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Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide

 
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Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/13/2014 4:54:07 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline 		Distant Worlds: Universe, the ultimate Distant Worlds experience, is coming out soon. Not only does Distant Worlds: Universe include all the former Distant Worlds content, it even manages to further expand on it. This includes a brand new storyline, as well as a host of changes under-the-hood. One of the most important changes however, is that Distant Worlds: Universe features vastly expanded modding capabilities. This means that it will now be easier than ever to make Distant Worlds your personalized sci-fi experience!

The full modding guide has now been made available for all to see. This comprehensive guide is over a hundred pages long and explains in detail how to alter the game to your own likings. Both the seasoned modder as well as the beginner will find this document very useful!

Click here for the full modding guide.

See the printer friendly version of the guide here.


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Post #: 1
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/13/2014 5:37:17 PM   
Darkspire


Posts: 1986
Joined: 6/12/2003
From: My Own Private Hell
Status: offline 		Hi Erik.

It was discussed quite a while ago that the Star Wars images that are included were not a good idea, might get some kickback about copyright, even more so since the new movie is in the works.

Various other things but this seems to be the final print and had not been put out as a draft, so I'll leave it at that.

Darkspire



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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/13/2014 6:04:12 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline 		Darn, I thought we had replaced that image but apparently it did get in. Thanks for the heads up, we'll get it fixed ASAP.

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CEO, Matrix Games LLC



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Post #: 3
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/14/2014 12:50:00 PM   
swizzlewizzle

 

Posts: 151
Joined: 3/16/2014
Status: offline 		Yea, let us take on the copy-right risk, you guys just make a good platform for us to build on ok?

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Post #: 4
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/14/2014 2:01:09 PM   
Hawawaa


Posts: 108
Joined: 11/21/2010
Status: offline 		Ya drawing Disney characters in bathroom stalls at restaurants can lead to Disney's lawyers knocking on your doors to remove or it or else... Crazy stuff but its the world we live in. Good catch.

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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/14/2014 8:55:22 PM   
tjhkkr


Posts: 2428
Joined: 6/3/2010
Status: offline 		Darn, you must have fixed it; I would have loved to have seen the SW version.
But I would not want MatrixGames to get in any trouble.
Thank you!

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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/14/2014 10:13:23 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline 		Yes, all fixed now <whew>.


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Erik Rutins
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For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

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Post #: 7
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/14/2014 11:26:34 PM   
tbrass

 

Posts: 21
Joined: 4/22/2014
Status: offline 		[rant]
You know, prior to the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act(the 1976 revision, instituted at the behest of Disney), you would have been a-okay to use those images in the US. Copyright terms had been limited to 28 years. Early law was only 14 (yeah, yeah, with the right to extend if the author was still living.) The whole idea was to encourage people to draw upon prior art in creating new, interesting works.

You know, like mods. Clearly the founders envisioned Star Wars DW, A Game of Thrones CK2, and Morrowind Skyrim. Too bad copyright maximalists have control of our government, and they are now trying to negotiate--in secret because they have admitted that the public wouldn't like the actual language being discussed--criminal sanctions for building on the art of others.
[/rant]

Thanks for sharing the modding guide, Erik! Looking forward to seeing the rest of Universe.

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Post #: 8
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/15/2014 5:14:27 AM   
Mad Igor

 

Posts: 248
Joined: 6/18/2012
Status: offline 		oh yea ! online pdf !i rly hate all those downloadable PDFs.
1) waiting for enternety for them to load.
2) then see annoying "UPDATE IS RDY" icon. annoyed with eyedirt on the left i'm forced do kill with process manager.

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Post #: 9
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/15/2014 7:36:45 AM   
Darkspire


Posts: 1986
Joined: 6/12/2003
From: My Own Private Hell
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Mad Igor

oh yea ! online pdf !i rly hate all those downloadable PDFs.
1) waiting for enternety for them to load.
2) then see annoying "UPDATE IS RDY" icon. annoyed with eyedirt on the left i'm forced do kill with process manager.


Don't use Adobe reader then, try Foxit.

Darkspire

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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/15/2014 11:40:28 AM   
tjhkkr


Posts: 2428
Joined: 6/3/2010
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
Yes, all fixed now <whew>.


Anyone want a contraband modding guide complete with the 'contraband images?'
Just kidding, Erik; I already deleted it and pulled down the safe copy...


