Modding -- Simplest Questions

[rylen]

Howdy,
I'm gathering my thoughts for my first Mod forray. (Machaka: The Silent Mountain, aka Technozulu or Machaka does Ulm) I'm giving balance and theme a good deal of thought, but my questions are much more primitive then that.

Is there a recommended thread or document that explains how to get started on modding? If yes, it probaly addresses my following questions.

How do you mod? Which files to you copy? To where? How do you edit them? Is this written up somewhere?

How do units that change in game work? For instance Black Hunter Knights loose their rider and become just spiders. Could you produce other effects -- such as the old GW Pink Horror effect -- when a Pink Horror dies it is replaced with two Blue Horrors? Can units ever go back a step -- turning 2 Blue Horrors into a single Pink Horror? What about summon upon death? Or a variable summon -- zero to some people survive chariot destruction?

Is there a how to for messing with scales and other fundaments? For instance turning on an Ulmish immunity to drain or Mictalan's need for blood sacrifice.

Art is decidedly not my thing. Are there people out there willing to transform a concept description into proper sized sprites?

Thanks,
Rylen

[Kristoffer O]

Howdy, howdy!

There are some threads on the matter, but not a newbie guide IIRC.

There are modding documents available when you patch the game IIRC.

Download one of the mods from our website. Hoburg alliance or HE - special edition (player made). Just open the 'mod.dm' file in a text editor and take a look.

You will need a .dm file and some sprites in tga format (unless you use existing monsters and give them new stats).


Shapechanging capabilities are moddable as of 2.13 (documentation is coming). This includes upon-death-transformation. There is a thread on this matter somewhere.


I do not remember the modding comands, but I believe they are:

#secondshape nbr - commander able to switch shape (like dragons) into this form
#firstshape nbr - commander able to switch back into this form
#secondshape nbr - unit takes this shape upon death
#secondtempshape nbr - turns into something upon death that do not stay after battle


Twin spawning blue horrors are not possible.

Scale effects and national preferences can be altered, dominion effects not, IIRC.


Good luck and ask again.

Edit: hmm. Something is wrong with the #secondshape. There should be two different commands. Can't remember what the other one is called.

[Gandalf Parker]

The absolute best thing is to grab one and look at it.
There is a .dm file which is plain text. Open a game with the mod, then look at the commands in the .dm file; and you should be able to see how easy it is to get started. There is also usually a subdirectory for the mod. The .dm file says if there is one and what its called. There are image files there which are .tga format but only if your mod needs to create new units.

If you check that out then you will have specific questions which are much easier to tackle.

[rylen]

I've grabbed Hoburg Alliance, Trolls, Steampunk Ulm, an Alexander Scale's, and the recent God Balance Mod. The notation looks clear for a straight mod. (Themes could be tougher.) I haven't been home to look for documents w/ my patch so some of these questions might be answered . . .

Is there always a complete list? i.e do you always need to spell out all elements of a weapon, all attributes of a unit? Is the order fixed or can it vary? If you enter something twice does it overwrite or explode?

Several numbers are used. "newweapon number", "newarmor number", "newunit number" -- where do these numbers come from? Are they conventions? Do they describe particular types? Is there a master list? Can units have multiple items -- ex two armors?

I read multiple switches (holy, stealthy) and magics (num num). Again, is there a list?

I may try churning out a modding utility. I think it would get some use.

Rylen

[rylen]

Found the modding doc. Wow. Everything I was looking for. More questions much later.

Rylen