Posts from Guide on adding a new model, animation, and creature to HoMMV

Except for files like "GameMechanics\Creature\Creatures\Haven\Peasant.xdb," which are hardcoded.

these paths can also be changed, but you'll have to rewrite them in Creatures.xdb. Or are you talking about something else?

Overall, it's a good idea, but I think the ideal system would be the one used by the developers, if it were fully structured. That is, the paths to all creature resources are the same and differ only in the root folders.

Yes, I'm talking about that.
By the way, I didn't know, but I suspected that the paths to these files could also be changed in some large root file.
But this is not important because it is potentially conflicting; with each new creature, you need to edit a large file, and two mods that have it corrected will conflict with each other.


The structure, as with the developers, is inconvenient for manual copying; you need to go into each of these folders (and there is a very long path to each) and copy each file.
As I suggest, all important files are in one folder and reference each other.
You just take and copy, and most of the structural files are already ready.

A simple example.
If, for example, the same file with visuals was in the original folder as with the developers, then for the mod, you would need to find it, copy it, and edit the paths inside that reference the icon, the character, the name and description of the creature, and the projectile. And this is just one file.
In my version, you just copy the folder with the creature's files entirely, and that's it; the file with the visuals is already ready inside, and no paths need to be changed because they reference locally within the folder, and it doesn't matter what this folder is called.
In short, the idea was to make not a "beautiful" structure, but a neat and convenient one for quickly creating modifications.

I really wanted to convey this idea because it literally saved me hours of tedious, painstaking work on entering and checking the correct paths and copying the correct files.

Just try to quickly create a mod using my scheme. The basic files will be ready in a minute. Can you prepare the basic files in the same amount of time in the structure that the developers use?
It would take me from half an hour to an hour and a half. While you find everything, while you copy, while you change the paths. Then you will definitely make a mistake somewhere, and then you will find where, etc. Why waste time on this if you can do the same thing in a minute?

Essentially, it's the same division, but broken down into logical groups. There's no dumping everything into one pile anywhere.

The system of dumping everything into one pile is bad (it seems bad to me) because it violates the main concept of distributing game resources.

These aren't logical groups, but rather different folders with very long and distinct root paths. There's a greater grouping of files (apparently, the developers themselves realized over time that this is more convenient). Compare the files of, say, a knight, i.e., creatures from the original game (scattered throughout the archive), and, for example, the creatures of the orcs (for the orcs, the model, geometry, skeleton, animset, animations, materials, textures, and character, i.e., most of the creature's files, will be in one folder somewhere in the characters; there's no point in arguing, just take a look).

Added 9 minutes later
What I can't understand is why deviating from the original concept is, in your opinion, a bad thing. If the concept was flawed, and even the developers themselves eventually abandoned it in favor of a more convenient one that doesn't waste time unnecessarily.

But, as you rightly pointed out, everyone has the right to do what is convenient for them. Sorry if I'm too insistent on my approach or somehow pressuring you; I didn't mean to create negativity. I just think that this approach has an objective advantage, i.e., it reduces the time spent on routine file copying.
Maybe later, just for a test, try it once, do it according to my scheme; maybe you'll find it more convenient too.

I just find it very difficult to understand why someone would choose to do 20+ actions when they can achieve the same result with just one.

The Nival employees who started working on this around the time of "Orcs" were no longer there, and the new employees did it differently – essentially in one place...

it's clear that they had their own convenient SDK, which they naturally didn't share, but they included some of its functionality in the editor; if you remember, it wasn't there initially... and they had this phrase that the toolkit (read: SDK) they used was too complex for users! But we're supposedly working on a user-friendly map editor that will be convenient and no less functional than in Heroes 3 and 4!

Creating your "dummy" is very cool; by the way, my creations also have a certain standard; I just don't like reinventing the wheel every time! ;)

In the future, I think I'll create a similar template, but not for a creature, but for a hero. Will it be useful to anyone?