Modding Guide v1. Contents

Transcription

1 Modding Guide v1 Contents Introduction... 5 Getting Started... 5 Mod Packages... 5 The Package Manager... 6 The Mod Editor... 7 Linking Mods Together... 9 Quick Guide: Creating a Mod RPK Files Overview RPK files contain links to other RPK files RPK files contain links to other content The Mod Editor lets you mod a copy of the RPK Adding New Text Adding a new localized text file Formatting Text String Key Replacers Quick Guide: Adding your own Localized Text to your Mod Units Overview AoW Unit (Entity) Figure (Entity) AoW Unit Property (Settings) AoW Unit Requisite (Settings) UnitType (Settings) AoW Tier Resource (Settings) Race (Settings) AoW Race Unit Link Data (Settings) AoW Unit Set / AoW Unit Category (Settings)... 16

2 Quick Guide: Changing a Unit s Stats Quick Guide: Changing a Unit s Abilities Quick Guide: Creating a New Unit Quick Guide: Making a Unit Set for a New Unit Quick Guide: Making a New Unit Buildable in a City Magic Spells and Unit Abilities Overview Spells (Settings) Unit Abilities (Settings) Targeters (Settings) Effects (Settings) AoW Combat Property (Settings) Quick Guide: Changing the damage done by a spell/ability Quick Guide: Changing the duration of an buff/debuff in a spell/ability Quick Guide: Changing which units a spell/ability can affect Player Skills and Classes AoW Player Class (Settings) AoW Player Class Skill (Settings) AoW Player Property (Settings) Quick Guide: Changing the Research Cost/Tier of a Skill Racial Governance Upgrades Hero Upgrades City Upgrades AoW City Upgrade (Settings) AoW City Property (Settings) AoW Race City Upgrade Link Data (Settings) Structures Overview AoW Structure: Treasure Site (Entity) AoW Adventure Set (Settings) AoW Value Scaled Reward Set (Settings) Adding New Structures to the RMG... 29

3 Particle and Sound Effects Overview Getting Started Creating a new Particle Effect Creating the effect Making the Big Flame particle Spawning more particles Adding Musical Trails Particle Sprite Textures Adding sounds to particle effects Importing New Sounds Effects Modding Graphics with the Content Editor Overview Content Size and Memory Considerations Content Editor and CLB files Editing an existing CLB file Creating a new CLB file Creating a Skinned Model for the game Getting Started Import the premade skinned model Bind your mesh to the skeleton Export the skinned model Importing the Skinned Model into the Content Editor Texture Formats Creating Materials Overview Creating the icons in Photoshop Import your Icons into the Content Editor Linking the Icon into your Mod Reskinning an Existing Model Overview Extracting the existing Texture... 52

4 Applying the New Texture Using the New Model in the Game The Tome of Wonders Case Studies Overview Case Study 1: Obsidian Dragons in the Dragon Dwelling Mod Description/Goal Creating the Mod File Creating a New Text File Adding New City Upgrades Adding the Obsidian Dragon and Wyvern to the Dwelling All done Case Study 2: Adding the Blight Surgeon to the Goblin army Mod Description/Goal Creating the Mod File Creating a New Text File Create the Stink Bomb Ability Create the Blight Surgeon Unit Linking the Blight Surgeon into the Game All Done Case Study 3: Adding a new Hero and Leader Mod Description/Goal Creating the Mod File Creating a New Text File Adding Tombelina Adding Tombles All Done Troubleshooting I ve edited an object, and now it s disappeared from the game! I ve changed the values in a spell or ability, but the numbers in the spell s description are still the same!... 81

5 I ve added a new resource to a pack in my mod, but I can t see that new resource in another pack in the mod! I m updating the description of a skill, but the changes aren t appearing in game! I m updating the description of a hero upgrade, but the changes aren t appearing in game! Useful Text Tags Formatting Text Coloring Text Bullet Point Lists General Formatting Icons Introduction This guide is intended to help you get started with modding Age Of Wonders 3. In it, I hope to give you enough information to understand the systems that make up the game so you can start making complex mods. If you want to dive straight in, then I have included a number of Quick Guides which explain how to carry out common tasks in step-by-step detail. Getting Started Mod Packages In Age Of Wonders 3, all user made content and mods are stored in package files. The package file (.acp) contains data to configure your mod, as well as the actual modified game data that you create to change how the game functions. You can see which mods you currently have installed in the launcher, under the User Content tab.

6 In this list we can see the names of the mods we have installed, as well as each mod s priority (used to resolve conflicts when two mods try to change the same thing) and a checkbox which can be used to disable each mod. Clicking on the Package Editor button will open an editor you can use to create new packages and edit existing ones. The Package Manager The package editor lets you create and edit packages, as well as helping you manage uploading your packages to the Steam Workshop. You can launch the package manager from the User Content tab of the launcher, or from the Tools menu of the Level Editor.

7 Included Files This is a list of all the files that are to be included in the package you are making. The system will automatically include all files that are in the same folder as the ACP file. These files could include maps that you have made, new versions of game files that you have modified and new language files which you want to be linked into your modded data. Title The name of the package that will appear in game and on the Steam Workshop Author The name of the person (or persons) who created the package Tags These tags are used by the steam workshop to help users quickly see what type of data your package contains Preview Image An image that will appear on your package s page in the steam workshop. Version A number you can fill in to indicate to users which version of the package this is. Priority A number that determines what to do when two packages both attempt to modify the same piece of data or resource. The package with the higher priority value will override data from the lower priority one. Build Number This value goes up each time you save the package. It is used by the system to determine which package is Newer if the content of a package is changed. Once you have created and set up your package, you can start actually modding the game! To do that, click the Launch Mod Editor button. The Mod Editor The Mod Editor is the tool you will use to make most of the changes you will put into your mod. The tool allows you to open the Resource Pack (RPK) files which store the data objects (called Resources) that configure the game s units, spells, city upgrades and a huge host of other things, and make modifications to them to change how the game works. The RPK files are stored in the folder:

8 Steam: steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs GOG: [Age Of Wonders 3 Install Folder] \Content\Title\Packs The Title folder stores resource packs for the base game. The folder s DLC2 and DLC3 store the packs for the Golden Realms and Eternal Lords expansions. When you use the Editor, you are not actually changing the RPK file itself, you are simply making changes which are stored in the Package s ACP file. When the game loads the RPK file, it will go through all the loaded ACP files and apply any changes it finds to the RPK. If two packages have made a change to the same resource, then the package with the higher priority will win. In the File menu, you can find commands to open resource packs for editing, and also an option to remove the resource pack from the mod. Be aware that removing the resource pack from the mod will also permanently delete any modifications you made to that pack! The top tabs show the RPK files you currently have open, directly under that are more tabs which separate the different types of data that each package can store:

9 Entities An entity is an object that can be placed into the game world in some way. If something has a model attached to it which you can see in the game world, the chances are that it is an entity. Examples: units, structures, projectiles Settings These general purpose resources store the vast majority of in game data. Examples: spells, abilities, city upgrades FX Particle effects that are attached to units, spells and in game models. Examples: fire effects, light beams, magical projectile effects The resources are divided into different categories to make them easier to find and organize. It is not possible to add your own categories for your own resources at this time, you will need to place your new resources into existing categories. The list box on the left shows all of the resources that are available to edit in the selected category. If the resource s name is black, then you have not made any modifications to it. If you want to edit an existing resource, then select it and click on the Modify button on the right. The name of the resource will turn red to indicate that it has been modified and can be edited. When you select a modified resource, you can click the Remove Mod button to revert your changes back to the original version of the mod. You can also create your own new resources in empty slots in the list. You will first need to select an empty slot, choose the type of resource you want to create from the Type drop down, and then click the New button. It is also possible to select an existing resource, and use CTRL-C and CTRL-V to copy/paste a copy into a new slot. You can always delete any resources you create yourself, but it is not possible to delete resources from resource packs using mods. Linking Mods Together It is possible to tell to link mods together so that one mod effectively contains another mod. When you do this, the first mod will be dependent on the second mod, and will not be able to load without it. This also allows the first mod to make modifications to the second mod. When you load the first mod in the Mod Editor you will be able to see the resources from the mod it s dependent on as if they were part of the core game, and you will be able to copy them and modify them in the same way. To create a mod that is linked to another mod: 1) Open the package manager 2) Create a new mod, and give it a name 3) Select Packages from the Content menu 4) Click the checkbox of the package you want your new mod to contain and press OK Note: You can also use this to make your Mod require a particular DLC package to function. Once you have done this, if you launch the Mod Editor, you should be able to view and modify the resources from the linked mod in your new mod.

10 Quick Guide: Creating a Mod To create a mod and start editing game resources: 1) Start the game s launcher 2) Launch the Package Manager from the User Content Tab. 3) In the Package Manager, select New from the file menu 4) Enter the file name for your mod and click Set 5) Give your Mod a title 6) Click Launch Mod Editor 7) In the Mod Editor select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 8) Open the RPK file you want to modify from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 9) Select the resource you wish to modify 10) Press Modify to unlock the resource, and make your changes. RPK Files Overview RPK files store the resources that the game uses to configure itself. When you use the mod editor, you are not actually editing those RPK files, you are actually storing data on changes you re making to the RPK files in the package s ACP file. Even though you cannot edit the RPK files yourself, there are still a few things you will need to understand about them when you make your Mod. RPK files contain links to other RPK files Each RPK file has an internal list of other RPK files that it requires to function. When you re working with resources in an RPK file, you can access data which is stored in that RPK file OR in the RPK files that are linked to it. If the linked RPKs are themselves linked to other RPK files, you can access data in those packs as well, and packs that they are linked to, and so on. These links are one way, if pack A links to pack B, then pack B cannot link back to pack A. Therefore if you have a situation where resource A links to resource B AND resource B links to resource A, then they must both be in the same pack. If you cannot find a resource or model in the ModEditor, then there s a very good chance that the resource you re linking to isn t connected to the RPK file you are modifying. There are two workarounds for this: If you are creating a new resource, then you can create that resource in a different pack that does have access to the resource you re linking to. You can create a copy of the resource you want to link to in the pack that you are modifying. This can be quite fiddly, because often the resource you need to copy requires other resources to work. For example, if you wanted to copy to the Shoot Longbow ability, then you d also need

11 to copy the abilities targeters and effects, as well as relinking them all together after copying them. Note that it is not possible to change which RPK file links to which other RPK file using the Mod Editor. The structure of how all the different packs link together is very complex and any attempt to change it will result in things breaking somewhere. RPK files contain links to other content Each RPK can also contain links to localized text files and content library (CLB) files. This means that you can only link to models, textures and text that are linked to the RPK file you are modifying or the RPK files that are linked to that one. If you add a new CLB or XML file to your mod, it will automatically be linked to every RPK file that you edit, so any new content you add to your mod will always be available to things you are modding. The Mod Editor lets you mod a copy of the RPK When you modify an RPK file in the Mod Editor, the editor actually stores 2 copies of the RPK file. The copy that you are modifying and the copy that is visible to other packs you are modifying. This means that if you add a new resource to a pack, it will not be visible to other packs you are modifying, because those packs are looking at a different copy of the RPK file than the one you are editing. To get around this you need to save your Mod and restart the Mod Editor, doing this will update both copies of the RPK file in the editor s memory, so that your newly added resources can be accessed from other packs. Adding New Text Adding a new localized text file If you want to add new things like units or abilities into the game, you will also need to add new text into the game so that those units and spells have distinct names and descriptions. You can add new text into the game by creating your own XML files, based on the example XML file provided on our website. This XML file is best edited in a spread sheet program, such as Microsoft Excel or LibreOffice. Make sure you save the file as an Excel 2003 XML file once you are done editing it. The unique name of your XML file should be placed in cell A1. Then, each string you add is identified by two other names, a SCENE ID and a TEXT ID. By adding all three together, you can get a sort unique identifier for the string. The string in the above spread sheet is identified by: EXAMPLE@EXAMPLE_SCENE@NAME

12 You should always enter the English version of the text into the TEXT/SPEECH column, and then translated versions of the text into the FRENCH/POLISH/GERMAN/RUSSIAN columns. If you do not have translated text, then make sure to copy/paste the English text into those columns, otherwise no text will appear for players who are using that language. Formatting Text The game supports tags being placed into text to change formatting and insert icons into the text. These tags always begin and end with [square brackets]. If a tag needs to be opened and closed, then closing tag is marked with a /. For example: [bold] Bold Text Here! [/bold] If a tag doesn t need be closed, then it should have a / just before the closing square bracket. For example: [gold/] A list of useful tags is included at the end of this document. String Key Replacers You will notice that many unit abilities and spells have a field called String Key Replacer. This system can be used to replace a piece of text in an abilities name or description with another piece of text, usually a number representing a duration or an amount of damage. This is done to allow designers to change values in resources without having them need to change the localized strings which contain data about what they changed. For example, the description for War Cry says: The unit recieves {warcrybonus} melee strength until the end of the turn. Using the String Key Replacer system {warcrybonus} is replaced with +3 [physical/]. If someone wants to change the strength of war cry later on, they only need to change the replacer rather than the description of the ability itself. Quick Guide: Adding your own Localized Text to your Mod 1) Download the Example.xml file from our website 2) Rename the file and save it into your mod s folder. The filename should be unique! To be safe, it s probably a good idea to give it the same name as your mod. 3) To check that the XML file is in the right place, open your Package in the Package Manager. The XML file should appear in the list of Included Files. 4) Open the XML file in Excel or Open Office s spread sheet editor 5) Change the value in cell A1 to the name of the XML file. The name should be in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS with NO SPACES. 6) Add your own text entries, starting from row 5.

