First I'd like to welcome you to the Modding Forum of AoE3H. The get started with modding it's important to read this topic first so you don't have to ask questions that have been asked a dozen times before, which can annoying others. But it's not only important for others, but also for you since you'll then be able to start modding faster and with the proper knowledge. So please read on.

Your Hosts
On your way here, you most probably saw some coloured names, these people form the staff that keeps this heaven together and a nice place. The staff that's working in this (the modding) forum are Argalius, Cherub Walker and Xastor. The staff members are the only ones that can give you a warning or a ban when you violate a rule in the Code of Conduct. However they can also close topics, change titles etc. If you have any questions about anything, they are the ones you'd want to contact. Our e-mail addresses can be find in our profiles, which you can access by clicking the green links a few sentences above.

Getting Started
Since you've come to this forum, without a doubt you're interested in modding. We've got some tutorials for you that will guide you through the world that's called modding. Making sure you can start right away. They can be found here.

To mod you'll need a few programs, (for a more detailed explanation go to this tutorial). The most important of all is AoE3ED (mac version available here), which makes it possible to extract the files and convert them to editable files. For editing of text files you can use Notepad or any other XML editor. For creating textures you'll need a program like Photoshop, but free programs like GIMP work as well.

Before considering starting your own project (which is harder than you'd think), you could join one that's already under progress. There are plenty of active mods, and someone might be in need of your skills! You can check the current projects and their respective job offers in the Mod Database thread.

If you do start your own project, without too much experience, please read the list of no-nos first. There you can find all the things that aren't possible while modding AoE3. The list is quite long so it'll save you a lot of problems if you'd just take a quick look there. Also don't create a new thread if you have only a very basic idea of your mod. First get something on paper, like what civs, an idea of what units you'll add, the theme, some techs, what makes your mod unique etc. When you've all that you can start modding. When you've got some things completed you should start thinking about creating a thread to get some first reactions. Make sure you've something to show/tell when you create your thread. If you just say "more info will come later" people will walk away and it's hard to get their interests back. So don't create a thread unless you've something to show!

Asking Questions
While modding you're bound to get into trouble. And sometimes you might not work it out by yourself and you'll have to ask a question in this forum. Sure no problem with that, don't hesitate to do so. However, when you encounter a problem explain what you did, what happened, what the error exactly is and perhaps post some of your code as well. In this way more experienced modders can help you right away instead of having to ask for more information. You can never give too much information when asking a question. Also give your thread an appropriate title, not just "Question" but something like "Question about proto file error".

Downloading and Uploading Mods
Most mods represented in this forum will one day be uploaded into the AoE3H download section. The modpack section can be found here. There you can give comments and rate the things you've downloaded. For review guidelines, go here.
You can ofcourse also upload your own mods to this download section. For this you'll have to be logged-in and click in the upper right corner. The whole process will be explained on the way.

Mods and ESO2 (Multiplayer Service)
Some mods can be used on ESO2, but only to a certain extent. Since you can't share mods through ESO2 all the players will have to have the exact same version of the mod already installed before logging-in. If this is not the case, the game will result in a so called Out-of-Sync error (OOS), causing the game to crash. Data mods like changes in the proto.xml.xmb and techtree.xml.xmb will make it impossible to login on ESO2.

Points of Interest

• Widely used AoE3 Abbreviations
  
• Age Wiki

[This message has been edited by Maffia (edited 04-03-2011 @ 08:50 AM).]