Mod idea and a request

[SlipperyJim]

Okay, so I've been hacking around with some of my favorite mods to learn the ropes, and I think I have an idea for a mod. My concept is "Crystal Power!"

It's sort of a combination of New-Age style crystal magic with various underground fantasy themes (especially Discworld dwarves). Crystal healers and various types of crystal mages would be the majority of the commanders. Most of the troops would be regular human infantry (with darkvision), but there would also be a few elite troops with some bizarre crystal-powered weapons. Maybe even crystal cyborgs? Then I'll add a handful of nation-specific spells -- mainly in the Construction school -- to create various crystal-powered constructs.

I'm thinking Middle Age, simply because that era doesn't seem to get quite as much love from modders. If I like it -- and I can actually get it done -- then I will be sorely tempted to make some EA and LA variants. But first, I need to get a mod done.

Which brings me to a couple of questions for our experienced modders in the house:

• Is there a comprehensive list of modding commands available anywhere? I have the PDF that came with the game, and I also have Edi's excellent DB (thanks for that!), but I think I'm probably missing something. Is there a complete modding reference anywhere?
• Is there a mod tutorial anywhere? I'm learning a lot from ripping apart Sombre's and Amos's mods. (Thanks, guys!) Should I just keep doing that, or is there an actual tutorial that someone has made? I'm especially clueless about spell modding....

Thoughts? Anyone? Bueller...?

[Endoperez]

There are only few commands that aren't in the pdf, and they are quite minor. I think #clearspec (for clearing special abilities) and #clearmagic are the only ones, but there could be few others as well.

[SlipperyJim]

Endo, thanks for the response.

Indeed, #clearspec and #clearmagic are in the manual. I've become very familiar with that manual over the past few days....

I'm actually done with all of my recruitable troops, most of my recruitable commanders, and a custom pretender. I still want to whip up a buncha summons and a few new spells.

Frankly, the spell modding is utterly inscrutable to me. I'm hoping that I can gain some clarity when it's time to actually start that phase of the mod.

Oh, and there are still many sprites to be drawn. My art skills are not the best, but I'm going to give it my best shot. I'm sure I won't be up to some of our other modders' standards, but I'm hoping to make something work.

[Edi]

SlipperyJim said:
Frankly, the spell modding is utterly inscrutable to me. I'm hoping that I can gain some clarity when it's time to actually start that phase of the mod.

Where spell modding is concerned, you're not the only one who's stunned by the power of the runes. I'm not going near that subject with a ten foot pole, it makes my head explode.

DrPraetorious is the preeminent spell modding expert, so if you run up against a seemingly insurmountable problem with the spells, you should ask him for help. He's also made a DB type list of all the various stuff related to spell modding which lets you see a lot of the stuff that is talked about in the modding manual. So that's bound to be useful. It requires some puzzling out if you want to tinker with stuff, but without it, one might as well be shooting in the dark.

[Panpiper]

SlipperyJim said:
Frankly, the spell modding is utterly inscrutable to me. I'm hoping that I can gain some clarity when it's time to actually start that phase of the mod.

I also find the spell modding to be vexing. That said, despite my continued bewilderment, I have managed to hack a rather enormous number of spells into the mod I am working on myself. So don't worry too much about your confusion. It may never completely go away, but you can do the work despite it.

A trick; 'steal' other people's spell mods and hack them into whatever semblance you want them for your mod.

Some notes I made for myself to help me understand some of the entries:

#newspell
#name "Template"
#descr "Description."
#restricted 75
#school 1 -- Conjuration, Alteration, etc.
#researchlevel 0 -- Level of research required to learn this spell.
#path 0 4 -- The magic path for casting, IE: fire, water, etc.
#pathlevel 0 3 -- Level of the caster required for casting.
#fatiguecost 1000 -- Every 100 fatigue costs a gem.
#effect 10039 -- What the spell does, 10000 range are ritual spells.
#nreff 1 -- Number of units summoned for summoning spells.
#end

[SlipperyJim]

Thanks for all of the good feedback about spell modding. I just finished my last recruitable commander, so I'll be starting spells very soon.

Another question: Is there a modding command which will cause a critter to reduce dominion? Following Pratchett's example, my dwarves are not terribly religious, so it would be fitting for them to reduce the dominion of whatever province they happen to be inhabiting....

Aha! Found DrP's spell list:
http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...195#Post555265
That will certainly be handy.

[Panpiper]

SlipperyJim said:
Another question: Is there a modding command which will cause a critter to reduce dominion?

If such a command does exist, I do not know of it. That is not to say it doesn't. I am just confessing my ignorance because we seem to be online at the same time. Er... ;-)

[SlipperyJim]

Panpiper said:

If such a command does exist, I do not know of it. That is not to say it doesn't. I am just confessing my ignorance because we seem to be online at the same time. Er... ;-)

I wonder what #spreaddom -1 would do? It's worth a shot, right?

[Panpiper]

SlipperyJim said:
I wonder what #spreaddom -1 would do? It's worth a shot, right?

Definitely worth a shot. That's exactly the sort of trick that 'might' work. You might find however that if that is on a 'troop', it might be way too effective. Try it, but if it works, I expect you'll want it just on certain commanders.

[Burnsaber]

It also might be very possible that #spreaddom doesn't work for troops, many, many commands don't work on troops (auto-summons for example) althought they "could" do so.
Why not take the easy way and make all recruitable dwarf commanders heretics?

Spell-modding isn't that tough exactly, as long as you don't try to create something "new". Just stick to making summoning, combat evocations and buff spells if you want to retain your sanity.