BEFORE YOU WRITE YOUR SUGGESTIONS PLEASE READ HOW MODDING WORKS IN THIS GAME
HOW TO MOD THIS GAME?
You can't. Well, you can, but not on an official level. There are no real tools for modding (except for a few utilities that make modding the files a little easier, but also tend to screw them up) so the whole thing is done by editing the .xml files which contain various values (from hitpoints to damage). However that represents only ~30% of the game. The other 70% of the game is hardcoded (mostly game mechanics).
That being said, the files don't contain everything you would want when you want to mod something in the game as the list of available options is pretty short. You can edit stuff like damage, cost, damage type, etc. but if you want to, for example, make a specific unit garrison in a specific building, well, good luck - there is no option for that.
On top of that the game has a predetermined (total) number of all entries in the game (which cover everything from buildings to nations) and if it detects that there so much as 1 entry more or 1 entry less in that total number, the game just crashes. So in other words: if you add something or remove something in this game it throws a hissy fit.
HOW I MANAGED TO MOD THE GAME
So you're now probably wondering how I managed to add so much stuff without getting this error? Well I basically used the entries that were already in the files but were disabled by default (such as CTW exclusive units or houses) and used those entries for the new units, buildings and nation powers. As for the latter, there were also a bunch of nation powers that were disabled by default (the reason being, some of them didn't work properly or weren't fully fleshed out, but some worked fine). I also exchanged some units and used their entries for new ones. And recently, I've been running out of "fresh" entries to add new units to, so the remaining amount of new units will probably replace some placeholder ones and not add much new (also because of balancing purposes).
Some other methods I've used (such as implementing naval generals) was to trick the game into thinking a unit is something else. For instance: a naval general is treated as a normal general, but I've changed the model and classified it as a ship. I've used some other methods to trick the game into doing what I want, but those are just a few.
ABOUT THE AI (SINGLE PLAYER MATCH)
The AI is still vanilla, which means it treats the mod as the vanilla game. Since the mod makes extensive changes to many different gameplay elements, the AI does not utilize the new system very well. It can create a very basic economy and advance in ages more slowly than the player but it will not utilize all the new units and buildings properly (for instance, it will use Horse Raiders as just another cavalry unit in its army). I've been planning to update the AI for a while now, but a lot of its coding is hardcoded and the only way to break that is with scripts (which tend to desync in multiplayer), and even those do not give me all the AI customization that I would want. So for the moment, if you're playing against the AI, play on Tougher or Toughest, so it gets a resource boost and can actually compete with you.
WHAT CAN AND CAN'T BE DONE
So what can realistically be implemented in the game? Well, considering all of the above problems, a lot of it is determined by trial-and-error. I've had to scrap TONS of ideas for units and buildings because of this.
Here's just a short list of what can't be modded into the game:
- garrisonable structures (by default you can only garrison a unit into the building that produced it, except for the ones already in vanilla)
- adding game mechanics (pretty much impossible as it's all hardcoded)
- adding nation powers (all of the powers are tied to nations and there's no way to edit what they do)
- adding ages or nations (except by changing the existing ones)
- adding wonders (these are especially bitchy when you start modifying them)
:v more byzantine empire stuff. <3
I'm pretty much running out of free entries in the files :\
Is it just me or early game there is a moment where you can't afford anything nor you can expand since all lvl 2 techs cost way too much and you have to wait 5-10 min to get to the next age and make stuff cheaper?
Using recommended settings fells too slow for me (a guy who plays 10 players Heroes of Might and Magic 3 for fun). How balanced Expensive and Normal tech settings are compared to Very Expensive? Research timers seem fine to me though.
The thing is that if you put it higher than Very Expensive and Slow, the unit prices don't change (since the they've been overhauled). So it might offset the balance if you do that.
I am working on a new patch to fix this early game crawl though. The game is supposed to be slower though by default as that was one of the points of this mod.
