Wishlist: The Modder's Wishlist

[NTJedi]

Turin said:
If including missing monster attributes like seduction,animalawe or cursed is too much work, could you create a few standard empty units that have just one of those traits and are the basic unused unit in all other aspects, so we can mod those via the copystats command?

One command that I really want to have though is the spawnmonster behaviour, where a commander gets freespawns regularly, like the aboleth mothers.

Yes this would also work great... if you can do this thankyou Illwinter!

[FrankTrollman]

I would like it if the #hero1 command for nations was instead #hero1 <name> - where <name> is the name the hero automatically gets when generated as a hero. I think that would save everyone a lot of time (if that space is blank, a random name is generated).

-Frank

[Amos]

Is there a possibility that researchable national spells would be in the next patch?

[zepath]

I second Amos' question/request. I've got a fever... and the only prescription is fully moddable national summons!

[Amos]

I got a reply from Johan that its in the next patch.

[HoneyBadger]

Ok, I'm not the best modder in the world, by any means, despite having lots and lots of experience doing so-I don't really have the knack for programming. I understand pretty completely how computers and languages work, just implementing is hard for me, so it's quite possible that I'm making dumb mistakes, but I was wondering if anyone who is good at modding would be willing to give lessons?

Preferrably someone with lots of patience

Also, I'd like to second the notion that some creatures would get better with age. I'm thinking Aboleths and hydras in particular, also dragons and krackens, maybe vampires, but really, there are lots, if not most, units in the game which-background wise-have gotten or could get stronger and better with age. I would suggest implementation of this be done, for the sake of ease, as a command that permanently alters (perhaps as a shapechange) a unit into another unit, once it reaches a certain age. Thus a normal aboleth could evolve into a mindlord if it survived into it's 2000th year, or what have you. Vinemen could possibly become vine ogres. Dragons, for instance, could start the game as less powerful than they currently are, but in long games become more powerful. Jotuns over time would be affected by old age, but they might learn to change their shape into giant eagles or otters (this is an actual ability that some Jotuns had, according to Norse mythology. Loki, who was part Jotun, had this power in spades.). Agarthans would just keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Other creatures could actually de-volve, for instance lycanthropes could become stronger with age, but because of their bestial rage, turn into big mindless brutes. I don't think this function would be too terribly difficult to code in, and should add a lot to the fun factor, and to how much you care about a particular unit, over time, if modded well. Making the function happen as a simple #shapechange type command at a certain age puts the emphasis on the modder, as far as how much trouble we're willing to take, rather than on the programmer. Instead of asking Johan to code in changes to dozens or hundreds of units, we can do this ourselves. I'm thinking that the command might allow units to transition from normal soldiers into commanders, but this should be a separate command, as it would be a powerful ability, and should only happen on a case-by-case. I'm also thinking that certain magic sites would either allow the age transformation to happen, or speed it along. Additionally, it might only be units with a lot of experience who transform-particularly in the case of aboleths, as all aboleths start out as free podlings and eventually become powerful mindlords, providing they survive. Possibly only hall-of-famers in some cases could transform. This would make long games a lot more interesting, and also make the game itself more fun, because you couldn't just look at or summon up a particularly powerful unit-such as a demon lord-you'd have to actually play the game and wait for certain favorite units to turn into something even better. It would change the dynamics and strategy in certain games from one of simple conquest, to survival and prosperity over time. You could in the case of aboleths (one of my favorite races, if noone's figured that out yet) have the advanced stages of life-mindlords, gibodai, aboleth, etc. cost a great deal more than they do now, but have a chance for even a humble podling to become extremely powerful, providing you as they player nurture that podling along over hundreds of turns. This would alter, strategy-wise, units (as someone put it, in another thread comparing Dom3 with the Civilization franchise) from simple troops that basically fight and perform functions, into tiles that you build on and with, as resources. This will hopefully help answer the "why doesn't Dom3 have a lot of buildings/city development/my favorite kind of micromanagement?" question.

By the way, to give praise where praise is due: really great ideas throughout this thread. I don't want to single anyone out because everyone has good ideas.

[zepath]

HoneyBadger said:
I was wondering if anyone who is good at modding would be willing to give lessons?

Go into your /dominions3/docs/ directory and open the modding.pdf file. Crack open the .dm file of any of the mods available here in a text editor and start studying. Then, start experimenting. It'll come to you very quickly even if you had no programming knowledge. The developers have gone well out of there way to make this game moddable and to cater to the modding community. Just jump right in.

HoneyBadger said:
I'd like to second the notion that some creatures would get better with age.

Age alone doesn't really make sense. Years spent in idleness would certainly not make most creatures stronger or more skillful. I think the existing experience system covers this sufficiently. When we're talking about aboleths, pale ones, dragons, vamps, or whatever getting strong over long periods I think the frame of reference is centuries... not the decades that a long game will take. Besides, since there are so many beings in the game that might be included under such a system, you're talking about hundreds of new monsters for their "upgraded" versions or a substantial new feature that is well beyond the modder's sphere and that the developers will have to code. This would also disenfranchise human or human-like nations that start suffering from old age at 50. I'm content that creatures get better with battle experience and time-in-service and that magical creatures who simply never stop growing (in size or power) are represented as they are now... with different units for their different life stages.

