James009D

Join Date 01/2005

+67

[REL] Collection of Mods 0.2

A collection of my mod releases

External Link

I've created a number of small mods and decided I'd share them with you all. I figure this is enough mods that I can just put them all in one big thread.

Mega Modpack 0.2: This includes a collection of the small mods below. Updated buildings mod to provide:

Harbors gain +2 food, watchtowers add +1 to city defense, market and trade centers generates +1 gold, trade centers add +1 to caravans, and construction yards actually grant construction improvements. Caravan buildings should now work properly and only add +1 caravan per city.

http://www.mediafire.com/?976x6ue68n1zmcz

CORE MODIFICATION: This modifies the CORE game-files to fix major a major bug. Put this into your "C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Elemental\data\English\Core Improvements" folder and use the /createxmlbinary executable command to reload the game data. Be sure to backup the replaced files first! This should be overwritten in a patch.

Building Fix Mod- CORE BUGFIX: Fixes some major problems with the a couple core improvement XML files restoring functionality and fixing many bugs. Also adds +1 caravan for each Trade Center constructed (test please). NOTE: ONLY USE THIS IF YOU ARE DOING CORE MODDING AND USING THE /CREATEXMLBINARY COMMAND. DO NOT USE IT OTHERWISE, USE THE UPDATED MEGA MODPACK.

http://depositfiles.com/en/files/mr9gdp5xq?redirect

MAJOR MODS: I've worked hard on these babies.

Abilities and Histories Mod (UPDATED): This is a total revamp of all the abilities and traits in Elemental. Adds more relevant bonuses to the professions, traits, and backgrounds so they are more meaningful and useful.

http://depositfiles.com/files/u4le3c8j2

Character Mod: Adds more companions, new skins, and more eyes. Also, adds darker roads. Based on the Abilities and Histories Mod.

http://depositfiles.com/en/files/4t7xj1sfz?redirect

Community of Heroes Mod: Submit your character as a hero today.

[Unreleased]

Armor and Weapons Tech Mod: Separates the armor and the weapon technologies from one another, you can select which path you want to take. Allows the RAZE ability once you research Advanced Equipment. Adds +1 caravans for one economic tech. UPDATED IN MODPACK: Should reduce monster spawning by 50%.

OLD: http://depositfiles.com/en/files/f4uzq5y8q?redirect

SMALLER MODS: These are smaller still important modifications.

Average Difficulty Mod: Adds an "Average" difficulty option that is like Challenging but without the 2X financial boost. It makes the AI play at the same level as the player.

http://depositfiles.com/en/files/fxana10xh?redirect

City Hub Mod: Increases city size to 75 (the open construction slots), implements some small gold bonuses for larger cities, and allows minor race cities to increase in size (if conquered and build housing).

http://depositfiles.com/en/files/jnk9fcze0?redirect

Sound FX Mod: Fixes some of the inconsistencies from some of the voices NOTE: This may require a core modification to properly fix the sounds.

http://depositfiles.com/en/files/5mkxc79kr?redirect

Please download them and enjoy them. Let me know of any ideas, bugs, or problems. I appreciate any feedback!

Mods: Place the mods into your "C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Elemental\Mods" directory and enable mods in the options.

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Gnilbert
Thiryn
Dekent

Alstein

Join Date 07/2004

+55

I'd vote for these mods to be added into Impulse.

Maybe as a collective pack?

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awuffleablehedgie

Join Date 04/2009

+60

please use box.net. It's faster and does not have a stupid wait timer.

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Try and realize how long it took to upload each one of these, lol. Apologies for the wait time but I hadn't heard of box.net before now. I use depositfiles because of the administrative functions I have over the files. Helps me stay organized in this time of anarchy and chaos. I could upload most of the smaller ones into one big file if that'd be easier. The major mods, however, are remaining separated.

If these forums had [spoiler] tags I could put the smaller one's on the forums and share them here.

Also, I'm testing the latest version of the Abilities Mod. Hopefully release it soon.

Update: It's been released. Please provide feedback on that thread.

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I am not sure I want to try this : we know there are still things to balance in the game, and there are a lot of patches these days.

So my fear is that a few later games modifications might be hidden/altered by these mods. Maybe after some time, when the pace of the patches will be slower !

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Just wanted to pop in and thank you for sharing these mods James009D. It's great to see a modder in action when the game has barely touched the ground yet.

I got to agree that downloading is a bit annoying though. Your suggestion to pack the smaller mods (or the perhaps mods you don't expect to update soon) together in one download feels like a good idea.

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Package em together by the time I get home from work please =p

I'm going to add the +1 trade route to bazaars too instead of having a tech that adds them, those techs seem to come way to late in the game.

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BTW, do you want comments on your mods in this thread or in each sub-thread?

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Quoting zelurker,

reply 4

I am not sure I want to try this : we know there are still things to balance in the game, and there are a lot of patches these days.

