- But I have a job.
On an unrelated note,
- What does the fmodex.dll file (in the main GSB directory) do?
- Is there any way to place turrets other than manually editing the text files?
I haven’t a clue – sorry.
If you’re using the Windows version of GSB, there is an official but incomplete and somewhat craptastic hull editor app that gives you some GUI goodness to speed up the tedium. Caution: the app is unrelaible and enjoys crashing randomly, taking your unsaved work along with it. 
Thanks.
Sorry if I’m being dense, but where would I find this editor?
YOU MUST HAVE THE WINDOWS EDITION OF THE GAME TO MAKE THE HULL-EDITOR FUNCTION.
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Go to your desktop shortcut for GSB.
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Right-click for its properties.
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Within that pop-up, look at the little text window that shows you the directory path which points from that shortcut to GSB.exe itself.
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Type “-editor” (just that text, not the quotation marks!) at the very end of that text string, making sure that you did so outside of any quotation marks you may already see in that one-line text window. This enables the app to function. It is also the step that the greatest number of modders are confused by.
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If everything was typed accurately, the very next time you start the game FROM THE SHORTCUT, you should have a new button along the bottom of the game’s main window. This button will be labelled “Hull Editor”.
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Before loading a hull into the editor, make sure to duplicate the textfile for that original hull. IIRC, the editor actually alters the active files within your installed copy of the game. Avoid messing up your official ships!
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Only work on ONE hull at a timer with this erratic little editor! As soon as you are done mutating your current victim, make sure to save your work before opening a new hull to edit.
I’m not the best person to ask for advice on the preferred/recommended usage & techniques of the hull editor, so you should consult a few other veteran modders in order to get the benefit of their experiences, too.
Hah, I never even knew about that method, Astro. I did some Google-Fu a while back, and I found a DDS GUI editor that’s really handy. I don’t know who made it, or even where I got it from, but it sounds a lot easier than the in-house editing method. For one, it won’t automatically overwrite your files, though it’s still pretty buggy in and of itself. Like sometimes it won’t permit you to put down sub-turrets. (You can get around that by saving the text file and the reopening it.)
DDS Viewer.rar (45.3 KB)
Credit for the DDS editor go to WarlockD
[BETA] Easy Turrent Ship Editor - Maybe final
WarlockD wrote the editor in C++ and about a year ago he sent the source code to anyone that wanted it.
So.
I have discovered, after about a week of failure, that perhaps I should stick to ship spices.
Rogue Traders may or may not get picked up at a later point.
I’m going to make new thread to post my stuff in - various ships, stations etc.
Thanks for all your help and encouragement - I have learned a lot, so one day I hope to actually finish a mod.
SCRATCH THAT
BACK ON TRACK
YEAH!
To all DDS editors:
Instead, I’m using a 256x256 grid overlaid on the cruiser and mapping the points on that before manually editing the hull file. So that’s some progress with learning how to do stuff. Explosions remain a mystery to me, but that’s about all.
That sounds hard… why you dont try the in-game editor??? You just have to make the first part of the code with the basic info and then you can just open the editor and put everything were you want… After that you can edit explosions, engine glows, pulse glows or tractor beams with just copy/pasting/editing at the old way, in my recent experience with tractor beams found that using running lights as “markers” and using their coordinates i can easily add a tractor beam without even open the game to check them, after finishing the hull i delete the extra “marker” lights and tah dah! New hull to blow up!
EDIT: The explosions are actually pretty easy to understand, if you want to give them a try just use the Experim3nt4l Mod of Sirjamon as example, copy the huge but awesome code section that have all the big ships of that mod and edit them, the result are EPIC explosion sequences, if you are seeing this Sirjamon, i’m grateful with you, your stuff helped me a lot to understand how works many parts of the codes, now i can make them by myself, adding more epicness to PI Mod =D
I’d like to weigh in on the “manually editing the hull file” side of things. Yes, manually editing is not the fastest or easiest way to do it. And it’s certainly not for everyone. But in my modding efforts, manually editing the files has helped me understand what the various bits do, what I can safely leave out, what I cannot leave out in any circumstances, etc. far better than any slick editor would have.
I’m just saying, deciding to do it the hard way does have its benefits. 
I can’t get it to work. At all.
No matter what I tack on at the end of the shortcut. I tried “-editor” inside and outside the shortcut bit. Any help?
Yeah, I’m finding that too. Still, it’s slow. Whatever. I only have four ships to do.
Wait… No… IT WORKS! YES!
I got the DDS viewer to work. VERY PLEASED.
I’m assuming that you mean the official in-game Hull Editor is now functional for you, yes? If so, congratulations. 
No, WarlockD’s one. I still can’t make the in game one work. But this makes everything about a thousand times easier.
As long as it’s easier for you, it’s all good - regardless of which of the two you’re relying upon.
Redesigned the Equity. Which version do you guys like better?
Mk 1:
Mk 2:
Mk 2.5:
mk2 but with the nacelles of mk1
I think I still prefer the Mk 1.
Definitely the Mark 1.
2 & 3 look far too much like a simple kit-bash, also implying that not much thought or time went into them. The exact opposite could be true, but the results strongly imply this. The addition of several clusters of Rebel antenna masts just can’t hide that this is little more than the front half of one ship glued to the back half of another ship.
By comparison, 1 is not only a noticeably more complex design, but it’s also a fusion of Fed and Rebel construction that’s much more pleasing to the eye. I think you should concentrate more upon your original trend of literally mixing and exchanging somewhat smaller parts & hull sections together. The Mark 1 was a nice starting example of this. It’s more visually distinctive and it also makes the resulting ships more impressive to behold.
Besides, I figure that if the Rogue Traders are able to capture that supply depot intact and then basically declare themselves independent of both the Rebels and the Federation, then they certainly have the resources to hire a talented starship architecht to design 'em, and master shipwrights to program the construction docks to build more of 'em. 