good post, hope we get some stuff sooner or later

probably in fact its easier like that

there should be like a priority or something

if some element is both in mod and in main xml and you are actually playing that mod, ignore main xml and only load mod element

or maybe a new tag like /flush or something, so that you open your wolf stuff with that and client erase everything about the old wolf

You can use this as a roadmap of bugs, heh.

Obviously it is not my intent to dissuade anyone from modding. But if I don't point out these problems they aren't going to get fixed.

Also remember there are always ways to work around these problems and sometimes you can even turn it into something beneficial instead. For example this XML is all I need in the /mods/ folder to block a faction with NoDominion_Elf trait from building Tower of Dominion:

Pretty neat, to be honest. But it is one of those things that come at a cost and when the final accounting is done I say it indicates change is needed.

That's a shame. It takes less than 15 seconds to copy and paste the contents of your data/english folder somewhere else as a backup. If you are interested in exploring and experimenting, that shouldn't be an insurmountable hurdle, you're going to run into more difficult tasks along the way.

That being said, if this issue receives any attention, I imagine it will be in the form of being able to place any mod in the /mods directory.

Well said, Heaven! 

I would think the first question Kael is likely to ask is, "how should it work"?  I think a discussion on that is in order.

I'm not sure how I feel about having each object completely overwritten when it is modded.  In many ways, that's probably the simplest from the DEVs perspective and the easiest to understand from a modder's perspective.  But it makes it bloody hard to mix mods together. 

But if we request only overwriting tags that are specified in our XML, then how do you delete tags you want to remove with a mod?  Perhaps with an empty tag? (i.e. <Prereq/>)  This approach makes it easier to mix mods but more difficult on the modder.

Thoughts???

I would prefer a way to turn on and off which mods we can use as well as using the mods folder to put mods into.  Messing with the core game files is bad.  For a lot of reasons.  

I certainly won't be modding or using mods with the current system. 

Way too messy.

I should have read this when I tried modding some things. Would have saved me from these similar discoveries

And while we've got a modding "bitch session" going, I'd like to say that modding quests is PAINFUL!!  It is astonishing how long it takes to build a quest of only moderate difficulty. 

I'd add my support for this. Consistency is BADLY needed for modding of FA and LH. It's probably the biggest obstacle for many modders who just don't have time to learn quirks of all different files that behave differently. Making things easier for modders would increase number of mods and their quality/content by large margin and that would in return attract more players and increase game's appeal (more sales if you will). Anyway, this really should have higher priority as it needs to be done and helps moders to make more and better mods, helps players enjoy game more and finally Stardock to improve their game and sales.

I'd also like to add a suggestion to file structure. Its about Race and Unit folders, Race is used to hold all race files while units are used to hold all unit and sovereign files. Now here is a deal, the game is designed that as you play it, make new factions and new units, the game stores them and when creating new game you can assign that faction to AI and it will use those units for that faction thus increasing game's content as you play the game. It's great concept, but file structure makes maintaining or editing factions and units a nightmare as they are all dumped in the same 2 folders like someone dumped a big bunch of files on a desk and let you sort through them. You would waste much more time finding what you need in that mess then you would spend on actual editing of said files. As you play game more, the bigger the mess and the number of files increase. In the end, if you want do delete something, edit something it's easier to delete all race and unit folder content and make a new one then sort through all of that. Basically, folder structure works against game's concept to increase game's content (and enjoyment) as player plays the game.

What I would suggest is to use one main folder for races (factions), leave in it faction files as they are BUT create subfolder for each faction created with the name of that faction and place it's designed units in that folder. So if you create a faction with name ABC the 'Faction_ABC.xml' would be created in 'Race' folder and subfolder named 'ABC' would also be created in 'Race' folder (structure would be 'MyGames\LegendaryHeroes(FallenEnchantress)\Race\ABC'. All the unit files that are createad by player while playing that faction would go in that 'Race\ABC folder'. If a player ever want's to change or delete units for that faction all he needs to do is look in that Race\ABC folder and change or remove what he want's.

Also, another GUI request that is related to the above; since AI uses units that player creates for player's faction BUT those unit's get deleted in game if you chose to 'Resign' them, custom made unit's also need 'Hide' button so player can hide unit's that he won't use anymore but leave them for AI to use it when it plays the game with that faction.

Heavenfall,

It might not be a bad idea to repost this in a new thread, with any updates you may have, in the LH Modding forum.  Some of this info is quite good for modders to know about, and I'd love to see the 'duplicate thread' stickied in the LH Modding forum, assuming the powers that be would be up for a sticky!

Oh, and of course...