13 7) Each string should have a SCENE_ID and a TEXT_ID. Make sure both are ALL CAPITAL LETTERS with NO SPACES. 8) Copy the English text from the TEXT/SPEECH column into the columns for the other languages (or fill in translated text, if you have it) 9) Make sure the XML file is NOT being edited when you launch the game! Excel will block the game from loading if it s editing the XML file. Units Overview Units are made up of several different types of resources: AoW Unit (Entity) This is the core of the unit, all of the different resources that make up a unit link into this one. It contains most of the gameplay relevant data (hitpoints, move points, etc) for the unit. Figure (Entity) This is the visual aspect of the unit, the animated figure that you can see moving around in combat and on the world map. AoW Unit Property (Settings) - These resources represent the various active and passive abilities that appear in the unit panel, such as Fire Longbow or Fire Resistance AoW Unit Requisite (Settings) These resources are special tags that can be attached to units, and are used to check whether a particular effect (such as a spell) can affect the unit. For example, Draconian Slayer only affects units which have the Draconian requisite. UnitType (Settings) This resource defines a type of unit, such as Infantry, Cavalry or Monster. AoW Tier Resource (Settings) These resources determine what tier the unit is Race (Settings) These resources define what race the unit is a part of, such as High Elf or Dragon AoW Race Unit Link Data (Settings) These tell the system which races can build which units in their cities AoW Unit Set/Categories These objects define groups of units for use in things like summoning spells. Note that some of these resources link to other resources. For example, each requisite has a unit property linked to it, so you can see in the unit panel that the unit has that requisite. Unit Types and Races have Requisites linked to them, so that every unit of one race has the correct requisite for that race. In order to modify a unit, you will first need to identify which resource contains the data that you want to modify. Similarly, if you want to create a new unit, you will need to be able to figure out which resources should be linked to it so make it function correctly.

14 AoW Unit (Entity) This is the main resource type that defines a unit. They are usually stored in RPK files called UnitXXXX.rpk or AoW_UnitXXX.rpk, so you would find the resource for the Goblin Irregular in AoW_UnitGoblins.rpk These resources contain all the gameplay data needed to define a unit in the game, as well as links to all the resources which define how the unit should function. Some of the most important pieces of data in units are: Figure Settings This contains a link to the figure which defines what the unit looks like, as well as various settings about how that figure should be used Properties A list of all the properties that the unit has by default Requisites A list of all the requisites that the unit has by default Default Ability Link The ability the unit uses for Attacks Of Opportunity and Retaliations. This should always point to the Melee Strike ability. This ability need not be added to the Properties list. Preferred Ability Link The ability to select by default when you choose the unit in combat. This ability need not be added to the Properties list. Production Cost: XXX - The amount of gold/mana/population needed ot build the unit Stats Defines the core stats of the unit, such as it s hit points, melee damage and sight range Unit Medal Rewards The properties that the unit gets as it levels up. These are also defined in both the unit s tier and type resources. Required City Property Link The city property that a city must have to be able to produce the unit. This lets you stop a city building a unit before a particular upgrade is built. Required Player Property Link The player property that a city s owning player must have to be able to produce the unit. This lets you stop a city building a unit before a particular skill is researched Race Link A link to the race of the unit (optional) Type A link to the type of the unit (optional) Tier Resource Link A link to the tier of the unit Figure (Entity) This resource defines what the unit looks like and how it animates. The figure for a unit is almost always defined in the same pack as the unit itself. Some pieces of data of note: Items The weapons that are held in the unit s hands. There is also a link to a head item, which as far as I can tell has never been used by the art team. Model The model that the figure should use. For a mounted unit, this should be the mount Rider Model For a mounted unit, this should be the model of the rider

15 Animations Found in the components tab, you will need to attach a Template Resolver that defines what animations the figures should use. Due to technical issues, Template Resolvers cannot be modded, so you will need to find the correct resolver that works with the model (and possible rider) that you have chosen. AoW Unit Property (Settings) Unit Properties (also called Abilities) are resources which you attach to a unit to change it in some way, they are all defined in AoW_UnitProperties.rpk. Unit Properties are the things that appear in the main abilities list for the unit in the unit panel. Shield, Shoot Longbow, Melee Strike, Blessed and Frost Weakness are all examples of Unit Properties. There are very many different types, all of which have different effects that you can experiment with. The most complex are the Active Ability Properties, which are the properties that give unit s new usable abilities. Editing these will be covered in the Magic section, later in this guide. You can attach a property to a unit directly via its Properties field, or via a Unit Requisite. Properties can also be attached by various spells, city upgrades and player skills. Some of the most useful Unit Properties include: Stat Bonus This property increases or decreases a unit s stats, allowing to change how many HP it has, for example. Conditional Attack Bonus This property lets you increase or decrease the amount of damage that a unit does in certain situations. It allows you to give a bonus to damage against elves, for example, or to increase ranged damage. Evolve This will cause the unit to transform into another unit when it hits elite level Group This property can contain a list of other properties. It can be used for making complex unit abilities out of a number of simpler ones. Stack Property This property lets the unit give other unit s in its stack a property (e.g. Bard Skills gives the High Morale property to all the unit s stack mates) Ability This property defines an ability that the unit can use in combat. See the section on magic and abilities later in this guide. AoW Unit Requisite (Settings) Requisites are simple resources which you can attach to a unit, that are used by other systems to check whether the unit can or cannot be affected by something. For example, Undead is a requisite, and many abilities (such as Heal) are set up to not affect units which have the Undead requisite. All requisites are defined in AoW_UnitProperties.rpk. Each requisite can have a Unit Property attached to it, which is automatically given to all units that have that requisite. This allows the user to see what requisites a unit has by looking at the unit panel. It also means that units with a certain requisite will always have certain abilities. For example, the Undead requisite has properties attached to it that grant the unit immunity to blight damage and vulnerability to spirit damage.

16 As a rule new Requisites can be given to units at run time, but can never be taken away from units at run time. UnitType (Settings) Unit types are categories of units which are used to help players quickly recognize what a unit is capable of and what sort of abilities it might have. Infantry, Cavalry and Hero are all types of unit. They are defined in AoW_UnitProperties.rpk. A unit type has a requisite attached to it, so that all units of the same type can be recognized by spells and can share common properties. The unit type also defines properties that all units of that type gain as they level up. AoW Tier Resource (Settings) Unit Tiers represent the general power level that a unit has. The Unit Tiers are defined in Title.rpk. The tier resource is the thing that defines the amount of XP the unit needs to level up, the gold required for the unit s upkeep (unless the unit is summoned), the amount of XP the unit receives when it does things and that it rewards when another unit kills it. Race (Settings) A race is similar to a unit type, it grants the unit a requisite that itself can grant unit properties, to make sure that all units of the same race have shared abilities and can be recognized by vaiour spells and systems. Races are defined RaceLogic.rpk. Races contain a lot of extra information that doesn t really fit into this section of the guide, such as data on the race s cities and configuration stuff for the Racial Governance upgrades. AoW Race Unit Link Data (Settings) These resources tell the system which races can build which units in their cities. If you want to add a new unit to a city s production list, you will need to create one of these resources and link the unit to it as well as the race of the city you wish to affect. There can be multiple copies of this resource for each race. These resources are normally found in the same pack as the unit s they re linking to, so the goblin one will be in AoW_UnitGoblins.rpk. AoW Unit Set / AoW Unit Category (Settings) A unit set is an object that can store a link to one or more units. These sets are then organized into categories, and the categories are linked to things like summoning spells. The main advantage of a unit set is that it is identified by a unique name, this name can be used to identify the set in resource packs which cannot link directly to the units in the set themselves. Important things to know about unit sets and categories:

17 If the system find multiple sets with the same SetName, but different Override Priority values, then only the set with the highest Override Priority will be used If the system finds multiple sets with the same SetName and Override Priority, then it will merge them to form the same set The above 2 rules also count for Categories with identical names A set can contain other sets A set can contain the same unit multiple times, when the system chooses randomly from the set, this can be used to make the system more likely to pick one unit instead of another. Quick Guide: Changing a Unit s Stats To take an existing unit and change its basic stats: 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 3) Open the RPK file that contains the unit from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 4) Select the Entities tab 5) Find the unit resource (should be in the category called XXXX units ) 6) Select the unit you wish to edit and click the Modify button 7) In the Properties section, look for the group of entries named Stats 8) Change the required stat 9) Save the package with the File menu or CTRL+S Quick Guide: Changing a Unit s Abilities To take an existing unit and change its abilities: 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 3) Open the RPK file that contains the unit from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 4) Select the Entities tab 5) Find the unit resource (should be in the category called XXXX units ) 6) Select the unit you wish to edit and click the Modify button 7) In the Properties section, look for an entry which is called Properties 8) Add or remove abilities as needed from this list 9) If you cannot find the the ability, it may also be linked under Preferred Ability Link or Requisites 10) Save the package with the File menu or CTRL+S Quick Guide: Creating a New Unit To create a new unit based on a copy of an existing unit: 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu

18 3) Open the RPK file that contains the existing unit from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 4) Select the Entities tab 5) Find the unit figure resource (should be in the category called XXXX figures ) 6) Create a copy of the figure by selecting it, pressing CTRL+C, selecting an empty slot and pressing CTRL+V 7) Change the name of your copied figure 8) Make any desired changes to the figure s model, items or appearance 9) Go to the category that contains the units (should be called XXXX units) and find the unit resource 10) Make a copy of the unit resource using the same technique as step 6 11) Change the name of your copied unit 12) In your copied unit, go to the Figure Settings section. Change the resource being pointed to by Figure to the new figure you just created. 13) Change the Screen Name and Screen Description to your new values (see Quick Guide: Adding your own Localized Text to your Mod) 14) Make any other adjustments to the unit s stats or abilities Quick Guide: Making a Unit Set for a New Unit To create a unit set for a unit so that it can be summoned by spells: 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 3) Open the RPK file that contains the new unit from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 4) Select the Settings tab 5) Find the Unit Sets category 6) Select an empty slot to make your new set in 7) Select Aow Unit Set from the Type drop down 8) Press the Create button 9) Give the set a name in the Name field 10) Give the set a unique name in the SetName field 11) Select the new unit in the Units list 12) You can now add the SetName from step 10 to unit categories! Quick Guide: Making a New Unit Buildable in a City To tell the system that your unit should be buildable in cities of a particular race: 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 3) Open the RPK file that contains the new unit from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 4) Select the Settings tab and choose a category (for example Unit Sets)

19 5) Select an empty slot 6) Choose AoW Race Unit Link Data from the Type drop down 7) In the new resource, select the Race of the city which should be able to build the unit 8) In the Units list, add the new unit(s) 9) Repeat steps 6-8 for each race that needs to be able to build the unit Magic Spells and Unit Abilities Overview Both magic spells and unit abilities work on the same principle, with the same set of resources. The basic concept works as follows: The Event A spell or ability contains a single event. The event configures the core parts of the ability and contains one of more Targeters. Targeters Targeters collect objects from the game world for the spell/ability to affect. Each targeter contains one or more effects. Effects Effects change the objects that have been collected by the targeters So, if we look at the fireball spell, we see the following set of resources: Fireball Skill This defines the skill the player needs to research to unlock the spell (See Player Skills) Has Fireball Skill A player property that unlocks the Fireball Skill (researching the skill gives the player this property, the player can only cast the spell when they have this property). Fireball Spell The actual spell, defines things like the spell s name and mana cost Fireball Unit Targeter Magic - Tactical Unit Targeter: Single This targeter grabs the unit at the location the spell is cast at Fireball Unit Effect Magic - Tactical Unit Effect: Damage This effect is stored in Fireball Unit Targeter, it does damage to the unit that the targeter finds. Fireball Obstacle Targeter Magic Tactical Obstacle Targeter: Single This targeter grabs the obstacle (i.e. the wall) at the location the spell is cast at Fireball Obstacle Effect Magic - Tactical Obstacle Effect: Damage This effect is stored in Fireball Obstacle Targeter, it does damage to the obstacle that the targeter finds.

