Bodyguard Switcher (change bodyguards in-game) v2.2 [3.2 compatible]

[Withwnar]

I didn't realise that; thanks for mentioning it.

This method seems to get around that rule, at least initially. When I give Aragorn the Battle Ready Dunedain he has 121 bodyguards. After a fight where he loses some men it will only go up as high as 77 (the 75+2 I guess).

[KnightsTemplar]

I didn't realise that; thanks for mentioning it.

This method seems to get around that rule, at least initially. When I give Aragorn the Battle Ready Dunedain he has 121 bodyguards. After a fight where he loses some men it will only go up as high as 77 (the 75+2 I guess).

Yes, the spwaning unit can go over the bodyguard rule.
However the replenish only goes back to 75+2.
So maybe adjusting the unit number of Sindar and boost them a bit up(Sindars are quite rare in TA?)
So to make Sentinels something other than aesthetic.

Apply this to other bodyguards to make the difference of out of them for more fun and gameplay

[Withwnar]

I'm not going to take this submod down the road of changing unit stats, nor adding new units. That is a slippery slope into a world of compatibility pain.

[Pyres Δt Varanasi]

.That is up to Hero. It would be easy enough to add it to MOS, another compilation, or TATW in any form.

I Hope Hero Takes the Idea it would be a fine addition to MOS

[Withwnar]

v1.0 should not be far off now. A few new pics have been added to the OP, just some photo opportunities encountered along the way. ... okay, I admit that I just wanted to see Legolas on a horse.

I have been building a tool to generate the script. And a good thing too: I gave it a run with all settlements "on" and a typical selection of bodyguards for all playable factions ... 38,000 lines of script. No one in their right mind would do that by hand.

It will work on any other mod too. So long as it's Kingdoms.

Rules will need to wait. For now it will be a case of all the faction's bodyguard choices being available to all starting characters in any of the chosen settlements. Things like "Swan Knights only for Imrahil" will come later.

All Settlements?
I wasn't going to do it this way due to the huge amount of manual work. But now that it can be done, should it?

And if not, then how to know/identify the ones that provide it? In the game I mean. I was thinking of a new building that does nothing else but act as a marker, visible to the player in the city's Buildings panel. Auto-built by script at the start of the campaign in every relevant city; not destructible. It could be made to stay at the end of the building cards; keeping it out of the way. Or is this just a waste of a building tree?

Any wise counsel?

[Ngugi]

If in all settlements the hero will be able to switch BG everywhere ...then? (and in case I misunderstand the issue and are ignoprant to previous debate I know you wont smack me round to much With' ^^)

Personally I would be a bore and suggest that only certain big-enough/important-enough-cities should be able to generate new BGs. Why? Because BGs are always high tier units. To see say Legolas switch in closest 400 inhabitant village and directly pick up a waiting bunch of archer cavalry BG, when in a such settlement an Arc. Cav. unit could never been recruited - if so Manwë himself came down begging for a recrutment-favour - its a tad strained to me.
Speculating here but something more proper IMO is in line with 1) certain settlements to spawnchange are chosen due to importance to the players faction (as W & E. Osgiliath for Gondor or Fornost and Amun Sûl to Eriador) as well as/combined with either
2) all growned up [to decided size] city/fortress-settlements (if possible to scipt it) or
3) from the beginning big/important enough lore-places, such as Moria, Dol Guldur or from the beginning big/important enough gameplay strategicly fitting -places.

[Withwnar]

Thanks Ngugi, some good points there. +rep

And yes: it means that he can switch in any settlement.

It does indeed introduce some "where did they come from?" moments, game-wise. The 'reality' logic is flawed no matter which approach is taken. Some of it has been mentioned before but...

BGs are always high tier units... Legolas switch in closest 400 inhabitant village and directly pick up a waiting bunch of archer cavalry BG, when in a such settlement an Arc. Cav. unit could never been recruited...

And where did his previous bodyguard go? Or is it the 'same' bodyguard but they jumped on some horses? And changed armour... and size... and stats... and experience...

If it is the 'same' bodyguard then having it restricted to some settlements means that the general might need to travel five regions just to let the men off their horses.

Personally I don't have a problem with the switching itself - you are replacing one hight tier unit with another, essentially - just the immersion breaking. And it's a no win argument... immersion is broken either way depending on how you look at it. Either "where did they come from?" or "why can't I just dismount here?"

[Ngugi]

The preivious BG can (in the imagination) always march home or something (yeay, retirement!) or as they switch way of fighting and lost experienced men/gained green ones their XP changed - but I get the dilemma. It is better then to go by a settlement-level-rule and a fortresses-all-green?

By this I mean that all levels of fortress/castle/citadell/'ever could be able to switch the BG as it is quite reasonable that they contain stables and armor stores or to be natural gather points for a kingdoms soldiers. But at the same time a city perhaps should have to reach a certain level before its likely that gear could be switched or new men could be found (no suggestion on what level yet though, could be matter of discussion).
This way least after a while most settlements can switch the BG (and such a little effort from the players side to go to closes fortress/etc or decent-sized-town they must be able to handle?) while the logical hole is filled a bit

[Captain Zoran]

Gonna give the Beta a try, and report back on how it works, bugs or anything like that.

[Withwnar]

Good man, thanks. One settlement, one faction and three characters ... not much to test yet but any feedback is welcome.

