v.95 Changes From a Modder's Perspective

from Elemental Forums

When every new release comes out, the first thing I do is compare the XML files for changes that are important or helpful for modding.  I haven't tested anything.  I've just compared the old and new files using BeyondCompare just to see the differences.  Here are my observations:

1> Shop Values have been cut approximately in half across the board.

2> Goodie Huts have eliminated the <IconSize> tags.  They may cause a problem if you leave them but they may just be ignored.  However, it is significant that Stardock removed them.  They seem to generally leave obsolete tags in the XML.

3> For Goodie Huts, the <GiveItem> tag now accepts rarity values (Common, Uncommon, Rare) as well as specific items.  This allows you to give a random item of a particular rarity. 

       <Treasure>
            <Title>Found Item</Title>
            <Desc>The butcherman kept a small pouch of items from his life, including an item of value.</Desc>
            <Liklihood>100</Liklihood>
            <GameModifier>
                <ModType>GiveItem</ModType>
                <StrVal>Common</StrVal>
            </GameModifier>
        </Treasure>

4> I don't know if it is new or not but Resources can be given as a <Treasure> from a goodie hut:

        <Treasure>
            <Title>Ogre Camp</Title>
            <Desc>A tribe of Ogres lives here. </Desc>
            <Liklihood>100</Liklihood>
            <GameModifier>
                <ModType>Map</ModType>
                <Attribute>CreateResourceHoard</Attribute>
                <StrVal>Wild_Ogres</StrVal>
            </GameModifier>
            <GameModifier>
                <ModType>Resource</ModType>
                <Attribute>TileYieldEssence</Attribute>
                <Value>1</Value>
            </GameModifier>
        </Treasure>

5> It looks like some new items have been added and some existing items changed.  The old and new CoreItems file doesn't match up well with BeyondCompare anymore so it's hard to tell for sure.

6> The number of default players on each map size was increased by 1.

7> Henchmen now are <SupportedUnitModelType>s for mounts and can now should be able to equip mounts.

8> New Player Ability Type:

    <PlayerAbilityType InternalName="A_UnitStat_Accuracy">
        <DisplayName>Unit Accuracy Bonus</DisplayName>
        <Description>Provides a bonus to the Accuracy of all units.</Description>
        <Icon>Stat_Accuracy_Icon.png</Icon>
    </PlayerAbilityType>

9> Some default values for other AbilitiyTypes has changed.

10> The Krax lost the <SelAbilityBonusOption> OneHandedSpears.  It appears to have been replaced with the Defensive ability bonus.   

        <Prereq>
            <Type>AbilityBonusOption</Type>
            <Attribute>Defensive</Attribute>
            <Target>Player</Target>
        </Prereq>

11> I don't know if UnitStat_BashChance is new, but many blunt weapons have gained this special. This seems to be the biggest change to weapons other than ShopValue.

        </GameModifier>
            <GameModifier>
                <ModType>Unit</ModType>
                <Attribute>AdjustUnitStat</Attribute>
                <StrVal>UnitStat_BashChance</StrVal>
                <Value>100</Value>
                <Provides>Bash- Has a chance equal to the damage done of knocking the victim prone</Provides>
            </GameModifier>

12> New Generic Unit Type for Races: Sage

13> New resource type, Essence.  It appears that Essence comes from elemental shards.

14> New SpellBookCategory: City

15> Some, but not all, city spells (apparently mostly the buffs) no longer have a Mana maintenance but provide benefits based on city's essence.

16> Spells now have a <FormattedDescription> tag that take the C style string token for decimal values (i.e. %d) The %d was the only one I saw used but it would be interesting to test other tokens like %s to see if they work also.  They appear to be used for calculated values. 

        <FormattedDescription>All enemy units take %d poison damage per turn for 10 turns, unless they resist.</FormattedDescription>

17> Along with that is this boolean tag in the <GameModifier> tag:

           <IsForFormattedDescription>1</IsForFormattedDescription>

18>  Champions gained the Unrest attribute.

        <GameModifier>
            <ModType>Resource</ModType>
            <Attribute>Unrest</Attribute>
            <Value>-5</Value>
            <Provides>-5% Unrest in the city this unit is in</Provides>
        </GameModifier>

19>  All UnitTypes gained the <ClothMapScale> tag.  I suspect this tag is important and should be added to all custom UnitTypes.

        <ClothMapScale>1.6</ClothMapScale>

20> In ElementalDefs.xml, the <DistanceBetweenxxxx> tag values have gotten smaller. MUCH smaller.  Minimum distances have shrunk significantly.

EDIT:

21>  The TechTree has also been modified pretty significantly.   Standing_Army,  Exploration, Channeling and Refined_Channeling have been removed.  New Techs, Charms, Henchmen, Immortal_Codex and Spellbooks have been added to the Magic TechTree.    The The Magic and Warfare techtrees have been rearranged a good bit too so any <Prereq> based on v915 Techs need to be revisited.

