[Modding] Creating my first scenario

[pavelk]

The portraits I had to do since those are different nations. I cannot make them in the same art style as the current portraits. But now they don't fit the other artwork ingame like the victory screen etc.

It might be a matter of getting used to it.


Btw. dont forget that the "A" icon will be small in V4 and there is going to be the end turn button.

[Cablenexus]

Yes I will review in V4, was more a joke

[pavelk]

Yes I will review in V4, was more a joke

Well it didnt look bad and it is a great idea to have the "A" icon for mods with a special "taste". But from now on, it will be just a small button :-/

[Cablenexus]

Portrait serie 2: I used your german leader, I like the picture

[Cablenexus]

Portrait series 3. Two more to go. And then I can continue fine tuning the map. Rivers and roads? is what I have to do. Roads I'm not sure yet since the AI build roads in the way I want automatically. But maybe I give some tribes some road advances.

[Cablenexus]

Changed also all backgrounds for series 1 so they match the UI better. (It was too white before).

[Cablenexus]

Last two portraits added. 17 portraits added in total done.

[Cablenexus]

Frisii ingame

[Cablenexus]

Historical named Roman Limes.

[Cablenexus]

And time to eat:

[Cablenexus]

- I can't find the correct parameter to change the tooltip info in the correct name. I changd realname in my save file and in the rome.ag file and also changed everything else I could find with bospran in it into tenctari.
Still it shows bospran in tooltip.

[Cablenexus]

Since I make good progress with the map and the scenario I want to give an insight of the detail that goes in the historical accuracy of the scenario.

Let's take "Texuandri" as an example.

Less is known from the Texuandri. Their name written this way is the correct Roman quotation. It's based on OldGermanic and Gothic language.
We know it's based on Tehswandraz.
We also know that generally used bastard names are used. Taxadria and Toxandria. Their roots lays in the Kelt word Taxus (Latin tree name) which is probably related to the Erubones tribes that lived in this area before.

They probably lived subservient to the Tungri tribe more South.

We also found written text on stone praising the Germanic godess "Sandraudiga".

Armor we found learned us that at some times they served the Roman army.

With all this knowledge and a little creativity we can use all of this to implement it in game somehow. It isn't even that difficult, but imho adds to immersion.

- I named the temple in Texuandri area to the godess Sandraudiga.

- I named one the major settlements Taxus.

- I automatically name newly build warriors and peltas units following my own set of rules. 1). A random Latin word that fits the setting (for example Dura or Activa) 2). I add the symbols I till VI so I have 6 sets of each of them so I don't run out of army names. 3). I named them after a god, fort, temple, stable, river, city or territory.
For the Texuandri that means I have "Pelta's Dura III Taxus' Group" and "Warriors Acuta VI Sandraudiga's Group for example. Let me know what you think.

- The Eburones probably have claims of the land so their standing is more agressive. The Tungri are like a master state for them. They have good standings with Rome.

- They just arrived via territory of Tungri South. They don't have a setup economy and shipyard yet. Their resources, specially wood is almost gone because the just settled down.

Those are all simple additions that can be done directly in the editor without need for scripting or other difficult programming.
It's only the time investement that goes with typing and searching information. Which is fun as well. I play a game, learn editing and learn my own history as well.

[Cablenexus]

And when I'm happy of how the start position, naming, resources, rivers, terrain, map etc for the given tribe is, I tested everything once more in the editor, it's time to add some flavor story text to them.
One example:

[Cablenexus]

- Above text I want to add for all 17 tribes. I would like if someone can proofread this small sets of text since my English isn't correct. Let me know if you want to do this I send you a text file once in the next two weeks.

[pavelk]

- I can't find the correct parameter to change the tooltip info in the correct name. I changd realname in my save file and in the rome.ag file and also changed everything else I could find with bospran in it into tenctari.
Still it shows bospran in tooltip.

It was a bug indeed:) Thank you for reporting it. It will be fixed in V4.

All the rest seems great and your attention to detail is admirable! The map of Roman territory also looks nice, it certainly has a historical feel.

Where are the illustrations from?

[Cablenexus]

- I can't find the correct parameter to change the tooltip info in the correct name. I changd realname in my save file and in the rome.ag file and also changed everything else I could find with bospran in it into tenctari.
Still it shows bospran in tooltip.

It was a bug indeed:) Thank you for reporting it. It will be fixed in V4.

All the rest seems great and your attention to detail is admirable! The map of Roman territory also looks nice, it certainly has a historical feel.

Where are the illustrations from?

Thank you, I see for some of the bars the tooltip is correct. Like the army morale etc.

The illustrations for the portraits are all from different sources (books, miniature boxes, real world life RPG events photo's etc) I edit them all the same way in Paint.net and resized them to make it all a bit consistent.

