A guide to creating custom ship styles for human and AI players
for Galciv II DA
from 
GalCiv2 Forums
GalCiv2 Forums
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Starting from scratch
3. Some basic info on the folder structure regarding ships
4. Creating the basis for a new ship style
5. Editing your ship style outside the game
6. Linking your designs to the ship style
7. Yes, but I want to fly my own core ships
8. Finishing the basic custom ship style
9. Additional: I’m seeing double and it’s not from modding for 5 hours straight
10. Additional: I want to see my custom names with my custom ship designs
1. Introduction
After tinkering with many of the moddable files from the game, I decided to create my own custom ship style. However, this proved to be quite a challenge as creating a custom ship style is done partly through the game and partly through manual editing of the game files. Although there are several tuturials and trouble-shooting threads already, which have been very helpful, they also left me sometimes confused about what to do and why I was doing something. Hopefully this guide will provide a useful additional information source for players wanting to create their own custom ship style.
It’s a lot of text, but I tried to make it thourough and suitable for unexperienced modders or people who got stuck somewhere along the way of creating their own custom ship style.
Disclaimer:
By modding this game, I think the worst thing that can happen is that you screw up the game, in which case you have to reinstall. If for some reason this or some other disaster happens, don’t blame me, it’s your own responsibility.
Notes for using this guide:
I use the Arial font to indicate files and folders and xml code. Words between ‘quotes’ are things that can be interpreted literally, often indicating buttons, tabs etc.
General modding tips:
- Backup files if you’re changing stuff
- Set the game in windowed mode by turning the ‘Fullscreen’ option off in the options/video screen, so you can easily switch between the game and the forum or files you are editing
- Restart Galciv and start a new game if you want to see the effect of anything you have changed outside the game
Good luck!
2. Starting from scratch
Buy the game Galciv II DA, install it and start it up. Create at least one ship for each hull type and save it as a template if you want the AI to be able to use your designs. For your own core ships you only need two cargo hull designs and one medium hull design for the core Colony, Miner and Survey ships.
3. Some basic info on the folder structure regarding ships
Outside the safety of the game, you are about to enter the frightening but wonderful world of folders, .xml and .shipcfg files on your quest of creating a custom ship style...
Your ship designs consist outside of the game as .shipcfg and .xml files in something much like the following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\Sidemancer\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\shiptemplates
for example as:
S0_UD_T_Colonyship2Mk00.shipcfg
Colonyship2Mk0_t.xml
Your future ship style is going to end up here:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\ShipStyles
On the other hand, we have some core game folders which we are going to use, in my case:
C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\Data\ShipCfg
and
C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\Data\ShipTemplates
These folders will hold the ship files which represent your new core ships and provide the templates for more core ships.
In the game, we will eventually find our starting core ships under the ships/core tab and the core templates under the templates/core tab in the ship designer.
Personally, I always open up a couple of explorer windows displaying the before mentioned folders to keep an eye on what’s where.
4. Creating the basis for a new ship style
In the Galciv II opening screen, start a new game and proceed until you end up in the ‘Choose Opponents’ screen. Pick a race and click on the ‘Edit’ button. Now you are in the ‘Customize Your Opponent’ screen. Go to the ‘Appearance’ tab and choose the style which matches your designs hulls. In my case, this is the ‘Terran Alliance Style’. Click ‘Create Custom Ship Style’ (which is only clickable in the customize opponent screen, not in the the ‘Customize Your Civilization’ screen). Now you are in the ‘Custom Opponent Ship Style’ editor and you have to replace the ships on the left with your designs on the right. Too bad your designs aren’t there! That’s because the game doesn’t recognize your designs. They are user defined templates. Take a look at your design’s .shipcfg file. In my case it’s called: S0_UD_T_Colonyship2Mk00.shipcfg. S0_UD_T_ is a code called a ‘prefix’. S0 is the code of the Terran Alliance style, UD means Used Defined and T stands for Template. Ok, whatever, just press ‘Save Ship Style’ and save it under an appropriate name.