75,940 views 18 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Very nice, the item quality thing will be nice although I have to verify that new items are actually added to the general pool (because they weren't before).

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

The random loot option has yielded me more lucky hats than anything else. I am thinking of starting a hat store. 

 

I also noticed that the first 2 staves I picked up did not have a initiative penalty and I believe they did before. I need to look at all the staves, but this may be an undocumented change. 

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting jshores, reply 2
The random loot option has yielded me more lucky hats than anything else. I am thinking of starting a hat store. 

 

I also noticed that the first 2 staves I picked up did not have a initiative penalty and I believe they did before. I need to look at all the staves, but this may be an undocumented change. 

Yes, I strongly dislike daggers being the ideal spellcaster weapons and+ I think staffs (other than those with ranged attacks) should actually give bonus's to initiative as a staff is a traditional "wizard" weapon.  In my mod, staffs will give pluses to spell casting (but not ranged attacks) and give defensive and initiative bonus's.  This will be offset by negatives to critical hits and low damage output.  In short, they'll be quick, defensive weapons.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 1
Very nice, the item quality thing will be nice although I have to verify that new items are actually added to the general pool (because they weren't before).

I'm interested in the Bash ability too.  Also the formatted descriptions is kinda cool.

Other than the city changes, the biggest change as far as gameplay will probably be that the maps will be a LOT denser with resources and enemies to fight.

On thing I'm looking to try is creating goodie huts with a 50% chance to drop a common item, a 30% chance to drop an Uncommon, a 15% chance to drop a rare and a 5% chance to drop an Ultrarare.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Great knowledge here, tanks. 

 

As to staves, we need special hero staves that are masterworked to have less of an Init. penalty. Also need some that do attacks in a radius of 1, 2, 3, all enemy units.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I just checked if my Reliquary items went into the general pool of items. They didn't before, but they do now. So yay, great improvement (bug fix?). Goodiehuts and quests give random common, uncommon and rare items. Ultrarare and unique items are not randomly given out, they are only given specifically by their internalname. Of course that doesn't preclude the possibility of making our own treasure rewards that randomly give out those types of quality items.

I also tried making up my own item category called Reliquary and it worked as well. Although the items were "colourless" in the tooltip since I didn't have a definition in ElementalDefs.xml. Still, it's good to know we can create our own categories for rewards.

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Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 7
I just checked if my Reliquary items went into the general pool of items. They didn't before, but they do now. So yay, great improvement (bug fix?). Goodiehuts and quests give random common, uncommon and rare items. Ultrarare and unique items are not randomly given out, they are only given specifically by their internalname. Of course that doesn't preclude the possibility of making our own treasure rewards that randomly give out those types of quality items.

I also tried making up my own item category called Reliquary and it worked as well. Although the items were "colourless" in the tooltip since I didn't have a definition in ElementalDefs.xml. Still, it's good to know we can create our own categories for rewards.

That is VERY cool, Heaven!  Great find!!  Have you tried adding your category to the ElementalDefs yet??

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 6


As to staves, we need special hero staves that are masterworked to have less of an Init. penalty. Also need some that do attacks in a radius of 1, 2, 3, all enemy units.

I really like the idea of staves that do "Radius" damage.  That fits with my idea that a caster's staff should be a focus item to improve their  spell casting abilities and/or a defensive weapon.  This changes them from a ranged weapon and removes the balance need for low init!!  A powerful fireball type spell with a long cool-down would be ideal! 

I've also always believed that spell casters should be prohibited (or greatly penalized) for wearing heavy armor as a way to balance their capabilities.  Both I hope to include in my mod. 

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Anyone look at the new map generation xml yet? It looks like Boolean values galore! 

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 10
Anyone look at the new map generation xml yet? It looks like Boolean values galore! 

Which XML file are you looking at?  The only one I know of is CoreMaps.xml.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

That is the one. Looks like we have some ability to set custom map generation now. I plan to make one with no water to see if balance is improved.  :rofl:

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting seanw3, reply 12
That is the one. Looks like we have some ability to set custom map generation now. I plan to make one with no water to see if balance is improved. 

Those tags have been there for at least a few releases.  At least in previous releases, those tags haven't appeared to have much effect though I admit I haven't played with them a lot.

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

Maps are not technically custom-generated at all, rather a roll of the dice decides what stamps will be used in the map. Each stamp has certain categories, and those are what matters when you alter the CoreMaps.xml file. That's how I was able to put my rivermod stamps in all maptypes - I simply put them in all categories.

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 14
Maps are not technically custom-generated at all, rather a roll of the dice decides what stamps will be used in the map. Each stamp has certain categories, and those are what matters when you alter the CoreMaps.xml file. That's how I was able to put my rivermod stamps in all maptypes - I simply put them in all categories.

That's interesting information, Heaven!  I knew stamps were used but I wasn't sure how.  

