Jump to content

Recommended Posts

 

MetaModGuide-SageLuaModdingGuide

 

Meta Mod for C&C Kane's Wrath - ModDB Page + Download of Meta Mod 2 + Source Code + Sage LUA mod SDK

*NEW* Meta Mod Tiberium Wars Edition (See readme or moddb description for current limitations)

 

Important new features (small selection, see link above for a more complete list):

  • Meta Credit Shop with rank and xp system, lua based savegames introduced.
  • Autostart config to configure your game very individually with over hundred options.
  • 4 new gamemodes: native art of defense/ tower defense (with advanced evolutionary self learning AI), random army gamemode, unit vs. unit, hero general.
  • diplomacy system: You can even switch teams and give commands to other teams if you apply as a team commander.
  • meta command & meta control menus: Hundreds of options to manipulate the game and use internal script and engine mechanisms.
  • First and third person mode: Completely new game experience. Switch to first person mode during game and leave it whenever you want.
  • Mod script loader system: Easy to use framework to use external lua mod scripts.
  • And much more with over 10,000 lines of lua code

Note: Everything in this mod can be disabled one by one if you would like to.

 

So this is now very interesting for all modders out there and I'm very curious about what people will make out of it, as I spend quite some efforts to create the documentation, all these lists and ressources, beside hundreds of lines of lua code which I didnt even use in Meta Mod only to give people the ability to use them later for their projects. Now we are able to let the sage engine pass my definition of the turing test for video games modding, which for me is a timetravel ability (see Meta Credit Shop).

 

I encourage people now to create unique mod scripts for the Meta Mod script loader framework or even create entirely new mods based on my code. The sky is the limit: Create completely new gamemodes and game mechanics!

 

I really hope you like it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Mjjstral
  • Upvote 2

Share this post


Link to post

This is something that neither C&C Generals nor RA3 has implemented in all-in-one mod. Impressive.

 

But I wonder, will any of this work in C&C3 Tiberium Wars if I used the some codes there?

Edited by PurpleGaga27

Share this post


Link to post

This is something that neither C&C Generals nor RA3 has implemented in all-in-one mod. Impressive.

 

But I wonder, will any of this work in C&C3 Tiberium Wars if I used the some codes there?

 

Thank you and yes everything should work in TW and even in RA3 and BFME2 too, the lua code is completely universal (except game specific object names in some tables of course) and big parts of the xml coding as well. Actually I'm considering a TW port someday.

 

Edit: Not to confuse people, the bare lua code itself syntax wise will work in TW since both use Lua 4.0.1. But be aware that many core functions, like the positional spawner, GetObjectPosition and scripttimers depend on object dummys. But these objects can still be easily transfered to TW and other sage engine games, beside the possibility to just completely adopt the Meta Mod framework and turn everything unneeded of by simply setting some global lua variables to zero.

Edited by Mjjstral

Share this post


Link to post
On 10/01/2017 at 11:49 PM, Mjjstral said:

 

Thank you and yes everything should work in TW and even in RA3 and BFME2 too, the lua code is completely universal (except game specific object names in some tables of course) and big parts of the xml coding as well. Actually I'm considering a TW port someday.

 

Edit: Not to confuse people, the bare lua code itself syntax wise will work in TW since both use Lua 4.0.1. But be aware that many core functions, like the positional spawner, GetObjectPosition and scripttimers depend on object dummys. But these objects can still be easily transferred to TW and other sage engine games, beside the possibility to just completely adopt the Meta Mod framework and turn everything unneeded of by simply setting some global lua variables to zero.

Do you still plan on releasing a C&C3 version?

Share this post


Link to post

Yes but first I want to finish the multiplayer compatibility code for meta mod in Kane`s Wrath.

Share this post


Link to post
1 hour ago, Mjjstral said:

Yes but first I want to finish the multiplayer compatibility code for meta mod in Kane`s Wrath.

OK, I look forward to this!

Share this post


Link to post

I made a very very early meta mod port for tiberium wars. Many things still do not work correctly, but for modders it's still usefull at this point, as the whole meta mod io does work and also many other elements, like the meta command text menu and meta control tab menu (for the most part).

Among the many issues that need to get resolved are the following:

  • meta tech faction broken
  • diplomacy alliance changes broken
  • multiplayer compatibility not finished yet
  • lua object tables still with kane's wrath objects

The source code will probably become universally compileable for kane's wrath as well as tiberium wars in the future. Download comes with source code of course ;)

Note: The lua work folder gets created on first start up and can be found in the tw userdata folder, named "MetaModIO". For modders/scripters run the game in windowed mode and push the lua script button in the meta control tab menu to create the LUA_INPUT.lua. Then open that file and have fun, running your scripts live. You can overwrite any existing function from the scripts.lua within the LUA_INPUT.lua.

