This article has been approved and can also be read at the University. - Leif Ericson

With all the civs there are in the game, it's a pitty to have no more than five building sets. And there are a lot of really cool building sets out there, like Carcoma's, But how to use them without replacing any existing one ?


How to add building sets

Contents-
Section 1 – Static buildings (easy)
Section 2 – Animated buildings (medium)
Section 3 – Town center and gates (have fun)
Section 4 – Making them civ-specific


Preparation :

As usual, backup your files ! This is very important in case something goes wrong.

I advise reading my other article so you know the basics with AGE.

Add the graphics to the gamedata_x1_p1.drs file and save it.
Then when you open AGE, don't forget to check the box "Path for drs", it enables AGE to display the graphics of the game.
In AGE you will notice that there are one building for each age. There are for example 4 archery ranges, how to know which one is linked to which age ?

There is a simple way : in AGE, there is a box called Name at the top, it is the internal name of the unit. For the archery range it's ARRGx, x going from 1 to 4. 1 means Dark age, 2 Feudal age and so on. The same goes for all buildings, just look at the number in the internal name and you will know which age it is linked to.

Graphics

All buildings graphic id names have the following format:

AAAAx**b

AAAA denotes internal name of the building

x denotes age number
x = 1, Dark Age variant
x = 2, Feudal Age variant
x = 3, Castle Age variant
x = 4, Imperial Age variant


b denotes buildset:
W is West European
E is East/Central European
F is Far Eastern
G is Dark Age
M is Middle Eastern
X is Mesoamerican


In Forgotten (Empires):
I is Italian
X is also Slavic

For example ARRG3NNW is the West Europan castle age archery range.


Section 1 – Static buildings (easy)

We'll start with all the static buildings, the easier ones.
First in the unit tab look for the standing graphics of let's say the archery range, then find it in the graphics tab and copy it.
Change the SLP number to the one of the new building graphics. It should display the new spanish archery range. That was easy right ? Well it's not totally done yet, some graphics have seperated shadows and this is the case.

Look for a shadow graphics (they finish with N0E, N0W, N0F, N0W) for example ARRG3N0W, copy it, change its slp number to the archery range shadow one. Then go back to the building graphics, in the delta box press on add twice : you have added two slots for delta graphics. Leave the first one empty, and change the second one ID to your newly created archery range shadow (and eventually correct its position using the X and Y direction boxes).



Now your building is ready to be used ingame.


Section 2 – Animated buildings (medium)

That one was not that hard, but when it comes to animated buildings such as mills, docks and blacksmith it is not the same story. Relax, nothing very complex in the end but we will have to work slightly differently.

When you look at the slp for the mill you will notice that there are one for the building itself, one for it's shadow, another one for the animation and a last one for the animation shadow. We just need to see how to pu them together.

First take go to the mill's standing graphics : MILL3N1W for european castle age for example :

It has 3 delta graphics : the first one is the building's shadow, the second is the animation's shadow and the last one is the building graphics. MILL3N1W contains the animation graphics.



Copy all these graphics and create new ones :



Now change each graphic's slp number to the according slp of the mod, editig the frame number if necessary (don't forget to change the slp number of the main graphic (the one you copied from MILL3N1W) to the animation slp). Then in your main graphic , change the delta graphics to the one you just created and you should see your new mill :



Now that you have understood how to use delta graphics, you should be able to create new graphics for every animated buildings. You think you're done right ? Well not yet, there are still two buildings that we should take a look at, and they are definitely the most complex one.


Section 3 – Town Centers and gates (hard)

Town centers are made of several units stacked together, and each unit is made of a standing graphic using delta graphics. Still not lost ?

Then you can go check Vardamir's article, it contains everything you need to know about gates and TC's graphics, and you should be able to create new graphics using his infos. It's nothing more than using delta graphics, it's just that there are a lot of them.

With a bit of practice you should be able to do this :




Section 4 – Making them civ-specific

Once you are done with the graphics part, making them specific to one civ (or more) is easy : go in the unit tab, select the building you want, in the civilization bar select one civ you want to have your new building set.



Then check the including graphics box, in the "to selected civilization" click on "none" an then check the boxes of the civs that you want to have the new building set. You just have to change the standing graphics and this is it :



I hope this article helped you, if there is any point that seems unclear to you feel free to ask me for more explanations.

[This message has been edited by Leif Ericson (edited 03-15-2017 @ 09:00 PM).]