[Modding] Creating my first scenario

[Cablenexus]

To show you where I am now:

(I'm still not happy with my hills and mountains).

[Cablenexus]

Or grey mountains.

[Cablenexus]

Oohhhh I really like this screenshot!

[pavelk]

If you look good at the different height the units standing on (see also the blacksmith in a valley) you can do spectactular things with the heightmaps and generation settings.

True, I even thing that the usage of heightmap in game is a bit undervalued but there is no time to play with that. On the other hand, we have in plan to play with the heightmap much more for the other DLCs.


I think that this hill's texture is much better than the previous version!


Honestly it is very hard to say for me which is better:)


I dont like that.

Oohhhh

What do you mean by that?

[Cablenexus]

The "ooohhh" was like I saw that screenshot with the ambience and thought really nice!

"Honestly it is very hard to say for me which is better:)"

I stated already there is not such thing as better. It's different and I had some arguments to use a different approach based on forum feedback and my own experience. (most important getting rid of terrain that looks to much the same and repetitivenes in trees etc).
At least I don't pretend to do it better, it's just an experiment and ment as a help for you to pick anything out from it what you want, compare, let others compare and eventually made minor changes yourself with your artist or yourself or use everything I made to your liking.

I'm also a little biased myself since I made them how I like them ;-D (should be bad if I thought my screenshots are worse lol).

The screenshots doesn't show a really good comparisson since there is a lot more involved then only a texture change.
(heightmap, amount of trees/fooliage, colored overlay colors used etc etc).
It's better to see it ingame.

[pavelk]

I stated already there is not such thing as better. It's different and I had some arguments to use a different approach based on forum feedback and my own experience. (most important getting rid of terrain that looks to much the same and repetitivenes in trees etc).

We will let the testers community decide and change it accordingly. It is in your hands!:)

[Cablenexus]

I stated already there is not such thing as better. It's different and I had some arguments to use a different approach based on forum feedback and my own experience. (most important getting rid of terrain that looks to much the same and repetitivenes in trees etc).

We will let the testers community decide and change it accordingly. It is in your hands!:)

That you let us discuss, allow us even alter, edit everything ingame, in beta and so short for release is really amazing.

Let's put everything in Garry's hands!

[Cablenexus]

More important then everything else. Did you noticed the issues are gone. No error reports anymore since...

Even maps full trees no crash, grid toggle no crash, adding hundreds units and ambient models to the scenes (and extra trees) at once no crash.

The fact that I experiment with all those graphic settings means the engine is tested a good hundred hours in editor mode without issues.
I think that's all exceptional good. (Even in civ I never achieved that).

[pavelk]

The fact that I experiment with all those graphic settings means the engine is tested a good hundred hours in editor mode without issues.

Agreed. I am really happy about that.

On the other hand, it works on your machine, but the number of PC configurations is endless. We are still tweaking issues on Harry's machine for example:)

[Cablenexus]

- Playing around with the different terrain settings I wonder if there are certain restrictions for any kind of indexes you change in the editor.

For example changing the change of bitmap x on terrain x to 60% makes the app not load after 0% while setting it to 40% does (swamp in this case).

I wonder if there something to say about this in general.

[pavelk]

- Playing around with the different terrain settings I wonder if there are certain restrictions for any kind of indexes you change in the editor.

For example changing the change of bitmap x on terrain x to 60% makes the app not load after 0% while setting it to 40% does (swamp in this case).

I wonder if there something to say about this in general.

By changing the terrain you mean changing the size of the bitmap.dds file?

[Cablenexus]

- Playing around with the different terrain settings I wonder if there are certain restrictions for any kind of indexes you change in the editor.

For example changing the change of bitmap x on terrain x to 60% makes the app not load after 0% while setting it to 40% does (swamp in this case).

I wonder if there something to say about this in general.

By changing the terrain you mean changing the size of the bitmap.dds file?

No, changing the percentage here:

<StaticGeometryPatternMemento id="3" bitmapIndex="138" percentageProbability="40" minNumberOfModels="30" maxNumberOfModels="55" />

[pavelk]

<StaticGeometryPatternMemento id="3" bitmapIndex="138" percentageProbability="40" minNumberOfModels="30" maxNumberOfModels="55" />

This is a percentage probability of this pattern being selected out of all the potential patterns in the list

[Cablenexus]

- Some progress today.