DOWNLOAD

Edited by Mjjstral
  • Upvote 2

Share this post


Link to post
12 minutes ago, Mjjstral said:

I made a very very early meta mod port for tiberium wars. Many things still do not work correctly, but for modders it's still usefull at this point, as the whole meta mod io does work and also many other elements, like the meta command text menu and meta control tab menu (for the most part).

Among the many issues that need to get resolved are the following:

  • meta tech faction broken
  • diplomacy alliance changes broken
  • multiplayer compatibility not finished yet
  • lua object tables still with kane's wrath objects

The source code will probably become universally compileable for kane's wrath as well as tiberium wars in the future. Download comes with source code of course ;)

Note: The lua work folder gets created on first start up and can be found in the tw userdata folder, named "MetaModIO". For modders/scripters run the game in windowed mode and push the lua script button in the meta control tab menu to create the LUA_INPUT.lua. Then open that file and have fun, running your scripts live. You can overwrite any existing function from the scripts.lua within the LUA_INPUT.lua.

DOWNLOAD

Excellent! thanks!

Share this post


Link to post

Meta Mod Tiberium Wars Version now released on MODDB. Some more bugfixes made, but still with limitations.

Edited by Mjjstral

Share this post


Link to post

Once again, thanks for releasing the C&C3 version of MetaMod.

Share this post


Link to post

One other thing to ask, Mjjstral. Is it possible to add an option to the skirmish menu (ie. No superweapons) in addition to spawn crates before starting a game using LUA scripting that will work in C&C3/KW?

Share this post


Link to post
Quote

One other thing to ask, Mjjstral. Is it possible to add an option to the skirmish menu (ie. No superweapons) in addition to spawn crates before starting a game using LUA scripting that will work in C&C3/KW?

No this isn't possible at all via LUA alone, because the whole lua environment first get loaded during map load screen. It only works like that: After the map load on game start, lua can test what options were enabled and then do it's stuff dependent on this. So the only workarounds to have new skirmish setup options without sacrificing the crate option are:

1. Trivial: Let lua always enable the random crate option and let the skirmish option be useable for other options.

2. The host of the game gets asked immediately after map load to decide about certain options. This then works via player power buttons (accept/deny). For some confirmations this is already used in meta mod and will also get used for player live pools in possibly future updates. During host ingame option setup the game can be set to a frozen state.

3. Use a specially made dummy faction that immediately enables the requested option and then removes itself on game start. The name of the faction is then of course the name of the option. You can even go farther and let every handycap percentage step for that faction be a seperate sub option.

4. Use a config file to enable/disable options + (optionally:) also let the user toggle these options via an ingame text menu. This is the way meta mod also handles this. Thanks to this method the user can toggle over 100 options via config file in meta mod.

5. Stranger solutions: Use any other option like a special money step. This can work because lua can read the Skirmish.ini file (and all other files) in your appdata/.../profiles/user folder and detect each and every option you used. You could also use the voip option box and even special hotkey assignments to toggle options. There are potentially sacrificable options like the ticker options: ShowTickerAds, ShowTickerNews or ToolTipDelay in the Options.ini, just to mention a few.

Keep in mind only the first three solutions can be multiplayer compatible. I can go more into detail for certain aspects if you wish.

Share this post


Link to post

The idea to "replace" the news ticker options is actually not too bad:

20170601172105_1.thumb.jpg.3aa0d1f0ce368eb9ab2cb38a7ae8c3f7.jpg

BTW: My new "more fps method" does't speed up the visual game speed anymore.

Share this post


Link to post

I thought more fps ingame will improve the game. That was one feature every gamer needs to have when things slow down ingame. But then I think, why those cannot be in the skirmish menu but the options menu?

In the previous post you suggested, number 2 seems to be the better option. Whenever you start a skirmish game map, one should be given the other options to enable before play.

Share this post


Link to post
Quote

I thought more fps ingame will improve the game. That was one feature every gamer needs to have when things slow down ingame.

Yes but the problem of changing the fps to a higher value was that the animation and overall game speed also speeded up resulting in way too fast gameplay. Now we can have just more fps without these negative sideeffects.

 

Quote

But then I think, why those cannot be in the skirmish menu but the options menu?

They can be in both, but you said " in addition to spawn crates". Via ticker box, in skirmish menu you can only do it by replacing the crates option box (as done in meta mod tw and kw version already). Adding a completely new ticker box is not possible by regular ways of modding because it's hardcoded. So we have to use what we have. (random thought here: via binary logic we could make 4 options out of 2, in the heading we write an explanation with all combinations and results)

Quote

In the previous post you suggested, number 2 seems to be the better option. Whenever you start a skirmish game map, one should be given the other options to enable before play.

Yes.  In meta mod I use multiple ways of enabling/disabling options just for convenience. In multiplayer it will only use number 2 (future) and in skirmish number 2,4 and 5 all simultanously. The most convenient solution obviously is via ticker box.

So 2 is the best universal solution and a ticker box replacement is best for pure single player skirmish.

Edited by Mjjstral

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×