-- INTRO --

hello there!!! thank you downloading this livery mod! the amount of time i've put into this thing is kind of insane, so it means a lot to me that you've decided to check it out! this mod is designed for those who want to apply cool-looking liveries to their steamers without having to go through the hassle of building a livery mod themselves with lego's Logos & Decals, which can be difficult if you're not adept with the in-game editor or working with .json files.

-- WARNING --

this mod requires lego's Library of Stuff (LoS, v1.4.1 or newer), as well as lego's Logos & Decals (L&D, v1.1.1 or newer), both available on nexusmods. without these mods installed, this mod won't work, so you absolutely need them. this mod is installed via Unity Mod Manager (UMM), which is also on nexus.

as this mod uses lego's "component groups" to handle colorable parts of the models, compatibility with other livery mods should already be accounted for. if you're a mod author and want to make sure your mod is compatible, send me a message and we'll work together to make it so.

-- WHAT THIS MOD DOES --

long story short, this mod adds colorable decals to all 19 base-game steam locomotives. with this, you get colorable walkway lining, pilot lining, whitewalls, wheel centers, wheel stars (SP-style), headlight/numberplate backgrounds, and front headlight numberboard trims, plus Southern-style lower side lining on every tender. each one is colored using the extra color slots you get with lego's L&D, except for the headlight numberboard trim, which is colored using the lettering color since it's unlike you'd not want it to match the numbers. each one has been made indepdently toggleable using "component groups", which can be toggled on and off in the customization menu.

for reference, the current color slot allocation looks like this:

slot -2 (lettering) lettering and numberplate lining
slot -1 (body) blank (see below)
slot 0 (lego 2nd) walkway, pilot, and tender lining
slot 1 (lego 3rd) blank (see below)
slot 2 (lego 4th) whitewalls and wheel centers/stars
slot 3 (lego 5th) headlight/numberplate backgrounds

the idea here was to provide the end user with the ability to apply "generic" lining styles to their models without needing to do it themselves. while it can't replicate tons of specific locomotive liveries, it does add a lot more flare to the locomotives as they are. now you might be annoying to know that this mod doesn't include colorable boilers or lining on other parts, but worry not: there's another mod that does. check the "expanding your capabilities" section for more info!

-- KNOWN ISSUES --

the only issue i've encountered thus far that i feel the need to document here is that lettering decals need to be toggled off then on to accept changes made to their colorizer. however, this is a small issue, so i don't expect it to be a problem.

-- EXPANDING YOUR CAPABILITIES --

this mod is fully designed to be used with mine and cjane's Steam Loco Customizations mod, as well as cjane's Steam Loco Linings & Livery Pack. SLC adds a whole bunch of toggleable lettering and numbering decals to each locomotive and tender, allowing for much more freedom with how your locos are lettered. cjane's Locomotive Liveries mod adds all the things this mod doesn't have: colorable boilers, lining on the cab domes and cylinders, lining on the tender sides, and colorable tender decks. if you really want to go all-out with designing steam locomotive liveries, these mods are *essential* alongside this one. have fun playing paint shop!

-- CLOSING NOTES & THANK YOUS (AGAIN) --

in the future, i'd love to add more lining options, specifically CPR-style lining for the tenders, and NYC/TH&B-style for the cabs and tenders. cab roofs are a possibility but are also *very* difficult to do properly, as are cylinders. cylinder caps wouldn't be hard to add, but i don't know how i'd work them into the color options. that's really what's holding me back from adding more stuff right now: four color slots (six, if you count body and lining colors which lego's L&D *does* support) sounds like a lot, but when you have to factor in so many different items that can be colored so many different ways, i'd rather wait til lego adds more color slots. but i've bugged him for enough stuff recently, so those won't come til much later, if at all. that's up to him, really. for now, i'm *done* with livery stuff; this mod took a lot out of me.

of course, i have some thank-yous to dole out. legotrainman absolutely deserves all of my thanks for making this mod possible, and for always giving me an excuse to find something in his mods that i can absolutely break and force him to fix. cjane has my utmost thanks for being so affable towards modifying her livery mod to make it compatible with mine. mrcsam of the WNCRR also deserves my thanks for basically getting me off my ass and helping keep me motivated to get this god-forsaken project done. lastly, thanks to fuzzy for working with me to make his Southern liveries compatible with my mods, and for supporting me in my efforts here. without these people, it's unlikely this mod would exist in its current form, so for that, they have my utmost respect and gratitude.

if you want to support me (mackenzie) and my work, i do have a Ko-fi page for donations: https://ko-fi.com/mackenzie_ev. i won't ever require anyone to pay for the mods i create, but i meant it when i said this mod took a *lot* out of me. i mean it when i say i spent many nights staying up til 4am or even later just to finish small parts of this mod, and even with that it took much, *much* longer than i expected it to. wouldn't you know, doing this to my standards on 19 individual locos and 18 individual tenders was a bit time-consuming! so if you appreciate the work i've done and want to toss some dollarydoos my way, i'd really really appreciate it! thank you so much for downloading this mod and (hopefully) enjoying what i've made here.

thank you one last time for downloading my mod. i hope you have as much fun using it as we did creating it. cheers, and happy railroadering!

> mackenzie e.v. <