[Modding] Creating my first scenario

[Cablenexus]

Hi,

I decide to start working on my first MOD for Agressors while testing.
I want to inform and keep this thread alive to report and show step by step how I create my mod and hopefully Pavel can answer some questions in the mean time.

If you have ideas for the MOD, or maybe have knowledge of better/accurate shield/flag icons, please let me know.

I want my MOD take place in Holland. Or the Netherlands how many call it. The Netherlands was under occupation from the Roman Empire from 57 BC — 406 AD so that fits perfectly in Agressors.
Many tribes settled in Holland and went away. Gauls, Celts, Germanic Tribes, but also tribes that are actual Dutch cities now or even provinces (The Frisii).

THE MAP

The transition between sea and terrain was not always clear at the coast boarders. There was the Rhyne river crossing the countries in the middle, some forests around it that functioned as defense territory. Specially in the North it was hard to live since all the wet terrain partly in the sea. South of the terrain there was more fertile land, horse breeding and in whole the country was active trading between tribes.
The Roman defense line was around the Rhyne at the moment of occupation. In the North people had to live on hills to be above sea level (For those who don't know we are still situated under sealevel).
I already see plenty of tiles I can use to recreate the map in Agressors.
Hills, scrub with rivers and swamp terrain, lot's of plains and some forests.

[Cablenexus]

THE TRIBES

At least the starting tribes we knew exist at start of Roman occupying (around 50BC) I want to add to the game. I will mix them with some of the tribes that are already in the game as

- Rome
- Germanic Tribes
- Celtic Tribes
- Gaul

And tribes I want to modify and give them their own shield and flag icon.

- Batavi
- Canifates
- Frisians
- Menapii
- Suebi
- Texuandri

Probably some minor tribes that exist only very early ingame

- Tencteri
- Usipetes

[pavelk]

I really look forward to see the results!

Btw. in the "wishlist" is one functionality you might find interesting. I would like to implement a "carpet" flat overlay of terrain where you can set whatever image you want.
This can simplify the map creation in editor. Basically you use the map (which you just uploaded) as the carpet so you can see where should you set the sea and where should be the land.

I also have a tool which creates a map directly from an image but it is not that user friendly. What I can do is to try create the map from the map if you want. Let me know. It should not take long

[pavelk]

Btw. the "thing" you are about to create is not a mod but scenario. Mod would modify units, rules, governments, technologies, resources, terrains, ect. It is also possible to do it (and still relatively easy) but lets start with the scenario:)

[Cablenexus]

OBJECTIVES

I want to try to make use of certain events taking place or even to add some objectives on specific dates in history.

The game takes place from 50 BC to 400 AD.

There is a custom map

There are custom tribes

The first turn is the first turn before all the terrain near the Rhyne is captured. Roman watchtowers, some workers/soldiers to the north allowed to have some farms on plain land, tribes in the north with a few resources for trading. Horses, Iron and bronze only in the south where is Roman Empire.

Player must be able to play every tribe

I use this article as an historic guideline for tribes, events taken place, wars etc
https://medium.com/@ceesroffelsen/histo ... ee386016e4

And all kind of Wiki articles that mention any of the smaller tribes

PRIO 1

Custom Map of Holland
Adding 6 custom tribe Flags and Capitol icons
Creating an historical accurate army position, watchtower position, terrain, Rhyne and tribe cities on the map

PRIO 2 (I start this only if I am able to finish PRIO 1)

Add accurate Army names
Add flavor text to nations (from Wikipedia or other sources)
Add events and/or objectives on certain dates

PRIO 3

Give Army models custom shields
Add accurate city names
Add a map in pdf/jpeg file or ingame picture
Make new tribes playable on RNG map

PRIO 4

Customize some of the resources to trade
Customize the sea/land transition texture on terrain
Add a custom sound file in Dutch for unit selection
Add custom 2D artwork

[Cablenexus]

Btw. the "thing" you are about to create is not a mod but scenario. Mod would modify units, rules, governments, technologies, resources, terrains, ect. It is also possible to do it (and still relatively easy) but lets start with the scenario:)

Hi,

I read your respons regarding my plan after I posted my PRIO list. Let's call it a scenario indeed. Maybe it can turn into a MOD in the future.

[Cablenexus]

- First steps for the Custom Menapii Tribe:

[Cablenexus]

Some Work in progress for the map and tribes that will be in the scenario.

- edit -

Celts, Germanic Tribes and Gaul have wrong position on this map.

[Cablenexus]

And trying to find the right symbols for Coat of Arms and Flags.

[pavelk]

Nice progress. The terrain map is exactly how correct input for the map builder looks like.

[Cablenexus]

Nice progress. The terrain map is exactly how correct input for the map builder looks like.

To show progress I resized the original map image by 1000%
Here is the original image

[pavelk]

I can create a map from that but I need to know what should be the white terrain

[Cablenexus]

I can create a map from that but I need to know what should be the white terrain

I paint it pixel by pixel now, It is not finished.

I just wanted to know if the smallest pixel image is enough to use as a map base.

Also I can "alter" the tiles afterwards I suppose.

[pavelk]

I paint it pixel by pixel now, It is not finished.
I just wanted to know if the smallest pixel image is enough to use as a map base.

Absolutely. This is exactly what is needed to generate map with Map bulder. However it is really huge - 89x89 tiles.

Btw. the map builder also accepts another "layers" of the map. Once you finish the terrain, you can create another layer (transparent PNG file) and "paint" the pixels with the player colour. This way it will recognize who is the owner.
It also accept the transparent pictures with black dots - this can be taken as cities.

Although the ownership and cities might be easier to add directly in the editor.

Also I can "alter" the tiles afterwards I suppose.

Absolutely

[Cablenexus]

The map and the tile colors:

Everything in transparant will be owned by no one?

Yes, it's huge. Is it possible? Frisii for example had a lot of smaller tribes (max 20 houses) so I need place for smaller towns on the islands in the North.

There are also a lot of nations here, and the Romes has 14 forts around the Rhyne line.

[Cablenexus]

Trying to add a custom shield to my Menapii Peltas unit.

[pavelk]

Ok, here is how it looks like:

Map of Holland

mapOfHolland.jpg (1.21 MiB) Viewed 2000 times

[pavelk]

And here is the actual map:

Holland terrain

terrainMapHolland.jpg (1.49 MiB) Viewed 2000 times

It is really huge. There seems to be some kind of bug causing CTD, but when you run the game on lower details it works.

[pavelk]

What I suggest to do is to wait for the new build V3, load the game and once done, save it as a scenario.
I alredy had to add two players because otherwise the game would be marked as "ended".

The map generated from Map builder can have issues (I cannot guarantee it because it hasnt been used for years).

Here is the save file

[Cablenexus]

And attempt 2 to make a more realistsic shield for unit model.