compare it to this:

Everyday you:
wake up
eat breakfast
(...)
eat dinner
go to sleep

That always stays the same. You know that is what you are going to do today.
That's what hard coded is for the game. It knows that that is not going to change


The (...) on the other hand can be anything
You can go to school
You can go to work
You can go shopping
You can sit in front of your PC all day long and play EB

This can change from day to day. Now, consider that you have a to-do-list that says what you have to do.
You don't know what to do without reading this list, because each day is different.

A game has to read and process the information that isn't hard coded (in RTW: all tha data about what buildings it can build, what units can be recruited and how strong those units are, etc...).

You know you are going to get up and sleep. You don't need to read your list --> doesn't take long.
To know what you are going to do in between, you need to read your list --> takes longer.

Capisci?


BTW : something that can change = variable, variable (in french en spanish), variabel (in dutch and in german), variabile (in italian), variavel (in portuguese), metablítós (in greek, didn't see that one coming...)

To learn modding, take a look at twcenter.net and look at modding RTW
But don't look now because the site is down today.

Or look at the sciptorium: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=77