20 So, when the player casts the fireball spell on a hex, the two targeters search for targets on that hex. If they find one, they execute their effects on those targets. If they do not find any valid targets, then the spell cannot be cast on that location. Spells (Settings) There are two types of spells in the game: Magic - Instant Spell This is the resource for most spells that are cast on the world map, or in combat. Make sure you set the Tactical flag to tell the system where the spell is meant for. Magic Sustained Spell This is the resource for sustained spells which can only be cast on the world map. They are usually placed in the pack AoW_SpellTest.rpk or in the class s skill pack (e.g. Rogue spells are found in the pack SkillRogue.rpk). Some of the most important parts of a spell are: Screen Name/Description - The name and description of the spell Required Property Link A link to a Player Property that the player must have to be able to cast the spell. See Player Skills. Tactical (Instant Spells Only) True for combat spells, false for world map spells Event This contains all of the magic settings that determine what the spell actually does String Key Replacer See the section earlier in this doc. Used for inserting things like the spell s duration and damage into the spell s description. Cast Description Explanation A string that explains to the player what they need to do to cast the spell (e.g. Click on an enemy unit) Unit Abilities (Settings) Unit abilities use targeters and effects, just like spells. There are two types: AoW Unit Property: Ability This is the normal resource to use for unit abilities AoW Unit Property: Default Ability This is the resource to use for Default Abilities, which are the abilities units use when retaliating and doing attacks of opportunity All unit abilities are defined in the pack AoW_UnitProperties.rpk. Some of the most important parts of a unit ability are: Ability Type Determines the number of action points the ability costs, and whether it repeats Attack Range Determines the range of the ability Event This contains all of the magic settings that determine what the spell actually does Event Type Abilities can have different types of event. The event type determines how the unit is visualized when it uses the ability, so one event might cause the unit to fire projectiles,

21 while another might make the unit run forwards and use a melee attack. Be careful: Changing the type of event will erase all data stored in the event! Type Sets whether the attack is melee, ranged, touch or cast, which affects which damage bonuses will affect the ability Primary Effect Link - The effect that is used to print the damage preview next to the ability s name. If the ability only has one effect linked to it, that effect is used automatically. String Key Replacer See the section earlier in this doc. Used for inserting things like the ability s duration and damage into the spell s description. Targeters (Settings) Targeters are the resources that gather objects for spells and abilities to affect. There are several important things to know about a targeter: The type of object the targeter collects The targeter might affect Tactical Units, Cities, Players or a few other things. The type of object determines the type of effects the targeter can store. A targeter that affects tactical units can only contain effects that work on tactical units. The way the objects are collected Some targeters might only select the object the player clicks on, some might collect all the objects in an area, some might collect every object that exists. You can see these two pieces of information by looking at the name of the targeter s type. For example: Magic - Tactical Unit Targeter: Single Collects the tactical unit that the player clicks on Magic Tactical Obstacle Targeter: Circle Collects all the obstacles in a circular area, centred on the location the player clicks on. Other things also determine which objects the targeter collects. For example, a unit targeter can be configured to only collect enemy units, or only units which have a particular requisite. Finally, each targeter contains a list of effects. Once the targeter has collected all of its objects, it will run its effects over them. By default, a targeter can only collect an object if ALL of its effects will work on the object. So, if a targeter contains a healing effect, it will never target a unit that has full HP, since it cannot be healed. Effects (Settings) Effects sit in targeters and determine what effect the spell/ability actually has on the targeted objects. Like targeters, different effects are designed to work on particular types of objects. You can only link an effect to a targeter if they both work on the same type of object. Also, note that some effects (such as effects that buff cities or summon units) will only work in Sustained Spells. AoW Combat Property (Settings) Combat Properties are special resources that can be attached to the whole world during combat, to produce some sort of global effect. They are recognizable by the icons they display on the left hand side

22 of the screen. Combat Properties can be attached via spells (using Magic - Tactical World Effect: Combat Property) or can come from City Properties or Structures. Some of the most useful types of Combat Properties include: AoW Combat Property: Unit Property This property gives a unit property to all units on the battlefield AoW Combat Property: Unit Auto Spell A property that casts a spell on one or more random units each turn AoW Combat Property: Global Auto Spell A property that casts a spell one or more times each turn. The spell must be global (i.e. Can be cast without giving a target location) AoW Combat Property: Block All Spells - A property that prevents heroes and leaders from casting spells Note that combat properties can be Disjuncted by enemy players in order to remove them; this can be controlled using the Dispellable and Dispel Cost settings. Some spells use multiple combat properties at once, when doing this it is customary to hide all but one of the Combat Properties using the Visible In Enchantment List setting. When one property from a spell is disjuncted, the system will automatically remove all other properties that were applied by the same spell. Quick Guide: Changing the damage done by a spell/ability 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 3) Open the RPK file that contains the spell/ability from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 4) Select the Settings tab and find the resources for the spell/ability you want to change 5) Search through the Effects linked to the spell/ability, looking for each Damage type effect 6) For each damage effect, select the effect, push the Modify button, then set the new damage value in the effect. 7) Go to the resource for the spell/ability itself and look for the String Key Replacer entry. Double click on it. 8) Check the String Key Replacer dialog for damage values, if they re present you will need to update those as well (some unit abilities do this with an automatic section, so this might not be necessary) Quick Guide: Changing the duration of an buff/debuff in a spell/ability 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 3) Open the RPK file that contains the spell/ability from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 4) Select the Settings tab and find the resources for the spell/ability you want to change

23 5) Search through the Effects linked to the spell/ability, looking for each Property type effect 6) For each property effect, select the effect, push the Modify button, then change the Num Turns value. You may also want to change the Duration Type value, to make the effect last until the end of combat. 7) Go to the resource for the spell/ability itself and look for the String Key Replacer entry. Double click on it. 8) Check the String Key Replacer dialog for the duration value, if they re present you will need to update those as well Quick Guide: Changing which units a spell/ability can affect For example, changing the heal ability so it can affect the undead. 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 3) Open the RPK file that contains the spell/ability from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 4) Select the Settings tab and find the resources for the spell/ability you want to change 5) Search through the Targeters linked to the spell/ability. In these you should see an entry called Requisite Filter 6) Add or remove requisites from the filter to determine what units the targeter will affect. For example, removing Undead from the Forbidden Requisites list will allow the spell/ability to affect the undead. 7) If the spell/ability description is now inaccurate, you may want to write a new description (see Quick Guide: Adding your own Localized Text to your Mod). Player Skills and Classes AoW Player Class (Settings) Player classes and specializations are defined using the AoW Player Class resource; they are mostly stored in AoW_ClassSkillData.rpk. Adding a new class to the game is a massive undertaking which is beyond the scope of this document, adding a new specialization class is fairly simple however. Some of the important pieces of data in a class include: Default Skills The skills that players with this class start with. These must be defined in the same RPK as the class itself. Class Type Determines if the class is primary, a specialization, a default class that everyone gets or a hidden class that no-one can get (secret spells are linked to a hidden type class) Forbidden Classes A list of classes that a player may not have if they want to take this class Required Class Link A class that the player must have if they want to take this class

24 AoW Player Class Skill (Settings) This resource defines a skill that the player can research. Skills are either in AoW_ClassSkillData.rpk, AoW_SpellTest.rpk or in a special skill pack for the class (e.g. Rogue skills are in SkillRogue.rpk). The skill must be linked to a player class, so the system knows which players can research it. Skills work by giving Player Properties when they re researched. These properties in turn affect the player s empire in some way, see the AoW Player Property (Settings) section for more info. Other useful settings in the player class skill include: Research Type - Determines if the spell is always visible in the spell book, or if it should be picked randomly Round Limit Prevents the skill from appearing before a certain round in the game Type The type of thing the research unlocks, determines where the skill appears in the skill book. Can Be Starting Skill True if the system is allowed to give this skill out to players when the game starts Important Note: If a skill is being used to unlock a spell, the system automatically uses the description of the spell *NOT* the description of the skill! AoW Player Property (Settings) Player Properties are special resources that can be given to a player to change their empire in some way. They are mainly gained by completing research, but can also be applied to players via spells and racial governance upgrades. Player Properties are used to unlock spells, using the following technique: 1) The spell has a Required Property Link, which is linked to a Player Property. 2) That same Player Property is linked to the skill which should unlock the spell 3) When the player researches the skill, they gain the property, which unlocks the spell for their use. There are many special types of player property that you can use, some of the more useful ones are: AoW Player Property: City Property This property gives all the cities under the player s control a city property, which affects how they work (see City Upgrades for details). This can be used to increase the gold income of all the player s cities, for example. AoW Player Property: Unit This property gives all the player s units (or all the player s enemy units) a unit property. There is a requisite filter that can be used to limit this further, so you can have a property that gives all the player s archers Inflict Bleeding Wounds, for example. AoW Player Property: Hex Income Bonus This property gives all the cities and forts under the player s control extra income from certain hexes. For example, it might give +5 gold from all gold mines, or +5 happiness from all swamp hexes.

25 AoW Player Property: Stat Boost This property can be used to increase (or decrease) one of the player s core stats, like their casting point total, or global gold income multiplier. Quick Guide: Changing the Research Cost/Tier of a Skill 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 3) Open the RPK file that contains the spell/ability from steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs 4) Select the Settings tab and find the resources for the skill you want to change 5) Select the desired skill and click the Modify button 6) Change the Knowledge Cost and/or Tier to the required value Racial Governance Upgrades Racial Governance Upgrades are embedded into the main race resources, usually found in RaceLogic.rpk. The settings can be found by selecting the Race definition (AoW Race) and then double clicking on the Command Level List settings. The list contains one entry for each level of racial governance (which is hard coded to 5). Each entry defines the settings for each choice that the player must make, including an alternate option for Necromancer players to take for their economic choice (there is no necromancer alternative for the military choice). In a similar way to player skills, each choice has a number of Player Properties attached to it (see AoW Player Property (Settings) for more details on these). When a player chooses an upgrade, they receive those properties, which change their empire in some way. It should be noted that, since all the settings are stored in the race resource, modding race governance for a race means no other mod can mod that race resource, since only one mod can modify a single resource at a time. Hero Upgrades Hero upgrades are defined by two different resources: AoW Hero Upgrade: Property This upgrade gives the hero a unit property when it is bought (see AoW Unit Property (Settings)). AoW Hero Upgrade: Spell This upgrade unlocks a new spell for the hero to use. These upgrades are usually defined in the same pack as each class s spells, so Rogue upgrades are in SkillRogue.rpk, while Theocrat and Warlord upgrades are in AoW_SpellTest.rpk. Interesting settings include:

26 Allowed Hero Type Determines if the upgrade can be used by heroes, leaders or both. Spell type upgrades should set this to Hero Forbidden Upgrade Requisites Link List - A list of upgrades that the hero cannot have if they want this upgrade. This can be used to make upgrades mutually exclusive. Required Class Link Sets the class which the upgrade is intended for Required Upgrade Requisites A list of upgrades that the hero must have in order to get this upgrade. Note that when you re using the Spell type upgrades, the Screen Description of the spell is automatically used, you do not need to set it up in the upgrade yourself. City Upgrades AoW City Upgrade (Settings) This resource defines a city upgrade that can be built in a city, such as a Barracks or Temple. They are normally found in AoW_CityProperties.rpk and CityPropertiesLogic.rpk. There are 3 types: AoW City Upgrade: Normal The default type of city upgrade for general purpose use AoW City Upgrade: Class Special An upgrade that can only be used in cities owned by players with a certain class. In theory, this could also be used with specializations. AoW City Upgrade: Beacon An upgrade tied into the beacon victory system City upgrades work by applying City Properties to the city that builds them. These City Properties change the city in some way (e.g. by boosting its income), see AoW City Property (Settings) for more info. Other interesting settings include: Required City Properties City properties a city must have before it can build this upgrade. Used to prevent a city building a war hall before it has a barracks Forbidden City Upgrades City properties a city may not have before it can build this upgrade. Can be used to make city upgrades mutually exclusive. Required Structure Name The name of the structure that must be in the city s domain for the upgrade to be built. Allow Random Starting Upgrade Determines if the given upgrade can be given by pickups, like the building materials pickup. If you add a new City Upgrade, you will need to use a AoW Race City Upgrade Link Data resource to tell the system which race s cities can build it.

