I'm getting a little fed up with Blender

[Nielk1]

* Nielk1 shudders at that horrible monkey UV.

[Clavin12]

How do you make it so that the polygons retain their shape in the UV window?

[anomaly]

I don't know if there is an option that will make them retain their shape exactly but, if you only select small areas of polys at a time and unwrap those sections individually, they tend to retain most of their shape. 

You can also use seams in 3d View to mark the separation between these small areas.  After that, all you have to do is select all the vertices and unwrap them and Blender should automatically arrange the sections of the mesh in the UV Editor in such a way that they dont over lap each other.  You can even select each section as an "island" and easily move it around without worrying about interfering with the other sections.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/UV_Map_Basics

[Clavin12]

Yes! Seams! I can do it now!

[Clavin12]

So now that I know how to UV unwrap I need to know how to make ship textures. I know how to export the layout and have edited in photoshop but I need to know what you do to get the beautifully realistic textures and N1 seems to be able to do on the fly.

[Nielk1]

I have about 27 different processes that all have no set series of definable steps. Basically just mess around and remember what works. Shape layers work great.

[Warfreak]

*Stares at all the people with Photoshop with hate in the eyes* 

[mrtwosheds]

Some times the hardest things to spot are those that are obviously not there.
Hate will not help, think about what is not being said to you.