Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

A mix of deep gameplay and rich historical flavor, Aggressors: Ancient Rome lets you relive history as the ruler of one of the mighty civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean. Choose one of twenty available factions and conquer the world.
Post Reply
AlbertoC
Slitherine
Slitherine
Posts: 1887
Joined: Wed Mar 09, 2016 5:22 pm

Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by AlbertoC »

As a young player I was always browsing game files trying to find a way to change them. It was partially curiosity and partially a wish to modify the rules to my own liking, because no matter how great a game is, there is always something you want to tweak or adjust.

The option of modding was part of the game design from the very beginning as I wanted to give the players the opportunity to create the Aggressors realm with me in an easy and user-friendly way. Over time, the idea was brought even further – I decided to create a framework for strategy games of different worlds and historical eras.

Today, Aggressors allows you to change pretty much anything you want – everything is in an editable, and hopefully self-explanatory, format on both levels – scenario (or game) level and mod level.

To give a taste of all the options you have, you can create your own maps with units, roads, rivers and players (with all related attributes like personalities, relations, development advance), random events, objectives, winning conditions, unit names, etc. Most of these things can be easily edited directly in the In-game editor.

Once you get into it you might want to try to create your own mod.

You can start gently with changing scalar values like defense or attack power of units, defining your own technologies and invention tree, adding your own music, defining your own game resource types or government types.

If you wish to go deeper, you can continue with more advanced stuff like defining your own unit types, adding animals onto the map or creating your own terrain types.

Expert modders can use scripts to change the behavior of unit types, terrain extensions, unit improvements, random events or even create their own unique objectives, winning conditions and actions which units can perform!

Those who want to push it to the limit can even create their own AI algorithms. All this is available in today’s most accessible programming language C# (and the whole .NET Framework base).

I didn’t expect that modding features would get much attention at the beginning. Of course, we hoped that once a small community gathered around the game, players would try to make use of the tools to modify the game to their liking. We were really surprised when one of the testers jumped directly into the modding tools during the beta test and he is on the way to create an extremely detailed and very well-made scenario (and his own mod) about Holland at the turn of the millennia. We think that his opinion and view might be of great interest to all of the players like him and so we partially lifted the NDA and asked him to share his own experiences here.



Hi there, my name is Jean-Marc (aka Cablenexus on forums and Steam). A few months ago, I was invited to the beta for Aggressors.

The “beta” part soon turned into a “Want to play” part. The game was very polished, we had a small but very dedicated team of testers and the developer was active in the forums almost 24/7.

It soon became clear that this game is a gem in the making. Since I'm in beta and under NDA I can't speak much about the game itself yet, but WOW, it's really amazing.

As a 4x strategy addict I have played every game in the genre at least once. Of course, I have my favorites, but many date from years ago. I can barely remember the time I was having such a fun time with any game as I had with Aggressors the last few weeks.

What makes the game really unique and I hope I may say this, is the mid-game and end-game experience that is working as a kind of adaptive algorithm that continuously surprises the player with new content and choices at any moment in the game. Not randomly but reacting to the way you developed your nation and by taking into account every choice you make and made in the past. The game is not getting stale after 400 turns. Actually, that is where it starts to shine.

I participate in smaller game projects now and then with my artwork and so it was a logic step I start to experiment with the scenario editor tools provided. There was no plan to make a real MOD yet, but just a scenario to see if the editor was user friendly and to hunt for bugs. It was my main duty to test after all.

Pavel, the creator and main developer, opted for a Holland scenario since I'm Dutch and so I thought it was a nice idea to experiment with it and stress test the editor tools.

Image

I searched some books and the Internet for ancient maps of Holland to find as much information about that era as possible. Pavel gave me the option to use their internal tool which makes a map from a bitmap. In short, every tile in game is the same as a single pixel in any (free) image editor tools. This tool is not available yet for public usage but I hope it will be released with the game as well.

I'm used to Paint.net to create the bitmap, but there are some free alternatives like Gimp. So, I painted my Holland map in a simple 89 x 89-pixel image (which in game turns into a huge 7.921 tile map) and I was able to use it in game as a layout for my real map.

Since there are 10 different terrain types (but you can MOD them) available you need to spend some time to edit the tiles to your liking and to represent the real-world terrain situation. If you paint your pixel map in ten colors it takes the right terrain automatically. But you can edit every tile to your liking in the scenario editor itself. After this you can add rivers, roads, bridges, resources and settlements. If you want you can assign ownership and even territory to all tribes.

