Das123

Chapter 5. Custom Units - Bring forth the Golems. So at this stage we have Golem Forge building that only the Capitar Mancers can construct. Now we need to make it build Golems. Create another XML file and call this one 'DasTut_UnitTypes.xml'. The following code was heavily borrowed from 'CoreMonsterUnitTypes.xml' so place this into your new file: [code="xml"] <

Chapter 4. Custom Buildings - Making a unique building for our city The idea in this tutorial is to make a unique building that only our Mancers can build. Now, I'm going to take a heap of short-cuts with this. For example, I'm not going to make a unique building icon. What we will be building is a forge for our city. To be exact it will be a Golem forge where our Mancers can build Golems (another chapter). Start by building a ti

Chapter 3. Custom Techs - My Warfare techs are too powerful! Take them away! Once again, all the tech trees are basically shared across all the Kingdom and Empire races. In the case of the Kingdom races they all share the Altar tech tree. So lets fix this up. We are going to seriously nerf our Mancers and only allow them two Warfare techs. And we are going to define these techs ourself. Create a new XML file called 'DasTu

Chapter 2. Spellbooks - I want my Fire Giant! And I want it now! OK. Now that the pesky Altarians are out of the picture, lets get our own spells. We have a few things we need to setup before we can do this though. This will introduce how various XML files rely on each other. Before we get started it is important to realise how spell books work. First of all you get spell books from your sovereigns. By default all of them have al

Chapter 1. Race Config - Getting rid of the Altarians. The default races are controlled through a file called CoreRaceConfigs.xml. We will be creating a mod file that will enhance this core file - which means we only need to put in our small changes and they will then be applied into the core files settings. Create a file in your Mods directory called 'DasTut_RaceConfig.xml' Inside this file, type the following: [code=

This tutorial can be applied to new races you create yourself, or you can use it to manipulate the existing races. Before we get started, lets establish a few things. The files you will be creating should be placed inside the Elemental/Mods folder (C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Elemental\Mods). If for some reason you don't have a Mods folder, you should create one. Also, in the game options, make sure you have 'Use Mods' turned on. I'm assuming you can create

Another idea. It would be nice to be able to specify OR and NOT as well as the default AND. So as an example: [code="xml"] Allegiance Kingdon Race Amarian <Prere

Now is the time for the Elemental community to stop adding to the problems and either choose to be part of the solution, or butt out. As has been stated, there is now nothing to be gained by bitching and whining. Stardock have taken their kick in the teeth and if we want Elemental to be the best game it can be we've now got to help them get off the floor rather than just keeping on kicking them when they're down. It is incredibly difficult to work in a creative field where exc

As the game currently stands there is no limit (that I can find) on the number of units you can combine once you have researched Parties, Squads, etc etc. But if we mod in unique buildings with powerful units I would like to limit the maximum number of these units that can be built. As an example, if I have a building that allows me to build a troll, I would like to only ever be able to restrict these to unit builds rather than parties or company builds. Having a MaxCompanySiz

At present the game XML has just a handful of Prereq XML types, but they aren't really consistent. [code="xml"] Tech|Allegiance|BuildingRequirement|Race ... [/code] The Tech attribute is straight forward to use. The Allegiance attribute is either Empire or Kingdom . The

[quote quoting="post"] ... Q: What is Stardock’s plan for Elemental going forward? A: For the immediate future we’re going to go down two paths. First, the v1.0x versions will continue to focus largely on compatibility (crashing or weird video issues) as well as bugs and turning on multiplayer. Then, we will work on v1.1 which will serve as our answer to player feedback. Enhanced AI, improved UI, a tutorial, updated quest system, new magic system, numerou

Sorry, I haven't really looked at the tech trees. Only the racial buildings. I've stopped fiddling with the XML now until the game is re-jigged because I have a feeling all we do now will need to be re-done.

[quote who="eldrone" reply="25" id="2758729"] Quoting Das123, reply 23 quoting postWhy was the direction chosen to have the texture be added on with an alpha on an existing color, wouldn't have both been easier and look better if a full character texture was hue-colorized according to the alpha instead. Can you please explain what you mean by 'wouldn't have both been easier and look better if a full character texture was hue-colorized according to the alpha instead.'<br

I think the problem is that you can't satisfy both prerequesites in your GameItemTypes. Try getting rid of one. :)

[quote who="PurplePaladin" reply="4" id="2758677"]I have all the time in the world to play it, and no desire to at this time [/quote] I'm at this point as well at present. Finding I'm spending more time here in the forums than in the game. Love your analogies btw. :)

[quote quoting="post"]Why was the direction chosen to have the texture be added on with an alpha on an existing color, wouldn't have both been easier and look better if a full character texture was hue-colorized according to the alpha instead. [/quote] Can you please explain what you mean by 'wouldn't have both been easier and look better if a full character texture was hue-colorized according to the alpha instead.' As it stands we can colour the underlying mode

I'd wait. The first game or two is fun and you do get a good feel for what is going on. But then it just becomes the same old thing time after time. The game has a lot of potential but I'd be waiting for Civ5 in the short term, then look back in a few months again. Having said that, Frogboy has said that people who have bought the game early will get the first upgrade for free. So there may be some value buying now but not expecting much from it in the short term.

[quote who="NTJedi" reply="7" id="2757689"]E} All equipment is for melee characters except for two bows ! Originally I was worried we would only see the warrior, mage and archer types... but even these three basics are not finished. Mages are walking around wearing plate... everyone should not be wearing plate armor types during the late stages of a fantasy game. Ideally the fantasy game should have druids, priests, paladins, monks, assassins... each with unique skills a

The game uses the alpha channel in the textures to show the raw model underneath. So if you create a texture with a lot of transparency you can then specify the RGB of the model to affect this. Good examples are the Golems. I doubt bump-mapping will be turned on because it will interfere horribly with the model outlining feature.

Good post. Particularly like the idea of mob spawn points. This is how the game Kohan worked as well I think. The unused random starting locations could be used for this.

[quote who="JamesMoriarty123" reply="1" id="2757037"]If someone made Age of Wonders:Shadow Magic in the Elemental Engine and just copied it part for part (latest patch ofc) I would buy it over and above Elemental any day of week.[/quote] Yes!!!!

The problems with the beta were: Usually stability was focussed on last so many beta testers didn't really get to test the mechanics. Negative feedback without some sort of constructive suggestion was ignored. The original plan was to make the game fun in cloth map, then put in the bling. This didn't happen from a game-play or balance perspective. Release version was never beta tested (at least not publicly). In isolation the game h

OK. You do need to load in a plug-in. Instructions have been placed in the OP under Getting and installing Eclipse Apologies again. Forgot I installed this some time ago.

[quote who="Master_of_Magic" reply="29" id="2755932"]The faster you can close the book on Elemental the earlier Stardock can recover (financial and reputation wise) from this fiasco. Of course, that means actually fixing the game, and not abandoning it.[/quote] Firstly, very sorry to hear the news of layoffs. Very difficult times and I really feel for you all at Stardock. Looks like the brand 'Elemental' will most like carry a lot of negative baggage now. I'd be looking to mov

Sorry guys. I'll do some experimenting with what I have set-up. I must have loaded in a plug-in. I use Eclipse for quite a few different programming tasks. Got a feeling it will be the Web Tools plugins but I'll find out for sure and post detailed instructions.