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How To Create The 3 New Classes & Npc Skins


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Since we have gone to beta a lot of new players have come into the game and I thought it would be a good time to update the method of creating a new toon/the 3 new classes and npc skin based toons.

First step is to go to www.net-7.org and under Main click on it and open downloads. You will need the startship creator.exe. It's in the download list.

I typically install it into the game install folder ( when asked for a location just target your game install folder it'll take care of the rest).

When you have it installed there is a few things you need to do first.

And that starts the next section. Vista/7 users first then all windows users then the actual steps to making a new avatar.

All right for the preliminaries windows xp users can skip this part I'll add you back in a paragraph or two later on.

Number 1... Vista/7 users this is for you only.

Open your Starship And Character Creator folder (where you installed it to) and find the Character and Starship Creator.exe.

Right click this and click properties/ then click the compatibility tab/click "Run this program in compatibility mode for" ( check the box) select windows xp pro service pack 3

Second step is to click at the bottom "run as administrator" check the box click apply then okay.

Okay windows xp users you can follow along now.

Step 2 While in the Starship and Chracter creator folder right click the Character and Starship Creator.exe and create a shortcut.

Step 3 Save the shortcut to a place you will remember it.

Step 4 Right click the shortcut you just made and click properties and find the target line.

Step 5 In the target line is some text like this "U:\Earth & Beyond\Character and Starship Creator\Character and Starship Creator.exe" ( I have my game installed to a drive other then the default one) what you want to do is add a space after then .exe" and add the text -noclassrestrictions and make the target line like this "U:\Earth & Beyond\Character and Starship Creator\Character and Starship Creator.exe" -noclassrestrictions you must have the space after the exe" if you don't it wont work.

Click apply and okay.

Now comes the fun part

Step 6 Fire up the starship creator with the modified shortcut.

Step 7 All right you opened the program and you see Megan standing there smiling at you and there is a short talk and some loud music click next to get to the Race/class screen with the avatars.( at this point if you press the windows key or alt tab out and mute the program i wont know or argue with you)

Step 8. After you click next at Megan You will come out into the Choose profession screen.

Step 9. ( the important part) use the arrows at the bottom of the screen to switch between the toons and you will see the 3 new professions in the list. Lets Pick a Jenquai Seeker, so you can see the new class in the creator.

Click Next when you have the race/class selected.

Use the arrows in the creator only it wont work using the keyboard keys use the left arrow and click it twice to bring up the Jenquai Seeker Avatar and click on next.

Step 10. You have selected a new avatar (for this i'll refer to a seeker since it's the same as the rest) .You will now be taken into the male/female appearance screen.

Select male or female and your appearance and go thru your ship setup ( i made mine female tall red headed and the ship looks like the smily face in dirk gently if you understand the reference)

From this point it's straight forward when you get to the end it'll save your character in a folder and you can move it around ( i'll get to that in a moment)

Step 11. You have created your character and saved it you can now use it ingame.

Once the server has saved the avatar and you can use it you can save the avatar elsewhere just remember to put it back into the same folder so the game an find it if you want to change it.

Also you can send the dat file to people and they can use the creator and make there own new toons if they have difficulty following this tutorial.

The files are about 500kb each so would eat up my upload limit but feel free to share among yourselves.

Step 12 Extra credit assignment and how to place your avatar in different slots in game.

Step 13. Moving you newly created avatar around.

Step 14. You will need a good search program to search your hard drive as your new character can be copied and saved. Pretty cool huh > :).

Step 15. I use Agent ransack as my hard drive search utility since windows 7 default search sucks.. Really.. it sucks.

Agent ransack can be found here [url="http://www.mythicsoft.com/page.aspx?type=agentransack&page=download"]http://www.mythicsof...k&page=download[/url] select your flavor of os.

Use your search program and search your C:\ drive for the word Avatar. Windows 7 64bit users it's here at C:\Users\All Users\Westwood Studios\Earth and Beyond\Character and Starship Creator\Avatar1.dat This is where your new character is saved to. They are named Avatar1-2-3-4-5.dat This particular one was named number 1.

XP and Vista users the folder will be different then 7 users so please search for yours.

Okay if you want to save the character to a different slot ( say your account is fairly full and you want to save it in the middle spot) it's pretty easy to do. The front 3 spots are numbered 3 2 1 ( from left to right) and 5 and 4 in the back( left to right) your options are Avatar1 Avatar2 Avatar3 Avatar4 Avatar5 all ending with .dat..

YOU MUST leave the Avatar.dat in this folder until you have added it to an account ingame. Once thats done the server saved it.

You can reinstall your game and it'll always be there.

Once the server has downloaded it and you can use it I add the character name to the name ( in this case (McBarker)Avatar4.dat for when i made my latest Progen Privateer.

With these created characters there is 1 drawback.. you cannot change them ingame using the ingame builder for the 3 new classes( maybe some brightboy can solve how to add the new ones ingame which would be a big help).

