Pretender God Creation

[Vermillion_Hawk]

Okay, I'm new here, and I recently got Dominions 3, and I was looking to get into modding, and I was wondering whether it is possible to create a new class of pretender god? What I mean is creating the god, then being able to go into the creator, selecting the appropriate nation(s), and then being able to modify and customize my new created god as per usual. Anyone know whether this is possible or not?

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes it is.
Many of the special modded nations do this. And there are a couple of mods that are only more added pretenders.

[Vermillion_Hawk]

Awesome! If there is any in-depth FAQ on how to do such a thing, could you please direct me there?

[Squirrelloid]

in your dom3 folder there should be a 'doc' folder. Open it. You should find a modding.pdf. Pretty sure that covers most of what you might want to know.

[Redeyes]

I'm amused by the notion that there's a "mod creator"

[Stavis_L]

I'm amused by the notion that there's a "mod creator"

Well, it wouldn't be impossible. Look at what Ballbarian did with MapForge, which is of similar complexity.

Actually, what I've been pining for (and am too lazy to do myself) is a simple syntax filter for e.g. Notepad++ to recognize/highlight valid/invalid mod syntax. I believe someone did a VI set a while ago, but without trying to start a VI/Emacs/etc. holy war, I'll just say that that wasn't my cup of tea.

[LDiCesare]

Yes, there's a vim syntax highlighter. I use it and it's pretty handy.

[Vermillion_Hawk]

Okay, I've already looked in the modding.PDF file and it doesn't really tell me how to do what I'm asking. I don't think people are really getting what I'm saying. I want to be able to create the Pretender God class, with their base stats and magic ability, and then go into the in game god creator, and specify the magic paths, dominion, etc.

[Squirrelloid]

Okay, I've already looked in the modding.PDF file and it doesn't really tell me how to do what I'm asking. I don't think people are really getting what I'm saying. I want to be able to create the Pretender God class, with their base stats and magic ability, and then go into the in game god creator, and specify the magic paths, dominion, etc.

... pretender gods are units like any other, with a particular flag set. That .pdf really does tell you almost everything you need to know. (I think there are some options which aren't listed, but its minor stuff).

see section 7.2.1, #restrictedgod < nation# >

[Gandalf Parker]

I can understand. Personally the how-to manuals dont do me as much good as actually seeing it done. YES you can get pretender just like you want. It shows up on the choice list, can be chosen, and can be accessorized like any other pretender choice.

The confusing thing about pretenders is that you arent actually building a pretender. You are building a unit as you would any unit in the game. There is very few "pretender" commands. One is pathcost (how many points to get a magic path). Another is restrictedgod if you want to specify only certain nations that can use it. But basically you are building "just another unit" with the regular unit commands up until you add those few pretender ones.

Here is a thread with lots of discussion and a downloadable zip file for JUST ONE NEW GOD
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=42795

View the .dm file in the zip. Its just an ascii text file you can open in notepad or wordpad. Look at it while using the manual and it might help. You could even copy it to a new name adjust go thru it looking up each item and changing it to fit your god idea.

[Vermillion_Hawk]

Thanks a lot, Gandalf, you've been quite helpful. I'll start modding my new gods shortly!

[Gandalf Parker]

Im all for more gods.
But you might want to look at the Mytheology and Immortal Pretenders mods. Those are two popular ones that already have a bunch of gods. Id like for yours to be in totally new territory for maximum use.

I love playing dom3 games with the mods that add more heroes, more gods, more magic sites, more summons, more spells, more nations. But then Im an old burn-out on the normal game. :)
(now if we just had a mod that added more equipment)