27 AoW City Property (Settings) City Properties are special resource that can be attached to cities to change them in some way. These properties are normally attached using City Upgrades, but can come from other sources, such as spells and player properties. City Properties are used to prevent a unit from being built in a city before a particular upgrade has been built. This is done using the following technique: 1) The unit has a Required City Property Link, which is linked to a City Property. 2) The same City Property is linked to the City Upgrade which unlocks the unit 3) When the city builds the upgrade, it gains the city property, which allows it to build the unit. There are many different types of City Property, some of the most useful ones are: AoW City Property: Unit Property This property grants units produced in the city a new property. AoW City Property: Unit XP Bonus This property gives units produced in the city an XP bonus. AoW City Property: Summon Bonus This property gives units that are summoned within the domain of the city a bonus property and/or XP. AoW City Property: Combat Property This property causes all battles fought within the city to be affected by a Combat Property (such as a spell that strikes all attackers with lightning, each turn). See AoW Combat Property (Settings) for details. AoW City Property: Stat Boost Increases the city s income AoW City Property: Domain Unit Applies a property to all units in the city s domain. AoW City Property: Domain Unit Spell Causes the city to cast a spell (defined by a list of Strategic Unit Effects) on units in the city s domain each turn. AoW Race City Upgrade Link Data (Settings) These resources tell the system which races can build which city upgrades in their cities. If you want to add a new upgrade to a city s production list, you will need to create one of these resources and link the upgrade to it as well as the race of the city you wish to affect. There can be multiple copies of this resource for each race. If you do not specify a race, then the upgrades will be added to the build lists of cities belonging to all non-dwelling races. Structures Overview Structures are the buildings that are placed on the world map. There are many different types, which fall into 2 broad categories: Player Owned Structures These are structures which can be owned by a player, and can be taken over by moving an army on top of them. Forts, Watchtowers, Seals and Cities are all examples of this type of structure.

28 Resource Structures These are structures that grant income to players when they are placed within that player s domain. Gold Mines, Mana Nodes and Inns are all resource structures. Monster Spawners are special resource structures that have been set up to self destruct when a player captures them. Almost all structures are defined in AoW_Structures.rpk. AoW Structure: Treasure Site (Entity) The majority of structures in the game are Treasure Sites. These are structures that give a reward when you clear them and generate resources in a player s domain. Interesting settings inside structures include: Defender Profile Information about the units who are spawned to defend the structure. Can be overridden by the Adventure Set (see below) Income The income that the structure grants when in a player s domain Structure Name A unique name that can be used to identify the structure in other parts of the system Razeable True if the player should have the option to raze the structure. Razing the structure will destroy it completely; it is not possible to rebuild the structure. Destroy On Explore True if the structure should be destroyed when the player explores it Tactical Maps The file names of the tactical maps that should be loaded for combat on this structure. If blank, then the battle will take place in the map defined by the terrain the structure has been placed on. In order to make reusing treasure sites easier, a number of settings are placed in special resources called AoW Adventure Set which are discussed in the next section. AoW Adventure Set (Settings) These resources define a lot of the settings for a treasure site. A Treasure Site can have multiple adventure sets attached to it, and it will choose one at random when the game starts. Adventure sets contain the following settings: Combat Properties A list of combat properties to apply to battles that take place when exploring the structure. See AoW Combat Properties (Settings) for more info. Defender Profile Data about the units that spawn on top of the structure to defend it. Inhabitant Profile Data about the units that spawn INSIDE the structure to defend it. Rewards Link A link to an AoW Value Scaled Reward Set that defines the prize you get for clearing the structure Unit Spawn Settings A data structure that defines units that the structure spawns to wander around the world and attack player controlled armies.

29 AoW Value Scaled Reward Set (Settings) This resource defines the kind of rewards that the player gets from clearing a structure (or completing a quest). The reward set contains a number of settings that determine what kind of rewards the player should receive. When calculating what rewards to give to the player, the system takes a value (usually calculated by adding up the value of all the unit s the player had to defeat) and uses that value to determine the size of the reward that the player receives. Interesting settings in the reward set include: Apply Random Variance If true, then the value is randomly shifted by between 80% and 120% before the rewards are calculated. Gold Reward Multiplier The player will be offered an amount of gold equal to the incoming value multiplied by this. Value Override If set, then this allows you to set your own value, rather than using the one that the system passes in Excess Reward Use Mode When giving out rewards of units and items, there is often value left over. This determines what should be done with this excess value (for example, the system might offer it to the player as gold) Add Available Skills When offering skills as a reward, this determines if the system should also offer skills that the player has available to research in their skill book Adding New Structures to the RMG The random map generator is a very complex system, which is configured by a huge number of resources defined in AoW_LevelGenerator.rpk. Explaining how all of these resources work is far beyond the scope of this document, but here is a rough guide as to how you would add a new structure you have added to the RMG so that it gets placed by the system. 1) Open AoW_LevelGenerator.rpk in the Mod Editor 2) Select the category Structures, Pickups, Player Spawns 3) Add a new AoW Level Gen Structure resource to the category 4) Set Structure Name to be exactly the same value as you set Structure Name in your new structure. 5) If your new structure has Inhabitants, then set Has Defenders Inside to true. 6) There are various resources of the type AoW Level Gen Pass Placement Generator (Object) scattered throughout the pack. These tell the RMG how and where to place objects such as pickups and structure in various circumstances. By adding a link to the new resource you added in step 3 to those resources, under Object Choose List, then the RMG will start placing that structure when doing that pass. 7) Unfortunately, there are a large number of these resources which add different objects for different purposes. You will need to experiment yourself to figure out which resources it s best to add your structure to.

30 Particle and Sound Effects Overview Particle Effects, sometimes called PFX or just FX, are visual effects used in spells and abilities to make them look special and magical. The various flashing lights, explosions and sparkly effects that occur when you buff a unit or throw a fireball are all achieved using particle effects. Particle effects can also contain sound effects (or SFX), which can be set up to play as the particle effect is triggered. Particle Effects work, on a basic level, by generating a number of Particles, which look like little pictures. These particles can move, rotate, change size, change color and even be used to create more particles. We generally tend to use two sorts of particle effects in game: Looping FX These FX will keep running until the game tells them to switch off. They are usually used in buff spells to show that a unit or city has been enchanted. Looped particle effects will have a capital L at the end of their names. Trigger FX - These FX play once and then stop by themselves. They are usually played when abilities and spells are triggered. Trigger particle effects will have T at the end of their names. IMPORTANT Be sure to not use a looping PFX unless you are certain that the game will switch the PFX for you, otherwise the PFX will sit around forever in game. Usually it is only safe to use looping PFX as things you attach permanently to units, or in Property type effects (both Magic Tactical Unit Effect: Property and Magic City Effect: Property have slots for looping particle effects). Creating Particle Effects is very involved, and creating a big guide on all the different ways that they can be used is beyond the scope of this document. Instead I ll try and explain some of the basic concepts so you can get started with making your own special FX in game. Getting Started Particle Effects are all stored in RPK files which have PFX in their name, for example the PFX used in unit abilities are all stored in: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\PFX\PFX_Abilities.rpk If we open the pack, we can see a new PFX tab. Clicking on it shows up categories full of particle FX to look at and play with. The button for modifying, creating, deleting and unmodifying PFX is directly over the list of PFX:

31 To view the full particle editor you need to either create a new PFX in a slot, or modify an existing one. Creating a new Particle Effect Rather than attempting to explain the many different parts of the particle editor, I m going to walk you through making a new Particle effect, explaining various things along the way. Note that I m not an artist here, so you ll have to forgive me if the end result looks a bit ugly! Creating the effect First things first, we want to actually create and the name the new PFX: 1) Open your Mod in the Mod Editor (see Quick Guide: Creating a Mod) 2) Select Open Resource Pack from the file menu 3) Open the abilities RPK file: steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\packs\pfx_abilities.rpk 4) Select the category Abilities Ranged 5) Choose an empty slot (I chose 19) and click the Create button 6) Click the Misc tab (the one next to Particles, not the lower one next to Events 7) Set Name to Fire Fountain 8) Set Max Cull Distance to You should now have something like this (I had to deselect and reselect the particle effect to get the name to update in the list on the left):

32 Making the Big Flame particle We can now start making our particle effect proper. First we re going to make flames that get thrown in the air like a fountain: 1) Click on the particles tab 2) Select Particle from the list of particles: 3) The Main tab should already be selected, with a big list of settings to change. First, we want to change the Name to Big Flame 4) In the images section set Sub Resource to 65.dds. You should now see a small white flame appear in the preview panel, repeatedly moving upwards. For a complete list of all available images, see the next section Particle Sprite Textures. 5) Let s try and animate image by flipping through some different frames: a. Set Image Mode to Play b. Set Num Images to 3 c. Set Image Time to 0.3

33 6) You should now see white flame animating through 3 different frames. It is cycling between 65.dds, 66.dds and 67.dds We now have a white flame set up, but we probably want it to be orange, so let s try changing its colour: 1) In the Particle Color section: a. Set Color -> R* to 1 b. Set Color -> G* to 0.5 c. Set Color -> B* to 0 2) This should give us a nice orangey color It would probably look better if it faded out as well, rather than just disappearing: 1) In the Particle Color section: a. Set Fade Mode to Fade Out b. Set Fade Min to 0 c. Set Fade Time to 0.2 2) This should make the particle start fade out 0.2 seconds before it would disappear Now our particle looks ok (sort of, I told you I wasn t an artist!), we want to change how it moves. In a fountain, things are thrown into the air and they fall back to earth. They also don t just go straight upwards; they are usually angled a bit. Let s try and fix that: 1) In the Particle Starting Position section: a. Set Velocity -> Y# to 25 b. Set Acceleration -> Y# to -30 2) You should now see the particle slow down and start falling, instead of just going upwards! 3) In the Particle Starting Position section: a. Set Velocity -> X# to 0#8 b. Set Velocity -> Z# to 0#8 4) The particle should now be flying off in different directions, instead of straight upwards! 0#8 is a type of formula, it tells the particle system The value should be 0 plus a random number that s between -8 and 8. If we were to put in 20#3, that would mean 20 plus a random number between -3 and 3 or A random number between 17 and 23. You can enter this randomizing equation in any setting whose name ends with a # symbol. As a final touch for this bit, let s have the particle stick around a bit longer, and make it grow as it moves. 1) In the Basic section, set Life time# to 1.5#0.5 2) In the Particle Size section: a. Set Size Mode to Play b. Set Min Size Width* to 0.5 c. Set Min Size Height* to 0.5 d. Set Max Size Width* to 1.3

