Mod help?

[BandarLover]

O.K. This may have been asked before, but I'm relatively new to the forum (Though not to the game franchise) Checking out and playing the different mods that have been made has gotten me itching to make one of my own. However, I haven't even a clue where to begin. I checked the Mod Tools and Tutorial thread, but there seem to be more tools for maps than anything else. Not to mention no tutorial to speak of. And when I say tutorial, I mean step by step, do this and that kind of thing. I'm totally comp. illiterate. All I use PC's for is gaming, surfing the net and (hopefully soon) uploading music.

So now my question. What exactly do I need to get this moding thing going? All I know for sure is a Paint program. And something to read .dm files. And has anyone written a step by step guide on what to do? I've read the modding document in the Dominions CD but it made my eyes glaze over and gave me a splitting headache and then I woke up on the floor naked.

Can anyone help a wannabe modder?

[Sombre]

This is what I use:

Paint Shop Pro for graphical editing.
Notepad for editing .dm files.

That's it. Seriously.

The first step to making your first mod is to have a skim throug the modding manual found in the docs folder in the dom3 install to see what's possible. Then start with a totally blank .dm file and fill in the bare minimum that you need to make the mod show up - the stuff right at the start of the modding manual. Then look at nation modding and select a nation which already exists in the game - change the name and the descriptions. Don't clear anything from the nation yet - this is just for practice.

Since you're working with a pre-existing nation you at least know that the mod is going to work and be playable - you can keep adding stuff in and eventually you can change a few bits of 'code' to make an entirely new nation. I suggest just making one or two new units which use sprites already in the game, maybe even stats already in the game (#copyspr and #copystats commands) just with some minor changes to their stats,... and then add them to the lineup of your 'replacement' nation's recruit screen,...

To be honest I think it's best to just stick to the mod manual as a reference, don't use any new graphics at first and look at what people have done in other .dm files to work out what you should be doing. Don't bee too ambitious until you know how to make weapons, armor, sites, monsters,.. maybe even spells. There's a lot you can do just by mixing and matching units already in the game. For example you could make a very simple mod with a big impact by making a new nation and giving it a recruiting lineup of all the heavy cavalry found in different vanilla nations.

[Wish]

i use open office for editing text, but I also use paintshop pro for graphics.

for instance the sphinx's in my small mod were basically abunch of photos i GISed put together.

[Edi]

I use Crimson Editor for text files (or the .dm files). A very powerful text editor for that sort of purpose, so much better than Notepad that I haven't used Notepad for years. Also allows you to keep severl files open in separate tabs at the same time.

For graphics that you might want to make, Paint, GIMP, PAintshop and other image processing programs, depending on what you want to do and how many features you need.

That, and reading the mod manual AND reading mod files somebody has already created (e.g. Juzza's Tarent mod, the Complete Balance mod or any other) to give you an idea of how to do it.

If you can use a text editor and know how to read instructions, you can mod the game. And you can always ask for more help here.

[paradoxharbinger]

i second crimson editor, though i still find uses for notepad

[Sombre]

I find it difficult to see how a text editor with more features than notepad is actually beneficial for editing .dm files. They are incredibly simple.

But hey, use whatever. It's just raw text editing after all.

[Edi]

Sombre, things like "find and replace", "find", changing case for words, lines etc. I've done a crapload of map editing and reading mods and so forth and the last thing I want is having no tools to quicken the process.

If you want an accurate comparison:
A 600 MHz Celeron with a Matrox G200 graphics card and 392 MB memory
A Core 2 Duo E6600 with Nvidia 7900GT graphics card and 2 GB memory
Both of those can run Dominions 3, but do you REALLY want to pick the first option if the second is available? Because Crimson Editor is nearly that much more powerful than Notepad. I'll take the steel knife and let others chip away with their flint-bladed stone age tools if they are so inclined. But I'm never going back to Notepad.

If you want to see what I'm talking about, download and install Crimson Editor and try it. Then tell me what you think. The program is freeware for personal use, so it'll not cost you anything. I've noticed you do a LOT of modding, so you could probably find use for some of the additional features. You don't absolutely NEED them, but they make things easier.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Sombre]

Notepad has find and replace.

You can say it's much more powerful, but then Microsoft Word is also much more powerful than notepad - it doesn't mean it's any help modding .dm files,.. which is the only thing I use notepad for.

There are certain modding tools which would be very helpful and I'd like to see. For instance a prog that output a mod-ready version of a unit from the vanilla database. It would make changing the equipment of units that much easier. Or a full blown unit editor where you input fields, browse for pictures etc.

[paradoxharbinger]

a unit editor would be really sweet, even if it lacked a database of the in-game units and just allowed for creating new ones.

[BandarLover]

Very nice.

