Modding Questions and Help Thread

**Jmonstra** · May 13, 2014, 03:47 PM

Just one more: Where are unit descriptions located?

**tombombadil** · May 13, 2014, 03:53 PM

Originally Posted by Jmonstra

Just one more: Where are unit descriptions located?

mods\Third_Age_3\data\text\export_units

**Jmonstra** · May 13, 2014, 03:56 PM

You rock! Thanks!

**mcmuffin3531** · May 13, 2014, 05:38 PM

I managed to get all the way to custom battles but when I start them up I get a crash

here is the log

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

And here is what I edited

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I pretty much changed morannon_guard to orc_band

Edit:could it be that I need the dismounted numenorian texture?

**tombombadil** · May 13, 2014, 05:51 PM

Originally Posted by mcmuffin3531

Edit:could it be that I need the dismounted numenorian texture?

Yes, that would cause a crash. A crash on battle start is normally a missing texture. Did you add the model orc_band_upg as well as orc_band? You need both (or you could just delete orc_band_upg from EDU.
Check that you have all the textures mentioned in the battle_models entry in the correct folders, black numenorians might not be the only one.

EDIT: Have you replaced your log lines with this in your cfg? WIll give more useful feedback than you are getting now.
[log]
to = logs/system.log.txt
level = * trace

If you have got as far as custom battles your battle_models file should be fine now actually so it will just be texture/mesh issue.

EDIT2: quick fix to see if it is a numenorian problem is to delete the officer lines. They are not necessary to play game. You may also be missing the mordor_captain_early_flag files and this would fix that too.

**mcmuffin3531** · May 13, 2014, 07:01 PM

deleting the officer lines made it work

**tombombadil** · May 13, 2014, 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by mcmuffin3531

deleting the officer lines made it work

Great! If you want to be able to add the officers back in just open battle_models and make sure that all the textures and meshes are in the correct locations (just copy over from TATW) keeping folder names. Then add officers back in one at a time, testing each time. That way you know which one you missed something on.
You will get the hang of adding units quickly don't worry, but don't expect to get every unit right right first time, l always forget something. I seriously recommend learning how to read the system log and using reference I linked somewhere above.

**Withwnar** · May 14, 2014, 12:43 AM

Originally Posted by tombombadil

is it possible to give a general a hero ability mid-campaign, through script, ancillary, trait, stats, anything?

Yes, by script. Send him off map and bring him back again. Bringing back is done via a spawn_army command and in its character line you can specify hero_ability; if he already had one then it will change to this new one.

Script needs to know his name and, ideally, his label (to ensure it is him sent off map and not somebody with the same name). If it is for a starting or spawned character then no problem - they can be given labels.

The other problem is where to bring back to. Probably the same place that they were sent off map from but script won't know where that was; there's no automatic way to do that. The easy solution is to always send them back to the same one spot. The harder solution is to track where they were when sent off map - e.g. in which settlement - and use those coordinates in the respawn.

Note: despite using spawn_army, bringing someone back off map this way is not actually respawning them. They keep their age, traits, ancs, portrait, etc. For their bodyguard they'll get whatever unit you use in the spawn_army so you can also use this technique to switch a character's bodyguard - that is precisely how Bodyguard Switcher works.

**tombombadil** · May 14, 2014, 05:19 AM

Thanks withwnar. Shame about limitations but i'll have a look at Bodyguard switcher and give it a go. Sounds well beyond anything I've tried before though.

**Jmonstra** · May 18, 2014, 02:57 AM

Originally Posted by Kiliç Alì

Just comment their recruitment lines in EDB

I'm not really 100% on which lines I comment.

**Kiliç Alì** · May 18, 2014, 06:20 AM

if you know the unit name (likely anything with the word "catapult" in) you open EDB, find all the lines in this form:

recruit_pool "Elves Catapult" 1 0.10 2 0 requires factions { mongols, } and region_religion orthodox 33 and hidden_resource forest

and put a ";" at beginning, so the line is ignored by the exe. the unit is henceforth not recruitable but still spawn-able and playeble in custom battles.

**Jmonstra** · May 18, 2014, 10:04 AM

Thank you

**LordPringleChip** · May 19, 2014, 06:05 AM

Hi, I would like to know how I could reduce the "turns to next available unit" time. I cant seem to get an answer to this, if anyone could help me out I would very grateful.

**Greymane** · May 19, 2014, 06:59 AM

Originally Posted by LordPringleChip

Hi, I would like to know how I could reduce the "turns to next available unit" time. I cant seem to get an answer to this, if anyone could help me out I would very grateful.

Hello Chip, welcome to the forum

What you want, is an incredibly long and tedious process. It basically involves changing thousands of variables and hoping you don't make a mistake somwhere.
If you just want to change a few units, or have a day to spare, here is how you do it:
- Open the export_descr_buildings file in your data folder.
- Search for buildings that recruit units.
- Find the unit lines under the buildings. To clarify, they look like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

This is the first stable building and all the units you can recruit for every faction in the first level of stables. Keep in mind that I play MOS with some additions, so my file looks different from yours. Yours should be about half this. Also keep in mind that the layout is messed up and that the three lines for every unit represent different types of terrain you will have to deal with (look for them in the settlement info).
Let's take Rohan Scouts as an example:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

The numbers I bolded and underlined are the ones you will want to change in order to change unit replenishment rates.
It works like this: every turn (in case of the first Rohan Scouts) 0.15 will be added to the replenishment. The moment that the total reaches 1, is when 1 unit will become available. So the lower the number, the more time it will take for the unit to replenish. To clarify further, if you want to recruit Rohan Scouts on grassland, you will have to wait 7 turns before you can recruit them again.
In forests, the wait will be 10 turns. And so on.

So, that is how you do it. This is just the first level of stables. You will need to modify ever other building in the same way, find a new game balance, deal with higher levels recruitement buildings, etc. So my advice would be not to bother, for the reasons that it is a load of work and that you will completely destroy the balance of the game that KK and team worked so hard on.
Once you get used to it, it is actually pretty fun to have so few units available

**LordPringleChip** · May 19, 2014, 07:45 AM

Thank you so much for the help. Although I do believe i will be taking your advice, and not bother. lol (the only problem i had, was it taking so long lol)
As-well thanks for the welcome

**gsguns** · May 19, 2014, 07:55 PM

So I occasionally see stacks of Mordor or Harad having more than 20 units, which led me to thought: Is there any way to increase unit slots on cities to allow more troops to be garrisoned? Or is it hardcoded?

**leo.civil.uefs** · May 19, 2014, 08:05 PM

yes it is hardcoded and even now that we can break the hardcoded limits I dont think this is a good idea, settlements in med2 are not made to accomodate more than 20 units, its to much there is no space.

Besides, you can see it on campaign map but I actually dont think they actually load in battlemap as the limit of units per army in battlemap is 20.