Since I decided to start my scenario in Holland in 50 BC, the times of the Roman occupation of the Rhyne (Rhenus) area, much of the map in the North existed of sandy water terrain that was directly linked with the North Sea (Mare Frisicum). I choose to use swamp tiles here since the Frisii, the original habitants of the North of Holland in 50 BC, learned to drain them and make use of them in the real world.

The Frisii built “terps” (small hills) on the swamp terrain to survive and their core business was dealing in cow hides so I also added cows to the game as new animals running around the map. With only some minor help from the developer, who was constantly pushing fixes and new features into the game, I was able to add 16 custom tribes in the next few days, add over 300 historical settlement names and reconstruct the full Limes (line of defense around Rhenus) of the Roman Empire with historical accurate fort and army names.

Another 200 fixed names I added to the map to setup the scenario. All kind of names that I found in real world documents and archived in the Peutinger Atlas representing the exact coordinates on the map. And now I started setting up the scenario proper.

Image

Since the game is originally based on a board game developed by Pavel, you have to imagine that every one of the 7000 tiles has a function. The terrain, the placement of rivers, the towns, the resources. Everything can be easily setup in the editor and the more advanced editor can change parameters in XML documents editable in applications like notepad++.

I'm not a real modder and never made a single scenario in any other game before, except for myself but I share the passion for board games with the maker.

But in Aggressors I was able to setup the exact scenario I wanted to have in the simplest way I ever experienced. All this without any major issues in beta when I was populating my world with hundreds of custom settlements and units and in the night played my own map for a few hours to make it to turn 50.

All Kingdom and Tribe banners and their coats of arms are easy to edit in any paint tool, the parameters and names can easily be edited in a text editor. There is no need for actual scripting to achieve what you want, but if you feel the need for it you have all the freedom to do so.

It is all has to do with the way the game works. Everything in game is based on logic. If you set up the parameters for a scenario, the AI players adapt to their role easily. That means that if you build a few Roman cities next to a coastline, the Roman AI start to make use of this by building the important roads between their cities and resources just like they did in history.

Everything is possible to setup in an easy way. The war/peace (diplomatic) standings between tribes, the starting resources, towns and units etc. but even more advanced parameters like future relationships, loyalty and morale.

I’ve never found a game that lets you setup a scenario in such detail whilst at the same time being so simple to use that it is accessible for everyone who can use a simple paint tool.

I will now start fine tuning the scenario by giving the armies the right parameters, adding army names, adding morale, loyalty settings to settlements and units and strategically placing rivers and bridges. Eventually I will add special triggered objectives for certain events that took place at certain dates like the Batavi uprising or revolt and the war against the two smaller tribes South of the Rhyne named the Usipetes and the Tencteri.

It is possible to play with every tribe at scenario start and because of the diplomatic standings between tribes the game can be played in many different ways.

There will be a What if scenario for every tribe. I still haven’t finished the scenario and mod, having a TODO list for the next days. There is a lot of work that still needs to be done, but as I was invited to write down my experience with the game creation tools so far. I'm very enthusiastic about it.

Image

The amount of detail offered in the game without being utterly complicated is impossible to mention in one scenario creation log. I can only say that you have to try it yourself. You can setup a scenario exactly the way you want and see the AI adapt to it like a human player in a 7000 + tile board game with smooth 3D graphics.

Even your own setup is nice to play with FOW on since you can still be surprised how the game turns out as the AI reacts and adapts to the choices you made without this being random or absurd. I can't wait for the game to be released and to see what other, better scenario makers, can achieve with the tools.

It is an honor to write about the making of my humble Holland scenario while the developer is creating a BIG FAT 4 X strategy game. Guys, support the developer and wishlist Aggressors already and if you can't get enough from it like I do, I invite you to try out my Holland – Battle over Rhenus 50 B.C. scenario soon!

