Is it possible to....?
 

Just 3 modding related questions. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

1. Is it possible to change the graphics of the in-game interface?

2. Is it possible to change the symbols in the game? [Example: The symbols of the various magic paths, like the skulls for death magic]

3. Is it possible to change the font type in the game?

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

1) At least somewhat, yes.

2) no

3) Not for modders. Needs only replacement of 1 file, which the devs could provide. BUT: several, more fancy fonts have been tested and didn't work for longer gaming sessions, as they turned out rather fuzzy and made reading smaller characters somewhat strenuous.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

1. Nice

2. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

3. Hm...I've got like 500 different fonts on my main HDD, so I would give it a try to change the in-game font with a more "fantasy" themed one.

Of course if the devs will allow it someday. [I guess we won't be able to change it in the vanilla game...at least "not for modders" makes me think that]

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Don't get me wrong. It's not about allowing or not.
The in-game fonts have to be pre-rendered and whatever with 2 different programs to be fed to the game engine in a way it could use them.

No way to simply drop in a true type font .. and no way for the devs to try out 500 fonts http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif We tested half a dozend, and Johan was somewhat reluctant to do that, because it was quite some extra work.

Acutally, we found that the font has to be bold and serife-less to result in easily readable text. More fancy fonts -and we even tried the one from Dom 1- only result in worse rendered, partially hard to read characters.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Ah I see. Thanks for the info Arralen. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Ohh, Dominions 1 font would have been cool...but I think Trebuchet bold is a good compromise.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Still, no reason why the community shouldn't be able to play around and try to find a font they like, if only people know the two programs and have access to them.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Yup I agree. If we can access to those 2 programs, I will surely try out my "fantasy themed" fonts. Maybe one will be excellent for the game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

> Yup I agree. If we can access to those 2 programs, I will surely try out my "fantasy themed" fonts. Maybe one will be excellent for the game.

I don't think you could make use of the programs if we gave them to you. At leas one of them is probably made by JK. Knowing JK they don't have any UI at all, everything needing shortcut keys that are unexplained and no help command since he doesn't need it. I feel pretty confident I can't operate them. Explaining them to you would probably take more effort than rendering and converting a number of fonts for the game.

In short: it is rather unlikely that there will be changes to the fonts. The other fonts used in the beta could be used if you replace some of the existing files in the game. If there is wide consensus on trying a new fonte it could perhaps be made, but it would take time from something more fun. The results might be or might not be good, but the converting will be rather booring work, so don't expect it.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

I would guess that the minimum for even CONSIDERING a font would be that someone would have to be willing to convert a bunch of screen grabs to display using the suggested font.

If its generally thought to be a good suggestion then someone who can do that, and wants to, will pop up. Otherwise its not worth the effort to put it in just to see that it does/doesnt work.
IMHO

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Ah I see. Thanks for the infos Kris. I thought that we can add fonts in a simple way, when I posted this question. This is indeed looking a bit too complicated at the moment.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Its just a font... not important versus other improvements and fixes.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Yet another important modding related question.

4. Is it possible to change spell names and descriptions?
This would be very important for modders.

[According to Endo, it won't be possible in the vanilla game sadly.]

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Well, I was PMing to Kris, who told me, that we can't change the name/descrition of the spells in the vanilla game, however since the patches will focus a lot of modding, we can do it soon hopefully. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/cool.gif

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Is it possible to limit a summon spell in such way that I can't cast it if such creatue is already present in the province ? I'm thinking about summoning creatures with mapmove 0 and how to enforce max 1 per province.
Ok... so it's probably not efficient to summon mulktiple immobiles in same province (in the same way that it's not a good idea to invest much into PD - a stationary army, after all), but there would be thematic reasons for this, too.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

No. That sounds like an interesting idea though, so if you get one of the Illwinter guys interested, you might see an official spell with that feature and could then mod it to suit your own purpose.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

Yep, that is an interesting idea indeed.

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

....because, I assume, it is already possible to have spells castable on on certain terrain types, right ? Multiple terrain types allowed, not something like 'volcano - mountain'

Re: Is it possible to....?
 

I'm not sure about that. Call of the Wild is now "more efficient in forest provinces" or some such, and I don't remember if Faery Trod was limited to forests or if the description was changed. It is certainly possible to have Globals only affect spesific provinces (coasts), and I quess it's just the same "terrain mask" used in e.g. magic site modding.