Modding and Modularity

[Imperius]

I'd be more interested in what can be modded.

For example Crusader Kings II I've worked with extensively, and there are some great total conversion mods for it. I like what Distant Worlds has done so far, it is extremely modder friendly, but the events for custom scenarios could use a handful of more features.

A trigger set by a certain date for example, would be extremely useful. Ie, year 2150, a massive alien invasion happens. It's too random to base it on exploration, tech, or appearance of characters for my tastes.

Also the ability (if possible) to change empires in the editor; for example first you make one empire, design and place ships and such, then you switch over to another one and do the same for when creating custom scenarios.

And finally, the ability to change the galactic date also in the editor; most sci fi scenarios do not start in the year 2100

[mensrea]

I did think of one thing that would make it easier for modders who work with techs, components and resources.

Right now the lists work like this

129, missile tubes, yada yada, so on so forth
130, laser beams, yada yada, so on so forth
131, solar panels, yada yada, so on so forth
132, cyclone torpedoes, yada yada, so on so forth

Now if I add a 134 to that list it fails to work because there's no 133. However, what if instead of crashing when it doesn't find 133 it just skips it and looks for 134. This would enable modders to claim blocks of IDs for their mod which wouldn't conflict with the ID's in other mods. So when a player wants to use both mods all they have to do is a little copy pasta instead of reconfiguring every ID (which would then break the paths with anything calling on that ID).

That would apply to techs, components and resources as well as pretty much everything that uses ID's. Sure, modders will have to decide what range of ID's they lay claim to, but we could collaborate on that and keep track of whos got what in a sticky in the modding section.

Even if this is something that's not possible to do with this engine it would be great to have in the next DW.

[Rhikore]

E & E, thank you guys so much for the work you've been doing and for an overall epic 4X.

Regarding Modding and Modularity:
I have to vote with the majority here, More options = More Customization = Better Game = More Fun.
Players that are troubled by incompatible Mods could simply investigate the issues and solve them themselves with little trouble.

Characteristics:
I would really like to see Characteristics Values become an Average Composite of the Sub-Characteristics.
Thusly requiring the Sub-Characteristics to receive a modifiable numerical value in the range of the Current Main Characterisitics.
Having the ability to specifically mod sub-characteristics would provide much greater racial uniqueness and a certain sense of vivaciousness to the game.

Racial Balance:
Effort made to provide a racial bonus metric would be great...

(Copy/Paste from another Thread)
"Hey Guys, Ill be working on a race mod soon, hopefully, and was wanting to address balance across governments and races.

I think the best way to do this would be to create some basically "blank" races with one bonus.
Equalizing Pop Growth across all Blank races, except for the Race intended to test the efficacy of Pop Growth.

All bonuses would have to be of the same percentage or equivalent point values.

Then run tests with said races, using a special map, or editing home systems for control, providing identical environmental factors.

After a good sample size, we should be able to create a racial Bonus metric, by which we can balance the races.
This metric could also be used to balance government types.

... Yada Yada."

Wonders:
I personally would like to see the power of Wonders diminished, and racial exclusivity relinquished, yet allow for 1 type of Wonder per System.



I would appreciate feedback, and some verification that youve seen this post if at all possilbe.

Keep up the good Work, and God Bless.

[Unforeseen]

It's not really the majority, the voting is fairly even.

[Rhikore]

@Unforeseen, My bad, I was posting from memory of the last time I read the post.
Any comments on my suggestions?

[Unforeseen]

I'm not really much of an expert when it comes to mechanics to be honest, but i do agree that wonders should not be racially exclusive. I'm not really a fan of racial exclusion at all to be honest.

[tjhkkr]

I think greater modding capabilities; modularity would seem to be difficult at best given the diversity of themes and events for the respective mods.

[BigWolfChris]

Greater modding capabilities are a must to me
Modularity would be nice, but due to the nature of how things are stored (text file for each part), it'd become a headache

When tools start popping up that assist in modding, we'd probably find popular mods having conflicts with other popular mods anyway, such is the case in most modding communities

Having it truly modular would require alot of rebuilding of the game code I would think

[ParagonExile]

Why not both? :3

[Solarius Scorch]

ORIGINAL: mensrea

I did think of one thing that would make it easier for modders who work with techs, components and resources.

Right now the lists work like this

129, missile tubes, yada yada, so on so forth
130, laser beams, yada yada, so on so forth
131, solar panels, yada yada, so on so forth
132, cyclone torpedoes, yada yada, so on so forth

Now if I add a 134 to that list it fails to work because there's no 133.

That's because DW runs on numerical IDs. Most games I've modded in my life (mostly Civilization: Call to Power and Openxcom) use strings instead; for example you'd have STR_MISSILE_TUBES instead of 129. That's much more comfortable, since you always know what you're dealing with (the only downside is slightly larger text files). But I guess this would be too much of a change to ask for.

Now, regarding the files' intertwining: I've always found it rather confusing how racial techs or wonders are. Perhaps it would be clearer - and more modular - if we had each race's special research externalized to separate files? So you'd have a folder named "racialtechs", and inside - racial files, much like the policy files: human.txt, dhayut.txt and so on. Each of these files would contain:
- Special research available to the race,
- An option to disable certain research from the main research file for this race.
The same could be done for other stuff, like wonders (a separate folder for each aspect).

[Blackstork]

I would like obcourse more modularity. Currently events system and different limitations , mainly numerical are ones i would like to see changed to somethibng more modular. I would like to see goverments / race numerical limitation lifted, general ease and more modularity for character system, and more tools to create tools which create racial unique mechanics.

[lurchi]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Hi everyone,

Elliot and I have been discussing the new features we've added since the release of Universe and what the modding community is most interested in. We were wondering about the importance of modularity as brought up by Locarnus vs. the importance of just extending the possibilities of what can be modded. We are very much interested in your input to this discussion.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Outsourcing various modding aspects to their own txt files is a good idea. Like the research order, racial restrictions, ship classes. This makes mashing up several mods and modding in general easier. No need to be obsessive, though. Too many files complicate things.

There are more important things than modularity, though. Some areas are not open to modding at all. The settings for ship behaviour (attack range), ship classes and component settings (tractor beam push or pull) in the templates come to mind. Or the completely missing templates for world destroyers. Or the ship classes themselves.

Also some restrictions are way too harsh, like the max number for components and races.

I think more modding is more important than more modularity. Or in other words: More modding is more important than easier modding. The developers can only invest so much time and while more modularity is nice to have it's not a must have.

I finish with what I mentioned above in the order of importance (IMHO):

1) Raise max component numbers
2) Allow ship behaviour and component settings in the templates
3) Raise max race number and maybe other easy to raise numbers like facilities and governments
4) Add missing worlds destroyer templates (not needed if 5) happens
5) Allow ship class modding and template creation
6) Outsource already existing modding aspects to their own txt files

[Mad Igor]

i want random images for characters (no 1 pic for all !!!)
also i want random pics for a specific class from specific set of images.
also i want also don't know wtf i'm talking about here.

[Solarius Scorch]

ORIGINAL: Mad Igor

i want random images for characters (no 1 pic for all !!!)
also i want random pics for a specific class from specific set of images.
also i want also don't know wtf i'm talking about here.

And more pics for planetary landscapes.

There are millions of pictures and photos on the net that would suit planets. Why are we constrained to just a few per planet type?
This is a minor thing, but I can imagine it's very easy to change; after all it's just like character pics, which are pretty much unlimited.