Modability?

[Frankschtaldt]

Long term q here.
At launch, what will we be able to mod in the game?
More specifically will we be able to do any of the following:
1 - Change the date range available for play
2 - Add or remove cities from the map
3 - Change the map completely
4 - Change titles/names in the UI (eg, where the design screens reference "Engine" change it to say "Propulsion" or something else)
5 - Remove the need for certain components to complete a design (eg, make it so vehicles can be built without a gearbox. Either make it an optional component or simply turn off that button and make that component non-designable)

This is very long term but the reason I'm asking is because I think it would be super cool to make a future mod for the game.
Say, a mod starting in 2200 making hover cars where engines become propulsion, suspension becomes hover mechanism and gearboxes get turned off. Maybe add the moon as a city you can sell too (with massive freight costs lol)
Or, a game starting in 2500 where you're making shuttles for people to buzz around between planets. Engines become propulsion again, suspension becomes navigation and gearboxes become an optional extra named "after burners". You'd want to add the moon, mars and maybe some space stations to the map.

Pie in the sky stuff but would be pretty cool! =)

[Eric.B]

Starting years are fixed, as well as office artwork...

Maps can be changed if you have 3d studio max.
Cities names and info can be changed.
UI can be changed somewhat.
Almost all text in the game can be changed.

I don't think we'll be able to remove the need for things such as gearboxes. Those sort of things are hard coded into the game. I'm not sure if we'll ever get to the point to warrant an SDK release.

[Frankschtaldt]

No worries. I should be able to work with that.
Bummer about the fixed date though.
Bit of a long shot but would it be possible to simply have the game display the date +300 years or something similar?

The need for 3d studio max might stuff me up too.

I guess I could do the hover car one and play around with the existing cities. Not sure what I could convert gearboxes too though. Plenty of time to think about it LOL

[Arakash]

What about general events in the game and war statuses?
A lot of the modding im familiar with (in games like Crusader kings 2) get a lot of value out of modding events.
I think at the least, id enjoy making a bunch of wacky start scenarios.
Ive mentioned before messing with the fuel cost to make the entire world obsessed with fuel cost, but i think you could do the same with a lot of other stuff, or do something ridiculous like make the entire war jump in and out of Minor/Major War.

Just for reference and somewhat off-topic, i don't really intend to touch modding until the game is close to done. At that point, once most of the features and balance are in and we are left with bugs, ill seriously look into it. Just my personal preference

[Geredis]

What about general events in the game and war statuses?
A lot of the modding im familiar with (in games like Crusader kings 2) get a lot of value out of modding events.

I also come from a background in Paradox modding (very simple, but enough to get by and not have things crash on me!

Now, as for wars...this is actually a good chance I think to bring up that I'm currently working on a conflict database, hopefully to be added to the base game (though we shall see - I wouldn't mean to presume anything) that will greatly expand upon the conflicts in the game - perhaps not just with traditional wars, but also rebellions, uprisings, political instability that has economic consequences, etc etc.

Once I finish the first part of the list (until ~1930/36 probably) I'll put it up here for review and commentary.

So far it's coming together as a very thorough piece, and while I have yet to add the column for peace treaties/results (to affect the map with, if at all possible, chanign countries owning cities and all that) I'll get that up there as soon as possible.

First things first though in THAT regard; I need to finish my inventory of the cities. Only have Europe and Australia/Oceania left to go!

[Eric.B]

Events and Wars etc are all modable via the TurnEvents.xml file.

Base Random events are not modable yet. But I do have the framework there if I choose to do it.

[Geredis]

Any plans to dynamically rename/activate/deactivate cities on the map?

Aside from the metric ton of re-namings that took place over the 20th Century, several cities were founded or came into prominence or fell out of prominence in the game's timeframe. While I'm sure there are others, one that I noticed while doing my catalogue of cities (to help decide which conflicts were worth mentioning), was Brasilia. I noticed that it's at the start date, despite being founded in 1960 and, according to what I've found, there being no major settlement there of any (international or industrial) significance prior to the capital's opening in 1960.

[Eric.B]

Any plans to dynamically rename/activate/deactivate cities on the map?

Aside from the metric ton of re-namings that took place over the 20th Century, several cities were founded or came into prominence or fell out of prominence in the game's timeframe. While I'm sure there are others, one that I noticed while doing my catalogue of cities (to help decide which conflicts were worth mentioning), was Brasilia. I noticed that it's at the start date, despite being founded in 1960 and, according to what I've found, there being no major settlement there of any (international or industrial) significance prior to the capital's opening in 1960.

I could write a renamer pretty easily. Activation and Deactivation is out of the question. It would break the AI. Cities with very little/no population are set to 1 person... And shouldn't grow until roughly the time the city is founded...

I'll come up with a better solution for this in the future. (Probably replace some of the eastern Russian cities for example)