Medieval Monday Talk #23 - Modding Steps

Greetings medievalists!

In the previous Medieval Monday Talk, we mentioned how the game’s files received a bit of reorganization and easier navigation for all you folks that want to experiment with crazy scenarios. Let’s talk about that, let’s talk about basic modding improvements.

We completed our first milestone (phase) on our road to extensively support modding: Advanced JSON modding. Now, modders are able to easily add new Resources, Equipment, Buildings, Materials, etc. as well as do pretty much everything except adding new 3D models (which is planned for phase two).

We’ve added:

Example entries – Most of the affected JSON files now have a first entry that is an “example” with extensive comments and instructions on how to mod that particular file.

Localization Keys – Now JSON files, instead of the single “localizationKey” property, have “locKeys” arrays, where newly created items can be fully localized directly to current, officially supported languages.

Icon Path – Switched from constructing image path in-code based on the item name to literal paths in JSON file. This enables adding new In-game icons where applicable and also, overriding existing ones.

Material Settings – All material-specific settings for items have moved to a new file and added a bunch of options to it, most notably, Shader Parameters. This enables creating new materials and easily assigning them to new or existing items.

For example, you can create new material like jade or crystal and add it to the item you want to have that variation. Beneath, you can see an example of creating a new material type and adding that material to a weapon:

The result:

(Note: Jade material will be added to the material files for you to dabble with, but will not be officially added as a variant to any items in-game)

Equipment Type and Quality Settings – Those settings are now extracted to separate files for easier readability. Also, this enables adding new Settings per type and/or Quality. (can be changed that higher quality weapons when equipped trigger mood effectors or even stat-boosting effectors on settlers)

(An example of the WeaponQualitySettings.json . Armor, Garment, and Weapon type have their own files)

There is a lot more happening behind the screen, so we tried to comment and add sort of instructions where we saw it fit within the JSON files. This is just the beginning and we will adapt systems and add more possibilities based on the feedback we get from our awesome modding community.

Wanna be a part of it? Join our Discord – we have a dedicated channel for modding where you can ask/give advice to fellow medievalists! As well as this, you can talk about the overall game experience with our active community.

It’s worth noting this, again:

IMPORTANT:

So far, we managed to keep your saves compatible with our updates. The next official update, however, will break that cycle. We had to restructure code big time for that pathfinding to work and set the scene for the modding. This resulted in the new version of Going Medieval that will not be compatible with your older saves.

Once the update goes live on the experimental branch, a warning will pop up, indicating that existing saves will become incompatible. You’ll have to start a new game to experience Update 4. Thank you.

For those that love your old saves, don’t worry – we plan to introduce another branch without the new content and changes, but that one will allow you to still work on your old settlements. We understand that you spent a lot of time on them and feel like this is a good alternative.

That will be all for today’s talk. Stay tuned, more exciting announcements will be coming soon! Until then…

Stay medieval!

Foxy Voxel