It's nice to know I just need stuff that's already on my comp. I'll prolly toy around with some of the things Sombre first posted. And I will check out the other programs as well.

I know it has been suggested that I not worry about custom graphics at first, but eventually I would like to. How do most of you modders go about this? Do you import graphics into your paint program or make them from scratch? Can you simply edit and add to some units already in game?

Thank you guys very much for the help. Who knows, I may just see this through and (hopefully) have something up here for others to check out.

[Sombre]

I often use graphics from the game as a template,.. but I don't use a time consuming and precise method to extract them, so I only get one sprite (from the unit recruitment screen, enlarged by about 120% width, 140% height) and it's blurry due to enlargement, has some other graphical glitches etc. I then go about a process of chopping bits off, sharpening it up, changing colours and adding bits. I sometimes use graphics from other sources too, but recently (with Ulm Reborn for instance) it's been my own work on top of a Dom3 recruitment screenshot template.

[Psientist]

Bandarlover:
Here's my suggestion. Don't even start with a nation - start even simpler by just modding a couple of items, monsters, or spells. I started with a new pretender!

Don't restrict your modded monsters/items/spells by nation. Don't worry about graphics - use the #copyspr to copy graphics from an existing unit (check out the various Units View maps to get the numbers).

Play and tweak.

That way, you can have a simple mod up and running in a few minutes. Then you can start building around a theme and get more ambitious.

[BandarLover]

I certainly plan on starting slow to get my feet wet. The last thing I want to do is jump right in and drown (which looks easy to do after attempting to read the mod file in the Dom 3 CD). As for ambitous, well the idea I have is certainly that. In fact, I'm not even sure it feasible but I wanna try at least.

If more questions or problems pop up I'll certainly post here again. You guys are fast and willing with the advise and I appreciate it.

[Foodstamp]

I have another suggestion for modding entire nations. When I first started working on my nation (Haida Gwaii), I opened a Dominions 2 nation mod called Ashikaga Shogunate and basically copied the structure of this mod by Potatoman while making my mod.

The way Potatoman formatted that mod is similar to what order the modding command sections are listed in the Dom3 modding pdf. So I was able to just follow along with his mod opened side by side with mine and know exactly what commands I needed to use to make units, weapons and the nation specific functions.

Without using an existing mod as a reference, it would have been a nightmare to try to structure the mod with any semblance of order. The modding commands for Dom3 are alot more varied and complex, so once I was finished with the core part of the mod which is similar to dom2, I just plugged in areas for starting magic sites, spells and other new features where I felt appropriate.

So my final format looks like this:

1. Mod Info
2. Weapons/Armor
3. Units
4. Commanders
5. Summons
6. National Heroes
7. Pretenders
8. Existing Pretenders
9. Spells
10. Magic Sites
11. Nation

I hope maybe some of this information is help with your ambitious project. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[paradoxharbinger]

i've decided to create that unit editor. it's actually pretty far along already, thanks to the wonders of visual c#. i'll start a separate thread for those who are interested

[BandarLover]

O.K. I said starting out that I would be asking a lot of stupid questions and here is the first.

Been toying with modding. Taking the suggestion to copy another DM file and change some small things in it, which I am doing.

Uhmm...I can't save it as a DM file though. Notepad only saves it as a txt and won't let me manually save it as a .DM

What am I doing wrong?

[Ballbarian]

You should be able to select "Save As" from the "File" menu and change the three letter file extension from the dialog manually. The "Save As Type" field will still be text, but that's ok, it is still a text file, you just want to change the extension.

An alternative is to go ahead and save it with the txt extension, then rename the file manually by right clicking on the file and selecting "rename" from the pop up menu. Again, the goal is to change ".txt" to ".dm".

[Gandalf Parker]

You are right. Notepad has gotten abit too "user friendly" in trying to keep you from making mistakes. You can rename it to just .dm after you save it, and tell MS "yes I really really want to". After that the save should allow to the same file name with no problem.

In some ways I find WordPad to be less obnoxious if you have a machine that doesnt bog down with the very slight extra abilities of it.

[paradoxharbinger]

quick note, the unit maker has been released, the link is in my sig

[BandarLover]

*heavy sigh* I'm simply not getting this and I know it's cause I'm doing something wrong. GRR!

Let me break it down:

I'm taking Sombre's advise and copying the Haida Gwaii dm. Instead of copying over it, I'm trying to use it as a template, giving me 2 Haida dms. I save the one I am doing to name of new nation, add new description, etc. Just to see if I can get it to appear in my mod preferences so I know if I'm on the right track. Save as "newnation.dm". Still says it is a text file, which I suppose is fine, it's just that everyone else's shows up as DM file. Nothing in my mod preferences when I launch game. I've also created a new folder in my mods titled the new nation, and just copy/pasted Haida's tga's into it.

