Quick Start & Modding Basics

Types of mods

Nebuchadnezzar supports three type of mods:

All mods types have the same data structure and provides the same functionality. They only differ in the way how to obtain them and where are stored.

Local mods

• These mods can be downloaded from any sources.
• These mods are supported on all distributions platforms builds (Steam, Gog and any future platforms).

Steam Workshop mods

• These mods can be downloaded through the Steam Workshop system.
• For Steam builds only.

Developer mods

• Special variant of local mods.
• Used to develop and upload your mods.

What is moddable?

Everything except the tutorial, guide, UI and fonts. That means, you can create or edit goods, production chains, buildings, monuments, maps, missions or even ther whole campaigns and more.

Mod files structure

Each mod is single folder.

• Name of the folder determines the name of the mod.
• This name is then used to reference this mods from other mods.
• You should ensure that your mod name will be unique

Each mod has two types of files. These are:

• Definition files - They contains information about new entities or changes in the existing entities.
• Data files - Data which are referenced by the definition files. Typically sprite images.

Definition files

Definition files, in short def files, are written in Lua language.

• It means you can use most of Lua language features. Such like variable, aritmetic operations or functions.

Atoms

The basic unit of the game is Atom.

• Each entity in the game is defined as a atom. For example single atom is building, walker, employee, mission, city, goods etc.
• Each atom has properties from which some are obligatory and some are optional. Depending on a type of the atom.

Atom name

• Atom name is the most imporatant property of each atom.
• It has form mod_name::raw_name
  • mod_name part is important because it allows us to unequivocally reference atoms from other mods
  • raw_name is then name identifying atom within its mod

Atoms functions

There are four functions for creating or editing atoms.

Create atom

To create new atom, use function atom (name, data)

Example

atom ('surface.desert.soil.1',
{
    grid = 'grid.desert',
    neighbor_grid = 'grid.soil',
    neighbor_transition = 1,

    masque = {{"images/surface/desert_soil/desert_soil_1.png"}},
    grass = grass,
    grass_ending = grass_ending
})

name parameter

• Name of the created atom.
• Notice that it does not have the mod_name part.
• It's because you don't have to use it when creating atom, because it's provided automaticaly based on the mod.

data parameter

• Contains all properties of the atom.
• Has form of Lua table, where key is name of a property and value is the value of the property.

parent data parameter

• atom functions may also take up to two parent data tables atom (name, [pd1], [pd2], data)
• Example

caravan_leader_base = {
    masque = {{"images/walker/caravan/leader/leader_#.png", 32}},
    offsets = {{24, 55}, {24, 55}, {24, 55}, {24, 55}},
    speed = caravan_speed,
    slave_offsets = {7, 16},
}

atom ('walker.caravan.wine', caravan_leader_base,
{
    info_goods = 'goods.wine',
    slave_walkers = {'walker.donkey.wine', 'walker.donkey.wine'},
})

• Then the created atom takes properties from the parent data and add (or override by) properties defined in the data table.

Replace atom

To replace existing atom in other mod use function atom_entire (name, data)

Example

atom_entire ('base::walker.donkey.grapes',
{
    masque = {{"images/walker/caravan/donkey_grapes/donkey_grapes_#.png", 32}},
    offsets = {{27, 53}, {27, 53}, {27, 53}, {27, 53}},
})

name parameter

• In this case the name is the name of atom we want to replace.
• So here we have to use the whole name including the mod part, because we are replacing atom from other mod.

data parameter

• All data of the original atom are replace by these data.

Replace atom property

To replace property in existing atom in other mod use function atom_property (name, data)

Example

atom_property ('base::walker.transport.full.clay',
{
    masque = {{"images/walker/transport/clay/full/full_transport_clay_#.png", 64}},
    offsets = {{17, 35}, {15, 36}, {29, 40}, {29, 36}},
})

name parameter

• Name of atom we want to replace property in.
• Here we also have to use the whole name including the mod part.

data parameter

• All properties stated in the data are used to override corresponding properties in the original atom.
• Rest of the properties in the original atom stays the same.

Extend atom property

To extend property in existing atom in other mod use function atom_extend_property (name, data)

Example

atom_extend_property ('base::mission.nz.13',
{
    allowed_templates = {'mn_template.my_custom_temple'},
})

name parameter

• Name of atom we want to extend property in.
• Here we also have to use the whole name including the mod part.

data parameter

• All properties stated in the data are used to extend corresponding properties in the original atom.
• All properties must be type of array, otherwise the file is invalid.

Referencing atom

Atom properties often reference other atoms or array of atoms.

• To reference an atom within the mod, use it's raw part of name only.
• To reference an atom from other mod, use the whole name including the mod part.

Creating mod

Prepare environment

First of all you need to prepare environment.

Enable developer console

You will need to enable developer console.

• Locale vars.ini file containing all game settings, even the hiddne one.
• File is located in Nebuchadnezzar user data
  • On Windows it's Documents\NeposGames\Nebuchadnezzar
  • On Linux it's typically /home/[user]/.local/share/NeposGames/Nebuchadnezzar
• In the vars file change line v_console 0 to v_console 1

Create developer mods folder

You need to create special folder for your mods.

• In Nebuchadnezzar user data folder create folder mods_developer

Create mod folder

And now it's time to start to create the mod.

• In developer mods folder create folder with the name of you mode.
• Inside this folder create another folder with the same name.
• Your data structure should then looks like this [Nebuchadnezzar user data]/mods_developer/my_first_mod/my_first_mod/

Init mod

Mod needs to be initialized to be functional.

• Run Nebuchadnezzar and in the console run command mod_init [mod_name]
• This will create mod.lua special def file containing single atom describing your mod.
• Properties:
  • Title Official name of the mod. Not used in data and referencing but in Mod manager and Steam Workshop
  • Description Description of mod. Use \n for line break.
    • May be empty.
  • Author Author of the mod.
    • May be empty.
  • Homepage Homepage of the mod.
  • Mod version Version of the mod.
  • Game version Version of the game for which the mod is created.