[FM16][SKIN] Football Manager 2016 Base Skins

Football Manager 2016: Base Skins

As with most recent Football Managers for you to make certain changes in Football Manager 2016 you need to create a new skin.

So to make things easier for people I've put up some base skins that are identical to the default skins that come with the game, so you can add new files/graphics to these without messing up the original skins, and anything that isn't located in these new skin folders will be taken from the default locations within the game.

For Football Manager 2016 you have eight(!) skins to choose from with both Light and Dark skins for both the Full Mode and FMTouch Mode, whilst the FMTouch mode also gets a Retro skin and then tablet versions of each FMT skin which are designed to work better with touchscreens:

Base2016 Dark Skin - This is the Dark Full Mode Skin and is based on the Default (Dark) Football Manager Skin.

Base2016 Alternative Skin - This is the Alternative Base Skin and is identical in appearance to the Alternative (Light) Football Manager Skin.

Base2016 Touch Skin - This is the Base Skin for the FMT (Touch) Mode and is identical in appearance to the Football Manager Touch Skin.

Base2016 Touch - Dark Skin - This is the Dark Base Skin for the FMT (Touch) Mode and is identical in appearance to the Football Manager Touch - Dark Skin.

Base2016 Touch - Retro Skin - This is the Retro Base Skin for the FMT (Touch) Mode and is identical in appearance to the Football Manager Touch - Retro Skin.

Base2016 Touch - Touchscreen Skin - This is the Base Skin for the FMT (Touch) Mode of FM2016 and is identical in appearance to the Football Manager Touch - Touchscreen Skin.

Base2016 Touch - Touchscreen Dark Skin - This is the Dark Base Skin for the FMT (Touch) Mode and is identical in appearance to the Football Manager Touch - Touchscreen Dark Skin.

Base2016 Touch - Touchscreen Retro Skin - This is the Retro Base Skin for the FMT (Touch) Mode and is identical in appearance to the Football Manager Touch - Touchscreen Retro Skin.

Install Instructions:

When you extract the file you have downloaded you should have one folder (with a name starting base16...) and a readme.txt file.

Now copy the folder into your skins folder within your Saving Location, by default this is:

For Windows:

C:\Users\[Your Windows Username]\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2016\

For Mac:

/Users/[Your Mac Username]/Documents/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2016/

For Linux:

/home/documents/Sports Interactive/FM2016/

If done right your skins folder should look something like this:

And inside for example the base16_alt folder you should have the following folders:

When you load the game up if the skin cache is off any skins in the skins folder should appear in the skins menu like the below image:

NOTE: FMT skins will only appear when you are playing the FMT mode and normal skins will only appear when playing the normal mode.

If the skin cache is on you'll need to turn it off, exit the Preferences menu and re-enter it and any new skins should appear, if not tick 'Always Reload Skin on Confirm' and change skins, click confirm and go back in and your skin should appear.

How To Stop the Blurring Effect when Processing

FM2016 introduced a new feature where when the main screen isn't the focus of the screen it blurs out, however if you don't like this effect it is simple enough to disable it, to do this simply browse to the following location within the Base Skin you are using:

\graphics\boxes\dialog\background

Inside will be a paper.xml file open that and locate this line:

<boolean id="blurred" value="true"/>

and change it to read:

<boolean id="blurred" value="false"/>

How To enable Background Changes

FM2016 supports background changes directly this year, if you are using the FMT mode skins you shouldn't need to do anything to get them working, however if you are using the full mode skins there is a file you need to edit as they have a solid overlay over the background meaning that whilst the background is displaying you cannot see it.

Inside the Base skin that you have downloaded you need to browse to these two locations:

\graphics\boxes\custom\background\

\graphics\boxes\custom\match\background\

And edit the paper.png file from each folder in an image editing program to increase the transparency of the image. The level of transparency depends on your preference as it is a balance between seeing the background and making the skin readable.

If you need further help on editing the transparency of the images then have a look at this guide - its for FM2015 but the editing of the graphics is the same.

To Replace Graphics

To replace the following graphics you need to copy the graphics you have made or downloaded into the correct folders within the folder for the skin you are using:

Gold Stars:

Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2016\skins\<SKIN_NAME>\graphics\icons\custom\star rating\senior

Silver Stars:

Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2016\skins\<SKIN_NAME>\graphics\icons\custom\star rating\youth

To get the 2D pitch icons (balls, nets, players) into the game they no longer need to go into the skins folder and can instead now be installed directly into the graphics folder.