I've tried what Ballbarian and Gandalf suggested as well, with the same results. So where have I gone wrong? I'm just trying to get it to show up in the mods and can't get it to work.

Paradox: I've not yet downloaded your unit maker yet,just waiting until I get this sorted out I guess. Interesting side note (or not), I've recently discovered an Irish rock band called Paradox that I quite enjoy. They sound kinda Silverchair-ish. Very grungey.

Oh yes, almost forgot, I've also tried creating a new game, thinking perhaps the mod pref still thinks Haidais my mod, but it's not in the nations list there either. Just in case someone suggests trying that. Guess I'm being preemptive.

[Gandalf Parker]

Your windows is probably set to "hide known extensions" or something like that.

Try right-clicking on the file and selecting rename. Or selecting properties

[Foodstamp]

I believe I can help you with this issue.

When you are ready to save your work, you need to click file ----> save as.

This will bring up the save as box showing the directory you intend to save the file in. Here is the part to pay attention to http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif.

Towards the bottom, you will see a field labeled "Save as type:". This field needs to be changed to "all files"

Once you have selected all files. Save your work as filename.dm .

This will save the file as an actual dm file instead of filename.dm.txt like you are doing currently.

I hope this helps!

[BandarLover]

Awesome!! That worked Sombre. Thank you guys again for the fast and varied help. And yes, I did need to pay attention. Missed a step the first time and nearly put my head thru the monitor. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Wow I'm so stoked, just over that little thing. Don't know what else to say.

Thanks again everyone.

[Sombre]

Sombre? I think you mean foodstamp. Sounds like you're on your way though.

If you need any help don't hesitate to ask. A lot of the stuff that seems obvious to us actually took a while to work out.

[BandarLover]

Yes Foodstamp. Told ya I was stoked!

[BandarLover]

O.K. I'm still flying high after finally getting my mod to show up and now I think it's about time to let you guys in on what exactly I am trying to do. This way, maybe you will all see something I need to add or whatever.

It's no real big mod. I was actually inspired by Frank Trollman's Themiskyra mod (For those that may not know, it makes all of the various Amazon tribes a playable LA nation. Very dif. from Sauromatia). I'm attempting to create a late era nation of unified Barbarian tribes, basically just taking all those indy barbarians and making them playable as a stand alone nation. I want to use reg barbarians and the barb light cavalry as the 'regular' troops and was thinking of making the 'tribes' barbarians (i.e- Wolf tribe, Deer tribe, Bear tribe) as sacred troops. The melee units, not their archers. I know as a LA nation, they would be severely handicapped against other more heavily armored nations and thought to balance that out by making them more magic friendly than the other LA nations. I want to use the Barbarian Chiefs and Barbarian Lords as commanders, with EA Ulm mages to compliment the other 'tribes' mages. Should be very doable with in game graphics.

After getting my mod to show up, I've now attempted to change a unit or two from the Haida mod that I am using as a template. I've basically added barbarians, replacing the first two Haida units, tweaked their stats a little, and then fired up the mod to see if the changes took. The two units were indeed different but they were graphics I've not even seen in game before. Unless barbarians now wear golden armor with shiny helmets and a broadsword, that is. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

I used the sprite image (I thought) in the Dom DB list but it wasn't the right unit that appeared. None of the stat changes were there either, nor the description. Where did I go wrong? (again).

I also don't know what to use as the #itemslots number. I picked 3334 from the modding docs itemslots table. (I still get a headache just trying to read thru that document.)

There you go. What I really need is for someone to come to my house and look over my shoulder and tell me what to do. But barring that ever happening, I'll just pick your brains here. Also, any suggestions on this mod are of course welcome.

[Foodstamp]

Try this to get the standard itemslots for a commander...

#itemslots 13574 (should give you all the slots including 2 misc slots)

As far as your graphic dilemma goes, post what monster number you are copying sprites from and I will tell you which one it matches with. Also let me know the name of the unit you wish to use graphics from and I will hunt them down for you if the database is incorrect.

As far as the description problem and stat changes, I would need to see the code your using for those units to be able to help you better.

I will PM you my email address so I can help you make this mod http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Sombre]

Just paste a bit of the code in a post here and we'll soon see what's up.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes, please post. For every poster that are at least a dozen lurkers. Public questions and public answers helps many.

[BandarLover]

O.K. here is what I have coded in for my mod. Could it be the #newmonster number giving me fits? I admit I don't really understand what most of this is or does. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif


Barbarian
#newmonster 2700
#name "Barbarian Warrior"
#copyspr 139

#descr "Life in the wastelands is very tough and these warriors start at a young age learning how to survive on next to nothing. The Barbarian Warriors are near reckless in their thirst for battle and fight for the pillage of spoils that comes afterwards."

