MOD Tools: What will we be able to do?

[omegamann]

OK after looking into the mod info threads, and looking into the files themselfs I have one burning question concerning operations that id like armagan to answer.
In the Rome mod we want to enable the player to make real conquests, meaning he should be able to 'attack','besiege' and 'conquer'.
Therefore I need to know if it is possible to change the faction a city belongs to via an operation, that would be performed when the player completes a specific quest.
This operation could also be triggered by AI partys so even in the default game could be enhanced by vaegirs and swadians actually trying to conquer each others citys.

 

[Effidian]

That isn't possible at the moment.

If the ability is not added, you could accomplish it by having 2 of each city. Then when it is conquered you hide one city and show another with the player's faction.

 

[Ancientwanker]

Yeah, there are probably work arounds to simulate a city being conquered but its not as easy as just changing its faction flag as far as I can see.

I think you could have a trigger that searches for a siege train around a city then sets a variable to 1. Then another trigger that counts off x amount of time after that 1 is set or something. Eventually if the siege train isnt removed you set another variable to 1 which changes all the conversation of people in the city (they all check for it when you talk to them). Some variation on that would probably work without changing the faction of the city.

I think there is a code to change a units faction id.. Thats part of the recruit a hero stuff. But the tavernkeepers ability to recruit soldiers for you is tied to his npc flags i think. Anyway, if you change an npcs faction flag, it wont change the units he provides on the recruit screen.

So you may need to have two seperate tavernkeepers and swap them out as the ownership of the city is changed. Or you could just not use the recruitment screen and just add troops via dialogue options. Thats what I did to add bandit recruitment to the barons keep. The dialogue would respond to your "city captured" flag so you could easily switch the available units.

It will probably be obvious once more documentation comes out but thats a current way to do it.

 

[omegamann]

Thnaks for the tips, I had similar ideas already.
Actually the idea of having two citys do appeal to me as I also wanted to have different NPCs in the city according to who owns it.
But is it possible to show/hide citys on the worldmap, dynamicaly?

The ideas about conquest i had are along the lines
for players:
move to enemy city x and talk to count, in his dialoge you can declare that you are besiegung him, which creates a specific quest, and spawns a 'city_defense' party, which attacks the player, and the player has to defeat it to complete the quest (so no siege here - though a quest having the player defend a siege train would also be nice) after fullfilling the quest, the citys get exchanged.

for the AI:
every x units of time a city spawns a siege_train party that moves towards the nearest enemy city (or randomised) while in the defending city a 'city_defense' party is created patroling the area around the city or directly attacks the siege_train party. If the siege_train party reaches his destination city, the city is swaped

just some rough ideas, but this coudl bring a little more dynamic into the AIs movements on the battlemap.

 

[Kestenvarn]

Will it be possible for certain dialogue/town/battle screen options to appear only if a certain condition is in place? For example...

• ~ A dialogue option to attack a group of peasants that only appears if you have positive faction with bandits.
  ~ An option for a town that allows you to enter an area normally hidden as long as you have a positive reputation with them?
  ~ Those merchant quests that require a certain number of troops to either be hidden or not selectable if you don't have enough?
  ~ An ambush option that appears on the battle screen if you encounter an enemy group that is fleeing from something? (Would work like fighting with the skill Tactics, but only for one round and with a large bonus.)

 

[n00854180t]

Will it be possible for certain dialogue/town/battle screen options to appear only if a certain condition is in place? For example...

• ~ A dialogue option to attack a group of peasants that only appears if you have positive faction with bandits.

• Yes, can do this already.
  

  ~ An option for a town that allows you to enter an area normally hidden as long as you have a positive reputation with them?

  Not currently AFAIK. I think Armagan would have to add something for this.
  

  ~ Those merchant quests that require a certain number of troops to either be hidden or not selectable if you don't have enough?

  I think this can be done now, but I could be wrong.
  

  ~ An ambush option that appears on the battle screen if you encounter an enemy group that is fleeing from something? (Would work like fighting with the skill Tactics, but only for one round and with a large bonus.)

Right now? No, not AFAIK. Armagan would probably have to add something for this to work.