34 e. Set Max Size Height* to 1.3 3) You should now see the particle growing as it moves through the air! Spawning more particles We now have one particle, but how do we make more of the particles? If you look at the list of particles, you ll see an entry that says STARTER (Big Flame). Particles are always spawned by other particle, the STARTER is the name of the particle that sits are the center of the world, and creates the other particles in the effect. When you tell one particle to spawn another particle, the name of the particles that a particle spawns are always listed in brackets after the particle s name. So, if we want to change how our big flame is spawned, then we need to edit the STARTER particle: 1) Select STARTER (Big Flame) from the Particles list 2) Select the Events tab. Each Event is a thing that spawns other particles, since the only event right now is the one that makes Big Flame, that one is selected automatically. 3) In Event settings: a. Set Time# to 1 b. Set Delay # to 0.2 c. Set Particles # to 4#1 4) Make sure Play Looped is not checked. When you click the Play button (or whenever you edit the settings) you should see a burst of particles appear for 1 second, and then they all vanish. We ve told the event to generate 3-5 particles, every 0.2 seconds, and to stop after 1 second. They are all vanishing because the STARTER particle itself only has a lifetime of one second, when it dies, all the particles it s spawned dies as well. To fix that: 1) Select STARTER (Big Flame) from the Particles list 2) Select the Main tab 3) Set Life time# to 3 We know our Big Flame particles will live for up to 2 seconds (from their life time of 1.5#0.5) and that we ll be spawning them for 1 second, so 3 seconds should be just enough time! Note that by setting Time# in the event to 1, we have made this a Trigger effect, so it will end after a set amount of time. If we d left it at -1, it would have kept spawning particles forever, and would have been a looped effect. Adding Musical Trails Our flame balls still look kind of boring, so let s try and spice them up a bit by making them leave trails of muti-coloured musical notes (remember, not an artist!). First we need to add a new particle effect! 1) Make sure Sprite is selected from the Particle Drop down, and click the New button 2) Select the new particle effect that appeared and change the name to music

35 You should see something like this: So, let s set up our musical particles! If we look at the particle sheet, we see 4 musical notes in , we can tell the system to pick one of those at random: 1) Select the music particle from the list 2) In Particle Image set: a. Image Mode = Random Once b. Sub Resource = 136.dds c. Num Images = 4 We want our music notes to fall down, and fade out quite quickly: 1) In Particle Starting Position set Acceleration -> Y# to -30 2) In Basic set Life time# to 0.4 3) In Particle Color set: a. Fade Mode = Fade Out b. Fade Min = 0 c. Fade Time =0.2 They should be pink, and small, and they should spin around! 1) In Particle Angle set Angle Velocity# to 10 2) In Particle Size set: a. Size -> Width* = 0.3 b. Size -> Height* = 0.3 3) In Particle Color set: a. Color Mode = Random Once b. Color Min -> R* = 0.3 c. Color Min -> G* = 0.0 d. Color Min -> B* = 0.3 e. Color Max -> R* = 1 f. Color Min -> G* = 0.0 g. Color Max -> B* = 1 Excellent! Now, all we have to do is make our flame particles spawn the music particles:

36 1) Select Big Flame from the Particles list 2) Right click in the Events list under the particles list, and choose Add from the popup menu 3) The system will automatically select the Event you added for editing 4) In the event set: a. Spawn Particle = music b. Delay # = 0.1 c. Time # = 1 And there we have it: spinning pink musical notes now tumble happily from our fire effect. Now all that s left to do is sit back and marvel at my artistic brilliance! (It looks better when it s moving). The above example only scratches the surface of what the particle system is capable of producing, by experimentation and examining existing particle effects you should be able to produce a huge array of different effects for your abilities and spells!

37 Particle Sprite Textures The following image shows all the different images you can use in particle effects, as well as their numbers: Adding sounds to particle effects You can place sound effects into your particle effects so that they play automatically when the particle effect plays. This is done by creating a new Particle in the effect using the Sound type, rather than the Sprite type. Once you ve done this, you will need to link the new particle to an event in one of the other particle s events, and then it will play when that event triggers it.

38 Importing New Sounds Effects It is also possible to add new sound effects to the system using a program called FMOD Designer, which is freely downloadable from the FMOD website. Using FMOD designer you can create sounds projects, fill them with sample and songs and then Build them, in order to produce sound libraries which are made up of two different files: FEV files These files contain configuration data which tells the game how the sounds should be played. It supports things like differing volume levels, pitch shifts and various effects. FSB files These files contain the actual sound data. There may be more than one FSB file per FEV file. If you copy the FEV and FSB files into your mod s folder, then the sounds within them will be made available in the packs you mod. Modding Graphics with the Content Editor Overview Included in the modding tools is a slightly cut down version of the tool we use for adding new content to the game. Using these tools you will be able to create your own models and textures to the game, so you can add brand new units and abilities. Due to technical issues on our end, we are unfortunately not able to offer modding of the following types of content: Animations Shaders Post Process effects This means that the models you make will need to conform to the standards defined by our shaders and will need to be skinned to the animation skeletons that we already have in the game. Content Size and Memory Considerations As you add more content to the game, you will increase the amount of RAM the game needs to run. Since Age Of Wonders 3 is a 32bit application, it is limited in the amount of RAM that it can access at once (the limit is approximately 4GB, though it can be lower on machines running older operating systems, like Windows XP). In general, if you want to avoid people having too many issues, you should try and reduce the memory use of any content you add into the game. This means not using textures that are bigger than necessary, and not making models that have too many vertices. Be aware that most of the time, the model you re adding is probably only going to be a centimeter or so in size on screen, so making a 2048x2048 texture is probably not necessary!

39 Content Editor and CLB files You can launch the content editor from the menu in the package manager: The content editor allows you to create, view and edit the CLB (Content LiBrary) files that contain all the game s model and texture data. Existing CLB files are stored in: Steam: steamapps\common\aow3\content\title\libraries GOG: [Age Of Wonders 3 Install Folder] \Content\Title\Libraries The Title folder stores resource packs for the base game. The folder s DLC2 and DLC3 store the libraries for the Golden Realms and Eternal Lords expansions. When modding CLB files you have two options: Editing an existing CLB file The idea here is that you can edit a CLB file, include it in your mod, and then the game will load your CLB file instead of the original one as the game loads. The basic procedure for this is as follows: 1) Open the Package Manager 2) Create your new mod 3) Make sure your Mod has a Mod Priority higher than 0 4) Find the CLB you want to edit in the game s files, and copy it into your mod s folder (Documents\My Games\AoW3\User Content\Your Mods Name\) 5) Make sure you do NOT change the CLB file s name, so the system knows which file it is supposed to be replacing The advantage of this is that you can edit the game s assets without needing to change any actual in game resources to use them. The disadvantage is that you need to upload the entire CLB file with your mod, even though you ve only changed a small part of it. It also makes it hard for your mod to work with other people s mods, since only one mod can replace a particular file at once. Another advantage of this approach is that you can remove old textures and models that you have replaced, which may help with memory issues in larger mods. Creating a new CLB file The idea here is that you create a new CLB file to hold your content. You can also mix your content with existing content by linking your new CLB file to an existing one, this would allow you to make a new texture, and then link that texture to an existing model in another CLB file. The basic procedure for this is as follows:

40 1) Open the Package Manager 2) Create your new mod 3) Make sure your Mod has a Mod Priority higher than 0 4) Launch the Content Editor to create a new CLB file 5) Save your new CLB file in the mod s folder (Documents\My Games\AoW3\User Content\Your Mods Name\) 6) Make sure to give your new CLB file a unique name! It s usually safest to give the CLB file the same name as the mod you re adding. 7) If needed, in the Content Editor, open the Options menu and select Dependencies. Add any CLB files to the list that you would like to load content from in your own CLB file. When you do this, the modding system will automatically make your new CLB file available to all RPK files that you mod. This means you can add new models and textures sheets, and then modify game resources to make use of them. The advantage of this approach is that your mod will be smaller and easier to mix with other people s mods. The disadvantage is that you will only be able to create new things, not replace old things. If you make a new White Witch model, then you will need to find the White Witch in the Mod Editor and link your new model to it for it to work. Creating a Skinned Model for the game Getting Started In order to work with models and Age Of Wonders 3, you will need to be able to work with the Collada file format. Information on the Collada format can be found here: Collada is open source and plugins exist for Maya, 3DS Max and Blender, as well as other modeling packages. During the writing of this document we used Maya, but the process will be roughly the same while using other 3D programs. Import the premade skinned model We have provided a number of Collada files containing preskinned models using the animation rigs that we used to make the game. To begin with you must import one of these files to use as a starting point. In this example, we will be using Humanoid.dae, it contains a skeleton that we can build a new model around. Your scene will now contain 2 items, _F_MOTION, and TemplateMesh. _F_MOTION is the actual skeleton you will skin your character to. Now that you have your template, you can start building your new character or adjusting an existing character to the skeleton. Try to build the character into one mesh, to reduce the render calls code needs to calculate. When you use more than one material on a character, the mesh will be broken up by material during your export. So to minimize confusion later on, we d advice you to make the model 1 mesh, 1 material.

41 Bind your mesh to the skeleton Select the bones shown in the pic below, and skin them to your model. Be sure to have the following settings correct: After this, do the weight painting so that the model properly deforms as the skeleton animates.

42 Export the skinned model Once you are finished with painting the skin weights, it s time to export the model. Select the mesh and _F_MOTION, and go to file/export selection(options), and choose the (OPEN)Collada export format (.dae): Use the same settings as provided in the screenshot above, otherwise you ll run into an import error later on in Content Ed. Importing the Skinned Model into the Content Editor It s now time to import your model into the Content Editor! 1) Start the Content Editor and load your CLB file (the one in your mod s folder). 2) Click on the Meshes tab (IMPORTANT! If you forget this step, the editor will not know what you re trying to import!) 3) Click the File menu, choose Import, and click on your exported.dae file.

43 Once the import has succeeded, there will be a new mesh in the list, as you can see on the screenshot below in slot 0. The first part of the mesh name (TemplateMesh) is the actual name you gave it in your 3D program, and the second part (TemplateMeshMAT) is the Material name it has been given. So if your character consisted of multiple materials, it will have been split up into multiple meshes, each with the same mesh name, but with different material names. The system will have automatically created a new Model for your meshes. A model is a collection of meshes and materials, linked to an animation skeleton or Rig. Before we can use the new model in game, we need to link the correct animation rig to it (if your model isn t animated, this step can be skipped). Since the example uses the Humanoid rig, this is the one we ll be linking. First, we need to make sure that the CLB file containing the correct rig is linked to the pack. If you re editing an existing pack instead of creating a new one, this might already have been done. 1) In the main menu, choose Options/Dependencies 2) In the dialog that opens, click Add, browse to AoW3\Content\Title\Libraries\Anims\, and select Humanoid.clb.

44 3) Click OK to close the dialog. Now content from the Humanoid.CLB file will be available to you in your CLB file! 4) Select the Models tab, and find the model that was created when you imported your collada file. 5) Select your model, and link the Humanoid rig to the Rig in the model s settings: The model is now setup and can be used in game, it s just missing textures! Texture Formats The texture format we use is.dds (Direct Draw Surface). To work with them, you can download the photoshop Texture Tools from NVIDIA s website here:

45 These are the main texture formats that we use: Color: normal RGB texture (DXT1, RGB, no alpha) Mask: R=opacity for alpha testing, G=Specular mask, B=Reflection mask (DXT1, RGB, no alpha) Normal map: Copy R channel to Alpha. R and B channels are made black (DXT5, ARGB). IMPORTANT! The dimensions of all textures MUST be powers of two, ie. 256x256, 1024x512. When saving your textures, make sure to use the following settings. Mipmap Settings: Sharpening:

46 Creating Materials Before textures can be linked to models, they must first be combined into Materials. Each mesh within a model can have its own material, which tells the game how the mesh should be rendered. In this next section I ll walk through making materials for a model with 2 meshes, and 6 textures (3 per mesh). The files used for this are available from the website. 1) Open the Content Editor, and open the CLB file you want to import into 2) Click on the Textures tab 3) In the main menu click File -> Import to import your textures 4) In this case, the model has 2 texture sets: One for the body, and one for the clothing.

47 Next, go to the Material tab to create 2 materials. In the Material drop down menu, select Opaque, and click on the button New below it. It now creates a black sphere. In the case of the screenshot, I did this twice for the clothing and for the body. You can link your textures in the marked area in the below screenshot:

48 Next, to link your materials to your meshes, go to the Models tab, and in the mesh section, you can assign your materials to your meshes. In this case, the model consists of two meshes (also called renderor draw calls as explained earlier). Here you can also define whether you want your mesh to be double sided (disable back face culling), or cast shadows.