#ap 12
#mapmove 2
#hp 13
#prot 8
#size 2
#str 12
#enc 2
#att 11
#def 11
#prec 10
#mr 9
#mor 9
#gcost 13

#nametype 100
#itemslots 3334

#weapon 11
#armor "Full Leather Armor"

#pillagebonus 1

#wastesurvival

#end

[Foodstamp]

Disregard what I said about the itemslot number. It should be 15622 to get all the standard humanoid slots.

Your scripting looks fine to me. I think the conflict may have to do with the way your invoking these units. Do you have the #addrecunit set up properly?

PS. be sure that your not running more than one mod. Haida Gwaii was not built to play friendly with other existing mods, so a command in one of the other mod files may be overwriting a command in your attempt to create a mod.

[BandarLover]

I should hope the scripting looks fine, I just changed a few things using your mod. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

And it was the #addrecruitunit. It was still set to your old one.

P.S.- How do you take screenshots?

P.S.S. - Anybody feel up to making an original banner for me?

[Foodstamp]

I use fraps to do screenshots. I am pretty sure you can just hit printscreen and paste to MS paint as well.

P.S. If you are wondering about the quick replies, I browse these forums when I work on mods and I am working on a very bizarre mod atm http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Sombre]

I'm sure you can make your own banner - it doesn't have to look good, just be clear and distinct. Write Bandar's Barbs or something in paint.

I'm also modding right now. Trying to get the damn cat demons to rout after they turn into little girls. Not working, so I might have to just change the description.

[BandarLover]

Sombre said:
Trying to get the damn cat demons to rout after they turn into little girls. Not working, so I might have to just change the description.



ROFL!! That is a wonderful mental pic! Giant cat-demon gets injured, runs away like a little girl. Hilarious!

[Ballbarian]

Here is a quick and dirty banner.

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/uploads/507602-barbhordes.JPG

I already had gimp running when I saw your post so figured I could give it a shot. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif Remember to convert it to tga if you decide to use it, or let me know and I will attach a tga version.

[BandarLover]

Thanks muchly Ballbarian. Is certainly better than anything I would have come up with myself.

Now if I can just get it to show up in my mod preferences...

deja vu, anyone?

[Sombre]

Because I'm such a fantastically nice fellow I've decided to donate a graphic to your cause Bandar.

Now this is actually untested, this tga, but it looked ok in PSP so I don't see that it'll look bad in the game. It's a bigass barbarian with a two handed sword. It's not the most polished work and might need some very minor graphical editing, but I thought you could use a bit of practice when it comes to putting graphics in the mod, so here you go. Two tgas attached in zip. One is the normal sprite, the other is attacking. Enjoy.

[Sombre]

Oh and attached to this post is a little bmp preview of it for people who don't like tgas.

It's on grey backdrop for visibility.

[Gandalf Parker]

nice. Very Conan.

[BandarLover]

Awesomeness... He's gonna be a Hero unit, methinks.

Thanks again, Sombre.

[BandarLover]

Oh yes, forgot to add, where do I put this new sprite you gave me so the game will recognize it when I add it to my mod?

[Foodstamp]

Sombre, your very talented at making sprites. Is it ok if I download this for personal use as well? By personal use I mean blowing it up to poster size to pin up next to my david hasslehoff baywatch poster.

Thanks in advance!

[BandarLover]

lol. Disturbing!!

But a David Hasslehoff pretender, hmmm....

[Sombre]

I'm not as talented as you might think. I'm just very good at using images as templates. I work over the top of images culled from a variety of sources (dom 3 being the major one).

You can put the sprites wherever you want, as long as you 'code' a line pointing to where they are. For instance, here's the code for the bandit cur unit in Jomon Broken.

-------------------------------------------------

-- Bandit Cur
#selectmonster 1238
#spr1 "./Jomon Broken/Bandit Cur.tga"
#spr2 "./Jomon Broken/Bandit Cur2.tga"
#name "Bandit Cur"
#descr "In breaking the spirit of the Samurai the women of Jomon ensured their grip on power, but they soon realised that broken men make for poor soldiers. In the process of creating the Dog Samurai the new masters of Jomon emptied the prisons with various cruel experiments. Bandit Curs are effectively forerunners of Dog Samurai, a mix of lessor dog demon and convicted criminal. They are capable of infiltrating enemy provinces and have some degree of canine loyalty, but they are not particularly adept fighters. All halfbreeds can cover long distances without tiring."
#mor 11
#ap 14
#mapmove 3
#stealthy
#weapon "short bow"
#weapon "short sword"
#armor "ashigaru armor"
#armor "jingasa"
#end

-----------------------------------------------

Now the important bit for graphics is the bit I've put in bold. That tells it where the two sprites to use for the unit are and what they're called.

