M2TW Developer Documentation and Ultimate Docudemons 4.0

[wilddog]

I think in RTW it was actually misspelt but thye corrected it for MTW

[Lonck]

how do u take the banner out in the exel file? It annoying the hell out of me.

[GrnEyedDvl]

The header at the top? I made it smaller in the new version. I originally put that in for a place to put some info but its probably not needed on some of those pages now. New version coming soon.

[Augustus Lucifer]

How progresses Version 5.0? And are there any specific areas in which help is needed? Sorry for bumping this thread if a Version 5.0 is being discussed elsewhere(considering it has been 6 months since a newer version was announced that's definitely possible), but this was the one linked to in the Index.

And to add onto the Seige thing, most of the Siege ones are mis-spelled, it's also like that in the VnVs section.

Cheers,
Augustus

[GrnEyedDvl]

Oh I have some stuff done but not enough to release what I would consider a version 5. Maybe I can do a 4.5 or something along those lines. I have been busy doing actual modding lately.

The Siege spelling I knew about. In the events, conditions, and commands sections, those are straight copy and paste from the official docudemons. Blame CA for those. I think most of them are just descriptions, but a few are actual Conditions. The ones that are spelled wrong, are the ones recognized by the game. If you spell them properly they will not fire. The ones in the VnVs section are my fault, spell them properly when you use them.

A good example would be this one, they spelled it both ways in the same sentence:

Identifier:	SiegeEquipmentCompleted
Event:	A seige equipmqnt has been completed by one of sieging army
Exports:	faction, settlement, region_id, religion
Class:	ET_SIEGE_EQUIPMENT_COMPLETED

[Augustus Lucifer]

"seige equipmqnt" Q? Really CA? equipqnt?

Good to hear some work is done, whenever you feel a small release is available it'd be appreciated. Or if you have the edits in files and want to let me see it, I'd be interested in adding some functionality to some of the areas. For me as a beginning/intermediate scripter/coder, some of the areas could use a lot more organization, and I think others might agree(at current the Conditions file is a nightmare without Ctrl+F of a known quantity). I'd be willing to give it a shot fixing up some areas, because I've already sort of been making reference files for myself so that as I learn things they're easily available to me. What would be nice but that I don't have the Excel knowledge to do, is have sorting macros based on a few different ways to qualify an entry.

Cheers,
Augustus

[GrnEyedDvl]

I am once again adding stuff to this in preparation for a 5.0 release. This will most likely be the last release before Empire Total War when I will begin work on a new set of Ultimate Docudemons.

If there is something you wish to be added, now is the time to request it.

Here is the current plan:
Typo fixes
Update console_commands
More sample scripts
update ui_elements
update hardcoded limits
update config file
Add a Sample Use line to the scripting Events
Add some stuff about the AI decision tree
Update VnV limits

[alhoon]

Put in there that the ancillary limit is 8!

[GrnEyedDvl]

Are you sure? I believe its 11.

[Harry Lime]

It's 8.

[B. Ward]

Independent land masses is 18 I believe. I'll make sure and get back to you.

[Augustus Lucifer]

Independent land masses is 18 I believe. I'll make sure and get back to you.

What constitutes a land mass, as far as map_heights and map_regions and etc are concerned I thought it doesn't really matter, instanced by hundreds of little islands in some mods. Are you sure you didn't botch an edit after the 18th land mass :hmmm:? I'm probably aloof to what you're referring to, so just inquiring.

Cheers,
Augustus

[GrnEyedDvl]

I know I have more than 18 little islands on one map, but as they are all attached to mainland regions maybe it doesnt count them that way?

I also remember discussion about a max region size but I never confirmed anything.

Am currently updating some scripting stuff, adding a Transgressions page.

[Augustus Lucifer]

I know I have more than 18 little islands on one map, but as they are all attached to mainland regions maybe it doesnt count them that way?

I also remember discussion about a max region size but I never confirmed anything.

Am currently updating some scripting stuff, adding a Transgressions page.

The max region size is virtually non-existent. I had my 1021x775 or so map with 3/4 as one region(bigger than vanilla), but I had another 15 regions in the top left and it worked fine. What might be an issue, is the max size of a single region map, ala alpaca's stripped down folder which seems to only have one region. Perhaps if a map only has one region, that has a max size, but in general it doesn't I've found.

I suppose it's possible that the game considers a land mass any region separated from other regions by water and with no portion on the main landmass, but this certainly does seem like a stretch. Maybe I'll give it a test run on the phillipines portion of my map. Or the other question, is by 18 regions, do you mean how many parts of a region can be separated by water, ie a mainland part and 17 small islands that are included in the same RGB :hmmm:?

Cheers,
Augustus

[GrnEyedDvl]

I doubt you can get a map with a single region to run, at least not for very long. It would pop the Victory message and end the game.

[Augustus Lucifer]

I doubt you can get a map with a single region to run, at least not for very long. It would pop the Victory message and end the game.

Couldn't you just edit out any win conditions? Never tried it but I'm 95% sure alpaca's stripped folder has one region in the bottom left and a whole lot of water. Maybe it isn't intended to actually run though :hmmm:

Cheers,
Augustus

[B. Ward]

I'll try to explain this the easiest way I can. I'm no GED so bare with me...

I'll be using an enlarged portion of my map for my world of Eveena.

An independent land mass in regards to the gaming engine is any landmass that does not share any color relation with another in the map_regions file. For example, if I have an island that is blue and another that is red, then there are two independent land masses. But if I have those same two islands but one is blue and the other is half blue and half red, then there is one independent land mass.



The above image shows six (6) independent land masses. The bottom shows three (3) independent land masses.



I stumbled upon this while creating my map for my modification. Now for some reason I was getting ctd when inserting a new independent land mass, but not on an existing land mass. I couldn't figure out why it would crash when I placed the color one place, but not another on my map_regions file. I hadn't changed any text documents, just the colors location on the map. Once I reverted back to my last working version, I counted the number of land masses based on colors shared. I ended up with eighteen (18) working and nineteen (19) ctd. But I still had more islands that needed independent colors. So what I did was insert one (1) pixel on the new island from a nearby island to make it a part of an already existing land mass so I could add more regions as seen in the bottom picture. I turned those two islands into one (1) independent land mass.



I know I probably didn't make a lot of sense just know, but I'll try to explain better if need be. But it was something I found out by accident and was clever enough to find a way around it. Also remember, placement of the "loose" pixel is important. Placing in the right place, most corners work, will hide the border formed by neighboring regions and settlements.

[GrnEyedDvl]

hmmmm I might have to get that mod folder from you someday and do some testing, you still have a saved version from before the editing so I can recreate?

[B. Ward]

I can get you the map without all the extra added stuff and you can have a look all you like.

[GrnEyedDvl]

Cool, post it in your dev forum and I will take a look probably this weekend.