Can anyone tell me how I go about modding EaW? There is alot of info in this forum on specific mods but I don't know where to begin. I haven't done any modding ever but so far it looks like I need to extract the files from the config.meg file, but where do I get the extractor? After that are there any other files that need extracting?

Also, it would be nice if someone could start a thread for modding EaW for those of us you haven't modded anything before. Someone who is experienced in modding because its a little overwhleming when I go into this forum and the unoffical petroglyph forum and yet there is no beginners thread to modding.

Try the stickied thread at the top of the forum, there's a link there to the program you need to extract config.meg. After that it would help to have a specific question: no one can tell you how to do something without knowing what it is you are trying to do.

Ok.

I want to increase the damage dealt by the hyper-velocity gun. The Ion Cannon takes out shields and engines completely and for a long time so it seems like compared to that the HVG is weak. I would have the gun destory a Nebulon-B in one shot.

Excellent. In situations such as this one thing you might want to consider is that weakening the Ion Cannon would be an alternative(whether its better or worse I'll leave to your own choice) way to balance the situation. But, how to change the damage from the hyper-velocity gun?

Assuming you've extracted Conifig.meg you want to go to the GameData/Data/XML directory and here you'll see all the XML files. Pick any text editor(I use notepad), and open the file titled SPECIALSTRUCTURES.XML. In here you find entries for the Ion Cannon, Hypervelocity Gun, Gravity Well Generator, etc. Look about a third of the way down, or search using the Find command, for:

<SpecialStructure Name="Ground_Empire_Hypervelocity_Gun">

This is the section you are looking for. Now assuming you only want to increase its damage, not how much it costs or what is required to build it or how long it takes to build or how often it fires, etc(all of which you can do here), you want the projectile type, which is listed as ...

<Projectile_Types>Proj_Hypervelocity_Gun</Projectile_Types>

Then you need to traipse over to PROJECTILES.XML and do a search for Proj_Hypervelocity_Gun to check out the damage it does. When you do you'll find this:

<Projectile_Damage>300.0</Projectile_Damage>

Okay, it does 300 points of damage per shot. You want it to take out a Nebulon-B frigate in one shot, so you need to go to SPACEUNITSFRIGATES.XML to find out exactly how much damage that would require. The Nebulon-B is easy to find: its the first ship in the file. Two things concern you here: Shield and Health values. It just so happens that the Nebulon has 700 Shield Points and 3600 Health points. So therefore the Hyper-Velocity Gun must do at least 4300 to kill it in one shot. So I'd go back to PARTICLES.XML, then change the damage there(as shown above) from 300 to roughly 4500. Then I'd test it in-game to see if it worked.

I made this a bit long-winded to show a bit of the process. The best way to learn to mod is to try to make a small change(this is a good example of one, but some are even more easy). Then go into the game and see if it works: if not then try something else and change it back. Eventually you get a good feel for what works and what doesn't, you can try changing different values to test for what effect it has, etc. Above all, dive into the XML files to get a feel for what looks interesting, what types of things you can do, etc. There's quite a lot that can be done already, more than I expected and it sure kicks the arse out of any other LA product I've looked at modding.

Excellent. In situations such as this one thing you might want to consider is that weakening the Ion Cannon would be an alternative(whether its better or worse I'll leave to your own choice) way to balance the situation. But, how to change the damage from the hyper-velocity gun?

Assuming you've extracted Conifig.meg you want to go to the GameData/Data/XML directory and here you'll see all the XML files. Pick any text editor(I use notepad), and open the file titled SPECIALSTRUCTURES.XML. In here you find entries for the Ion Cannon, Hypervelocity Gun, Gravity Well Generator, etc. Look about a third of the way down, or search using the Find command, for:

<SpecialStructure Name="Ground_Empire_Hypervelocity_Gun">

This is the section you are looking for. Now assuming you only want to increase its damage, not how much it costs or what is required to build it or how long it takes to build or how often it fires, etc(all of which you can do here), you want the projectile type, which is listed as ...

<Projectile_Types>Proj_Hypervelocity_Gun</Projectile_Types>

Then you need to traipse over to PROJECTILES.XML and do a search for Proj_Hypervelocity_Gun to check out the damage it does. When you do you'll find this:

<Projectile_Damage>300.0</Projectile_Damage>

Okay, it does 300 points of damage per shot. You want it to take out a Nebulon-B frigate in one shot, so you need to go to SPACEUNITSFRIGATES.XML to find out exactly how much damage that would require. The Nebulon-B is easy to find: its the first ship in the file. Two things concern you here: Shield and Health values. It just so happens that the Nebulon has 700 Shield Points and 3600 Health points. So therefore the Hyper-Velocity Gun must do at least 4300 to kill it in one shot. So I'd go back to PARTICLES.XML, then change the damage there(as shown above) from 300 to roughly 4500. Then I'd test it in-game to see if it worked.

I made this a bit long-winded to show a bit of the process. The best way to learn to mod is to try to make a small change(this is a good example of one, but some are even more easy). Then go into the game and see if it works: if not then try something else and change it back. Eventually you get a good feel for what works and what doesn't, you can try changing different values to test for what effect it has, etc. Above all, dive into the XML files to get a feel for what looks interesting, what types of things you can do, etc. There's quite a lot that can be done already, more than I expected and it sure kicks the arse out of any other LA product I've looked at modding.

If you have any other questions that you can't figure out I'll be happy to help. Keep in mind though that you'll know how to do things much better and be a better modder by figuring it out yourself: hopefully this example will speed you on that road.