Modder's Guide

[Psientist]

Having played and modded a couple of other schrapnel games, I REALLY came to rely upon modmakers' guides and tutorials. I hope this isn't a newb question, but is there a tutorial out there for making Dominions 3 mods?

To start with, I thought it might be fun to make a few new Pretenders... like a giant spider (Lolth) for Marignon.

Thanks in advance.

[Ighalli]

Well, in your dominions 3 folder there is a docs folder that has a manual about modding. After skimming through that, try downloading one of the other mods on here and trying to just change what you need. There is already a shape shifting spider god mod floating around here somewhere.

[Endoperez]

I made my Anansi mod (http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showthreaded.php?Number=451611) as a simple example mod. It creates two new units (two forms of the same shapesifter creature) and makes Anansi the Shapeshifter a new pretender available for Machaka.

The mod documentation is a necessary read, but just going through some existing mods should show most things you might want to do.

[Psientist]

Good advice on the mod guide... thanks. And the Anansi mod was a great idea.

[Jack_Trowell]

Note that on the dom3 cdrom there is an exemple mod from illwinter : a Late Age nation of vaettis (the gobelins thatwere allies to the Jotun in middle age), with Wyverns and sacred gobelin cavalry.

(in dom2, the exemple mod was a nation of hoburgs, and this mod had been expended, and recently adapted to dom3, you can find it in this forum)

For the dom3 exemple mod, I think that instead of wyverns it would be a good idea to change it to have trolls as vaetti allies : a nation of trolls and gobelins is just too good an idea to miss. ^_^

[Endoperez]

Various spell modding commands have been tested and posted to at least two different threads. Also, every now and then one of the developers mentions an interesting detail about the inner workings of the commands (such as #aoe 666 and #aoe 665 affecting whole / 25% of the battlefield).

[Psientist]

When I was making mods for Wierd Worlds (same company), I could crack open the game application and look at all of the weapon / ship / planet / race definitions and graphics. Replacing them with revised (modded) graphics was then a snap, and it was easy to "borrow" an existing graphic or item for a modded one.

I've gone through the provided modder's guide for Doms3, and successfully made a couple of Pretender mods (I'll release them here eventually). However, it would be nice if there was a nice library -- or I was made aware of an existing library -- of graphics, monsters, items, etc. for modmaking. For example, the modders guide shows you how to use an existing sprite for a new monster - but you have to know the number of the sprite you want already.

Any clues on how we can find those?

[Turin]

The easiest way to view all monsters until edi finishes his exceldatabase is to use the allunitsview map, which should be somewhere here in the modding forum.

[Gandalf Parker]

Browsing thru them all in one game lets you
A) capture the image if you want to create a new version
or
B) use the "I" button to see things like its numeric designator

[Psientist]

Thanks!

While we're at it (aren't I demanding?), is there any way to give special (e.g. spell) attributes to monsters and items?

For example, certain deities summon allies over time, and lots of magic items duplicate effects of spells. But there doesn't appear to be a documented way to create a new pretender or item that has spell attributes of the Modder's choosing...

[Psientist]

I guess the number of views but lack of responses to my last question means:

1) Such a thing isn't possible.
2) Such a thing may be possible, but nobody knows. Probably a hack.
3) It is possible, but undocumented, and kind of complex, so the development team isn't motivated to explain it.

[Gandalf Parker]

I have no idea of the answer. I dont really do mods.
But have you seen yesterdays entry to the progress file?


13th january
* Darkness did not work properly regarding demons.
* Modding: new commands: #domsummon, #domsummon2, #domsummon20.
* Modding: new commands: #summon1, #summon5, #makemonster1-5.
* Modding: #copy renamed to #copyspell in manual as well.



http://ulm.illwinter.com/dom3/dom3progress.html

Does that mean that Johan has fixed that for the next patch?

[Psientist]

Looks like that might cover some of the unique Pretender abilities I asked about (but not assigning spell attributes to monsters or items). I'll play with it when the 3.05 patch comes out.

Thanks for the heads-up...

[Psientist]

Does anybody have a link to the allunitsview map, or Edi's spreadsheet? The search function on this forum is pretty capricious, and I haven't found them.

[Edi]

You can get the Unit DB for Dom2 from Arryn's site (http://www.strife.com/dominions-2/files.htm) or Sunray's site (http://www.freewebs.com/dominions2/) but the DB for Dom3 is still a work in progress and is not yet available.

Most of the numbers will be the same, it starts breaking down after #1060.

Edi

[Ballbarian]

all units map:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=465440&page=3&view=collap sed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

dom2 units database by Edi:
http://www.strife.com/dominions-2/files.htm#docs

[Turin]

That allunitsview map is a bit outdatet since it only goes to 1712 and therefore doesn´t include any lanka units. Here is a new one attached.

[Endoperez]

I use some version of some allunitview map that shows all units up to 1999. The non-existant units are displayed as unit 1. I'm not sure why it works like this, but I think I got it to work by having a mod add a unit with a high unit number.

[Psientist]

Thanks!

[FrankTrollman]

Deleted.

[DrPraetorious]

Here's a list of all units in .csv format. There are no stats here, but it is a comprehensive listing.

It's based on the strings dump - and I then added in a few missing units by hand which strings failed to find (anything with a name <=3 characters in length.)

[Edi]

That's a good tool to get modders started since it gives them the numbers. The DB is progressing and is currently complete from 0 to 631 except for itemslots and ldr values for some units that will get added later. The base resource costs have not been calculated eitehr, because I need to find out the mechanics of that.