5. Editing your ship style outside the game
Go to the ship style folder:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\ShipStyles
There you have your ship style, in my case:
European Alliance.xml
You can open the file with Notepad, but if you’re interested in more than casual modding I suggest using an XML editor, there are free ones readily downloadable from the internet. Anyway, open it and be prepared for some hardcore modding! Search for the prefix code which we’re going to change to make the game recognize our designs, in my case this looks like:
[Prefix]S0[/Prefix] (but with pointy instead of square brackets)
Change the original code (S0) in a new unique prefix containing regular characters (no spaces or special symbols). I’m changing it to ‘EA’. Save it. Now your ship style is ready to be linked to your custom designs. One thing left, your designs also have to have this specific prefix so go to your shiptemplates folder:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\shiptemplates
and change all the prefixes, in my case:
S0_UD_T_Colonyship2Mk00.shipcfg becomes EA_Colonyship2Mk00.shipcfg
6. Linking your designs to the ship style
Go to the ‘Custom Opponent Ship Style’ editor in the game as described in step 4, but now edit your new ship style. Assign roles for your designs by clicking a ship (type) on the left and a ship on the right and press ‘Change’. First, if you see names of your designs but not pictures, then you have done something horribly wrong and you are probably not smart enough to mod this game. Your ship designs should always have a little icon to go with it or else the game could not find the design and you should fix this before continuing. Note that this assigning roles to your designs is specifically for the AI to be able to use them correctly. Assign all the types on the left with designs on the right and save your ship style.
7. Yes, but I want to fly my own core ships
For this step we are going to add our designs to the game’s core folders. This step is not hard, but faillure to do it correctly can lead to instant death by your monitor exploding and decapitating you in a shower of sparks and broken glass, so be careful. Ok, that’s not really true, while there is no actual imminent death threat, as always with modding, make backups of files you are going to change or rename if you’re not sure what you’re doing.
Copy the .shipcfg files from your templates folder:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\shiptemplates
to the core ShipCfg folder:
\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\Data\ShipCfg
Now you have to rename your designs with their core counterparts, this need not be an exact matching, you don’t have to use all the core names. I ended up with this list:
EA_Avatar.shipcfg (large hull)
EA_ColonyShip.shipcfg (cargo hull)
EA_Constructor.shipcfg (cargo hull)
EA_Defender.shipcfg (small hull)
EA_Dreadnaught.shipcfg (huge hull)
EA_Freighter.shipcfg (cargo hull)
EA_Sniper.shipcfg (tiny hull)
EA_SpaceMiner.shipcfg (cargo hull)
EA_StarAvenger.shipcfg (medium hull)
EA_SurveyShip.shipcfg (medium hull)
EA_Transport.shipcfg (cargo hull)
I have at least one name for each hull and for some hull types several (cargo hulls). Some types I am not using, like for instance EA_SporeShip. This is ok, because my race does not have the Annihilator Super Ability providing the Spore technology. If my race did, I would have to design another ship for it or use a Constructor ship or whatever, that’s my choice in the game. The AI uses the setup from the custom opponent setup, where I assigned my Colony Ship design for this role, so the AI is able to build a Spore ship if it has the technology. Just make sure you have at least these types for the starting ships:
[prefix]_ColonyShip.shipcfg
[prefix]_SurveyShip.shipcfg
[prefix]_SpaceMiner.shipcfg
8. Finishing the basic custom ship style
If you click the templates/core tab in the ship designer you see a couple of ship names but missing pictures. The game expects the following core templates:
- ‘Avatar Template’ (large hull)
- ‘Colony Ship Template’ (cargo hull)
- ‘Constructor Template’ (cargo hull)
- ‘Defender Template’ (small hull)
- ‘Dreadnaught Template’ (huge hull)
- ‘Sniper Template’ (tiny hull)
- ‘Freighter Template’ (cargo hull)
- ‘Star Avenger Template’ (medium hull)
- ‘Space Miner Template 1’ (cargo hull)
- ‘Survey Ship Template’ (medium hull)
- ‘Transport Template’ (cargo hull)
Coincidentally, I have these designs in the core ShipCfg folder so I copy them into the core templates folder:
\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\Data\ShipTemplates
Now, you have everything you need to fly your own core ships and let the AI use your designs as well!
9. Additional: I’m seeing double and it’s not from modding for 5 hours straight
If you’re only using the custom ship style for a human player, then you can leave out the template files from:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\shiptemplates
This way, your templates only show up under the core tabs in the ship designer and not under the user tab. This prevents seeing your designs twice if you look under the all tab for instance.
10. Additional: I want to see my custom names with my custom ship designs
Unfortunately, it seems that although the AI will fly any design, it always thinks your custom names are crap and sticks to its own names. This means that the AI will happily zip around the galaxy with your ‘Uber-Micro-Death-Bringer Mk1’ fighters, but will call them ‘Scout Ship’ nonetheless. I hoped the AI would use the custom names from either the .xml template files or the name of the .shipcfg files minus the prefix, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. If anyone knows how to add your own names automatically to the custom ships the AI uses, let me know!
Well, that’s it! If you have succesfully worked your way through this guide and your monitor hasn’t exploded in your face then you are now the proud living owner of a custom ship style. There is only one thing left to do: Startup Galciv II and click on ‘New Game’...
