How do you make ships or systems?

[frozen]

(Ive been told Texturing must be done in MS-3d, regardless of your preferences for software)

just to point out, that point is not true. you can model, texture and hitbox in 3ds max, or any other 3d software. milkshape is -horrible- for 3d modelling, and i recommend never ever ever ever ever using it. the only main thing you need ms3d for is for importing and exporting models/hitboxes/creating mat files. thats about it. nothing else.

make the model in max, texture using .dds/.tga (prefer to use .dds files, vanilla ones at that), then export work as .3ds file to import into ms3d, then using ms3d's plugins you can export it as a .cmp, .3db, .sur (first two being models, final being hitbox file format)

using utf editor, you can embed textures directly into the model, or add transparency or glow to textures, etc.

you can also do system modding to a degree in 3ds max (i dont know exactly how, that would be treewyrm's forte, since he used 3ds max to create iota and 99 to be the way they are currently.

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