Fictional Faction Ambition

[Ben Stanton]

Hello TWCenter. I've been a Total War player since I was 8 years old - and with my general interest in video games - have come to this forum asking a multitude
of favors.

I'm not asking for money, or a visit to my YouTube profile which "If you like this song, help support me enter the music industry and visit my channel for great
beats and sick wubs"

Instead; I'm an overly ambitious gamer who is serious in his development as a designer and creator. I've come to the forums to propose a potential mod
I'd be working on over the next year. It's not a ground-breaking concept - simply the ambition of creating a fictional faction for TotalWar: Attila.

It's out of my existing abilities as a modder, I'm limited at best using PFM and the established modding tools, but I'm confident in my understanding of the game
itself; as well as my creative potential.

I'm currently working on a piece of fiction, it's nature is grounded fantasy, but I've been wanting to make some of the concepts I have more tangible for myself by
creating a mod for Total War which embodies one of the factions in my story.
That's the background to 'why', but I'm going to explain the 'what'.

I understand that creating a new faction from scratch requires a lot of skill, an understanding of the game's development kits and the ability to spend time
creating and editing the possibly thousands of files required.

So with this massively convoluted introduction finished; what tools would I specifically require to create this? I won't be implementing any custom decals or
materials to the game. All of the assets I need are within the game, save: building and unit icons.
Is this too ambitious for me? What steps do I need to take first?
Factions contain within them units, faction traits, buildings and technologies. I hope to spend my time with each component as a learning experience itself
- to work my way up to a final product; finally combining all the sections together.

What I'm asking, is for information and support in a space that naturally demands little of people's time.
I would appreciate anything, from stories on the first large mod any of you have taken up (not restricted to Total War), tips and criticisms.
Something I would love even more, is if you ask me what I'd be doing so you can offer me information specifically to my aims and goals.

My biggest obstacles would be creating a new religion and coding how the AI would react to a new faction. I'm making the assumption that I'd have to write up
and script how factions will react and relate to my new faction.

But what I will say is that, regardless of the help and support people would have the time to offer me - I will be endeavoring the complete this ambition of mine either way.
The forums here are established and I've been a long time lurker, but now I feel that this is the most appropriate place to seek a consistent support group. I feel that I cannot find information, that my stubborn brain will take, on the complete process to modding, and I don't want my negativity to influence me into believing modding Total War is an old boy's club.



Much love, many hugs, maybe some kissing - Stanton.

[Dude with the Food]

With every credit to your ambition, a completely new faction isn't a simple thing to add into the game, especially to someone who hasn't had much experience with modding yet. Not that you sound to expect it will be easy and if you understand the tools, it will probably be easier than you think now.

However, I'd advise you follow some of the tutorials for smaller mods and make couple of units/buildings and get them working in campaigns properly first.

Secondly, when you get onto the faction, use an existing faction to start with. Wherever you want to start on the map, there will be someone you can overwrite before you are ready to transfer everything onto a new faction. Firstly, you can test each stage along the way and if seeing your faction working is more important than the modding experience to you then it would be much easier.

[Ben Stanton]

Yes, thanking you for the response as well.

I have always planned on placing this faction in the steppes where there are 3 vacant settlements unclaimed by any existing faction. I think the region is Thracia though I've forgotten.

I'm currently starting on units - I have 20 in total all written including their stats, abilities - though I've only created about 2 on the variant editor.
I also have a collection of existing icons for the buildings I plan to create including their names and statistics.

The one thing I'm going to have problems with is assigning icons to the technologies for the faction - is that all doable in the PFM?

[Dude with the Food]

data.pack
- ui
- campaign ui
- technologies

It definitely should be possible to change technology icons in PFM if your problem is only that you couldn't find it. If you've found it and it won't work then check your icons are the same size as vanilla's and that they are saved as .png files.

Well done with all you've done so far but I still think it's easier to check things like units/art and so on work for a normal faction before you create a faction. Or at least test them in game while making the faction in a separate mod so you get a sense of how the end result should look if all the various components are working.

[Walrusjones]

I would be glad to help, I have done a lot with actually balancing units out myself, and currently run a mod that makes use of... Three completely unused mechanics... That I haven't seen anyone else properly utilized. If you want any help actually making things work out, I would be glad to explain my techniques, the very basic battle mechanics, and the like.