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John 3rd -> Creating a Mod Folder for AE (1/9/2012 3:52:21 PM)
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I've wondered just how many players get frustrated in the steps it takes to create a new AE Folder for playing a Mod? At times it has seemed to me that installing a new Mod can be rather odd, somewhat complicated, and downright frustrating for those who are not computer literate. I certainly fit this category and would like to open this Thread with a 'how to' step-by-step guide to installing a Mod within the AE system.
For my purposes I am going to install the freshly completed Reluctant Admiral 4.0 Mod. The Mod has been brought into the realm of Da Babes compatible by the hard work of JWE. The RA and Perfect War design team have great respect for our fellow Modders who created the Da Babes and it seemed only right to use a good portion of their well researched work to move RA onto. Additionally the Da Babes creators have graciously allowed RA to become a page on their excellent website and we salute them for that.
I suppose that the first step in a player choosing a Mod is to have an idea of exactly which ones are out there and what they are all about. Once experienced with AE I think it is only natural for a player to gravitate in some direction of preference for play. People become Allied or Japanese Fan Boys and want to explore 'what ifs' for later games. After that is seems to me that they then move towards either a more historical 'what if' or a slightly more fantasy bent for there game playing interests. It is truly unfortunate that Matrix has not set-up some sort of specific pages or forum area for a detailed listing of the Mods that are out there and available for play. Back in the WitP days that was accomplished by a fantastic site created by several of the early Modders, however, to my knowledge nothing comparable has been done after the advent of AE. Attempts have been made but nothing has been sustained. Perhaps that is something to think about...
Choosing your Mod is a very personal decision and I strongly recommend you contacting one of the designers for your queries if you have any. Each Modder began there creation, I believe, with some form of strong vision for what they wanted achieved. For RA purposes the desire for creating a Mod arose from WitP discussion between myself, FatR, and BK over different choices that the Japanese could have made with their 4th Circle Building Plan in 1938. Once AE came out that discussion transformed itself into a 'what if' of Adm Yamamoto Isoroku having a much greater influence over the Kaigun in the last three years prior to the war. The rest grew from that. Individuals jumped into the discussions and the Mod began to take shape as a semi-historical enhanced Japanese Navy 'what if.' For me I wanted something between Scenario One (pure vanilla history) and the massively enhanced Scenario Two where the Navy AND Army gain a great amount of strength. This is where we have tried to place RA.
OK. Back to the process.
Once the Mod has been chosen, A player needs to create a new AE Folder. The reason for this is that a lot of these Mods have their own artwork and changes made to scenario files that needs to be overlaid on a 'blank slate' of AE.
1. Take your original AE game Disk (if you bought the physical copy) or download the game to create a new Folder. I just did this. These are the Matrix games I have installed:
[image]local://upfiles/18041/30E71E07C0A0414FB5A73559CFEC4A7C.jpg[/image]
Make sure you rename the Folder to something appropriate.
2. You will need to update the vanilla install by downloading the newest update to AE. This is done by assessing the Matrix Site and downloading the latest 'official' upgrade.
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