It should pick up the pace significantly after the next couple of hundred units, since all national recruitable things are already done (bar the itemslots and ldr values for non-commanders).

One thing that is useful for testing purposes is making a nation mod of either Mictlan (any era) or Sauromatia and then modding the startsites with 5x the #homecom <nbr>. Then enable the mod, start a game with that nation and you will see all the monsters you plugged in with #homecom as recruitable commanders. If you change the monster numbers in the mod file, exit Dom3 and restart it and resume the game, you will now see the NEW monsters as commanders, you do NOT need to start another test game.

This also means that if a new, improved version of a mod comes out and there is already a game in progress using that mod, just replacing the contents of the old version with the new version will allow the games in progress to be updated to the new version on the fly. I don't know if it will work, but it should, in theory at least.

Edi

[Psientist]

Next question! Is there a comprehensive list of item numbers?

Second, when modding monsters, it is possible to "copystats" from an existing monster, then change stats/attributes from that base to create a new monster. Is such a thing possible with weapons or armor?

I don't think so (my experiments resulted in crashification), but it would be a very nice modding feature...

[DrPraetorious]

There isn't a copy command for items AFAIK.

Do you want a comprehensive list of armor, or weapons, or of forgeables? All three are *probably* in the strings dump, but it's a lot harder to verify those - and anything with a three letter name will generally be missing. I could try extracting them myself rather than depending on Strings to do it.

[Edi]

Psientist said:
Next question! Is there a comprehensive list of item numbers?

Second, when modding monsters, it is possible to "copystats" from an existing monster, then change stats/attributes from that base to create a new monster. Is such a thing possible with weapons or armor?

I don't think so (my experiments resulted in crashification), but it would be a very nice modding feature...


There will be by the time I'm done, but that is going to take a long while yet. The DB will come out without the items, but they will be next on the list after that.

Edi

[Turin]

FrankTrollman said:

Turin said:
That allunitsview map is a bit outdatet since it only goes to 1712 and therefore doesn´t include any lanka units. Here is a new one attached.



Nagot Gick Fel!

ConvArmy Nmbr Error.

Instant Crash bug I'm afraid.

-Frank



Hmm very strange. I encounter the same bug but only when scrolling past unit ~1760(which would show the last normal ingame unit when scrolling to the next row) without any mods enabled. With mods enabled(any mod seems to do) the map works normally and you can view all 1764 units.

Do you get the error immediately when loading the map or when scrolling?

[Psientist]

There will be by the time I'm done, but that is going to take a long while yet. The DB will come out without the items, but they will be next on the list after that.

Edi



Edi - We'll be patient, or at least try! The ability to at least mix-and-match items to mod new items will open up *a lot* of possibilities.

What would create *even more* possibilities would simply being able to add arbitrary spells as "secondary effects" to items.

I'm still playing around... I created a pretender assigned with the weapon "Banish to Inferno". It seems to work - the info box shows a magical weapon with -12 damage. I don't know if I just tripped across a spell that had already been "weaponized" (since assigning weapons with "made up" names just caused crashes), or if any spell will work that way. Playtesting the pretender, I have yet to actually confirm the Banish to Inferno weapon has been used, since weapons don't notify themselves in the battle screen's scrolling text. I'll experiment with some more spells and post when I get a chance.

[Psientist]

Ah, well, it didn't take much playtesting. I tripped across "Banish to Inferno" by lucky accident; most battlefield spells are not recognized as weapons at all.

[FrankTrollman]

Deleted.

[Edi]

With the time this project is going to take, I'm going to have to start releasing stuff piecemeal to allow people to get on with their mod projects.

I switched from doing units to modding weapons and getting them done first. The weapon stats WILL be incomplete, because there is simply no way to know all of the attributes just by looking at the description, but they will be as complete as I can make them. I found a way to test for the bonus status of a weapon and how many hands it requires, so those will be there.

The weapon DB will be ready by early next week at the latest, at which point I'll be going back to units.

The armor list is one goddamn pain in the arse since assigning creatures armor by armor number is STILL NOT enabled. That means I can get the stats for the armors down but not the names until I find what matches what.

There's a special icon made for that one: http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/images/smiles/banghead.gif

Another thing that has been confirmed: Changing a mod on the fly WILL retroactively change any games started with that mod enabled, so even in MP games it is possible to retroactively correct mod mistakes by just editing them out and ensuring that everyone has the corrected version when the next turn hosts. Recruitment lists, weapon and armor assignments, everything gets retroactively pasted even on top of already recruited units.

Edi

[Psientist]

Frank - yet, "Banish to Inferno" behaves, and shows, as a weapon that can be assigned to a pretender by a mod. The curious part, to me, is if "Banish to Inferno" was never established as an actual weapon itself.

Edi - Thanks for your work. It's nice to have developers actively participating in the forums.

[Edi]

A lot of weapons are essentially special effects. Some weapons, like Magebane, are physical weapons that also have other effects when they strike a target. Magebane has Unconsciousness, which deals a metric ton of armor negating stun damage and has an additional effect of its own called slay magic, which theoretically could have another effect and so on ad infinitum. You can also construct infinite feedback loops by making two weapons have each other as additional effects.

Also, I'm a developer since when and did somebody remember to tell JK and Kristoffer? I wasn't even on the bloody beta test team, or else this project would be MUCH farther along than it is right now.

The weapon and units bug list I'm going to post after I'm done is going to be murder on the IW guys...

Edi