Not to say you can't change them But you cannot change the height/wieght/ general looks of the 3 new classes in the game itself you need to use the character creator for that. so be warned.

Step 16. NPC and extra credit.. So you want to be TZU he is a pretty good looking (albiet needs a shave) avatar and you want to make him to use with your armada.

Well this parts for you.

Fire up the modified shortcut froma above. and get to the Male/Female screen where you pick your sex and attributes it's called the Avatar Customization page.

When in this screen Simply press the N key it'll scroll thru the NPC skins availble to you. Some might need to use CRTL N but it does the same thing.

2 Things about using NPC skins

1 THEY ARE ALL TERRAN ENFORCERS. You cannot change anything abaoul the avatars other then there ships if you try you will crash the game i gaurentee it.

2. If you attempt to use the avatars name as your own, blacklung or another gm will make you change your avatars name.
if you use the avatar and act like a e&b staff you will be banned.
I will not tell you how i came to use MiguelChavez as an avatar name I will tell you I've had it a long time and I have kept my agreement with the gm's and dev's we made and can continue to use it unless I quit the game.
If at such time they deem I need to change it I will.
So unless you are a staff member or a member in good standing do not try it..
One of the rules i had to abide by was i must never act like a staff member or act like i'm the npc.
Miguel as a avatar is not in the game and i use Admiral herrerra's skin for him.
Second rule i had to follow is everyone had to know it was me using the skin and name so you knew i was not a staff member.

Got it don't be a fool and try it.

WARNING if you attempt to edit an npc skin your game will crash. Do not try it, You were warned.

Lets see if I missed anything please post it in the thread and I can edit this text to include it.

Blacklung or any other gm's want to add this as a pinned item to this forum is welcome to or to move it as needed.

If i need to change anything or a gm want to add the voice and fear of a game diety to this to make sure you do not attempt any monkey business please do so.

Good Luck and happy editing. Edited by Tradermagoo
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  • 1 month later...
[quote name='Geffin' timestamp='1348090677' post='63513']
tried to use this tool but i cannot find a file named avatarX.dat anywhere on my pc i made the char and even made a poster but thats all i got and it dont show up ingame.
[/quote]
Just search for the word avatar nothing else some search programs are not very boolean and wont find it if you add the number to it so just use Avatar. Depending on your os it'll be in various places.
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  • 1 month later...
FWIW: I'm running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit and the character creator put my avatar in C:\ProgramData\Westwood Studios\Earth and Beyond\Character and Starship Creator\Avatar1.dat.

Also, I already had 2 characters and when I ran the client I didn't see my new character. I had to rename the .dat file to Avatar3.dat (an empty slot #) and then I saw it.

Finally, my new character's name was Character #1. I was concerned about that but once I selected it I was able to change the name.
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  • 1 month later...

Very clear and easy to use post, Magoo. Kudos!

 

Would you please verify what folder(s) the AvatarX.dat files need to land in to be found by the client. The client isn't picking up my newly created avatars from the default folder of the Creator. Yes the spots are open. Thanks!

 

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Once you find the folder they were created in, all you do is rename them; avatar1.dat, avatar2.dat, avatar3.dat, avatar4.dat, or avatar5.dat.

 

I had 3 toons on one account, and another 3 toons on a second account. I made all three of the new classes. I renamed two of them avatar4.dat and avatar5.dat. They both showed up on both accounts when I logged into the game. I renamed them on one and deleted them from the second account. When I went back to the westwood folder, there was one left. I renamed her avatar4.dat and she showed up on my second account.

 

Hope this makes sense and helps. If not, sorry!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Buy the Windows 8 upgrade, which MS is desperate to sell to you currently.or alternately, buy the Win7 Home Upgrade online for about USD$70 I think. (Online download, and you have to burn the CD, not from the shop.  It is legit.  Shop version cost you North of USD$100).

Edited by VincentTH
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

I tried to start any of the 3 new classes and was unable to locate them using the method posted here.  I got to the part of specifically using the bottom arrows and none of the new toons showed up (the original 6 classes are there).  I am using WIN 8 and the Ship/Toon creator was/is running fine.  Any suggestions?

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I tried to start any of the 3 new classes and was unable to locate them using the method posted here.  I got to the part of specifically using the bottom arrows and none of the new toons showed up (the original 6 classes are there).  I am using WIN 8 and the Ship/Toon creator was/is running fine.  Any suggestions?


Did you add the flag "noclassrestrictions" to the E&B Create Char shortcut property? Edited by VincentTH
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hello guys,

 

I did exactly like the instructions told me and I allready found my characterfile. But I didn't installed the Starship-Creater and the main game in the same directory. Where do I have to put the new characterfile in, to see it at the login-screen??

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The avatar you create in the starship creator should automatically* show when you log into the main launcher.

 

* The slot the avatar is placed in the starship creator is the slot where it will show in the main game. 

Simply just change the filename from Avatar1.dat to AvatarX.dat where X is the slot you want to place the character in.

(no need to move the file)

 

Edit:

Locked thread: - please start new thread if you have issues.

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