overview of modding

[luke83]

Hello,
 Never modded SMAC before, where do i start, what can and cant be changed...Basically looking for a how to guide to show me the way...

[Flux]

The simplest thing to do currently is factions I believe.
And there is plenty of people here (myself included) who could help you with that.
Patches can also be done.

[luke83]

Ok modding factions sounds like a nice start...

what programs do i need, i have found the built in faction modder, is that the best option?

Still have some questions:
How can i mod a graphic set ( base views and faction leader)? - What program should i use?
Can the unit graphics be adjusted?

[Flux]

Okay, you should use GIMP.
Only use the built in faction program to set the base of the faction up. (gender, bonuses)
GIMP is for modifying the graphics.
Use Ford_Prefects CVR colorizer to color units. This isn't part of a faction, though. The tutorials by BUncle in graphics are really helpful, thats how I learned. Start experimenting by changing faction leader heads for any faction you want. Be sure to back up the original. I'll start showing you how and answering more questions soon.
School today.
In addition, welcome to AC2!

[Flux]

Putting together a little tut, standby.

[Flux]

Some of the very basics.
Once you have GIMP, download the file at the bottom of this post. I included some minor pointers. If you don't like the big "FLUX" I wrote on it, you can just take it out with a purple paint bucket.
Okay, so I open up the file that is in my "AC2 Assets" folder:
I look inside, take your drone rank picture, and paste it into the Blank.pcx with Ctrl+V:
After that, I move it into the  "Leader Image 1" box and scale it up to fill the entire thing:
And now we have our dictator in all his glory.
Experiment with putting different things into the other boxes. We can do bases once you've put together the rest of this.