Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

EDIT: Added water gem to startingsite, made mages better magic unit leaders, added a heavy infantry unit, improved stats on undead summons and heroes.

EDIT: Fixed a few more glitches, added more summons, a hero, and more descriptions.

EDIT: Fixed a few glitches, added a few summons. Still not sure how well it all works...



EDIT: I am posting my LA version of the mod, it's still a work in progress, and my skills at making sprites is laughable. Also, this is the first mod I have ever done for any game. But, I do want advice, criticism, ideas, balance ideas, etc. But, please be gentle, like I said, this is my first attempt at modding anything, and I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't even attach it right...

I have this idea in my head for a MA and LA nation, I have never modded before, so I will probably be using this thread for advise. My idea has to do with a nation starting as a refuge for some peoples and races that disappeared or timed ended in EA. I was thinking that this land of Hoburgs becomes a refuge for the descendants of people like the Horite Giants, maybe some Avvites, some human barbarians, Firbolgs, and Svartalfar dwarfs. In the Late age, the bloodlines have merged and separated and there is a whole race of dwarfs(of Hoburg and Svartalfar blood), along with magically adept humans, and sacred, but more rare giants. I see the people living in a colder climate, furs, style similar to EA Ulm or LA Bogarus.

Really just at the early stages of brainstorming here, but I would apreciate any advice on what kind of units and concept ideas, and also some pointers on a person that has played the game for years, but never modded anything. Thanks.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

Sounds like a good starting point. All the units are in the game already. All you need to do is find "lost EA units" that will work for each of the general requirements.

You might look at my TinyNation mod for a starting point.
http://www.dom3minions.com/files/TinyNation.dm
Its got the basic points covered and is heavily annotated.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

The sprite dumps might be a good place to look, that way you can search through many possibles at once. You never know, you might come across a unit you never knew existed or hadn't thought about, and you might find you'd like to chuck that in.

I believe there's a link in the stickied sprite editing tutorial. You'll want to head there anyway if this is your first mod because it can be alot of help in making yourself the sprites you need.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

I have a whole week of vacation coming up, and I just bought a car(making me too poor to do anything other than sit on my ***), so I am going to teach myself to mod this game. I think I have set myself pretty well for learning, since the first nation I want to make is made up of a lot of units already in the game, and Gandolfs tiny nation will be a good guide for doing that and I found a tutorial for editing sprites, so I think I have the basic info I need. I'm sure I will come back with several dumb questions when I get started. Thanks.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

I found a list of units #, but it's not updated and doesn't have anything from Hinnom on it, how would I find the unit numbers for Hinnom units?

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

Never mind that, I figured out the command to look it up in game. But I can't figure out how to get my new units Mountain survival. I'm putting the command #mountainsurvival in but it's not showing up in game.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

Okay, fixed that too. But for somereason a mage I made has Water 3, but I didnt give him water anything...

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

it would be more helpful if you showed us the commands you used. then it would be easier to exactly what went wrong.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

EDIT: I just fixed this, all I did is change his number to 2724, and it works fine now. So confused.



#newmonster 2104
#name "Rui Diviner"
#copyspr 1935
#descr "The Rui are a human tribe decimated by the Giants of Jotunheim and have come to the Call of the God of the Ancient City of Ul'Darath. The Rui Diviner is a Master of Astral magic, able to divine the future."
#ap 12
#mapmove 1
#hp 10
#size 2
#str 10
#enc 3
#att 9
#def 10
#prec 12
#mr 15
#mor 10
#gcost 280
#rcost 1
#nametype 146

#poorleader
#nobadevents 25

#magicskill 4 2
#magicskill 0 1
#magicskill 1 1
#custommagic 6528 150
#weapon "Staff"
#armor "Robes"
#end

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

Yeah. 2104 is a Ryujin, who amongst other things has W3. You want to be using Edi's db a bit.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

I thought that might have been the problem, but wasn't sure, the database I have been using is incomplete.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

use the #clear #clearspec and/or #clearmagic commands.

