How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

**Eothese** · September 14, 2008, 02:00 PM

This is what I came to these forums to find out about, back at the beginning of the year. I wanted a Wardog unit to add as a mercenary unit out on the steppes. When I asked at the time, the response I got was a simple 'no'. Nine months and my own mod later, and with just a few hours of trial and error and I know there is a way after all.

Step 1: EDU
At the top of EDU, commented out is the files info section. Here there is a reference to animal.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

So we create a new unit with the 'category' set as handler, (I used the existing AS Ballista, as it is obsolete in my mod). Its easy enough to clone an existing unit. descr_formations refers to handler, so we know it can be used.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Next we add the stats for the animal and all the other info to the new units details.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

So the category is handler, the animal is wardogs, the formation is more spread out than a regular unit, stat_sec are the animals attack stats with stat_sec_armour its
defensive stats.

Step 2: descr_animals
Now, according to descr_animals:-
animal class (current possibilities - wardog, pig)
So we must use one of these unless we want to create a new battle model. (I don't even own a 3d application, so thats a no go for me).
But there are no battle model for dogs or pigs, so we must change the info in descr_animals.

Existing

type wardog
class wardog
model wardog
radius 0.75
x_radius 0.35
height 1.0
mass 1.0

New

type wardog
class wardog
model mount_elephant
radius 0.75
x_radius 0.35
height 1.0
mass 1.0

Now, there is deffinitely a battlemodel for mount_elephant so we know this should work!
Here's the proof from testing...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

The new unit behaves in exactly the same way as its forerunner in RTW did, all the info the game needs to make this work is already in place.
The only thing omited in M2TW was the actual models and anims for the dogs and pigs.
Any model maker with experience of creating new battlemodels from scratch should be able to put together a decent dog or pig or anything else they fancy for that matter and we will have a great new unit.
As someone who has no experience with models I must now wait and hope that someone with as much enthusiasm as myself will make the project complete. (Either that or I learn to use 3ds, :hmmm

**Methoz** · September 14, 2008, 06:01 PM

wardog? wow, sound great

**S-te-Fan** · September 15, 2008, 07:50 AM

Remote Controlled wagons

.

**Eothese** · September 16, 2008, 01:44 PM

Whatever takes your fancy stefaneke!

I would imagine that a fantasy based mod would benefit most from this. I know a lot of the Rome Mods took out things like dogs and screeching women on the grounds of historical accuracy. I say if you want historical accuracy go visit your local library, I play total war for fun!

Anyway if you have the tools to do so you can follow the tutorial by TSD to port in the original wardogs from Rome.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=190754

I've just installed 3D studio and am about to delve into all it has to offer.

PS. I seem to have gained some rep from sharing this, but as it came without any comment's, I don't know who to thank!

**alpaca** · September 17, 2008, 05:56 AM

Originally Posted by Eothese

Whatever takes your fancy stefaneke!

I would imagine that a fantasy based mod would benefit most from this. I know a lot of the Rome Mods took out things like dogs and screeching women on the grounds of historical accuracy. I say if you want historical accuracy go visit your local library, I play total war for fun!

Anyway if you have the tools to do so you can follow the tutorial by TSD to port in the original wardogs from Rome.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=190754

I've just installed 3D studio and am about to delve into all it has to offer.

PS. I seem to have gained some rep from sharing this, but as it came without any comment's, I don't know who to thank!

You should understand that there are many people for whom historical accuracy is very important if they want to have fun with a game (although I'm not one of them, either). Anyways, good job of fiddling with this - I'm not sure if you can add new animal types but you can probably change the dogs to swans or something. Hmm that would be a stylish minimod.

**Lord_Calidor** · September 17, 2008, 03:43 PM

This is very interesting. It could enable the inclusion of supporters and various retainers, or even to recreate a typical medieval lance in a French fashion - 1 knight and several sergeants or mounted crossbowmen.

However, before tackling that, I'm more interested in smth more simple - Italian Pavesari and Balestrieri tandems - 1 soldier holding the large pavise or mini-pallisade, and other one with a weapon, hiding behind the shield. Do you have any advice how to best tackle this?

