NEW SHIPS (OPTs) The ships are saved as .OPT, and are located in the FLIGHTMODELS folder. These files contain the 3D model, textures, and other information. To install a new OPT file you must edit XWINGALLIANCE.EXE and 3 other files. If you want some new ships and you don't know how to install them, download Darksaber's Ultimate Craft Pack (UCP). This pack includes in total an astounding 264 enhanced opts (incl. XWA Upgrade OPTs), which include exterior, base, cockpit, hangar, stations, starships, shuttles and transports. Depending on which configuration you have chosen between 250 and 253 will be installed. Darksaber has also included enhanced sound effects and all the Ship Dat pictures have been remade too. Total size of the UCP is 178 MB. This pack fills all craft slots with the best crafts made for X-Wing Alliance. You can download UCP from Darksaber's X-Wing Station. Beside UCP there is also very old New Craft Add Patch (NCA Patch) by SFA Technologies and Nob Akimoto. Unfortunately SFA Technologies homepage isn't active, but you can download patch from this address: http://www.crimsonmercenaries.com/files.php?s=nca. Don't forget download patch to latest version 1.2b (both files has about 9.5 MB). You must have installed this patch to play some of the campaigns and missions (by Abolisher or Ms. Talon). To install new ships manualy you will need the program BinHexEdit by Demon (to download from Darksaber's site). Most of new ships have in its ZIP archive SHP file. These files can be opened with MXvTED program (see Links page). This program is very good and makes installing of new ships very simple. The newest way how to install new ships is via the program XIS (X-Wing Install System). This program installs new ships from XMOD files. Installation with XMOD files takes about 2 seconds (2 clicks). Unfortunately making your own ships is not simple (it's very difficult in my opinion) and I can't do it (You must make a 3D model, textures, etc.). If you want to try it, I can recommend tutorials and editors from various sites (Darksaber's and other - see Links page). When we are talking about new ships, I hope, that you have downloaded updated OPTs from the XWA Upgrade site. These OPTs are necessary for all XWA owners. It's like playing a new game with this OPTs! These models can be converted for XvT, X-Wing 95 and TIE Fighter 95 (Collector Series) too. All you need is OPTech (Links again). Pages where you can download new OPT files are described in Links page.

NEW MISSIONS Missions from game are located in TIE files in Missions folder. Missions for Quick Skirmish are in SKM files in Skirmish folder. The skirmish missions are very limited so they aren't used so often as TIE missions. Important file for adding new missions is missions.lst file, which can be opened and edited in a text editor (Word Pad). Details are descibed in the AlliED manual (see below). New campaigns, or shipsets (contains new missions, ships, sounds, etc), can be installed manually or with programs, such as ShipSet Launcher 2000 (by Hell Raiser) for GOB files, or X-Wing Install System (by Defiant) for XMOD files. The best campaigns for XWA are (in brackets are their authors): Ashgard family campaign (Abolisher) Moon1 (Rogue Squadron I) (Abolisher) Make it big: The Jek Porkins Story (Jek Franko and Jer'yn Moc) The Legacy of Boba Fett (Gregory Koteles) Roots of Rebellion (Gregory Koteles) Heir to the Empire (Gregory Koteles) The Rebirth of the Empire (Alexis "Snooba the Wookie" Sabatovich) Assault on Yaga Minor (Wedge) Imperial Special Operations (Wedge) Edge of the Republic (Wedge) Dark Cat Pirates (Gugeyewalker) Episode I Shipset (Chris Walker and XvT Productions) Ms. Talon's Campaigns (Ms. Talon) XWA - Version Intégrale (Matthias, Biz20100 ...) Each campaign has own readme file with instructions for installation. To play some of these campaigns you will need to install NCA patch (see below). Most of these campaigns can be downloaded from various pages (www.xwingalliance.net) or you can try to find them by yourself (try Google, Yahoo, etc, search for XWA missions, campaign, shipset etc.) If you want to make you own missions or campaign (and skirmish editor isn't enough for you), I recommend you try the best XWA mission editor, AlliED, by Troy Dangerfield. This editor can be downloaded from Troy's page (link is in Links page). You can choose if you want limited shareware version of full version which costs $10. Don't forget to download the manual too.

NEW SOUNDS The various sounds have been improved too. I can recommend X-Wing Alliance External Sound Upgrade and Cornhelium's X-Wing Alliance Internal Sound Pack (both from Ace Antilles's site).

SUMMARY (A.K.A "Must have downloads") Official patch 2.02 OPTs from XWA Upgrade Darksaber's Ultimate Craft Pack New campaigns (Abolisher etc.) New ships (Darksaber, JM etc.)

PS: When you are editing the game, you might make some mistake. And if you haven't backed-up your files, you will need reinstall the whole game. So be careful!