Does a prophet shape mod command exist? +some help plz

[Tifone]

The question says everything
I remember some time ago there was a request for this command (make a prophetized unit become another unit) but I don't really remember if it was included and which command is.

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Also I'm a total n00b who can barely program his videorecorder and would really like to modify a bit for himself Yomi so is there a VERY basic guide to learn modding of dom3 around? (Also, how do you modify a TGA file?)

[Edi]

There is no prophetshape command. It's in the wishlist IIRC, but does not exist currently.

Modifying a targa file, you need an image processing program like GIMP or similar. See the mapmaking.pdf and the section on the image file (chapter 6, I think).

A basic guide to modding? Sorry, no such shortcuts. Read the modding.pdf in the docs folder. It has basic weapon modding, basic monster modding and armor modding as well as the nation modding and other sections. Read it, then look at some of the existing mods to see how they have been implemented in practice and then try to make your own simple mod.

Essentially, you have to do some work yourself to learn this stuff to be able to do it, but with the new manuals, it should not be difficult.

[Endoperez]

I suggest opening a simple mod up and looking at it while you're reading the modding.pdf. Unfortunately, there aren't that many "simple" mods, most add a nation, units into it and possibly even few national spells.

Weapon/armor modding is simple, but doesn't do anything before you add them to units via unit modding.

Unit modding basics aren't too complicated, but there's a huge list of available powers and abilities, and some of the commands are more complicated.

Nation modding is very simple, but you need unit modding to achieve anything.

[Tifone]

Isn't i.e. there a way to simply change the cost of a unit? Or his attack value? Just to begin

[Illuminated One]

Yes.

Just create a file in the mods folder, name it whateveryoulike.dm and edit it like a text file.

I'll just copy my test mod in here which I use to test the thugs I want to make. It's very simple and adds three spells, you can probably guess what they do.

#modname "Testmod"
#description "Mod for testing."
#version 1.0


#newspell "Test - Wish"
#copyspell "Wish"
#researchlevel 0
#pathlevel 0 1
#fatiguecost 10
#end

#newspell "Test - GOR"
#copyspell "Gift of Reason"
#researchlevel 0
#pathlevel 0 1
#fatiguecost 10
#end

#newspell "Test - Teleport"
#copyspell "Teleport"
#researchlevel 0
#pathlevel 0 1
#fatiguecost 10
#end

The bold part (mod info in the manual) must be always at the start of the file, so the mod is recognized.
After that you can get on with the actual modding. To change the attack of say a Golem to 18 and defense to 3 you'd do the following mod.

#modname "Golem mod"
#description "Mod for golems."
#version 1.0

#selectmonster "Golem"
#att 18
#def 3
#end

edit: Sometimes you must watch out as the units have the same names.
For example the indy druid and the marverni druid. You must use the unit id instead of the name then.

[rdonj]

Yes.

#selectmonster nameornumber
#gcost xxx
#end

or

#selectmonster nameornumber
#att xxx
#end

or

#selectmonster nameornumber
#gcost xxx
#att xxx
#end

Those are all the commands you need to do that much, though there's a little more that you have to do to make a complete working mod. The manual says what that is under Mod Info on the first page.

Edit: too slow!

[Endoperez]

Illuminated One, my own test mod is pretty much identical. The only differences are that I don't usually have Teleport, and I have only one line in the beginning:

#modname "test"

This as the first line is enough to get a .dm file recognized as a mod.

Tifone, if you haven't done a .dm file before, you can do it by renaming (if you see the original .txt at the end of the file), or by saving the file as "filename.dm" with the quotemarks.

I also just went through my old projects and was reminded that I did a really simple sprite-editing guide a long time ago. Linky. To get sprites, look for the files EricM extracted. The newest sprites (from the last patch or two) were extracted by someone else, but unfortunately I don't remember who it was.

[Gandalf Parker]

We do have some very simple mods. Some for specific MP games that would only change a spell or two, an item, and maybe lock out a nation. I cant find one now.

We have a BLANK one by Edi (highly recommended for any game if no other mods are used so you can make mid-game changes later to enforce rules) that is just 3 lines long.

Im someone who jumps to the examples before reading the docs. It would have been nice to have had an "examples.dm" with one each of really short examples using some of the clearest commands. Maybe only a 3-5 line entry for changing a spell, making a new spell, changing a monster, making a new monster, changing a nation, making a new nation, etc. Not to teach as much as to make it clear that it wouldnt be hard for the person to do more than the example did.

(yes yes before I get the "go ahead and do it" thing, its on my list. Along with a background screen of the full keypress chart, and a tiny tiny map with an examples.map file along the line I just laid out, a large map image screen with a small map surrounded by the full keypress chart, and a set of starter gods)

[rdonj]

When I finally decide to tackle spell modding, probably what I'm going to do is look at one of sombre's mods, find a similar spell and adapt it to my use :P I don't know, most of the modding seems easy to me but for some reason spell modding is very intimidating.

[Tifone]

Guys, you were great. Thanks a lot - I'll begin from here