To Edit the Fonts

The font settings are now controlled by the various files located inside the fonts folder. For the base skins I have included all the default font files to save you having to go look for them. To edit the fonts its just a case of changing the various variables declared in the xml files, whilst to change the actual font you copy the font you want to use to the font folder and then update the font names in the xml files to match your new font.

To Edit the Font Colours

The colour settings for each skin are controlled by the settings.xml file located inside the settings folder.

For the base skins I have copied in the relevant coding for you to change the various colours used by the skin – you just need to open the settings.xml file and locate the relevant line for the colour setting you wish to change – the colour names and comments should explain what the majority of the colours control.

The colours are declared in RGB values, that range from 0-255 where Red=255 Green=255 Blue=255 is white and Red=0 Green=0 Blue=0 is black.

To locate the RGB value of a colour you want to use you can either use a image editing program to obtain the RGB Value of the colour or type rgb values into google and it will bring up several websites that list the RGB Values for various colours.

Note that whilst this file contains most of the text colour settings, some items are hardcoded, others are determined by the individual xml files and some others are set by the xml files in the fonts folder.

Also if you have the Skin Cache on you can change some of the colours directly through the game from the Preferences -> Interface-> Skin Colours screen

How to Recolour the Game Colours

Like with Football Manager 2015 the colours of the various graphics that make up the skin are now controlled by settings.xml file located inside the settings folder.

For the base skins I have copied in the relevant coding for you to change the various colours used by the skin – you just need to open the settings.xml file and locate the relevant line for the colour setting you wish to change – the colour names and comments should explain what the majority of the colours control.

To Edit the Attribute Threshold

This is now done in game via the Preferences -> Interface -> Skin Colours screen.

For your changes to take affect

If you have made any changes to the base skins (colours, fonts, graphics) to get your changes to show you’ll need to go into the Preferences -> Interface Menu and untick ‘Use caching to decrease page loading times’ if it is ticked and then tick ‘Reload skin when confirming changes in Preferences’ then click confirm and your changes should be applied, if you have previousily ticked and unticked the required boxes a 'Reload Skin' button should appear in the bottom left corner, if this button appears you can click that if the Confirm Button is grayed out.

Base Skins for FM2016 Download Page

(Link contains links to all downloads)

---

You are free to do what you want (apart from upload to Steam Workshop as I'll upload them) with these Base Skins provided:

1. It is not sold or behind a paywall.

2. You don't advertise it as being exclusive to your website.

3. My username and blog address are included: http://michaeltmurrayuk.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks Michael. Hugely appreciate the effort

Would you consider doing some panel work this year? maybe similar to this? http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/411290-FM15-Other-Panels-Mods

Brilliant work

Hi Michael,

I've tried adding blue stars for ratings which worked fine last year but this year they are appearing as grey instead of blue, any ideas why? thanks for the good work btw

Superb, thank you.

I'm looking to dabble in the world of skinning for the first time this year. Initially I just want to make some subtle changes to the default skin. To that end, can anyone tell me which setting I need to change to alter the Prozone bar on the processing screen to something other than white text on pale green background? It's a rare false step in SI's normally very readable skins.

Superb, thank you.

I'm looking to dabble in the world of skinning for the first time this year. Initially I just want to make some subtle changes to the default skin. To that end, can anyone tell me which setting I need to change to alter the Prozone bar on the processing screen to something other than white text on pale green background? It's a rare false step in SI's normally very readable skins.

You can change the colour of the green prozone ticker background by adjusting the rgb values of this colour in the settings\settings.xml file:

<colour name="prozone" red="121" green="177" blue="103" />

If you want to change the text colour from white it's a little more complicated as you'll need to extract the 'panels\game\game processing panel.xml' file from the panels.fmf and locate this section of code near the bottom of the file:

<!-- Ticker with stats -->

<container class="bordered_box" id="tikC" appearance="boxes/custom/solid/paper" height="40" red_replacement="prozone">

<layout class="arrange_horizontal_attachment" layout="190, 2, -1" offset="0" gap="10" />

<layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="vertical" layout_children="true" inset="0" />

<container>

<layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="vertical" layout_children="true" inset="0" />

<layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="right" layout_children="true" inset="0" />

<widget class="picture" width="101" image_alignment="right, centre_y" file="icons/custom/prozone/logo" red_replacement="white" scale_picture="true" keep_aspect_ratio="true"/>

</container>

<widget class="picture" file="dividers/standard/vertical/line" />

<widget class="animated_wipe_fade_container" id="tick" wipe_data_trigger_id="text" >

<record id="widget_info" class="label" alignment="left, centre_y" colour="white"/>

</widget>

</container>

And change that bolded colour from white to something else.