SideMancer
1. Introduction
2. Starting from scratch
3. Some basic info on the folder structure regarding ships
4. Creating the basis for a new ship style
5. Editing your ship style outside the game
6. Linking your designs to the ship style
7. Yes, but I want to fly my own core ships
8. Finishing the basic custom ship style
9. Additional: I’m seeing double and it’s not from modding for 5 hours straight
10. Additional: I want to see my custom names with my custom ship designs
1. Introduction
After tinkering with many of the moddable files from the game, I decided to create my own custom ship style. However, this proved to be quite a challenge as creating a custom ship style is done partly through the game and partly through manual editing of the game files. Although there are several tuturials and trouble-shooting threads already, which have been very helpful, they also left me sometimes confused about what to do and why I was doing something. Hopefully this guide will provide a useful additional information source for players wanting to create their own custom ship style.
It’s a lot of text, but I tried to make it thourough and suitable for unexperienced modders or people who got stuck somewhere along the way of creating their own custom ship style.
Disclaimer:
By modding this game, I think the worst thing that can happen is that you screw up the game, in which case you have to reinstall. If for some reason this or some other disaster happens, don’t blame me, it’s your own responsibility.
Notes for using this guide:
I use the Arial font to indicate files and folders and xml code. Words between ‘quotes’ are things that can be interpreted literally, often indicating buttons, tabs etc.
General modding tips:
- Backup files if you’re changing stuff
- Set the game in windowed mode by turning the ‘Fullscreen’ option off in the options/video screen, so you can easily switch between the game and the forum or files you are editing
- Restart Galciv and start a new game if you want to see the effect of anything you have changed outside the game
Good luck!
2. Starting from scratch
Buy the game Galciv II DA, install it and start it up. Create at least one ship for each hull type and save it as a template if you want the AI to be able to use your designs. For your own core ships you only need two cargo hull designs and one medium hull design for the core Colony, Miner and Survey ships.
3. Some basic info on the folder structure regarding ships
Outside the safety of the game, you are about to enter the frightening but wonderful world of folders, .xml and .shipcfg files on your quest of creating a custom ship style...
Your ship designs consist outside of the game as .shipcfg and .xml files in something much like the following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\Sidemancer\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\shiptemplates
for example as:
S0_UD_T_Colonyship2Mk00.shipcfg
Colonyship2Mk0_t.xml
Your future ship style is going to end up here:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\ShipStyles
On the other hand, we have some core game folders which we are going to use, in my case:
C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\Data\ShipCfg
and
C:\Program Files\Stardock\TotalGaming\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\Data\ShipTemplates
These folders will hold the ship files which represent your new core ships and provide the templates for more core ships.
In the game, we will eventually find our starting core ships under the ships/core tab and the core templates under the templates/core tab in the ship designer.
Personally, I always open up a couple of explorer windows displaying the before mentioned folders to keep an eye on what’s where.
4. Creating the basis for a new ship style
In the Galciv II opening screen, start a new game and proceed until you end up in the ‘Choose Opponents’ screen. Pick a race and click on the ‘Edit’ button. Now you are in the ‘Customize Your Opponent’ screen. Go to the ‘Appearance’ tab and choose the style which matches your designs hulls. In my case, this is the ‘Terran Alliance Style’. Click ‘Create Custom Ship Style’ (which is only clickable in the customize opponent screen, not in the the ‘Customize Your Civilization’ screen). Now you are in the ‘Custom Opponent Ship Style’ editor and you have to replace the ships on the left with your designs on the right. Too bad your designs aren’t there! That’s because the game doesn’t recognize your designs. They are user defined templates. Take a look at your design’s .shipcfg file. In my case it’s called: S0_UD_T_Colonyship2Mk00.shipcfg. S0_UD_T_ is a code called a ‘prefix’. S0 is the code of the Terran Alliance style, UD means Used Defined and T stands for Template. Ok, whatever, just press ‘Save Ship Style’ and save it under an appropriate name.
