Beginner Mod - Anyone Interested?

Hi Arc ele...

I, too,  have never modded.  I would be interested in some very specific projects, for oblivion, (specific long quests...), distant worlds (Babylon 5 mod, universe) and in Elemental War of magic.   I'm just not sure how long to wait as the Elemental engine, etc., keeps changing.  What would be nice, re; elemental, would be a basic guide to modding, and links to appropriate tools.  having done a few searches, there still seems to be no community consensus as to how, and where to mod elemental.  Coordination, etc seems to be necessary so all the modders are on 'the same page' when it comes to tinkering...  so our mods don't, inadvertently clash with one another.

Just my thoughts... and why i am holding off for a while before i attempt my first mod here...

If you can get like 5 people who want to learn modding and are serious about it, I'll write up a thorough guide to what is "known", including roadmapds to the most commonly modded areas.

Hi ElanaAhova, yeah, I wondered about when to start too, but thought after 1.1 was a good time.  That would be awesome Heavenfall, let's see if we can get 5 people interested!  Thanks!

I am serious about it. But I think I am going to wait until more things are settled and modding support is better (python anyone?)

I'd like to learn!

So there's about 4 people (ElanaAhova, Sarudak, FatNonFree, and myself), but from the sounds of it, ElanaAhova and Sarudak are waiting for now?  No problem with that, just want to confirm.

FatNonFree, is there something small you want to try?

Well, I'd be interested in a group project, too. I know a little bit about the spell xml, but absolutely nothing about the rest of the game code. What did you all have in mind?

I'd be willing to jump in on this.  I have very little programming experience, but do have a design background.  I'd love to learn more about modding.

Personally, I was planning on undertaking a solo learn-to-mod project with Elemental once the game settles down a little bit.  But I can jump in sooner rather than later.

I'm also interested in learning how to mod.

I started a guide in this thread: https://forums.elementalgame.com/403584

Let me know if it was more or less what you were expecting.

So the team currently looks like:

  FatNonFree

  LightofAbraxas

  EmersonPF

  viperfdl

  Arcelement2002

Unsure about ElanaAhova and Sarudak, but you can join in anytime.

Heavenfall's guide (in the post above) is incredibly useful and we can do a lot already just from reading that from the sounds of it.  I have a little experience changing Sovereign histories and talents from copying-pasting game code.  Any ideas?  I guess anyone can throw out ideas, and whether that's too big or not can be determined later.

My ideas:

  - create new histories/talents

  - create new weapons

  - even creating a new faction may be possible with Heavenfall's guide, but that's definitely a large undertaking.

Just throwing out ideas, what do you all want to do?

I have an idea for you guys to start on, not only is it simple to do, and easy to manage many different people working on, but it's very much needed.

-A universal cosmetic pack mod-

Many mods already have a version of something like this in someway, but a universal mod for all current in-game graphics would be great for everyone and will stop a lot of double copies of the same items when using different mods. You might not understand it now, but this will be an required pack for all future mods including your own and would be great to get it made and over with. Frankly a mod I'd like to use also.

Basically we need a mod with a copy of all current clothes and armor for use only when using the design window when making a custom monster unit, NPC, or just playing the game, that has no stats (+Defense and stuff), just for cosmetics.

It'll have a fake copy of all equipment in the game with no <SupportedUnitModelTypes> tag so everyone can wear them, no <ProductionRequirement>, <Prereq>, and <RandomUnitLiklihood> tags so they'll never be bought at shops, appear randomly on units we make and the AI players never use them.

All armor will have a <Subtype>Clothes</Subtype> tag, and have no <GameModifier> tags so all the gear is useable for just cosmetics by the players/modders.

There should be 3mods and 2 versions of each, we use all 3mods but each end user of future mods that use your mod pack get to pick and match which version they use, either a designer verison where all items are visable at the player design screen, or a version where all the duplicate items work but can't be seen at the design window.

Version Goals: (In order of how long it'll take to complete and difficultly)

• UCPM v0.1d- Copies of in-game clothes that everyone can use and see.

• UCPM v0.1 - Copies of in-game clothes that everyone can use but not see.

• UCPMFaces v1.0d- Copies of in-game faces, eyes, hair, skins that everyone can use and see.

• UCPMFaces v1.0 - Copies of in-game faces, eyes, hair, skins that everyone can use but not see.

• UCPM v0.2d- Copies of in-game normal armors that everyone can use and see.

• UCPM v0.2 - Copies of in-game normal armors that everyone can use but not see.

• UCPM v0.3d- Copies of in-game hidden/incomplete armors that everyone can use and see.(Time consuming)

• UCPM v0.3 - Copies of in-game hidden/incomplete armors that everyone can use but not see.(Time consuming)

• UCPMExtra v1.0d- Deconstructed copies of all in-game armors that everyone can use and see. (Chests pieces have torso and surcoat only versions, shoulder pieces have surcoat and cloak only versions, Leggear is split into thigh and boot pieces, etc.)(Crazy time consuuming)

• UCPMExtra v1.0 - Deconstructed copies of all in-gamr armors that everyone can use but not see.

There's quite a load of different item <type>s and files so shouldn't be too hard to asign and split the load between a half dozen people or more.

This is very easy to do with all current in-game items, with some simple find/replace options of a text editor. I use and love UltraEdit, but Notepad++ is free and likely the most commonly used http://notepad-plus-plus.org/download .

