Noob question: no ship modding?

[Ameer Nuub]

I know you cannot choose anything but the skunk as your own personal ship, but is it not possible to mod all the surrounding ships to famous sci fi ships like in the previous X games?

[UniTrader]

possible yes, but also MUCH work.

[Ameer Nuub]

possible yes, but also MUCH work.

Awesome, thanks for the answer!

Will that be most likely never to change because of the fundamentals of the programming, or is there talk of it becoming easier in the future?

[YorrickVander]

It's more to do with how the models are constructed for the game engine (capital ships coming as kit parts sort of thing) and linked up with macros. Turrets, drone bays etc have to be placed correctly to function properly. The models then have to be exported to the correct format. If you have the artistic skill and the time to experiment, go for it

You should see Observe's tutorial on adding models to the game if you have not already.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=376472

[Ameer Nuub]

It's more to do with how the models are constructed for the game engine (capital ships coming as kit parts sort of thing) and linked up with macros. Turrets, drone bays etc have to be placed correctly to function properly. The models then have to be exported to the correct format. If you have the artistic skill and the time to experiment, go for it

Ahh, I see, thanks. I put in a bit toward modding previous titles and kind of like in previous X games where replacing actor dialog and video was totally possible but too much work, time, and skill resulting in it never being done, I'm guessing it will now be the same for custom ships in Rebirth. I know someone has made the BSG, but I would guess there would already be many more if that weren't the case, and I don't even see anyone pipe-dreaming about ships in the forums.

Ok then, well at least that prods me to decide to finally go ahead and start playing the game as is, instead of waiting for more big changes from initial launch.

Thanks! Really appreciate the answers!

[UniTrader]

well, from a theorhetical standpoint its easier than in the previous games, especially when you want to combine several mods (previous games needed some kind of Manager for that since only complete files could be replaced and all Ships were defined in a single file - XR on the other hand defines each Ship in a file of its own and also supports micro-changes on Files without replacing the whole file)

the point with the work is more in general for all modelling work - designing big ships with sufficient detail takes weeks to months, and when you re-use existing models it is still enough work to make the Rebirth-specific fine-tuning, like placing Turrets and other necesary surface Systems. In previous games the limit was iirc 72 Weapon Slots (which wher iirc mostly invisible, so just Position and Orientation has to be correct), in XR the Arawn has 122 Weapon Systems which are all visible, and also there are some other systems not included there (Radar for example)