Pre-requisite: you need to know how to install and play a mod already.
You can start modding any special tools by simply modifying existing mods with Notepad. But I strongly recommend to use an editor with built-in XML support.
Best use Visual Studio Code as it comes with a plugin for Anno Modding.
Open it, go to Extensions (Ctrl+Shift+X) and search for Anno Modding Tools to install the plugin.
The RDAExplorer is a tool to extract files from the game. You need this to understand what's in the game and reuse graphics.
If you have the space, I recommend to extract all .rdas into one folder beginning from 0 to the highest number.
Some .rdas have the same file again (e.g. assets.xml), the file from the highest numbered .rda is the only one the game will use.
If you want to do more than changing some values of existing mods, you need to research or refer to existing definitions called Assets of the game.
You can:
- use Schwubbe's online Asset Search or,
- use Anno 1800 Mod Tools Online for more advanced asset/template browsing or,
- extract
assets.xmlwith the RDAExplorer and use Visual Studio Code search (Ctrl+Shift+F)
- RDAExplorer (or use this .NET6 fork if you embed dlls in your project)
- RDM <> glTF Converter (commandline converter)
- Blender CFG Import/Export plugin
- annotex (commandline PNG > DDS converter with LOD generation)
- Gimp DDS plugin
- Mod Loader xmltest (tool to check the result after applying xml patches)
- FileDBReader (commandline file converter for various Anno formats)
- AnnoFCConverter (out of support, use FileDBReader instead; Still needed for the Blender CFG Import/Export plugin)
- Map Editor
- iModYourAnno (mod manager)
- Anno Building-menu Customizer (freely customize your building menu; includes vanilla and all mods)
- Anno goats (visualize contents of reward pools)