Switching Ships and/or Races
Procedure by Unknown

C:\Sierra\Homeworld\Homeworld.exe /window /debug /sw /800 /disableavi /nodebugInt /nopause
You will need a line like this.

Put a shortcut to homeworld on your desktop. Right click on the icon then go to properties. Find the line that says target Then type in or just copy the line I put up. (note the spaces between the foward slash and the previous entry) Close this out and use this shortcut for debug only. Now left click on the icon you just edited and start the game. Make note of what is happening because you will need to watch what happens when you try a new ship.

OK choose a ship. copy the (ie: lightinterceptor, lightinterceptor.lod and lightinterceptor.shp folder and files to the r1 or r2 folders.

We are going to change the r1 lightinterceptor to the r2 lightinterceptor.
Open the *.shp file and at the top of the page it says:

     LODFile Lightinterceptor.lod
     pMexData lightinterceptor\Rl0\LOD0\Lightinterceptor.mex

Change the Rl0 (R L Zero) to R10 (R Ten Zero). This will help with texture coordinates.
Now open the lightinterceptor.lod and do the same thing to the lines there.  When you have that done close (Don't save as .txt file)
Right click on the lightinterceptor folder. You see a folder called Rl0 (R L Zero). Rename this to R10 (R One Zero).

Now you're ready to try the game.
Use the modified shortcut. Watch the screen and if and or when it crashes read the line that made it stop. Usually it will say it can't find something.  Your job is to give it what it wants.

ie: c\sierra\homeworld\r1\lightinterceptor\r10\lod0\engine back.lif

This is what it's looking for but can't find so open the folder it is pointing to and you will notice that the file it wants is not there. You have to search the other ship folders untill you find something similar to use there.

ie: homeworld\p2\p2swarmer\rl0\lod0\engine back.lif

That will do. Copy it over to: r1\lightinterceptor\r10\lod0
Now try the game again.  If it can't find something else then do it all again untill the game starts.  You may have to do this for other lod folders. ie lod0, lod1, lod2 and so on.  It can get fairly complicated depending on what ship you want to use.
Then there is .mex editing and that's chapter 2. :)