New tools for Viking add-on

[FearofNC]

there are other topics about what players would like to see added to the upcomming expansion pack, such as multiplayer features, unit changes, and single player campaign fixes. But i would like to see some tools for the modding community included as well.

1) a user friendly stat modifer that will store multiple sets of stats.

2) a tool to transfer maps and stats to other online players.

3) a tool to import custom units and graphics into the game.

4) a tool included in the map editior that will allow the map maker to change and view deployment zones

5) a battle editor.. this would allow a designer to place units on the field and create a battle senerio. similar to the seige battle of the tutorial.

5) a battlelog reader

im sure there are many more tools that would be useful...this is just a start.. lets get our ideas together and hope that ca can fit a few of them in to the viking game.

[barocca]

all good

PLUS

a Historic Campaign editor that will allow the "modder" to create a branched historical campaign.

AND

a "guide" to the victory conditions available for battles and campaigns.

[Alrowan]

well i think i can see how to make a collection of battles into a historical camagin... perhaps if i was given some battles to work with i may end up being able to mess arround wit it enough to do just that

what i would love to see is a campagin map editor.... PLEASE

[kyodai-britishbeef]

Yes i would love a campaign editor , i would love to make a war of the roses campaign or an english civil war campaign(a bit out of era but worth a try )

[TosaInu]

There's a branched scenario for STW WE/MI. Reason to make this was that I didn't like 'achieve your goal or game over' like we see in many games

-most annoying are the stealth missions in Soldier of Fortune2: when an enemy soldier gargles twice while dying the alarm goes off and it's mission over (gargling once is ok). Or hostage rescue missions in Rainbow Six, when 1 of the 20 hostages catches a bullet: forget about the other 19. Such games are nothing more than save, try, die, try again, new save, die, try, die, try, die, try, save again...

You can lose a battle, but the war goes on. The next battle can be harder, but it can also be as hard or easier.

The branched scenario seemed to work ok, but it proved to be still somewhat buggy after it was released. That is (ihmo) because of the 'looping backs': the game can't remember correctly which battles are completed. You'ld have to play it in one go to avoid the bug. One of the battles can easily take over 1 hour :-). Another one even longer. The third depends on the AI: you have two enemies, both strong enough to crush you. But they also hate each other. Best is to have them kill/weaken each other first.

The answer to this would be to use unique adf and bdf files for each battle and for each route to that battle. But Ikki already has some 40 battles, making 'new' for each possible route may add 20 more.

Some stuff was quite hard to make, and I had a huge list of 'wanna haves'. Here are some:

-a timer for units to enter the field. MTW has that, but not yet for complete new armies.
-option to tell reinforcements where to enter the map.
-turncoats: army starts as ally but turns into an enemy after some time or event(s) or vice versa.
-(working) beserk levels for units. A unit only attacks when it has some chance to win. This makes it hard to create outraged mobs that will just get slaughtered.
-added to the latter: influence on AI allies. The player has an ally in the 'two enemies battle' I mentioned where you better wait for the enemies to kill each other. Your ally just 'sees' one huge enemy army, much stronger than his and your forces, and calls it a day. Some basic commands would be nice (both in the bdf and on the field): like 'stay back', 'cover flank', 'attack'. The AI shouldn't turn into a zombie either.
-program waypoints/missions for units. The battle after the defeat of the first one, is more of a 'bring the daimyo' to safety (he has heirs in case you fail). It's an extreme map (T-Yamashiro][) and some ashis go for the impossible mountainwalk while they could (almost) kill the daimyo. Changing the startposition for those ashis so that they would surely go after the daimyo, also makes it harder for the player to escape.
There was a third party editor for Westwoods Red Alert (RaEdit). It could create single player missions (waypoints, action modes, triggers, events). Those missions could be made MP playable by changing the extension of the SP file, we had lots of fun with that. 2 or more humans fighting together against another AI or human controlled army just as if it were a historical campaign would be great (units are already positioned and selected).
-perhaps the thing I 'needed' most: use the mapeditor to place and position units. It's very timeconsuming to do it in wordpad, check in game: 'that nod should be turned 10 degrees clockwise', exit, edit, check again, 'no the other clockwise', exit, edit, check, 'yes... but erm, 10 of them are on a 70 degree slope, better change the xy coords too'. In the end you had to change it all again because the unit didn't do what you wanted it to do.

Going to the more exotic stuff: dynamic unit allocation. The player starts with 1,000 soldiers and has to complete 10 battles with them (he could get a few new after battle 3 and 6). Waste 900 in the first, and you have to do the 2nd with 100 men (option to recruit peasant rabble to make a bit of an army).

For the player: option to save a battle. I recall one that took me over 2 hours to complete (1 battle, 1 try).

I do realize that some battles were 'game over' after a defeat. So, most of the STW/MTW ones are ok. I recall one that didn't satisfy me. It was a timer battle in STW WE/MI. You lost if you didn't manage to cross a bridge within some 45 minutes. Bring those reinforcements on It was game over instead, just like that.

[barocca]

a 3XX file converter, extract and import functions please,

i am slowly finishing my models conversions,
but without the ability to "alter" some of the base models framework it means some will be unusable for anything except window dresing...

[Grumpy]

barocca - "a 3XX file converter, extract and import functions please,"

I'm with you there, opening up 3xx, a3x etc could lead to a whole lot of possibilities with imported models - armoured wagons for Hussite camps, star forts, lines of wagons acting as walls for Eastern Europeans, entrenchments, even collapsing cliff landslides http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif (that's probably over the top). It'd be enough for me to dust off the 3d stuff that's been languishing on my hard drives waiting for something useful to do http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif .

Cheers

Grumpy

[cugel]

"a Historic Campaign editor that will allow the "modder" to create a branched historical campaign."

Great idea Barocca, I'd add my vote to that http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

Plus, improved AI shipping pathways, so the AI uses its ships better to maintain a trade empire (and generate the income necessary to compete with the player).