Modding

[wodin]

How easy will it be to mod and if possible how extensive?

I can see a fantastic WH40K mod.

Game seems perfect for it. Though would have to be a total conversion.

[DasTactic]

At this stage, the only aspect of the game that is exposed to modding is the graphics. Everything else is hard-coded into non-editable files. I also hope that at some time in the future the aspects of the game are extracted out into moddable files.

[Vic]

Das is right. Except for the graphics and sounds this is basically a non-moddable game.

Complexity, partial hard-coding of the game is a big reason, but also the fact I am still expecting to add a lot of content to the game in the years after release and I don't want to invalidate any community efforts (which would had to be done again after each patch). Third but not least is I cannot turn all my games in little wargame design studios

On the positive side in time I am open to start gradually opening up some parts to editors. But I would like to do that in such way that these editors will be safe to use and any community work would be re-usable after official patches.

Best wishes,
Vic

[wodin]

Understand. Just a thought

[GodwinW]

Hello!

I bought the game, it's looking great so far and hopefully will keep me entertained a long time to come.

One thing I hoped for is the ability to change names of cities you control etc.

Even better would be the ability to mod the random names that get given to zones, cities etc.
I would like to come up with some more sci fi ones than 'Boston', for example.

Thank you for your consideration.

[Vic]

Hi Godwin,

Try calling one of your Governors. What you like should be possible.

Best wishes,
Vic

[GodwinW]

Thank you for your reply.

What I would like is to change the pools of default names, as changing zone names one at a time at a cost of 2 PP if you've got governors there is lengthy, cumbersome and needs to be done every game over.

I'd just like to see all names (people, places, unique tiles, zones etc.) and replace a few of those names with names I like for the setting, so that every new game only has names I like.

If it cannot be done soon then I hope it can eventually be done.

Best regards, you've done a great job, really enjoy it so far!

[Yskonyn]

@DasTactic are you planning on doing a similar style UI and icon mod for this game as you did for Distant Worlds?

[the1sean]

ORIGINAL: Vic
On the positive side in time I am open to start gradually opening up some parts to editors. But I would like to do that in such way that these editors will be safe to use and any community work would be re-usable after official patches.

I know if would be a ton of work to make the game more moddable, but I for one would pay for a DLC where moddability and a scenario editor (plus a couple built-in Dissolution War story scenarios) was the core feature. Maybe shoot for Steam Workshop integration when you finally do it? As I'm sure you know, moddability makes a lot of Paradox Studios games very financially profitable. People (like me) who don't play the "core" game anymore will still buy the DLC's to play the awesome mods (I do this with Hearts of Iron 4, I get the DLCs just to play the Fallout and Kaiserreich mods...and my friends all do the same thing lol).

[Malevolence]

This is just a guess, but I believe mostly everything in terms of data is saved in a scenario file. You could, ostensibly, make any wargame with a scenario editor if you also included your own art, sounds, etc. The code engine just defines the game pieces available to a scenario (unit, card, terrain, etc.). Also likely the AI, since we don't see any lua, etc.

If you want to mod the game, you have to deconstruct the scenario file and then make a new scenario file to start the game.

Again, a bit of a guess, but you could not for example, add or remove a modification to an existing save because the save includes the serialized data that was initialized by the scenario file. I guess that because the patch notes seem to indicate changes in value data needs a new game start. I suspect that makes exchanging PBEM much simpler too.

[Dampfnudel]

I do not think that "invaliding community effort" is an argument against modding.
In paradox games, the modding community is huge, despite nonstop patches and DLC of the game.

Things regarding balance values (building values, culture modifiers, unit stats) should be open for modding.