[Caesar]

What can 0ad modders expect regarding units? Will unit modding be similar to AoK? I asume that unit modding will be much harder in 0ad due to camera angles and differant textures, but does anyone have an idea of how many frames each unit will have?

[Wijitmaker]

AoK is 2d. 0 A.D. is 3d, so its not quite the same. It will be more like modding AoM. Instead of rendering and altering sprites you alter unit textures. As we near completion of the game or shortly after we'll release some texture templates so you people can make their own textures. We'll probably also provide a standard model. You'll be able to animate to your hearts content. The frames of animation (because its 3d) can be as long or as short as you want.

[TheCobra1]

Lol, is 0ad going to be as easy to mod as command and conquer red alert?

[Wijitmaker]

Easier

[TheCobra1]

Easier then rules.ini? Are you serious?

[Ykkrosh]

I'm guessing this file is that rules.ini? Our unit data is split into lots of XML files - so it's not quite as trivial to get started (since you have to work out what file to open), and not quite as easy to read (since it's XML, and since we have a lot more data per unit than Red Alert). But we might end up with a GUI tool for editing that data (particularly for customised units in scenarios), so you wouldn't have to care about those details.

Our data files are distributed in a standard .zip file (instead of RA's .mix) so they're trivial to extract, and our textures are probably easier to edit than RA's sprites (since we're using standard DDS files while they probably made up their own file format); and we want to make it as easy as possible to create and distribute mods, so you can e.g. make unit mods and include them with scenarios, and players won't have to manually copy lots of files around to install the mods.

So it's probably harder in some ways (because 0 A.D. is a more complex game), but easier in others, and we're actively trying to design and write the game to be easy and powerful for modders