Any chance you could break down the tags used in a Map file (or find out from someone who does know)?  I've attempted to edit the map files but some of the tags I can't figure out.  I wouldn't mind playing around with a map generator if I could figure out the tags.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

They don't mean anything unless you're editing stamps as well.

Edit: Which tags didn't you understand or didn't work as you thought they should?

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

I pretty much don't understand any of them but rivers very well.

These are the ( think) basic lands/oceans from a map I made on the Cartographer's Table:

    <TileData>346,1,0,0.000000,0,16,-1</TileData>
    <TileData>1,5,0,0.000000,0,13,-1</TileData>
    <TileData>12,1,0,0.000000,0,16,-1</TileData>
    <TileData>1,5,0,0.000000,0,13,-1</TileData>
    <TileData>64,1,0,0.000000,0,16,-1</TileData>
    <TileData>6,5,0,0.000000,0,13,-1</TileData>

These are totally Greek to me.

Forests:

    <ForestData>24,8,Forest 151,DeadForest01,3,0.000000</ForestData>
    <ForestData>38,8,Forest 152,DeadForest01,3,0.000000</ForestData>
    <ForestData>40,8,Forest 0,DeadForest01,5,0.000000</ForestData>
    <ForestData>41,8,Forest 1,DeadForest01,3,0.000000</ForestData>
    <ForestData>11,9,Forest 153,AutumnForest01,5,0.000000</ForestData>
    <ForestData>12,9,Forest 154,AutumnForest01,3,0.000000</ForestData>
    <ForestData>22,9,Forest 157,DeadForest01,5,0.000000</ForestData>

The first two numbers are probably X,Y coordinates but I don't know what the rest do.

Here are Swamps:

    <SwampForestData>14,9,Swamp 0,SwampForest01,5,0.000000</SwampForestData>
    <SwampForestData>15,9,Swamp 0,SwampForest01,3,0.000000</SwampForestData>
    <SwampForestData>13,10,Swamp 0,SwampForest01,5,0.000000</SwampForestData>
    <SwampForestData>14,10,Swamp 0,SwampForest01,32770,0.000000</SwampForestData>
    <SwampForestData>15,10,Swamp 0,SwampForest01,32771,0.000000</SwampForestData>
    <SwampForestData>16,10,Swamp 0,SwampForest01,4,0.000000</SwampForestData>

They appear to be basically the same as forests.

 

Rivers:

    <RiverTileData>11,12,0,0,0,0,2</RiverTileData>
    <RiverTileData>12,12,0,0,1,0,2</RiverTileData>
    <RiverTileData>13,12,0,0,1,0,2</RiverTileData>
    <RiverTileData>14,12,0,0,1,0,2</RiverTileData>
    <RiverTileData>15,12,0,0,1,0,2</RiverTileData>

I understand the Rivers the best.  The first two are X,Y coordinates.  The third is a sequence number that ties all the tiles for one river together.  The last 4 identify the tile and rotation but I've never been able to figure out exactly what the numbers mean.

 

These are the rest.  Again, the first two numbers apprear to be X,Y coordinates and of course the name of the items but what do the rest of the numbers mean?

 <!--WORLD PROPS-->
    
    <MapObjectData>29,49,4,P_Chasm_Tower_02,WorldProp,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>29,51,4,P_Chasm_01,WorldProp,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>47,16,4,P_Chasm_Tower_02,WorldProp,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>52,15,4,P_Chasm_Tower_01,WorldProp,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>49,21,4,P_Chasm_01,WorldProp,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    
    <!--SHARDS-->
    
    <MapObjectData>69,25,0,Air Shard,AirShard,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>43,52,0,Air Shard,AirShard,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>61,56,0,Earth Shard,EarthShard,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>68,48,0,Fire Shard,FireShard,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>62,31,0,Life Shard,LifeShard,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>71,28,0,Water Shard,WaterShard,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    
    <!--RESOURCES-->
    
    <MapObjectData>59,54,3,Clay Pit,Clay,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>72,19,3,Clay Pit,Clay,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>44,54,3,Clay Pit,Clay,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>64,46,3,Crystal Crag,Crystal,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>67,20,3,Crystal Crag,Crystal,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>

     <!--GOODIES-->
    
    <MapObjectData>65,43,2,Lost Library,Treasure_LostLibrary,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>66,45,2,Forgotten Goods,Treasure_LostCrates,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>64,48,2,Equipment Cache,Treasure_EquipmentCache,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>
    <MapObjectData>70,50,2,Abandoned Caravan,Treasure_Caravan,0,0,-1,-1,1,1.000000,1</MapObjectData>

 

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't know, I haven't worked with maps like that. I thought we were talking about CoreMaps.xml.

Reply #18 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 18
I don't know, I haven't worked with maps like that. I thought we were talking about CoreMaps.xml.

Would any DEVs trolling this forum mind demystifying the map tags?  The <TileData> tags in particular make no sense to me.  The others I might could puzzle out but without understanding the <TileData> tags, it's pointless.