Author: Mikhael
Additional notes: Here's a list of some of the various things Mikhael's learned whilst modding ships into Iwar2. Listed, with each item, are people who have contributed

1. All objects should be saved as a single layer. The game will ignore any object on layer 2 and above.
2. Avatars can be built out of a single object or out of subobjects. Each subobject must be saved in its own file. An avatar may be built out of several avatar files, as well. A single object may have approximately 1200 polygons, but it is safer to use fewer or divide the object into parts. (Clarification by SimonDR)
3. An object does not need to be a closed mesh. Objects may overlap. Polygons may intersect and may be collocated and coplanar (but this should be avoided to make finding problems easier). If collocated/coplanar polygons are transparent, the resulting transparency will be combined opacity of both surfaces.
4. Objects should be saved in LW5 format. Later formats will cause problems as follows:
   later objects will crash the engine
   later avatar scenes will result in invisible in-game avatars,
   later setup scenes will crash the game at the Hangar screen.
5. Collision hull objects may be built from nonplanar polygons and should be very low poly.
6. Textures may be wrapped around a model using a cylindrical projection, but cannot be tiled using the planar projection. (The Claw and SimonDR)
7. The avatar setup file for a ship does not honor pathnames. Your converted object files (PSOs) should be in the same directory as the setup file.(The Claw)
8. Objects and lights in Avatars may be animated by keyframing motion or rotation paths in the avatar setup file. If the animation should only exist in a speficic level of detail, it should be parented to that detail switch null. If it needs to exist at all detail levels, it should remain unparented. (SimonDR)
9. The wireframe display shown in the HUDs MFD is based on the LOD1 avatar model of that ship. (SimonDR)
10. Mountpoints should be oriented so that the positive end of the Z axis is pointed out from the hull and the positive end of the Y axis points toward the front of the ship (in whichever direction the weapon should face). Dock-On-Turret mount points are an exception to this. They should be pointed with the positive Z axis in the direction the turret should face, and the positive Y axis should point out from the ship. A permanently mounted weapon system or turret should be mounted in the same way as the Dock-On-Turret.
11. Pylon mount points must be called Pylon1 and Pylon2. The missile mount points attached to cannons on pylons should be called Pylon1_missile and Pylon2_missile. These names must be used or the Hangar script will not be able to properly loadout turret fighters and may crash. The missile mount point should be offset from the pylon mountpoint by about 9.9451 meters. (Mehrunes)
12. Turret Fighter cannon mount points allow a ship to load comms lasers, and any cannon smaller than a Heavy PBC. Heavy internal mount points can take any weapon except a missile pack. Both of these mount points are internal, and so do not show weapon avatars. (Qlippoth and Mehrunes)
13. The Standard.ini file in the loadouts directory of the Iwar2 resources controls which gear may be mounted on which class of hardpoint. By modifying this file, one can mount heavier weapons on lighter mount points or disallow certain weapons from being mounted on a given mountpoint. (Phreak, Mehrunes)
14. The save game file contains the current loadout of a player's ship and references to the hardpoints of that ships ini file. If a mod replaces that ship and does not contain an identical set of mountpoints to the ones in the INI file, the game may crash at the Hangar screen. To get around this, modders are urged to avoid replacing the Command Section, so as to allow a player to switch away from all modded ships before saving his game and switching mods. (Venom2506)
15. The maximum number of the ships available in the player base is hard-coded and cannot be changed, unfortunately. (Stephen Robertson)

BTW: don't forget to orient your mesh pointed toward the positive Z axis. There's nothing like launching from the biobomber and finding yourself flying on your back and shooting straight up.

The Lightwave format supported by EoC is Version 5. You can use Lightwave version 6 or 7 but the files must be exported to Version 5. In the case of Lightwave version 7 you should export to version 6 then use 3dExplorer to re-export to version 5.