A request from modders about graphical mods

Age of Mythology: Retold Discussion
1

Hi,

I’ve been modding AoM retold and AoE3 DE for a while now. I find these two game engines extremely enjoyable to mod.

However, AoM has a major flaw that AoE3 (and even AoE2) didn’t have: the multiplayer compatibility of purely cosmetic mods.

I’m not talking about animation files. AoE3 also removed this compatibility for those kinds of files that could alter gameplay. I’m talking about purely cosmetic files, like textures.

I had a mod that replaced the Titan icon on the minimap to make it more visible. It just replaced an image: mod incompatibility.
I have a friend who worked on improving the textures of Aztec buildings. He spent a lot of time on it, but in the end: mod incompatibility.

These kinds of purely cosmetic mods shouldn’t be incompatible in multiplayer. Devs, please, can you ignore image files in multiplayer incompatibility conditions, like in AoE3?

Furthermore, though this might be asking too much, I would really like to see the return of the visualmods system from AoE3 DE, which allowed for overriding 3D models (for example, replacing one unit’s helmet with another). It was also a modding feature that allows multiplayer compatibility.

1 Like
Distinctive Architecture for Age IV Aztecs
2

I’m only from Retold, didn’t know about those features in AoE 3 DE. it seems convenient indeed, it s a bit sad how rigid rules can be - I understand about things like animations not being multiplayer friendly but visuals are a bit much.

3

and here I was thinking the advantage Age of Empires 3 had over Age of Mythology is that in AoE3 you can actually add new civs.

4

In AoM you can add new civ, new models pretty much all that stuff
It just takes a lot of times to do so and modding project are generally only one people

5

Yeah I had that happen to my 2nd mod. Wanted it to be “cosmetic only” so I took great care to only alter existing textures, without touching anything else (animfile, material files, etc), thinking that it made sense it would be MP-compatible… And at 1st, my mod was flagged as such (even QP compatible) so I thought I had successfully made it! But that was reverted to ‘everyone has to have the mod’ very quickly. It’s a bit frustrating, and disappointing really since the previous game (AoE3) allowed it.

I’d love to see that modding rule come back. Would make a lot of player experiences smoother for sure (MP especially).

1 Like