1). Resize image to fit the circle.
2). Give image some transparancy to get circle background color.
3). Brighten the image and give more contrast.
4). AA edges.
5). Add background layer UI color.
6). Add another background image and give Paint.net Dream filter, transparancy and color tone.

I would love to do my own complete portraits from scratch, but I have to do that after I finish the scenario. I can paint a bit myself, but one portrait will cost a day at least.
I think for the moment it is a good solution?

[pavelk]

I would love to do my own complete portraits from scratch, but I have to do that after I finish the scenario. I can paint a bit myself, but one portrait will cost a day at least.
I think for the moment it is a good solution?

It is more than sufficient for now and once you have all done you can make it perfect. I was just asking because of the license if it is allowed to be used (for non-commercial purpose).

[pavelk]

I hope I will be able to push this into V4. If not, you can still use the previous working approach, I will just need to guide you how exactly to export your mod.

I will not be able to deliver the full-mod prototyping with V4. The development cycle of V4 is near its end (the deadline is tomorrow night) and this change's impact is too big to risk potential bugs in V4. I have a really good approach in mind which would:

• Allow you to create your own mod with only those things in the folder you actually change (so no files duplication). Nothing else has to be copied to your mod folder.
• The approach will automatically detect what files were overwritten and use the overwritten ones. All the rest will be taken from the prototype. In short - if you just want to change the model of one unit type, you put it to your mod's folder and it will be taken care of automatically.
• There will be no need to copy over the whole mod definition (like ancient_rome.ag). You will have your own mod definition with only those parts which you want to overwrite. With this we can guarantee that whatever you don't specify in your mod file will be automatically updated with every mod file update.
• You will be able to create "prototype chain". Just to give you an idea - let's say you create your own mod with cows, new banners, new coat of arms, etc. Another modder will like your mod but he will not like one particular banner you created. He can decide to create his own mod and set his mod's prototype to your mod (which already has a prototype of the official mod). This way he will be able to change this one banner and use everything else from yours (even you update your mod file or we update the official mod file his mod will be updated).

It is not that difficult to implement it but it is time consuming and prone to bugs. I will need to implement it at the beginning of V5 cycle to be sure that all the potential bugs are fixed before release. Sorry about that.

What you can still do is to use the previous approach with the hard links. I will write here the instructions how to create your own mod with cows, etc soon.

[Cablenexus]

I hope I will be able to push this into V4. If not, you can still use the previous working approach, I will just need to guide you how exactly to export your mod.

I will not be able to deliver the full-mod prototyping with V4. The development cycle of V4 is near its end (the deadline is tomorrow night) and this change's impact is too big to risk potential bugs in V4. I have a really good approach in mind which would:

• Allow you to create your own mod with only those things in the folder you actually change (so no files duplication). Nothing else has to be copied to your mod folder.
• The approach will automatically detect what files were overwritten and use the overwritten ones. All the rest will be taken from the prototype. In short - if you just want to change the model of one unit type, you put it to your mod's folder and it will be taken care of automatically.
• There will be no need to copy over the whole mod definition (like ancient_rome.ag). You will have your own mod definition with only those parts which you want to overwrite. With this we can guarantee that whatever you don't specify in your mod file will be automatically updated with every mod file update.
• You will be able to create "prototype chain". Just to give you an idea - let's say you create your own mod with cows, new banners, new coat of arms, etc. Another modder will like your mod but he will not like one particular banner you created. He can decide to create his own mod and set his mod's prototype to your mod (which already has a prototype of the official mod). This way he will be able to change this one banner and use everything else from yours (even you update your mod file or we update the official mod file his mod will be updated).

It is not that difficult to implement it but it is time consuming and prone to bugs. I will need to implement it at the beginning of V5 cycle to be sure that all the potential bugs are fixed before release. Sorry about that.

What you can still do is to use the previous approach with the hard links. I will write here the instructions how to create your own mod with cows, etc soon.

Ok that's really no problem for me. If we can offer at least a test version for some of us without overwriting original files it should be great. I can wait till v5. I have plenty of work to do on the map anyway. I start to finetune starting positions now at the same time I name the new units following my name system.
I find out that playing as the Texuandri can be very difficult. But they are able to play if you follow the description somewhat.
I really want all tribes play different. Some can even have a puzzle solving approach. At start you think, how can I play this tribe, but if you read rthe rules it is possible (selling some forts for example to prevent running out of wood and stones early ingame, making trades, change your diplomatic standings, don't be scared to attack around etc etc.

[Cablenexus]

"Try to play with value aggressiveness in PlayerBasicAIDataMemento. It can be a value between 1-7."

There is also a player ID shown there. Where is it for?