[Modding] Creating my first scenario

[Cablenexus]

Another great day of behind the scene testing, I give more prio to testing atm then to work on my MOD.

I think Pavel did a really GREAT job with implementing Steam functionallity. I have a lot of games and this one have the right way of subscribing ingame, publishing and subscribing in Steam all in one package.
There are major companies out here (even Slitherine) who don't do this right and this single dev without any Steam experience does it good. My compliments.

For my mod. It's uploaded on Steam so you can try it. It works and it's easy to download and play.

There is a minor issue atm with the heightmap images doesn't show correctly in the MOD, but this is an issue that will be fixed in a new version of Aggressors, since I can't do anything about it myself.
(there is a way to play with the right heightmap, but it's like a cheat so PM me if you want to know how).

Otherwise you can play and test the mod, but will have ugly hills and mountains since they did not use the correct heightmap image.

Thank you all for testing and playing. If all the Steam things and last issues with the game are fixed in the version I play now, I will continue the balancing ASAP.

[gwgardner]

I see Holland 90 and 90a. I suppose 90 is leftover from my old install? 90A from Steam?

[Cablenexus]

I see Holland 90 and 90a. I suppose 90 is leftover from my old install? 90A from Steam?

I think the a version is a leftover. The correct scenario is Hollandv0.90

[Cablenexus]

Holland v0.91 upcoming changes:

v0.91.jpg (236.44 KiB) Viewed 3612 times

[gwgardner]

I wanted to ask you about the cowhides. In my game that went to AD 9, as Rome, I was accruing cowhides from the beginning but saw no real use for them other than trade.

You mentioned in the notes about cowhides that they were a form of tribute to the Romans from the tribes, in exchange for security. Is that modeled in the scenario, or simply for historical context?

[Cablenexus]

I wanted to ask you about the cowhides. In my game that went to AD 9, as Rome, I was accruing cowhides from the beginning but saw no real use for them other than trade.

You mentioned in the notes about cowhides that they were a form of tribute to the Romans from the tribes, in exchange for security. Is that modeled in the scenario, or simply for historical context?

First about the cowhides. If playing as Rome you probably don't have the need to build settlers, but the settlers cost 10 cowhide as well in the scenario. For everyone atm. Also the cowhide is bound to birthrate.

There is only one test objective in the scenario yet. You can only trigger it when playing as Frisii. They will get a military unit at certain point and a lump sum of gold if they trade enough cowhide with Romans as a form of tribute.
I have to think yet of the effect for the Roman Empire to have so much cowhide from the trade. Maybe I will use them for saddles for horses as well or maybe even a new unit.

There is even a cowhide farm (or as you mentioned Tannery) and functional as well. I simply don't have the 3D model yet. I want to have a 3D model with some cow skins hanging on a rack.
This cowhide farm can maybe produce gold or another luxury resource. Or generate cowhide, so the Frisii will have to build them.

Both the cowhide farm and objective are fully functional already.

I probably will rewrite the mechanism for the Roman wood and stone gains from the Empire to maintain the forts since there is a new mod functionallity for this "move event".
It should be nice if I can manage to get the subsidiary displayed in text in the strategic resource map.

There are some features I still want to implement. I really like somehow to get the major river names displayed on the map.
And I want to be able to build a bridge over the real water tiles for the Roman Empire. Both are just future plans.

[Cablenexus]

@Pavel,

I knw it's very close to release, but I have a request and I hope it's easy to implement if you want to.

It's about the UI part where the game year is displayed. As soon as you make some text in this field, the bar is simply to small to show all text.
For example Winter 59 BC, you only see Winter 5.....

I want to ask if you can make the fontsize here to be resized (like in a lot of other UI elements) depending on the amount of text showned:

year.jpg (9.36 KiB) Viewed 3594 times

[pavelk]

I changed it to be sizeable however this is not how it should be done. It should be done the same way as an example I sent you. Instaed of January 1545 it was Jan 1545, etc. You should maybe use Q1 51AD or something like that. It is up to you if you want to keep there "Spring" and "Winter" but it doesnt look that good.

[Cablenexus]

I changed it to be sizeable however this is not how it should be done. It should be done the same way as an example I sent you. Instaed of January 1545 it was Jan 1545, etc. You should maybe use Q1 51AD or something like that. It is up to you if you want to keep there "Spring" and "Winter" but it doesnt look that good.

Yes, I understand, I should use the shortcut properly. Q1, 2 etc is a good idea, I only tried Win, Spr, Sum, Aut and this wasn't looking that good as well.

[gwgardner]

Q1, Q2?? that would look weird on an ancient history game.

Nothing wrongwith abbreviating the season names as you suggested.

[pavelk]

Q1, Q2?? that would look weird on an ancient history game.

Nothing wrongwith abbreviating the season names as you suggested.

I agree that Q1 might look a bit weird. I would probably go for Win 56AD, Spr 56AD, Sum 56AD, Aut 56AD a...

[Chris36]

This is just an amazing thread and great work. Thanks alot for all the infos you shared here.

[pavelk]

This is just an amazing thread and great work. Thanks alot for all the infos you shared here.

