Modding nations into different Eras

[Zargen]

Say I wanted to take Middle-Age Marignon and put it in Late Age since I feel that it'd be a more thematic place for it to fight against LA Ermor, and of course replace LA Marignon into MA. How would I go about doing that?

[Burnsaber]

It is pretty easy. Consult your modding manual for the exact commands to use. (the modding manual comes with the game, it's in the dominions3/docs folder).

[Zargen]

I didn't even know I had a docs folder! Thanks.

[Zargen]

Errr, question. Still no clue on what I should be doing. Where would the nations files to be so I can edit them?

[Burnsaber]

The mods are .dm files. Obviously you're going to need an empty .dm file first. Copy a mod .dm file you have* (in the dominions3/mods), paste it somewhere, rename the copy and clear all the text in the copy.

After that, you just type in your changes.

[Zargen]

Ok I got that. But I still need to know where the file for Marignon is so I can do a quick switch between MA and LA. And that isn't in my mods file.


Thanks for answering my questions by the way

[Endoperez]

There aren't different files for different nations. In most cases, you use a selection command (#selectnation, #selectitem), then adjust it some way (see command #era), then put an #end after you're done.

Either modding or mapmaking document has the list of nation numbers, which you'll need. You can't select nations by name, because there are duplicates (e.g. two Marignons).

You might have "mymod.dm" text file which has something like this:

#selectnation 111
#era 9
#end

#selectnation 222
#era 8
#end

I trust you can find the correct numbers for age and nation. Just see the descriptions of the commands in the modding manual.

[lch]

Zargen, there are no human-readable text files with the nation settings for the game. All that data is internal and in binary, you're not supposed to edit or even read it. Mods have that name because they're modifications of the base game settings. They're essentially overlays that are being applied to the standard game settings. Read through the modding manual to find out more.

[Gandalf Parker]

visit my site www.Dom3Minions.com

In the DOCs area there is a nations.txt which is fairly up to date with all of the numbers for the nations.

In the MODs area just about any of the mods Ive done use nation assignment to era. A mod file is plain text so grab one and unzip it, then just look at it in any program to see how its done.

Gandalf Parker
--
the Socializing Soloist, the Mad Mapper and the Minimalist Modder, the Lord of Chaos, the Prophet for Random, Experimenter of Extremes, He Who Will Not Normalize Standardize Specialize (or Finalize), He Who Public Domains All.

[Edi]

Zargen, easier for you if you change Ashen Empire to the middle era, where it more or less belongs. I made an Ermor Restoration mod where Ashen Empire is in Middle Era and Broken Empire is in Late Era, thematically changed. It's still pretty much beta, but you can copy the part of it that changes the eras, because you need to reassign all the text descriptions too.

You can find it here

EDIT: Alternatively, you can take a look at how I did the switch there and change the Marignons around the same way.