Hello all,
I know, it's been a very long time since I last posted here and to be honest, I actually gave up modding children of the Nile in the last few years, because of various reason. For a long time, I felt that this blog was more like an archive then something that would ever be filled with new content. But then, things have changed...
As you can guess by the title of this post, I have some very interesting news and I am very happy to finally start blogging here again about all my recent success in modding the hell out of this old game!
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First, I got my passion for modding back! I recently spend lots of hours investigating new ways of modding things, that seemed impossible in the past. Overall, I am yet very happy with what I found out and I am able to show you some examples here during the next few weeks, starting today.😀
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Second, thanks to the people who still mod Empire Earth today (CotN is build on the same engine), it is now possible to edit models like buildings and change the way they look or how textures apply to them in a much easier way. This works using an import/export addon in Blender and it works like a charm! I always wanted to edit models back in the days when I was working on the H.T.O.P and now it is finally possible without lots of effort and some complex tools.
I will write a short summary on how to do this and what tools you need here on this blog in the future.
Here you can see some examples:
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Third, I was literally able to find my personal holy grail of CotN modding: editing those nasty dat.files, that store the game's core mechanics. Yes, it is possible and I know how to. For all of you that searched the internet like me, desperately trying to find a way to get some insight on those gibberish files, trial and error is the key.
As far as I know, by now there are only two mods changing dat files. One is the prestige-level mod and one is the walker speed mod. I am pretty sure, that both authors did it just like me and spend a lot of time trying to find out what value they needed to change.
During the last few weeks, I got some insight into reading the hex-values inside some of the dat files and did successfully achieve the following:
- changing brick buildings costs for a lot of buildings
- changing building costs for monuments and adding new costs, like food in addition to existing materials (late game difficulty can be raised 💪 )
- changing costs for palace enhancements
- changing the number of farm houses supported by palace and nobles
I am still at the beginning of modding and it is a very time consuming process. What I could find out by now will be posted here on this blog and also on Children of the Nile heaven.
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Fourth, to spice up the visual quality of the game, I experimented with the latest reshade build and found it to be a very powerful tool to make the Children of the Nile look much better. I will add some information about this on the post processing page here on this blog.
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So whats next?
To ensure that I don't lose motivation once again and to make sure that I can provide results from time to time, I decided to split modding into several smaller projects. The H.T.O.P was one big approach, now I will try to improve the game's building-models in smaller steps, starting with the
Townhouse-Project
There are many aspects that can be improved, starting with ugly pottery and ending with adding some decorative clutter to make sure, that these buildings better resemble the wealth and luxury of the ancient Egyptian upper class.
New screenshots of my work and hopefully some downloads for all, that still pass by here from time to time, will come very soon.
Stay tuned!
Best Regards
Horus
Awesome! This is exciting stuff, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do
ReplyDeleteThank you, comments like yours keep me motivated :)
DeleteI am making good progress with the townhouses and will share some new models here, soon!
I clicked this link in my bookmarks expecting the site to down, glad it's not! Nice to see you've returned, I enjoy your work whenever I return to the game. One thing now that you can edit models, try not to allow the poly count of models to explode, this tends to lead to a lot of instability in older games. I've had to remove problem models in games like Skyrim and Cities: Skylines for this reason.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up!
Thanks for you comment! I am aware of what you are talking about. The problem is that many models available free on the net have way to many polygons, so I am doing my best to avoid to blow up models. Until now, everything runs stable so far. I will keep an eye on this one :)
DeleteI wanted to thank you for all of your work. You have given me THOUSANDS of hours of enhanced enjoyment with what you've done. I desperately wish that there was a 64 bit version of this game, but I still love this game so much. Your work makes it so much more enjoyable. I wanted to thank you seriously from the bottom of my heart for making my life better from what you've done. I am not exaggerating in the slightest.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this warm comment. This is what helps me not to give up from time to time. I was just about to post some updates and read your comment here :) I'm glad that you seem to like the game as much as I do and I really appreciate that I can make it even better for you :)
DeleteI signed up for a blog just to not respond anonymously. I love everything about this game. I have fantasies about stuff I would love to add. I think there's no better way to make a city builder than this game. I wish that tombs could be built underground and secured, and that maintenance could be done to employ vagrants. Also use up the villagers. Also kind of wish that plagues prompted villagers to join the city if population suffers, etc. That there was a "Prestige/Legitimacy" meter along with popularity. Priests/scribes/"The people". Making decisions at court to rule in favor of certain people. Procedurally generated instances. Grooming successors, medical advancements, lawmaking. I know it's a bit rich, but I'm a nut for ancient Egypt, and I can never go back to the old version of the graphics. (The only "request" I could dream of would be to have the colossal statues that are made from basalt to be black. I tried to use an editor for the skin to do it, and I just can't. Though those colossal statues WERE I think made of granite. It's a pity we can't choose the medium. Still love the game after all these years, and I legit have spent literally thousands of hours playing it. I have a favorite scenario I made that I cannot "win" because the parameters won't work, but it's fun to play. (Just no military activity. It's all governance) I have new ways of building markets. The city is opulent as can be. lol. Wish we could literally make farms or fields or move buildings around without demolishing them and displacing their occupants. Also bumps in the terrain were not obstacles for ancient Egyptians.
DeleteThe enrichment I've gotten playing your mods has been more than anything I'd ever done in the past. For years I played Civilization II with so many mods, and I know I've logged more hours with this. I hope you keep it up, and would love to collaborate sometime with a map if you'd be interested in seeing anything I've done. For the sake of easy/optimal layout, I've done a great deal of "pre-made" city building just so I could have it perfect and watch it come to life, and add to it. It's like cheating, but bad decisions would make it impossible to win on principle, even if I cannot win by making the parameters work. Sorry to be so long-winded. Thanks for replying, it made my day. :)
And it says unknown. -_- Not sure how to fix that.
DeleteYour ideas for the game are fascinating and as I dive deeper into dat-modding, I can at least make some of them come true.
DeleteI know how to change materials of monuments, so it's possible to make statues actually cost granite and change the medium :)
If you are interested, I can show you how to do it.
It is also possible, of course, to give them a black basalt texture. Are you sure that they were not painted?
When I make my textures, I always try to stay as close as possible to "historic facts" I know or find by research on the internet. I love ancient Egypt and history in general, which is one reason, why I love this game so much. It gives (for a game) a real deep insight on how this ancient society is believed to have functioned.
Sorry, I don't know why you are forced to comment as "Unknown".
Best Regards
Horus