Mods? Maps? Need some help

[lch]

Gandalf Parker said:
On the downside, anytime to subforum anything you do cut down the traffic. Many people who would have clicked on it, wont know that they want to go to the subforum to see it and want to click on it.

I can agree on that. You'll miss accidental clicks by people, or they might skip a click on a thread title that they'd probably find interesting if they don't visit both forums, yes. But I think that being able to quickly find stuff that is really relevant to you without detours like that far outweighs the downsides. And if people really want to just browse around, they'll visit each sub-forum anyway.

I should have probably split this discussion into a separate thread. I didn't want to take over the topic in here.

[MaxWilson]

For what it's worth, I usually just check the main forum, but when I'm in the mood I may check maps/mods. If the subforum were split into two subforums I would probably still check them both.

-Max

[Ballbarian]

Why would you not visit the subforums if they were separate? I don't get it.

I really don't care if they are split or not. I truly have no preference. It is just that when I get into a new game, the absolute last place I start to frequent are the mod forums for that game. There are hundreds of mods for Age of Empires, Kings, and Conquerors, but I have never used a single one. However, I have played with many of the user made random maps and custom AI scripts which had a tendency to be in their own separate forum from the mods. It is just how I function. Usually, by the time I am tired of the base game, I have no interest in trying mods. Dominions is an exception to this rule.

I am just throwing myself out as one example. I certainly don't claim to be typical. As a matter of fact, I pride myself on being an odd duck.

Edit-
Ugh. My apologies to the original poster for helping to drag this thread so far off topic.

[GrudgeBringer]

I opened properties and saw that it said I had some files blocked...

I had the option to unblock files and did that.

I then unzipped/extracted map files into the Dom/3 Map file but they STILL are not in the map directory when I start a new game.

Am I looking in the right place?

[Ballbarian]

GB,
Maybe try something a little different:

1. Create a folder on your desktop. Name it anything you like. I will call it 'New Folder' since that is the default.

2. When you download the zip file containing the map, save it in this folder.

3. Open new folder and you should see your zip file. Right click on it and select "Extract here" from the menu that pops up.

4. Select the ".MAP" file and the ".TGA" file by holding down the control key (CTRL) and clicking on one and then the other. This will highlight both files so that you know you have them both selected.

5. Right click on either of the selected files and select "COPY" from the menu that pops up.

6. Open your dominions3 "Maps" folder. You should see the original dominions3 map files in there. (aran.map, aran.tga, etc.)

7. Right click anywhere in that folder and select "PASTE" from the menu that pops up. You should now see your new map files in the folder.

8. If you had dominions open while you were doing this, close it and restart the game. The maps will not show up until dominions refreshes it's list.

9. With the game reopened, you should now see the new map listed in the selection of maps when you create a new game.

Hope that helps.

[GrudgeBringer]

Wow...that sounds good (and I know how to do that too...lol) Thanks

[GrudgeBringer]

worked like a charm...Thanks a million for the tip.

I have been somewhat confused on the MOD part of this equation.
I keep hearing that you only have to put the mod you want in the Dom/3 Mod file and it will work...no extracting, no messing with it.

But it doesn't work for me. Doo you think that maybe I need to reboot and reset the files (so to speak after putting the mod in there or should I do like I did with maps and open it on desk top in its own folder and then place it ion the MOD section? Thanks

[Ballbarian]

Do the same for the mods as you did for the map.

Once you have the mod files in your dominions3 mod folder, start the game and enable the mod in preferences. When you create a new game, the mod will automagically be enabled whenever you play that game in the future, even if you disabled it for another game.

For example, if you were playing 2 games and game1 was created with mod1 enabled and game2 was created with mod2 enabled, you would not need to mess with the mod preferences again. When you play game1 you would only see the changes caused by mod1. Mod2 would only be seen when you played game2.

(Glad that worked for you! )

[Sombre]

GrudgeBringer said:
I keep hearing that you only have to put the mod you want in the Dom/3 Mod file and it will work...no extracting, no messing with it.

Where do you keep hearing that? I don't think anyone has said that in this thread. It certainly isn't true. You have to extract the necessary files from an archive, usually a zip or rar.

[thejeff]

That's probably because most people don't think of the zip file as the mod. The mod is the dm file contained within the zip, so it is true that you only have to put the mod in the Mod directory.