I have replied to this in your other thread as such:

Yes it is possible per modding. Just ask for some of the samples in forums for added ships.

However I have lacked the time to make new models myself as I did with GalCiv2. I would love to be corrected on this in case I am wrong.



This is the better place for this discussion hence the double post myself.

you can only do it through complicated texture hacks, but it's possible.

they're not standard animations by any means.

do we know if any 1 has attempted to do this yet? also so is there any documentation that could help with this ( doubtful)

Awesome , can you point the way to an example

LOL i guess not

that was absolutely beautiful now my one word question is, HOW?

Yes, I did it a few months ago   

In essence what you have to do is:

1) split your model into seperate animated and static mesh models, the static section now becomes the main ship mesh.

2) add the animated mesh to the main ship mesh using the particle system

3) align the axis of rotation using a transform matrix

4) change the pixel shader of the animated mesh to use the same as the main ship mesh

The closest in game example of this working is the green skull you see above the pirate base and the pirate ships with their torches and flags.