[DrPraetorious]

Regarding Borsuk's request - yeah, that'd be awesome, but I think it's pretty clearly impossible. Try starting a game with a mod, then changing some features of the mod while the game is running and firing the game back up.

With the exception of certain acquired characteristics (magic paths, insanity, etc.) the units you've already recruited will change to match the new base unit. This means each unit "looks up" all of its abilities from the unit template for the corresponding unit # - meaning that all the units have to be the same.

Getting concrete with unit pools.

Number of effects, as with crossbreeding, determines the number of draws you get from the unit pool.

#unitpool <number>
-- defines a new unit pool. <number> must be in the range of 10,000+ - it is used in place of a unit # in spells.
-- Every time a unit is pulled from the unit pool, a dominions random number generator (2D6 with rerolls) is made.

#end
-- Terminate every unit pool with end.

-- By default, nothing is added to the RNG; each of the following picks something to add to the RNG.
#path1
#path2
#dominionover3
#fortune
#misfortune
#turmoil
#spring
-- etc.
-- path1 and path2 add excess levels in the path to the DRNG.
-- "Spring" adds +3 to the DRNG in spring and subtracts -3 in autumn.
-- and so forth.

#pool <minDRNG> <maxDRNG>
#mon <unitID>
#com <unitID>
#endpool

-- If the DRNG, with modifiers, is in the specified range, these units get added to the pool of summoned creatures.

On to my own request - I'd like it if we could set sites to "cast spells". You create a ritual spell (or pick an existing spell), and assign the spell ID and a magic-path to a site. Anyone walking into the site can then cast that spell every turn. I've always assumed that this was how scrying and summoning sites worked internally.

Now, if we *really* wanted to go nuts, instead of just having units, the pools could have *spell IDs*, and each of these subsidiary spells would go off if it's number came up. Combined with the ability to make sites cast spells, this would let us make our own variants on the Void Gate with different pools of monsters and a chance of being eaten by crazy.

As an alternative, if we ever get the ability to make our own events, a pool with event IDs (combined with the site modding) would work just as well.

[HoneyBadger]

DrPraetorious, I have to disagree that an aging system such as I have proposed would disenfranchise humans. Humans age quickly, it's true, but they also breed quickly, learn quickly, and in their relatively(and relative to a dragon perhaps, but not relative to almost every other animal on earth) "short" lifespans (approaching 75 years life expectancy, up from around 55 at the turn of the century, and maybe 25 in Dom 3), are able to increase in skills, knowledge, and power quite efficiently, and to pass those things on to their children, so that those children might live longer and better lives. If they weren't able to adapt and grow over time, then yes, the other races eventually would overrun them. But that's not what happened on Planet Earth, and a clever player backed up with good balancing shouldn't let it happen in a game, providing his or her opponent isn't more clever still. And noone who was unable to protect and nurture his or her growing units over time should be picking such a long-lived race to play.

Very large games with very large maps might last a very long time. I've seen people talking about games already lasting 1000 turns. That's over 80 game years already, and Dom 3 hasn't been out for 2 whole months. Rather than a gigantic, epic game becoming boring over time, I'd like to know that I have the opportunity to play a game which will still be interesting a year or even 10 years from now, without creating a new game with a new nation every time I want to see something different. I'm just asking for a relatively simple solution (programming wise) which might possibly require the addition of several hundred new creatures, but has that ever been a bad thing? Certainly not for the Dominions franchise. And while it would require a lot of work indeed, I'm not asking that the burden be put on the designers, or anyone, for that matter. If you didn't want to put that work in, then you certainly wouldn't have to. I'm just asking for the option, the choice to use or not to use a function which can just as easily sit there and gather dust, or that could, with a great deal of time and effort, transform a game as we currently play it into something a lot more dynamic. And it would make the aging system (which I personally think is a wonderful idea, as is, but which I read a lot of gripes about) a lot more fun.

By the way, thank you for pointing out the .dm files available here. I really just needed a point to start off from, since I've badly misplaced my manual, and I can't get a mod to work just from reading the mod doc.

[B0rsuk]

I can't find a place to download the modding manual, and I'm still waiting for my copy, but

I'd love do see some unit orders restricted to terrain, for example

#restrictedtoforests
I have several ideas for my pseudo-slavic nation mod, and they would greatly benefit from commanders who can
1) summon allies in forests, swamps or mountains
2) assassinate in forests only
3) seduce in forest and swamp
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OUT OF TOPIC
Units getting stronger with age make sense only for units who _keep_growing_, and it's already the case (but not a game mechanic) for atlantians. Compare ages of atlantian spearmen, shambler, coral queen, basalt king....

In other cases, creatures should indeed get worse with age, especially old age. See Longdead, Master Lich...