So my fear is that a few later games modifications might be hidden/altered by these mods. Maybe after some time, when the pace of the patches will be slower !

Patches shouldn't effect these mods, other then the Core modification... which basically is a patch and would be overwritten in the event of a patch. I'm going to convert the new stuff in that file into a mod sometime later (or when they patch it).

The bonus of modding is that they add to the Core files, not replace them. It's actually pretty difficult to override any default gamedata without a core modification.

Quoting Wauthan,

reply 5

Just wanted to pop in and thank you for sharing these mods James009D. It's great to see a modder in action when the game has barely touched the ground yet.

I got to agree that downloading is a bit annoying though. Your suggestion to pack the smaller mods (or the perhaps mods you don't expect to update soon) together in one download feels like a good idea.

Quoting Dekent,

reply 6

Package em together by the time I get home from work please =p

Thanks! I doubt that I'll have them packed together by the time you get home as I'm on the road today. I'll do it later tonight once I get settled in.

Quoting Wauthan,

reply 7

BTW, do you want comments on your mods in this thread or in each sub-thread?

I'd prefer the comments about the MAJOR mods be on their respective threads but I'm not all that picky.

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What folder do you put the ModTechs_Amarian.xml file in?

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Quoting James009D,

reply 8

I'd prefer the comments about the MAJOR mods be on their respective threads but I'm not all that picky.

Got it chief. The Building fix mod doesn't seem to work as intended. Everything got doubled in game (cost of building, upkeep and bonus). Perhaps I wasn't supposed to stick the file in the main elemental/mods folder?

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Quoting FM_Kilgore,

reply 9

What folder do you put the ModTechs_Amarian.xml file in?

That goes into your "Mods" folder.

Quoting Wauthan,

reply 10

Quoting James009D, reply 8I'd prefer the comments about the MAJOR mods be on their respective threads but I'm not all that picky.
Got it chief. The Building fix mod doesn't seem to work as intended. Everything got doubled in game (cost of building, upkeep and bonus). Perhaps I wasn't supposed to stick the file in the main elemental/mods folder?

I should have better documented that one. The Building Mod is a CORE modification and replaces your current "KingdomSpecialImprovements.xml" and "KingdomUniqueImprovements.xml" in the "C:\Program Files\Stardock Games\Elemental\data\English\Core Improvements" folder. This is ABSOLUTELY necessary until they release an update which fixes the buildings (which are essentially broken atm, check out their code).

EDIT: Updated the first post to reflect this.

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Quoting James009D,

reply 11

I should have better documented that one.

Thanks for clearing that up. Mod works just fine now. Great to have the buildings work as intended.

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Ok, everything is a little better documented and I've uploaded the smaller ones into a single download. Anyways, I have to go drive for eight hours now...

Enjoy!

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Quoting James009D,

reply 11

That goes into your "Mods" folder.

The game is not picking up these changes. Where exactly are you putting this?

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Quoting FM_Kilgore,

reply 14

Quoting James009D, reply 11
That goes into your "Mods" folder.

The game is not picking up these changes. Where exactly are you putting this?

You have to enable "Mods" in your game options.

@James009D : Some great mods ye have there Really expands the overall game experience.

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James009D Can you put up the mod from one of your other posts and step step guide where to place it.

Thanks

Here is what you posted before.

<AbilityBonuses>
   
   
   
   <AbilityBonus InternalName="Sovereign_Ability_Logistics">
       <AbilityBonusType>Champion_Talent</AbilityBonusType>
       
       <AbilityBonusOption InternalName = "Sovereign_Ability_Logistics_Organized">
           <Cost>0</Cost>
       </AbilityBonusOption>
   </AbilityBonus>

</AbilityBonuses>

Maybe offer a second version where it cost 5 Points so it is not totally out of balance

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What exactly is broken about the default buildings? I looked through them while playing with the +1 trade route/market from my other thread and they did appear to be a mess.

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Quoting Dekent,

reply 17

What exactly is broken about the default buildings? I looked through them while playing with the +1 trade route/market from my other thread and they did appear to be a mess.

See "Building Function Problems" in this thread.

Quoting MageMatthew,

reply 16

James009D Can you put up the mod from one of your other posts and step step guide where to place it.

Thanks

Here is what you posted before.

<AbilityBonuses>

<DataChecksum NoParse="1">
       <Ignore>DisplayName</Ignore>
       <Translate>DisplayName</Translate>
   </DataChecksum>
   
   
   
   <AbilityBonus InternalName="Sovereign_Ability_Logistics">
       <AbilityBonusType>Champion_Talent</AbilityBonusType>
       
       <AbilityBonusOption InternalName = "Sovereign_Ability_Logistics_Organized">
           <Cost>0</Cost>
       </AbilityBonusOption>
   </AbilityBonus>

</AbilityBonuses>

Maybe offer a second version where it cost 5 Points so it is not totally out of balance

hehe, this IS the mod (added the datachecksum). Just copy the code and past it into a ModOrganizedTrait.XML file in your mods directory. That should overwrite the default "Organized" trait with a 0 cost... or 5, just change the number.

