I don't know if there's an easy way - but you can change all the pathing to use the base factions..
I.e. go through the files (INI and LUA) and look up whereever the unique faction looks up "uniquefaction.rte/file/file/file.(bmp,wav,ini) and just change uniquefaction.rte to Coalition.rte. Then, dump the files into Coalition.rte and mod the INI's so they load the new items.
It's not as much work as it seems, just open the .ini files with wordpad or whatever your favourite text editor is, and use "Find and replace" to look up the faction you're changing and change the naming conventions (aka find uniqueafaction.rte -> replace with Coalition.rte). You should kind of do all of this in another folder, too.... but whatever.
After all the naming conventions are changed, you have to then have them included in the faction's devices/actors lists.. these are ini files found in the folders and look like this:
Example from Actors.ini
IncludeFile = Coalition.rte/Actors/Soldier/Soldier.ini
Example from Devices.ini
IncludeFile = Coalition.rte/Devices/Weapons/UberCannon.ini
These lines should be replaced with their respective devices/actors from the faction you're merging.
If there's a new folder like "Weapons" in the faction you're merging.. and it has a Weapons.ini, this has to be called in the initial faction's folder, usually as "Index.ini"
Example:
IncludeFile = Coalition.rte/Devices/Devices.ini
so you'd have to call the new ini:
IncludeFile = Coalition.rte/Weapons/Weapons.ini
at the end of the line.
Anyways it can get more complicated when there are custom materials and such, but just keep in mind that everything is loaded in order, so if you call Weapons.ini before Materials.ini, and there's a line in Weapons.ini that requires a material from Materials.ini, it will give you an error because you're trying to use something that hasn't yet been called. The solution is just to raise Materials.ini up in the load order of the INI.
After everything is tied under one .rte folder, the faction will no longer consider the components you're loading as another faction and will no longer cost 400%. This is done through the actual programming that Data Realms did.. Actually there's a YouTube vid out there somewhere where you can actually see him programming this bit of code into the game
Summary (at least this is the order I would do things in):
1) Back up Coalition.rte
2) Run 'Find and Replace" on all INI and LUA files of the expansion, replacing the text FROM the rte expansion, TO the faction you want to add the actors/devices to. Make sure your spelling is perfect before replacing. If it isn't you can always correct it with another Find and Replace, though.
(i.e. find Expansion.rte replace with Coalition.rte)
3) Change the actual faction's (Coaltion.rte) INI files to incorporate the new materials, devices, actors, weapons etc. The main INI's you'll be modifying are the Index.ini and the main loader INIs like Devices.ini NOTE: Custom factions may use unique INI's, which have to be called. i.e. Coalition calls their weapons in Devices.ini, but custom factions may use "Weapons.ini" If they both use Devices.ini, it's less work for you basically..
4) Merge the expansion files into Coalition.rte/Ronin.rte/Dummy.rte.. in this example, Coalition.rte
I'd personally do this all at once.. and then merge the folders. Any errors can be corrected fairly easily.
5) Run the game, hopefully everything works. What the program will do:
-Load Coalition.rte\Index.ini lines
-> Index.ini includes Effects.ini -> Load objects called in Effects.ini
-> Loads these effects (usually gibs, glows, particle fx)
-> Index.ini includes Devices.ini -> Load objects called in Devices.ini
-> Loads these devices, usually weapons, explosives, tools
-> Index.ini includes Actors.ini -> Load actors called in Actors.ini
-> Loads these Actors, usually actors, dropships, turrets
-> Index.ini includes Loadouts.ini -> Loads loadouts called in Loadouts.ini
-> Loads loadouts for campaign
I hope this isn't too much text. It's really a lot simpler than I make it sound. If you run into any errors, I would just go into the INI's and make sure everything's loading correctly. For example if there was a weapons.ini.. and you copied a line in Index, it may be as simple as changing Coalition.rte/Devices/Weapons.ini to Coalition.rte/Weapons/Weapons.ini (in this case, forgetting to change the folder path correctly).
Good luck.. just post any questions or really baffling errors you run into on here. It's pretty straightforward though...
