Suggestion for Nation Modders...

[Ballbarian]

My entire post might be unnecessary if the new nation modding and slots resolve these issues.

I was killing time tonight and trying not to stare at my empty mailbox while waiting for my Dom3 package to arrive, when I decided to download a pile of Dom2 nation mods and try them out. As I was browsing the mod files figuring out which nations they replaced and such I decided to see how hard it would be to make some modifications so that I could play a game with multiple new nations.

The first potential conflict I noticed was weapon and armor numbers. Hmmm. Well, in the classic RTS Total Annihilation, I know a guy that resolved id conflicts for tons of individual new units and weapons and combined them into a single massive super mod. I played with it as much or more than I did the original game.

A few of the existing Dom2 nation mods were very considerate and listed what weapon, armor and unit numbers they used/modified. Sadly, this appears to be a minority.

Given more time, I would just write a simple program to read the files for me. Who knows, maybe someday. Anyhow, I thought I would start a thread where experienced modders and players could post some suggestions to give the up and coming nation mods a better chance of playing nice together.

My short list of suggestions:

1. List number ranges replaced for weapons, armor & units.

2. Keep the name of the support directory/folder the same as the dm file name. (I like to keep my mod folder as neat as possible.)

Suggestions to add to this list are encouraged. I will happily update this post.

btw: Thanks for the great Dom2 nation mods and I am looking forward to the Dom3 mods as well!