Mod Development Plan

[MoLAoS]

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[Ishmaru]

You could make a mod anyway you like. I think we all have varying ways of going about our mods, some start by editing magitech, others start completely from scratch.

Your way does sound efficient, however although using magitech models shouldn't be a problem with playtesting, it may not gain as much excitement as seeing completely new models. But, its not like just tweaking xml first method hasn't been done before.

It depends on how much time your willing to spend. More variety generally gives a player more enjoyment but, simple recoloring/skinning of units is a widely used trick to shave off production time+cost, and its usually not an issue.

For example, something like early footman have cotton clothes + dammaged wood shield, slightly stronger would have leather vests and clean wood shield, stronger still would have chainmail, even stronger will have a full armor plate +iron shield , etc would be just fine.

Hope this helps!

[Omega]

Your way is probably a good method for a new modder. For the reference, though, I personally prefer to do all the modeling first, texturing each unit as I do it, then do the XMLs, using a static model. I usually make the folder layout and such from scratch, but generally copy a template XML and then just tweak the values, to save time in typing out all the syntax, not to mention it helps prevent errors. Once satisfied with the XMLs, I'd animate models, then get proper icons created (I'd just use placeholder icons before then). Sound is the very last thing I do. I usually plan out the names of the units, where they're produced, requirements, commands, etc on paper before I even start making the mod. The reason I do the modeling and texturing first is because I'll usually end up going back and tweaking various parts of those as I improve them (it can also be a pain to tweak the model of something once it's animated).

[Mr War]

Plan sounds planned :-)

My first mod, imperial, I treated as a practice. Some of the models were just tech faction with different skin. Modding means just that, you don't have to build everything from scratch.

I tend to work a bit sloppier than that, as anyone looking at my alpha releases will know. I usually start a new faction by copy and pasting an existing faction and renaming it. Then I delete most unit and building folders leaving just the main base, worker and a few other units that are most like units I plan. I rename them and play test to iron out all the broken references etc. I don't plan things in meticulous detail and only have a few unit ideas when I start, the rest evolves. I then start building models and swapping the old model references in the skeleton faction I have. I work organically, most often leaving unit icons and death animations to mid development. Upgrades cone last.

[MightyMic]

So right now I have a peasant, a castle, a barracks, a mage guild, and 7 levels of mage. Now I am setting up the invisible resources to limit you to only 7 mages guilds. I use the 2 magitech factions for models, bmps, sounds, and so forth, as I laid out in my plan.

Currently I am trying to figure out how to let you pick any of the basic upgrades and have each following upgrade increase in cost. Each of the 7 mages guilds has separate costs. This is to prevent the player from just learning all the possible magic. Each guild will have to have some sort of focus. Either a specialization in one magic type, or a double or triple hybrid is what I plan for. Maybe you will pick up some lower level skills from other schools, ie you want to have scrying to keep track of enemy units, but you don't want the other parts of that school, so you just get level one far seeing instead of say level 7.

Sounds Awesome!
Let us know if you need any testing done

Is there some way to change the costs of an upgrade while the game is running?

I don't know but I don't really make scenarios either

[ElimiNator]

Is there some way to change the costs of an upgrade while the game is running?

You can make it cost nothing but I think that's it.

[Omega]

Is there some way to change the costs of an upgrade while the game is running?

Hmm, I'm not entirely sure if there's a way to make an upgrade cost different, but you could make an upgrade that makes a unit cost different, with <cost-modifier>, as described on GAE/Upgrades.