Question: Anyone know what datachecksum actually does?

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Have you confirmed the caravan mod is working? I see the code copied into the market place but it doesn't seem to actually have an affect (yes have files in the main directories and not mod)

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Quoting Dekent,

reply 19

Have you confirmed the caravan mod is working? I see the code copied into the market place but it doesn't seem to actually have an affect (yes have files in the main directories and not mod)

I got carried away in the description... the Markets are NOT the buildings that add to the caravan bonus, it was actually the "Trade Center". You should see a "Trading Bonus" listed in it's hergememnon file. I need to test and see if it is granting +1 caravan for the city... or for the civilization. Let me know, please.

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This is the code that adds caravans I gather?

        <GameModifier>
           <ModType>Player</ModType>
           <Attribute>AbilityBonus</Attribute>
           <StrVal>A_Trading</StrVal>
           <Value>1</Value>
       </GameModifier>

I have it under both market and trade center, neither seems to have any icons about caravan limits in the Hwhatever (side note, just realized while looking for it we have a mini-map! Never knew that)

The game loads pretty damn near instant from my shortcut, maybe that /createxmlbinary is the issue for me.

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Alright, first, let me apologize. The whole /createxmlbinary thing was a mistake at this point because the origional data.zip was not broken by the bad XML code. The XML code is most certainly almost broken but it, luckily, wasn't loaded into the data.zip we got. This started becoming a problem when people began modding files which required the data.zip to be re-written which used the core and broken XML code in the process. As a result, I noticed the broken buildings, went into the XML, discovered these errors, talked to Stardock, re-downloaded the files, and then released my fix.

The "Core Fix" is still pretty much required if your going to be using /createxmlbinary for any CORE modding. I want to emphasize that this is NOT necessary for normal modding. However, this leaves modders in the dry because we cannot really change any core data (at least, I don't know how). We need some kind of an override function.

Anyways, I have updated the files and re-uploaded them on a website hosting service that even awuffleablehedgie should enjoy. I'll put my future mods there too because it's way cooler the depositefiles. With it I have included an untouched data.zip file that you can use to restore Elemental to it's 1.06 goodness as the building problems are not relevant. Don't use /createxmlbinary without knowing what your doing, it's an advanced feature and not something simple players should trifle with. It's a pandora's box into a daemons lair.

Here is the readme for this update:

Mega Modpack 0.2

This is a small collection of mods. Many of them updated.:

ModAverageDifficulty: Adds an additional difficulty that sets the AI to human levels. Full AI but no 2X gold bonus.
ModBuildings: This is my Core modification of the buildings into a more simplified mod.
- Harbors gain +2 food, watchtowers add +1 to city defense, market and trade centers generates +1 gold, trade centers add +1 to caravans, and construction yards actually grant construction improvements.
ModCityHubs: Adds some small gold income to larger city sizes and allows minor race cities to grow beyond size one (thus, losing their special abilities). Growing them is optional and requires the player to build housing.
ModTechs: Seperates Weaponary and Armor into seperate tech categories, allows seige once you aquire "Advanced Equipment", and grants +1 trade routes upon researching the "Merchant Guilds" tech.
ModSoundPack: An attempt to fix the default voice SFX of certain voices. May require an override.

Mods: Place in your "Mods" directory and enable mods. These DO NOT require you to create a new data.zip (which I'm now advising against).

I have also included a backup of the data.zip file in case you have already overridden yours. Just place it into the data folder and do not run the XML compile command again. There is still bad code in the CoreXML which will overwrite the good data.zip file.

Good luck!
- James009D

Modder Note: I think the soundpack modification isn't working as intended and may require a core modification too or a way to override the core files to use the proper SFX.

Also, I need feedback on lategame caravan balance.

Mega Modpack 0.2:

http://www.mediafire.com/?976x6ue68n1zmcz

Also, check out HeavenFall's Bugfix Mod.

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The caravan modification doesn't work. I have been trying to find a way to increase caravans myself but I haven't been successful yet.

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I'd installing you armor and weapon tech mod, but it didn't work, how come? was it because I was using a custom map?

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Quoting Strategist,

reply 24

I'd installing you armor and weapon tech mod, but it didn't work, how come? was it because I was using a custom map?

Nope, it doesn't work unless you write over the default gamecode by regenerating the data.zip file (which isn't recommended). I'm leaving it here until they release a patch and then hoping that it'll override the default gamedata and work properly.

I wish there was a way I could implement it right now but until we get some kind of an override code it's not going to work properly

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