If your mod graphics are going in a folder called 'barb horde' and the files are called 'Barbarian Hero.tga' and 'Barbarian Hero2.tga' or whatever, you just need to have;

#spr1 "./Barb Horde/Barbarian Hero.tga"
#spr2 "./Barb Horde/Barbarin Hero2.tga"

It's easy once you get used to it. Just copy, paste and change details.

[Foodstamp]

Another tidbit of information that may be handy...

In Sombre's example you will notice a "." before /Barb Horde. This "." signifies "Current directory" so script is read as holding the sprite in "Current Directory"/Barb Horde/Barbarian Hero.tga.

The reason I bring this up, it is easy to forget the "." and that will cause issues when the game tries to find the desired graphics.

[BandarLover]

You guys are awesome. Thanks.

There is oh so much to remember.

[Gandalf Parker]

when I want to put in an icon that I know will be there, for everyone, just for a placeholder.. I use
#icon "../guihead.tga"
It should exist in everyones dominions3 directory beneath the mods directory.

Of course, I also tend to like it because the beta group made such a thing about it looking just like me in real life. Seriously.

[Ballbarian]

You know, after looking at it again, I think that the beta group were on to something... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Gandalf Parker]

http://www.oddthotz.com/~gandalf/compare.jpg

[BandarLover]

LOL! You've been immortalized in digital form Gandalf.

[Ballbarian]

I couldn't resist:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/uploads/508117-Gandom3.JPG

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Foodstamp]

LAWL

[Gandalf Parker]

AKK Ive been photoshopped! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
Hmmmm if I replace that guihead.tga with my cropped image...
That would be fun

[Ballbarian]

Attached is the guihead.tga that I made and used to replace the original. (Remember to back up your original!)

[BandarLover]

I must restore ordah' in my thread! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Alright then, working on my commander units and running into, not really trouble but difficulties with the mage types.

I get how to give a mage commander a starting magic ability, but how do I give him a random chance for magic skill as well. The mod document is a bit on the lite side of details. Or I'm just having trouble understanding it.

Hoping soon to post atleast the units and pretenders so other people can try it and give me feedback. I admit, I'm pretty much putting in random numbers for the attributes so I needs people with balance experience to check it out. Not now though, later. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

A few more details I thought of:
I have a mage who start out with nature 1 (or 2, haven't really decided yet). He's a shaman so priestly, but I want a random chance of one elemental path of magic.

[Edi]

#custommagic <mask> is the command you're looking for. You can find a lot of precalculated masks as well as all the basic masks in the Unit DB. At present, there is no possibility of assigning linked randoms such as the MA Atlantean Kings of the Deep have, so each random pick will provide one level only.

[Sombre]

Actually you can /sort of/ do linked randoms, in a limited way. For instance, you could make a unit that has a 100% chance of 1 level in fire and water. You could then put #magicboost set to all paths for a value of 1. That way you're mage would randomly be either a 2 fire or 2 water user.

I think. I haven't actually tested that, but I'm fairly sure it would work.

[Edi]

Hmm, hadn't thought of that. But wasn't #magicboost broken?

[Sombre]

It's broken if you're looking to boost a specific path, not if you want to boost all of them at once (value = 52 or something). I have no idea why just boosting all paths works, but it does. It won't boost paths you don't already have /some/ skill in, which is why it can be used to come up with linked randoms. Sort of.

[BandarLover]

Thanks again guys. Didn't even think to check your Units DB for magic masks, Edi. It's actually quite simple once I got the hang of it.

[BandarLover]

O.K. It's basically as vanilla as vanilla gets. Just the units and commanders are done. Haven't even begun national spells, or heroes, or even pretenders yet. Just wanted to quick post the mod here so people can look it over for me and give me suggestions.

O.K. was gonna post it but I'm having trouble getting it to post the complete mod folder. :p

But I gotta go to work so later today maybe.

O.K. Hopefully I've done this right and my very vanilla Barbarians mod is posted.

Few quick changes suggested by Foodstamp

[Edi]

Well, I did have to put the masks in there or the display page would not have turned out correctly.

[Sombre]

Bandar, attached is a bear graphic for you. It's based off the exile graphic (we have permission to use it) and it shouldn't be too hard for you to change it to suit what you want. It was a quick job, but there you go.

[BandarLover]

Thanks for the graphic Sombre. A bit of an ego hit though since it's gotten more downloads than my actual mod. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

It's awesome as usual, but I need to know how to make it bigger. Looks a lil puny compared to say, Son of Fenerer.

Paint program won't open it.

[Sombre]

You need to make it clear that your mod is attached, maybe give people a teaser of some sort. Maybe the next version should get its own thread.