Thank you for reading!
Aekar
Sergeant - 7.5 cm FK 16 nA
Sergeant - 7.5 cm FK 16 nA
Posts: 231
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 10:29 am

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by Aekar »

Is it possible to have a "Modders Early Access" to try to get mods ready in advance?
It does not matter if it is extremely limited in regular game features but still has all mod features.
Chris36
Corporal - Strongpoint
Corporal - Strongpoint
Posts: 50
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2014 8:44 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by Chris36 »

Very interesting stuff. Are buildings on the map and improvements in towns fully customizable? And regarding size and the holland scenario of 89*89 pixels: what size in pixels got the mediterran map?

edit: one more thing to the map. So the map is loaded up of a simple map you can create in gimp or anything else? With different code colors for regions, terrains etc? Or do i need to put that later on in a scenario editor?
pavelk
Kubat Software
Kubat Software
Posts: 2467
Joined: Mon May 16, 2016 4:27 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by pavelk »

Hi Chris, thank you for the questions.
Chris36 wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:46 pmAre buildings on the map and improvements in towns fully customizable?
Buildings, improvements, terrain extensions, unit types....everything customizable. Cablenexus just created a brand new unit action (which is basically a game move like "attack" or "build" actions are) which is valid only for boats (one specific unit). This action (once executed) deploys a fish basin on the shore (Cablenexus created a new terrain extension) and player gets more fish resource (this is also a resource Cablenexus just added himself to the mod) out of it.
Chris36 wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:46 pmAnd regarding size and the holland scenario of 89*89 pixels: what size in pixels got the mediterran map?
I am not sure what do you mean by "what size in pixels"...if you mean what is the tile size of the campaign map, it is 88x45 (basically half the size) of the Holland map.
Chris36 wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:46 pmSo the map is loaded up of a simple map you can create in gimp or anything else? With different code colors for regions, terrains etc? Or do i need to put that later on in a scenario editor?
It hasnt been really decided if this tool will be released with the vanilla release. It might be available as a additional tool separately from the actual game. It is still not that foolproof tool we would like to.

The tool basically takes your bitmap file and finds all different colours of that bitmap file. You are then asked to assign specific terrain to each of these colours. After this you can also assign owners of these tiles (similarly to the terrain), you just choose a second bitmap file where you have specified the owners. The tool should definitely not replace the game editor. It should just simplify the map creation so once you are done with the terrains and setting owners, you go to the game, load your new map and continue by adding units, resources, cities, etc.
Chris36
Corporal - Strongpoint
Corporal - Strongpoint
Posts: 50
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2014 8:44 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by Chris36 »

Hi pavelk, thanks for the quick and hot reply !
pavelk wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:13 pm Buildings, improvements, terrain extensions, unit types....everything customizable. Cablenexus just created a brand new unit action (which is basically a game move like "attack" or "build" actions are) which is valid only for boats (one specific unit). This action (once executed) deploys a fish basin on the shore (Cablenexus created a new terrain extension) and player gets more fish resource (this is also a resource Cablenexus just added himself to the mod) out of it.
Thats amazing stuff! One question to the special case of Cablenexus who created a new terrain extension for fish basin: is it also possible to put conditions to buildings which allows/disallows to build next to a specific tile or any other, even dynamic objects on that tile? Say you mod a building which is only allowed to be built direct next to a city? Or next to water/rivers?

2 things regarding resources: Do you need to mod the UI for resources if you add resources or does its size increase automatically with the amount of resources? And...is there a limit of the amount of resources?
pavelk wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:13 pm I am not sure what do you mean by "what size in pixels"...if you mean what is the tile size of the campaign map, it is 88x45 (basically half the size) of the Holland map.
Yea i meant the map the modder talked about making the holland scenario on a 89*89 tiles map he made with a 89*89 painted pixel map, hope i didnt understand anything wrong here.
pavelk wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:13 pm It hasnt been really decided if this tool will be released with the vanilla release. It might be available as a additional tool separately from the actual game. It is still not that foolproof tool we would like to.

The tool basically takes your bitmap file and finds all different colours of that bitmap file. You are then asked to assign specific terrain to each of these colours. After this you can also assign owners of these tiles (similarly to the terrain), you just choose a second bitmap file where you have specified the owners. The tool should definitely not replace the game editor. It should just simplify the map creation so once you are done with the terrains and setting owners, you go to the game, load your new map and continue by adding units, resources, cities, etc.
One mighty tool. Without it you are limited to random maps and the given scenario maps?