**Eothese** · September 18, 2008, 12:03 PM

Originally Posted by alpaca

good job of fiddling with this - I'm not sure if you can add new animal types but you can probably change the dogs to swans or something. Hmm that would be a stylish minimod.

Praise from the mighty Alpaca, thats gotta be the highlight of my modding career

However I think you would be able to add any new animal you wished as long as you were fully competent with creating and animating models from scratch...The text parts are quite easy.
Even a flying animal would not be beyond the realms of possibility as you could put them on a really thin, long 'stick' and not add any texture to that stick, so leaving it practically invisible.

Originally Posted by Lord_Calidor

However, before tackling that, I'm more interested in smth more simple - Italian Pavesari and Balestrieri tandems - 1 soldier holding the large pavise or mini-pallisade, and other one with a weapon, hiding behind the shield. Do you have any advice how to best tackle this?

Lord_Calidor, I've just sort of given this a go first with mount pony, second with highland pikemen and third with town militia as the 'animal'. All result in a CTD when the 'animals' charge into the enemy unit.
The pony I can understand, it doesn't have an attack anim or a die anim, only a charge. The highland pikemen and town militia is a bit of a mystery because they have all the anims, but they had no texture, even though the town militia should have had for the test faction.
We need someone with full model creation abilities to explore this further.
If thats you, then I think it will come down to new animations, but at the moment all I can do is speculate...

**alpaca** · September 19, 2008, 03:58 AM

Originally Posted by Eothese

Praise from the mighty Alpaca, thats gotta be the highlight of my modding career

I hope you didn't sincerely mean that... otherwise I should probably stop doing that sort of thing. After all I can't have people running around with such strange notions of a "mighty alpaca" :hmmm:

However I think you would be able to add any new animal you wished as long as you were fully competent with creating and animating models from scratch...The text parts are quite easy.
Even a flying animal would not be beyond the realms of possibility as you could put them on a really thin, long 'stick' and not add any texture to that stick, so leaving it practically invisible.

Yes, the swans would still have collision but it'd be cool if they were on shiny leashes (made of, you know, magic) in front of a general character (aka hero) bathed in light.

I don't know about adding animals, somehow I seem to have a recollection of RTW where wardog and pig were the only ones allowed - could be wrong though, my memory isn't all that reliable. If you have time, you should probably try it

**Eothese** · September 19, 2008, 07:20 AM

Originally Posted by alpaca

I hope you didn't sincerely mean that... otherwise I should probably stop doing that sort of thing. After all I can't have people running around with such strange notions of a "mighty alpaca" :hmmm:

Yes, the swans would still have collision but it'd be cool if they were on shiny leashes (made of, you know, magic) in front of a general character (aka hero) bathed in light.

I don't know about adding animals, somehow I seem to have a recollection of RTW where wardog and pig were the only ones allowed - could be wrong though, my memory isn't all that reliable. If you have time, you should probably try it

Thats as sincere as I can manage in text form, if I was joking I'd have said 'Almighty Alpaca'
Anyway back on topic, slightly, 3ds and gimp are proving a swine to set up what with all the plugins, scripts and converter's. And thats before I attempt any actual model making. So I might try the next best thing and ask EpicJon to make the Wardog models for me, just need to find some pic's of a nice angry looking doberman or something...

**Radioman** · September 28, 2008, 12:22 PM

Hey Eothese:
I know I PMed you but I thought it would be good to post on your thread in hopes that it might get more exposure for your topic...I did double check my mod files and found that in deed the wardogs animation file is in the extracted animations folder...You'll find that the pig animations are in the wardog folder as well...Good luck

**Eothese** · September 28, 2008, 12:34 PM

Fantastic news Radioman. This is what we need, + Rep!

**Lord Uxbridge** · August 20, 2010, 02:31 PM

The game crashes when I tell the unit to attack someone

**Eothese** · August 21, 2010, 04:15 AM

It shouldn't do.

