Old World Modding - how to guide

[Dale]

Attached is a guide to creating Old World mods. Including DLL mods.

Enjoy modding.

 

[rlw33]

Dale, is there any chance you could post here your guide on how you created the Byzantine Empire mod?

 

[leif erikson]

Moderator Action: Stuck!

 

[Dale]

Dale, is there any chance you could post here your guide on how you created the Byzantine Empire mod?

I've got some outdated stuff on my Old World site, but yeah, not much on Byzantine creation. http://dales.world/

 

[rlw33]

Thanks. I look forward to reading what is there.

 

[rlw33]

Ok... so i'm just going to fire dumb questions at you now.
Looking through the xml source files for the Byzantine Empire mod - there are references to character portraits, crests etc as one would expect, but no reference to specific files. Am I right in thinking, for example, that for something like "CHARACTER_PORTRAIT_JUSTINIAN" there would need to be a corresponding file in the mod folder for it to utilise (e.g. JUSTINIAN.jpg or JUSTINIAN.bmp?)

 

[Taefin]

Amazing references! I briefly checked out the one for the smithy, though didn’t read in depth. Any sense if the game is structured such that giving a unit a steel resource requirement, and creating an improvement that creates steel, will cause the AI to build smiths when they want those units?

 

[Dale]

Ok... so i'm just going to fire dumb questions at you now.
Looking through the xml source files for the Byzantine Empire mod - there are references to character portraits, crests etc as one would expect, but no reference to specific files. Am I right in thinking, for example, that for something like "CHARACTER_PORTRAIT_JUSTINIAN" there would need to be a corresponding file in the mod folder for it to utilise (e.g. JUSTINIAN.jpg or JUSTINIAN.bmp?)

Graphic assets are stored in Unity asset bundles. You'll see the asset bundle in the assets folder. I'd recommend reading http://dales.world/CustomAssets.html to see how to make asset bundles and reference them correctly.

Note: our Unity version is now 2020.3.14f1, so you can see my doco is quite out of date.

 

[Dale]

Amazing references! I briefly checked out the one for the smithy, though didn’t read in depth. Any sense if the game is structured such that giving a unit a steel resource requirement, and creating an improvement that creates steel, will cause the AI to build smiths when they want those units?

I "think" the AI will. I'll find out soon enough as yesterday I revived the steel mod and updated for current version. I just need some graphic assets, but might upload it before that's done.

 

[Taefin]

Oh very cool!

Also it just occurred to me yesterday since the game is built around stacking modifiers on everything, it would be very easy to give AI units strength against tribes, either give them all steadfast or create another one altogether, and give their cities multipliers on resources, culture, science etc.

Is there an easy way to apply something to all AI empires but not the player?

 

[rlw33]

I have a couple more dumb questions...

What do the numbers under the units names (1 and 0,0,0,) actually mean? I'm guessing the zeroes are a reference to move/atk/def? If so if those values were positive would they replace the existing stat or would they add to it?

Also, for adding tech can you tell me what the proper name to use in the xml file would be: "Spoked Wheels", "SpokedWheels" or "Spoked_Wheels".?

 

[nolegskitten]

Oh very cool!

Also it just occurred to me yesterday since the game is built around stacking modifiers on everything, it would be very easy to give AI units strength against tribes, either give them all steadfast or create another one altogether, and give their cities multipliers on resources, culture, science etc.

Is there an easy way to apply something to all AI empires but not the player?

I didn't jump into modding (yet), but it's definitely possible since the AI advantage setting (default to none) has been added in the last update. It allows the player to give production bonuses to AI:
low +10 civics & training / turn in the global pool, +10% science, civics and training generation
medium +25 civics & training / turn in the global pool, +25% science, civics and training generation
high +50 civics & training / turn in the global pool, +50% science, civics and training generation.

I haven't tried it yet actually, but that sounds like it should provide a significant extra challenge.

 

[Dale]

Oh very cool!

Also it just occurred to me yesterday since the game is built around stacking modifiers on everything, it would be very easy to give AI units strength against tribes, either give them all steadfast or create another one altogether, and give their cities multipliers on resources, culture, science etc.

Is there an easy way to apply something to all AI empires but not the player?

Yeah use the AI Advantage settings. Also known as the Civ cheat as it's the old Civ production AI cheat.

 

[Dale]

I have a couple more dumb questions...

What do the numbers under the units names (1 and 0,0,0,) actually mean? I'm guessing the zeroes are a reference to move/atk/def? If so if those values were positive would they replace the existing stat or would they add to it?

That is the formations file yes? The front row and back row lines control how many and where units stand on the tile. Nothing to do with m/a/d.

Also, for adding tech can you tell me what the proper name to use in the xml file would be: "Spoked Wheels", "SpokedWheels" or "Spoked_Wheels".?

Sorry, I don't understand what you're looking for? Are you wanting the tech type? TECH_SPOKED_WHEEL? The name text tag? TEXT_TECH_SPOKED_WHEEL? Or the text? Spoked Wheel?

 

[Greyknight]

Hello, new to this game, enjoying it, but I would be interested in learning how to resize the units to make them a little smaller? Do you know if this is a value that can be edited in XML files, and which files this may be?

Appreciate any help with this matter, and thank you for the tutorial information you have provided so far, it's a great help

 

[Dale]

Hello, new to this game, enjoying it, but I would be interested in learning how to resize the units to make them a little smaller? Do you know if this is a value that can be edited in XML files, and which files this may be?

Appreciate any help with this matter, and thank you for the tutorial information you have provided so far, it's a great help

Have you checked out RED mod?

 

[Greyknight]

Hello Dale, thank you for responding,

Yes, I have just found the RED mod, and see the xml file of globalsFloat-change.xml

in this XML file, I see that there are 4 entry values that can be changed:
SINGLE_UNIT_SCALE
GLOBAL_UNIT_SCALE
SECONDARY_TEXT_SCALE
ICON_SCALE_FACTOR

I have created a Mods folder in this directory: \Users\###\Documents\My Games\OldWorld\Mods, unzipped the RED mod file and placed the folder into the Mods folder

When I launch the game, I click on MODS, select the Infos folder to activate the mod, start a new game, go to advanced and make sure that the mod is activated

When the game starts however, and I see the starting unit, the unit does not appear to scale or change size?

Is there something I am not doing correctly? For it would appear that the mod is not actually changing anything. I have changed the values of those 4 entries in notepad and resaved the xml file, but nothing seems to change, which makes me believe the mod is not changing the game at all.

 

[Greyknight]

ah nvmd, i solved it, i missed the step in the tutorial that said to create a housing folder in Mods... i just unzipped all the mod files there loosely. Works now.

 

[mastrude]

The fantasy mods for Civ IV and Colonization are among my very favorite games. Modpacks like Fall from Erebus and We the People. Is Old World suitable for creating similar fantasy mods? I ask because I think the base games for these mod packs I love are old and creaky. Memory runs out, and so forth. Could Old World be a great new base game?

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Is Old World suitable for creating similar fantasy mods? (...) Could Old World be a great new base game?

Anything that would require new 3D models seems close to impossible. But reskinning of already present models, and everything that does not involve 3D is possible. I'm not familiar with the mods you mention but since I'm assuming they do contain completely new units, the answer would be no.