To make the pic bigger just stick it in a paint program of some kind and resize it. You might need to change the shadow a bit if you do that. As I said, if you resize it to 200% exactly you won't lose any clarity and it will be pretty huge.

[BandarLover]

lol. I know, the mod will get it's own thread soon. I just thought that it was pretty funny.

Are there any free paint programs I can use? Like I said, Paint (I know it sucks, I just wanted to resize it) won't even recognize it. And I'm looking for something I can download. I'll prolly buy a paint program in the future, but that is still a ways off.

[Ballbarian]

I would highly recommend GIMP. Free and very powerful.

[BandarLover]

What little I have seen of it is quite cool. A lot like Illustrator. Thanks Ballbarian

GIMP works nicely, and I was able to enlarge the Bear Sombre so graciously made me. Is there some way to get rid of the purple 'shadow' under the pic in game? Or atleast let it look like a real shadow?

[Sombre]

That colour of pink translates into a real shadow in the game, just as 0 0 0 translates into transparent. Unless I made a mistake with the colour that is.

Should be 255 0 255.

[Foodstamp]

Change the shadow to magenta (red 255, green 0, blue 255), that is the shadow color in dominions.

[BandarLover]

O.K. using GIMP I noticed the shadow was 251 0 251

I tried changing it to 255 0 255, but I'm doing something wrong (again)Still shows up purple-ish I beseech you mighty modders to grace me with your knowledge once more!

[Gandalf Parker]

It is purplish.

The standard practice in games (or any program) is that if you are going to have a special effect forced into a graphic, then you need to have the area for the affect be colored something you dont plan to use. Its like green-screening used in making movies. That way its simple for a program to remove that color and do the effect there.

For the position of a province on the map Dominions uses 1 pure white dot (255,255,255) but you dont need to worry about that for modding.

For transparent Dominions uses pure black (0,0,0).
For a shadow effect Dominions uses Magenta (pinky purple) 255,0,255)

I think thats all of the reserved colors that Dom uses

[BandarLover]

Hmmm....that makes sense but it shows in game as purple-ish (Magenta is it?) Just looks funny when all my other units have black shadows, but my giant bear pretender has a purple (magenta is it?) shadow. I'll fool with it some more.

[BandarLover]

The following is what I have done so far for my mods pretender, Revenant of Shardik:

Shardik
#newmonster 2716
#name "Revanent of Shardik"
#spr1 "./Barbarians/bandarbear.tga"
#spr2 "./Barbarians/bandarbear2.tga"

#descr "The Revenant of Shardik is the physical manifestation of the great bear god, Shardik. He always appears in bear form and has some skill in earth and death magics. His immense size makes him a formidable brawler. The world will once more fear the thunder-maker as it was in past ages."

#ap 16
#mapmove 2
#hp 180
#prot 14
#size 5
#str 24
#enc 4
#att 13
#def 8
#prec 8
#mr 12
#mor 50
#gcost 100

#nametype 131
#restrictedgod 71

#startdom 3
#pathcost 80
#expertleader
#expertmagicleader
#magicskill 3 1
#magicskill 5 1
#itemslots 12288
#mountainsurvival
#wastesurvival
#trample
#fear 3
#end

My quick question is, why does he show up as mindless?

That's all.

[Foodstamp]

50 morale makes units mindless. Lower his morale to 30 and all should be good http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[BandarLover]

Waaaahhh!! You're awesome Foodstamp. I prolly don't say that enough.

[Gandalf Parker]

heehee. there is a statement there about soldiers of the world when 50 morale is automatically considered to also be mindless. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[BandarLover]

Whew, I'm about to use some strong necromancy skills here, resurrecting a thread that's been dead for 2 yrs. but here goes!

I've been piddling with my sad barbarian mod in my spare time making small thematic changes and what-not. The one problem I've run into and been unable to figure out is how to get my start sites to show up in my home province. I'm trying to get some type of gem income going as well as restrict most of my sacreds to home province only, but they don't show. Any ideas?

And as always, any and all help is much appreciated! :D

[Foodstamp]

Can you post a sample of the code you used for your sites and from the nation section please post the startsite code.

[BandarLover]

I can and will, but your wording made me go back and see where I was messing up. The sites appear now. However, I'll still post them cause I have more questions.

Question 1: How do I change the picture for the sites? My Forest site has a forest pic but my mountain site also uses a forest pic.

