ACP expansion

EDIT: Placed original content into OP.

You want tiles? I'll make you some . I'd like to keep my sights on finishing up golems tilest as priority, but now and again I do come up with something that doesn't fit there, or just need a creative break. Any specific requests or you just want some fillers?

How do goodie huts behave, btw? Are they 1x1/2x2 that gets 'shrunk' on map, or the tiles appears scaled the same as one makes it?

Really enjoying the ACP pack so far. I was thinking about doing some reskinning this weekend so if I produce anything good I shall post it here and you can use it if you like. Also my personal feeling is some of the tiles being used in the mod currently for quests could use an updade. Oddrheia your tiles are always stunning so perhaps you might want to look at some of the existing tiles and see if there are any you feel you could adjust a bit.

I suppose I can post all the tiles in the first reply thread here. Goodiehuts/Quest Locations should be 2x2. It CAN be 1x1, but I think it's too small.

My old temple tile was a 2x2 if memory serves.

I'll make you two sets for a problem with wolves and Fresh ruins set of quests to start with and see what's left after. Gimme a week-ish.

Yes, you are correct, it IS 2x2, yay! Ok, I've updated the post, take your time. By the way, there is no real limit on the name of the tile, I just ask that it start with ACP_ (so dont feel like you have to save the tile with the same filename that is up in the post).

Another nice thing about GH/Quest locations is that you don't have to concern yourself with the "borders". As they are not getting repeated, you can be as creative as you want. You can add a crap load of trees all around. Just don't go too crazy, these things sometimes spawn near cities.

Put me down for an Upgrade to the Tiles with my name on them. It is true that the 1x1 work but are hard to see when zoomed out.

Each GH should have a sparkly (some color) with it thought right, so it stands out on the Map?

The engine automagically puts the sparkle on all goodiehuts and locations. Be mindful of this when adding effects.

I haven't messed with this before. What are the file type and technical specifications (dimensions) for the icons?  Are there style or other preferences? I may have some arcane looking doodles and such that i could scan and tweak when i get a chance/time (probably pulling OT this week) that may work as a spell book pic.

Also, can a new particle be created/modded in to enhance the cauldron/effects? Ex. something along the lines of the existing shield or wheat icon/particle.

Well, these abilities won't be in a spell book, so it doesn't have to be anything too crazy. I've been doing them at 256x256, the game will resize it for the icon. In regards to the abilities in ACP, the graphics are seen as icons (in strat, little icons on the bottom left when a champ is selected, in tactical, it's the icon that shows up in the list of abilities). The image tag I believe is what is used for the card that pops up. Again, all of these can just be 256x256. I think usually the icons are 64x64. All graphics are png files.

As far as particle cauldron, yes you can add new textures, and colors. One thing that's a little weird is that you must place your new textures, and colors in the install directories to show up in the cauldron (but for people to use an effect you made, they can reside in the mods folder). Both the textures and colors are pngs.

Stardock\Elemental\Gfx\Effect\Colors

Stardock\Elemental\Gfx\Effect\Shapes

Just wanted to chime in with a thought on unique items and a balance note:

1) I really want more equipment geared toward spell casting; I think a staff / rod / item that gave the equivalent of a shards (or more depending on quest level) worth of element mana would be a lot of fun.  Check out the Element Alignment section of Sovereign Traits from Murteas Grimoire for the idea (and code). 

"Can you claim the Staff of the FireLord!"  Fight horde of fire dudes, get staff that hits like battleaxe, give +2 shards worth of fire mana, possibly also has an INT based ranged attack with multi-turn cool down.

2) UW on monsters: Possessed Battle Axe has the only one I think is not fun to play with due to Dread Fright.  Personally I do not want wandering monsters with the ability to turf units out of my army hunting them (other factions being able to this is ok, since its all part of the war).   Maybe remodel the code for this one unit only (and break its UW compatibility) to give it a different but scary ability instead of Dread like Double strike?  Power Up + Double Strike on that would be suitably horrifying I think. 

In general I really like the fact that ACP monsters get UW abilities; it improves the immersion aspect of adding those mechanics to the game while keeping the mods functionally independent.

Oh, come on dude. This ability makes you think a bit harder about which units you attack with.

