Additive Sound Modding

Age of Empires III: DE III - Modding
1

In the October update, the devs implemented additive sound modding for the sound sets xml files and the individual proto units’ sound xml files. As someone who made a civilization mod I was interested in these as it should mean less things to worry about being broken and needing to fix after updates. I took the initiative to try to figure them out since the patch notes didn’t say how to format them.

Proto unit sound files i.e. demercbattleship_snds.mods.xml

<protounitsounddefmods>
  <protounit name="deMercBattleship">
    <soundtype name="Select">
      <civlogic>
		<choice name="none">
          <soundset name="FrenchMonitorSelect">
          </soundset>
        </choice>
      </civlogic>
    </soundtype>
    <soundtype name="Acknowledge">
      <civlogic>
		<choice name="none">
          <soundset name="FrenchMonitorAcknowledge">
          </soundset>
        </choice>
      </civlogic>
    </soundtype>
  </protounit>
</protounitsounddefmods>

Sound Set files i.e. soundsetsde.mods.xml

<soundsetdefmods>
  <soundset name="YucatecoSelect" volume="0.8000" maxnum="4" distance="1.0000">
    <sound filename="Mayan\Select1.wav" volume="1.0000">
    </sound>
    <sound filename="Mayan\Select2.wav" volume="1.0000">
    </sound>
	<sound filename="Mayan\Select3.wav" volume="1.0000">
    </sound>
  </soundset>
  <soundset name="YucatecoAcknowledge" volume="0.8000" maxnum="4" distance="1.0000">
    <sound filename="Mayan\Move1.wav" volume="1.0000">
    </sound>
    <sound filename="Mayan\Move2.wav" volume="1.0000">
    </sound>
    <sound filename="Mayan\Move3.wav" volume="1.0000">
    </sound>
  </soundset>
  <soundset name="YucatecoAttack" volume="0.8000" maxnum="4" distance="1.0000">
    <sound filename="Mayan\Attack1.wav" volume="1.0000">
    </sound>
    <sound filename="Mayan\Attack2.wav" volume="1.0000">
    </sound>
	<sound filename="Mayan\Attack3.wav" volume="1.0000">
    </sound>
  </soundset>
</soundsetdefmods>

In addition to being less hassle for civ modders, there is a neat application that could be done with these since a mod of just sound xmls looks to be multiplayer safe according to the in-game mods tool. I did an audit of all the units you can get out of the various TEAM cards and it looked like quite a few are just mute for some civilizations. If I recall all the African Royals team units have no sounds for anyone besides them, and the Inca in particular are missing from many sound files that I noticed, the generic “Settler” doesn’t even have them on it.

Thanks to additive sound modding, one could amend these sound files and not have to worry about scrambling to update after a patch drops. We could also give a voice to the Unknown map, which features a variety of units with sound files that only work with very specific civs or that just don’t have one at all like the Flagbearer that can spawn in there.

4 Likes
2

Thanks ! I had seen this addition with interest. But there was no more info (the mod guide has not been updated). I’ll test it.

3

I had most of this done a while back, and today I slogged through all the treasure guardians to find which ones were lacking sound files, as I knew some did but had no idea which ones.

I made sound files for all the treasure guardians who are lacking one, and made additive files for a few that were missing grunt/death/creation sounds.

A lot of the unique Unknown map units should have sounds now.

TEAM card units should have sounds for all civs.

1 Like
4

I just tested it. It works very well!
I’m working on a European civilization mod and this feature helps me a lot.
Thanks to you, thanks to the devs!

However, I think that an update of the official guide is necessary:

1 Like