Elemental: Geek Out Series begins

Will the mod tools include XML schemas to allow for Intellisense in tools like Visual Studio?

And where do we find these files to look at?

Is there anyway we can get access to a comprehensive library of all of the game modifiers instead of looking through the game files? So something like a PDF file which says what properties we can change for each unit/technology/etc...

That would certainly be nice *hinthinthint*

I'm absolutely, 100% certain that, even if Stardock doesn't provide one, one of the community of modders will within a week or two of release. That kind of thing is very easy to provide, just time consuming, and a lot of modders are the kind of people who have time to spare.

Some might be in your ProgramData/Stardock/Elemental Folder (same location as minidumps are saved). The data files are downloaded from the server currently, since it lets them change stuff around without pushing patches. In Beta 4 (the modding one), all these files will be local. And obviously they'll be local on release.

Could have sworn we could see the .xml files in previous versions but now I can't find them. Wish I could help.

If the XML has any sense, you can just do a script on it and be done in 1 second + scripting time

Very cool, definitely the best way to show people what can and can't be implemented is to show them the details of how you implement things.

Since it was mentioned, I do NOT like the idea of leveling cities getting points to spend on buffs.  While it sounds fun, there is already information overload when it comes to cities, this would just add to that.  I prefer to have citie characteristics managed entirely through the improvements, as there is already a ton of flexibility in that system, and its easier to evaluate enemy cities that way.

Great Update!!! I Really can't wait until we start the Modding Beta. That sound Awesome, Frogboy

Quick question, will we be able to Mod how many numbers show up in units and are represented on screen? This will be very important for my "Dragonlance" Mod.

As an example, in the Total War games you can Mod how many men are in each unit in the "Unit_Definitions.XML". (<---can't remember if that's the Exact name of the file) . Bottom line being though that it is doable. Please tell me that is also Moddable in Elemental.

I'd like to propose taking this one step further, but rather than clutter up this thread I made my own:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/386375

Not a fan of levelling up cities.  I'd prefer the traits idea- provided it was rare.

I think it may also be too much micro.

How about mutually exclusive buildings instead (or in addition)?

For example, when a city reaches level 2, you could get the option to build a Food Production building OR a Research Production building, OR a Whatever building, OR....

At further level-ups, the bonuses could be increased, new choices could be offered (or you could have one large set of options, and each level-up gives you one pick from it), or you could choose to improve a current bonus or get a new bonus at a lower value (e.g. at level 3 you could have "lvl 3" Research bonus, or {"lvl 2" Research bonus + "lvl 1" Food bonus}).

This way you'd also get the ability to have more varied cities, but it'd do so in a way that gives a stronger visual indication (of course, that also means new graphics...).

The random trait idea also seems neat.

As nice as these things are to know, I'd like know how memory management is coming along

Good post, thank you

The images are broken... At least they are over here.

But..

I would absolutely love a feature like that! Especially if you make it have truly significant effects; would help quite a bit in making cities feel more special. Being able to do things with points that can't really be done with buildings would also be very neat!

I absolutely agree! "Specialized cities" is the way to go!

+1

Frogboy, exposing this during the beta could be beneficial as we could help find simpler bugs in the python or xml file.

I agree.  People want this game to succeed, I don't think people who have paid to get into the beta would mind doing some bug squashing.

Best regards,
Steven. 

Only if all the possible values are in use at the time you run the script. If there's options in the game that the current files aren't using, we wouldn't know. That's where good modder documentation comes into play.

I'd like to see this too.

hmmm   debugging with XML  *noms*   (dies from food poisoning)

frogboy, I have done some questioning of the local bookstores in australia, and apparently the australian release date on your book is supposed to be the 15th of september, and the year was not stated, but as that is at least three weeks after the american launch that says that the publishers/distributors have no desire for a consistant worldwide release of your work.

harpo

Hey, guys, where are you taking those quotes from?

Because all I can see in the opening post is: