Jaguar - finished, Szumo declared winner

[Loren]

How do you activate mods?

[sum1lost]

Submitted...

I've only once played pythium before

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Loren, I'll try and write up some directions for you tomorrow on installing mods.

Sum1Won. Good to hear someone's in the same boat. I hadn't touched Agartha till I joined up for this game and found out it was MA. I did so poorly in my SP practice, that I've found I had to write a guide just so I make it to year 2 in a halfway decent position. Against easy AI, too. I don't have anything like a coherent strategy yet, either. But, going over the units has helped me from horribly misjudging independents, at least. And decide what scales NOT to take. Ever.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

I've switched pretender concepts yet again... But since I'm going sailing tomorrow, I won't have time to waffle over the issue. I'm mailing in my Pretender as soon as I get a good name. So... is there any particular MP etiquette?

I suppose Scylla is good enough. Though I'd need six heads (look at all my helmets!) to be true to myth. oh well... I'll have to settle for just one, though it certainly would be nice to accessorize. But if I was true to myth, I'd be moving around a lot less.

So now to get in character. I'll share what's available in the Pretenders of the World page.

I, Lazy Perfectionist now don my alterego.

Turn 0:

Agartha worships the pretender Scylla, Patron of the Rich, Symbol of Unchallenged Victory.
The inhabitants of the deep have started to stir. Soon, they will leave their caves and seek their place in the world.

Now, onto Loren's question regarding mods.

If you know how to open .RAR and .ZIP files, skip step one.

Step One: Install archival program
- I use a completely free (no nags, no time trials) program by the name of TugZip. That's only for Windows, though. So, I'll mention another program I've used from time to time, 7Zip. 7Zip is available for several platforms, including Linux.

Step Two: Download and unpack the mod files
- Open the file you've just downloaded in TugZip.
- Select the file or folder within that you wish to install.
- Click Actions, then Extract.
- Check Extract selected files only, extract with full path.
-Navigate to the target folder

Example: For worthy heroes, you have three options. And notice this archive comes with a path (the mods folder, maps folder, rather than being in one big bunch). First, installing a specific file. Second, installing the entire mod, but not the map, and third, installing everything.
To install a specific mod file, you select just it and extract to your game folder, subdirectory mods. For me, this would be my game drive "E:\dominions3\mods". For you, it'll probably look more like "C:\Program Files\Illwinter Games\Dominions 3\mods". It'll be somewhere else if you're using another operating system than windows.
To install the entire mod, extract all the files into "blahblah\dominions3\" And make sure to extract files with full path. If asked about overwriting anything, SAY NO!
Skim the readme in any mod before installing.
To install the blessing hotfix, you extract just BlackTome.dm to the \mods folder.
To install the Paragonos map, extract just parganos_fix.map to the \maps folder. You can extract the other while you're at it, if you like, but it doesn't matter for our game.

Step Three: Enable mod. Start the game, and click on Preferences. A new menu will pop up. Click "Mod preferences". Click on the name of the mod to enable it. Note, clicking on the pretty picture 'worthy hereoes' won't do any good. You have to click on the plain text. Done correctly, the word enabled will show up to the right.

[sum1lost]

wait, we have to install mods for this game?

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Just three. Blessing hotfix, worthy heroes, and edi's fixed map. I've linked to the appropriate threads to read about/download the mods, earlier. Somewhere along the way, the reason for the mods been explained. And Revisionist History 101 - always check the first post. Or at least, once the thread title changes.

[Loren]

Step Three: Enable mod. Start the game, and click on Preferences. A new menu will pop up. Click "Mod preferences". Click on the name of the mod to enable it. Note, clicking on the pretty picture 'worthy hereoes' won't do any good. You have to click on the plain text. Done correctly, the word enabled will show up to the right.

Getting the file into the directory was no problem, this is the step I was missing. Thanks.

Do mods stay with the game or do you have to turn them on and off if you are playing multiple games with different mods?

[Szumo]

Game will load the right mods for each game, you only need to turn them on/off as host when starting the game.

[sum1lost]

Okay, I had submitted my pretender without having the mod...

will that be a problem, or can I have the mod running beforehand?

[llamabeast]

Not a problem. You don't need the mods at all to create your pretender, and you won't need to turn them on once the game starts either (Dominions will realise what mods the game is meant to use and use them automatically).

One confusing note: If you ever use the Conceptual Balance mod, you _must_ make sure it is off before you create a pretender god for a MP game. Because it changes pretender costs, it will screw things up. This is the only mod I know of that makes any difference though.