Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Endoperez I have a question for you:
It will be possible to make a Tolkien mod, with all the tolkien 'nations', units, leaders and creatures without any new dom 2. mod tool?
You can change/add/remove everything what I listed above?

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No way! If that would be possible, than what were we talking about so far? HUH? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

The missing component is to be able to fuse those new units and such into a unified nation design. Since themes offer the ability to change national unit line-ups, among other things, this was forwarded as a good solution as to how to bring everything together without too much more work needed by Illwinter. The simpler the solution can be, the more likely it is they can do it with their limited manpower and funding.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

I'm kinda relieved that people started understanding what I was trying to suggest - thanks Endoperez & Psitticine http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Ergo themes are not enough for a proper mod.. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

*slaps forehead in frustration*

Mortifer - themes can change everything about the nation except its name.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Than what is this?
Also I thought that we can add monsters to scenarios ONLY in Dom I.
Basically we cannot make themes at all for Dom II. I guess, am I right?

[ September 30, 2003, 21:58: Message edited by: Mortifer ]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

This is getting annoying. Themes are not mods.
Themes are for the ORIGINAL GAME.

We need MOD TOOLS. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Why is modding a theme not modding? Their point is that it might be simpler to implement changing themes than changing the nations from scratch thus improving the chances of it being implemented, and since the themes can come with a whole set of troops as similar or dissimlar from the original nation as you want, this would let you change every aspect of a nation but its name and the flag on the map or the overviews. Thus if you could edit themes you could make an Ermor that could recruit orcs, snaga uruk-hai or whetever you want, you just would be stuck with the name Ermor and the skull flag.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Ok, but it will be hard for the devs to script something, what will give us the chance to change the names of the nations??

[ September 30, 2003, 22:22: Message edited by: Aristoteles ]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Nope. In newsGroups I used my hotmail address, j87joensuu, since I posted into them through google Groups.
I'm not sure where I got the name, but I logged to Runescape (mediocre MMORPG) using this a long time ago. I was reading the Groups at that time, so I might have gotten the "-perez" from there.
And I thought I had made up an innovative name! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

No.

Nationmodding, if and when it is implemented, will probably work as a theme, but a theme where you can also change the name of a nation.

What a theme does at the moment is changing something or everything of a nation but the name, so implementing a thememodding with the extra addition of namechanges wouldn't be too difficult i believe.

Adding additional nations (more than 17) would be a much bigger problem. As would changing underwater nations into land nations and vice versa.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hmmm... Fire up a hex-editor and edit the binary of the program? Does that count?

I didn't try much. But I got it worked by changing the program data at only one place. So, I guess it should be reasonable easy for Illwinter to code the progame to read the nation names from a text file.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">some loosely related questions :
are always wondered, in which language you develop? C, C++, something else?
Are you an OOP fan? Thats ease program changes rather drastically...
What was the reason initially to internalize in the binary all the datas? answer can be : dont know http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Great. This is what we need than.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Themes or not, if we can modify the nations totally, change their names, and change the pretenders as well, than we can talk about making mods.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Ye, plz allow us to rename the nations and to design new pretenders. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[ October 01, 2003, 09:47: Message edited by: DominionsFAN ]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Agreed.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

not sure if it has been mentioned, yet. I recall it was misisng from one of the early lists of 'must-have' tools. IMHO, that should also include the ablity to mod magic sites.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Yeah, modding magic sites would be also a nice addition. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Well, i'll make an exception and post something actualy constructive here:

I think that some themes in "vanilla" Dom II could also change the nation's name. Like Midgård and Niefelheim themes. Perhaps even flags, like Serpent Cult Pythium would more likely have a snake or some other reptile in their flag than an eagle.

IF i would mod, i would definedly want to have magic site editor.

[ October 01, 2003, 13:02: Message edited by: Nerfix ]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

WOW yup! Making new -or- editing the existing sites would rock!

I can't wait to see some good mods for Dom II! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ October 02, 2003, 10:03: Message edited by: DominionsFAN ]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Agreed.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Agreed.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Me too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

I have 3 questions.
1. What is the max pixel size of a creature, what we can use? [ex. 96x96..etc.]

2. What is the max color depth allowed? 16 bit?...and what format? [.tga?]

3. What is the color code for transparency?

[ October 02, 2003, 16:52: Message edited by: Aristoteles ]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Hello? I want to start to work on some unit graphics...May I have some informations? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">1. Difficult to answer at the moment. Until recently it was 64x64. With the depixelization filter removed all sprites have been externally filtered and doubled in size, but I'm not sure it will be possible to draw sprites in this size for imported tga pictures. I would recommend max 64x64 until further notice.

A human was 16 pixels in height.

2. 24.tga I believe.

3. Black is transparent. Magenta (100R.0G.100B) is shadow (on the ground beneath the unit).

Maps can be of any size. The largest one at the moment is 2400x1800 I believe, but size doesn't matter.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Oops, we were posting in the same time. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ October 02, 2003, 20:23: Message edited by: MStavros ]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Ok shall we start to work on some LotR units than?
OR wait for dom 2, and browse between the existing units, I am sure that we will be able to use some of them.
I say lets wait for dom 2. first. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

I will make some units. I think I will use some units from Age of Wonders 2.
[Screenshot, edit, tweak.]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

I ripped out some cool unit graphics already, perhaps we should make a site to host them or something?

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

I think we forgot about a very important part.

The mod tools must contain the following: Weapon/Armor/Item editor. [For units and for leaders as well.]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

I plan to make a Japanese nation, and to do this I would need:

1) Unit creator.
2) Theme creator (ideally, with nation name-changing support).

Additionally, I would like:

3) Unit editor (ability to change existing units, not just make new ones).
4) Theme editor.
5) Spell editor (just for spell stats, not graphics, sounds, or effects).
6) Special site creator and editor.
7) Sound effects in wave files.

