Modding support

DISCLAIMER: THIS PAGE IS IN DEVELOPMENT, INFORMATION STATED HERE MIGHT NOT BE COMPLETE OR CORRECT AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE (A LOT).

Modding support

Empty Epsilon allows to run at most one mod. Modding in Empty Epsilon works on the "files" level - that means, if mod is enabled, it will be "overlayed" over the game's packs, resources and scripts files. In general, that means when the game looks for a file, it will first look into the mod directory. If file exists there, it will be used, if not, default one will be used. There are some exceptions to this rule.

Enabling (downloaded) mod

When you have the mod downloaded (and extracted from archive, if applicable), you need to copy the mod into resources/mods folder as one folder. In resources/mods there can be more mods (each folder inside is one mod), but only one can be used.

Specifying what mod should be used, you need to put mod folder name into options.ini on the row mod=folder_name or give it as launch parameter.

So for example resources/mods folder structure can looking like this:

resources/mods/:
 |- mod1/
 |- mod2/
 \- mod3/ 

and launch argument/options.ini entry can look like this: mod=mod2 (so only files from mod2 will be used. mod1 and mod3 will be ignored).

For Linux, you should put your mod in the hidden empty epsilon directory: $HOME/.emptyepsilon/resources/mods/... not in the installation directory (eg NOT in /usr/share/local/emptyepsilon/resources/mods)

How does mods work

Mods in Empty Epsilon works by providing alternative files, than default files. So mods can replace images, sounds, 3D models, LUA scripts that are directly referenced by the game, etc... It can also add new resources, for example new LUA files with scenarios - by using different name, the new scenario will be listed along with the original ones.

When modding configuration (.ini file), entries from the original file will be used, if there is not the same entry with different value in the configuration file with the same name. If there is, mod's entry will be used. This means, that the game will have all entries necessary, but in the mod, only changed values needs to be listed.

Creating a mod

Mod folder structure

Mod folder is the equivalent of resources/ folder, scripts/ folder and packs/ folder, so whatever is directly in those folders will be directly in the mod folder. Any item that is in subdirectory should be in subdirectory of the same name in the mod folder.

Examples (for examples custom_mod is the mod folder name):

• resources/gui/widget/SelectorArrow.png will be in custom_mod/gui/widget/SelectorArrow.png
• scripts/factionInfo.lua will be in custom_mod/factionInfo.lua