Looks interesting.

This does look interesting. If you need help, I may be able to lend some assistance.

I wish I could help out with more head models for what looks to be a great mod. Unfortunately, the head model includes the eyes, and I have so far failed to load the internal .dll stardock sent us which enables making such things.

The heads comment was more directed to Stardock because I wish they had given pointy ears to all the Wraith heads. I just like my elves with pointy ears, the same that I like my vampires not sparkling when hit by sunlight. Bursting in flames? That's ok. Sparkling? No way!

After testing in some games, magic books are actually too few. I need a lot more! Something that involves in some books mixing spells of different ranks, in other cases some "theme" and stuff like that. But as I have it right now it's too "meh", especially for factions like Greyfang that only uses Aether.

The game is certainly mod friendly as long as you don't go my route. Tactical battles? Only Mana bar there. So not only you don't see the number of Shards you have but neither any other form of mana that has been added by modding. Quite a WoM feeling there. Eventually I may need to deal with that as keeping a written score of your current Attor/Blood/Chi/Faith pool is not fun.

Enchantments show fine but require you to know the maintenance numbers:

Back in WoM, all the factions used just one type of "mana". In the case of the Scarlet Empire, they only used Blood. But in FE, I've all the factions using Mana plus the faction magic type (if any). I have considered to use Mana to pay for enchantment upkeeps but I'm not really sure that I like the idea. Maybe it could make sense depending of spell costs to cast and scarcity of the mana type.

Spells wise, yesterday I surrendered to the fact that the only way to give Abilities (that I could find*) was through city training which meant that to turn Champions into vampires I needed to duplicate the Vampiric Nightmare Ability through an enchantment. I don't like it so much because the transformation (and the Blood maintenance) should be permanent. Not only that, it means that I cannot give them Blood ability to rank 1 so they can become casters of this magic type. But when life gives you lemons...

They need to add the enchantments of the unit in its detail screen because right now the only way to see the enchantments on them is by the Enchantment screen or hovering the mouse over them. Not a big deal but it would be nice.

* the injury system certainly adds new abilities to existing Champions though

You can't give traits, but you can give spell unlocks, and you can give them hidden unitstats. Why is hidden unitstats important? Because you can allow someone to gain traits noone else can at level-up. So, for example, you could in your spell put "UnitStat_IsVampie" +1, then prereq that unitstat in the trait so it will only be available to those who have that unitstat at level-up. It's not perfect, but it will allow your champions to embark on a series of traits noone else has access to.

The other day got bored of how some files are organized and decided to order them better. Still some work to do but I have increased the number of files a lot. But at least I get files for each faction's units, files for different clothing parts and stuff like that.

Still working on splitting spells through spellbooks but that's an ongoing process. The only real work is to create new spells for the special books. I have created some few basic ones and will add more as I work on the different factions and their needs.

As usual, I devoted some time to add some art (or better said: mod it). I had different colour patterns for Professions and initial talents/weakenesses but I have finally surrended and joined the Green wave by Stardock. Used the opportunity to rework some of the pics used for some professions (the Lord of Death profession had the same icon as the Zombie!!!). That said, I was thinking of maybe using different colour for the Paths/Classes. Unlike FE, and similar to seanw3's mod, I want to have what I call subclasses to the initial Path you select. So having them of different colour would make easier to the eye to identify them in case that the player needs to check it or something. Meanwhile, some more magic icons:

What I have been working more lately is the UnitStat thingy. Totally awesome and would be more awesome if it worked in more stuff. Let me elaborate while I talk about other stuff.

My own custom Paths (Classes) and their subclasses. Right now, the unfinished list (as in: "I have some added, others not, need to think of more and in any case lots of new abilities/talents/powers need to be added.") goes like:

• Rogue
  • Duelist
  • Assassin
• Weaver
  • Dark Weaver
  • Light Weaver
  • Blood Weaver
  • Druid (Elf, Winter Elf)
• Monk (Kiku)
• Fighter
  • Barbarian (Orcus, Elf, Winter Elf)
  • Commander
  • Warrior
  • Paladin (Veralux)
  • Psiwarrior (Tao)
  • Bushi (Kiku)
  • Blade Dancer (Dark Elf)
• Archer
  • Ranger (Elf, Dark Elf, Winter Elf)
  • Marksman
• Diplomat
  • Governor
  • Merchant
  • Scholar

I was trying to be nice and wanted to avoid the default content from using these classes while having the modded content (by me) using only my content. So Relias and recruited Champions would never get Monk or Fighter while Randolf (one of my Sovs) and (my future) custom Champions would never get Mage or Warrior.

