Vamphaery

Why Stardock and the GalCiv series have earned my trust and patronage in Galactic Civilizations II GalCiv2 Forums

Stardock Central and GalCiv II have been nothing but a delight and a borderline obsession for me since the day I installed their software, but there are reasons above and beyond that which have earned them a special place in my game collection and future purchasing plans. I'm sure there are already too many "dev love" threads around here, but I would be remiss not to speak on Stardock's increasingly rare business ethic when it has been a real diamond in the rough as far as my personal experience

Reply to Aegis Wing for for XBOX LIVE in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

[Enter Sarcastic Mode]I can only imagine how overjoyed Mr. Brodie must be that the mention of software he worked on by the company he interned for has spawned a platform vs platform and market priority flame war. I'm sure he isn't too busy being relieved and proud that something he worked on will gain some modicum of penetration and exposure due to being available via Xbox Live to notice how happy people are about its mention here on the GalCiv2 front page.[Exit Sarcastic Mode] He worke

Reply to Tell us what you'd like in Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar 1.6! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

This is a minor detail, but I'd love to be able to continue playing after attaining a victory. This might not make sense with certain victory types (technological victory springs to mind,) but it would be nice, even if no more scores were compiled. It would also be great if we could see the influence our victory had on the galaxy in subsequent gameplay. For example, a diplomatic victory could earn us even more diplomatic popularity and savvy in other civs' eyes. Something like Civ IV's

Reply to Invisible AI ships using a custom ship style in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Right; I'm making sure when I design them that I would be able to aply enough components to be godly with all the techs, and sufficiently strong at the start of the game, if need be, before saving them. These components really are helpful, though. So far the AI is puting up a good fight. It will take some tweaking of course, but it helps a great deal to shape the appearance and feel of the ships.

Reply to Invisible AI ships using a custom ship style in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I just wanted to add, for those who don't know and who may be looking at this thread and the one it links to for answers to the same questions I asked: Kryo's mod (to which he linked in an above post) provides ship components with no hard points that allow you to cover hard points on ships you've made, forcing the AI to only attach functional modules, weapons, engines, etc. to remaining hard points. Initially I thought it would be useful but not a prerequisite to my enjoyment of the ships I was

Reply to Invisible AI ships using a custom ship style in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Wow. I feel really stupid now LOL. I cannot believe I didn’t see that the “create custom ship style” button wasn’t grayed out anymore. Seriously, this may be tmi, but for the last month or two, simple things like this boggle my mind as if I'm suddenly a five year old or something. I'm actually considering mentioning it to my doctor, as I seem to have increasing difficulty concentrating. Of course, that could simply be how addicting this game is lol. Thank-you VERY much. All ships are no

Reply to Invisible AI ships using a custom ship style in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Well, I really hate to say this, but... the ships are still invisible lol. I started a new game, and selected only a single race as an opponent (The Borg Collective.) I clicked the "Edit" button, and made sure Borg Style was selected as the style, and saved the race. Once in the game, I (as the Terran Alliance) purchased a Scout M0-17 from the Borg Collective, and it was invisible. I purchased two more ships, and they too were invisible. <img src="http://images.stardock.com/gc2/T_DL/smiles/Sad.

Reply to Invisible AI ships using a custom ship style in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Oh, I just selected the Borg Collective that was available there, assuming it would have retained the Borg Style I chose for it when I played as them. I thought since it was saved, it would have saved those configuration settings as well. I take it AI and player controlled settings for those things are separate then? I'll make sure to remember that! Is there a way to prevent the game from making two Borg Collectives? It seems to create two; the one I made that I played as, and the new one I conf

Reply to Invisible AI ships using a custom ship style in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

Oh I'm glad it's something simple. Thank-you! So, how does one configure templates to be used by AI in a custom ship style? Do I just enter the template name (i.e. CubeDesign_t) in the appropriate field in the Borg Style.xml ? And what mod are you referring to? If there's a mod that can do that (limit where AI attached modules) it would certainly be a plus. Thanks again!

Reply to Invisible AI ships using a custom ship style in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

I can't believe I thought your name was KYRO all this time LOL. I swear I'm going blind. OK, sure thing, and thanks again. If it will still let me, I'll change your name to Kryo in my above post lol.

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Sure thing (I posted one.) Again, I thank-you for all your assistance. It is appreciated, and exceeds what I'm used to from the staff, moderators, and other related personnel of the official forums for almost all other games that have earned my patronage over the years. If nothing else, this has given me a much firmer grasp of the directory structure of the game and the relationships between the different files types therein!