[Khales]

Some suggestions:

Dale: Horseguards? Just because they have a better chargestat than the Earls

Isengard: Uruk-Hai Archers, Berserkers just for Uruk-Hai-generals?

Dwarves: Khazad-Dûm Guards in Khazad-Dûm and Erid Dragonslayers in Dáin´s Halls?

Harad: Mumakils? Not sure if possible

[Captain Zoran]

Ok, I belive Ive followed all instructions accordingly. However, when I put the character who's bodyguard I want to change in Bree (He's the only general there), it doesn't work:

1. I put Halbarad in Bree together with the garrison. He is the only general on the spot and govenor. I start the script by clicking the help button on an Bree Militia unit description. The script starts up by the two introduction messages. I click accept on all.
2. Then, I select Halbarad in Bree.
3. A message comes up saying "no valid target was found", and it closed down.
4. I try the same thing with Aragorn, same thing.

Where/Which lines or something have I missed?

[Withwnar]

@Khales
Thanks for that.

@Zoran
Did you click on Bree itself? After clicking Accept in the second scroll you then need to click on the settlement, even if it's already selected.

EDIT: can Mumakil be bodyguard? Apparently so...

[Captain Zoran]

Great. Now I feel like an idiot.

Thanks, it seems to be working perfectly now

[Emperor of Hell]

Wouldn´t Mumakil be kinda OP?

[Captain Zoran]

Aye,maybe just have it for one starting general, "the Beastmaster" or something?

[Khales]

Aye,maybe just have it for one starting general, "the Beastmaster" or something?

Yes, just one would do it It´s only about about a few generals who can switch their bg-unit in this mod. So i didn´t think of giving Mumakil to several generals. But who could get one? That´s a question for a lore master.

[Withwnar]

It´s only about about a few generals who can switch their bg-unit in this mod.

True, but more than originally planned. All starting generals are possible. Plus a few who have yet to come of age (e.g. Eomer), though I'm still experimenting with this.

[Withwnar]

Plus a few who have yet to come of age (e.g. Eomer), though I'm still experimenting with this.

...... It doesn't work if a character with the same name exists by the time he comes of age. I feared as much. Expletive.

The same potential break also applies to spawned characters, namely the other six Nazgul.

[Withwnar]

It doesn't work if a character with the same name exists by the time he comes of age.

I have added a function to deal with this: Kill Character.

e.g. If you train a diplomat who gets the name "Eomer" before the 'real' Eomer comes of age then bodyguard switching wouldn't work on him. This new function will let you kill diplomat-Eomer, after which the real Eomer will get his switching ability.

It will let you kill any character type, but only ones with names that the script knows about: bodyguard-switching general names. It can't be used to kill just any old character in your faction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, characters don't need to be starting ones. Ones that are spawned by script - at any point in the campaign - can be given the switching ability. (So long as they are spawned with a name, as opposed to "random_name".)

Which means that all Nazgul can do it, for example (six of them are spawned). And Gondor's Aragorn. And if some kind of 'immortal hero' submod is being used then they'll re-get the ability when they respawn.

The script generator finds all "named character" generals: starting, yet-to-come-of-age and spawned. In vanilla TATW 2.1 this is the resulting list...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Dale
	Bain
	Bard
	Biarn
	Hawin
	Vidusith
Dwarves
	Balin
	Dain
	Gimli
	Gloin
	Thorin
Free Peoples of Eriador
	Araglas
	Aragorn
	Arahad
	Araphor
	Arvedui
	Beleg
	Eldarion
	Gandalf
	Halbarad
	Hirvegil
	Mallor
Gondor
	Aragorn
	Arveldir
	Boromir
	Cammiron
	Denethor
	Derufin
	Durven
	Faramir
	Forlong
	Halthor
	Imrahil
	Istdor
	Milion
	Nirthor
	Pelilas
	Pilimor
Harad
	Ghasaan
	Haarith
	Hannad
	Jibran
	Jubayr
	Khuzaymah
	Musab
	Qusay
	Ubaadah
	Umar
	Utbah
	Yaman
High Elves
	Arthonnen
	Elladan
	Elrohir
	Elrond
	Glorfindel
Isengard
	Saruman
	Ufthak
	Ugluk
	Yagthak
Mordor
	Adûnaphel the Quiet
	Akhôrahil the Blind Sorcerer
	Dwar of Waw
	Grishnakh
	Hoarmûrath of Dír
	Jí Indûr Dawndeath
	Khamûl the Easterling
	Laglug
	Mauthak
	Muzlun
	Muznag
	Ren the Unclean
	Ufluk
	Witch-King
	Zagmuz
	Ûvatha the Horseman
Orcs of Gundabad
	Gorduf
	Lagbug
	Lughorn
	Lunul
Orcs of the Misty Mountains
	Balrog of Moria
	Burz
	Lunug
	Muzhur
	Radzag
	Uglag
	Ugrad
	Yagaz
Rhûn
	Bori
	Borthand
	Edgu
	Kustig
	Margoz
	Sacal
	Uldor
	Ulfang
	Ulfast
	Ulwarth
Rohan
	Alric
	Egbert
	Eomer
	Eomund
	Erkenbrand
	Gamling
	Leofara
	Thengel
	Theoden
	Theodred
Silvan Elves
	Celeborn
	Haldir
	Legolas
	Thranduil

...so by default these would all have the ability.