Victory Conditions Overhaul 2 - Framework

Victory Conditions Overhaul 2 framework mod for Total War: Warhammer II.

Introduction

Mod for Total War: Warhammer 2 that adds a framework to easily add custom victory conditions to the game. Modding victory conditions is notably difficult and time consuming because it requires to create a startpos.esf file each time. This is a problem for the developer, as it takes more than ten minutes to compile and it leaves no logs, but also for the user, as compatibility with other mods is broken. This framework solves all these problems.

Introduced features

Victory Conditions are now loaded dynamically
- The compilation times have been reduced to zero
- Creating startpos.esf is no longer required
- Compatibility patches are neither
- Easier and faster debug
Objectives are now loaded per faction, not in blocks
- Small bugs are not longer going to affect large sets of factions
- Easier debugging, as now only one faction is going to have bugs at a time
Native support for add-ons and submods
- Creating custom victory conditions is now encouraged
- New submods for new victory conditions type are now available: Economic, Military and Cultural Victories are back
- Now users can choose which victory conditions they want to have active
Enhanced compatibility with faction unlockers and major campaign modifications
Complete support for scripted objectives
- Now the victory objectives are not limited to the default options

How to use

As a user

Subscribe and enjoy.

As a developer

To create a submod you have to create a .pack file composed by two things: the framework loader and the victory conditions. First of all, you have to decide a name for your mod. This name does not have the be the same that the one you use in the .pack file or the Steam Workshop, but has to be consistent along the mod. In this guide, we are going to call it your-mod-name.

The framework loader

Once decided, you have to create a script named <your-mod-name>.lua and place it in the script/campaign/mod/ folder. The content of that script has to be the following one:

local vco = require("script/vco/lib/vco")

cm:add_first_tick_callback(function() vco:trigger_custom_missions("<your-mod-name>") end);

The factions folders

Then, you have to create the folder src/script/<your-mod-name>/factions and place there a folder for each faction you want to mod. Its name has to be the key of the faction, which can be checked in the table factions, available at Dave. For example, the folder name for The Golden Order has to be wh2_dlc13_emp_golden_order.

Inside of these folders, you have to create a new one called campagins and, inside of it, other ones for each campaign key. The available factions are the Vortex and the Mortal Empires and the keys are also available at Dave. Finally, inside of it, you have to create a missions.lua file where all the victory conditions are going to be placed.

All in all, to add new victory conditions to The Golder Order Mortal Empires campaign, you have to create these files:

script/campaign/mod/<your-mod-name>.lua
script/<your-mod-name>/factions/wh2_dlc13_emp_golden_order/campaigns/main_warhammer/missions.lua

The objectives script

Now, inside of each missions.lua, you have to export a list of missions, which is an array of strings in the default victory_objectives.txt format. Here goes one simple example:

local missions = {
    [[
 		mission
		{
			victory_type vco_victory_type_long;
			key wh_main_long_victory;
			issuer CLAN_ELDERS;
			primary_objectives_and_payload
			{
				objective
				{
					type OWN_N_UNITS;
					total 100;
				}

				payload
				{
					game_victory;
				}
			}
		}
    ]]
};

return missions;

As the missions interfaces are available in the official docs and in the Assembly Kit, under the path Steam\steamapps\common\Total War WARHAMMER II\assembly_kit\raw_data\EmpireDesignData\campaigns\main_warhammer\victory_objectives.txt, the most interesting thing to discuss here are the victory_type possibilities. The possible values are vco_victory_type_short, vco_victory_type_long, vco_victory_type_ultimate, vco_victory_type_economic, vco_victory_type_military and vco_victory_type_cultural. It is important to understand that only one type of each can be available at the same time per faction, so, if you own multiple submods that add, for example, a Long Victory condition, one is going to override the other.

Frequently Asked Questions

The FAQ can be found here.

Contributing

Feel free to add issues or to create pull requests. Help is always welcome.

Versioning

SemVer is used for versioning. For the changelog, see CHANGELOG.md.

Authors

Marc Solé Fonte - Initial work - msolefonte

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Vandy for its support during the development.
Special thanks to all the users that have supported the development economically.
Thanks to all the modders of the Da Modding Den Discord for they knowledge and they experience.

msolefonte/tww2-vco2-framework