Text and Mod-question

[beachner]

Will I be able to play multiplayer-games if I change the city-name in one province??? Or the province name itself???

I can imagine three different reactions from the game:

1. You can't join because it's different version.
2. You can join and start but the game crashes.
3. You can play without any problem.

 

[jordarkelf]

Probably the checksum will be different, so it won't work.

 

[unmerged(64704)]

pretty stupid, but I think it won't work.

 

[unmerged(6777)]

As Shadow Dragon so optimistically pointed out, tying the checksum to an in-game text file that has no effect whatsoever on gameplay and can therefore not be used to cheat would be a rather silly (he says "stupid") thing to do. Those with more than a brief and passing familiarity with Paradox will know that Johan rarely makes blunders of that nature, so it will come as no surprise to learn that you can edit that file to your heart's content without in any way affecting your ability to play multiplayer games. (Or, to put it bluntly, no you won't have any problems at all.)

The files that will create problems are things like:

• Event files
• Data files (pretty much anything in the \common folder and subfolders)
• Map files (your maps must match)

EU3 has a very cool mod-handling tool that you'll get to see once you've got the game and have access to the scenarios and modifications forum (though the details aren't posted there yet...probably will be on Monday) that allows you to manage use of mods without anything near the hassle you had to go through in EU2 or other games.

In essence, you maintain a vanilla copy of EU3 on your hard drive. You then copy any file you intend to revise and place it in a different folder that is unique to your mod (you might call the folder "MyGreatMod"). You can also put new files that you create in there (event files, new country files, etc.). Then you create a brief "pointer" file that tells EU3 how to handle the files in your mod (sounds hard but it's actually child's play). After that, you'll find that you can simply select which mod to use when you run the game (it's chosen from the launcher) so you can run any version you want (vanilla or a mod version) with the click of a drop-down box listing all of your mods.

The nice things about this mechanism are:

• You only need 1 (vanilla) install of the game
• Your mods will only take up the space required to store the files you add and/or change
• You can easily switch between mods on launch
• You can make your mods utterly foolproof for non-modders to download, install and use (if you set it up correctly, all they have to do is unpack your mod and it will automatically appear in their launcher list).
• A new Paradox patch will not require hours and hours of revising mod installations (though you will need to do a little checking to make sure your mod is compatible with any major changes).

 

[unmerged(64704)]

I stand corrected.

That's a great way of handling mods.

 

[Sarmatia1871]

Hurrah, sounds great and will make the lives of modders and players much easier!

 

[jordarkelf]

Brilliant. It's as if you (Pdox) read the forums over the past few years and noted down all things that annoyed us!

 

[beachner]

As Shadow Dragon so optimistically pointed out, tying the checksum to an in-game text file that has no effect whatsoever on gameplay and can therefore not be used to cheat would be a rather silly (he says "stupid") thing to do. Those with more than a brief and passing familiarity with Paradox will know that Johan rarely makes blunders of that nature, so it will come as no surprise to learn that you can edit that file to your heart's content without in any way affecting your ability to play multiplayer games. (Or, to put it bluntly, no you won't have any problems at all.)

The files that will create problems are things like:

• Event files
• Data files (pretty much anything in the \common folder and subfolders)
• Map files (your maps must match)

EU3 has a very cool mod-handling tool that you'll get to see once you've got the game and have access to the scenarios and modifications forum (though the details aren't posted there yet...probably will be on Monday) that allows you to manage use of mods without anything near the hassle you had to go through in EU2 or other games.

In essence, you maintain a vanilla copy of EU3 on your hard drive. You then copy any file you intend to revise and place it in a different folder that is unique to your mod (you might call the folder "MyGreatMod"). You can also put new files that you create in there (event files, new country files, etc.). Then you create a brief "pointer" file that tells EU3 how to handle the files in your mod (sounds hard but it's actually child's play). After that, you'll find that you can simply select which mod to use when you run the game (it's chosen from the launcher) so you can run any version you want (vanilla or a mod version) with the click of a drop-down box listing all of your mods.

The nice things about this mechanism are:

• You only need 1 (vanilla) install of the game
• Your mods will only take up the space required to store the files you add and/or change
• You can easily switch between mods on launch
• You can make your mods utterly foolproof for non-modders to download, install and use (if you set it up correctly, all they have to do is unpack your mod and it will automatically appear in their launcher list).
• A new Paradox patch will not require hours and hours of revising mod installations (though you will need to do a little checking to make sure your mod is compatible with any major changes).

Thanks for that informative answer.

 

[frpe02]

Great! I really like this moddability of the game