#clear simply clears everything from the unit number you are using,
#clearspec clears special abilities (resistances, spy...etc), and
#clearmagic obviously clears magic paths from the unit

on the flip side you can use #copystats to copy weapons, stats, special abilities...etc from another unit. Some special abilities aren't usually modable (such as corruption) so you can use this to give these special abilities to your units, the problem with this is that your troops will inherit all the special abilities from the unit you copied stats from and you will have no way to get rid of unwanted ones.

for instance, you want corruption on a unit. you could copy stats from an existing unit which has corruption, but *all* of the units in the game with corruption are demons. So your unit will also gain the demon tag, which might not be what you want.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

Brainstorming. My idea for the "Nation" isn't so much about the people in it, as the idea of a Great Ancient City destroyed and reborn. So my Mod(s) will focus on the idea of the Ancient City itself at the center, not a specific race or people. In fact, they will be very different from age to age, but will follow a history with the City.

EA Nation: Ul'Darath, The Grand City.

My Idea of the EA version of my nation is that it is a great city state ruled by semi-divine children of Titans. They care for the peoples every need, the people never go without food, the Gods keep the cold wind away, and they've never known war, until now. But, becasue the people are so pampered, the humans of the land are going to be weaker and dumber, less skilled, and have few good arms. So many of the troops will be cheap and crappy. But, they will also have access to fewer, but powerful Titan-born units with mystical skills and knowledge. I'm thinking of creating size level 4 Cyclops and Titans units for this purpose. So far, I have done 0% work on this EA nation. I want to add some more fantastic elements to the natioon, but am kind of going blank, I will have to look in my mythology books.

MA: Ul'Darath, City of Refuge

The Ancient City of Ul'Darath was sacked ages ago by the army of Ermor, and all of it's people were slaughtered and scattered. The city sat in ruins for centuries until refugees from different lands started to hear the call of the Awakening God of the Ancient City. Now, without the god kings of the earlier age, the wind blows cold in the city. The Hoburg were the first to answer the call and are it's most populace people. Next, Svartalfar bring the secrets of Hel with them arrived and took many wives of the Hoburg. Next came the Rui, human barbarians that have warred with the Jotun and lost. From the destroyed nation of Fomoria, Firbolg arrived. These Firbolg have been changed, bitter and tough from their wandering, they have become bandits and pillagers, but they have brought with them the secrets on the Nemedians and have pledged themselves to the Ancient City and it's Awakening God. Last came the Tharsin Giants, descendants of Avvites and Horites of Hinnom, and with them Grigori secrets. Strange and diverse people, united under the Awakening God.
I have the nation created and it works, have one hero, no spells and no sprites made.

LA: Ul'Darath, City-State Reborn

The centuries ago, many refuges of many races and nations came to the Ancient City as a refuge. They united both spiritually, and physically, mixing bloodlines. The Darthi people may look very diverse, from Dwarfs, Men, to Giants, but they all share a strong bloodline with each other. After the bloodlines mixed, the Darathi people started to segregate themselves according to size, the small married the small, etc. The small Darathi Folk, the Dwarves train as warriors and smiths, the Men of the nation pursue scholarly task or highly skilled soldier professions, such as knights or mages, and the Darathi Giants are the political and spiritual leaders of the Ancient city. The Dark Citadel is a vast library were the Darathi Archmages studying ancient magic, divining the future and speaking to the dead. The people of Ul'Darath are united, and the Ancient city is reborn led by Priest Kings in golden armor, surrounded by vast armies bearing the golden cross once again. I have this nation mostly made made and it work, no heroes, but all the sprites are done. Need descriptions, national spells, and heroes.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

Stupid question, forgive me, but how do you post a mod? I'm just about finished with my LA version of my mod and I would like some input aabout balance and things. My sprites and artwork are fairly mediocre, but I'm hoping that with practice that will improve.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

IMHO the best way is to maintain ONE thread about the mod, and keep editing the first post to be up to date with its changes and latest version.

You are usually allowed to edit any post only for a short while after posting it. But you are allowed unlimited edits to the first post in your own thread. So click edit, then if it doesnt give it to you click further to advanced edit. That will make sure you have access to lots of useful editing buttons and features.

Now scroll down abit below the "Submit" and "preview" buttons there is a section that says
OR another popular method is that you can create a full web page somewhere for lots of information, screenshots, downloadable links. Depending on how involved your project is, then just link to the "project site". There are lots of free sites. Or for Dom3 projects Im willing to provide free hosting altho you have to know ftp, email, webpage editing, and maybe ssh and linux (there are no fancy gui web tools on my site)

Gandalf Parker
I used to do this for a living

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

I think I attached it right, Um, it isn't compatible with any other mods, unless it is just by chance...I don't use other mods any more. Decided if I want something in the game that isn't in there, I am going to do it all myself, I need a time consuming hobby:)

I dont have any national spells yet. I read the modding doc, but it's not really clicking with me yet, so I will have to mess around with it.

