Guidelines

Hello! Here you will find tips or not very strict rules that we follow to make our work easier. You may not read things not related to you: you may skip flag guidelines if you work on localization.

General Guidelines:

1. If you want to commit changes that aren't yours, are completely generated, moved from one place to another or contain a lot of deleted lines, commented out lines, please TRY TO write in "(GDC)" at the end of your commit message.
2. TRY TO talk to reviewers! When you fix a bug or implement a feature mentioned in the review, say to everyone on GitHub it's fixed or implemented!
3. TRY TO add wc at the beginning of non-vanilla files (created for this mod), so we can distinguish which files are related to the mod. Examples: wc_third_war_events.txt, wc_event_modifiers.txt.
4. PLEASE read these Console Tricks. They will help in testing.
5. PLEASE read these GitHub Text Tricks. They will help in communicating on GitHub.

Scripting Guidelines:

1. We RECOMMEND TO use Notepad++ for scripting. In these Notepad Tricks you will find the download link and some tricks.
2. TRY TO follow this Code Style. This unified code style allows you to save time spent interpreting the code of other developers.
3. When you create some new script like an event, decision etc., TRY TO leave a comment so other developers can know context.
4. If you change vanilla lines, TRY TO write comment # Warcraft before these lines and highlight it by making gaps (empty lines) before and after the mod lines.

Example

prisoner = no

# Warcraft
culture = gurubashi
trait = creature_troll

trait = greedy

5. We RECOMMEND TO read the Troubleshooting Article to find bugs easier. It's not said in the article, but to see the full error log you need to write these arguments: -debug -debugscripts -fullhistoricalsetuplog -scriptlog.

Performance Guidelines:

1. TRY TO to use weight_multiplier instead of mean_time_to_happen. This makes the game less laggy. More info about what weight_multiplier is, you can find in this Event Modding Article.
2. TRY TO add as much Event Pre-triggers and Decision Pre-triggers as possible. This makes the game less laggy. Design your features so they're limited to only_playable = yes or ai = no or both.
3. If you're working on Targeted Decisions, TRY NOT TO use all filter. Especially, if it's ai_target_filter.

Event Guidelines:

1. TRY TO name Event Namespaces like this: WC + 3-2 Letters of Abbreviation. For examples, the namespace of wc_third_war_events.txt is WCTHW.

Artifact Guidelines:

1. Artifact icons (sprites) are declared in Warcraft-Guardians-of-Azeroth\interface\wc_treasury.gfx.

Character Guidelines:

1. If you plan to add new characters, we RECOMMEND TO take a look at This How To Create Dynasty guidelines.
2. TRY NOT TO make character attributes higher than 25 (35 maximum). Having a higher value than this breaks certain vanilla events and balance.

Province/Title Guidelines:

1. TRY NOT TO change province attributes without changing Warcraft-Guardians-of-Azeroth\map\provinceDef.xls. This is because the next map generation will clear all of your changes. For more information, Visit this Utility Guide. DO NOT open this provinceDef.xls in any program except Microsoft Excel 2010 or 2013 or 2016.
2. We RECOMMEND TO these amounts of holding slots and built holdings:

• 3 built holdings, 4 slots by default.
• +1 built holding and slot if the province has a known small city, village, castle, etc.
• +2 built holdings and slots if the province has known a known big city, castle, etc.
• +3 built holdings and slots if the province has known a known major city, castle, etc.
• -1 built holding and slot if the province is a wasteland.

3. We RECOMMEND TO name provinces/titles short. Avoid 2-words titles and use of "of" in your names.
4. TRY NOT TO change titles in 01_landed_titles.txt. It's an auto-generated file. Instead of it, use overwrite files. The file names should start with z_. To overwrite the title, you must use the exact same name (k_gilneas, e_kaldorei, etc.).
5. TRY NOT TO make duchies too big. A normal duchy should have a maximum of 4 de-jure counties.
6. When you add new provinces/duchies, DO NOT FORGET to update geographical_region.txt and island_region.txt. Every province must have the assigned region in geographical_region.txt and the assigned island/continent (except the Eastern Kingdoms' provinces).
7. When you add new provinces, DO NOT FORGET to change the map model positions using The Nudge.

Icon Guidelines:

1. province_settlement_frame_<Graphical Culture>.dds and province_capital_settlement_frame_<Graphical Culture>.dds are 4 times less saturated than the original image.

Portrait Guidelines:

1. TRY TO compare the distance between the eyes and their position of your portrait to the vanilla portrait. One vanilla exemplar is located in Warcraft-Guardians-of-Azeroth\.artist_resources\portraits, the file is western_male_base_1.tga. It's done to make sure your portrait isn't too close/far and positioned right.

Localization Guidelines:

1. TRY TO add new localization at the end of the file.
2. TRY TO to write the localization of decision names, modifier names, event titles, trait names etc. while following these rules:
   • Capitalize nouns, verbs and adjectives. Example: Use Poisonous Gas, Conjured Food for Poor.
   • Skip articles except the article when it is the only object in the world. Normal examples: Subdue Void Creature, Increases §GDeath Knight Level Up Chance§!. Examples with the: Restore the Empire of Zul, Join the Black Empire.
   • Write them as short and as concise as possible.