How to use fan-made WC ship editors?

Ijuin

Admiral
I have downloaded the various editor programs for WC ships that are available in the CIC files section, but I have absolutely no idea how to implement the ship stats that I create. Can somebody tell me what I need to do?
 
We can help, but only if you provide more details. What game are you trying to edit, what program you're using, what ship you want to change, and what the problem is.
 
I am using the Wing Commander 2/Academy Ship Editor , the Wing Commander 4 Ship Editor, and the WCPEdit ship editor (these are the ones available for download in the CIC files section--I do not recall who made them, however).

I have been able to use the editors to alter ship statistics and save them, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to load them into the games--the new files just sit there and I don't know how to connect them to the appropriate objects.tre files.
 
For WC2/A, copying the modified ships into the \GAMEDAT folder should be enough (note however that this will not affect the 'special loadout' versions of the ships - these are stored separately in a file called altships.dat (I think) ).

For WC4, I have no idea at all. I've never bothered editing that game.

For WCP/SO, it's a matter of placing the saved ships inside the \SHIPS folder (if necessary, create the folder). However, WCP by default checks the TRE files first - this means that you need to hack the relevant TRE file so the game does NOT find the ship there and instead checks the \SHIPS folder. All in all, you're much better off editing SO.
 
A hex editor. Open up the relevant TRE file, search for the name of the file you're trying to replace, and rename it inside the TRE file, so that when the game searches for it, it doesn't find it and goes for the one you want it to use, instead.
 
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