i worked on this a bit myself derbal. One of the easiest ways is to change the lines in the ships beam weapon code:
beamGlowColor ffffffff
beamCoreColor ffffffff
These Are ARGB. (alpha, red green blue in sets of two hex numbers. FF=255) so by adjusting it to read ff00ff00 its basically a bright green beam. The other way you can do it is to load up the file TechCapitalBeam_Glow.dds and then use the hue/sat to change its color. then export it as a dds file, 8 bit alpha argb. Course by modifying the image id recommend just renaming it to TechCapitalBeam_Glow2.dds and then modifing your ships code to use that texture instead. up to you
texture modding adds in a lot of details. You can add in small lines/sparks or even make the beam look like a lightning bolt, but the lighting idea kinda ruins the beam concept heh.