 

[Effidian]

Thnaks for the tips, I had similar ideas already.
Actually the idea of having two citys do appeal to me as I also wanted to have different NPCs in the city according to who owns it.
But is it possible to show/hide citys on the worldmap, dynamicaly?

unhide town = 10105 town_id 0
hide town = 10106 town_id 0

~ An option for a town that allows you to enter an area normally hidden as long as you have a positive reputation with them?

Is the town hidden, or you go some place hidden in the town? For town hiding, see the above. To go someplace hidden, you might be able to do so using:

jump_to_site = 11010 site_id 0

This is what is used when you talk to the trainer and go to train.

I'm going to try to update the operations.txt thread with all this stuff today. It is all incorporated in the latest editor, but it will still be nice to have it in the op thread.

 

[n00854180t]

Ooo nice. Didn't know those were in there.

 

[Orion]

well... as for adding things, like new units, weapons, etc... that's pretty easy right now. if you aren't adding new models that is... if you are, go ask n008 about that, i dunno

basicaly to add an item, like.. a new horse. Go in to item_kinds1.txt and find the Courser line. it would say courser courser and then a bunch of numbers. You copy this line, and then past it to the bottom. Go to top of the list of items, and thereis a 3 digit number. Add 1 to that digit. (Like if it was 217, make it 21 Then, go download the unofficial editor if you have not done so, load your files in to it, and then find the new Corser listed at the bottom of the Items list. Change around the stats of it, etc. and you now have a brand new item.

Changing the name of an item is easy, too. Just go in to item_kinds1.txt, find the name of the item you wish to change, and change the FIRST word to what you want. If you want to name the Great Axe something else, highlight "great_axe" and change it to whatever you want, for example:

I went in to my item_kinds1.txt file to change the name of the Great Axe, because I thought it looked more like a Bearded Axe. To do this, I scrolled around in the file until I found the Great Axe line, which looks like this ---

great_axe great_ax 543170578 9223635919670608096 4109 56304336896 22074884136 2580

You see how it says great_axe great_ax? To change the name of the item inside the game, you must change the first part of that to what you want it to appear in game. If you wanted to rename Great Axe to Bearded Axe, highlight the

"great_axe"

part and type in

"bearded_axe"

you would end up with this ---

bearded_axe great_ax 543170578 9223635919670608096 4109 56304336896 22074884136 2580

in the game, when looking at the item, it's name would then appear to be Great Axe.

When making a new item, it is best to change the name from what you copied to what you want it to be named. You can create your own items this way, but you must use existing models from the game to do it, unless you can add models your self.

In order to add models, talk to ---

n008541807. (noob saibot. HAH! Mortal Kombat owns )

 

[Effidian]

Actually, the editor now supports renaming and adding.

 

[Orion]

EDIT: This post changed because I got my item creation tutorial stickied

 

[Kestenvarn]

Is the town hidden, or you go some place hidden in the town?

Sorta like:

• You have entered the Vaegir town of Khudan.
  
  Go to the Count's castle.
  Visit the Barracks. <-- Only appears on list if you have positive faction.
  Visit the tavern.
  Visit the...

This kinda thing could be used for the bandit keep - non-bandits will only be able to check out the one room, but bandits will be able to check out the entire fortress.

This could also be used to close off a town if you have a negative rep with them - a known outlaw not being able to enter the castle, a Vaegir not allowed to rest in a Swadian tavern, etc.

 

[Effidian]

I don't think modifying that menu on the fly is supported. You'd have to setup a NPC in town that would "direct" you to certain locations.

Post a suggestion on the suggestion forum though. Maybe armagan can put that in.

 

[n00854180t]

For example you won't be able to add new skills or change the way skills work, and you won't be able to change combat controls or animations.

I'm really wondering why it won't be possible to add animations.

 

[Kestenvarn]

Breakdancing on horseback?

 

[ShadowofDeath92]

(bump)

 

[ShadowofDeath92]

COME ON ILL DIE
IVE BEEN HOLDING MY BREATH SINCE THE 1st PLEASE HURRY (gasp) (hand reach) (choke)

 

[Effidian]

Are you waiting on a question or on the tools?

 

[ShadowofDeath92]

tools this is me holding my breath

 

[ShadowofDeath92]

(bump again)