Thanks alot pavelk :D
pavelk
Kubat Software
Kubat Software
Posts: 2467
Joined: Mon May 16, 2016 4:27 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by pavelk »

Chris36 wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:47 pmis it also possible to put conditions to buildings which allows/disallows to build next to a specific tile or any other, even dynamic objects on that tile? Say you mod a building which is only allowed to be built direct next to a city? Or next to water/rivers?
Yes you can for sure but you would need to use scripts for this already. The game comes with SDK to help you out with that. We also plan to create modding manual, however it will not be part of the vanilla release.
Chris36 wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:47 pmDo you need to mod the UI for resources if you add resources or does its size increase automatically with the amount of resources? And...is there a limit of the amount of resources?
You dont have to do anything, just add the icon for the new resource, add one line to your mod (specifying the new icon) and the image which is shown in the game library. All the rest is non-mandatory. You can however add description to your new resource and also create very specific behavior in scripts (if you want to). There is no limit of amount of resources. It should work up to million (As far as I remember).
Chris36 wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:47 pmYea i meant the map the modder talked about making the holland scenario on a 89*89 tiles map he made with a 89*89 painted pixel map, hope i didnt understand anything wrong here.
Yes that is correct. He created a bitmap of size 89x89. Basically every pixel is mapped to one tile.
Chris36 wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:47 pmOne mighty tool. Without it you are limited to random maps and the given scenario maps?
Not at all. The game already allows you to create your own scenarios. You specify the size and the "default" terrain for the whole map like a starting point and from that moment on you can change whatever you want in the game editor. Once you are done, you export it as a scenario and start playing. You can also share it via Steam workshop with others (Steam workshop is integrated into the game so publishing your scenario is one click and so is downloading your scenario by other players).
Chris36
Corporal - Strongpoint
Corporal - Strongpoint
Posts: 50
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2014 8:44 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by Chris36 »

Very good! Cant wait to get my hands on the SDK ;). Thanky you pavelk!
balto
Corporal - 5 cm Pak 38
Corporal - 5 cm Pak 38
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Jun 09, 2012 3:49 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by balto »

I am not intelligent enough to be a modder, but I know that you only make a game better when you make it accessible to modders. And this base game looks like it is going to be really really good.

Thanks for all the time you guys are spending on this game, I hope it catches on to the main stream. Hopefully Steam will do for this game what it did for Gladeus (which is freaking awesome)!
pavelk
Kubat Software
Kubat Software
Posts: 2467
Joined: Mon May 16, 2016 4:27 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by pavelk »

balto wrote: Fri Aug 10, 2018 12:25 amI am not intelligent enough to be a modder, but I know that you only make a game better when you make it accessible to modders.
I can ensure you that if you wanted to mod the game you would be surprised how easy you can do it.

We will publish a video with examples of what can be modded and how. Btw. don't mix up modding and scripting. Scripting is for advanced modders, that's true. But things like new resource, new unit type, new unit improvements, etc. can all be modded without a line of script!
dejvid2
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Posts: 108
Joined: Sat Nov 04, 2017 2:50 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by dejvid2 »

pavelk wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:13 pm
Chris36 wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 2:46 pmSo the map is loaded up of a simple map you can create in gimp or anything else? With different code colors for regions, terrains etc? Or do i need to put that later on in a scenario editor?
It hasnt been really decided if this tool will be released with the vanilla release. It might be available as a additional tool separately from the actual game. It is still not that foolproof tool we would like to.

The tool basically takes your bitmap file and finds all different colours of that bitmap file. You are then asked to assign specific terrain to each of these colours. After this you can also assign owners of these tiles (similarly to the terrain), you just choose a second bitmap file where you have specified the owners. The tool should definitely not replace the game editor. It should just simplify the map creation so once you are done with the terrains and setting owners, you go to the game, load your new map and continue by adding units, resources, cities, etc.
So has it now been decided to release this as part of the vanilla release? It would be very nice to have.
pavelk
Kubat Software
Kubat Software
Posts: 2467
Joined: Mon May 16, 2016 4:27 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by pavelk »

dejvid2 wrote: Sun Aug 26, 2018 12:02 pmSo has it now been decided to release this as part of the vanilla release? It would be very nice to have.
Hi Dejvid2,
it will not be part of the vanilla release, BUT we might make it available for public several weeks after release (as a separate downloadable tool).
dejvid2
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Posts: 108
Joined: Sat Nov 04, 2017 2:50 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by dejvid2 »