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Remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love -- Olga Romanov.

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Post #: 11
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/16/2014 1:18:47 AM   
RICO7878


Posts: 46
Joined: 8/24/2012
Status: offline 		Awesome! Thanks.

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Post #: 12
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/16/2014 4:04:09 PM   
ASHBERY76


Posts: 2136
Joined: 10/10/2001
From: England
Status: offline 		Well after reading the manual it seems very limited under the hood modding from my experience with many vanilla games I have got having a lot more options,but it is better than before.

< Message edited by ASHBERY76 -- 5/16/2014 5:07:26 PM >

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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/16/2014 9:06:57 PM   
Erik Rutins

 

Posts: 37503
Joined: 3/28/2000
From: Vermont, USA
Status: offline 		I thought we'd expanded things quite a lot and it was a lot of work, but I understand you were hoping for more. What other modding capabilities would you use that are not currently supported? We are listening and we do plan to respond to community requests post-release.

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Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC



For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

Freedom is not Free.

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Post #: 14
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/17/2014 12:19:37 AM   
FingNewGuy


Posts: 183
Joined: 4/11/2014
From: Boulder, CO
Status: offline
quote:

oh yea ! online pdf !i rly hate all those downloadable PDFs.
1) waiting for enternety for them to load.
2) then see annoying "UPDATE IS RDY" icon. annoyed with eyedirt on the left i'm forced do kill with process manager.


Dude, what kind of POS machine are you running??? I have NEVER had any kind of problem with downloadable PDFs. Ever.

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Post #: 15
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/17/2014 2:34:34 AM   
swizzlewizzle

 

Posts: 151
Joined: 3/16/2014
Status: offline 		Erik, the only thing I would like is some basic ability to attach sounds/music to triggers... right now the audio system has zero moddability for music. Audio is basically half of the experience so... not sure why you didn't include a way to attach music to events. :(

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Post #: 16
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/17/2014 3:42:10 AM   
Shark7


Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: swizzlewizzle

Erik, the only thing I would like is some basic ability to attach sounds/music to triggers... right now the audio system has zero moddability for music. Audio is basically half of the experience so... not sure why you didn't include a way to attach music to events. :(


Not quite zero, you can change the background music. Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to tie it into specific situations.

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Post #: 17
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/17/2014 4:04:50 PM   
Hannable

 

Posts: 93
Joined: 11/4/2013
Status: offline 		This might have been asked before somewhere but hopefully I'm not being redundant (feel free to post a link to the relevant post if needs be)

But I'm curious how Universe will affect existing mods like ship sets, planet images, weapons effects, sound effects, icons, ship names, and such? Will we all have to start over or will Universe support existing mods?

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Post #: 18
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/17/2014 4:07:09 PM   
ASHBERY76


Posts: 2136
Joined: 10/10/2001
From: England
Status: offline 		From reading the manual it should not effect anything you mention.

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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/17/2014 6:44:06 PM   
Darkspire


Posts: 1986
Joined: 6/12/2003
From: My Own Private Hell
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Hannable

This might have been asked before somewhere but hopefully I'm not being redundant (feel free to post a link to the relevant post if needs be)

But I'm curious how Universe will affect existing mods like ship sets, planet images, weapons effects, sound effects, icons, ship names, and such? Will we all have to start over or will Universe support existing mods?


You will need to modify any theme to get it compatible with Universe. There is now a new theme structure, the days of having to write over master files like planet graphics etc are gone, each theme is now self contained and really can be a unique theme.

You will also need to update, race and policy files, they have had quite a bit added. I updated my theme from Legends and it took me about a week to transfer all the races over, due to testing on Shadows I never updated it fully, then I started on Universe and just did a basic testing theme, it has taken quite a bit of time to balance out and add everything for the universe version of Darkverse and I am still working on and tweaking it as I was down for a few months due to a hardware failure, DW is now more a 4x engine and has become like clay, you can sculpt some pretty amazing things with it.

Darkspire

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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/17/2014 11:09:54 PM   
Raap

 

Posts: 404
Joined: 1/12/2011
Status: offline 		Lots of nice stuff here, looking great.

I assume getting the AI to use newly added technologies/components is just a matter of adding them to the appropriate race/empire files?