The main problem early game is that everything cost a lot and you only have 3 resources available, so you either wait 5-10 min to save resources for age advance, or you spend it all trying to tech other stuff and expand. Also, early rushes are only useful when killing workers to delay enemy economy, since you need siege machines to do any structural damage which make the early game slightly boring
Actually it's not that difficult to do structural damage. If you have a decent sized army you can tear down buildings fairly easily. Siege is more useful against forts, towers and cities. Besides, in Ancient age the temples don't give too much of an HP bonus so you can wreck quite a few buildings.
I am making some changes to the early game though for the next patch.
It's a long shot but...
Is there any chance for city walls? A research could trigger an automated function that could generate walls around the city radious. If any building obstructs its path, than previous building stands still.
If possible nations could get unique traits, regarding fortifications
* Greeks (Byzantine) could have more Hitpoints for City walls, Chineese could have better LoS etc.
* Depending on the age; city walls could be pallisade (I), Stone, Concrete etc.
* After Industrial age, walls could be abandoned.
therefore game could inherit a profound sense of sieging and defending the cities.
The closest I could get to walls were Trenches. The only way I could make walls would be to make them work similarly to trenches (so a 1x1 or 2x2 building that you could piece together into a wall). Implementing proper walls (ones you can drag and place) isn't possible without diving into the code of the game itself. And that isn't a mod anymore, and I'm pretty much not allowed to do that.
Another idea;
* caravans/trade trucks could be an uncontrolled entity.
* If the trade trucks/caravans have a fixed path between two cities, those models could be reintegrated as trains and rail roads. Or maybe; for the V & VI ages; there could be a separate building - trainstation - which acts as start/end point for locomotives.
* As indicated by the above notion, same could be applied for the civilian airports
Both train depots and civilian airports could be used for a commercial gain, and even diplomatic enforcer.
I have no idea how to make trucks uncontrolled (but afaik caravans already work by themselves..)
Making the path of the caravan into a train would be a nightmare to code as it would need a ton of different models, animations and I'm almost out of free entries in the files. The most I could do would be to change the textures of the roads to railroads.
It isn't possible to assign buildings as economic ones (except the ones that already exist). I can't even make them garrison units that aren't produced in that building.
Last but not least (sorry fellas, man without coding know how is in deed a man with many many words.)
Energy
With the VI age, game could introduce energy plants (coal plants-VI, Nuclear and HydroElectric Plants-VII, Renewable Energy Plants VIII)without which some buildings cannot operate.
Therefore it could be strategic to bomb energy plants.
I had the same idea, but there's no way to make buildings consume a resource (and a new one at that!) to work. That mechanic just isn't in there and I found no way to implement it.
You have to realize that modding in this game is EXTREMELY limited. Usually the rule is that you have to remove something if you want to add something and there's a limit for pretty much everything in the game. To give you a rough estimate - about 70% of the game is hardcoded.
And if I wanted to change that, I would have to dive into the code of the game itself and I'm not allowed to do that (for legal reasons). I consider it an achievement that I managed to implement the stuff that I did.
The only way I could maybe implement one or two of these features is via scripting. Although I'm not sure how much can be done with that as it's (currently) beyond my skill level. Although the problem with scripts in this game is that they tend to cause crashes and bugs (and desyncs in multiplayer).
Gatling gun in the Enlightment age and american civil war skins
I'm all out of unit entries sadly. There'll be no more units added unfortunately.
Could u replace a Civ with the Bulgarians(-Dacians/Vlachs,i.e. the later Romanians)?
The Eastern-"Balkaners" have more of an impact on History than some of the Civs currently in the mod.
Bulgarians
#I.the Middle Ages:
(-Dacians challenging the power of Rome)
- Vying for supremacy with the (Eastern)Romans(i.e. Greek Byzantines)
- Struggle for survival against the Turks(Ottoman) of which a Crusade was even called by Western Christendom to turn the tide of destruction in Eastern Christendom
(-Vlad the Impaler of Wallachia and his 'legacy')
#II.Industrial Age:
- Unification in 1885 & Liberation of Bulgaria in 1908 which thereafter became an expanding state in its campaigns against the Turks and then its erstwhile allies
- Of course WW1.
