modding, getting started?

[JaydedOne]

For what it's worth, what I found the most useful in getting started on my mod was downloading other mods and looking into their guts (namely, their .dms and their .tgas) to figure out what had worked effectively for them.

I think the best example of a full nation mod, aside from what IW put out, is probably Ashikaga as it really flexed what the mod utilities can do. DL it, read the mod, and then come back with the initial questions that flow from it.

As a sidenote, does anyone have any recommendations on where to go for excellent PhotoShop FAQs and pointers? There are so many sites out there that trying to find a single, clear, comprehensive one is hard. What I'm really interested in is finding out whether there's a utility on PS that allows you to pick a single color-type for sprites and replace all instances of said color-type with another color. You can see the obvious reasons for wanting such, I'm sure.

[Spacepain]

Originally posted by Arralen:

And I don't think a modding-walkthrough would make any sense. It's not that hard to figure it out from the docs, and than there's this forum to search for the answers to those question which remain. A step-by-step walkthrough would only result in a bunch of poor, partly finished mods by those with a short attention span

Have to agree, for a game where modding is this simple, compared to modding for some games (content creation in NWN) there is no reason for tutorials.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well admittedly I learned MAP commands just fine by looking at them. But then again I learned the game without a walkthru (and that was the less friendly Dom1 interface). But some people just wont look. Maybe a short step by step saying why the commands are being used would spur some people do try it.

Oh well, I dont do MODs so maybe I will just do a MAP Version and let others consider if something like that would work for MODs

[Spacepain]

RTFMing again, and I noticed the comand
#nothemes (or something close to that)
It doesn't make any themes playable for said nation.

This command sort of implies the ability to mod themes, but I didn't see any commands to influence this. Rather peculiar to me. Is this an indicator of future additions to modability?

[gladestrider]

Originally posted by Spacepain:
RTFMing again, and I noticed the comand
#nothemes (or something close to that)
It doesn't make any themes playable for said nation.

This command sort of implies the ability to mod themes, but I didn't see any commands to influence this. Rather peculiar to me. Is this an indicator of future additions to modability?

I don't know about their future intentions, but at the moment I use that to turn off themes for when I modify a race. I recently modded Ermor into Mordor for the LotR map and turned off themes because they didn't really fit in with the flavor.

I believe it's possible to force a nation to take a particular theme, which may be handy b/c some themes have more national heroes than others. I haven't actually done that, though. However, I'm not aware of any way to actually mod a theme.

A walkthru might be nice, but I'll settle for decent documentation--updated weapon/armor/unit lists with IDs. That's been the big PITA for me. (disclaimer: I have not yet read the 2.11 modding.pdf)

As for adding new nations, I'm not sure it's necessary--that would have to be a really big game to have all 18 nations already active. It's fairly easy to turn on/off a mod.

gs

[Spacepain]

With adding new themes though, u'd be able to essentially create entire new nations, and not have to worry about everything hard coded into the game.

[Psitticine]

The modding manual is going through a major rewrite/edit that'll hopefully make it a bit more accessable for beginners.

It'll be maintained through new Versions as well, so suggestions from everybody on improvements will be welcome.