How to do that? The basic idea to come to my mind was: "Tech requirement". But there being UnitStats, I thought it was better to use them rather than techs. Less messy, right? So I create the simple UnitStat_DS_IsMod that defaults to 0, which means "Core content". Then I make a copy of the core paths, delete all the game modifiers in them and add as prereq to have _IsMod == 0. Also, my own custom paths get as prereq _IsMod == 1. So I tweak a trait from the Randolf sovereign so he gets _IsMod == 1 and test.

Randolf shows _IsMod with 1 as value and the (core) champions I recruit show it at 0 value. So far so good. As the leveling starts though, all of them get to choose Paths that are core and modded. That's not good. Back to the XML, add my new and shiny tech "DS_NoMod" as prereq for the core paths and... seems to work by making them unavailable to anyone.

There are also UnitStat_DS_HasClass and UnitStat_DS_HasSubclass as prereqs based in if it's class or subclass. So if it's 0, it appears, and if it's 1 then not (game modifiers in the classes/subclasses change the 0 to 1). Right now, not really sure if they are working. Need more testing but considering the _IsMod thing...

Back in the (ongoing) brainstorming for the custom classes and some possible powers, I thought that it could be nice to try to add some "classic" armour restrictions based on class. I have no hopes for it to work for the units we can create but at the very least to have it working for the Champions. That way, I could have unarmored Monks instead of Full Plated Monks. :p Solution? UnitStat_DS_CanUseLightArmor and similars as prereqs in the core armors. As before, no way. I may be doing something terribly wrong though. At least, I can always use UnitStat_DS_IsUsingLightArmor and similars as prereqs in the special powers of each class, right? (as in: I haven't tested that yet) That would be best than artificial restrictions on which armours people can actually wear.

Aligment. I want to use it. Altough in my case it would be just "generic morality" (good, neutral, evil). I haven't thought about quests but it would be nice for magic items that require the heroes to be good and similar stuff. It would be nice for normal troops too so there could be spells/abilities based on it. Probems about implementation of aligment? Lots.

I can give Sovs/Champions an Aligment talent. Unfortunately, items are not fond of prereqs beyond Level. So there goes the idea of magic items locked by aligment. The bigger problem comes from the common folk you can recruit. How do you give them an aligment? Give a talent to the faction that is given to all the recruited units. This works quite well and is the method I use to make sure that all the recruited units of Aettryneland are zombies (they must be!). Problem? Much like that of the Aettryneland's zombies, is that it's give to any recruited unit, not just your basic folk. As this talent is applied last, the evil ogre you recruit can end being neutral (varies depending on the system I use at the moment). Or a zombie in case of Aettryneland.

For zombies it's easy to solve. The faction doesn't really use "outsider help" so I only have to denegate use of recruiting "stuff" that is not basic humanoids. For aligment not so easy as I may want to have units with different aligment. Maybe aligment talents in the create unit screen? But then, why would players bother picking a talent that gives nothing but aligment? If they could be used as prereq of aligment specific talents, then maybe.

Oh well, once the aligment issue is solved, the Religion issue can use same solutions.

Unfortunately, items can't hold any prereq tag except level requirements. It was actually my first request for improvements to the engine here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/417022/get;3071746

Yeah, but I thought it would be only items (gear). If I try to give a prereq of _IsMod (or any other UnitStat, actually) to talents (spell ranks or class paths that I want to appear only to some heroes at level up), it doesn't work either. It doesn't matter the default value and the value given to the Unit that I test with: it's ignored. That's why I had to use a prereq Tech to disable core Path talents. 

Are you sure you're doing the right modifier?

        <Prereq>
            <Type>UnitStat</Type>
            <Attribute>UnitStat_DS_IsMod</Attribute>
            <Value>1</Value>
        </Prereq>

As an example, this works as expected for me

Assassin path only appears if the unit has 1 or more in HasInjuries. Keep in mind you have to put the AbilityBonusOption inside its parent AbilityBonus, otherwise the engine won't know what it is.

