Changing Carrier Module Fighters

MY main question would be "can we get an in-game UI to pick what the carrier modules spawn please?"

because, well, while the stock ships ARE much prettier than GCII's, SOME of us are trying for a Theme, Dangit and having to build dedicated mods just so I can have my fighters match is... annoying.

well, that and how I tend to fashion the 'Small' ships more as gunboats or corvettes rather than fighters, since it's closer to their impact.

just seems to me like it would be nice to be able to have the carrier module using player-created ships without modding, since IMMERSION!

There's a file called ShipBlueprintDefs.XML which appears to contain the templates for all base game ship designs, including the fighters. Each template has a line that says something like "<ShipHullType>Small</ShipHullType>." I expect that to be the line you want to change; I think the Assault Fighters can be found by searching for "assaultfighter" without quotation marks, though I'm not positive; they have a listed ShipHullType of Small, which you could then change to Tiny. You may need to change some other things in e.g. ShipClassDefs.XML, though I'm not sure as thus far I have not tried modding fighters.

Interestingly enough, it seems as though all the ships in ShipClassDefs.XML that point to the AssaultFighter entry in ShipBlueprintDefs.XML think that the Assault Fighter is a tiny vessel; this might be something to report as a bug.

Thanks joeball123, that was exactly what I needed. Just tested it out, works fine.

And yes, upon reflection, having small fighters "upgrade" to tiny fighters via Carrier Focus would seem to indicate that the small-size assault fighters are in error.

edit: Just posted it as a possible bug in the Support section.

hi,

is there any way to use different design that i have built ? in xml is part which design it uses, but each time i check if carrier is using my design, it still using default one.

any ideas ?

regards.

If all you want to do is get fighters of your own design to be used, then edit the fighter blueprints in ShipBlueprintDefs.XML. If you want a specific faction to use a specific fighter design, then the process is somewhat more involved, and you will need to edit the class entries in ShipClassDefs.XML to point to different blueprints (so if I wanted the Terran Guardian Fighter to be a beam design while the Thalan Guardian Fighter were a missile design, I'd need to get the Terran Guardian Fighter class definition to point to a different blueprint than the Thalan Guardian Fighter class definition, say by creating a ThalanGFighter and a TerranGFighter blueprint in ShipBlueprintDefs.XML and editing the class definitions to point to those blueprints).

If what you're looking to do is change the appearance of the vessel, then I believe that is controlled by the ShipDesign line in the class definition; you will, however, need to have a valid hull to point at when you edit that line in the class definition.

Do you know how to create new references to fighter-like ships? I see how each faction has their fighter types all reference the component blueprints, but I can't see what actually calls the fighter designs in shipdefs in the first place. Carrier modules, starbase modules, the paranoid ability, and the colony fighter tech don't seem to name anything in the XML. Is this partially hard-coded?

Anything that adds fighters to something should be using a *FightersCap EffectType, with the value being the number of fighters granted. Assault and Escort Carrier Modules use AssaultFightersCap, which gives the Assault Fighter designated by the appropriate InitialAssaultFighter line in FactionShipStyleSetDefs.XML; Drone Carrier Modules, starbase fighter modules, the Paranoid ability, and Advanced Transport Modules use InterceptorFightersCap, which gives the Drone Interceptor designated by the appropriate InitialInterceptorFighter line in FactionShipStyleSetDefs; Guardian Carrier Modules use GuardianFightersCap, giving the Guardian Fighter designated by the appropriate InitialInterceptorFighter line in FactionShipStyleDefs; and there's an unused EsccortFightersCap which would give the Escort Fighter designated by the appropriate InitialEscortFighter line in FactionShipStyleDefs.

Joe means 'yes, it's partially hardcoded'. The types of the fightercap stat are defined in the schema and can't be modded.