some mod questions from a newbie

[Dakaar]

Hi all, got this game recently and been searching and browsing with a view to (eventually!) creating a whole fantasy setting based on my own design (remodelling all races etc) and have a few questions i havent been able to answer:

1) Is it possible to alter the mercenaries, either by mod commands or by altering the units and commanders the existing ones use? I dont think i can modify the mercenaries and am unable to find any reference of which units are used as mercenary troops/commanders and which ones, or indeed any listing of the various mercenaries available.

2) Is it possible to change, delete or add to the random events in any way?

3) From what ive read you cant add magic sites as its a hard coded number, but is there anyway to change existing ones?

4) I can see that you can edit the parameters of existing spells but not add new ones (unless im mistaken) can you rename a spell as well? so for example you can take a spell you dont want in your setting and totaly modify and rename it to a spell you want to add, or will you be stuck with the old name for the new spell?

5) Further to the changing of spells, is there anyway to set/change the sprite used for a spell, and is there a listing on these available anywhere?

6) Is there anyway to change special nation/theme powers or will they always be present, for example if i changed mictian would the replacement nation always need to blood sacrifice to gain dominion? Or would Ermor ashen empire always destroy population and generate the set troops in its provinces (subject to those troops being edited of course =p) Finally will go out on a huge limb and ask if theres any kinf of reference to all these abilities and what they entail (using ermor as an example again, the full list of what troop types and commanders can turn up in the ashen empire provinces. This is just an example as i think i have that one worked out from playing it)

Thanks in advance for any help anyone is able to give to a fresh modder with big ambitions!

[Turin]

1) There are some mercenaries that use special unrecruitable and unsummonable units, which you can easily modify(eternal knights etc) , but most mercs use a recruitable unit which would get changed too if you alter the base unit.

2) no, besides changing the units which are involved in certain events. They would have to be unique to the event though if you don´t want to deal with other side effects of the change.

3) no

4) you can´t mod much in the way of spells besides path requirements, gem costs, researchlevel, magic school and the precision value, so you will be stuck with the old name.

5) I don´t think so

6) Since both soul gate, ashen empire and carrion woods are specific nation themes, they are beyond current modding capabilities. The only thing you can do is change the autospawn units, but this leads to further problems, because most autospawn units can be gained through other means and would change as well.

Special powers in general can´t be modded out, so every nation you would have replace mictlan would have the same blood sacrifice to gain dominion effect.

[Dakaar]

Thanks for the fast answers Turin ) I was affraid what most answers would be from my reading though.

The mercenaries possibilities sound workable though, if i just changed other units as appropriate so that they are all unique to them if/where needed.

I looked on a util that displayed units in game, displays 1100 units including special heros, but none of the mercenary commanders are listed there, i think it was just a listing of all recruitable/summoned units. Is there anywhere to get a listing with the unit numbers for the unique mercenary troops and commanders?

[Turin]

most mercenary commanders and troops aren´t unique. For example bureks city guard comes with militia, which are monsterid 18. that´s the same id as the militia you can recruit in several independant provinces.

I think the only two exceptions are the eternal knights(which only appear guarding a unique site elsewhere in the game) and the mercenary band, that actually has it in their description that they are mercs.

[Dakaar]

ahh i see, so i can change the relevant troops/commanders that make up the mercenary by changing the unit, but the mercenaries are set and would still be the same, or am i totally not following heh

like i could change the archers and commander unit used for the far strikers mercenery, but they would still show up as the far strikers, i couldnt alter them to say Paladins of Alyzia and change the units to a group of mounted paladins (for example)

Also is there a complete list of mercenaries anywhere (preferably with what unit numbers comprise them) as theres a lot of units to dig through and a lot of mercenaries to check to find which ones they use =p

[Endoperez]

If you changed Farstrikers' longbowmen into Paladins of Alyzia, you would have provinces from which you can recruit Knights and Paladins of Alyzia (usually Paladins and Longbowmen).

I think I have seen mercenaries listed on one unit list or another, possibly Edi's. However, it might have just listed Eternal Knights and the mercenaries armed with spear/shield, sword/shield and flail/shield.


A member of this forum by the name of Paladin is developing a program that will enable many more modding capabilities. Try to find his posts. He has released a demo which does nothing but allows one to see the user interface, and the fact that the program lists every unit, magic site, item and more. I don't think he mentioned events or mercenaries as things his program can change, but spell and item names, as well as other characteristics, were in the list...

[Dakaar]

ahh great thanks ill look for his posts that sounds useful )

For the example i gave what i would have done there would be to remove the unit the mercenary uses from other places in the game, supstituting in a different one and altering the one used by the mercenery to what i wanted, the problem is from what i understand from turin is the mercenaries i alterered would still show up listed as the farstrikers, i couldnt change them to be called the paladins of Alyzia for example.

[Endoperez]

That is true, but as you cannot mod what units are recruitable from spesific poptype (independent types, including kngihts & longbowmen), you would have to remove every knight&longbow province...

There are still few mercenaries you can change, Brave Breakers and all those dark-brown/black colored mercenaries.