- Have mountains and hills now, with a hill patern that looks like the mountain pattern but with a different texture and the stats of a hill. (screen 3)

- Recolored the dirt roads so they are visible on ALL terrain. (they were barely visible on grass). (screen 1)

- Implemented my first script that Pavel made for me. But I succeeded in getting it to work in the game. I'm happy with it. It's my first.
Script give an amount of resources to a certain player. (screen 2 and 4)

I can give Romans now yearly 25 wood and 25 stone (maintnance of their forts etc) from the Empire for example or from a trade partner.

Minor:

- Removed the test units from Roman Empire (I used Hoplites there, garry noticed it thank you) and replaced them by militia.

- Made the country borders better visible also at lower saturation you can distinct them now.

- Borders are fully visible at coasts now.

- Removed empty spaces from fort "walls".

- Added a very slight transparancy to city lables without making the text hard to read.

- Found out why my trees in general distinct better from each other and the terrain. It's because I made the shadows more black and made only one of the trees darker.

[Cablenexus]

Not much time left for modding the rest of the night. I was pretty much hooked to the scenario myself while playtesting.

Rome is so nice to play now with well protected forts. A small war early ingame in the South where the Usitepes and Tencteri try to attack my forts.
I have the script working that it gives Rome 25 stones and 25 wood every turn from the Empire. That is almost the cost to maintance all forts (the cost are 28, 28 or so) so you have only a slighty drop in resources.

Those resources you really need to repair damage in cities and forts at the frontline of this small war.

There are many ways how to prevent the attack turn into a catastrophe. There is a real sneaky way to take your legions by boat to the other site of your forts and attack the Tencteri in the back.
You might try to eleminate them from the map if this action is succesfull.
But you need to be careful, there is only a few places where the legion can set foot on land, most of it is forest near the coast and impossible to reach for them.

Also you really need your towers, like in history the Usitepes were famous for their strong cavalery and they will absolutely use this to their advance.

Well after a few turns, if you are succesful in your actions, the Tencteri will beg you for peace anyway.

It is said that the Roman Empire eliminated them. What will you do?

[Cablenexus]

- Brightened the Holland flag used as loading bar so text is (better) visible on top of it.

- Changed the script to Romans get every year 25 wood and 25 stone.

- Made an extra report memento to inform the player. How can I show this is turn 2 instead of turn 1 or in multiple turns?

[pavelk]

Made an extra report memento to inform the player. How can I show this is turn 2 instead of turn 1 or in multiple turns?

To show it on multiple occasions (multiple turns) you would need to add a script to generate it.
There is currently no way to show it at specific turn if you dont use scripts.

I would recommend to add this information to the introduction text for Roman Empire instead of having another window. I would also say that having this window shown every turn might get a bit annoying?

[Cablenexus]

Made an extra report memento to inform the player. How can I show this is turn 2 instead of turn 1 or in multiple turns?

To show it on multiple occasions (multiple turns) you would need to add a script to generate it.
There is currently no way to show it at specific turn if you dont use scripts.

I would recommend to add this information to the introduction text for Roman Empire instead of having another window. I would also say that having this window shown every turn might get a bit annoying?

Actually I want the resources to be displayed in the strategic map in the text on the right side of the map.

The reason I show it seperate is that I expect that some people skip the intro text at all.
The two line text with info should grab their attention?

[pavelk]

Actually I want the resources to be displayed in the strategic map in the text on the right side of the map.

The reason I show it seperate is that I expect that some people skip the intro text at all.
The two line text with info should grab their attention?

Unfortunately this is currently not possible and I dont see a timeframe for that in the next weeks.

[Cablenexus]

Since everyone will put some attention in new tribe descriptions when modding, I feel a bit said that you can only see your own tribe flavor text through the scenario.
I wish there was a way ingame to see the flavor text for other tribes when they are played by AI or other player.
(for example if you meet them or via an extra button/feature somewhere).