Hi Michael,

I've tried adding blue stars for ratings which worked fine last year but this year they are appearing as grey instead of blue, any ideas why? thanks for the good work btw

Looks like the stars have been changed for FM16, they now use the same recolouring system as the main skin graphics (which should make recolouring awhole lot easier).

To recolour them you need to locate and change these values in the settings\settings.xml file:

<colour name="star rating senior" red="244" green="188" blue="0"/>

<colour name="star rating youth" red="183" green="188" blue="191"/>

<colour name="star rating empty" red="202" green="202" blue="202"/>

<colour name="star rating unknown" red="28" green="28" blue="29"/>

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the base skins and the instructions on enable the backgrounds in the skin. I have followed your instructions and changed the opacity of the 2 files to 40% and they look just as I want them now.

However I do have a small issue where in the inbox section there are 2 areas that are too clear and a bit hard to view. Is there a way to change these 2 areas to a better opacity level so the text is more readable? I have included a screenshot of what it looks like below.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126414424@N02/22593510378/sizes/l

Thanks,

Alex

There is a couple of things you can do, you can either edit the graphics used on the inbox, though this time making them more solid (or just replacing them with the images you have already modified), the images you need to edit are located in the subfolders within:

\skins\fm-widgets\graphics\boxes\sidebar\standard

The left folder controls the inbox list graphic and the right folder controls the inbox item graphic, whilst you are there you might want to edit and top and bottom aswell as they will be used somewhere saving you from having to locate them later.

Alternatively if you don't want to edit the graphics you can edit the xml files that control them and remove/change the custom graphics assigned.

The two files you need to edit are located in the panels.fmf file:

inbox panel.xml

inbox item.xml

In the inbox panel.xml locate this line:

<container id="LIST" class="bordered_box" appearance="boxes/sidebar/standard/left/paper" red_replacement="dark_box_background">

In the inbox item.xml file locate this line:

<container class="bordered_box" appearance="boxes/sidebar/standard/right/paper">

Then in both files you can either delete the bolded apperance code so they go back to using the default bordered box graphics or you can change the location to point to another graphic that has the preferred transparency.

If you don't know how to extract the default game files then read this guide: [FM2015 Guide] How to Extract Default Files & Understanding File Structure

Hi Michael,

Thanks for those instructions I will have a look at doing this next. There is one last screen that I have noticed in the news section that isnt the right transparency. I have included the screenshot below.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126414424@N02/22594731728/sizes/l

You can change the colour of the green prozone ticker background by adjusting the rgb values of this colour in the settings\settings.xml file:

<colour name="prozone" red="121" green="177" blue="103" />

If you want to change the text colour from white it's a little more complicated as you'll need to extract the 'panels\game\game processing panel.xml' file from the panels.fmf and locate this section of code near the bottom of the file:

<!-- Ticker with stats -->

<container class="bordered_box" id="tikC" appearance="boxes/custom/solid/paper" height="40" red_replacement="prozone">

<layout class="arrange_horizontal_attachment" layout="190, 2, -1" offset="0" gap="10" />

<layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="vertical" layout_children="true" inset="0" />

<container>

<layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="vertical" layout_children="true" inset="0" />

<layout class="stick_to_sides_attachment" alignment="right" layout_children="true" inset="0" />

<widget class="picture" width="101" image_alignment="right, centre_y" file="icons/custom/prozone/logo" red_replacement="white" scale_picture="true" keep_aspect_ratio="true"/>

</container>

<widget class="picture" file="dividers/standard/vertical/line" />

<widget class="animated_wipe_fade_container" id="tick" wipe_data_trigger_id="text" >

<record id="widget_info" class="label" alignment="left, centre_y" colour="white"/>

</widget>

</container>

And change that bolded colour from white to something else.

