JeromeGrasdyke was so kind these answer to our modding questions:
Since the number of questions is not too large I've decided (in a fit of enthusiasm) to answer all of them, so here they are:
Assuming there are individual unit speeds, where are they found?
The unit speeds are affected by a number of factors. The main one is the animations; you may already have noticed that the 'fast' skeletons contain many of the same animations as the none-fast ones, just different, sped-up locomotion anims. A second factor is the ground type modifier - these are stored in the descr_battle_map_movement_modifiers.txt file, but will cause the soldiers to 'slide' around when applied, so it's best to keep their influence to the minimum required. So, there are no individual unit speeds as such, but it is possible to create their appearance by adding new animations.
Where can we find the Marian Reform trigger (and can it be changed from the Imperial Palace)? Can we change the population limits for settlements so that they happen later?
The Marian Reforms are triggered by the first non-Senate faction to build an Imperial Palace, and this is hard-coded. We are planning to add a date limit as well in the v1.2 patch to make sure it does not occur too early. The population limits are also hard-coded, although you could attempt to decrease the rate of population growth by reducing farming and other growth bonusses (this will have substantial knock-on effects for the game balance, so watch out).
Is it possible to create a new faction/rename an existing one, and if so how?
It is possible, but it will be a lot of work. There are many things which go into the look of a coherent faction: names lists, banners, tech tree entries and their descriptions, unit lists, correctly-coloured unit models, and so on. Covering all of this in detail is beyond the scope of a simple question, but all the conversions from a faction tag into the code's internal identifiers run through the same code, and so if you wanted to change the Julian Romans into something else, you could do a search for 'romans_julii' and be reasonably certain that you've caught all instances where the faction is directly referred to. You'll see these faction tags all over the text files, so I won't list them here. Unfortunately, there may be places where it is implicit; none come to mind, but any sequences of numbers or properties in sets of 21 would be suspicious. There will be some trial-and-error involved...
Is there a way to turn off the Fog of War so that playtesting sweeping mod changes is easier?
Yes. Open up your preferences.txt file and change the FOG_OF_WAR setting to FALSE. Alternatively, there is a 'toggle_fow' command available as a cheat through RomeShell.
With a tool already out to allow us to poke around in the files, it looks like the unit data stuff and the textures are straight-forward enough..but what about the 3D files ? Is there going to be a way to mod them?
We're still considering various ways to approach this - no decision has yet been made.
Can new units be added to increase the number of unit choices available, or are there limits as there were with the MTW ones?
The game supports a maximum of 300 units.
Is the campaign map a full 3D object or a 2D image of one? What about .rwm files?
The campaign map is a full 3D object, and is mostly built out of geographical heightfield data, with models merged into the map at the places where there are mountains to give the visual appeal a bit of extra 'oomph'. The RWM file contains this data and quite a few other 'layers' such as a climate map, a ground type map, a region map and a feature map.
Could you give us an idea of what kind of modding support CA are planning? Really just an outline ie. are they going to release a modding guide or will there be a set of tools available too? I'm interested in creating a Japanese/fantasy mod but it would require model editing ability (rather than simple texture adjusting).
We will be releasing a battle editor (which also includes an integrated terrain editor) for generating stand-alone battles with a future patch, and also a rough modding guide which may be added to over time as people run into problems. Other tools, such as the sprite generator or some of the Excel spreadsheets, may be released after a while; again, no decision has yet been made on this.
Can we mod individual (turning) speeds?
No. They are hard-coded.
Is there a list of console commands / command-line options available anywhere?
Not as yet. These will probably be included in the modding guide.
How does the Academy bonus work?
The Academy generates ancillaries for characters which are inside a settlement which contains an Academy. If you examine export_descr_ancillaries.txt you will be able to spot them, together with a lot of other ancillaries which are linked to the presence of buildings.
Can we add new campaigns without adding a new installation of Rome?
There is a mechanism for this, however it is not yet ready for prime time. It will be exposed in a future patch and detailed in the guide.
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