Single man in unit

[leo.civil.uefs]

So, I know this has already been widely discussed before and that there is no possible solution to having just one man in one unit.


However, I would like to try something different.
Could someone here guide me in how to do this?


My idea is this:


Create a general unit, put as few bodyguard's as possible for it, assign these bodyguards the smallest possible stats, so that they could not inflict much damage and have just a few hit points. In addition, give these bodyguard an invisible texture, so that they could not be seen at all. It would also be good to change the mass and any other attribute of the bodyguards that would give them more effectiveness in combat, they should be as useless as possible.

So can someone guide me in how to do this? What files to deal with? How to do?

[Ngugi]

Just a concern: since you can't assign stats to the general himself (beside extra HPs from ancs and stats?) the stats will be the same of the BG, so you would end up with a seemingly solo but useless general [with equally useless, invisble, bodyguards]?

[alreadyded]

That is a very old idea, I tried it long long ago and others did the same before me. The constant knockback was the real problem back then but I figured out how to speed up the attack and knockback animations to reduce the problems with the unit constantly being knocked back and not ever doing anything else. Even then I still never used them or anyone else that I know of, I probably have it saved somewhere but no clue where. You are better off just making that regular sized unit a mount and assigning it regular animations really. Much more freedom to balance and no need for a bodyguard.

Edit; For this sort of thing the handler unit might be better as far as getting rid of the invisible useless units, but I never tested it since there can only be two handler units in the game max.

[leo.civil.uefs]

Just a concern: since you can't assign stats to the general himself (beside extra HPs from ancs and stats?) the stats will be the same of the BG, so you would end up with a seemingly solo but useless general [with equally useless, invisble, bodyguards]?

Huuum... Then I will keep they all strong, except for the HP, which I will only give to the general.

Anything is better than 3 Saurons or 3 Balrogs... it ruins my experience.

A small glitch with some invisible units fighting around among many hundreds will not be that ugly. It's modding, we are used to deal with these things.

The constant knockback was the real problem back then but I figured out how to speed up the attack and knockback animations to reduce the problems with the unit constantly being knocked back and not ever doing anything else. Even then I still never used them or anyone else that I know of, I probably have it saved somewhere but no clue where.

Would you mind to check if you still have the files? That would come handy.

You are better off just making that regular sized unit a mount and assigning it regular animations really. Much more freedom to balance and no need for a bodyguard.

A mount? You mean like a horse with infantry animation? If you say no need for a bodyguard, you consider that it will actually not be a general but an ordinary unit, right?
But how would that help me in having a "single man"?

Edit; For this sort of thing the handler unit might be better as far as getting rid of the invisible useless units, but I never tested it since there can only be two handler units in the game max.

Sorry I don't even know what a "handler unit" is.

[alreadyded]

Sauron and the Balrog are already one man units with the right code and have been for a long time (5 years or more, Moneybags14 found out how then someone else found a slightly better way), as is any other mount (elephants not cavalry, cavalry is very limited in what can be done and it doesn't have its own stats). I thought you were talking about non-mount one man units only. The non-mount kind would have problems that could never be fixed just manipulated or circumvented at best, the mount kind work great as one man units. You can make any kind of mount with any kind of animations. You can make a flying whale that spins in circle as it moves, or a bouncy ball, not much you can't do. The unit will still be "attached" to the ground no matter what though, that is the only thing that cannot be avoided. But you can make units seem and act as if they fly without actually having them fly.

Handlers (from data/descr_animals.txt) have animals in front they send to run in and attack from far away (and die) while the handlers themselves act like regular troops and march up. The unit already does exactly what is needed, kills the extra crap you don't want to even be seen. Not much point messing with that though since you will only ever get 2 one man units in the game, not worth the effort of finding what is needed for just 2 one man units. I have no desire to remake them and I don't even know what hard drive that work was on so zero chance of ever finding it. There is no easy way though, you are pretty much gonna have to use the same trial and error approach you used when figuring out how to make the settlements. So would I even with all the crap I know. The only one man units I care about are the Balrog, Smaug, and Glaurung since it doesn't make sense for them specifically to have a bodyguard. I want the rest to have bodyguards even as mounts, only an idiot goes onto a battlefield alone. Sauron would have some armored trolls or something, I am not a movie fanboy. Aragorn as a one man unit is also silly, in no battle in the books was he alone.

So ya... I have no motivation to do any work for anyone, plus I have my own mods to spend time on, but I will answer specific questions. Anything that requires more than a paragraph to answer is not specific, and I have a tendency to ignore vague questions that require a tutorial to answer.


One man unit code for mounts;

type             Balrog
dictionary       Balrog     ; Balrog
category         cavalry
class            heavy
voice_type       Heavy
banner faction   main_cavalry
banner holy      crusade_cavalry
soldier          Elephant_Crew4, 6, 1, 1
mounted_engine   elephant_rocket_launcher ; elephant_serpentine
mount            balrog
attributes     mercenary_unit, very_hardy, frighten_foot, frighten_mounted
formation     3, 3, 6, 6, 1, square
stat_health     1, 14
;stat_pri         65, 3, flaming_grand_bombard_shot, 280, 15, siege_missile, artillery_mechanical, blunt, none, 2500, 1
stat_pri  1, 1, stone, 240, 2, missile, missile_mechanical, piercing, none, 0, 1 ; The projectile could be anything, I was just experimenting.
stat_pri_attr    ap, bp, area, launching
stat_sec     50, 25, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_simple, piercing, sword, 0, 1
stat_sec_attr     launching, bp, area
stat_pri_armour     5, 5, 5, metal
stat_sec_armour     30, 25, metal
stat_heat     0
stat_ground     0, 0, -5, 5
stat_mental     18, impetuous, highly_trained, lock_morale
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay     0
stat_food     60, 300
stat_cost     1, 5000, 0, 500, 500, 3500, 1, 10000
armour_ug_levels 0
armour_ug_models Elephant_Crew4
ownership        hre, portugal, slave
era 0            hre, portugal
era 1            hre, portugal
era 2            hre, portugal

[leo.civil.uefs]

Ok before talking about the complicated stuff, you say Sauron and the Balrog are already one man units with the right code and have been for a long time.