Question 2: After putting the start site in the nation section, my sites show up. I now have sacred troops only recruitable from the sites...except for one. I have the correct unit number in the site code, and it still shows up as being recruitable, but not from just the start site. Instead, it added another archer unit, giving me 2 archer units, one recruitable anywhere, the other recruitable from the start site in place of my sacred warrior. Code is forthcoming:

#newsite 805
#name "Great Aran Mountains"
#path 6
#level 0
#rarity 5
#gems 1 2
#gems 3 2
#homemon 2704
#homecom 2712
#homecom 2713
#end

#newsite 806
#name "Great Aran Forest"
#path 6
#level 0
#rarity 5
#gems 6 2
#homemon 2703
#homecom 2711
#end


And my nation code:

#selectnation 83
#name "Barbarian Hordes"
#epithet "Unified Tribes"
#era 3
#descr "The Barbaians have long been a secluded peoples, and for centuries all was fine. Outsiders assumed that seperately, the tribes would be little more than a nuisance, but the likelyhood of the scattered factions actually banding together was never taken seriously. However, with the rise of the new pretenders, this is precisely what has happened. Galvanized by an enigmatic Barbarian king, the tribes have rallied around his bloody banner and their own waking gods. Long have their peoples been subjected to the whims of other nations. Long have they endured forced relocations to make room for more 'advanced' civilizations. No more. Now is the time for recognition. Now is the time for reperation. Now is the time for reveration."


#summary "Race: Humans. Magic: Elemental with some death and nature. Priests: Weak Prefer cold 2"


#brief "The various barbarian tribes have unified in the face of the inpending doom brought about by the various 'civilized'nations of Evershy. Prefer cold scale 2"

#flag "./haida/haidaflag.tga"

#color 0.1 0.5 0.5

#clearrec
#clearsites

#addrecunit 2700
#addrecunit 2701
#addrecunit 2706
#addrecunit 2705
#addrecunit 2702
#addrecunit 2703
#addrecunit 2704



#addreccom 2707
#addreccom 2708
#addreccom 2709
#addreccom 2714
#addreccom 2710
#addreccom 2711
#addreccom 2712
#addreccom 2713


#defcom1 2708
#defcom2 2710
#defunit1 2700
#defunit1b 2702
#defunit2 2705
#defmulti1 15
#defmulti1b 15
#defmulti2 10

#hero1 2715

#idealcold 2



#startcom 2708
#startscout 2707
#startsite "Great Aran Mountains"
#startsite "Great Aran Forest"

#startunittype1 2700
#startunitnbrs1 15
#startunittype2 2701
#startunitnbrs2 15

#templepic 4
#startfort 20
#defaultfort 20
#farmfort 1
#mountainfort 15
#forestfort 29
#swampfort 11

#end

Thank you in advance for any help :D

[Burnsaber]

Question 1: You can't choose the exact pick, but you can choose the correct magic path (it should then give somewhat working pic). Try giving "Great Aran Mountain" #path 3 (making it a earth site).

Question 2: If you have the unit as a magic site recruitable, you don't need to also give it by #addrecunit command, it will only result in a duplicate.

[Aezeal]

not entirely Burnsaber (though I think you mean it right)

Q1: wht burnie said, make it an earth site, a nature site will always look foresty (and for a mountain earth is more thematic)

Q2: what Burnsaber pointed out isthe problem only it doesn't just duplicate it. the addrecruit command is what makes those units recruitable everywhere (2703 and 2704 should both be recruitable everywhere and cap only) just remove those lines and they'll be cap only.

[esd29a]

For a "mountain" picture, try an air path, level 0 site

Site pictures are based on path and level. Note that a start site with level >0 will be visible to its owner on turn 1 - I just tried that.

[BandarLover]

Thank you Burn and Aezeal! That fixed the problem for me and I appreciate the help a bunch!

[esd29a]

Did some more testing on startsite pictures. Results attached. Vertical=path (0-8), horizontal=level (0-4). Levels 2-4 appear the same.

[Foodstamp]

Did some more testing on startsite pictures. Results attached. Vertical=path (0-8), horizontal=level (0-4). Levels 2-4 appear the same.

I have always meant to do this but never found the time. Thank you very much!

[Amonchakad]

Well,if you necro a thread from 2 years ago,I might aswell hijack it and ask a couple modding questions:D

So,I'm a total modding newbie,and atm my efforts are concentrated towards stacking various mods for a mod-heavy MP game I'm planning.

-A couple days ago I was reading the thread on another mod-heavy game,and their problem with mod stacking was that they reached the "maximum number of spells".I've looked around the forums but I couldn't find anything on this, there's a limit to the number of ingame spells?

-This might be related to the first question.Beside the errors with IDs from various mods overlapping,I often get a nagot gick fel with a "getspldscr: bad splnr".Can anyone explain what it means?


-Still regarding ID limits...there are more limits beside for sites?How many extra nations/weapons/etc...can i add?

[Burnsaber]

-A couple days ago I was reading the thread on another mod-heavy game,and their problem with mod stacking was that they reached the "maximum number of spells".I've looked around the forums but I couldn't find anything on this, there's a limit to the number of ingame spells?


