Moding question ,

[WarFerret]

I found and increased the size of my barrels to hold 500 items each - which works well enough for me.

Im now trying to find where I can, if I can , make my bakery and carpentry shops etc smaller. 1x1 would be nice. I simply dont need a 9x9 space taken up with 1 bakers table and would love to have that extra space for other things. Anyone know where I can change this? I looked in the files in the same folder as the items file but didnt see one that let me change bakery zones etc. They arent in the zones file.

[BlueSteelAU]

in zones.xml , set the min size to 1 or what ever you like :)

[WarFerret]

The bakery size isnt listed in that zone file , nor is the carpentry. Do I need to just add the min h/w lines under the names?

[BlueSteelAU]

zones start with the letter "z"
data/zones.xml

	<zbakery>
		<name esES="Panadería">Bakery</name>
		<type>WORKSHOP</type>
		<minWidth>1</minWidth>
		<minHeight>1</minHeight>
	</zbakery>

	<zcarpentry>
		<name esES="Carpintería">Carpentry</name>
		<type>WORKSHOP</type>
		<minWidth>1</minWidth>
		<minHeight>1</minHeight>
	</zcarpentry>

[WarFerret]

Yeah , I see and saw. In my zones file they didnt have the minimum width and heights entry. It just listed

<zbakery>
<name esES="Panadería">Bakery</name>
<type>WORKSHOP</type>

So I had to add the min in. Thank you.

[BlueSteelAU]

all the zones can be set that way to what ever min size you want ;)

[YetiChow]

BlueSteelAUS původně napsal:

all the zones can be set that way to what ever min size you want ;)

Or, to explain it another way: all the zones have a "size" argument built in, the default size is 3x3. Adding that tag doesn't add a new "is allowed to be under 3x3" rule; rather it just overwrites the default value.

Knowing the "default arguments" of an entry (any kind of entry in any of the Towns .xml files) is just as important as knowing the ones that you can see. For example, most items have <fluidBlocker>false</fluidBlocker> operating, even though it's not included in their entry - it's a "default" argument, so if the game can't find a value when that question comes up it will apply the default value. In this case, that means that when water floods a non-blocking item, the game will assume the default answer ("yes, it is destroyed by water") unless you've told it otherwise.

That's all pretty common-sense information and I'm sure you won't have any trouble; it's just helpful to know that those extra arguments still happen "behind the scenes" even if there's no reference to them in the entry for that item/living/zone/whatever. It's more valuable to note in case you want to make something NOT do the normal thing, e.g. all items have <canBeEaten>false</canBeEaten> by default (even though it's not listed in the entries of non-food items); changing the value to true would make that item a valid food (although it wouldn't have a food value, fill percentage or anyting like that).

Or, another use: all items have <fillPCT> set to 0% by default, so if you wanted to make "potions" that are a kind of food you can leave that tag off to save time; you don't need to set it to 0 manually.

[BlueSteelAU]

unfortunatly there is no real documentation on whats what , what can or can't be used where, what needs to be there, what you can use. as the tags were added as an as needed basis the .xml files themselves became the examples etc. its only when the events.xml and gods.xml were added that there also appeared in them at the top a comment section of what can be used etc. most of the xml's don't have this and the modders have had to explore things themselves we don't officially know what all the tags really are or their default values other than what we can pick out ourselves. if i remember rightly at one stage the minWidth and minHeight both used to be in there (I could be wrong, its been so long that i've been basically using and editing my mod that I really can't remember what is in the original's anymore, other than comparing them against each other when an update comes out so i can insert any changes into my mod as when and if necessary

[astyanyx]

It would be really handy if we had a list of mod tags and a brief description of them somewhere just to reference. The only tags i know are the ones I see in the files themselves.

[BlueSteelAU]

join the club, I do believe that that is all of them, as they are only made up as needed like i said. but with not descriptions or what you can use where its not very good I agree
Someone once made up a site that used to contain most of them, i'll try to re-find that link

[YetiChow]

BlueSteelAUS původně napsal:

join the club, I do believe that that is all of them, as they are only made up as needed like i said. but with not descriptions or what you can use where its not very good I agree
Someone once made up a site that used to contain most of them, i'll try to re-find that link

Early on, there were lots of commented lines that at least explained what the section did - they looked more like they were there for the Devs' benefit than anything else, things like "generate 3 mountains" or "create iron seeds" in gen_map.xml, or "food and harvesting" in actions.xml. They didn't explain the tags, but at least pointed us in the right direction.

But now, yeah there's way more going on and it would be a lot harder to pick up how things work by trial and error/learning as you go. In the modding section of the official forum, there's a stickied topic which is basically a start on just such a list; lots of tags aren't covered in that but at least the ones that are covered are done prettty well.

Of course, I know that I did (and still do) learn a lot more from other modders than from the .xml files; but IMO there's no substitute for hands-on experience - the theory works best when you're actually looking at the code too, not just seeing what individual tags do on their own. I guess what I'm trying to say there is that it would be better to include some "example sections" in the document/wiki/site/whatever, not just a list of tags but also breaking down some generic examples to show how those tags interact.

Off the top of my head, there are 3 mechanics that are present in the game but not used in any files. The first is "seed IDs", designed to be used as part of map generation; basically it labels a seed (area or a given block) so that you can call back to it. For example: create a patch of sand, and stick a rock in that specific patch, not just all sand in general. The second unused mechanic relates to items maxAging only if another required item is nearby. The third is <createItemByType>, it is actually used but not documented at all; it works like it says on the tin: create an item from a chosen type. The in-game use is from buried treasure chests, to drop a random weapon from either gold, silver or unique tier.

The gods and events system doesn't have examples for all of the options it adds; but at least those are documented... aside from that, every other tag is, as far as I know, used somewhere in the game code. That at least means we have an example to see what a given tag does, if not how it does that; although they are usually worded logically...

As ever, any questions we're happy to help with as best we can :D

[WarFerret]

I am enjoying the game much more now. I played it through several times on each map until my empire finally fell.I turned on insane sieges on each play eventually and did NOT set it up like a tower defense game where the monsters had to run over 10000 traps, ha! Best change ive found I made so far is I went in and altered it so that food only takes up 0.1 space in a barrel.

Is there a way to make regular citizens gain levels as if they were a guard from fights? It doesnt make sense to me that a regular joe wouldnt learn from fights and I tend to use my miners to explore the dungeon more than letting thieving heros do it.

[BlueSteelAU]

no there isn't.

[YetiChow]

WarFerret původně napsal:

I am enjoying the game much more now. I played it through several times on each map until my empire finally fell.I turned on insane sieges on each play eventually and did NOT set it up like a tower defense game where the monsters had to run over 10000 traps, ha! Best change ive found I made so far is I went in and altered it so that food only takes up 0.1 space in a barrel.

Is there a way to make regular citizens gain levels as if they were a guard from fights? It doesnt make sense to me that a regular joe wouldnt learn from fights and I tend to use my miners to explore the dungeon more than letting thieving heros do it.

You can keep some "full time guards" to level up, and you could add a "training dummy" (variant monster with high level but low stats - i.e. a punching bag) to get them up high quickly; but there's no modding access to combat levels.

It would be great to have a "militia" or "call up/stand down" button that converts certain pre-chosen townies into pre-set soldiers... in other words, you organise them as soldiers, stand them down, but when you ring the bell/call up the militia/whatever they go back to their formation. Or, to put it more simply, it would be great if townies remembered their old job and soldier groups when they changed states...