game\FactionShipStyleSetDefs (and ShipClassDefs) and then just delete all but one faction's entry to use as a template?

I've been thinking about downloading your mod so this seals the deal.

A video tutorial would be a God Send - or in this case a Gauntlet Send lol!  If/When you do it, if you could do it so a 5 year old would understand that would be ideal

Alright its done. I made a video tutorial. Its uploading, which can take a hour or so.

1) I didn't make it stupid simple in the interest of getting you something NOW.

2) It assumes you use my mod as your basis. It makes everything easier, because I customized my files to make things easier.

I'll add the link as soon as uploading completes.

Loaded faster than I thought! 

DING

Please offer specific feedback so I can work on a better version! Pretty please

Marvellous! Watched the whole video and it answers a lot of questions I had.  Haven't had a chance to download your mod or work through the tutorial - should get to that at some point next week, at which point I'm sure I'll have more questions and by extension, some specific feedback.  Many thanks mate! You're a Leg End - Plus 1 karma for you

I've never heard of a Leg End!

AM I a foot??? Shit. My wife hates feet. She regularly reminds me that cybernetics will be here soon and that there will be a "reckoning"...

Ahhh, Leg End - just a fun way of saying 'Legend'

lol - my wife doesn't hate my feet but often comments on their similarity to those of hobbits - big, flat and hairy! I feel your pain brother lol

Actually managed to download your mod this weekend after all - very nice work. I think I'm going to admit, not defeat, but reality in as much as using some of your ship sets for my custom races. Purely based on the fact I don't have the time to create 28 custom ship sets of my own! I'm gunna pick my fav 5 custom races and start from there.

Why did you want to create 28? What was the project in mind? 

Also bear in mind, if you lower your standards for variant hulls to one hull for each hull size, that's only 6 hulls per race.

But yeah... 28 is a huge number. I'ts taken me since GC3 Beta to produce about 15, and I don't want to talk about how many hours.

Oh, 28 is just the number of custom civs I have dreamed up so far. Many are inspired by alien races in sci-fi literature - The Jao from Eric Flynt's 'The Course of Empire', many of the races from Ian Douglas's writing aswell, plus a fair few original creations of my own. I just want to play 'The Perfect Game' - you know, designed by me from top to bottom - but you've got to crawl before you can walk and so on, so I'll do a couple of ship sets then throe caution to the wind and start playing!

So just to be clear - I don't need to place any weapons or equipment when designing ships for a customer ship set?

If I want weapons to be in a certain place on the hull can I still place them - and the AI will use that place for all upgrades/additions etc?

You don't need to place weapons, and placing them will have no effect, good or bad. 

You can't dictate ai part placement. The parts won't even be attached, they'll function from the aether. 

Ok, thanks for the reconfirmation - I've now reached the stage where I have renamed all the Internal Names in ShipClassDefs to my chosen custom faction name.  In the tutorial you then start copying across the various files from the Designs folder.  I take it that this is the point where I would now go in game and create my various designs?

And in regard to the naming/saving nomenclature - do I just use the (for eg) '0-LE Tiny Scout' - with the game then adding all the other stuff for me?

Well, normally I make all my designs before touching a single file, but yes, go make designs! And for naming, yes, just name them 0-LE Tiny Scout. The game will add coding to the rest of the name (don't delete it) on the file.

Hey Gauntlet, thanks so much for this. So - the million dollar question... If I want to use a steam workshop race, how would this guide change (coupled with steam workshop ships).

I can (in game) copy and resave the downloaded faction and change the ship style etc, but how would the steps you outlined change? Would I have to play the race first and use the Krynn/Iconian/Terran etc ship style to make it work? Of course it would be impossible to know what the custom ships were built with once they are downloaded from steam.

Any help would be appreciated!