Sparky Icon

[Rikai]

I think it would be nice if the Sparky had its own icon. The Absolver has one too.
Brick and Percival also received their own icon some time ago to make them more easily distinguishable from Titans and Loyalists.
I find it quite annoying to click a T2 engy just to find out that it is actually a Sparky and cannot build the thing I need.

How do I modify the Icons of units so i can make that change for myself? (and probably publish it in the mod forum)
I know it is possible, I just dont know how.

[---]

Some variations based on the original icons.

[ThomasHiatt]

The way I did it was download the Advanced Strategic Icons mod and replace the icons in the folder it creates with custom icons. It puts them in "C:\ProgramData\FAForever\gamedata\Advanced strategic icons.nxt\textures\ui\common\game\strategicicons\". I don't know if it has to be called "Advanced strategic icons.nxt" or not. All the .nxt files are just zip archives that are renamed.

[Rikai]

Alright, thank you ThomasHiatt. That is what I was looking for.

But turns out, it is not the thing I needed.
The unit blueprint (XEL0209) points to an icon name (Which is the same icon as for the regular T2 engy):

StrategicIconName = 'icon_land2_engineer',

I guess modifying the units.nx2 would be considered a Sim-Mod so i think i'm out of luck now.

[macdeffy]

It would also be nice to have a separate icon for Support Commanders, but they use same DDS ref code in units.nx2 as ACU. I believe there was a placeholder files already for support commander icons but they are not used. So it should be really simple to make that change, so others can modify that as well as sparky to be slightly different.

I'm sure there are other units that others might have issue with as well.

[Rikai]

I'm sure there are other units that others might have issue with as well.

Well, if we want a complete overhaul, probably amphibious tanks should have a different icon than regular T2 tanks.

Also, why does Mantis have the same symbol as a hunter instead of the regular T1 Tank diamond? Yes, I get it, it is a "bot" since it has legs instead of tracks, but it is actually in the role of a tank. Also, I know that it is "fixed in equilibrium", but that doesn't help at all for playing ladder.

...
But all of this is not really pressing for me. I think Sparky Icon is the most important thing to change here.

[macdeffy]

I forget what the default icons do, but the advanced strategic icons change the inside X or + icon to differentiate for titan/percie and loyalist/brick. those are pretty easy to see, but you can change those icons easy enough.

i think the hunter/mech/flare icon is slightly different as well. i modified the advanced icon mod pack to make some icons slightly smaller/larger to help me to see them. i think those may have their icons but it's been awhile.

[Rikai]

Well, that is not really my issue. I can tell different icons apart easily enough. And if i could not, i would change the icon myself.

What my actual problem is here, is that the unit blueprint does reference the same icon file for said units.
What would be needed is a change of that name to some placeholder and then making a copy of the regular icon and rename it to the placeholder name. Then, everyone could alter the icon to their liking.

Problem with this is that Advanced Strategic Icons Mod would need to be changed as well for this, to avoid bugs/crashes by referencing a file that doesn't exist.

[ZeRen]

yea Sparky and T2 engi blue prints use same icon so you cant change it with ASI, devs would need to change it

if they would change icon, ASI dont have to change, you can use the old one, but if ASI will not have the new icon for Sparky it will use the one that dev choice

for example, if you edit the ASI.ntx file and delete all icons, but the one for nuke, in game you will have only ASI icon for the nuke, but the rest of icons will be default (old ones), it will not crash

how to customize:

find file Advanced strategic icons.nxt on windows it is in hiden folder where programy files are (at same level), extract it with something, change what you want, pack it up to .zip and then rename to .ntx (must have same file structure)

you can make you own unique icons, I made my own icons for engis, MEXes and some other and put them in .ntx, it is awesome

[Rikai]

it will not crash

Thank god. This makes life a lot easier for the devs.

I made my own icons for engis, MEXes and some other and put them in .ntx, it is awesome

Would you like to show them?