Town Format
From VCMI Project Wiki
Contents
Required data
In order to make functional town you also need:
Images
- Creature backgrounds images, 120x100 and 130x100 versions (2 images)
- Set of puzzle map pieces (48 images)
- Background scenery (1 image)
- Mage guild window view (1 image)
- Town hall background (1 image)
- Set of town icons, consists from all possible combinations of: (8 images total)
- small and big icons
- village and fort icons
- built and normal icons
- Set for castle siege screen, consists from:
- Background (1 image)
- Destructible towers (3 parts, 3 images each)
- Destructible walls (4 parts, 3 images each)
- Static walls (3 images)
- Town gates (5 images)
- Moat (2 images)
Animation
- Adventure map images for village, town and capitol (3 def files)
Music
- Town theme music track (1 music file)
Buildings
Each town requires a set of buildings (Around 30-45 buildings)
- Town animation file (1 animation file)
- Selection highlight (1 image)
- Selection area (1 image)
- Town hall icon (1 image)
Faction node (root entry for town configuration)
// Unique faction identifier. Should be unique.
"myTown" :
{
// Main part of town description, see below
// Optional but it should be present for playable faction
"town" : { ... },
// Native terrain for this town. See config/terrains.json for identifiers
"nativeTerrain" : "grass",
// Localizable town name, e.g. "Rampart"
"name" : "",
// Faction alignment. Can be good, neutral (default) or evil.
"alignment" : "",
// Backgrounds for creature screen, two versions: 120px-height and 130-px height
"creatureBackground"
{
// Paths to background images
"120px" : "",
"130px" : ""
}
// Town puzzle map
"puzzleMap" :
{
// Prefix for image names, e.g. "PUZCAS" for name "PUZCAS12.png"
"prefix" : "",
// List of map pieces. First image will have name <prefix>00, second - <prefix>01 and so on
"pieces" :
[
{
// Position of image on screen
"x" : 0
"y" : 0
//indicates order in which this image will be opened
"index" : 0
},
...
]
]
}
Town node
{
// DEPRECATED, see "mapObject" field below | Path to images of object on adventure map
"adventureMap" :
{
"village": "", // village without built fort
"castle" : "", // town with built fort
"capitol": "" // town with capitol (usually have some additional flags)
},
// field that describes behavior of map object part of town. Town-specific part of object format
"mapObject" :
{
// Optional, controls what template will be used to display this object.
// Whenever player builds a building in town game will test all applicable templates using
// tests with matching name and on success - set such template as active.
// There are 3 predefined filters: "village", "fort" and "capitol" that emulate H3 behavior
"filter" : {
"capitol" : [ "anyOf", [ "capitol" ], [ "castle" ] ]
},
// List of templates that represent this object. For towns only animation is required
// See object template description for other fields that can be used.
"templates" : {
"village" : { "animation" : "" },
"castle" : { "animation" : "" },
"capitol" : { "animation" : "" }
}
},
//icons, small and big. Built versions indicate constructed during this turn building.
"icons" :
{
"village" : {
"normal" : {
"small" : "modname/icons/hall-small.bmp",
"large" : "modname/icons/hall-big.bmp"
},
"built" : {
"small" : "modname/icons/hall-builded-small.bmp",
"large" : "modname/icons/hall-builded-big.bmp"
}
},
"fort" : {
"normal" : {
"small" : "modname/icons/fort-small.bmp",
"large" : "modname/icons/fort-big.bmp"
},
"built" : {
"small" : "modname/icons/fort-builded-small.bmp",
"large" : "modname/icons/fort-builded-big.bmp"
}
}
},
// Path to town music theme, e.g. "music/castleTheme"
"musicTheme" : "",
// List of structures which represents visible graphical objects on town screen.
// See detailed description below
"structures" :
{
"building1" : { ... },
...
"building9" : { ... }
},
// List of names for towns on adventure map e.g. "Dunwall", "Whitestone"
// Does not have any size limitations
"names" : [ "", ""],
// Background scenery for town screen, size must be 800x374
"townBackground": "",
// Small scenery for window in mage guild screen
"guildWindow": "",
// Background image for window in mage guild screen - since 0.95b
"guildBackground" : "",
// Video for tavern window - since 0.95b
"tavernVideo" : "",
// Building icons for town hall
"buildingsIcons": "HALLCSTL.DEF",
// Background image for town hall window
"hallBackground": "",
// List of buildings available in each slot of town hall window
// As in most cases there is no hard limit on number of columns, rows
// or items in any of them, but size of gui is limited to 5 rows and 4 columns
"hallSlots":
[
[ [ "buildingID1" ], [ "buildingID2", "buildingID3" ] ],
...
],
// List of creatures available on each tier. Number of creatures on each tier
// is not hardcoded but it should match with number of dwelling for each level.
// For example structure below would need buildings with these id's:
// first tier: 30 and 37, second tier: 31, third tier: 32, 39, 46
"creatures" :
[
["centaur", "captainCentaur"],
["dwarf"],
["elf", "grandElf", "sharpshooter"],
...
],
// Buildings, objects in town that affect mechanics. See detailed description below
"buildings" :
{
"building1" : { ... },
...