Perfect thank you.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for those instructions I will have a look at doing this next. There is one last screen that I have noticed in the news section that isnt the right transparency. I have included the screenshot below.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126414424@N02/22594731728/sizes/l

That's controlled by panels\competition news panel.xml

Near the top of that file locate this line:

<container default_width="-1" minimum_width="600" priority="1" >

and change it to read:

<container default_width="-1" minimum_width="600" priority="1" class="bordered_box">

That'll make it use the same graphics as are used in the player profile screens for example.

Thank you very much Michael, that worked a charm

Michael, great work once again.

Is there anyway we can increase the zoom out?

Thanks

Hi Michael,

I know this has been covered before but I can't seem to find the instructions in this forum. In the base skin when in a match it has the club logos next to the team on the score overview. In the past we could change this to show the kits instead. How do we go about doing this?

Thanks,

Alex

Thanks a million michael !

Hi Michael,

I know this has been covered before but I can't seem to find the instructions in this forum. In the base skin when in a match it has the club logos next to the team on the score overview. In the past we could change this to show the kits instead. How do we go about doing this?

Thanks,

Alex

I haven't had a chance to look on FM16 yet, but the instructions from FM15 might still work (you'll need to follow the instructions in post #2 to edit the files, rather than just download them as they might have changed in fm16): [FM15 Mod] Match Screen Kits Mod

Thanks Michael that worked. Had to edit the files as the ones used from FM2015 made the continue button disappear on the match screen, but editing the files from FM2016 made them work fine.

Another couple of questions I have regarding the match screen are, how do we make the kits shown bigger and can we change the text of the teams on the match screen to not be all capitals?

Thanks Michael that worked. Had to edit the files as the ones used from FM2015 made the continue button disappear on the match screen, but editing the files from FM2016 made them work fine.

Another couple of questions I have regarding the match screen are, how do we make the kits shown bigger and can we change the text of the teams on the match screen to not be all capitals?

There should be instructions in the linked thread to make the kits bigger (if the coding hasn't changed).

To remove the all caps from the match screen, you need to edit the 'fonts\match_panel_title.xml' file, all you need to do is add this line to the file:

<string id="capitalisation" value="normal" />

Thanks Michael, that worked

Hi Michael,

How do I go about editing the sidebar to show icons only and also make it transparent?

Hi Michael,

How do I go about editing the sidebar to show icons only and also make it transparent?

Icons only is in the preferences.

Hi Michael,

How do I go about editing the sidebar to show icons only and also make it transparent?

To make the sidebar transparent have a look at the recolouring instructions in this thread: [FM15 Guide] How to Edit the Sidebar (though you'll want to edit the 'sidebar colours.xml' file instead of the 'accent colours.xml' file and to make it transparent you adjus the alpha vaule rather than the RGB values.)

Hi Michael

Due to time constraints (2 kids under 5!!) I now play game using FMT however I find the player attribute's hard to read after years of playing full version.

Do you know how to change the colour of numbers/background? as FMT does not have Preferences -> Interface -> Skin Colours option.

Many thanks in advance..

Paul

Hi Michael

Due to time constraints (2 kids under 5!!) I now play game using FMT however I find the player attribute's hard to read after years of playing full version.

Do you know how to change the colour of numbers/background? as FMT does not have Preferences -> Interface -> Skin Colours option.

Many thanks in advance..

Paul

In FMT skins you can change the attribute background colours by locating and adjust the RGB values of this code in the settings\settings.xml file for the base skin you are using:

<colour name="unknown attribute background" red="210" green="210" blue="210"/>

<colour name="low attribute background" red="216" green="157" blue="157"/>

<colour name="normal attribute background" red="94" green="149" blue="183"/>

<colour name="good attribute background" red="53" green="148" blue="82" />

<colour name="excellent attribute background" red="19" green="93" blue="19" />

Removing the background and recolouring them as per the full mode is more complicated, but there should be an FM15 thread around with some instructions.

hi michaeltmurrayuk how can i change the yellow color on the player player overview panel, like the word "biographi" "Season stats" "fitness" etc?.. i´ve tried to change the setting xml, fonts

Hey, on the base skin for the full game, is there anyway you can change the transparency of the header?