Yeah, with 3.21 you can only add about 130 spells by mods. The only workaround is to make the extra spells overwrite national spells from the nations not to be in the game.


-This might be related to the first question.Beside the errors with IDs from various mods overlapping,I often get a nagot gick fel with a "getspldscr: bad splnr".Can anyone explain what it means?


getbadspelldescription: bad spellnumber. Your mods hit the spell limit.


-Still regarding ID limits...there are more limits beside for sites?How many extra nations/weapons/etc...can i add?

Yeah, there are limits. consult your modding manual for the number ranges you can use for those.

[Executor]

Hello people,
I've started my own mod nation and I have two quick question.
I've made a few commanders I want but they all have double weapons for some reason? Eg. two quarterstaffs, or even two special weapons that are built in, not carried. Why, and how do I fix this?

Second question. So far all my units look the same, Agra Dis misborn to be exact, how do I use unit images from Dominions, Grand Thaumaturg or Ulm infantry or remake them the way I want?

[Burnsaber]

Hello people,
I've started my own mod nation and I have two quick question.
I've made a few commanders I want but they all have double weapons for some reason? Eg. two quarterstaffs, or even two special weapons that are built in, not carried. Why, and how do I fix this?


I haven't seen anything like this. Perhaps some copystat mayhem?


Second question. So far all my units look the same, Agra Dis misborn to be exact, how do I use unit images from Dominions, Grand Thaumaturg or Ulm infantry or remake them the way I want?

If you want to use vanilla graphics, #copyspr is your command (see the modding manual for further detail).

If you want use modified vanilla graphics, I suggest you search for "Sprite Editing Tutorial", you should find the download for all vanilla unit image files there.

[Executor]

Thanks for the Sprite editing tutorial!

Here's one commander, which has two quarterstaffs for some reason.

#newmonster 2401
#name "Black Wizard"
#spr1 "./Mod/Misborn.tga"
#spr2 "./Mod/Misborn2.tga"
#descr "..."
#ap 12
#mapmove 2
#hp 10
#prot 0
#size 2
#str 10
#enc 3
#att 10
#def 10
#prec 10
#mr 18
#mor 20
#gcost 320
#rcost 10
#weapon "Quarterstaff"
#weapon 7
#holy
#startage 60
#maxage 75
#older 5
#itemslots 15494
#magicskill 1 2
#magicskill 5 3
#magicskill 8 3
#nametype 106
#goodleader
#end

Am I just missing the obvious here?

[Burnsaber]

Eh, yeah.

#weapon "Quarterstaff"
#weapon 7

You only need one of those lines. Both give the quaterstaff weapon.

[lch]

#weapon "Quarterstaff"
#weapon 7
You can add weapons by their name or their ID. You're doing both at the same time.

[Executor]

Ah, I assumed you needed both, stupid assumption I guess.
Thanks for the help folks, I'll probably be back for more in a day or two.

[Executor]

Back, as promised. I'm half done with my mod nation, most of the units and their images are done I just have this one remaining problem,

What's wrong with this picture?

getspldscr: bad splnr

I'm assuming that means get spell description: bad spell number?
Just why does it appear?

#newspell
#name "Summon1"
#descr "Prazno za sada"
#fatiguecost 200
#damage 2420
#school 0
#researchlevel 3
#path 0 5
#pathlevel 0 3
#effect 10001
#restricted 75
#nreff 1
#end


#newmonster 2420
#name "Summon1"
#spr1 "./Vatras/Summon1.tga"
#spr2 "./Vatras/Summon2.tga"
#descr "..."
#ap 12
#mapmove 2
#hp 18
#prot 5
#size 2
#str 14
#enc 0
#att 13
#def 13
#prec 10
#mr 16
#mor 30
#weapon "652
#armor "Bone Shield"
#armor "Iron Cap"
#armor "Chain Mail Hauberk"
#undead
#coldres 100
#fireres 100
#poisonres 100
#nametype 105
#itemslots 15494
#end

[Sombre]

You haven't defined the unit before the spell to summon it, possibly. I'll have a look at it tomorrow if that isn't it.

[Edi]

EDIT: Nevermind, I'm late and the questions I was replying to have been answered.

[Executor]

OK, I'm back, Sombre, I have no idea what you said what so ever! You'll have to explain it as if you were talking to a little child!
I have to define the unit how?
What's my objective!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?

I guess modding isn't for anyone...

[Sombre]

Just put the chunk of code for the unit/monster before the chunk of code for the spell and see if that works.

[Executor]

Oh, that's what you meant,
No it wasn't that, actually the unit was before the spell in the mod file,
however I just saw the game Uninsanity started, again, and realised a combined mod of 4 was enabled all that time I was trying to figure out what was wrong so I guess some spell had the same number.

I need to pay more attention, Thanks anyway!!!