Cool!

Gonna poke about it for a bit for you.

First thing, right off the bat, I see a folder called DLC.  I'd get rid of that and put everything in their normal Designs/GFX/Game/Whatever structure. I've been modding DLC content with my Generalized Tech Tree mods and I've never had to use a DLC folder inside a mod for it to modify files found from DLCs.

If not that?  Well, I'm still in the middle of downloadin GRM 3.0. Even if I don't need it, I still want to have it around before I poke about too much with your merc mod.

====

Speaking of which, ultra thumbs up at attempting this! I was hoping someone would.  I took a look at the merc structure a while back and there several places where mercenary ships are defined.  I only did a cursory glace though, so I couldn't tell you for sure where they all are.

...

Course, you're a MUCH better modder than I'll ever be, so perhaps I shouldn't even be giving advice.  

Well, that's interesting.  Installed the mod, removed the DLC file structure and put everything else in Designs and Gfx.  Started a game and had one custom merc available.  Was able to buy it.  Then went to the main menu, started a second game, and got a CTD when I attempted to talk to the mercenary guild.

Checking the debug.err file I see the following (slightly edited):

Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_BragosEmporium. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.

Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_Pansophicon. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_TheOlFortyNiner. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_BragosEmporium. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_Pansophicon. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_TheOlFortyNiner. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_BragosEmporium. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_Pansophicon. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_TheOlFortyNiner. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_BragosEmporium. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_Pansophicon. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_TheOlFortyNiner. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_BragosEmporium. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_Pansophicon. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_TheOlFortyNiner. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_BragosEmporium. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_Pansophicon. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_TheOlFortyNiner. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_BragosEmporium. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_Pansophicon. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.
Debug Message: Ship Design: Missing ship design for ship class static blueprint GRM_Ship_TheOlFortyNiner. Was this caused by pointing to a custom ship design? Blueprints must point to core or modded ships.

===========

Not sure of how much help this is, but I think I will boot into OSX (it's far easier for me to do deep dive on XMLs over there) and do some digging to see what, if anything, is missing.

I think I figured it out. I moved the ship design files from the mod area into the game's directory structure itself. I've done both under the general designs folder or the DLC/Designs folder and in either case, no crashes, no issues.

Just loaded and reloaded 9 games, no issues with selection or crash on speaking with the Bazaar.

So looks like you have to trick the game into thinking these designs are "Core".

This makes sense why things were working before too, originally I had put the designs in the directory (I have to do that for preview ships with shipssets too).

See if this works for you too, and I think we can call it done! Thanks for your help man!

Works! 

Don't know why it won't work by putting it in the Core directory of the mod (I tried), but whatevas.  If it works, it works.

Now the fun begins. 

Personally, I prefer ships if only for continuity of design.  But if it's extra hassle just go with the portraits.

Which, admittedly, does give a kinda Western "Wanted Dead or Alive" vibe.

I'm not very good at modding except for some very simple ones.

I was looking at files related to the Mercenaries and found one named MercenaryTierDefs.xml in the data\Game directory.  As its name indicates, it defines the number of ships you see in each tier when you go to the Bazaar.  I made a simple mod called My Mercenary Mod with a Game directory in it and copied the file into the Game directory.  I changed the default values for the number in each tier from 12/12/12 to 15/12/9, and it worked.  The default values give 3 rows of 4 ships in each tier.  With mine the first tier had 3 rows of 4 followed by a row with 3 from the first tier and one from the second tier.  The change from the second tier to the third also had a 3-and-1 split, so the non-standard values are handled without  a problem.

This means the number of Mercenary ship in each tier can be modded to whatever you want.

In today's stream, Derek said there are 72 Mercenary ships in the game, so I assumed it meant 24/24/24.  I found the file EXP1_MercenaryDefs.xml in the DLC\EXP1_Mercenaries\Game directory.  While looking through it I found that the actual number of ships is 26/24/22.  I didn't try to see what happens when the number in a tier in the MercenaryTierDefs.xml is more than is available.

I look forward to seeing and using what you much better modders come up with for the Mercenaries.

What? You don't think I can replace 72 ships and then give you another 72 just to tempt you to NOT use default designs?

WE'LL SEE!

Actually. Each Merc takes more file time than I care to admit lol.

@Old-Spider this is great news, as I'm tempted to increase these to max.

Just a question, why are you replacing the default mercs? That would put me off the mod personally, why not just make them additions?

Hey guys! 

I've launched a new add-on pack specifically for Mercenaries. I consider it in Beta, but its meaty enough now that you might want to try it out!

http://www.nexusmods.com/galacticcivilizations3/mods/18/?

The GRM-Mercenaries Pack:

20 Mercenaries added

Some use current designs from GRM

Some use modified designs from GRM

Some use totally new designs

Currently, the new mercs are doubly likely to show up compared to default mercs, and for the most part, they simply copy the abilities of existing mercs. Some, I have tweaked and generally added engines or components to play around. I make no pretense that anything is balanced or some such.

Suggestions are very welcome, as is reporting any typos.

Looking good after playing it for a while! 

My one issue (since I am one of the last people to ever comment on balance issues) is that the "LOCKED" message for some mercs can be hard to see.

Here is an example of what I am talking about:

There are others where I can barely see any letters at all.

Not sure what, if anything, you can do about it.  But I thot I should flag it for you in case you wanted to think about it.

(NOTE:  If that "LOCKED" is actually in a XML file somewhere and not hard coded, it should be possible to change its color as is done a few times in various text XMLs)

thanks!

The locked pictures should be grey and desaturated, maybe i missed one or two.