Glowing_Ember

Join Date 09/2010

+14

questions about adding abilites to units

I'm intrested in doing some future modding when some tools are availabe to so it but i wanted to test the waters a bit. I will have a look at what some of the mods that people have been doing to see how they did some things but i did have a few specific questions.

Is there a sticky faq for the forum ? can we get one please ?

How are you adding new models to the game and how are you dealing with unit animation ?

I believe i read you can add statistics to units.

Would you use this capability to add a personal man pool or a package of "magic crystals held in a bag" to pay for casting spells?

can you get items to stack in inventory so you only see 1 healing potion rather than 15 individual ones?

can you limit the number of inventory slots a unit has?

I noticed a mod for different colours of river. (come to think of it this actually seems like a stupid questions as I type since map colours change in game all the time lol) but how much of the following can you do:

1) Spawn a fire node,

2) make it act like a town with population etc, have it be invulnerable so that you can never attack it unless you defeat a quest.

3) give it a zone of control,

4) have monsters spawn from it occasionally that attack the nearest town, whether ai or player controlled - does not require vision from something, it automatically knows where it is (good monster intel sevices - it's the shapshifters you see lol),

5) anyone entering zone of control gets hit for fire damage and stunned, followed by a one turn polymorph into a rock,

6) can become a temporary ally for ten turns by defeating a quest in order to shop from their store (but you have to stand beside the city rather than merely being in the zone of control).

I'm sure i will be able to think of other things later but that's it for now.

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Heavenfall

Join Date 07/2008

+441

How are you adding new models to the game and how are you dealing with unit animation ?

Models can be bound to skeletons and imported into the game in Maya 2010. Mostly I use existing animations, sometimes I edit their XML. https://forums.elementalgame.com/401142

Would you use this capability to add a personal man pool or a package of "magic crystals held in a bag" to pay for casting spells?

Sure.

can you get items to stack in inventory so you only see 1 healing potion rather than 15 individual ones?

can you limit the number of inventory slots a unit has?

1) Spawn a fire node,

2) make it act like a town with population etc, have it be invulnerable so that you can never attack it unless you defeat a quest.

3) give it a zone of control,

4) have monsters spawn from it occasionally that attack the nearest town, whether ai or player controlled - does not require vision from something, it automatically knows where it is (good monster intel sevices - it's the shapshifters you see lol),

5) anyone entering zone of control gets hit for fire damage and stunned, followed by a one turn polymorph into a rock,

6) can become a temporary ally for ten turns by defeating a quest in order to shop from their store (but you have to stand beside the city rather than merely being in the zone of control).

You can't really do any of this. What you can do is create a monster lair (goodie hut) that looks like a fire shard, have it spawn monsters, and have it become a real shard once captured.

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How much can you modify default leveling abilities? I also want to start modding when the tools come out, and one thing I'd love to do is completely replace monster leveling bonuses. Would the easiest way to get the desired bonuses (increased attack, defense, dodge, etc) be to just put what I want in a trait and slap it on the units? If I modify summoned units, would I need to change every individual level of the monster in question, or can I just have the initial summon be pulled from a "base" template that gets levels added to it as needed?

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Heavenfall

Join Date 07/2008

+441

Right.

So monsters have this thing called Milestones. Milestones determine what stats a monster has at spawn, but not when it levels up. So a monster that spawns at level 7 and levels to 9 still uses level 7 milestones.

Therefore in order to have stats that increase as a monster levels you'll need to put it in a trait.

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Indeed. My question is, is there any way to ignore the Milestones and simply have them spawn at the appropriate level? Or do I have to change every milestone as well? My plan is to have the traits be the determining factor, not milestones.

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Heavenfall

Join Date 07/2008

+441

Delete the milestones.

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can you spawn an item in a hero or units hand ? say a sword.

I was thinking you could take the weapon, or weapon and shield and add it to a units inventory via data so it can't be sold, and then take the item saved in data into the units hand, either weapon, or weapon and shield.

you could conceivable do the same thing with armour if the idea works. I just don't know if the modding capability allows for this.

you can then use the upgrade function as normal to improve items.

You can have a trait or item that you had in unit creation to allow the unit/hero to do this, or unlock with a quest or spell etc.

you would need one version for each weapon type to give you control over what the second weapon combo would be at creation.

it all hinges on being able to take something out of a units hand and spawning a new item in it. uhg.

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You can't really do that with the current modding capabilities. If they open up the source code at some point, you could do it. I see where you are going with this and it doesn't seem worth the trouble. The AI for heroes is constantly looking for the best equipment. You might be able to make a spell that adds better equipment to a hero. You could even make a special set of summoned weapons that a spell unlocks a tech. From the tech, you can then upgrade any unit with those weapons for their chosen weapon type.

I have thought about conjuring weapons, but it is so much better to simply add an enchantment that improves weapon quality. Takes less space and allows for more overall modding.

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thanks seanw3, you have a great deal of perseverance in this.

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