How can I add Instant Result button to FM16 Alternative Skin?

hi michaeltmurrayuk how can i change the yellow color on the player player overview panel, like the word "biographi" "Season stats" "fitness" etc?.. i´ve tried to change the setting xml, fonts

In the settings file locate this bit of code:

<colour name="accent" red="1" green="2" blue="3" alpha="0"/>

<colour name="dark accent" red="4" green="5" blue="6" alpha="0"/>

<colour name="primary" red="7" green="8" blue="9" alpha="0"/>

<colour name="secondary" red="10" green="11" blue="12" alpha="0"/>

And change each of the colour values to 0 that will then stop the game from recolouring the sub-panel titles to the team colour.

Then to customize the colour you need to edit the fonts\title.xml file, locate these lines:

<integer id="fill_colour_red" value="47"/>

<integer id="fill_colour_green" value="49"/>

<integer id="fill_colour_blue" value="40"/>

<integer id="fill_colour_alpha" value="170"/>

And adjust the values to the colour you want.

Hey, on the base skin for the full game, is there anyway you can change the transparency of the header?

You'll need to extract and edit this graphic:

skins/fm-widgets/graphics/boxes/custom/interface/titlebar/paper

With an image editing program, if you make the graphic more transparent it will make the header more transparent.

Instructions on how to edit the images and extract the default files can be found in this thread: [FM15 Guide] How To Increase Transparency of Screens

you end my nigthmare... many tks

Feeling incredibly dense here as I've sorted the transparency stuff but I can't seem to figure out where I need to place the new background image, any help?

Edit - Managed to figure it out now, As it turned out I was being a bit dense but it's done now. Thanks for sorting the base skin though, great work

Michael,

Do you have any idea what line controls the colour of these blue bars?

I have changed the bar filler colour in the settings.xml file in the hope to get them to change to white, but they still come out blue.

Michael,

Do you have any idea what line controls the colour of these blue bars?

I have changed the bar filler colour in the settings.xml file in the hope to get them to change to white, but they still come out blue.

If it's the same as FM15:

The Blue Board confidence bars are actually controlled by these lines (however they also control the various other blue bars in the game - knowlege level etc...)

<!-- (additional) stats colours. used on scout, confidence bars -->

<colour name="low stat" red="58" green="161" blue="226" />

<colour name="medium stat" red="58" green="161" blue="226" />

<colour name="good stat" red="58" green="161" blue="226" />

<colour name="excellent stat" red="58" green="161" blue="226" />

I think the first one corresponds to a value of 0-25%, next 25-50% etc...

However the unfilled bit is controlled by the graphic located in this location:

\graphics\charts\bar\horizontal\percentage\normal\ right (found in the skins\fm-widgets folder)

There is also an empty folder that may be used for an empty bar.

And just to make things more difficult it gets recoloured by the same values above so you need to alter the actual image and also take into consideration that the game will try and recolour the graphic so at best you'd be able to give it a different shade of the same colour.

Thanks Michael, that has worked a treat.

Just one more question.

Is it possible to get rid of the bottom 3 panels on the after match overview screen, so I'm left with just 6 panels instead of 9?

I don't fill these 3 panels with any info and I'd like to make the others larger, like in FM14.

That screen is controlled by the 'match overview.xml' file found in the panels folder, if you have a look in the match highlights mod that thread has instructions on how to remove panels from that screen and the code there is the same as this screen. (You'd want to remove the widgets with the ids MVS3, MVS6 and MVS9 which should correspond to the bottom panels)

Thanks Michael, that has worked perfectly. I left the MVS3, MVS6 and MVS9 widgets in, as they didn't seem to affect the view.

Hi Michael, great thread.

In old versions of FM I had downloaded pictures of every football stadium in the UK, so that when viewing a team or playing a game, it showed the correct picture in the background.

I remember I had to add the pictures to the skin's graphics file under backgrounds, but that's it. Is it even possible to do this on FM16? I have just downloaded the OPZ Elite skin and added my files, but it only shows the default image.

Any ideas?

EDIT: No problem, I've worked it out, thanks to one of your guides

Just 2 more things to finish this screen off...

1 - The top header. I would like it to be a darker colour, ie, black, at all times with the words and numbers in white.