I don't know how the DomII data is organized, though some of it seems to be hidden in the executable. If I were to make the game ideal for modding, I would make each unit a single file, in zip format, renamed to *.unt. The zip package would contain a text file with units stats and description, and the 2 bitmap files. This way, a person could easily create a unit without proprietary tools, and mod existing units as well. Furthermore, Illwinter could alter the game quickly and easily without having to do a recomplie each time. All units (official or custom) would be thrown together in the DomII\Units directory.

A theme could be a simple text file in the DomII\Themes directory, listing the nation(s) that can use the theme, starting special sites, units available, and special effects. For example:

NihonTheme.txt:

*******************

[ThemeName]
"Feudal Nihon"

[ValidNations]
"Man"

[ChangeNationName]
True

[NewNationName]
"Nihon"

[DesignCost]
0

[SpecialSites]
"Imperial Palace"
"Shaolin Monastary"
"Pink Ninja Training Cave"

[Units]
Militia03.unt
Militia04.unt
Cavalry07.unt
WaterBuffalo01.unt
SushiChef01.unt

[Commanders]
MonkCmdr03.unt
NinjaCmdr01.unt
ShogunCmdr01.unt
IronChefItalian01.unt
IronChefFrench01.unt
GenericMage17.unt

[Pretenders]
DrunkenNinjaMaster01.unt
Pichu01.unt
Pikachu01.unt
Raichu.unt
GundamZero01.unt
VashTheStampede01.unt
SupaaIdoruAyumiHamasaki01.unt

[Effects]
"Restless Worshippers"
"Ocean Travel"
"Bonus Food Production On Coast"
"Pokemon Cult"

*******************

Obviously, there would have to be a list of valid effect names and valid special site names. Each unit would correspond to a specific filename in the units folder. Then, when the nation theme is done, you can put it into the themes folder, and it will be selectable next time you load DomII.

Anyway... that's what I'd do.

-Cherry

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I would love to see an army of these guys http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

I will make a site, but let us wait for the game first. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif [Also the mod tools]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Kristoffer meant 100% R, 0% G, 100% B, as on a 0-255 RGB scale this would translate to (255/0/255)

Magenta, the color which is so ugly that every developer in the world uses it as a transparent color http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Oh yea, I forgot about this too. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif
Hopefully we can add, delete and edit those as well! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ October 06, 2003, 10:06: Message edited by: Mortifer ]

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

What about spells?
I hope that we can remove or disable any spells what we want. That shouldn't be hard to implent for the devs. I don't wanna make new spells, I think that would require scripting. However we must be able to remove or disable spells.
A LotR mod with these spells would make no sense.. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

+++
I really hate some spells in Dominions like Doom,Magic Duel,Master Enslave etc.
It would be good if I could remove them, if I want to... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hm frankly I would be the happiest fan, if we could do that...but do not expect that we can.
I think the AI will be confused without spells, that is hard-coded in the game. [I am not sure of course.]

IF we can do it, propably the devs must script a new AI for it more than likely.
Well I am not sure as I said, so who knows.
Maybe an Illwinter dev could answer to this. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

I can also see how removing spells could make sense in mods...but it doesn't seem too major a priority. Almost none of the spells in the game would really fit too smoothly into a LOTR mod really...but that's more because there wasnt all that much in the way of spells being thrown around. I can't see anyone there casting master enslave or any other high level astral spell equally. But that's just because Gandalf had nothing on RADAGAST! Radagast was my favorite wizard even though he never appeared. Course neither did half the other wizards in Middle-Earth, but no matter.
But anyway if you think the spells dont fit too well in a LOTR setting a general weakining of magic power would be advisable...I'd say low level elemental spells would fit best, maybe some low level nature/death for the appropiate people.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Editing a spell's stats would achieve the same goal as being able to remove them. Don't like Summer Lions? Change the cost to 500 gems. Mind Duel? Change it to 100 gems, and I suspect it will never again be cast in combat.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

As for weapon editors and such, I've one question related more to Dominions-PPP than DomII: Is there a comprehensive master list of all weapons and armor available in Dom-PPP somewhere, because the list given in the mon_edit.pdf was more of a guideline than a really comprehensive one. Would be nice to know. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Edi

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well maybe we will have the power to do these. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Yup. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Well maybe we will have the power to do these. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes, "spell editing" would be a neat feature.
((If we can disable spells only, that is all good as well.))

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

I know Im a party pooper but I think editing spells would be too far. I want people to enjoy the game but I dont want everyone playing different games. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Maybe a switch or a game-setting in the menu that would allow for a general raising of spell costs that use gems. That I would like.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes editing spells is a bit too much. But disabling spells is a must have if we talk about spells.
If we cannot disable spells, we cannot make good scenarios.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Why not? If somebody would enjoy the game more with mind duel costing 1 gem instead of just fatigue, how does that bother you?

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

Disabling spells sounds good. I dont want to jinx Dom 2 before its even out <knock on virtual wood> but there were some spells which caused alot of discussion in Dom 1. I think we might have been happy with an option to just remove the use of certain spells that caused imbalance arguments. It would be a way to agree on a "temp fix" until a patch arrives.

Re: Making mods for Dominions II. [Basic editing/modding discussion.]
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yes editing spells is a bit too much. But disabling spells is a must have if we talk about spells.
If we cannot disable spells, we cannot make good scenarios.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I agree too. Disabling spells is the best what we can get and yes it is a must have as youve said. Editing spells is pointless, because if you want to make a mod, you just choose out the spells what you will need, and simply disable the rest. There is a huge spell arsenal in Doms II. so it won't be a problem. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[ October 08, 2003, 08:19: Message edited by: DominionsFAN ]