Modder's Guide

[DrPraetorious]

Here's a list of all units in .csv format. There are no stats here, but it is a comprehensive listing.

It's based on the strings dump - and I then added in a few missing units by hand which strings failed to find (anything with a name <=3 characters in length.)

[Edi]

That's a good tool to get modders started since it gives them the numbers. The DB is progressing and is currently complete from 0 to 631 except for itemslots and ldr values for some units that will get added later. The base resource costs have not been calculated eitehr, because I need to find out the mechanics of that.

It should pick up the pace significantly after the next couple of hundred units, since all national recruitable things are already done (bar the itemslots and ldr values for non-commanders).

One thing that is useful for testing purposes is making a nation mod of either Mictlan (any era) or Sauromatia and then modding the startsites with 5x the #homecom <nbr>. Then enable the mod, start a game with that nation and you will see all the monsters you plugged in with #homecom as recruitable commanders. If you change the monster numbers in the mod file, exit Dom3 and restart it and resume the game, you will now see the NEW monsters as commanders, you do NOT need to start another test game.

This also means that if a new, improved version of a mod comes out and there is already a game in progress using that mod, just replacing the contents of the old version with the new version will allow the games in progress to be updated to the new version on the fly. I don't know if it will work, but it should, in theory at least.

Edi

[Psientist]

Next question! Is there a comprehensive list of item numbers?

Second, when modding monsters, it is possible to "copystats" from an existing monster, then change stats/attributes from that base to create a new monster. Is such a thing possible with weapons or armor?

I don't think so (my experiments resulted in crashification), but it would be a very nice modding feature...

[DrPraetorious]

There isn't a copy command for items AFAIK.

Do you want a comprehensive list of armor, or weapons, or of forgeables? All three are *probably* in the strings dump, but it's a lot harder to verify those - and anything with a three letter name will generally be missing. I could try extracting them myself rather than depending on Strings to do it.

[Edi]

Psientist said:
Next question! Is there a comprehensive list of item numbers?

Second, when modding monsters, it is possible to "copystats" from an existing monster, then change stats/attributes from that base to create a new monster. Is such a thing possible with weapons or armor?

I don't think so (my experiments resulted in crashification), but it would be a very nice modding feature...

There will be by the time I'm done, but that is going to take a long while yet. The DB will come out without the items, but they will be next on the list after that.

Edi

[Turin]

FrankTrollman said:

Nagot Gick Fel!

ConvArmy Nmbr Error.

Instant Crash bug I'm afraid.

-Frank

Hmm very strange. I encounter the same bug but only when scrolling past unit ~1760(which would show the last normal ingame unit when scrolling to the next row) without any mods enabled. With mods enabled(any mod seems to do) the map works normally and you can view all 1764 units.

Do you get the error immediately when loading the map or when scrolling?

[Psientist]

There will be by the time I'm done, but that is going to take a long while yet. The DB will come out without the items, but they will be next on the list after that.

Edi

Edi - We'll be patient, or at least try! The ability to at least mix-and-match items to mod new items will open up *a lot* of possibilities.

What would create *even more* possibilities would simply being able to add arbitrary spells as "secondary effects" to items.

I'm still playing around... I created a pretender assigned with the weapon "Banish to Inferno". It seems to work - the info box shows a magical weapon with -12 damage. I don't know if I just tripped across a spell that had already been "weaponized" (since assigning weapons with "made up" names just caused crashes), or if any spell will work that way. Playtesting the pretender, I have yet to actually confirm the Banish to Inferno weapon has been used, since weapons don't notify themselves in the battle screen's scrolling text. I'll experiment with some more spells and post when I get a chance.

[Psientist]

Ah, well, it didn't take much playtesting. I tripped across "Banish to Inferno" by lucky accident; most battlefield spells are not recognized as weapons at all.

[FrankTrollman]

Deleted.

[Edi]

With the time this project is going to take, I'm going to have to start releasing stuff piecemeal to allow people to get on with their mod projects.

I switched from doing units to modding weapons and getting them done first. The weapon stats WILL be incomplete, because there is simply no way to know all of the attributes just by looking at the description, but they will be as complete as I can make them. I found a way to test for the bonus status of a weapon and how many hands it requires, so those will be there.

The weapon DB will be ready by early next week at the latest, at which point I'll be going back to units.

The armor list is one goddamn pain in the arse since assigning creatures armor by armor number is STILL NOT enabled. That means I can get the stats for the armors down but not the names until I find what matches what.

There's a special icon made for that one:

Another thing that has been confirmed: Changing a mod on the fly WILL retroactively change any games started with that mod enabled, so even in MP games it is possible to retroactively correct mod mistakes by just editing them out and ensuring that everyone has the corrected version when the next turn hosts. Recruitment lists, weapon and armor assignments, everything gets retroactively pasted even on top of already recruited units.

Edi