what I suggest is that, if you haven't already, download the 1.17/1.03 builds of the Sins Developer executables. You'll need WinRAR or 7Zip to unpack the archives.
Once you've done that, and placed the executables into the Sins directory, which is on Vista C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Sins of Solar Empire.
Now, run the developer version of Entrenchment/Sins, try to load the mod. It will tell you if there is a problem. It's a good idea to have the mod folder you want to load open in Windows Explorer in the background.
Incidentally, this is why I found out a little test mod of mine wasn't working. As it happened, I had improperly edited the bool modifiers count line in a buff, so it crashed. Went into file, fixed line to correct, count, mod loaded perfectly.
Also, if you're adding a new entity file, you'll need to create or update the 'entity.manifest' file. You can open it in Notepad/Wordpad, so that makes things easier. To do so, simply add in the new entity file (complete file name/ending), and update the number.
If your also adding additional strings, you'll need to edit them into the strings file (openable in Wordpad).
What I suggest is that you create a new ship, update the PlayerTech.entity file, so you can build it in the game, and use a different name for your new meshes. It's fun to have giant ships, but you should always make sure that the giant ships have different mesh file names, and also different entity file names.
You'll also likely want to resize the shieldmeshes to the proportionate size of the new models.