My last version had some wrong but correcting them (and removing the tech prereq) doesn't solve the issue. Core Sovereigns, core Champions, Custom Sovs with the correct prereq value, custom Sovs wihtout the prereq value... all of them get to choose between core and custom Paths. The modifier is the correct one, everything is in the correct AbilityBonus...I see nothing wrong.

Will keep trying to figure out what's wrong but it certainly doesn't work for me due to whatever I seem to be doing wrong.

Im' just throwing a wide ball, but you did remember to define the unitstat like in CoreUnitstats.xml right?

I decided to take the last weeks off (since 0.85) to clear my mind about UnitStats and modding in general but now that I'm back I can say:

The UnitStats are all in place with no doubt.

I took your Battleborn trait for testing, changing injuries prereq for other UnitStats and got the following:

--------

I modified your trait with this:

and changed the prereq to this:

Result at level 2 (forgive the cheating in gear):

Battleborn is added to the default 5 Paths that I add at level 2, as the default value of UnitStat_DS_HasClass is 0 (until you pick a path/class and becomes 1).

--------

If I change the prereq to:

At level 2, Battleborn won't appear but will do at level 3 (once I already have a path/class).

--------

If I add a new prereq above the current one, a new prereq like this:

The result at level 2 is that Battleborn appears despite the second prereq of UnitStat_DS_HasClass, as the default value of UnitStat_DS_HasSubclass is 0 (until you pick a subclass in level 6).

--------

If I add another new prereq above the current ones, a new prereq like this:

And change the value of the other two prereqs to 0, the result at level 2 is no Battleborn trait as the Sovereign I use hasn't Finesse (tried this example putting the Finesse prereq under the other two too).

--------

If I delete the prereqs and add these (in this order):

The result at level 2 is:

Otaku has no Finesse but she meets the other reqs, like Quick.

--------

If I delete the prereqs and add these (in this order):

The result at level 2 is getting Battleborn, despite not meeting the UnitStat_DS_HasSubclass and the DS_Finesse_Level prereqs. (the champion with her didn't get it as he didn't have Quick)

Time to get creative creating unique and specialized UnitStat if I want to use multiprereqs in my Path trees.

So to sum up, not all prerequisites must be fulfilled for the trait to appear? That's a bummer. I don't know if it helps, but abilitybonusoptions inside the same abilitybonus are by design mutually exclusive

I didn't know about the AbilityBonusOptions, I thought it was a matter of the level talents (first thing I try with multiple prereqs).

I have simplified it to single prereqs, including specific UnitStats. No more class and subclass limits either. Be all you can be, I suppose.

The basic Paths have no prereqs except for Weaver and Monk. UnitStat_DS_IsKiku is the racial UnitStat that I use for those two Paths: value 0 (default) is the prereq for Weaver because Kiku cannot be Weavers (mages) while Monk has a value of 1 as its prereq as only Kiku can be monks (psionic like class). Any Sovereign (except Otaku from Tao) and core Champions don't get Path of the Monk as level 2 option as their UnitStat_DS_IsKiku is 0 but do get Path of the Weaver instead. Otaku on the other hand gets Path of the Monk... but also Path of the Weaver, which she shouldn't as her UnitStat_DS_IsKiku is 1.

Playing with UnitStat_DS_IsKiku's values and the prereqs of Weaver and Monk, the only way to have Otaku with only Monk and the rest with only Weaver, is: to give default value of UnitStat_DS_IsKiku as 2, a prereq a value of 2 for Weaver and a value of 1 for Monk. Really weird.

More weird is that the subclasses seem to work fine. All of them have a single prereq so there are not problems with exclusive stuff or similar. Fighter has Paladin and Psiwarrior as some of its subclasses for Veralux and Tao each.

They are based on UnitStat_DS_IsVeraluxFighter and UnitStat_DS_IsTaoFighter (require a value of 2 as prereq to their assigned subclass), which default to 0 and that are increased by 1 when you select Path of the Fighter. Each custom Sovereign has that stat also increased if they are of the proper faction (Elena for Veralux, Otaku for Tao), and Champions can only get those stats increased by the proper Oath of Fealty enchantment of that faction (with increases those stats by 1).

