It's a Kind of Magic : pooling spell modding tips

[Nounours]

Like many modders, I think, I sometimes have some problems when modding new spells, especially when trying new things.

On some occasions, I search on the forum for tips from other modders who experimented the same problems. On other occasions, I just find the solution myself, after many awkward attempts.

So, I would like to pool all these solutions and problems, as it may be useful to other people.

[Nounours]

First, here is a spell I had problem to mod.

It was intended as a spell that kill the caster and summon another unit (a bit like Ashdod's "Banquet for the Dead").

I saw on the forum that i was not the only one trying to use this effect, and when i finally fixed it, I was suggested by another modder (thank for your help, Chris ;)) to post on the forum the solution I had found.

So, here is my working fixed spell :


#newspell
#name "****"
#descr "."

#school 6 [or whatever you want]
#researchlevel 0
#path 0 7
#pathlevel 0 2

#effect [B]10021
#nreff 1
#damage [summoned unit's number]
#fatiguecost 100
#nextspell "Kill caster"
#restricted [nation's number]
#end


> #effect 10021, as everybody knows, will summon a commander. You can use effect #10001 to summon units, it will also work.

> #nextspell "Kill caster" serves to kill the caster of the spell. DON'T FORGET TO ALSO MOD THIS SECOND SPELL !


#newspell
#name "Kill Caster"
#descr "Kill caster"

#school -1
#researchlevel 0
#path 0 7
#pathlevel 0 1
#path 1 5
#pathlevel 0 1
#effect 10090
#nreff 1
#fatiguecost 50
#restricted [nation's number]
#end

> #effect 90 kill the caster, BUT you have to add 10000 to this number (=10090) if you want it to work as a ritual (it appears it has been my main problem when trying to mod this spell).

[HoneyBadger]

This is a really useful thread. I hope it stays active.

[Nounours]

Well, it's up to you, guys ! :p

Share with us of the tiny bits of modding knowledge you had to hardly conquer, and all shall hail your name :D!

[Stavis_L]

Just so that people that come across this thread may also find it, there is a general "helpful modding tips" thread here:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=42570

There are some spell modding specific tips (or at least links to them) in there as well.

[Ferrosol]

One problem I had getting working was the #nextspell command. For whatever reason I could not get it to work. It turns out that the 2nd spell that makes up the nextspell component has to be above the original spell in the spell list to get it to work for some reason.

[rdonj]

Dominions reads a .dm from top to bottom. So if you try to create a spell referring to a spell you've created yourself, it needs the spell you're nextspelling to be on top, or it thinks it should already know it exists. Hence errors.