(- Romanians reached its greatest territorial extent in December 1918 after gaining land from the Germanic Austria Empire)
#III.Modern Age:
- Both Bulgaria & Romania had their exploits during WW2 where Bulgaria again regained almost all of the land lost since 1918 & Romania became a major(non Axis-power) German ally in Operation Barbarossa
#IV.Info Age:
- Both as Black Sea Warsaw Pact states & as Russian(USSR) allies
Sry for the long read
and in addition to the ingenuity, playability &foresight; of your mod, having a playable Black Sea/Eastern Balkan Civ is a novelty which could allow your mod to standout among others since there r currently no mod that deals with Black Sea Civs.
In order for the Civ(i.e. Black Sea "Balkaners") to represent the "2 different states" in latter Ages,
how about granting new "states"(s)/faction-units depending on the Government(s) researched in the Gunpowder Age:- for e.g. Monarchism vs Democracy would lead to Bulgarians or Romanians.
Thank you for your time &effort; all this while in making this mod a reality
Those are pretty good ideas, and I wouldn't be opposed to them, however, it poses the question: which civ would I replace? You have to understand, I can only replace a civ's name. Mechanically it would keep the powers that the previous civ had.
I COULD make units available based on the tech researched (so either Despotism/Monarchy/Communism vs Republic/Democracy/Capitalism) but I'd have to make a few more units for that, and I don't know if I'll have enough entries left in the files (I'm pretty much out of them at this point).
Otherwise, It's a good idea. I'm only wondering if this civ would not throw a bad light on some other civs because of its diversity of units based on the government chosen, since everyone would want to play that civ.
I'll consider it.
hey you could add the hms victory or other equal boats please
I'm out of free entries for units in the files. I can only do it if I remove a unit.
Hi, thanks for making this section. I'm wondering if it's possible to make the new units available in the scenario editor? thanks again^^
I honestly don't know how, since the mod uses the same files in the scenario editor afaik and there's no more entries free in the files..
Could you plz get rid of the manchu units for China? Or just at least replace the word manchu with chinese?
What do you think about giving the Germans (or other powers) a Zepplin in the industrial age as a kind of early Helicopter gunship unit, or a German alternative to the early bomber. Id really love to see a zepplin unit in the game and have only ever seen one mod work something like that in (with a lot of other unnessicary stuff I'm not particularly fond of)
Zeppelins used to be in the mod, but they don't work as well as they should. You can't land them in airfields and anti-air makes very short work of them quick. Even if I make them really tough, then it just looks stupid as they take a ton of flak and still fly.
The other thing is making them bomb like Zeppelins. It's essentially a helicopter that throws bombs, but in this game it just ends up doing circles trying to get into range.
I may re-add them at some point, but I'd be a lot of work to make them work properly.
You'll be glad to know that the Zeppelin is now a generic unit for all nations in Industrial age.
Hello there. My first impression is great. I really like slower and more strategic phase. I also like new units and stuff. Just finished game with Japanese. I just wanted to try some aircraft (Industrial age) and I found out I can't use bombers. There is an blind icon, you can click it, but no aircraft is created. PLS fix. I only got to this age and then I destroyed the enemy, so there might be some similar problems at later ages. Better check this out. Best regards, your huge fan. :)
Thanks, I'll look into this.
I just played a match as Japanese and could create Fighters, Bombers and Zeppelins from Industrial Age forward with no issues. Make sure you downloaded the proper version and installed it properly.
Moddb.com
Awesome mod, special buildings and units are fun, reworked resources and nation powers are refreshing, Naval combat personally feels even better and makes more sense than OG, if there's anything worth mentioning, personally getting stuck in wood scarcity feels consistent with most nations even after hitting cap, on top of having to build more farms to fill resource cap, exception is Maya, consistently topping development race by a landslide in matches i played with their wood discount power