Sorry to insist with the same question here and on the NExus, but will you upload an update or new instructions for the "cant see ships in the Race Screen" thing that I see some of us have trouble with?

Hi there!

1.2 Released.

Adds the Lythian Expanse shipset and custom race.

Fixes the preview ships issue.

Changes the installation, so that the vast majority of files are NOT in the game directory. The only remaining game directory files are for the ship preview issue.

It is EXTREMELY recommended that you uninstall the previous version of the mod first. This will ensure you do not end up with weird extra files and such.

THANKS!

Here is the new shipset!

Hey there thanks!

First question... did you uninstall the previous edition of the mod?

Second question... did you add the ships under "game directory/designs/startup" to the apropriate folder in your GC3 installation?

Third question... did you replace all the custom factions with the new versions?

The new version should instantly allow you to see the ships in preview if applied correctly. Also thank you for letting me know that this faction is set to blank, I totally forgot about that... I suppose I'll update that later lol.

Also the crystals will eventually get some more background, I imagine they are very cryptic, but really like to laugh... even when they are removing your liver without anesthetic.

I'm still in the process of thinking through the various stories for each race... one thing that I believe, is that the Benevolent/Pragmatic/Malevolent isn't grey enough for my tastes.

I'd prefer something like:

Balance: Those who seek harmony and balance are conservative, but know how to get the most out of a situation. Terraforming benefits, morale benefits, but science drawbacks (as new tech brings new conflict), diplomatic bonuses, as well as some great defensive military bonuses.

Dominance: The universe is ours for the taking, but only if we rise to the occasion. Great at military production, science, and offensive invasion ability, but very weak on trade, economy, and diplomacy.

Attainment: Selfish to the end, great at trade, industry, economy, but no direct science or military bonuses.

Then maybe on top of this layer, I would have a "good/evil/pragmatic". For example, the Crystals sound good... but actually, they value harmony, are incredibly patient, and think of their actions as a "song". Songs have crescendos, bombast, moments of clarity, and also quiet. Their songs may take centuries, and their high conductors are their leaders.

So while they befriend, and bestow technological wonders to a primitive race, it may well be their intent to build them up before tearing them down in a fit of madness and gluttony for destruction. Some songs are tranquil, some are tumultuous, all must find their end in silence. Equilibrium.

So yeah... they are definitely going to have a dark side lol.

Only some windows in GalCiv3 scroll and its not something modders can control, they either are set to scrollable in the Screens folder's XML files or they aren't and editing those files does jack all.

The idea of having blank ship styles is great Gauntlet but I think you will need to leave them out to make room to fit the style select window.

In other news, and expand on what I was talking about earlier, I think I'll work on a add-on mod that redoes the ideologies to suit my tastes and my custom races here...

These will all have both benefits and PENALTIES as you select traits, I've listed the very basic advantage/disadvantage relationships, but it will be pretty nuanced in the end. Also, its worth noting that all three will have starbase advantages as well. Under each branch is four categories/themes following this archetype: 

1. Simple advantage
2. Long term ideal
3. Emotional quality
4. Side effect/dark side quality

Balance and Order, Jun-Jilar, Minzari Communes, Lythian Expanse

Benefits: Terraforming, morale, culture. Penalties: Science and Wealth

1. Development
2. Harmony
3. Dignity
4. Conservatism

Survival and Dominance, Terran Sovereignty, Kirani Hierarchy, Ronar Confederacy

Benefits: Industry, soldiering, ships. Penalties: Morale and Diplomacy

1. Advancement
2. Survival
3. Honor
4. Arrogance

Reason and Attainment, Veygar Hordes, Fulgar Tradeholes, Zerhan Nexus, Turan Raiders

Benefits: Wealth, diplomacy, star-bases, but generally no specializations. Penalties: Little bit of everything, little bit of nothing.

1. Growth
2. Rationalism
3. Freedom
4. Greed

None of these are "good" and none of these are "evil", per-se. For example, under Reason and Attainment, which values individuality, freedom, and wealth, the Fulgar are pretty nice, the Zerhan are ultimate and heartless capitalists, the Turan Raiders are brutal (but need to be) and the Veygar might be violent, but they are penultimate individualists as well. These are your rogues with hearts of gold, and policemen with corrupt pockets.

The survival and dominance are sometimes brutal and willing to do whatever it takes, like the Terran Sovereignty, but they have concepts of honor and pride like the Ronar and Kirani.

Balance and order, might be good at achieving balance with nature on their planets and maintaining a happy stable society, but do so at the price of dynamism and will have some decent "aggressive" bonuses that are not limited to culture either.

At any rate, any interest in this concept? Critique and ideas very welcome! 

The mouse wheel scroll doesn't work for me so I just parked the blanks in another folder for the time being. I wasn't using the blank setting anyway. 

Ahh very cool idea, I hadn't really given any thought to overhauling the ideology system.

Good thinking, looks like you are keeping the key traits like reduced shipyard decay which is good because alot of folks specifically use some of those as stratrgic linchpins, I know I do.

Personally I like traits and such that have both pluses and minuses, give them character, makes it less a matter of just choosing one straight bonus over another.

I would uninstall the mod, ensure things operate, (and if not, do a clean reinstall of the whole game). Then try again.

Anyone else having a problem with saving templates and getting their icons as black/blank... It used to happen rarely, but now it seems to happen all the time, and generally is permanent (ship templates, I'm not talking about custom components.)

PS: I should note, the same designs save with a correct thumbnail when saving as a normal design and not a template. I've worked around the issue, by then using those thumbnail files and renaming them as such to replace the template thumbnails that are produced blank...

But that is a big annoyance.

Gotchya, thanks for the heads! 

ALSO newwww Preview Video of an upcoming shipset!

Only 4 of your races are appearing for me. I've gone over the installation process a few times now but I can't get the rest to appear in game. Any ideas?