49 Overview What is a character or ability without a proper icon? In the next chapter we will explain how you can create your own icons, import them into the Content Editor, and then use them in the Mod Editor. Creating the icons in Photoshop We have provided a template file to get you started with making icons. The template file consists of 10 available slots for you to put the icons you made: The numbers (0,0-1,0-2,0 etc) in the template image are coordinate offsets to link specific parts of the texture-atlas to your unit. The first number is the horizontal count, second number vertical count. eg. 0,0 is the icon-coordinate for the Slip Away icon in the example image. These are the numbers you will use in the Mod Editor to identify your icon. You will want to draw your icons precisely inside the circles, then hide all the template elements (circles, squares, numbers, text, etc.). When you want to have more than ten icons, you will have to create a bigger image, ensure that it s width and height are both powers of two (256x256, 512x512, 1024x512. Etc). Each icon is 96 x 96 pixels in size. Once you re done, the final texture-atlas (512x256 pixels in this case) should look sort of like this:

50 With the alpha layer set up like this: Once you are happy with your icons, save the file as.dds (DXT3, RGBA, 8bitAlpha) using the NVidia texture tools discussed in the Texture Formats section above. Import your Icons into the Content Editor Before you can use your icons in the Mod Editor, you will first need to import them into a CLB file. To do this: 1) Launch the Content Editor 2) Open a CLB file which is included in your Mod 3) Select the Textures tab 4) From the Files menu, select Import 5) Select your exported DDS file 6) Once the texture is imported, make sure you disable streaming in the settings in the right. This image shows the correct settings for an icon texture in the Content Editor:

51 Linking the Icon into your Mod Once the icon texture has been placed into a CLB file in your mod s folder, you should be able to add the icon to the game, and ready to be linked! 1) Open the package manager and load the mod that contains your CLB file 2) Click the button to launch the Mod Editor 3) Choose an RPK file to store your icon 4) Click the Settings tab 5) Choose a Category to store your icon 6) Click on an empty slot 7) Select AoW Icon: Large (96) from the type drop down 8) Click the Create button 9) Give your icon a Name so you can identify it. 10) In the new icon, we need to set up the Texture link: a. The library will be the name of the CLB file you added the texture to, in capital letters b. Resource will be the name of the DDS file you imported 11) Set OffsetX and OffsetY to indicate which icon on the sheet you mean. The top left icon has both Offsets at 0, the icon in the 3 rd column and 2 nd row would have X=2 and Y=1. 12) Repeat steps 6-11 for each new icon you wish to add And that s it! You should now be able to link your new icons to abilities, units, skills and spells.

52 As a final note, although Large (96) icons are the most commonly used type, they are not the only type used by the game. Some resources will use Extra Large icons (which are 128x128 pixels) while others may use small icons (64x64 pixels) Reskinning an Existing Model Overview While making a model for a new model can be quite daunting for those without much experience, modifying an existing character s textures is a much simpler proposition. This guide will explain briefly how to go about modifying a character s texture and reimporting it into a mod for use. Extracting the existing Texture The content editor does not support exporting textures to files that can be read into image manipulation programs. However it is possible to preview the textures in the editor and use Print Screen to capture the images to import elsewhere: 1) Open the Content Editor from the Package Manager 2) From the menu: File -> Open and load the CLB file with the model whose textures you want to export. These packs usually have the word Skin at the start of their names. 3) Click the Textures tab 4) Select each texture to preview it

53 There are two important things to note here: If the window is too small, the texture may be too large to fit in it. You can make the viewport bigger by resizing the message window below it, if needed. Some texture s contain an alpha layer, you can view this by changing the View Mode from Opaque to Alpha Only. By capturing the alpha layer separately, it is possible to use Photoshop to merge the alpha back into a capture of the texture s RGB data. Once you have imported your texture into photoshop or whichever program you re using, you can manipulate it to your heart s content, and then export it as a DDS file, see the section Texture Formats for more info on how to do this. Applying the New Texture Once you have a new version of your texture, you need to import it into the game. One of the artists has provided me with a blue version of the Watcher s main texture to use as a demonstration. I m going to walk through exactly what steps I need to take in order to get it into the game. 1) Open the Package Manager and create a new mod called Blue Beholder 2) Launch the Content Editor from the Package Manager 3) The manager starts with an empty clb file selected called noname.clb 4) Save that CLB file to the folder for my Blue Beholder mod, renaming the file to Blue Beholder.clb 5) Select the Textures tab 6) Select Import from the File menu, and import the new texture. I can now see my new texture in the content editor:

54 Now I need link the texture to the beholder model. 1) From the main menu, select Options -> Dependencies 2) In the dialog that opens, click the Add button and add the file: AoW3Content\Title\Libraries\Characters\Skin_Beholder.clb 3) Close the dialog. I now have access to all the data that makes up the beholder in my new pack! Now we re going to copy some stuff from Skin_Beholder.clb into our new pack. 1) From the main menu, select File -> Open 2) Open : AoW3Content\Title\Libraries\Characters\Skin_Beholder.clb 3) In the Skin_Beholder.clb file, select the Material tab 4) Select the main beholder texture in slot 2 Beholder_Material 5) Press CTRL+C to copy 6) Select the Blue Beholder.clb file 7) Select the Materials tab 8) Select an empty slot and press CTRL+V to paste a copy of the material 9) Set the name of the material to Beholder_Blue_Material 10) Find the setting in the material called Race Diffuse Map

55 11) Open the setting, and change it to point to the new texture we just imported (make sure to set Library to BLUE BEHOLDER so you can access textures in this CLB file) 12) Select the Skin_Beholder.clb 13) Select the Models tab 14) Select the model Beholder_geo and CTRL+C to copy 15) Select the Blue Beholder.clb file 16) Select the Models tab 17) Select an empty slot and press CTRL+V to paste a copy of the model 18) Set the Name of the model to Beholder_geo_blue 19) Under the Name setting, you should see a list which contains the 4 meshes that make up the beholder: 20) Since each one of these meshes uses the old Beholder Material, we need to go through each one and change all of them to use the new Beholder_Blue_Material we created in step 8. 21) Save the Blue Beholder.clb file Once you ve changed the material links, the watcher in the preview should now be blue! This CLB file now contains a copy of the Beholder which uses our new texture, which we can now use in game Using the New Model in the Game Now we have our new model, all we need to do is link it into Watcher in game. 1) Open the Package Manager 2) Load the Blue Beholder mod 3) Click the button Launch Mod Editor 4) In the Mod Editor, in main menu File -> Open Resource Pack 5) Open: AoW3Content\Title\Packs\Beholder.rpk

56 6) Select the Entities tab 7) Select the Beholder Figures category 8) Select the Beholder figure and click the Modify button 9) Change the Model setting from SKIN_BEHOLDER Beholder_geo to BLUE BEHOLDER Beholder_geo_blue 10) Save the mod And that s it! The watcher in the game will now use our new, reskinned model instead of the original. The Tome of Wonders By default, the Tome of Wonders will update automatically when you add new units, skills and spells to the game. The Tome of Wonders generates pages based on the object s data that, as well as the screen name and the screen description and you will rarely need to do anything. A few resources (mainly AoW Player Class and AoW Race ) require you to make Tome of Wonders page yourself though. These pages are defined using a resource called Game Concepts, most of which are stored in GameConcepts.rpk. In the resource you can set an icon, title and description for your article. Once the resource is created, it will automatically appear in the Tome of Wonders. Attaching the new concept to the Race/Class is unfortunately a little bit complicated: 1) Select your game concept in the Mod Editor 2) Copy down the number part of the resource s ID: 3) You will then need to find the class or race, and look for the Game Concept Page Link 4) In the link enter the whole number, without the #, preceded with GameConcept- 5) For example, with the screen shotted example, we d enter: GameConcept EF Case Studies Overview In this section, I will take example mods that have either been requested by the community, or made up by myself, and do a step by step guide showing how to set up that mod. The hope is that people will be able to read through this guides, and learn about techniques and systems which they can use to make their own mods.

57 Case Study 1: Obsidian Dragons in the Dragon Dwelling Mod Description/Goal This mod allows players to build Obsidian Dragons and Wyverns in the Dragon Dwelling. Creating the Mod File First thing we need to do is create the Mod file that will store our new mod: 1) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 2) File Menu -> New 3) Name the Mod Obsidian Dragon Dwelling 4) Fill in the rest of the settings in the package manager (see screenshot). For the Mod s image I took a screen shot of an obsidian dragon in game and converted it to a PNG file. Creating a New Text File Our mod is going to need to add 2 new city upgrades to the dragon dwelling, and those upgrades will need names and descriptions. To add the new text, we ll need to add an XML file to our mod. 1) Download the Example.xml file from the Triumph website 2) Save the file in our mod s folder (Documents\My Games\AoW3\UserContent\Obsidian Dragon Dwelling) and rename it to Obsidian Dragon Dwelling.xml 3) Open the XML file in Microsoft Excel or Open Office Spreadsheets 4) Change the text in cell A1 to: OBSIDIAN_DRAGON_DWELLING 5) Delete the example row 5

58 We re going to want to add two new upgrades. The Black Burrow which will unlock the Obsidian Wyvern, and the Black Lair which will unlock the Obsidian Dragon. That means we ll want to add a name and description for each one: SCENE ID TEXT ID TEXT / SPEECH BLACK_BURROW NAME Black Burrow BLACK_BURROW DESCRIPTION Allows production of the Obsidian Wyvern BLACK_LAIR NAME Black Lair BLACK_LAIR DESCRIPTION Allows production of the Obsidian Dragon We should also provide translations for these strings into the main languages the game supports (German, French, Russian and Polish). There are 3 ways we could approach this: Find people who speak those languages and get them to translate it for us (maybe by asking around in the game s forums) Run the text through a translation program, such as Copy/Paste the English text into the cells for the other languages We re going to be lazy and do the last one. When you re done, you should have something like this: IMPORTANT NOTE! Make sure you close Excel before trying to launch the game or the mod editor! Excel prevents our software from loading the XML file while you re editing it, and causes it to hang. Adding New City Upgrades Now we have names and descriptions ready for them, it s time to actually add the new City Upgrades into the game! First thing we want to do is open the pack where we ll be adding the new city upgrade: 1) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 2) Open Obsidian Dragon Dwelling.acp 3) Click Launch Mod Editor 4) In Mod Editor: File -> Open Resource Pack 5) Open: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\AoW_CityProperties.rpk 6) Select the category Dwelling Upgrades Dragon Next we want to create our Black Burrow, which we ll use to unlock the Obsidian Wyvern: 1) Click an empty cell at the bottom of the list (I chose 55) 2) Choose AoW City Upgrade: Normal from the Type list

59 3) Click the Create button 4) Set the Name to Black Burrow 5) Fill in the properties we want: a. Cost: Gold = 200 b. Large Icon Link = Burrow Of Fire Icon (we could add our own icon, but as I write this, it s not currently possible) c. Screen Description = obsidian_dragon_dwelling@black_burrow@description (double click on the setting and you ll get a dialog with a list you can choose the text from, the box at the bottom lets you search the list) d. Screen Name = obsidian_dragon_dwelling@black_burrow@name 6) Click on another empty cell (I chose 56) 7) Choose AoW City Property from the Type list 8) Click the Create button 9) Set the Name to Has Black Burrow 10) Go back to your Black Burrow from step 5, and open the properties list by double clicking on it: 11) This should open a dialog box, on the left are the properties you ve added to your upgrade and on the right are all the properties that are available. Find Has Black Burrow on the right list and double click it to add it to the left list. With all that done, your new city upgrade should look like this:

60 We now want to follow similar steps to create the Black Lair: 1) Click an empty cell at the bottom of the list (I chose 58) 2) Choose AoW City Upgrade: Normal from the Type list 3) Click the Create button 4) Set the Name to Black Lair 5) Fill in the properties we want: a. Cost: Gold = 400 b. Cost: Mana = 75 c. Large Icon Link = Fire Lair Icon d. Screen Description = obsidian_dragon_dwelling@black_lair@description e. Screen Name = obsidian_dragon_dwelling@black_lair@name 6) Click on another empty cell (I chose 56) 7) Choose AoW City Property from the Type list 8) Click the Create button