This has been fully fleshed out now, its been 2 years. The wardogs require their own anim set, which is available in my Expanded America's 3 mod, Thera and TATW. They aslo require that their height in descr_animal is set to at least 2.6 to avoid conflict with the finishing move death combo anims.

**Briarius** · February 13, 2011, 06:29 AM

Hi Eothese

I'v been trying to add a handler to my mod, without succes so far.

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.. I followed your tutorial step by step but the animals didn't show up. Only the peasant model.

this my EDU entry

Code:

type             BreUnor
dictionary       BreUnor      ; BreUnor
category         handler
class            light
voice_type       Light
banner faction   main_infantry
banner holy      crusade
soldier          Peasants, 10, 0, 0.8
animal           wardogs
attributes       sea_faring, hide_forest, can_withdraw,
formation        2.2, 2.2, 3, 3, 3, horde
stat_health      1, 0
stat_pri         4, 0, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_simple, piercing, spear, 25, 0.6
;stat_pri_ex      0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr    no
stat_sec         14, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_simple, piercing, none, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex      0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr    no
stat_pri_armour  0, 3, 0, flesh
;stat_armour_ex   0, 4, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, flesh
stat_sec_armour  2, 1, flesh
stat_heat        2
stat_ground      1, -2, 3, 2
stat_mental      1, low, untrained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay  0
stat_food        60, 300
stat_cost        1, 110, 90, 65, 50, 110, 4, 20
armour_ug_levels 0, 1
armour_ug_models Peasants, Peasants_ug1
ownership        scotland
era 0            scotland
era 1            scotland
era 2            scotland
;unit_info        4, 0, 3

And this the modified descr_animals.txt

Code:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;    
;
;    This file contains the animal linkages; it gets parsed on application 
;    startup but is not otherwise referred to. The data format is thus:
;
;    Fields should be entered in the order shown.
;
;    ;                        indicates a comment ;-)
;    []                        indicates optional
;
;    type                    indicates a new mount type, must be followed by id name string
;    class                    animal class (current possibilities - wardog, pig)
;    model                    model id from descr_model_battle 
;    radius                    animal radius
;    [ x_radius ]            animal x axis radius for elliptical mounts (radius is y radius in this case) 
;    height                    animal height
;    mass                    animal mass

type        wardog
class        wardog
model        mount_elephant
radius        0.75
x_radius    0.35
height        1.0
mass        1.0

type        pig
class        pig
model        pig
radius        0.75
x_radius    0.35
height        1.0
mass        0.5

I'm just trying to get the elephants as animals for testing purpose. Later I'd like to change them to wolves. Could you tell me what's the problem..?

Thx in advance

**Eothese** · February 13, 2011, 10:10 AM

Code:

soldier          Peasants, 10, 0, 0.8

The red number is the number of animals in the unit.

You also need to set the height of the wardogs above 2.6 in descr_animals to avoid a CTD in battle.

**Briarius** · February 13, 2011, 11:37 AM

Thx Eothese ,

It works now.

(0 animal

)

Here they are. These miniature horses are just a placeholder for wolves. I also added missing animations which were causes CTD when they charged enemy. I'll try to modify the horse anim set to make them more "Wolvish" anyway.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

another question if you don't mind..Can I position the handlers to move them a little bit left or right from the handled animal so the wouldn't stand right behind them.

Thank you again Eothese!

**Eothese** · February 13, 2011, 02:20 PM

I don't think so, you could play around with the formation spacing and the ratio between handler and animal but I'd say this is hardcoded.

**lekseus** · May 12, 2012, 12:35 PM

Eothese, we've came across the hard situation. If animal handlers are killed - dogs become invulnerable. Can you recommend something?

**Eothese** · May 13, 2012, 06:09 AM

Originally Posted by lekseus

Eothese, we've came across the hard situation. If animal handlers are killed - dogs become invulnerable. Can you recommend something?

Not really, they should just run off when all the handlers are killed. Or your stats for them in EDU are not correct.

**Ajpav** · May 27, 2015, 04:22 AM

I know this an old post, but can someone tell me how you solved the CTD when the handler unit engages in combat? Mighty Thanks!

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