Skinning System

Everything in the "Content" directory tree is customizable by players, to make your own skin you should make a new folder in the "Content" directory which has any name you want. The client will automatically detect any skins you have, and will load them in an alphabetical order, taking any modifications that come first. Eg, if I have a skin named A and one Z, and both have modifications editing the galaxy map in, the galmap from A would be used. Default is automatically the lowest priority in loading skins.

You don't have to put every file in your skin directory tree. Only put the files that you change and their appropriate index files (game_data\images.xml, UI\XML\root.xml, etc). The client will automatically look for your files first, then if a file isn't in that tree, it will fetch it from the default tree.

Don't edit any files in the default tree, as those will get overwritten when you patch. Instead, make your own skin directory and copy the file there and make your modification there. That way, when you patch, you won't lose any of your modifications.

Almost everything the Star Sonata 2 client uses is in the Content tree and is thus skinnable by players, include UI layout, graphics, models, textures, etc.

Once you're done with your modifications, the client can read and unpack modifications from a compressed zip file, in this case the file is the directory in Content. The file path should look like something like this overall: Content/MyMod.zip/Textures/Ships/SuperCoolShipTexture.png

Post anything you have made for other players to use, use the Client Modification section of the forum. Include a few screenshots and a download link to a compressed (.zip is suggested) file of your mod.

To submit proposed changes / tweaks to the official UI, please paste a before and after screenshot, so we can see what the changes you made are, and a similar zip with the changed files.