Idea: adding units to other factions

[Massive_attack]

I was just wondering that now that we have the db file editor and everything, and since ETW uses such a simple system, I wanted to ask if anybody knew, or had any ideas, about adding a unit to another faction for the campaign.

The reason i want this is to make certain factions more interesting. Granted this will mean more nations will have similar units, but at least this way we (the players) would have a bit more variety in creating armies

EX: adding guards to Prussia, IE: they are able to be made from prussian buildings.

Or is that impossible ?

Thanks in advance !

[smbh]

You mean like if you say take over a Prussian town you'll be able to produce Prussian-specific units? If so, I do like the idea, even though it kinda breaks both the replayability and logic. Hope it's doable.

[Van Diemen]

Well to only thing that was really nice about Imperial Glory was the fact that you could recruit local units and that those units would still fight in their own colours and under their own flag, even though their country was annexed or under influence (e.g. protector) of another Empire. It would be nice if this could be simulated by raised more local inspired troops.

[Massive_attack]

Well i mean, doesnt ETW use a system where a units teamcolour is just thrown on a unit ? If so one could simply allow another faction to use the unit, theoretically, anyway. Nothing major, i just want to know if its possible.

[fingon]

You mean like if you say take over a Prussian town you'll be able to produce Prussian-specific units? If so, I do like the idea, even though it kinda breaks both the replayability and logic. Hope it's doable.

NO! Read carefully his post..

[Dud doodoo]

Yeah, he is speaking of just adding units to factions, not areas. Right now we can edit units, correct? Is anyone up for finding out where and how you make a new one?

[Massive_attack]

Well not adding units, someone should make a seperate thread for that.

I mean add units to, say, Prussia's unit pool. Upon examination there are many country specific units with "global" recruitment values, so its not an AOR thing. There must be a "Export Descr Building" equivalent here, or something, that manages what factions get what. Personally I'd like to see puckle guns for all the major factions, guard units for those who dont have them (ex: prussia) all the fancy colonial units that only some factions get (i think hessian line infantry is an example for this, doesnt only GB get them ?).

After we figure out the basics, perhaps then we could make faction specific units AOR's, so if you took over steppe regions in russia as poland-lithuania you could use cossacks and tatars. That would be cool.

Anyone else interested in digging in the code ? ive had a look at some db files, but nothing really has come up... yet.

[Jams79]

building_units_allowed sets which units can be built by which building, units_to_exclusive_faction_permissions sets which units a faction can build.

[Massive_attack]

Ohhh snap, im going to need to try this out, thank you !!!

[Massive_attack]

Tried to do it, but i just cant without something better than a hex editor to work with it. Can someone better than me add Prussia to the list following "guards" unfortunately i could find where it was, the text was so weird.

[smbh]

Would it be possible to just add the description to DBFileTypes.txt for PackFileManager to read units_to_exclusive_faction_permissions?

[centcom]

I like the idea too. But we have to wait till someone is kind enough to implement a tool for us poor mod challenged blokes. Good to let people know it's wanted though

[smbh]

I was able to hex edit existing values in units_to_exclusive_faction_permissions with varying success. As I currently play a Russian campaign I edited Uhlans and Great Cannon & Organ Guns for Russians, it was quite easy to do, I just changed the country including the numbers preceding it - 00 06 00 for Russia, it seemed constant throughout the file, so I thought it might be a country flag, though both Britain and Prussia seem to share a number ( 00 07 00 ). Anyway, I got the Uhlans, both in Campaign and Custom Battle for Russians but no Great nor Organ Guns even though I control Anatolia, though maybe my tech tree is no there yet, no idea. What I was not able to do yet however is to add a new entry, will have to fiddle some more, the game crashes on start whenever I try to append something. Maybe there's a unit counter I need to update or edit the trailing part in some way, not sure.

[Massive_attack]

smbh, how did you add a new entry without replacing an existing one ? my hex editor only lets me edit existing values, and i dont want to make it so a country that should have a unit doesnt. Can you link me your hex editor ?

PS: i use XVI32 -> if you use this, can you tell me how to add new entries ?

Thanks!

[izanagi11]

Unfortunately XVI32 isnt a good hex editor for copy and paste. I personally switched to HxD for that. Here is my quick run down on adding an unit from a few days ago.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...52#post4672452

Good luck!

[smbh]

Massive_attack : I'm using Hex Workshop, not sure how I'd go about describing the procedure since it's kinda of an easy copy & paste job - if you'll use it, be mindful though of copying between the hexadecimal and the ASCII windows, you'll end up with wrong values.

Ok, I managed to successfully add a new entry, as I suspected all I had to do was to update the counter at offset 0x01 (default hex 59), increment it by one whenever adding a new entry. I am yet to decode all the values but so far have a good understanding of what they do.

I still don't have the ottoman guns I so desire in custom battles nor do they show up in my campaign but I've added a few random units and it seems to work just fine, as long as I update the counter at the mentioned offset.

Massive_attack - if you have problems, send me a link to a virgin or your copy of units_to_exclusive_faction_permissions and the edits you want me to make and I'll check out what I can do.

[just]

The 2 byte number in front of strings indicates the length of the string that follows, e.g. 07 00 for Prussia.

[Megasalexandros]

And another question
I want to add COLDSTREAM guards that Britain has to Prussia.
I want to change the textures from the red english colour to Prussian colour uniforms and put the to Prussia for grand campaign
How can i do that?

[Stanz]

Would it be possible to just add the description to DBFileTypes.txt for PackFileManager to read units_to_exclusive_faction_permissions?

unit_stats_land    Unit IDRef,String;
Unit Size,UInt32;
Number of Horses,UInt32;
Number of Artillery,UInt32;
...

units_to_exclusive_faction_permissions    Name,String;
Nation ID,String;
unknown,Boolean

It looks like it has been added.

[smbh]

Excellent , I wonder if PackFileManager will include the ability to update the counter as well, making adding new entries a breeze.