So maybe I was chasing one of these across the map with my spouse last night and kept getting Dread Frighted out of the battle  (leaving my capital with only standard unit defenders).  And maybe the Golem King showed up with a Chaos Bringer and razed my capital.  And maybe I was still bitter and annoyed at myself this morning on the commute for not noticing and losing my best city.   

I MIGHT be tempted to blame the monster rather than my lack of planning and poor execution.     

@ kenata: On deeper reflection your right, game does not need LESS dangerous stuff.

I updated the ability list. I need two more abilities for Wraiths that I'm happy with, and I'll be good with abilities for now. I was sick of having the NPCs only have ONE ability, heh. The idea has been 6 single target, and 6  AOE abilities per race. The first two spawnratings of NPCs will get 2 abilities each (of the single target variety). Then, level 3 will get 3 abilities, 4 will get 4, etc. This may be a bit much, but as far as I see it, can't have too many abilities! Hah!

So any discussion on the graphics side? Do you think what is representing the current abilities is good enough? There are certainly a few here that should be changed. I just want to hear peoples opinions on what is the most needing of attention.

@Impinc

Here are the 2x2 GH's from my list.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8370296/Goodie%20Huts.rar

On the graphic side, is it possible to, say, have the REALLY SCARY monsters (Dread Fright) have some sort of glowing weapon or some sort of warning indicator, As M.AGrippa noted, it isn't the Dread Fright ability itself, but the fact that as the Monster groups grow in size, and level, having to check every unit for it Special Abilities in order to protect your casters for example can get rather time consuming.

Would be nice to see them highlighted anyways....

Thank you, good sir. Great job as always.

As far as the abilities go, if you don't have updated weapons installed, you dont have to worry about it. It's a core weapon from the game. There's no way to make it different (unless Kenata happens to reskin the weapons, which I don't see happening). Just know that if you have Updated Weapons installed, there will be more challenge to the game. As with the monsters from ACP as well. It can be frustrating at times, but it makes you think before doing things now. 

Gotta run the MODS dude. Haven't even seen Vanilla since the new Chocolate/Blueberry/Raspberry/Coconut/Cherry flavor was introduced.

P.S. For the non cryptic readers among us, that would be (in no particular order btw) EF/ACP/UW/EM/MG (+ with some other sprinkles of course)

I'm with you all the way John. these mods make the game really worth playing.

Keep up the great work modders!

Hey John_ is Coconut == Elementium Mine?  That is the only one I do not recognize immediately.  And I agree that MG is Cherry level of tasty.

Expanded Mounts. I run the other EM but didn't want to replicate flavor acronyms.. LOL!

Ok, I added another quest that needs tiles to the list above (1st reply of this post).

The village tile I think kind of speaks for itself. It's supposed to be a makeshift village for a bunch of vagabonds.

This is the first of three quests that I will be adding which unlock a tech for a new weapon to equip your troops with. I'm thinking with the 3rd quest (I'm going to use the same vagabonds in all 3), that the vagabonds just realize they will always need your help and join your faction. The only way I can think of doing this would be to create a new worldresource with this vagabond village tile that you can then "build" on (think refugee camp). I'd have to create a new one because the empire factions can't build on refugee camps (and I don't want to change how that works). So, on the final quest, you not only get a new badass weapon, but you get an additional reward of more population. I think this also hints how easy this last quest will be .

I'd like to propose a challenge to the tile makers here. With the Haunted Vagabonds quest, (right now it's No One Home by John Hughes) I'd like to see a tile, AND a tactical map for the battle. It would be awesome if you could make the tile for the 3d map, then when you go into this encounter, the map looks like you're "in" that tile from the 3d map. It'd be interesting to see who can come up with the closest respresentation of their tile in a map editor (tactical battle map).

I would love to take on that challenge but... My PC, running Vista if it matters, seems not to like loading back to back Tact maps and or switching between Tact map creation and the Tile editor. (very sour at this time)

I have one question another Modder/Tiler (or anyone at all really) may be able to answer. Is it possible to create a test map, and load it in a new game without restarting Elemental totally.

I have the Use local data switch active but was under the impression the data is read in on launch and as such needs to be re-read when new stuff is created. Does everyone face the same problem?

What I usually do is to name the map the same. So, I create test1. Then I end up quitting, and going back in...then go to map editor, make the map again, save it as the same name. Then you can go and play on that map without having to restart.

Have to try that. Hope the editor loading holds up. Thanks Impinc.