Okay I get that it will be released on the basis that it lacks the chrome of the vanilla game but I do hope you don't wait too long. I for one will be creating a new map as soon as I get the game.
pavelk
Kubat Software
Kubat Software
Posts: 2467
Joined: Mon May 16, 2016 4:27 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by pavelk »

dejvid2 wrote: Mon Aug 27, 2018 5:35 pm Okay I get that it will be released on the basis that it lacks the chrome of the vanilla game but I do hope you don't wait too long. I for one will be creating a new map as soon as I get the game.
We are planning to make the tool public during September already.
dejvid2
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Posts: 108
Joined: Sat Nov 04, 2017 2:50 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by dejvid2 »

pavelk wrote: Mon Aug 27, 2018 8:41 pm We are planning to make the tool public during September already.
So that means I'll only have to wait a few extra weeks at most. Thanks.
dejvid2
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Posts: 108
Joined: Sat Nov 04, 2017 2:50 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by dejvid2 »

We are at the end of September now. Will the tool which makes a map from a bitmap be released in the next couple of days or maybe it already has and I've not looked in the correct place?
pavelk
Kubat Software
Kubat Software
Posts: 2467
Joined: Mon May 16, 2016 4:27 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by pavelk »

Hi Dejvid2,
we havent forgotten this promise! There have just been couple of important changes (foremost UI scaling and mouse control system) which we didnt initially have in schedule but they had to be done as priority.

The tool is going to be ready soon! It is pretty much done and it is going through some tests nowadays. We plan to have it ready at the end of next week.
The tool very much simplifies the map creation. Once the map is created, the modder loads it into the game editor and continues working on it. If you havent got familiar with the game editor itself, I very much recommend to first give the game editor a try, because it is a "must" to completely finish a scenario.
dejvid2
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Senior Corporal - Destroyer
Posts: 108
Joined: Sat Nov 04, 2017 2:50 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by dejvid2 »

pavelk wrote: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:51 pm Hi Dejvid2,
we havent forgotten this promise! There have just been couple of important changes (foremost UI scaling and mouse control system) which we didnt initially have in schedule but they had to be done as priority.

The tool is going to be ready soon! It is pretty much done and it is going through some tests nowadays. We plan to have it ready at the end of next week.
The tool very much simplifies the map creation. Once the map is created, the modder loads it into the game editor and continues working on it. If you havent got familiar with the game editor itself, I very much recommend to first give the game editor a try, because it is a "must" to completely finish a scenario.
I was waiting for you to publish the tool before buying the game. Now I have bought the game, I have had the chance to look at the editor.
Creating a whole map from scratch seems, at first glance very difficult, so I will wait for the import tool for that.
I am currently editing a version of the standard Mediterranean map so I have that to keep myself occupied while waiting
Cablenexus
Sr. Colonel - Battleship
Sr. Colonel - Battleship
Posts: 1691
Joined: Mon Jan 04, 2016 7:09 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by Cablenexus »

dejvid2 wrote: Wed Oct 10, 2018 10:25 am
pavelk wrote: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:51 pm Hi Dejvid2,
we havent forgotten this promise! There have just been couple of important changes (foremost UI scaling and mouse control system) which we didnt initially have in schedule but they had to be done as priority.

The tool is going to be ready soon! It is pretty much done and it is going through some tests nowadays. We plan to have it ready at the end of next week.
The tool very much simplifies the map creation. Once the map is created, the modder loads it into the game editor and continues working on it. If you havent got familiar with the game editor itself, I very much recommend to first give the game editor a try, because it is a "must" to completely finish a scenario.
I was waiting for you to publish the tool before buying the game. Now I have bought the game, I have had the chance to look at the editor.
Creating a whole map from scratch seems, at first glance very difficult, so I will wait for the import tool for that.
I am currently editing a version of the standard Mediterranean map so I have that to keep myself occupied while waiting
I think you will get good news very soon about the editor tools. Even sooner then you expected probably.
pavelk
Kubat Software
Kubat Software
Posts: 2467
Joined: Mon May 16, 2016 4:27 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by pavelk »

dejvid2 wrote: Wed Oct 10, 2018 10:25 amI am currently editing a version of the standard Mediterranean map so I have that to keep myself occupied while waiting
It will be out very very soon!;)
pavelk
Kubat Software
Kubat Software
Posts: 2467
Joined: Mon May 16, 2016 4:27 pm

Re: Aggressors Testers Diary - Modding

Post by pavelk »

dejvid2 wrote: Wed Oct 10, 2018 10:25 amI was waiting for you to publish the tool before buying the game. Now I have bought the game, I have had the chance to look at the editor.
Creating a whole map from scratch seems, at first glance very difficult, so I will wait for the import tool for that.
I am currently editing a version of the standard Mediterranean map so I have that to keep myself occupied while waiting
It was just published. Here is the related dev diary.
Post Reply

Return to “Aggressors: Ancient Rome”