Darkest Hour - Dev Diary #4 - Implementing Modifications

[TeutonburgerW]

Thank you, joeenochs, for taking the time to explain. I did google for orthogonal but I couldn't understand it in the context.

Well... As I played lots of AOD as well as been part of DH development for almost a year, I can agree with you that there are changes that differ from eachother, but far less than you might imagine (of course mouse wheel support is in DH).

But first I'd like to know that we're on the same page (not being sarcastic or anything) but you're aware of the differences between DH and DH full (the "mod" that has the new map, etc)?

When it comes to compare regular DH to AOD, I find them pretty similiar. While DH increased performance drastically, AOD introduced more sliders, etc. DH full on the other hand is different story since it makes use of a new map, new scenarios, etc, but since it's optional, I stick to comparing AOD vs DH.

The above sentence may give you the impressision that I agree with you (which I do, to an extent, there some things I'd love to seen in DH from AOD) but yet I've to disagree because I don't belive that making a "super dev team" to make the "ultimate" hoi2 is the best solution. While I belive AOD philosopy was to bring more deepnes to the game (by national ideas, advanced sliders, etc) by three very fine folks (wyk1ng, balesir & lennartos), Martin, ewphoenix, Gormadoc & Fernando Torres & the others thought more of making the game more moddable (& take advantage of it with the release of DH full that's been in dev for a very long period of time).

Two rather different approaches, yet two different approaches I love to play and honestly, I'm more than happy to support the guys with 10, 15 or 20$ because I know how much work it is (I just sat 2 hours trying to create a good tech tree background for 0$ hehe) and I know how much I enjoy playing with it.

With that said, of course I think that now when more than one fan made game are out (AOD, IC, DH & more...), I truly belive that the spirit of the original fans & modders makes the developes look "what's good with that? would it fit our philosopy? could it be further developed?" will make each patch even better because I honestly belive, that neiter MartinBG, Lennartos or quintelosky are in it for the money. They are in it because the are very fond of HOI2 (and been for a long time considering how long they've been here) and each of them & their team have their own vision how to make the game more enjoyable, historical, plausiable, moddable & whatever their aim may be.

[Ch_ReI]

Whats the difference between DH full and DH light in relation to Mods?

Does this two version thingy mean that mods are only playable with the light version?

[manfred1126]

Seeing as there is (supposedly) no fierce competition between the AoD and DH teams, couldn't you guys agree to work together at least on things of which both games could benefit from, if major "philosophical" differences make the total amalgamation of the two projects impossible.

For example, I see that the AoD team has done some brilliant work concerning the AI code and also performance improvements, both of which could be adapted to DH. Likewise, DH's distance calculation system would make AoD even better.

[JRHINDO]

I think it was said that there could be cooperation between DH and AoD.
I guess it depends on how much people want it

[MartinBG]

Whats the difference between DH full and DH light in relation to Mods?

Does this two version thingy mean that mods are only playable with the light version?

Both DH Light and DH Full are mods to DH.
DH Light uses vanilla map and scenarios, but has most of the new DH engine features enabled (advanced mission control, new distance calculations...), while DH Full has the new map, scenarios and so.

[LordInsane]

Actually, that does touch upon a question... how does mods to mods work? That is, if you want to make a mod based on DH Full, do you have to overwrite the DH Full folder (more likely, make a copy of it, and put in the install instructions of the mod that the player should do the same), or can you instruct the game to look at DH Full first and then your mod-folder, with one's mod taking precedence?

[MartinBG]

Actually, that does touch upon a question... how does mods to mods work? That is, if you want to make a mod based on DH Full, do you have to overwrite the DH Full folder (more likely, make a copy of it, and put in the install instructions of the mod that the player should do the same), or can you instruct the game to look at DH Full first and then your mod-folder, with one's mod taking precedence?

Two options here:
1. Make a copy of DH Full and modify it
2. Copy DH Full to main game folder (making it the default game) and use Moddir for your modification

[Ch_ReI]

Both DH Light and DH Full are mods to DH.
DH Light uses vanilla map and scenarios, but has most of the new DH engine features enabled (advanced mission control, new distance calculations...), while DH Full has the new map, scenarios and so.

Well yes. But what happens if you put a mod ontop of it.
Does it run as DH light + mod with the vanilla map and stuff or do i get the hole DH with my mod?

[MartinBG]

I don't get the question. Please clarify.

[SwordOfJustice]

So well documented that it makes it easy! THANK YOU!

I CAN HARDLY WAIT!


- Sword the Excited Modder

[SwordOfJustice]

I seriously wish that fans of AoD would post their viewpoints in an appropriate thread and not continue that discussion in this thread which is about modding support in DH. Two completely unrelated topics.

Cheers,
Sword

[Ch_ReI]

I don't get the question. Please clarify.

Well, their are two versions of DH. Light with some less stuff in it than full.
So the question is, what happens if you chose to play with a mod. Witch version of DH will the mod use. The light version with vanilla map and all or the full version with the beautiful new map.

[MartinBG]

Neither of those.
DH Light and DH Full are mods by themselves. They can be modified and/or used as a foundation for other mods(make a copy of the folder and mod it), but by default the core (files in game's main folder) of the game will be used as a base for mods.

[LeeDub]

How is the core (unmodded) version different from DH Light and DH Full?

[MartinBG]

Core(None in mods selection) - all new features are either disabled or set to Armageddon 1.3 defaults to maintain max. compatibility with existing 1.3 mods.
Light - same as core, except that most of the new features are enabled.
Full - new map and so on.

[Beleg32]

I can't think why anybody would play other ones expect Full Will this screen come up every time you want to play DH and click the icon on desktop ?

[MartinBG]

I can't think why anybody would play other ones expect Full Will this screen come up every time you want to play DH and click the icon on desktop ?

You can run the game directly from the game executable too. Last used mod and settings will be used in this case.

[Beleg32]

Great idea, can't wait for the game, IC comes out in 2 days so will get some of the flavour of DH already

[Hister]

Aha, that's why 1.3 Armageddon mods are so quick to convert to DH!!!

Well if DH core is actually Armageddon 1.3 then I would say that DH team made a bit of a unmoral thingy when it was promoting it's product via "all existent mods can be converted to DH in no time" since one would expect converting existent mods to DH would also make those mods have all the new features DH brings together with DH's new map.

[^_AC_^]

I think it's you that didn't understand it. How would it be possible to convert a mod with no time if there is a different map with different province ids???

Anyway, if you read again the first post (especially the quote about the Kaiserreich Mod), you will see what kind of features are available in DH Core version (which is not Armageddon 1.3, but compatible with it).