Some basic mod questions
 

I want to do the mod thing. I have visual studio 2005 installed on my computer and I downloaded SDL and installed it successfully. Eventually I want to get a halfway decent graphics program that I can use that for creating more TGA files, but for now it’s not a priority.

I have a few ideas for mods, eventually I want to add another magic path, but I realize this will be extremely difficult. For now though, I just want to experiment with an extremely simple mod to get my feet wet so to speak. What I want to do is just add a bunch of new names to the names table. I’m kind of getting sick of having 5 or 6 leaders named Catavillonius or something like that. I just want to add 400 or 500 basic names like Andy, Jim, Twerp, etc. I read through part of modding manual and skimmed the rest, so I have a basic rudimentaty idea of modding. I opened some of the TRS files, I can’t seem to locate the files where the names are embedded/listed. I did a control print screen and pasted it, most of the files are either the graphics files and the TRS files which I tried to open with visual studio. I can’t seem to find the names file, just a bunch of army”x” files which I take are national units etc. that are setup in a byte/hex location manner/value (I don’t know).

Anyway, If someone could point me in the right direction as far as adding new names I’d appreciate it. The tables and info on page 17 of the modding manual just doesn’t cover this topic enough.

ps: I tried to post a .bmp paint pic of the print-screen, but it keeps exceeding the allocated size of 78 somthing kbs, that's too small an amount.

Re: Some basic mod questions
 

Mods in dom3 are just text files that are named in to .dm files by giving the extension in name. Easy way to create to an empty .dm file is to copy a .dm file of some mod you have already, and paste that copy somewhere. Then change the name and of the copied file and delete all of its contents. Ta'Da! Empty .dm file.

So I take it that you want to see the in-game name lists? Don't know if that is possible, at least not without code diving. Adding names to a name list is very simple, thought. If you want to get started, the Mytheology (just do a forum search for Mytheology) mod by Psientist has added about 60 names to both male and female indy name lists, you could start from there. The mod commands for adding adding name are extraordinary simple, so that is a good point to start. Here is a sample command that adds 3 names to the indy male name list.

As for your dreams about adding a new magic path, I must say that is not possible. You'd have to overwrite all mages and spells of a excisting path and even then the result won't likely be useful, since the path would maintain its old icon and name. The modding tools are quite limited in dom3, so you'll have to get used to either compromising a lot, or using clever hacks.

P.S: I usually don't bother posting images on the forums. I upload them to imageshack or xs.to and use the [IMG] tags to link to the picture.

Re: Some basic mod questions
 

If you want to upload images it's usually a good idea to have them in .png format anyway due to the low filesize without loss of quality.

Re: Some basic mod questions
 

Thanks for the replies guys ;) . Yeah, I figured it would be either impossible or next-to-impossible to do what I really want to do, namely adding a magic path :( . I'll probably never find the time to really delve into the code to the extent that's needed to do that modification. Oh well, it's not at the top of my list of things-to-do right away anyway.

As far as the name lists, thanks, that info was very good. I've already fleshed out a large notepad (.dm) doc with blank spots enough for about ten thousand names. It's gonna be a very large scale name-adding mod to cover the largest maps to insure that no duplicate names get generated. I just plan on leisurly adding 50 to 80 or so names every day until it's done, taking my time. I'm in no big rush to do it all at once. I do plan on adding a lot of colorful names but most are just gonna be short and sweet like George, Jim, Bob, Don, Dork, etcetera.

I do have a couple more general name questions though. I was hoping to find the list of basic names used by the nations in Dom3 so I don't inadvertantly duplicate one. Do you know if there's a master list anywhere? I'm very familiar with the maverni names, but I haven't used any other nation yet, except as an opponent.

I also have no idea what some of the nation's names are. For example, which nations are Rus, Gath, Deep ones (I assume R'lyeh for deep ones) and Rephaim? I need to have some idea of the national leader names so I can keep my custom-National-leader- names on topic so to speak.

Also, I'm guessing the custom name tables (127 and 128) are only used when creating (modding) new nations, otherwise these are never used, correct?

Last question is related to how the name mechanism works during a game of Dom 3. I've noticed some AI leader with the same name as my own guys, so I'm wondering how that works exactly. For example, using Maverni, I'm guessing that all the names in the maverni lists (tables) are used when recruiting new leaders, when this table is exhausted, does the game then switch to the Misc male & misc female table before recycling back to the beginning of the maverni table (after exhausting the misc tables)? Or does it skip the misc tables completely and just cycle back to the start of the maverni table? Or does it work some other way altogether?

Thanks for any replies,
rk

Re: Some basic mod questions
 

Sounds good, I'd use that kind of mod.

Like I said, the base game name lists aren't accessible other than code diving and few people are skilled in that part.
Well, creating a couple of duplicate names won't be that big of deal. It will just mean a very slightly increased chance of duplicate names, if you are doubtfull if the name is already in the game, you could just add an suffix, like "the Strong" and so forth.


Deep Ones are Atlantis and R'lyeh names, IIRC. Gath list has names for Hinnom, Ashdod and Gath, the desert giant nations. Rus is a list of names for Bogarus.

Correct.

The mechanic is simple. All units take their name from one of the lists upon creation. That's it. That's why there appears so many duplicate names in large names since the name is just randomaly taken from the list with no regard for the names previously created. Units never change name lists, not for any reason. If you were playing Maverni only your national commanders were getting Maverni names, indpendent commander got indy names. Hopefully that explanation wasn't too confusing.

Re: Some basic mod questions
 

Hinnom actually uses the Rephaite names, as does Ashdod.