SunZyl said:
Hey.
I have several times tried to create a moddir folder, but always found myself not understanding anything. Maybe I'm just stupid, but could anyone be very kind and give me step-by-steps advice on how to do it?
1) A moddir folder is a folder that goes inside your EU2 folder.
2) This folder (lets call it SunZylMod) 'acts' as your EU2 folder (I will explain this in a minute). The Shortcut you will use to run your mod will have its properties changed to read all the information from this folder BEFORE reading your EU2 folder.
3) The folders in your moddir folder will be set out as if SunZylMod was your EU2 folder. So you will have a DB folder, GFX folder etc (imaging that SunZylMod is your EU2 folder) so the layout is the same as your EU2 folder.
4) Only files you wish to change (from vanilla) will be in this folder. So for example if you want a new colourscales for your mod but do not want to have it for vanilla, you would place it in the SUNZYLMOD/MAP folder rather than the EU2/MAP folder. Different shields would go into SUNZYLMOD/GFX/SHIELDS folder rather than EU2/GFX/SHIELDS folder and so on.
5) Shortcut properties target field should be set to your moddir folder. So you would have
"C:\Program Files\Paradox Entertainment\Europa Universalis 2\EU2.exe" SunZylMod (i.e. have a space after your address and then your moddir folder name. What this does is as I have explained. It reads all information from the moddir folder and uses those files rather than those in the EU2 folder. Any file it doesn't find in your moddir folder (i.e. you haven't changed so havent included) will be read from the EU2 folder instead (this way you do not need to put all EU2 files in your moddir folder, just the things you wish to change).
Thats it basically.
EDIT: a few more things. Your scenario files will be going into the moddir folder, so make sure the scenario file reads the correct files (inc files and events for example). As these new stuff will be in SUNZYLMOD/SCENARIOS/1419 folder (for the inc files) you must make sure that that is the 'address' you have down in your scenario file (i.e. they are not reading the inc files from the EU2/SCENARIOS/1419 folder.
As an example this is what I have for my NAJF campaign...
Code:
include = "scenarios\1419\1419_wal.inc"
include = "NAJF\scenarios\1419\1419_wur.inc"
include = "scenarios\1419\1419_xho.inc"
include = "scenarios\1419\1419_zan.inc"
include = "scenarios\1419\1419_zap.inc"
include = "scenarios\1419\1419_zim.inc"
include = "scenarios\1419\1419_zul.inc"
include = "NAJF\scenarios\1419\1419_con.inc"
include = "NAJF\scenarios\1419\1419_lei.inc"
include = "NAJF\scenarios\1419\1419_mst.inc"
include = "NAJF\scenarios\1419\1419_uls.inc"
etc. So that I point to inc files I have changed and I want to read (the bottom four is because I have four independent countries in Ireland) - just remember to make sure that everything is above board (in my case that I have hashed out EIR (ireland) tag, and that there is not two countries owning the same province etc.
Events: my scenario files read these:
Code:
include = "NAJF\scenarios\1419.inc"
include = "NAJF\db\events.txt"
the first is telling the game to read the NAJF 1419 inc file for the scenario (which has the changes I have just said) and the event.txt in the NAJF\DB\events.txt for my scenario which contains all the new events I want in my scenario (the entries in this events.txt will point to the events in vanilla and in my NAJF/DB/EVENTS folder
Code:
event = "db\events\major_tur.txt"
event = "db\events\major_tve.txt"
event = "NAJF\db\events\major_usa.txt"
event = "db\events\major_ven.txt"
event = "db\events\major_vie.txt"
event = "db\events\major_vij.txt"
.
.
.
#NAJF event files
event = "NAJF\db\events\whiteblob.txt"
event = "NAJF\db\events\swiss_events.txt"
event = "NAJF\db\events\borgia.txt"
event = "NAJF\db\events\burgundy.txt"
event = "NAJF\db\events\tradingstraits.txt"
event = "NAJF\db\events\celtic.txt"
like so.
Ayeshteni
I already knew the basic concept of moddir, what I had problems (mostly) was how I was gonna get the game to read the .exe file without me risking to be banned for piracy if I would distribute the mod on the forum. Now I know, thanks! 