You know it is still bugged, right? There will be still 3 Saurons and 3 Balrogs in the campaign. (Don't know about custom battles)

[alreadyded]

That is old code, yes I know about the old moneybags code had that problem. The fix was to have a campaign and custom battle version. Even then reloading a save with the Balrog on the map already caused 3 instead of one. This is really old news. Use the code above, I have been using it for years and zero problems. There are also several ways to fix the loading issue causing 3 instead of one, like a script to just respawn him when a game is loaded in Moria (which is where he should be anyway).

[leo.civil.uefs]

That is old code, yes I know about the old moneybags code had that problem. The fix was to have a campaign and custom battle version. Even then reloading a save with the Balrog on the map already caused 3 instead of one. This is really old news. Use the code above, I have been using it for years and zero problems. There are also several ways to fix the loading issue causing 3 instead of one, like a script to just respawn him when a game is loaded in Moria (which is where he should be anyway).

Wait!

Are you telling me that TATW 3.2 single unit is bugged (showing 3 men) and that you actually have a solution for this?

[alreadyded]

I never played TATW 3.2, last one I played was 1.2 I think. I did make a script fix for whatever ones I was using, not sure if they were in vanilla or from a submod, and used it up until I started using the code I posted above (which also only requires one edu spot instead of two). Since then I haven't had any problems to fix, but I will just re-add the script if I do have any. There are many solutions to fixing them now that we know that it is loading with them already on the map that changes it to 3 from 1, we didn't know that before, and it was probably discovered on accident. A simple script to respawn the general if it is on the map every time the game is loaded will fix it. A simple script that respawns the Balrog every 5-10 turns will fix it even.

[leo.civil.uefs]

So ya... I have no motivation to do any work for anyone, plus I have my own mods to spend time on, but I will answer specific questions. Anything that requires more than a paragraph to answer is not specific, and I have a tendency to ignore vague questions that require a tutorial to answer.

Dude, you threw me so much information that now I'm totally confused. But not your blame, it's just my lazy brain.
Please have some patience, I know nothing about this.

Ok, I don't want to try anything new, no testing.

I will try to ask as specifically as I can. Please answer each question separately.

1 - You use a script that has no problems, right? No 3 Balrogs or Saurons.
2 - What is the solution of your script? Respawning the unit? That will magically teleport the unit from wherever it is now to his place of origin. Is that? Wouldn't mess the campaign?
3 - What do I need to do in order to use your script? Can I simply copy and paste it over the vanilla one in TATW 3.2? I see you posted the one for Balrog only.

Thanks.

[alreadyded]

I just made one to fix the Balrog yes, Sauron I didn't want a one man unit but I could have used the same script the way I had Mordor's descr_strat setup (similar to code used for the Return of the King stuff, duplicate Sauron faction leaders to respawn in case he dies could be used for this script as well).

For the Balrog I want him to stay near Moria, but no a script can use 'if's which would allow one measly script to keep track of what region they are in when the game is loaded and kick in only when the game to loaded to respawn them in the same region they were just in at least. A script that keeps track of specific coordinates is easy to make too, the region video monitors do just that with region_tiles.

Yes there are many fixes, as you say above modding is being creative about solving problems. As I said the hard part was find out what caused them to go from 1 to 3. BUT I haven't seen the Balrog as a 3 man unit since I used the code above (I didn't make that and forgot what exactly about it is the fix, added it long ago), he is always one.


The Balrog script should work by just copy/pasting since it is so simple, but I don't remember it specifically and I don't know what version(s) had that fix. The past few versions just have a script that has him respawn every 10-15 turns I think just so he can't go conquer all Middle-Earth. And the Sauron code from the descr_strat and respawn scripts maybe can be copy/pasted too, that is still in the current version and Balrog script edited real quick. I haven't worked on this stuff in 2-3 years at least though then I found out about the fixed code.

[Withwnar]

3 appear after you load a save in which he is already present in the world. Only on huge unit setting. Does large unit setting give 2? I don't know.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...4#post14163814

One solution is to make him an artillery elephant...
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post14915697
We're doing that in DCILA for the Balrog and it seems fine. But we're spawning him only as a unit, not a named character, and I can't remember why. Because a NC still has the 3 problem? Dunno.

[gosho]

Do you know about this mod?
Medieval 2 Total War Battle Immersion mod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaHAVNt-q78

I never test it and it doesn't change the bodyguards, but the idea still amazing. You can take the control of the general on the battlefield...
if you make the minimum bodyguards units and make them invisible with texture during the battle, you can use only the general for attacking and play and still use a general on the campaign map..

[euskingc]

I know nothing is perfect, and every method seems to have its drawbacks, and that this approach has probably been discussed at length... but one way to do it might be to create an infantry unit with the least possible # of soldiers, have the models be quite small and invisible, with reasonably high attack/def/armour stats, but only 1 hit point. Then just grant your general the appropriate battle model, and a trait giving him some obscene number of hit points.

No doubt until the bodyguard gets killed off in battle, a close up of the fight animations will look a little... odd... but I'm not certain it's any better or worse than what is being done already.