2 - The header underneath is transparent. I would prefer this not to be as reading the menu buttons during the game can be a little difficult.

Many thanks in advance.

1. The match header is controlled by 'match title bar.xml' to stop the background being recoloured you need to search that file for any instances of primary (orange) and secondary (black) and change them to the colours you want, however changing the text colour is a lot more complicated as it also controls the same text outside of the match screens.

2. For the transparent bar if the skinner hasn't changed the location it should be controlled by the files in this location: interface/header/match/actionbar delete them and the game should revert back to the default actionsbar.

I want to change base dark skin a little so i have 2 questions:

1. What exactly i have to write to have player picture on attributes page increased to 140*180 px?

2. How can i get kits instead of team logos on pitch screen?

I want to change base dark skin a little so i have 2 questions:

1. What exactly i have to write to have player picture on attributes page increased to 140*180 px?

2. How can i get kits instead of team logos on pitch screen?

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/442799-FM16-Mod-Match-In-Between-Highlights-Mod

How To enable Background Changes

FM2016 supports background changes directly this year, if you are using the FMT mode skins you shouldn't need to do anything to get them working, however if you are using the full mode skins there is a file you need to edit as they have a solid overlay over the background meaning that whilst the background is displaying you cannot see it.

(...)

While I am very thankful that someone takes care to show how background changes are enabled in the game, I have despite hours of attempts unfortunately not managed to get a successful result from following this suggested procedure. I have made the two files called paper.png more transparent, and yet no background image is shown (I have reloaded skin + cleared cache).

May I...

EDIT: Solved. Let me state what I at long last found out, so others may learn: if one has chosen the zoom in-mode and not changed the third paper.png (which goes together with zoom mode), one fails to obtain the wanted result.

I want to change base dark skin a little so i have 2 questions:

1. What exactly i have to write to have player picture on attributes page increased to 140*180 px?

2. How can i get kits instead of team logos on pitch screen?

The attributes page coding hasn't changed so you should be able to follow the instructions in the older threads.

To get the kits on the match screens instead of logos have a look at this: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/443250-FM16-MOD-Match-Screen-Kits-Mod

Michael, I hope you can help me with something. A few days ago, I created this thread, but unfortunately, had no answer. So do you think it's possible to make it work? Or it isn't coded in the same way? I hope you can clarify this for me

Michael, I hope you can help me with something. A few days ago, I created this thread, but unfortunately, had no answer. So do you think it's possible to make it work? Or it isn't coded in the same way? I hope you can clarify this for me

Yes. prob a case of jsut transfering over the right base files, probably Client Object Brower, Header, Titlebar & Match titlebar xml's off the top of my head.

Hello,

I really appreciate the time you put into these guides Michael, however I am absolutely baffled as to how I enable backgrounds. I follow the guide but just hit a wall - the paint.net app is really confusing, I have no idea what to do with the FM extractor. It says go get the skin.fmf file but I can't find that in any of the sub folders in both the steam folder and the football manager folder. I'm using the Base dark skin. I can't recall it ever being this difficult to get the backgrounds, surely it would make sense for someone or SI to just release this skin with the changes made that get outlined in the guides here!? Also, all your guides mention widgets and none of my file names have widget sub folders?

Yes. prob a case of jsut transfering over the right base files, probably Client Object Brower, Header, Titlebar & Match titlebar xml's off the top of my head.

Tried that already, didn't work, but maybe I copied the wrong files, don't know.

Hello,

I really appreciate the time you put into these guides Michael, however I am absolutely baffled as to how I enable backgrounds. I follow the guide but just hit a wall - the paint.net app is really confusing, I have no idea what to do with the FM extractor. It says go get the skin.fmf file but I can't find that in any of the sub folders in both the steam folder and the football manager folder. I'm using the Base dark skin. I can't recall it ever being this difficult to get the backgrounds, surely it would make sense for someone or SI to just release this skin with the changes made that get outlined in the guides here!? Also, all your guides mention widgets and none of my file names have widget sub folders?

If you are using the Base Skin you don't need to extract anything it already includes the files you need to edit.

You just need to follow the instructions in the opening post, then the linked guide has step by step instructions for adjusting the files using paint.net (you just need to follow step 2 onwards as I have already done step one for you).

For some reason I can't see font sizes in settings.xml like I used to, where can I change the titlebar header font size?