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

I forgot to mention that you can also edit the title of the thread so that it says something about the mod name instead of "a mod idea"

As a strong suggestion...
mods are usually unpacked to the mods directory. The USUAL arragnement is not to clutter the mods directory with images. Especially since file names might conflict with many mods doing that. So usually the zip file is one .dm file, then a subdirectory named the same as the .dm file with all the other files in it. That allows the mods to keep things separate, and also allows for easier cleanup if someone decides they dont like a mod.

So in this case it would be
Ur'DuradLA.dm
/UrDuradLA

and then all the graphic images in the .dm file would be
UrDuradLA/image.tga

Re: Mod nation Idea
 

Thanks, I'll work on fixing that, like I said, I really don't know what I'm doing.

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

No problem. You are far from the first person to do it. :)

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

Is that any better? I really am not very tech savoy.

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

Fixed a few things, added a few things...

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

found spell bug: "Awaken Ancient Adviser" awakens monster no. 2727 who happens to be "Ancient Queen". Same problem with spell "Awaken Ancient Queen"

also had minor problems startin game, suggest change in spell descriptions

Under OS that distinguishes cases, 3 files are not recognized:

/Ul'DarathLApics/Ul'Darathbanner.tga - needs point between / and U

./Ul'DarathLApics/darathichanged.tga
./Ul'DarathLApics/darathichanged2.tga - case mismatch

Also i suggest change in spell descriptions

... caster is able to awaken the great Queen of an ancient area from his resting place...

should be 'her' instead of 'his'

"Create Craven army": description mentions one warrior, while spell creates 20

The whole thing looks interesting, i will probably playtest it

PS #ambidetrous directive in hero description is misspelled #ambidextrous?

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

dwarven smith are ACELENT earth mage? is that kind of slang or misspelled EXCELLENT?

and local defense is very weak compared to most vanilla nations, is that intended?

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

Haha, thanks, I imagine there are a lot of spelling mistakes. The defense isn't suppose to be weak, should I increase the numbers or change the units? Or there might just be a mistake in how I put the defense in.

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

i did not calculate local defense strength, this is just my intuition

i suggest that you add some firepower (crossbows)

You may consult someone else's mod such as Warhammer dwarf mod

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

I thought that I did, I tried to set it up so it is Dwarf Militia and Dwarf Crossbows. But the Crossbows are not showing up...

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

I fixed it, I changed the numbers around, and now it works, there will be a 3 to 1 Militia to crossbow ratio. I think that will make a decent defence.

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

now some after-action report

put the mod into middle-era with mod-combiner, played against mighty AI

took undead titan with 9w-4e-4d-5n bless. Slowly killed Marignon with 4n bless; cast gift-of-health; researched evocation-6 and construction-4; was researching conjuration and carefully helping Vanheim beat Abysia. Vanheim took Abysia capital, found out that he was much stronger than me, and started killing me. I could not summon or hire enough mages, Vanheim had order-misfortune-productivity dominion, lots of territory and castles, so i surrended

Ul'Darath seems playable, probably has big potential late-game. Early-game, sacred commanders (Justicar and Priest King) fight independents, dwarven healers heal, and dwarven smith forge artifacts. The fun stops when opponents hire big armies or learn some offensive magic.

Unfortunately Vanheim prevented me from entering late-game. But i am sure Ul'Darath needs lots of research and resources, to be really dangerous.

To be competetive and interesting-to-play, Ul'Darath needs more summons or special magic. Maybe some Hinnom giants or angelic beings?

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

I was thinking something like that. I was thinking of some kind of Ethereal version of the Dawn Guard, to be summoned. Also, I was thinking of creating more offencive magic to take advantage of the astral and death magic which they excel. The Archmages are so powerful, I hate to make them cheaper, so I think I should create more spells for them to use. And some kind of nature summons for the mystics to use, not sure on that one yet...

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

I created the EA version of the Mod and it gave me some ideas for some more summons. I might add a few more later.

Re: Ul'Darath, The Great City. City of Dwarfs, Humans, and Giants.
 

Made a few more changes. Up for any more suggestions.