I just got back into this recently and want to do some modding. A lot of modding. So I have a ton of questions.

1. How do I change the space debris thats flying around?

2. I wanna change some base interiors, how do I add them?

3. When you leave a base with a mission and the text scrolls talking about you're mission, I'd like to change the font a little and slow down how fast it scrolls by, how?

Thats the 2 major ones off the top of my head, I figure they should be easy and if I can do them thats a good way to start, but I have tons more. I'd like to keep the screen the same where you buy/sell/repair, but I'd like to change the screens where you take missions to look more like the merchant comp, merc comp, mission comp.

And I wanna change the standard Tarsus one day. It's butt ugly.

I realy reallly really wanna polish this game up Completely gung-ho about it with nothing but time on my hands and rdy to learn.

Welcome, Ebenezer.
Of all your questions, the only one I can half-answer is the base interiors.
Look for them under /sprites/bases
Find the one you want to change. Rename the file to backup_somebase.png, then substitute your own texture, with the same name.
Be sure to keep it to the same size and format. Textures have to have power of two sizes as a videocard requirement, but the used
portion of the texture has a VGA ratio; the rest is filled in with black. Some of those textures, however, have been stretched to
1024x1024, and then the spr file edited to stretch the texture to fill the screen.

And, I don't want to dampen your enthusiasm, but just beware that it may take some time to get to know the way to do things with
the vegastrike engine. Rather than plan half a dozen things you want to improve, I'd pick one and go at it day and night until it's
finished, then take on another. Speaking of which, I should take my own advice...

OK well project 1 is done, fixed the space dust to look MUCH better.

Changed a planet texture here and there.

Got the room where you can buy centurians and such to look much much better.

got all the upgrades and stuff to look much better in the buying menu.

Having a problem with base interiors though, glad you replied thatll help a lot I hope. Seems like I can't get some to display right, or I can't get some animations to land in the right place.

I'm trying specifically to do the radar upgrade room 1st and it ain't going well. The original jpg is 512x256 and the one I want to replace it with is 512x512, and I just can't seem to get it working right. Tried editing the spr file a little, I could really use a good brief rundown of how they work or what command I could put in there to fix the image scaling/placement.

Hi Ebenezer...
I'm curious, where did you change this?
Most likely in vegastrike.config
So you made new textures? Really, don't hesistate to share them with PU if you'd like to make them available to public. We don't have any 2D artworkers in team!!
The images are drawn as backgrounds and get a python "map" overlapped. Those maps have coordinates with sorta "hyperlinks" to other rooms. So if you change the resolution only a bit, the game might "move" the rooms e.g. to the right. I assume this is what you're talking about, right?
First of all, the game uses PNGs not JPGs, so if you don't get the image displayed, try to convert it to PNG. Second, be aware that the image is only being positioned in the upper left corner. Obviously it needs this to be able to rescale in various resolutions. Make sure you duplicate this method. Third, the room layout coordinates are stored within the various python files, for example /bases/unit.py is for the refinery:


This is the link which loads the entry to the Merchant's Guild. I've marked the relevant values for you.
Red = Position of the link in x (0.03 = nearly in the middle of the x-axis)
Orange = Position of the link in y (0.093 = slightly above of y=0)
Note that the positions are being drawned on a cross:

...............I +1 y...
...............I...........
...............I...........
...............Ix.........
.-1 --------+-------- +1 x
...............I...........
...............I...........
...............I...........
...............I -1 ......

The plus is the center of your image. The x shows where the link is being generated, approximately.
Blue = Length of the link in 100*% of the image (0.22 = 22%)
Violet = Height of the link in 100*% of the image

I didnt make any of the sprites i'm importing, I'm just using the ones from GG.

So far I successfully changed over the space debris (which is space_dust 1 and 2 in the animations folder)

Successfully changed over the tarsus (YAY!) and a few other "units" from GG

Successfully changed over all upgrade and commodity pics

Successfully changed over the shipdealer room (where you buy Centurians and Orions) [this is the only room i've gotten to work]

All those were easy just copy/paste.

In the few minutes it took to do all that, it's like playing a whole different game. Just needs love on getting the rest of the bases incorporated mostly and it'll be close to a work of art. I don't know why that shipdealer room worked on the 1st try and the other rooms won't, I tried messing with the values in the spr file but I just don't get it. And I figure if I can get the hi-res pics and their appropriate animations to display right then I shouldnd't have to touch the coordinates in the py files at all. (Until later )