(the bug in the adjust unit stat is corrected, forgot adding one back then)

For the test, I put Paladin and Psiwarrior as Common 700 of level 3. Elena will get Path of the Paladin as Fighter subclass at level 3 and Otaku will get Psiwarrior as Fighter subclass at level 3. Their recruited Champions won't get those subclasses at level 3 (or ever) unless they have the proper Oath of Fealty enchantment.

So Weaver/Monk issues remains and to avoid the weirdness of a default value of 2 (I like booleans), I may just use a new couple of stats like _CanBeWeaver and _CanBeMonk. They would allow exceptional Kikus to be weavers and exceptional "everybody else" be monks if I desire so.

You should totally hook up with Seanw3 for his path mod.

Well, at least I have finished the skeleton for my classes and it's only a matter of adding new talents (some have none!!!).

I have uploaded the lastest version to dropbox and I have decided to share it now despite still not FE 1.0 any time soon. Not that it has anything worth playing but "It's free!!!" and someone may be curious. Hey, at least it has many shiny icons!

I finally decided that colour coding some talents was best. Not sure why Stardock uses small size now for the icons as it forces me to use some of that size while I prefer the big one. Neither why they went for only green and red.

 Aligment: 

 Profession: 

 Path: 

Only Sovereigns have aligment (custom Champions will have too). John Doe units may have, but still need to develop the mod more before anything is set in stone (I want Smite Evil against regular troops though so...).

 Custom sovereigns and such are not in my mind yet. Any profession and talent/weakness is designed for a Sovereign of the mod, so if someone thinks that stuff like Vampiric Nightmare is cheap when creating a custom sovereign (warning: 1 Blood upkeep), try to keep in mind the context.

Some Sovereigns are still on the works, and all the faction "talents" are still pending beyond their initial Way (gives initial tech unlocks).

There are many new techs but costs are random (no balance there, which makes them unplayable, more if you consider that many do nothing right now). Morality and Theology are there to unlock special stuff (buildings, units) and it would be interesting to have some combinations (the Dark Side of the Dreamer or the Pretty Side of the Lords of Maere... hmm nevermind, those guys didn't have any Pretty Side). If I could have it to impact the relations with other factions, it would be totally awesome but I don't count with it.

I haven't touched any of the new spells or revised the old ones but it's still soon. It needs more work in any case, needing more "sub-books" (especially in the Aether section). I don't use the Elements from FE but all the ones mentioned in previous posts. You start at least with rank 1 or you better forget about getting new ranks at level up. Except that: you are a vampire, which would allow you to get rank 1 of Blood; you are a paladin, which would allow you to get rank 1 of Faith; you are a Monk (need to check if Psiwarrior should count too), which would allow you to get rank 1 of Chi.

The Paths seem to work and I'll try to improve them as my skill and knowledge improves. For now, I have it working in a basic way and as long as it works, I'm happy. Basic Pats are at level 2 but may end imitating Stardock and moving them to level 4 (which seems too late but I understand the need to customize our recruited Champions of level 3 or less).

Elena is a special case of no Monk-no Weaver Paths, Alicia is the common Sovereign with access to Weaver but no Monk, and Otaku is the case of Monk but no Weaver. I don't think I need more base Paths and in case of needing one, probably it would be for Arcaniams and their "magitek". But Reino Arcano is not a priority so not in a hurry to think about that stuff.

Many UniStats that I have been adding for possible use (despite not using most of them yet due to lack of real content in the mod). Champions do need some help to cope with lack of aligment or access to new Paths.

Psionic and Divine UnitStats have been added. They are to be used mostly by Tao and Veralux but once (one day in the future) I get into monsters realm, they will use them too. Not much stuff that use them but it's nice to have them in besides the classic elements and poison.

Oh, there is a book of cheats for everybody that adds the spell Exp Bonus (+1000% exp in the latest version). Some images missing, maybe some wrong, spelling errors, a few new testing buildings, the clothing selection of the races still have some errors (including Dark Elves males not having shirts!!!) and... yeah, Dark Elves have spider mounts as one type of special unit (not canon though). Praise the powers of Copy & Paste!! :p

So still giving baby steps with the mod but the possibilities are nice. And for those who may decide to check the mod (play it or just check the files), the lastest (and work in progress) version: 20120304 version (unzip in the FallenEnchantress folder  in the MyGames folder) Warning about it for those who risk playing/installing it: it disables the core Sovereigns, the core Paths and some core talents. That may change in the future (somehow) but right now, it works like that. I have also tried to keep everything in specific folders and files that use "WS_DS_" (or "DS_") at the beginning of their names but there are a few exceptions.