61 9) Set the Name to Has Black Lair 10) Go back to your Black Lair from step 5, and open the Properties list by double clicking on it. 11) This should open a dialog box, on the left are the properties you ve added to your upgrade and on the right are all the properties that are available. Find Has Black Lair on the right list and double click it to add it to the left list. 12) Open the Required City Properties list by double clicking on it. Add Has Black Burrow and Has Incubation Chamber. This tells the system that the player cannot build the lair before building the Incubation Chamber and Black Burrow. Your new Black Lair should look like this: The final step is to tell the system that the Dragon Dwelling can actually build our two new upgrades. 1) Select the category Dwelling Link Data 2) Select an empty cell (I chose 5)

62 3) Choose AoW Race City Upgrade Link Data from the Type list 4) Click the Create button 5) Set the Name of your new resource to Obsidian Dragon Peak Upgrade Link Data 6) For Race Link select Dragon Dwelling Race Definition 7) Double click the City Upgrades list 8) Add the Black Lair and Black Burrow to the list Your new resource should look like this: Note that we could have modified the resource in slot 0 Dragon Peak Upgrade Link Data to include our two new upgrades as well, the end result would have been the same. Congratulations, you ve just added two new city upgrades to your mod! Now you just need to save your Mod (File Menu -> Save or CTRL+S), and if you like you can launch the game and go find a dragon dwelling to see if it s worked! Of course, neither upgrade will do anything yet, we ve still got one last thing left to do. Adding the Obsidian Dragon and Wyvern to the Dwelling The final step is to tell the system that the Obsidian Dragon and Wyvern that they can be built in the dwelling and what upgrades are required to build them. If you haven t yet done so, restart the Mod Editor. We ve added new resources to one pack, and we want to access them in another pack, so we need to restart the editor after adding the resources for that to work. First we ll fix the Obsidian Dragon 1) File -> Open Resource Pack 2) Open: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\AoW_UnitDragons.rpk 3) Click the Entities tab 4) Select the Dragon Units category

63 5) Select the Obsidian Dragon in slot 4 6) Click the Modify button 7) Find the Required City Property Link setting, and set it to Has Black Lair. 8) Click the Settings tab 9) Select the Unit Sets category 10) Select Dwelling Unit Link Data from slot 0 11) Click the Modify button 12) Double click the Units list to edit it, and add the Obsidian Dragon to the list. Now we repeat the process for the Obsidian Wyvern 1) File -> Open Resource Pack 2) Open: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\AoW_UnitWyverns.rpk 3) Click the Entities tab 4) Select the WyvernUnits category 5) Select the Obsidian Wyvern in slot 4 6) Click the Modify button 7) Find the Required City Property Link setting, and set it to Has Black Burrow. 8) Click the Settings tab 9) Select the Unit Sets category 10) Select Dwelling Unit Link Data from slot 0 11) Click the Modify button 12) Double click the Units list to edit it, and add the Obsidian Wyvern to the list. And that s it! You ve just told the system that Obsidian Dragons and Wyverns can be built in the Dragon dwelling, and that they each require one of your new upgrades to be built. All done The mod is now finished, if you enter the game and capture a Dragon s Dwelling, you should now see your new City Upgrades appear in the list. Buying them should unlock the Obsidian Dragon and Wyvern for you in the dwellings! Case Study 2: Adding the Blight Surgeon to the Goblin army Mod Description/Goal This mod adds a new tier 3 goblin unit, the Blight Surgeon, to the core list of goblin units. The unit will be producible from Goblin cities with Great Temples, and will appear as an independent defender on the world map. Creating the Mod File First thing we need to do is create the Mod file that will store our new mod: 1) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 2) File Menu -> New

64 3) Name the Mod Blight Surgeon 4) Fill in the rest of the settings in the package manager (see screenshot). For the Mod s image I took a screen shot of our new unit in game and converted it to a PNG file. Creating a New Text File Our mod is going to need to add a new unit with a new ability to the game, and both those things will need names and descriptions. To add the new text, we ll need to add an XML file to our mod. 6) Download the Example.xml file from the Triumph website 7) Save the file in our mod s folder (Documents\My Games\AoW3\UserContent\Blight Surgeon) and rename it to Blight Surgeon.xml 8) Open the XML file in Microsoft Excel or Open Office Spreadsheets 9) Change the text in cell A1 to: BLIGHT_SURGEON 10) Delete the example row 5 The new unit is called the Blight Surgeon, and I ve tried to write a little description for him in the same style as those you find in game. We re going to give him a new ability called Stink Bomb, which will be like an area of effect version of the Throw Filth ability: SCENE ID TEXT ID TEXT / SPEECH BLIGHT_SURGEON NAME Goblin Blight Surgeon BLIGHT_SURGEON DESCRIPTION "We met the Surgeon while foraging for berries amongst the stinking wastes; he offered to show us which of the fungus were safe to eat. Fortunately we had the sense to feed our porters first, the sight of a man whose head is swollen larger than his chest is one which will not quickly

65 be forgotten!" --"Journey to the Sunken City" by Ham the Wanderer STINK_BOMB NAME Stink Bomb STINK_BOMB DESCRIPTION Hurls a stink bomb at the target hex. All units in a radius of {INT_stinkBombRadius} hex take damage, and become inflicted with Disgusting Stench for {INT_stinkBombDuration} We should also provide translations for these strings into the main languages the game supports (German, French, Russian and Polish). There are 3 ways we could approach this: Find people who speak those languages and get them to translate it for us (maybe by asking around in the game s forums) Run the text through a translation program, such as Copy/Paste the English text into the cells for the other languages We re going to be lazy and do the last one. When you re done, you should have something like this: IMPORTANT NOTE! Make sure you close Excel before trying to launch the game or the mod editor! Excel prevents our software from loading the XML file while you re editing it, and causes it to hang. Create the Stink Bomb Ability We want our new unit to have a new ability to make him stand out a bit from the other units. The ability will be called Stink Bomb and will be an area of effect version of the Throw Filth ability. First thing we want to do is open the pack where we ll be adding the new ability: 1) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 2) Open Blight Surgeon.acp 3) Click Launch Mod Editor 4) In Mod Editor: File -> Open Resource Pack 5) Open: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\AoW_UnitProperties.rpk 6) Select the category Active Abilities - Ranged

66 First thing to do is to create the new Ability property 1) Select an empty slot (I chose 176) 2) Choose AoW Unit Property: Ability from the Type list 3) Click the Create button 4) Set the Name to Stink Bomb Ability 5) Fill in the basic settings: a. Ability Type = Single Use b. Allow Move And Use = false c. Attack Range = medium d. Cooldown = 2 e. Large Icon Link = Throw Filth Icon (we could add our own icon, but as I write this, it s not currently possible) f. No Engagement Only = true g. Trajectory Link = Projectile Trajectory (No Range/LOS) h. Type = Ranged Now we need to set up the event in the ability, this is the part of the ability that will configure what the ability looks like: 1) Set the Event Type setting to Fire Arrows 2) In the Event itself (which is part of the ability we re editing) set: a. Target Units Defend = true b. Knockback Size = Large c. Shoot Selection = Throw_Light 3) Finally link the Arrow Entity to Throw Filth Entity. We could add our own projectile if we wished, but that s beyond the scope of this particular case study. Now our basic ability is set up, we want to set up the ability to do damage: 1) Select an empty slot (I chose 177) 2) Choose Magic Tactical Unit Targeter: Circle from the Type list 3) Click the Create button 4) Set the name to Stink Bomb Damage Targeter 5) Select another empty slot (I chose 178) 6) Choose Magic Tactical Unit Effect: Damage from the Type list 7) Click the Create button 8) Set the name to Stink Bomb Damage Effect 9) In the new effect you can set the amount of damage the bomb should do. Set Physical to 5 and Blight to ) Select the targeter you added in step 3 11) Double click on the Effects list and add the Stink Bomb Damage Effect to the list 12) Select Stink Bomb Ability

67 13) Double click on the Targeters list in the ability s event, and add the Stink Bomb Damage Targeter to the list. 14) Set Primary Effect Link to point at Stink Bomb Damage Effect We now repeat the process to set up the ability to apply the Disgusting Stench debuff. 1) Select an empty slot (I chose 179) 2) Choose Magic Tactical Unit Targeter: Circle from the Type list 3) Click the Create button 4) Set the name to Stink Bomb Stench Targeter 5) Double click on Forbidden Requisites in the Requisite Filter section of the targeter and add Incorporeal Requisite and Elemental Requisite to the list. 6) Select another empty slot (I chose 180) 7) Choose Magic Tactical Unit Effect: Property from the Type list 8) Click the Create button 9) Set the name to Stink Bomb Stench Effect 10) Set up the values in the effect: a. AI is positive = false b. AI allow dispel = false c. Allow Steal Enchantment = false d. Num Turns = 3 e. Property Link = Disgusting Stench-Status Effect f. Type Link = Blight Debuff 11) Select the targeter you added in step 3 12) Double click on the Effects list and add the Stink Bomb Stench Effect to the list 13) Select Stink Bomb Ability 14) Double click on the Targeters list in the ability s event, and add the Stink Bomb Stench Targeter to the list. The ability is now functional, but there are still a few things left to do. First we want to set up the name and description of the ability: 1) Select the Stink Bomb ability 2) Double click on Screen Name and choose blight_surgeon@stink_bomb@name 3) Double click on Screen Description and choose blight_surgeon@stink_bomb@description 4) Double click on String Key Replacer 5) In the dialog that opens, you need to add two new key/value pairs: Key Value {INT_stinkBombRadius} 1 {INT_stinkBombDuration} 3 [turn/] 6) The dialog should look like this:

68 Finally, we want a nice particle effect for when our stink bomb explodes. There is a good one available in the Wild Magic pack, but we can t access it from AoW_UnitProperties.rpk, so we re going to have copy it somewhere we can get to it. 1) In Mod Editor: File -> Open Resource Pack 2) Open: AoW3\Content\DLC2\Packs\SkillWildMagic.rpk 3) Select the FX tab 4) Select the Bloated With Gas T FX entry in slot 20 5) Press CTRL+C to copy it 6) File -> Open Resource Pack 7) Open: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\PFX\PFX_Abilities.rpk 8) Select the category Abilities Ranged 9) Select an empty slot (I chose 20) 10) CTRL+V to paste a copy of Bloated With Gas T FX 11) Select a different empty slot (I chose 19) 12) CTRL+V to paste a copy of Bloated With Gas T FX 13) Select the copy from step 10 and press the delete button to remove it. 14) Select the SkillWildMagic.rpk pack 15) File -> Remove Resource Pack and click OK to confirm. We paste the ability twice because each resource has a unique ID. The first copy we pasted has the same ID as the one in the Wild Magic pack, which will cause problems if both packs are loaded at once. By pasting a second copy, we force the system to generate a new ID, we then delete the first copy so the system doesn t complain about the duplicate IDs.

