zahar0z
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Even if you use an editor, you'll still need significantly more than a minute to create all the files and specify all the paths. Why waste time and nerves on this when you can do everything "in two clicks"? Just to make it "like the developers did"?
I don't understand why you would want to imitate this mess. I would understand if there was no other way, but there is.
Seriously, I don't get it. There's an option to copy 1 folder, along with the files, rename it, make some adjustments, and add the missing elements, and the xdb part of the mod will be ready in about 5 minutes.
Why, instead, copy (or create through an editor) 7-10 files scattered throughout the game archive, which are then very difficult to find without an editor, and to make them appear in the editor on another map, they need to be specified separately. In each of the 7-10 files, you need to specify at least 1 path, and more often much more (and 7-10 files is still if there are no animations, effects, additional textures, and other joys of life).
Am I missing something? How can this masochism be more convenient than simply taking and copying just one folder with 90% ready content?
Added after 14 minutes
The clarity in the new structure is also more than okay. This issue is solved by the fact that inside the general folder with the creature, each xdb file has its type indicated in the name. It is immediately clear what the file is and what it is responsible for.
In the original game files, this is not done everywhere. The file Footman.xdb can be anything. And you can find an xdb file responsible for the model (without indicating that it is specifically a model) next to textures and animations (also without indication), and all this good stuff will be piled together in a "characters" folder, which is supposed to contain characters.
Actually, a good question is, why did the developers eventually (and this happened in the expansions) abandon their old structure and try to put the files of new creatures as much as possible in one folder? Isn't it because they realized that the old structure simply wastes development time and everything can be done more efficiently?
Added after 19 minutes
I didn't come up with this idea out of nowhere. I must have noticed at some point that it's easier to copy creature files from an expansion (because they are mainly concentrated in a couple of folders) for a mod template than from the original game (because these files are scattered throughout the archive). Then I wondered if it was possible to create a universal, maximally optimized template based on this principle. And it turned out that it is possible.
Added after 14 minutes
The clarity in the new structure is also more than okay. This issue is solved by the fact that inside the general folder with the creature, each xdb file has its type indicated in the name. It is immediately clear what the file is and what it is responsible for.
In the original game files, this is not done everywhere. The file Footman.xdb can be anything. And you can find an xdb file responsible for the model (without indicating that it is specifically a model) next to textures and animations (also without indication), and all this good stuff will be piled together in a "characters" folder, which is supposed to contain characters.
Actually, a good question is, why did the developers eventually (and this happened in the expansions) abandon their old structure and try to put the files of new creatures as much as possible in one folder? Isn't it because they realized that the old structure simply wastes development time and everything can be done more efficiently?
Added after 19 minutes
I didn't come up with this idea out of nowhere. I must have noticed at some point that it's easier to copy creature files from an expansion (because they are mainly concentrated in a couple of folders) for a mod template than from the original game (because these files are scattered throughout the archive). Then I wondered if it was possible to create a universal, maximally optimized template based on this principle. And it turned out that it is possible.