Invisible AI ships using a custom ship style in Bug Reports GalCiv2 Forums

In the course of assisting me with this issue, Kryo has asked that I create a new thread in this forum. For reference, and should it be required, the thread in which that happened is in the external link I included when I created this thread. It is located at the very end of the thread and listed as "Link." Please refer to it if necessary. I wanted to create a custom ship style and ships for a custom race that would guarantee that all ships created by AI controlling that race would adhe

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

By the way - I might have noticed this sooner had I not been so pleased with the success of this method from the player perspective - but AI ships remain invisible, as it turns out. I've tried two or three things to correct this. 1) I created templates and ships with the names of the default ships (like HvyFighter, Frigate, etc.) for the Borg Style and saved them appropriately.

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Just so you know, so far with just this basic information, I've been able to create Starfleet, the Borg, Romulans, Klingons, and Vulcans. I've also read some more elsewhere and managed to make all of this into a mod I can enable or disable in the mod options at will, and was able to rename some of the techs accordingly in that mod. This probably all sounds unoriginal and redundant given the excellent trek mod already being worked on, but I like making things myself. It's part of the fun

Reply to UGO Gives Dark Avatar an A! in GalCiv II News GalCiv2 Forums

DA is just a great package. It's one of those rare expansions (just like DL was one of those rare games) where everything just works, there's no (or few) hassles involved, everything you want is present and easy to access, and the deceptively intuitive interface gives way to enormous depth the deeper you choose to dig. On top of that it allows for endless customization. The only reasons I could possibly think of for not loving DA are a lack of interest in strategy games, or a predilection for re

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

That's more that good enough. I wouldn't want core ships to do anything other than their intended basic functions anyway, since that's what they're there for. ^_^ Thanks again! I can't wait to play with this all day now lol. I've seen you help A LOT of people, and exhibit great patience in so doing. I hope you know it is not unnoticed or taken for granted, at least not by me. Thanks.

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Ah! Ships copied from S0 core ships renamed with the prefix "BORG_" are now visible in the game, no matter how many new games I start, and the files remain in the directory whether they are read-only or not. Thank-you! So, assuming that's solved, am I correct in thinking that I should be able to copy and paste the text in custom ships config files into those files and save them, to customize the

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Alright. Don't go out of your way or anything. I'll experiment too, and post any successful ways to do it I find. It's fun messing around with regardless of the setbacks.

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Well, that prevented the files from being erased, but the ships still appear invisible in the game. I noticed that despite the prefix of the file name being changed to BORG_, the internal prefixes in the file itself (things that say “dummy” etc. and list individual components) remain S0. Could that be part of the problem? (I know nothing about this so that may not even be a logical question lol.) In addition, the S0 style ship now appears in the Appearance tab for the custom race itself (whereas

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

My apologies; one more problem! It worked the first time, but upon starting a second new game, the initial ships were once again invisible. I tried copying all of the S0 prefixed core ships (Colony, Space Miner, Constructor, and Survey) to my ships folder as you described, changed their prefix to BORG, and started another game to see if this fixed the problem. Then something really odd happened. Not only were they invisible in the game, but when I went back to look in my ships folder, t

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Oh, I see. The game just looks for a configuration file with the correct name, so I can just copy a ship I've created into a file with that name. It works! Thanks for your patience and assistance. It is greatly appreciated.

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Alright, that makes perfect sense, and it works. Thanks. Is there a way to modify those initial ships so that they always appear as custom templates? It says I can't change core ships. Or is that the only caveat? Lol. In either case, thanks a million again!

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

P.S. I have noted one problem, however. I didn't notice it at first because I was too busy creating the new ships. The default core ships are now invisible. Is there a way around this? Thanks again!

Reply to Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Thank-you very much! This is pretty delightful stuff. With this, I can essentially create "mod-like" gameplay for myself without actually modding anything (more or less.) With some .png icons and what not I could go nuts without doing much work. And I thought the in-game options gave us lots of customization as it was! It hasn’t seemed this easy to be creative (in my own limited way, at least) since Civ 2 MPGE (it was so easy to make Star Wars scenarios and what not in that game.) <

Limiting basic ships to custom races? in Modding GalCiv2 Forums

Hello. Before I ask these questions, I'd like to apologize in advance. I know how it is to be continuously battered by repeated questions that have likely already been answered time and time again, and I certainly don't wish to add to the onslaught. I've read the available tutorials and numerous posts on modding, however I'm not particularly adept when it comes to applying broad, over-arching explanations to very specific or simple practical implementation, and so am left with some ques