< Message edited by Raap -- 5/18/2014 12:10:20 AM >

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Post #: 21
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/17/2014 11:47:39 PM   
ehsumrell1


Posts: 2529
Joined: 8/17/2010
From: The Briar Patch Nebula
Status: offline 		Well stated Darkspire!

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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/18/2014 12:42:49 AM   
tjhkkr


Posts: 2428
Joined: 6/3/2010
Status: offline 		This is going to be a whole lot of fun!

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Remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love -- Olga Romanov.

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Post #: 23
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/18/2014 12:51:58 AM   
swizzlewizzle

 

Posts: 151
Joined: 3/16/2014
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Shark7


quote:

ORIGINAL: swizzlewizzle

Erik, the only thing I would like is some basic ability to attach sounds/music to triggers... right now the audio system has zero moddability for music. Audio is basically half of the experience so... not sure why you didn't include a way to attach music to events. :(


Not quite zero, you can change the background music. Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to tie it into specific situations.


Yes, this is the problem. No reason for any sort of mood music when all you get is random shuffle tracks... at that point might as well just let the players use their own playlists and not even bother with game music. :(

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Post #: 24
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/18/2014 2:58:09 PM   
ASHBERY76


Posts: 2136
Joined: 10/10/2001
From: England
Status: offline 		All I saw in the policy file added was BuildPlanetDestroyers.The race file and policy in the modding manual is the same as Shadows apart from that.

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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/18/2014 4:57:55 PM   
Shark7


Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

All I saw in the policy file added was BuildPlanetDestroyers.The race file and policy in the modding manual is the same as Shadows apart from that.


Actually there are quite a few differences.

Just some examples from the races file:

You can now disallow ANY component(s) (tech) for a race. Not limited to just 1, as many as you desire.

You can also make ANY component exclusive to a race.

You can disallow any government type(s) for a specific species. (IE your war-mongering ogres could be set to never be allowed to change to Way of the Ancients, Republic, and Technocracy for example).

Those are just the ones I can remember without looking. So there are new options that while they seem small, can make a huge impact on the game.

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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/18/2014 5:08:03 PM   
ASHBERY76


Posts: 2136
Joined: 10/10/2001
From: England
Status: offline
quote:

You can disallow any government type(s) for a specific species. (IE your war-mongering ogres could be set to never be allowed to change to Way of the Ancients, Republic, and Technocracy for example).


What about incite rebellion effects if they cannot change gov?


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RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/18/2014 5:40:44 PM   
Shark7


Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76

quote:

You can disallow any government type(s) for a specific species. (IE your war-mongering ogres could be set to never be allowed to change to Way of the Ancients, Republic, and Technocracy for example).


What about incite rebellion effects if they cannot change gov?



They'll still be subject to the same rules as any other species, but will simply be limited as to what type of government they can switch to. I wouldn't go so far as to limit all but one type, but someone could certinaly experiment with it.

In my example, all but the three listed are possibilities for the Ogres to switch to, so they can still rebel and switch to Way of Darkness, Despotism, Military Dictatorship, etc.

Keep in mind you also have the 2 existing (Shadows/Legends) settings for:

Special Government

Preferred starting government

Which can further define how they react.

It really just depends on how much you want to mod the game to limit the alien species.

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'When in doubt...attack!'

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Post #: 28
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/20/2014 2:51:25 PM   
tjhkkr


Posts: 2428
Joined: 6/3/2010
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
All I saw in the policy file added was BuildPlanetDestroyers.The race file and policy in the modding manual is the same as Shadows apart from that.

At least you can control which empires are evil enough to build death-stars or Star Trekkian Solid Neutronium Doomsday weapons.


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Remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love -- Olga Romanov.

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Post #: 29
RE: Distant World Universe: Full Modding Guide - 5/20/2014 3:59:03 PM   
Darkspire


Posts: 1986
Joined: 6/12/2003
From: My Own Private Hell
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: tjhkkr

quote:

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
All I saw in the policy file added was BuildPlanetDestroyers.The race file and policy in the modding manual is the same as Shadows apart from that.

At least you can control which empires are evil enough to build death-stars or Star Trekkian Solid Neutronium Doomsday weapons.



And to that end you can enable or disable scaling of images for ships, when enabled the image for the ship class can be much bigger than any other ship in a theme, like a properly sized Borg cube

Darkspire

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