Total War: Three Kingdoms mod support has arrived
Start tinkering now.
Modding tools are now available for Creative Assembly's warlord squabble, Total War: Three Kingdoms. The doors were flung open to mods yesterday, and already we've got around 250 of them to dig through in the Steam Workshop.
The tools should be familiar if you've done any modding in Rome 2 and beyond, which conveniently means that there are six years of resources, like tutorials, if you're just getting into modding Total War now.
Some changes have been introduced, though, and according to Creative Assembly they should make modding easier. It's more data driven, apparently, so the returning systems have been more fleshed out. Creative Assembly has also included resources to let modders make 2D character artwork.
Battle maps, character portraits, models and animation, Lua scripts, character traits and more can be modded, though there are some restrictions. Campaign battle maps and campaign map hexes can't be modded, nor can audio files, game code or battle assets, including prefabs and VFX.
The most popular mod at the time of writing gives units a bit more variety. Hooveric Reskin is a work in progress, currently reskinning flags, militia and low tier units with new colours and texture changes. You'll also find mods that stop characters from dying from old age—I wish I had that before Cao Cao keeled over just before he could declare himself Emperor—or being executed by the AI.
Take a look at the most popular mods here.
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Fraser is the UK online editor and has actually met The Internet in person. With over a decade of experience, he's been around the block a few times, serving as a freelancer, news editor and prolific reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year-long obsession, from tiny RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down the chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He's also been known to set up shop in the latest MMO and likes to wind down with an endlessly deep, systemic RPG. These days, when he's not editing, he can usually be found writing features that are 1,000 words too long or talking about his dog.