Sebidee's Complete Guide to Warhammer Unit Modding

[KhamulBaal]

Hi! First of all, thanks for the time consuming labour of keeping this thread going. I have only just started to try and mod stuff for WH2, and so far have managed to get a custom unit of Tomb Guards working. However I have next tried getting a custom Agent for the same faction to work, mainly stripping someone else's work off a similar mod on the workshop (learning purposes only of course).

I'd like to know if there's any straighforward way of knowing where I've gone wrong, because just a "not responding launcher" is not very informative.
I doubt there are any typos (used to modding for arma 3 for a few years) because I've checked.. but I can't really know wither if I've put something where I shouldn't or if I'm missing anything...etc

Thank you for your time!

[Steph]

If it doesn't start, it usually means something is missing or as a typo. What tool are you using?

[KhamulBaal]

Good day,
Thanks for your response. I am using PFM. Is there a threshold for errors? Say the game can't find some icons and such.. Would it not load? I will check today along with another mod, and try and see where I've gone wrong..

[Steph]

You should use Rusty PFM. In the preferences, you have an option to highlight errors. With this, just open the tables, and you will have in red the errors. It doesn't solve everything, but at least if you make a type (like use a different name between main_units and land_units), it should be detected.

It's a good first step to debug your mod.

Usually the game crashes when there is abroken link or a missing reference. It's hard to tell if you are not specific with what you changed (what tables, what lines), and exactly when your mod crashes (when launching? when starting a campaign? A battle?). It doesn't crash always at the same time, or for the same reasons.

A missing icon or localisation text is very unlikely to crash the game.

[KhamulBaal]

Wow, just downloaded RPFM and everything seems... more solid. I am checking through my db folder and there are a few things in red already in the first folders, about ancillaries.
This means there is something wrong right?
In ancillaries_included_agent_subtypes_tables, I have defined two ancillaries, a weapon and a mount.
But then in the next: ancillaries_tables, ancillary_included_subcultures_tables, ancillary_to_effect_tables and ancillary_to_included_agents_tables those, 2 ancillaries are marked in red.. ?

The game crashes when I hit launch in mod manager (previously checked off all mods on launcher) and the initial loading screen pops up, it just loads indefinetly and eventually "Does not respond".

Thanks again for your time!

[Steph]

if it is in red, it means it is reference something that RPFM cannot find.

But be careful: sometimes it's a "false" bug, because you are using something from CA, and it's not in your own tables. To avoid this, you have an option in the preferences to also load CA tables.

But anyway, if it's in red, it means check this in details for any typo. Especially if it's your own items!

[KhamulBaal]

Thanks again Steph, I think I might just kind of redo everything.
So if it is red, but referencing a CA pack, it may be a false bug... but if I have for example my ancillary "khamul_anc_number1" in red it is defenitely an error I have made

This tool makes everything more intuitive hehe. I will probably be back with more problems..!
Thanks

[Steph]

Yes, I've used PFM for years (mostly with NTW), and then used that for Warhammer all 2018... and switched very recently to RPFM, and now I don't use PFM anymore (except for minor startpos editing, not supported yet by RPFM).

it is also much better to insert items, copy elements, work with localisation files... And edit rigid_model

[KhamulBaal]

Well so far so good, and NO crashes yet with this program. With PFM I had random errors and lost work often etc...

I have started this mod again from scratch with RPFM this morning. Hope I get it working!

Also a loose question... would it be possible to get a 2h weapon like a great sword and attach it to just one hand and use 1h animations..etc ?

[Steph]

yes, you can. But it can give some weird effect (like the end of the sword going inside the ground in some animation).

Uou can even give a spear to a unit with a sword animation if you want. May look silly, but technically it will work.

[KhamulBaal]

Excellent! you keep my hopes up!
And maybe a way to scale weapons down? like in units I see "Scale" so you can scale a unit, could it be possible to scale a spear o greatsword to the size of a dagger? (par example)
I haven't even checked this, I'm just getting overexcited here

[Steph]

Sorry, scaling weapon is not possible to my knowledge.

[KhamulBaal]

Sorry, scaling weapon is not possible to my knowledge.

Oh! Shame...

