Guide to modding under construction

[Duke John]

Hello all,

As one of my first acts as assistant moderator I am compiling alot of the small guides scattered throughout the Dungeon. My aim is to get most of them clearly written and ordered in chapters.

Since I am doing this for you and not for myself I thought it would be good to ask you lot what you think of this and wether you have any comments or possible improvements.

I would also like to ask you what you think about the order of chapters. I think you all know that are several degrees of difficulty in modding. Modding a new strategic map is a lot more difficult then adding an unit. So what do you think would be better? Seperating all the advanced subjects from the basic subjects or put everything together with the chance that a new modder is overwhelmed with the information but with the advantage that all the information is at one place. So (just examples):

Basic topics
Campaign: setting the starting date
Unit: adding an unit
Buildings: adding a building

Advanced topics
Campaign: modding the strategic map
Units: new unitgraphics
Buildings: building a techtree from scratch

or

Campaign
Units
Buildings

with all the subjects under one header but probably still subdivided in basic and advanced modding.

And if there any modders to write a chapter, then please feel free to do so I will take care of layout so that all the chapters look the same.

Any replies would be welcome as it would make the guides so much more efficient.

Thanks,
Duke John

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Hello,

I've been working on a modding guide for Sea Dogs slowly but surely, which, I believe, grants me a say. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

First of all, your outlining and classification of subjects is accurate. I might add including a section, preferably somewhere near the beginning, explaining the files/filetypes used in the game, and another dealing with the available tools.

That said, I'd rather avoid "File menu commands..." style of manual writing and focus -as you are already doing- on subjects themselves.

Providing simple but "clear" examples will help a lot. That may be taken from existing mods or made from the scratch.

Thanks for asking and good luck

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[Norseman]

Hi DJ, congrats on your new job as Mod.

I liked the Basic Topics/Advanced Topics solution best. As you say, that may make it easier for new modders. You could then maybe make a small chapter in the end listing the order in which things must be made when building a completely new mod, refering to the Basic Topics/Advanced Topics.

I have actually started on what could become a guide on battlemaps. That is; not how to make them but how to set regional and border maps, specific castle maps, how the selection system for this works and what oppotunities this opens(like having one single battlemap for each region - Shogun style). Not the hardest part of the game to understand, but could be helpful to have it described. Don't know if I will have the time to get this finished in any presentable form though.

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