Complexity in modding
 

I started working on my first mod, and I gotta say "WOWZHA!" this game leaves everything open to mod. Is anyone else having trouble trying to figure out how to make our own adventures?

Re: Complexity in modding
 

I only got the game Last sunday, so I haven't had much time to mod, but I've looked into the files a bit and there seem to be lots of things you can do.

The documentation on modding that comes with the game is quite limited, I browsed through the acrobat file a bit and it only mentions some general information, saying that the headers of the text files would contain information on how stuff works, but all text files I checked (mainly the tiles and terrain files) had no such information.

I did figure out a lot by looking at other mods, and how they're build.

Re: Complexity in modding
 

Yes, the possibilities to mod are vast, and at the same time daunting. I guess it really depends on what the plan for your mod is. If you decide 'just' to make a new adventure for exsisting characters and stay in the same world, you can use most of the files that are provided by the Crown of Magis module. I mean stuff like monster_classes, items, and so on.

OTOH, if you try to make a whole new mod from scratch, you'll not only need skills in modding, but also project management http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif .

IMHO the best way to learn is to look at exsisting modules and mods (just like Henk suggests), re-use what you like and make some changes. This is the way that I started my mod, built on the Crown of Magis and it is still 99% of the original data files, while at the same time offering a new challenge, a new plot, and some new places to visit. And while it was never really meant to be a full-fledged mod (originally just a modding testing ground during the beta) or even publicly released, it has turned out reasonably well IMH(and biased)O.

Once you have started to get the hang of it and created a few new things, it becomes much easier and the abilitiy to re-use things is very handy. Just look at 'The Crack of Doom', it is fairly simply build, but at the same time a very nice module IMHO.

Certainly feel free to use any of the stuff that I created, if you like something of it. I have absolutely no problems of sharing my work. And if you have any more specific questions, by all means, ask them.

Hope that helps and have fun modding, http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Rollo

[ April 17, 2003, 15:46: Message edited by: Rollo ]

Re: Complexity in modding
 

I'm been trying to make a new adventure, it seems a blueprint is needed to work on it at times http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif . I found most file descriptions in the adobe files with some hunting around.

What I'm trying now before I make my mod of it is to add several more towns and cities and characters to the existing Crown of Magis mod and then I'm gonna add in more quests to fill in all those characters.

So far I've managed to create a dog stuck in a tree, and 3 new wandering villagers.

[ May 24, 2003, 16:13: Message edited by: General Talashar ]