Well, I have been able to get the unit ingame! The abilities I put in are not present, but I suppose I overlokked something. Also the animations are messed up, but no crashes and the unit is there..!
Thanks for your help Steph. I am looking forward to getting things done

[KhamulBaal]

Hello again!
I got the abilities working ingame (although no description Titles show up).
However I can't seem to get the animations to work properly. He has a sword and shield, but the animation looks like he is carrying a halberd...

Some image samples:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=194...4-bAWZwhnHUb0u

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ca...ryAq368cMkQQpD

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AT...Dji1KltF0GBkWu


Also when attacking he does no animations, just stands there, turning on the spot, while enemies die and are flown into the air...

The unit has a custom weapon defined in melee_weapons_tables, and there the "melee weapon type" is set to "sword".

In land_units_tables the unit has the "man animation" set to "hu1_tomb_sword_and_shield", which is the animation for the tomb king (sword and shield).

Just this large issue left! And then I just have to add images, retexture... but I am used to those

Thanks!

[adclaw]

One question, I would like to determine the order in which the units appear in the army recruitment menu. I created a mod that adds united to the Bretonians with colors and heraldic /schields of each of the 14 dukedoms. But of course the recruitment menu for garrisons and armies is chaotic. Is there a way to make sure that the various units are shown for dukedoms instead of having a list with 15 units of each type?
ty

[Steph]

Are you talking about custom battles or campaign?

In the main_unit_table, you have a "ui unit group land". This determines the icon appearing at the bottom of unit card, and also on the floating flag.

The possible ui group are defined in the "ui unit grouping" table. Where the last column is "Parent Group".

You can have for exemple:
- Parent Group = "cavalry_chariot", with "chariot" "shock cavalry" inside
- Infantry Group, with "infantry_sword", "infantry_spear", etc.

Parent group are defined in "ui_group_parent" where they have a number:
- 1 for Commander
- 2 for heroes_agent
- 3 for infantry
- 4 for missile infantry
- 5 for cavalry_chariots

So how does it work to order the units:
- Units are first grouped according to their "ui_group_parent". That's why the lord is always at the left, then the heroes, then infantry, then missile infantry, then cavalry, etc.
- Withint a group, I think they are organized by cost (cheaper= left, more expensive = right). At least for custom battles, not 100% sur for campaign (only 95%)
- And if they have the same cost, by alphabetical order.

[Steph]

Hello again!
I got the abilities working ingame (although no description Titles show up).
However I can't seem to get the animations to work properly. He has a sword and shield, but the animation looks like he is carrying a halberd...

Some image samples:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=194...4-bAWZwhnHUb0u

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ca...ryAq368cMkQQpD

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1AT...Dji1KltF0GBkWu


Also when attacking he does no animations, just stands there, turning on the spot, while enemies die and are flown into the air...

The unit has a custom weapon defined in melee_weapons_tables, and there the "melee weapon type" is set to "sword".

In land_units_tables the unit has the "man animation" set to "hu1_tomb_sword_and_shield", which is the animation for the tomb king (sword and shield).

Just this large issue left! And then I just have to add images, retexture... but I am used to those

Thanks!

Weapon_table has no effect on the animation, only on stats

How is your variant defined? I think you didn't properly setup the weapons for him.

Did you edit the "campaign_character_art_set" table? There's also an animation there.

[KhamulBaal]

Weapon_table has no effect on the animation, only on stats

How is your variant defined? I think you didn't properly setup the weapons for him.

Did you edit the "campaign_character_art_set" table? There's also an animation there.

SOLVED: both variants and campaign_character_art_set tables seemed to be fine. The problem was I had an officer asigned to the unit, and somehow the animations were overlapping or something.

So asigning "A_blank_record" to the "officer" column in "land_units" solved everything.

Thanks for your help Steph!

[Steph]

Officers work for large units, or mounted lords. If you use an officer for a "single" unit, then it will try to use the animation of this officer instead

[Wolfley]

Hello
I am very new to this.
I spent a few hours trying to figure this out myself but for the life of me, I can't get the game to stop crashing.
I am up to the point where you are supposed to have him in the game but the Unit card is a goblin (Yes, the very beginning). I have tried to copy and paste everything multiple times and still crash. I also tried taking the existing mod and copy and pasting each thing from there.
My question was due to this being a guide technically for WH1 if I need to continue on to the following steps a bit more to see any sort of results where it won't crash on me.

Thank You