Modding - Militia Ships?

What you're looking for is a very large list in the GalaxyScenarioDef.GalaxyScenarioDef file (its still in the GameInfo folder).

Double post

Thanks for the quick response. I'll look into it.

And don't forget the change the COUNT number above each list of ships. A common and annoying them to miss. I also recommend not using the Capital ships for militia (which you can, and they do sometimes work, but will cause random crashes on the mod startup).

Thanks for the tip. If the cap ships give me too much trouble, I'll just replace 'em.

EDIT - Just to clarify:
How does the naming procedure work exactly?
For example, if the item is a Colbalt, it says "Tech:Frigate:Light."
So, if the item is, let's say, Vasari Repair Platform, what would it say?
"Phase:Module:Repair"?
Where exactly does one find the term for the naming?

Look for "PlanetItemType" about a quarter through the file, and it gives a list of the galaxyscenariodef references (e.g Tech:Frigate:Light) and beneath it the entity file to which the reference refers

Sweet. Thanks again for your help, Terraziel.

Sorry for the double post, but what does the param statement under conditions do?
Sometimes it's a number (usually when under a "withchance" condition), and others it is a house name.
Does the number specify the percentage of chance that "withchance" condition happens? Or is it something else?

Yes, it has something to do with the chance of that group spawning. There is also separate groups for militia owned planets, so you can make the neutral colony have a huge fleet etc...

Best thing to do though, is have a play around and experiment with different values.

Is there a way to read the .dmp files the game writes when it crashes?
My changing of militia ships seems to get a crash every time. I think I have all the counters right (I did add a new planettemplate, but I changed that counter too).
There aren't any CapShips in any of the scenarios, and I have absolutely no idea what could be wrong (I even put it in an otherwise unchanged GameInfo folder, but no good).
So I'm hoping the .dmp files could tell me what is wrong (or maybe something else can?).

The dump files are, well, to put it bluntly, useless to us modders. Can you post a link to your GalaxyScenarioDef file please, I'll take a look, see what I can find.

Usually, dumps are the result of an incorrect definition.. either a typo, or an incorrect count. But yeah, if you post the relevant stuff that you changed, we may be able to help you

Yeah, it was just a small typo (noticed it after reading the thing like 10 times). Thanks guys.

I do have another question, though:
I notice the loading screens (when you start a game), the art on the screen is actually split into pieces. So when you are playing TEC, the TEC Admiral dude appears, whereas when playing Varsari, the alien appears, etc.
Where exactly does it specify the trigger for which picture to appear?

Should be the player entity files, I'll take a peek when I get home

I am home

Yep, Annatar was spot on. In the Player####.ENTITY files, about 2/3 of the way down there is a section that starts like this:

hudSkinData
. . . . . loadScreenCharacterBrush "LoadScreenCharacterTech"
. . . . . fleetIconCount 10
. . . . . fleetIcon "MainViewIconFleetTech0"
. . . . . fleetIcon "MainViewIconFleetTech1"
. . . . . fleetIcon "MainViewIconFleetTech2"...

Above it is the music data for the race, and the first line in hudSkinData, as you can see, is the character to use on the load screen. Now you would have to follow that in the Window Folder and find the right .BRUSHES file. Inside that would be the location and dimensions of the image to use for the character.

Ahh. Thanks. Can't believe I missed that.
Is there also a way to pick which "tips" are displayed at startup? Like race-specific ones? Or is that out of the question?

those are generic, no?

Yeh, Orange is right. I don't think you could do it without the final mod tools. You can change the tips easy I think, but not make them race specific.

Right, right, and right. Tips are just randomly picked, but you can edit the tips themselves in the English.str file

I changed mine to Confucius sayings.