So you have started modding?:)

[Chris36]

Not yet but right on the way to get more into it and working out some ideas regarding scenarios and some economical modifications.
Theres one thing i couldnt clarify myself searching some files: Is it somehow possible to increase the max tiles in the editor itsself or somewhere in the scenario file after saving it from the editor? Is the limit a gap where performance issues may occur?

[pavelk]

Is it somehow possible to increase the max tiles in the editor itsself or somewhere in the scenario file after saving it from the editor? Is the limit a gap where performance issues may occur?

No, it is currently not possible despite the fact that if you change it in the scenario.ag file yourself, it will work. Basically 80x80 is already absolute extreme. Cablenexus would probably agree here (he created 89x89).

The game is able to handle probably around 100x100 but I really dont want to push its limits because on less powerful PCs, it would be not possible to play.

[Cablenexus]

This is just an amazing thread and great work. Thanks alot for all the infos you shared here.

Hi Chris36,

Welcome to the beta and nice to see another player that want to start modding. Feel free to use this thread (or create your own) to discuss modding and share details or ask questions.

[Cablenexus]

Not yet but right on the way to get more into it and working out some ideas regarding scenarios and some economical modifications.
Theres one thing i couldnt clarify myself searching some files: Is it somehow possible to increase the max tiles in the editor itsself or somewhere in the scenario file after saving it from the editor? Is the limit a gap where performance issues may occur?

89 x 89 is very big in this game. That's true. But I personally prefer we get this limit extended in the future. I know there are people who even want to play on 200 x 200 maps and even more.
(Gary Grisby games, old John Tiller games etc etc).

Btw if you want the Holland mod to use as an example (you can compare the holland mod and scenario mod easy with a tool like Total Commander) you can see what is actually changed in the mod.
Send me a PM here via the forum (or add me on Steam Cablenexus) and I can send you the files.

[Cablenexus]

Huray! Another milestone reached that opens many ways to modders in the future.

I managed to create (in Blender or Unrealed both free) the first modded 3D model (except for the cows from Pavel of course) and export them to a 3D model Aggressors can read and use ingame.

The cowhidefarm is born. (This model is just a first experiment to see if the mechanism works, tomorrow I make a real model with nice textures).

I will also write a step by step guide to implement and export your own 3D models to the game.

This is what I want the cowhide farm to look like:

cowrack.png (43.39 KiB) Viewed 3540 times

And this is what I have so far ingame (with working "resource mining" mechanism):

cowhidefarm.jpg (659.1 KiB) Viewed 3540 times

[Cablenexus]

And also the first working new Terrain Extension (like farms and fields) in the form of Fishnets and Basins.

fish.jpg (509.07 KiB) Viewed 3535 times

[Cablenexus]

I will also add this guide to the Steam Workshop
Part 2, the actualling modelling and exporting is in the making.

Static 3D unit guide – Part 1 Setup

This guide is a step by step tutorial about importing and exporting static 3D models.

There are many 3D models in the game. Most of them are labeled as units.
The mechanism of all those 3D models in game depends on their function but to get a 3D model in game you first have to design the 3D model (or use free assets elsewhere) in Blender or any other 3D software available. (I prefer Unreal engine myself).

This guide will show the steps to take with Blender. (If you want a 3D model from any other modelling software simply export the file as a .fbx file and import it in Blender).

For this guide I use Blender 2.79 (it's available in the beta tab if you download the app on Steam).

1. Download and install Blender (currently known working: 2.79) via Steam.

2. Make sure you have python 3.x (https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-370/)

3. Download ogre command line tools and put them in:
c:\OgreCommandLineTools\ (you don't need to install them, just move the files)

Get them from the "see also" box on this page:
http://wiki.ogre3d.org/OgreXmlConverter

Direct link:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ogre/f ... p/download

4. Download blender2ogre:

https://github.com/Revolutionary-Games/blender2ogre
Unzip the folder and manually copy the io_ogre folder to your Blender addon directory:

3D001.jpg (63.93 KiB) Viewed 3520 times

c:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Blender\2.79\scripts\addons

Now go into the newly created io_ogre folder and find the “config.py” file and right click (Edit with IDLE) to open it in Python and make sure the directory to the previously installed Command Tools is the same as on your PC:

3D002.jpg (229.65 KiB) Viewed 3520 times

DO ALL THIS BEFORE YOU START BLENDER!

5. Open blender, there is a button in the top right (it can be partially off screen for lower resolutions) which said "ogre gui", and click that. (It creates an extra menu in the MATERIAL tab).

6. The exporter can't deal with some things that blender can do so make sure that you have done the following:
- Armatures may not be rotated and must be at 0,0,0
- The mesh may not be scaled. Make sure when you are in OBJECT mode everything is set to default (scaling to 1 etc) and only EDIT your model in EDIT mode to have the correct SCALE in Aggressors.
- Animations must be named in the NLA editor otherwise only one is exported and it is named "my_animation" which isn't correct.

7. If you don't see the Ogre UI make sure you activated the add on in Blender:

3D003.jpg (70.16 KiB) Viewed 3520 times