You are right, virtual network editor isn’t part of the player package.
Vmware hasn't made this easy. So let's see if this works. Possibly the best and quickest way to configure NAT on vmware player 12 would be to edit the configuration file directly. Not sure what OS you are on, but here are possible locations for the file:
https/pubs.vmware.com/workstation-9/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.ws.using.doc%2FGUID-04D783E1-3AB9-4D98-9891-2C58215905CC.html
First close vmware player (if it is on/running).
Download and open Notepad++ (https
/notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.3.3.html). This is just to ensure that EOL/endline characters don’t get messed up, something windows is (in)famous in. Open vmnetdhcp.conf in Notepad++. Look for something like this:
host xxxx {
hardware ethernet xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx;
fixed-address a.b.c.d;
}
Don’t touch/edit the characters/numbers that you will find in place of “x” in your vmnetdhcp.conf file. Substitute whatever appears in place of a.b.c.d in your file to an IP that falls within your net mask. Typically it will be something along the lines of 192.168.1.20. Remove any “extra” lines (other than the ones shown above), save, close Notepad++. Reboot computer. Reopen vmware player, run/boot image.
Extra nugget of info: vmnetdhcp.conf follows the exact same format as dhcpd.conf in POSIX systems. In case you are interested in more options, take a look at the man page for dhcpd on BSD:
https/www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=dhcpd.conf
Hope this helps.