In before Mass Effect 3 (unlocks in a few hours for me), Tali and the lots of hours that will be "lost" there:

I have been changing stuff to make the mod work with Heavenfall's UnitStat Background Mod and tweaked the UnitStats I already had. Trying to organize the files' content too but some parts are going to take a looooooooong way. At least everything is in two folders now, so the mod can be esily removed when needed.

The Paths come along nicely but I really need to add more stand alone ones. There were moments that Sovereign would get various class to pick each level because most of the talents are tied to them. Having fun working on it but too soon to get numbers right (I do try not to make them broken) and names can be hard to think of ("Blade Specialization" for cutting weapons so... what for piercing or blunt weapons??? O_o ).

I have been tweaking magic ranks so (non core) sovereigns/champions without the initial ranks may be able to unlock some through their level up choices. So if as a Weaver you pick Combat Weaver talent, you unlock War Rank 1 as possible level up trait. And some classes require you to pick a specific talent before you actually get the chance to be offered it: like Powerful Blood talent unlocks the possibility of the Blood Weaver subclass (in addition to unlocking Blood Rank 1 too!).

I try to make them themed, which adds to the fun of creating them (Blue Eyes may not make sense to you but it has lore base to it). Now that I have "controlled" the use of UnitStats here, I could add secondary subclasses that depend on class/subclass combos but not sure. Better finish what I already have (and Fighter gets tons of subclasses while Monk barely has one).

Some classes unlock stuff, mostly combat abilities and that will take a while but will be interesting. I need to work more on other stuff before I can really finish these Paths stuff but meanwhile Blade Dancers get Blade Dance (like sweep but full damage), Dragon Knights get access to powerful Dragon Runes that grants them special abilities like Fear or Fire Breath (should check the possibility of "No Fire Breath while using helmet"?) or Druids get a pet (by just picking being a Druid):

(need a winterish version for Winter Elf Druids but I like the cooshee feeling)

• Rogue
  • Assassin
  • Duelist
• Weaver
  • Blood Weaver
  • Dark Weaver
  • Druid (Elf, Winter Elf)
  • Light Weaver
• Monk (Kiku)
  • Butterfly (Kiku)
• Fighter
  • Barbarian (Elf, Winter Elf)
  • Berserker (Orcus)
  • Blade Dancer (Dark Elf)
  • Bushi (Kiku)
  • Commander
  • Dragon Knight (Helle)
  • Paladin (Veralux)
  • Psiwarrior (Tao)
  • Warrior
• Archer
  • Marksman
  • Ranger (Elf, Dark Elf, Winter Elf)
• Diplomat
  • Governor
  • Merchant
  • Scholar

Despite the lack of real content (yet), I have tweaked the rarity of the paths/talents and all those new techs in the tech tree. At least they scalate well and makes them playable. They just need more content!

I have also added a few injuries (work quite fine). I find difficult to think of new and doable ones but still nice. Blood Fever, Shaky Hands, Voices,...  I'm trying to have some related to the class/talents of the character (Void Eyes injury requires Blue Eyes talent, which is a Weaver talent) but I haven't tested that yet (tech prereqs work, that's for sure).

Today I tried to create artifacts out of spells. Like good old MoM. I was worried it may not work or require dirty tricks but works so easily! Unlocking magical items trhough research is cool but I miss creating my own stuff for my Champions. Trying to recreate the flexibility of MoM's forge would require too many spells for each possible variant of each artifact (at least as my limited mind allows me to understand). The alternative that I have right now is still cool though. It's going to be great fun when I start messing with equipment, just need t make sure that it makes sense and is balanced (right now the shop value of my two artifacts is 0... so much for balance!).

Injury traits do not honor any prereq tags, unfortunately (at least they did not in 0.75).

Great news that you decided to go for the library, it will help our mods be more compatible with each other.