Submods

A **submod** is the colloquial name given to any video game modification ("mod") which requires another, often larger mod in order to work or run properly.

Numerous submods have been made for Millennium Dawn: Modern Day Mod since its initial launch. While their exact number remains unknown, several of them have been compiled into Steam Workshop Collections made either by Ted52, creator and main developer of Millennium Dawn, or by other users.

As they are distinct mods made by other users, submods are not supported by the developers of Millennium Dawn. More information on the policy towards submods is available in the FAQ.

## How to use submods... intelligently

As long as you stick to Steam Workshop, using submods is easy: download your submods of choice through Workshop and enable them, **while making sure Millennium Dawn: Modern Day Mod is also enabled**. Since outdated or badly-coded submods are a frequent cause of gamebreaking issues, following these guidelines will improve your experience while playing with them:

* **Use submods, don't abuse them:** most submods might be outdated, or might have incompatibilities with other submods you might not have noticed. Install submods carefully and enable them one-by-one if gamebreaking issues happen. Stay away from large-yet-unupdated submods as their likelihood of crashing the game is too high.
* **Read the descriptions:** Most submods come with a description on what they do and what they might be incompatible with.
* **An issue with a submod? Tell it to the submodder:** Millennium Dawn developers cannot help you if you have issues running a submod, since those are still distinct mods over which they hold no authorship. Please contact the author of that submod and request their assistance if possible.

## Creating a submod for Millennium Dawn

A submod is still a mod for Hearts of Iron IV, and follows the same initial creation process as one. Due to the way how Hearts of Iron IV's mod launcher works, **the submod needs to have a name that is alphabetically before Millennium Dawn: Modern Day Mod** in order to work properly.

There is no need to request permission from the developers of Millennium Dawn in order to create and publish a submod. Using the Hearts of Iron IV wiki for documentation as well as following several modding tutorials is **strongly recommended**, however.

### Tips for making a decent submod that is both compatible and (almost) unbreakable by updates:

* **Always use debug mode:** It might be annoying, it might increase your loading time, but the more you use it, the less errors you will leave before publishing your submod or updating it.
* **Only use the files you need:** There is no point copying the entire Millennium Dawn directory just for a flag change. Only take the files you need to make sure your submod is compatible and update-proof.
* **Don't be afraid to create distinct files:** There is no point in using the whole ideas/generic.txt in order to add a single national spirit. You may add them in a distinct .txt file within the ideas folder. Distinct files work for defines, events, ideas, even history files.
* **Adding alternate leaders? Use events, not history files:** Ted52's Millennium Dawn: Robbie Rotten Submod is a good example of how to make an alternate leader submod that is universally compatible and update-proof.

### Getting your submod known:

* **Answer to a popular request:** The most popular submods are those which answer to frequent requests by certain parts of the Millennium Dawn community which the development team might not have been able to or has refused to work on for creative reasons. Submods adding a new focus tree for a major power, improved AI or more equipment are known to be noticeably successful.
* **Request to be added to Ted52's Millennium Dawn Submods Collection**: Collections are often the first means for new or regular Millennium Dawn players to find submods which might improve their gameplay. Despite not being an "official" or curated collection by any means, the aforementioned collection is the first one players can spot due to being featured in the mod's description, and will be the most noticed one. All it takes to get your submod added is to leave a comment to Ted52's profile, but you will have to do it yourself.

## External links

* Millennium Dawn Submods (Steam Workshop Collection by Ted52)
* Millenium Dawn Submod Collection (Steam Workshop Collection by UnnecessaryEnemy17)