"building9" : { ... }
},
// Description of siege screen, see below
"siege" : { ... },
// Chance for a hero class to appear in this town, creates pair with same field in class format
// Used for situations where chance was not set in "tavern" field, chance will be determined as:
// square root( town tavern chance * hero class tavern chance )
"defaultTavern" : 5,
// Chance of specific hero class to appear in this town
// Mirrored version of field "tavern" from hero class format
"tavern" :
{
"knight" : 5,
"druid" : 6
},
// Chance of specific spell to appear in mages guild of this town
// If spell is missing or set to 0 it will not appear unless set as "always present" in editor
// Spells from unavailable levels are not required to be in this list
// TODO: Mirrored version of field "guildSpells" from spell format
"guildSpells" :
{
"magicArrow" : 30,
"bless" : 10
},
// TODO: Entries below should be replaced with autodetection
// Which tiers in this town have creature hordes. Set to -1 to disable horde(s)
"horde" : [ 2, -1 ],
// Resource given by starting bonus, if not set silo will produce wood + ore
"primaryResource" : "gems",
// maximum level of mage guild
"mageGuild" : 4,
// war machine produced in town
"warMachine" : "ballista"
}
Siege node
// Describes town siege screen
// Comments in the end of each graphic position indicate specify required suffix for image
// Note: one not included image is battlefield background with suffix "BACK"
{
// shooter creature name
"shooter" : "archer",
// (VCMI 1.1 or later) Large icon of towers, for use in battle queue
"towerIconLarge" : "",
// (VCMI 1.1 or later) Small icon of towers, for use in battle queue
"towerIconSmall" : "",
// prefix for all siege images. Final name will be composed as <prefix><suffix>
"imagePrefix" : "SGCS",
// Descriptions for towers. Each tower consist from 3 parts:
// tower itself - two images with untouched and destroyed towers
// battlement or creature cover - section displayed on top of creature
// creature using type from "shooter" field above
"towers":
{
// Top tower description
"top" :
{
"tower" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "TW21" ... "TW22"
"battlement" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "TW2C"
"creature" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}
},
// Central keep description
"keep" :
{
"tower" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "MAN1" ... "MAN2"
"battlement" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "MANC"
"creature" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}
},
// Bottom tower description
"bottom" :
{
"tower" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "TW11" ... "TW12"
"battlement" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "TW1C"
"creature" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}
},
},
//Two parts of gate: gate itself and arch above it
"gate" :
{
"gate" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "DRW1" ... "DRW3" and "DRWC" (rope)
"arch" : { "x": 0, "y": 0} // "ARCH"
},
// Destructible walls. In this example they are ordered from top to bottom
// Each of them consist from 3 files: undestroyed, damaged, destroyed
"walls" :
{
"upper" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "WA61" ... "WA63"
"upperMid" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "WA41" ... "WA43"
"bottomMid" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "WA31" ... "WA33"
"bottom" : { "x": 0, "y": 0} // "WA11" ... "WA13"
},
// Two pieces for moat: moat itself and shore
"moat" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // moat: "MOAT", shore: "MLIP"
// Static non-destructible walls. All of them have only one piece
"static" :
{
// Section between two bottom destructible walls
"bottom" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "WA2"
// Section between two top destructible walls
"top" : { "x": 0, "y": 0}, // "WA5"
// Topmost wall located behind hero
"background" : { "x": 0, "y": 0} // "TPWL"
}
}
Building node
{
"id" : 0,
"name" : "",
"description" : "",
"upgrades" : "baseBuilding", // optional, which building can be upgraded by this one
"requires" : [ "allOf", [ "mageGuild1" ], [ "tavern" ] ], // building requirements, H3-style. See below for full format.
"cost" : { ... }, //resources needed to buy building
"produce" : { ... }, //resources produced each day by building - since 0.95b
//determine how this building can be built. Possible values are:
// normal - default value. Fulfill requirements, use resources, spend one day
// auto - building appears when all requirements are built
// special - building can not be built manually
// grail - building reqires grail to be built
"mode" : "auto"
}
Building requirements can be described using logical expressions:
"requires" :
[
"allOf", // Normal H3 "build all" mode
[ "mageGuild1" ],
[
"noneOf", // available only when none of these building are built
[ "dwelling5A" ],
[ "dwelling5AUpgrade" ]
],
[
"anyOf", // any non-zero number of these buildings must be built
[ "tavern" ],
[ "blacksmith" ]
]
]
Structure node
{
"animation" : "", // def file with animation
"x" : 0,
"y" : 0,
"z" : 0, // used for blit order. Higher value places structure close to screen
"border" : "", // selection highlight
"area" : "" // used to detect building selection
}
Main articles | |||
---|---|---|---|
Modding changelog | Modding guidelines | How to create a town mod | Mod Handler |
Formats | ||
---|---|---|
Mod file Format | ||
Town Format | Creature Format | Hero Classes Format |
Artifact Format | Animation Format | Hero Format |
Bonus Format | Object Format | Spell Format |
Work-in-progress formats | ||
---|---|---|
Building bonuses | Map format | |
Bonus Type Format | Random map template |
Outdated pages | ||
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Mod system proposal |