STARTPOS.ESF analysis and modifications. HYBRID startpos.esf

[husserlTW]

this is a huge noob issue.
when i try to get into the ESF for GB, i get an error that says "object reference not set to an instance of an object"
what exactly is this saying to me?

Sorry, I never had such a problem. Can you post exactly the steps you are doing?

[dkdodd52]

right, ive sorted out my problem. now. it seems changes i am making arent exactly...taking place. for instance i wanted to change the starting money for GB from 7500 to 8000, just to see if it worked. didnt quite work. i only went into faction array and changed the value. is there something else i need to do?

[husserlTW]

right, ive sorted out my problem. now. it seems changes i am making arent exactly...taking place. for instance i wanted to change the starting money for GB from 7500 to 8000, just to see if it worked. didnt quite work. i only went into faction array and changed the value. is there something else i need to do?

It seems you are doing the right change in faction's economics. I've done it many times and works. I suppose you are using latest EsfEditor (v.1.4.3.)?

[kungfuserge]

Hello
I am looking forward modding the Campaign model unit : You know the little unit walking on the map with the flag .....and I wish to know which part of the Statpos commands it ? I want to choose another unit
could you help ?

[husserlTW]

EDIT: MODIFICATIONS section is added with a bunch "How To" make changes in startpos.esf.

[husserlTW]

In my eyes modding is perfect using open source tools and programs and free utilities, but this OpenOffice sometimes is very disappointing. I don't understand why all these mess in font depth of colors and size are occurred in my texts. Any help is welcome...

[Fedakyn]

Hey so I have been changing region ownership for a 7 years war mod, and using these directions- but it does not seem to be working. I change all the Id's per the analysis but have several issues. the first is ownership confusion. Flanders is Austrian - but to Austria it appears to have a foreign army and flag. and armies that enter or exit become Spanish. then there is the fact that it crashes first turn irregardless.

anyway I would love to make the mod but now have no Idea how, and as this is the only set of instructions I have seen any help would be greatly appreciated

[husserlTW]

Hey so I have been changing region ownership for a 7 years war mod, and using these directions- but it does not seem to be working. I change all the Id's per the analysis but have several issues. the first is ownership confusion. Flanders is Austrian - but to Austria it appears to have a foreign army and flag. and armies that enter or exit become Spanish. then there is the fact that it crashes first turn irregardless.

anyway I would love to make the mod but now have no Idea how, and as this is the only set of instructions I have seen any help would be greatly appreciated

Though your informations are a bit confusing, if there is an army in the region's capitol, you have first to remove it before proceeding in changing region's ownership. To do that you have to change the place coordinations of the character and the army. Read the how to change character and army ownership tutorials, just to take needed informations. New coordinations could be those of another settlement of the army owner faction. After that you can proceed in changing region's ownership. If the city still recruits armies of the former owner faction then you've done something wrong.

[Fedakyn]

Thank you for the quick response! and I appreciate the help. + rep

[Lazy Knight]

[..] CAMPAIGN_ENV/CAMPAIGN_MODEL/WORLD/FACTION_ARRAY/FACTION_ARRAY/FACTION/FACTION_TECHNOLOGY_MANAGER/techs/techs, 2nd entry 0, 3rd 37.

This is wrong.

The Value is not "37". The value is the cost of the technology in research points, which you can find in the patch.pack's "technologies_tables" It is 37 for Plug Bayonett and Plug Bayonett only.

Follow minor faction playable (LEVEL 1) instructions.

Get in FACTION_ARRAY/FACTION_ARRAY/FACTION/DIPLOMACY_MANAGER and find
the RELATIONSHIP record with the patron faction using the FACTION ID (1st entry). Change the the relation from patron to neutral (4th entry) by copying/pasting the entries of another near by neutral status record. For further changes check previous topic (diplomacy manager).

Do the same in Diplomacy Manager of the patron FACTION where you'll make the changes in the protectorate RELATIONSHIP record, changing protectorate to neutral. In this way x-protectorate can make normal in game diplomacy relations.

This is not complete. It only applies to the european protectorates, i.e. Saxony, Courland, Crimean Khanate, Barbary States. To play with Louisiana, Thirteen Colonies or New Spain you will also need to remove the script that enables the handover missions. This is found at the very top of the scripting.lua and removing the block fixes the crash that will else occur after a while (when the handover would take place)

[husserlTW]

Thanks Lazy Knight, both observations are correct.

[Lazy Knight]

What i would love to see is the point:

"How to create a new campaign startpos from a savegame"

I know you can do it and it would be great if you could share that knowledge.

[husserlTW]

What i would love to see is the point:

"How to create a new campaign startpos from a savegame"

I know you can do it and it would be great if you could share that knowledge.

You are right and be sure I am going to do it very soon. That is the main reason I released the STARTPOS MODS for thorough testing by the players.

[alpaca]

I've been digging through the AI entries a bit and I think "Houston, we have a problem". The CAI_World entries seem to contain a list of all things in the world the AI may be aware of. They kind of provide an interface between the AI and the world as was to be expected.

These are then used in a so-called Belief-Desire-Intention model (BDI for short) to apply to each AI faction manager. A belief is, in short, something the AI thinks it knows is there - which must not always be true but in ETW I think it is, so the beliefs are a list of things the AI owns, knows or sees (for example a building the AI has).

A desire is a state the AI would like to be in, such as "own this region" or "have this building". A possible subset of desires are goals, the difference being commitment of resources. Goals may be able to be turned into intentions and should be non-conflicting while desires may conflict (for example "have a religious building in town x" and "have a metal industry building in town x" may be conflicting desires but once one is turned into a goal the other cannot also be pursued).

An intention is a kind of plan, something the AI wants to do if it has the required resources. For example "upgrade building a" may be an intention.

Now why is this a problem for us? Firstly, all slots we add will surely have to be added to the beliefs array of the owning faction. It also looks like the AI has intentions to upgrade all it's buildings at the start and these intentions include building cost. Similar things can be said about army recruitment. Now I'm not sure how flexible these things are handled (probably fairly flexible) but the AI having a wrong idea about the cost of its intentions may royally screw it up in some cases (hence, bankrupt AI). This is something that needs to be more thoroughly investigated if we really want to figure out how to add buildings and the like.

[husserlTW]

This is something that needs to be more thoroughly investigated if we really want to figure out how to add buildings and the like.

After the CAI_HISTORY records my research is almost stopped discouraged by the many deferent numbers (the small and the large over 7000) that the engine uses in cai area and the enormous amount of the subrecords. But it was very stupid of me that I haven't take the advantage of the much smaller startpos.esf of the episodes which still have plenty but much more fewer records than the main startpos. So... back to business !

[peng_li]

keep up the good work husserl ...
added rep. ... ^^

Go China Mod team..~

[stageNinja]

You are a amazing! +rep

[husserlTW]

EDIT: HYBRID startpos.esf modding method has been added in modifications section.

[Lazy Knight]

Thank you very much

I feel that with Alpacas tutorial from yesterday, and now this, modding has done quite a step.



The best thing about this is: When you have added AOR regions, or updated the starting units of all factions to match your mod, this method allows you to keep them. It is propably easier than editing all of that into the late campaign again.

[Lazy Knight]

I just had another Idea...

If savegames can be made into working campaign starting points, we have all we need for a multiplayer/hotseat campaign.

Everything that needs to be done is automated -save, switch the playing faction, load-. If the ui could be taught to do this, we have a hotseat campaign.
If one can even find out a way to do this without the need to upload 10megs(zipped) every time, we'd have modded together a multiplayer campaign.