Mods? Maps? Need some help

[GrudgeBringer]

I opened properties and saw that it said I had some files blocked...

I had the option to unblock files and did that.

I then unzipped/extracted map files into the Dom/3 Map file but they STILL are not in the map directory when I start a new game.

Am I looking in the right place?

[Ballbarian]

GB,
Maybe try something a little different:

1. Create a folder on your desktop. Name it anything you like. I will call it 'New Folder' since that is the default.

2. When you download the zip file containing the map, save it in this folder.

3. Open new folder and you should see your zip file. Right click on it and select "Extract here" from the menu that pops up.

4. Select the ".MAP" file and the ".TGA" file by holding down the control key (CTRL) and clicking on one and then the other. This will highlight both files so that you know you have them both selected.

5. Right click on either of the selected files and select "COPY" from the menu that pops up.

6. Open your dominions3 "Maps" folder. You should see the original dominions3 map files in there. (aran.map, aran.tga, etc.)

7. Right click anywhere in that folder and select "PASTE" from the menu that pops up. You should now see your new map files in the folder.

8. If you had dominions open while you were doing this, close it and restart the game. The maps will not show up until dominions refreshes it's list.

9. With the game reopened, you should now see the new map listed in the selection of maps when you create a new game.

Hope that helps.

[GrudgeBringer]

Wow...that sounds good (and I know how to do that too...lol) Thanks

[GrudgeBringer]

worked like a charm...Thanks a million for the tip.

I have been somewhat confused on the MOD part of this equation.
I keep hearing that you only have to put the mod you want in the Dom/3 Mod file and it will work...no extracting, no messing with it.

But it doesn't work for me. Doo you think that maybe I need to reboot and reset the files (so to speak after putting the mod in there or should I do like I did with maps and open it on desk top in its own folder and then place it ion the MOD section? Thanks

[Ballbarian]

Do the same for the mods as you did for the map.

Once you have the mod files in your dominions3 mod folder, start the game and enable the mod in preferences. When you create a new game, the mod will automagically be enabled whenever you play that game in the future, even if you disabled it for another game.

For example, if you were playing 2 games and game1 was created with mod1 enabled and game2 was created with mod2 enabled, you would not need to mess with the mod preferences again. When you play game1 you would only see the changes caused by mod1. Mod2 would only be seen when you played game2.

(Glad that worked for you! )

[Sombre]

GrudgeBringer said:
I keep hearing that you only have to put the mod you want in the Dom/3 Mod file and it will work...no extracting, no messing with it.

Where do you keep hearing that? I don't think anyone has said that in this thread. It certainly isn't true. You have to extract the necessary files from an archive, usually a zip or rar.

[thejeff]

That's probably because most people don't think of the zip file as the mod. The mod is the dm file contained within the zip, so it is true that you only have to put the mod in the Mod directory.

[MaxWilson]

Only for very simple mods. Any mod with graphics will need to have its dependencies extracted as well (i.e. any subfolders in the mod).

-Max

[JimMorrison]

Sombre said:

Where do you keep hearing that? I don't think anyone has said that in this thread. It certainly isn't true. You have to extract the necessary files from an archive, usually a zip or rar.

It's because one of the first few posts you said "okay now I have 3 files that (don't do anything), so I tried extracting"..... That's why you heard "don't do that". You already had them out of the .zip at that point.....

[Gandalf Parker]

RAR is a different kindof compression. Later, and more efficient than zip. But since its later, its not automatically handled on peoples machines. They have to download a RAR program to be able to unpack it