Here's a walkthrough using notepad++ for UCPM v0.1:

1. Find and make a copy of an (item).xml

• I'm going to do boots for an example. So I find \Elemental War of Magic\data\English\CoreBoots.xml and make a copy somewhere to work on. Copied it to a folder on my desktop \UCPMv0.1raw\ for example.

2. Open the working copy with notepad++.

3.Highlight <GameItemType InternalName=" and hit [ctrl]+[Insert] to copy.

• • Select the “Replace” option under the “Search” tab or hit [ctrl]+[H].

  • Set “Replace with:” to <GameItemType InternalName="UCPM.

    • The “Find What” should be filed with the <GameItemType InternalName=" already because it was highlighted, you can simply hit [shift]+[Insert] in the “Replace with” and then add UCPM after it.

  • Hit the “Replace All” button. "Important to do this ONLY ONCE, this goes for all times you hit Replace all"

  • Now we just made a duplicate copy of all the items(boots) in the file because they now have a unique <InternalName>.

4 . Highlight </DisplayName> and replace with (UCPM)</DisplayName> (With a space at the start).

• • Now when we move our cursor over our duplicate copy of the item in-game, it'll read (UCPM) at the end.

5. Remove all <SupportedUnitModelType>Stuff</SupportedUnitModelType> tags.

• • You can hightlight and copy <SupportedUnitModelType> use the Search/Find funtion of notepad++ and then paste it in there. Now all you have to do is keep pressing [F3] to get to quickly move find these lines you want to delete.

  • Now all our boot copies can be wore by every everyone, including units that the boots don't fix right and clips, including units from all other mods, and including units from mods that haven't been made yet.

  • I don't think Notepad++ can do wildcards in it's search/replace so we'll just do it manually. Other quick option is to replace <SupportedUnitModelType> with <!--SupportedUnitModelType> and replace</SupportedUnitModelType> with <SupportedUnitModelType-->, but we want tight code and small file size, so let's delete all those tags.

6. Remove all <RandomPeasantUnitLiklihood>Number</RandomPeasantUnitLiklihood>, <RandomMerchantUnitLiklihood>Number</RandomMerchantUnitLiklihood>, and <RandomHeroUnitLiklihood>Number</RandomHeroUnitLiklihood> tags.

• • Now our copies won't every show up on random units, or when we hit the randomize button when designing a unit while playing the game.

7. Remove all <HeroOnly>1</HeroOnly> tags.

• • Now everyone can wear these boots, not just Soviegns and Champions.

9. Remove all <CustomizationPointCost>number</CustomizationPointCost> tags.

• • *Skip steps 9-13 for coreboots.xml and won't you wont find those tags for most of the clothes, but might as well double check.

10. Remove all <ProductionRequirement>Everything and lines found between</ProductionRequirement>

• • Having production and tech requirements means our fake items can be built by AI players as well as bought in shops.

11. Remove all <Prereq>Everything and line found between</Prereq>

• • Tech requirements.

12. Remove all <GameModifier>Everything and Row/Line found between</GameModifier>

• • These are all the stats on armor, such as +4defense.

13. Remove Clothes subtype from items that have it. Except for hair, faces, and eyes, Replace <Subtype>Clothes</Subtype> with nothing, just leave the “Replace with” box blank.

14. Add Clothes subtype, Except for hair, faces, and eyes, Replace </DisplayName> with </DisplayName><Subtype>Clothes</Subtype>

• • This makes all our items show up as clothes so we know they have no value.

  • We just deleted those tags in step 13 and placed them back just to have tighter code and faster to do than double check to see if those tags are there twice.

13. Remove all <IsAvailableForSovereignCustomization>false</IsAvailableForSovereignCustomization> and <IsAvailableForUnitDesign>0</IsAvailableForUnitDesign> tags.

• • Now we can use the Create new Sovereign button in-game to design our new units. Use Search/Replace and leave “Replace with” blank for quick deleting of these.

*Congrats, you just finished the coreboots part of UCPM v0.1d. Save the as UCPMv01dCoreBoots.xml in some “UCPMv0.1dCooked” folder you made.

14. Search/Replace “</DisplayName>” with </DisplayName><IsAvailableForSovereignCustomization>false</IsAvailableForSovereignCustomization><IsAvailableForUnitDesign>0</IsAvailableForUnitDesign>

• • Adding <IsAvailableForUnitDesign>0</IsAvailableForUnitDesign> makes it invisiable to on the unit design screen, adding <IsAvailableForSovereignCustomization>false</IsAvailableForSovereignCustomization> makes it invisable on the make Sovereign Screen, with both, the boots won't clutter up players' design screens if they don't want.

*Congrats, you just finished the coreboots part of UCPM v0.1. Save the as UCPMv01CoreBoots.xml in some “UCPMv0.1Cooked” folder you made.

These 14steps can get up to UCPMv0.2 and UCPMFaces done. More steps are needed to when UCPMv0.3 is underway.

That sounds interesting, thanks for the idea Smfrench333!  Anyone up for this idea, or something else?

Anyone is welcome to join me in making the Dungeons and Dragons mod.  I'm slowly learning myself, and would appreciate the help.  If you are interested at all please contact me.  Whether its spells, items, factions, champions, or you name it.   Thanks!