Changing a factions starting technologies

**ablitzkrieg** · March 27, 2009, 05:27 AM

Hello, after searching through 20 pages of threads and looking through the pack files myself for acouple hours ive decided to make a thread asking whether someone out there has found out how/where to edit what technologies a faction starts out with.

Before you answer please know that i've read almost the threads in here, i know i can just set research points to 0. I know i can just CREATE a new technology. I dont want to do that, im interested solely in changing INDIVIDUAL factions start techs. Furthermore, to possibly figure out how to change a CULTURES start techs and make certain techs "culture only"

If this has already been discovered, please share. If not, then this will be a very valuable find for future projects.

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My immediate goal: Enable American Indians to have the Light Infantry doctrine/Light infantry behavior tech right off the bat. Considering we learned proper skirmish warfare from the indians, i think its abit daft that they have no way of utilizing the technology in game. All they have are units that can hide while walking and run away when you get close to them. They should be able to use the behavior too.

Also, I dont want all the european powers to get the same technology right off the bat! Europeans should still be fighting the same way and have to discover this tech. I dont want this change to affect anybody but the American Indians. This was THEIR style of warfare that we later adapted

So i went to thinking about just CREATING a technology that requires a building only the natives have.. But then i remembered, they still dont have colleges to research my new native only technologies! (and they really shouldn't have colleges).

Since none of the natives start with colleges, there is no way for them to research technologies unless they take a province with one already in it.. So even if you do set the research points to 0 for the tech, you still have to conquer a province with a school in it just to start researching. So im also thinking about a special native building you can build to replace western schools. However, this would require an entire mod and i would also have to edit the campaign map so that the indian factions each started with one of them in the beginning.. So, not a favorable route to go.

SO, back to square one... How to change a factions starting technologies?

**just** · March 27, 2009, 05:58 AM

Well, you need the Esf Editor

Open up the startpos.esf or savegame you want to edit.
CAMPAIGN_SAVE_GAME\CAMPAIGN_ENV\CAMPAIGN_MODEL\WORLD\FACTION_ARRAY\FACTION_ARRAY\FACTION\FACTION_TECHNOLOGY_MANAGER\techs\techs
When you're at faction you can see which country you're dealing with, in the techs you'll what technology you're dealing with.
First (UTF16) it says the internal name of the tech
Second (UInt) is 0 for already researched, 2 for can be researched or is being researched, 4 for can't yet be researched.
Third (Float) how many research points have already been spent on researching this.
Fourth (UInt) in what town this is currently being researched. 0 for not being researched.

**aronnov** · March 27, 2009, 07:21 AM

Originally Posted by just

Well, you need the Esf Editor

Open up the startpos.esf or savegame you want to edit.
CAMPAIGN_SAVE_GAME\CAMPAIGN_ENV\CAMPAIGN_MODEL\WORLD\FACTION_ARRAY\FACTION_ARRAY\FACTION\FACTION_TECHNOLOGY_MANAGER\techs\techs
When you're at faction you can see which country you're dealing with, in the techs you'll what technology you're dealing with.
First (UTF16) it says the internal name of the tech
Second (UInt) is 0 for already researched, 2 for can be researched or is being researched, 4 for can't yet be researched.
Third (Float) how many research points have already been spent on researching this.
Fourth (UInt) in what town this is currently being researched. 0 for not being researched.

You my friend have just been rep+ by me yet again.

*edit* n/m.... it say's i've rep+ you too much and must spread it around... I will +rep you then shortly.

**falcone79** · March 27, 2009, 09:54 AM

Even if research value is set to researchable, you will still need a school or Gentleman to research it, right? If I change the value for Native Americans to have starting research, they won't be able to research it without a gentlemen though.

**ablitzkrieg** · March 27, 2009, 02:27 PM

Yeah i have tried setting the technology (UInt) to 0 *researched*, loaded the game and it didnt show up on my tech screen. Loaded into a battle and light infantry behavior was not available.

Then tried UInt 0 , and set the Float to 342 which is the amount of research points it takes to learn the tech. Loaded the game, still didnt see it in my tech screen or battle.

Im wondering if maybe because you need an army board as a building prerequisite, natives simply cant even USE the technology because that building is not in their tech tree. Is this hardcoded? No way to work around it?

Playing AS the huron, i can see 0 military and 0 enlightenment techs when i open up my tech screen. Since all these techs have building prerequisites, im looking into whether certain buildings are set only to be available to certain cultures. If this is the case, then yes, im going to have to make a SEPARATE technology which is linked to a native building. Then i think i'll be able to give them the tech at the start date with no need of researching it.

**just** · March 27, 2009, 03:05 PM

I tested this on the dutch, giving them all the enlightenment techs, this worked right from the first turn, and I did see all of the techs marked with the "has been researched" pip.

**ablitzkrieg** · March 27, 2009, 03:15 PM

Try it with natives, im thinking that because they cant build the required buildings to meet the prerequisite for the tech, they cant have it at all.. The dutch can build all of the buildings even if they dont have them right away, so it would make sense that they could have the tech.

Im thinking the only way to make this work is to actually mod in a technology clone of light infantry doctrine, and link it to a tribal building.