5. Editing your ship style outside the game
Go to the ship style folder:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\ShipStyles
There you have your ship style, in my case:
European Alliance.xml
You can open the file with Notepad, but if you’re interested in more than casual modding I suggest using an XML editor, there are free ones readily downloadable from the internet. Anyway, open it and be prepared for some hardcore modding! Search for the prefix code which we’re going to change to make the game recognize our designs, in my case this looks like:
[Prefix]S0[/Prefix] (but with pointy instead of square brackets)
Change the original code (S0) in a new unique prefix containing regular characters (no spaces or special symbols). I’m changing it to ‘EA’. Save it. Now your ship style is ready to be linked to your custom designs. One thing left, your designs also have to have this specific prefix so go to your shiptemplates folder:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\shiptemplates
and change all the prefixes, in my case:
S0_UD_T_Colonyship2Mk00.shipcfg becomes EA_Colonyship2Mk00.shipcfg
6. Linking your designs to the ship style
Go to the ‘Custom Opponent Ship Style’ editor in the game as described in step 4, but now edit your new ship style. Assign roles for your designs by clicking a ship (type) on the left and a ship on the right and press ‘Change’. First, if you see names of your designs but not pictures, then you have done something horribly wrong and you are probably not smart enough to mod this game. Your ship designs should always have a little icon to go with it or else the game could not find the design and you should fix this before continuing. Note that this assigning roles to your designs is specifically for the AI to be able to use them correctly. Assign all the types on the left with designs on the right and save your ship style.
7. Yes, but I want to fly my own core ships
For this step we are going to add our designs to the game’s core folders. This step is not hard, but faillure to do it correctly can lead to instant death by your monitor exploding and decapitating you in a shower of sparks and broken glass, so be careful. Ok, that’s not really true, while there is no actual imminent death threat, as always with modding, make backups of files you are going to change or rename if you’re not sure what you’re doing.
Copy the .shipcfg files from your templates folder:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\shiptemplates
to the core ShipCfg folder:
\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\Data\ShipCfg
Now you have to rename your designs with their core counterparts, this need not be an exact matching, you don’t have to use all the core names. I ended up with this list:
EA_Avatar.shipcfg (large hull)
EA_ColonyShip.shipcfg (cargo hull)
EA_Constructor.shipcfg (cargo hull)
EA_Defender.shipcfg (small hull)
EA_Dreadnaught.shipcfg (huge hull)
EA_Freighter.shipcfg (cargo hull)
EA_Sniper.shipcfg (tiny hull)
EA_SpaceMiner.shipcfg (cargo hull)
EA_StarAvenger.shipcfg (medium hull)
EA_SurveyShip.shipcfg (medium hull)
EA_Transport.shipcfg (cargo hull)
I have at least one name for each hull and for some hull types several (cargo hulls). Some types I am not using, like for instance EA_SporeShip. This is ok, because my race does not have the Annihilator Super Ability providing the Spore technology. If my race did, I would have to design another ship for it or use a Constructor ship or whatever, that’s my choice in the game. The AI uses the setup from the custom opponent setup, where I assigned my Colony Ship design for this role, so the AI is able to build a Spore ship if it has the technology. Just make sure you have at least these types for the starting ships:
[prefix]_ColonyShip.shipcfg
[prefix]_SurveyShip.shipcfg
[prefix]_SpaceMiner.shipcfg
8. Finishing the basic custom ship style
If you click the templates/core tab in the ship designer you see a couple of ship names but missing pictures. The game expects the following core templates:
- ‘Avatar Template’ (large hull)
- ‘Colony Ship Template’ (cargo hull)
- ‘Constructor Template’ (cargo hull)
- ‘Defender Template’ (small hull)
- ‘Dreadnaught Template’ (huge hull)
- ‘Sniper Template’ (tiny hull)
- ‘Freighter Template’ (cargo hull)
- ‘Star Avenger Template’ (medium hull)
- ‘Space Miner Template 1’ (cargo hull)
- ‘Survey Ship Template’ (medium hull)
- ‘Transport Template’ (cargo hull)
Coincidentally, I have these designs in the core ShipCfg folder so I copy them into the core templates folder:
\GalCiv2\DarkAvatar\Data\ShipTemplates
Now, you have everything you need to fly your own core ships and let the AI use your designs as well!
9. Additional: I’m seeing double and it’s not from modding for 5 hours straight
If you’re only using the custom ship style for a human player, then you can leave out the template files from:
\My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar\shiptemplates
This way, your templates only show up under the core tabs in the ship designer and not under the user tab. This prevents seeing your designs twice if you look under the all tab for instance.
10. Additional: I want to see my custom names with my custom ship designs
Unfortunately, it seems that although the AI will fly any design, it always thinks your custom names are crap and sticks to its own names. This means that the AI will happily zip around the galaxy with your ‘Uber-Micro-Death-Bringer Mk1’ fighters, but will call them ‘Scout Ship’ nonetheless. I hoped the AI would use the custom names from either the .xml template files or the name of the .shipcfg files minus the prefix, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. If anyone knows how to add your own names automatically to the custom ships the AI uses, let me know!
Well, that’s it! If you have succesfully worked your way through this guide and your monitor hasn’t exploded in your face then you are now the proud living owner of a custom ship style. There is only one thing left to do: Startup Galciv II and click on ‘New Game’...
SideMancer
Stardock Forums