69 Now we have our PFX in a place we can get to it, we can go back to our ability and link it in! 1) Restart the Mod Editor. We ve added new resources to one pack, and we want to access them in another pack, so we need to restart the editor after adding the resources for that to work. 2) Select the AoW_UnitProperties.rpk pack 3) Select the Active Abilities Ranged category 4) Select the Stink Bomb Ability ability 5) In the ability s event, find the Target Location Visualization 6) In that section, set FX Link to Bloated With Gas T FX And now we re finally done with adding our new ability! Create the Blight Surgeon Unit Next step is to create the blight surgeon, so we have something that can use our new ability. First we need to open the mod and load the right package: 1) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 2) Open Blight Surgeon.acp 3) Click Launch Mod Editor 4) In Mod Editor: File -> Open Resource Pack 5) Open: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\AoW_UnitGoblins.rpk First we ll make a new figure for our unit, this is the object that will define what our unit will look like. 1) Select the category GoblinFigures 2) Select the unit GoblinCavalry in slot 4 3) CTRL+C to copy it 4) Select an empty slot (I chose 11) 5) CTRL+V to paste your copy 6) Change the Name of your copy to Goblin Blight Surgeon 7) Currently Model is set to SKIN_WARGS Warg Default. Change that to: SKIN_BOARS Boar Blight. 8) Set Rider Model to SKIN_GOBLINS GoblinPriest 9) Set: Items -> Right Item -> Model to SKIN_GOBLINS goblin staff 10) Click on the Components tab 11) Select the ANIMATIONS (static) component 12) Set Template Resolver to Beast_Mount_Ranged Your new figure should look something like this:

70 Now we have a figure, we want to make the unit itself! 1) Select the category GoblinUnits 2) Select the unit GoblinPriestLight in slot 5 3) CTRL+C to copy it 4) Select an empty slot (I chose 11) 5) CTRL+V to paste your copy 6) Change the Name of your copy to Goblin Blight Surgeon 7) Change Figure Settings->Figure to Goblin Blight Surgeon. The preview will only show a boar without a rider, this is totally normal! 8) Now we need to buff the unit s stats to change the tier 2 blight doctor into the tier 3 surgeon! a. Tier Resource Link = Tier 3 Tier Resource b. Stats -> Move Points = 36 c. Stats -> Hit Points = 60 d. Stats -> Defenses -> Defense = 10 e. Stats -> Base Damage -> Physical = 6 f. Stats -> Base Damage -> Blight = 8 g. Production Cost: Gold = 120 h. Production Cost: Mana = 40 i. Recruit Cost = 320 j. Stack Order Priority = 345

71 k. Screen Name = blight_surgeon@blight_surgeon@name l. Screen Description = blight_surgeon@blight_surgeon@description 9) Double click on the Requisites list and add Mounted Requisite 10) Double click on the Properties list and add: a. Stink Bomb b. Ranged Blight Strength Upgrade 2 c. Charge 11) Change Required City Property Link to Has Great Temple (this is in the category City Upgrades Basic ) Linking the Blight Surgeon into the Game Now we have our new Blight Surgeon, we need to link him into the game so that the player can build him in their cities and so that he appears as a defender on the world map. First, we want our unit buildable in goblin cities! 1) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 2) Open Blight Surgeon.acp 3) Click Launch Mod Editor 4) Select AoW_UnitGoblins.rpk 5) Select the Settings tab 6) Select the Unit Sets category 7) Click an empty slot (I chose 2) 8) Choose AoW Race Unit Link Data from the Type list 9) Click the Create button 10) Set the Name of your new resource to Blight Surgeon Unit Link Data 11) Set Race Link to Goblin 12) Double click on the Units list and add Goblin Blight Surgeon Now we want to make a unit set for our new unit, so that it can be identified by the system which spawns unit defenders. 1) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 2) Open Blight Surgeon.acp 3) Click Launch Mod Editor 4) Select AoW_UnitGoblins.rpk 5) Select the Settings tab 6) Select the Unit Sets category 7) Select an empty slot (I chose 18) 8) Choose AoW Unit Set from the Type list 9) Click the Create button 10) Set Name to Core Goblin Blight Surgeon Unit Set

72 11) In the resource, set SetName to CORE_GOBLIN_BLIGHT_SURGEON_UNIT_SET 12) Double click on the Units list and add Goblin Blight Surgeon The SetName that we just added CORE_GOBLIN_BLIGHT_SURGEON_UNIT_SET can now be used to identify our blight surgeon in the various unit sets throughout the system. By adding the surgeon to those sets, he ll start appearing in various places as an independent defender! There are two ways we can add our new set to an existing set: We can modify an existing set, or we can create a new set with the same SetName and the system will automatically merge the two sets together. The former way is simpler, but the latter way is better if you want to avoid conflicts between different mods. Let s use the second method to add our Blight surgeon to the Core Goblin Set. This set is used in quite a few places, like Trading Posts and Flow Rock Quarries, so it s a good place to start. 1) Select AoW_UnitGoblins.rpk 2) Select the Settings tab 3) Select the Unit Sets category 4) Select an empty slot (I chose 19) 5) Choose AoW Unit Set from the Type list 6) Click the Create button 7) Set Name to Core Goblin All Group Set - Blight Surgeon 8) In the resource, set SetName to CORE_GOBLIN_ALL_GROUP_SET. This is the same set name as Core Goblin All Group Set in slot 12, meaning we re adding something to merge with that set. 9) Double Click on SubSets and type CORE_GOBLIN_BLIGHT_SURGEON_UNIT_SET 10) You should have something like this image:

73 And that s it! The blight surgeon will now appear in a few places on the world map, defending large goblin cities, trading posts and flow rock quarries! If you want to add the blight surgeon to any more defender sets, then you can find them in the pack AoW_Structures.rpk in the Unit Sets category. All Done The mod is now finished! We ve added a new unit, with a new ability and linked him into the game ready to be played with. Case Study 3: Adding a new Hero and Leader Mod Description/Goal This mod adds a new hero to the game, who has a chance to be spawned randomly for a player. It also adds a new leader who can be selected during player selection when the game starts. Creating the Mod File First thing we need to do is create the Mod file that will store our new mod: 1) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 2) File Menu -> New 3) Name the Mod Tombles and Tombelina 4) Fill in the rest of the settings in the package manager (see screenshot). For the Mod s image I took a screen shot of our new hero in the leader editor and converted it to a PNG file.

74 Creating a New Text File Our mod is going to need to add a new unit with a new ability to the game, and both those things will need names and descriptions. To add the new text, we ll need to add an XML file to our mod. 1) Download the Example.xml file from the Triumph website 2) Save the file in our mod s folder (Documents\My Games\AoW3\UserContent\Tombles And Tombelina) and rename it to Tombles And Tombelina.xml 3) Open the XML file in Microsoft Excel or Open Office Spreadsheets 4) Change the text in cell A1 to: TOMBLES_AND_TOMBELINA 5) Delete the example row 5 We now want to add new entries for our new heroes first names and surnames, as so: SCENE ID TEXT ID TEXT / SPEECH TOMBLES FIRST_NAME Tombles TOMBLES SURNAME The Almighty TOMBELINA FIRST_NAME Tombelina TOMBELINA SURNAME The Stinking We should also provide translations for these strings into the main languages the game supports (German, French, Russian and Polish). There are 3 ways we could approach this: Find people who speak those languages and get them to translate it for us (maybe by asking around in the game s forums) Run the text through a translation program, such as Copy/Paste the English text into the cells for the other languages We re going to be lazy and do the last one. When you re done, you should have something like this:

75 IMPORTANT NOTE! Make sure you close Excel before trying to launch the game or the mod editor! Excel prevents our software from loading the XML file while you re editing it, and causes it to hang. Adding Tombelina Next step is to create Tombelina, we ll do her first since she s just a hero and is a bit simpler to work with. Each random hero has a gimmick based on their name, since Tombelina is Stinking, we ll give her the Disgustign Stench ability, and a bit of Blight damage on her melee strikes. First we need to open the mod and load the right package: 1) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 2) Open Tombles and Tombelina.acp 3) Click Launch Mod Editor 4) In Mod Editor: File -> Open Resource Pack 5) Open: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\UnitLeaders.rpk Now we want to create Tombelina s unit resource: 1) Select the Entities tab 2) Select the Title Hero Units category 3) Select the hero in slot 10 Hero 10 Jetta Unit 4) CTRL+C to copy 5) Select an empty slot (I chose 57) CTRL+V to paste 6) Change the Name to Tombelina 7) In the properties list: a. Localized First Name -> Localized String = TOMBLES_AND_TOMBELINA@TOMBELINA@FIRST_NAME b. Localized Second Name -> Localized String = TOMBLES_AND_TOMBELINA@TOMBELINA@SURNAME c. Double click the entry Properties and add Disgusting Stench to the list 8) We re going to do the rest of our editing in the Hero Editor! You can unlock this by double clicking on entry at the beginning of the properties list: 9) In the hero editor:

76 a. Set Class to Sorceror b. Set Extra Skill Points to 10 c. Add Sphere Of Protection and Harmo Energy to the upgrades list at the bottom of the screen d. Set Physical Damage to 9 and Blight Damage to 3 The first page of the Hero Panel should now look like this: Now we want to set up the hero s appearance on the second page. The easiest way to do this is to go ahead and start the game in Debug Mode (check Run in debug mode in the Miscellaneous tab in the launcher) and start the leader editor. In the leader editor, we can design our hero s appearance, and then press CTRL+ALT+D. This will cause the system to display the names of all the pieces we ve chosen so we can put our hero into the hero editor. Here s Tombelina in the Leader Editor:

77 Now all we have to do is copy those settings into the editor:

78 Finally, since we copied Tombelina from a Warlord, we want to set the correct item in her inventory. 1) Select the Equipped Items tab in the hero editor. 2) In the Inventory Items section at the bottom, click the button that says Slot 1: Warlord [Crossbow] Use. 3) From the available items list, choose: Sorceror [Wand] Use And that s it! All that s left is to save your mod, and Tombelina will appear be available as a recruitable hero. Adding Tombles To begin with, adding Tombles is a similar process to adding Tombelina. The only real difference is that we don t want to give Tombles any special gimmick abilities. 6) Launch the Package Manager from the game s launcher 7) Open Tombles and Tombelina.acp 8) Click Launch Mod Editor 9) In Mod Editor: File -> Open Resource Pack 10) Open: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\UnitLeaders.rpk Now we want to create Tombelina s unit resource: 1) Select the Entities tab

79 2) Select the Title Campaign Leader Units category 3) Select the hero in slot 47 Hero 47 Ekko Unit 4) CTRL+C to copy 5) Select an empty slot (I chose 51) CTRL+V to paste 6) Change the name to Tombles 7) In the properties list: a. Localized First Name -> Localized String = TOMBLES_AND_TOMBELINA@TOMBLES@FIRST_NAME b. Localized Second Name -> Localized String = TOMBLES_AND_TOMBELINA@TOMBLES@SURNAME c. Hero Type = Leader (this prevents the system from spawning the unit as a random hero. Ekko is actually bugged, he should be set to Leader, but he isn t, meaning some people get him as a hero when they shouldn t). 8) Open the Hero Editor, and: a. Set Class to Warlord b. Add the spells Berserk and Lion s Courage to the hero s upgrade list 9) Go the appearance tab, and set it up based on these settings: Finally, since we copied Tombles from a Dreadnaught, we want to set the correct item in her inventory. 1) Select the Equipped Items tab in the hero editor. 2) In the Inventory Items section at the bottom, click the button that says Slot 1: Dreadnaught [Rifle] Use. 3) From the available items list, choose: Warlord [Crossbow] Use

80 Now we ve added a hero for Tombles, we need to add a resource that defines data about what kind of leader he is. 1) Restart the Mod Editor. We ve added new resources to one pack, and we want to access them in another pack, so we need to restart the editor after adding the resources for that to work. 2) In Mod Editor: File -> Open Resource Pack 3) Open: AoW3\Content\Title\Packs\AoW_Lords.rpk 4) Select the category Title Campaign Lord Definitions 5) Select an empty slot (I chose 51) 6) Select Lord Definition from the Type drop down 7) Click the Create button 8) Set the Name to Tombles 9) In the properties list: a. Can Be Starting Lord = true b. Localized First Name = TOMBLES_AND_TOMBELINA@TOMBLES@FIRST_NAME c. Localized Second Name = TOMBLES_AND_TOMBELINA@TOMBLES@SURNAME d. Race Link = Goblin Race Definition e. Classes = Avatar, Warlord, Destruction Adept, Destruction Master, Explorer f. Gender = Male g. Icon Set = Cat ID 91 h. Foreground Set = Poisonous Green Foreground Color i. Background Set = Black Background Color j. Leader Unit Link = Tombles (this is the hero we just added) 10) Finally, set Hero Data: Copy From Leader Unit to true. It will immediately go back to false, but will also copy all of the appearance data you set in the Tomble s hero resource into the lord definition. If you change the hero s appearance, you should repeat this step. All Done And that s it! If you start a new game Tombles the Almighty, with is trademarked green cat banner, will be available from the hero list.

81 Troubleshooting I ve edited an object, and now it s disappeared from the game! Many objects in game check themselves for invalid data while the game is loading. If they detect a problem they disable themselves to prevent the game from crashing, which causes them to disappear. If you look at the game s log, you should find an error message from the object where it explains why it is disabled. These error messages always contain the word Invalid I ve changed the values in a spell or ability, but the numbers in the spell s description are still the same! You need to change the descriptions by hand, see the section String Key Replacers I ve added a new resource to a pack in my mod, but I can t see that new resource in another pack in the mod! When you add a new resource to a pack you need to restart the Mod Editor before it becomes visible in other packs in the Mod Editor. I m updating the description of a skill, but the changes aren t appearing in game! If a skill is being used to unlock a spell, the system automatically uses the description of the spell *NOT* the description of the skill.