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Thread: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

  1. #1

    Default How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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: 

    ; soldier Name of the soldier model to use (from descr_models_battle.txt)
    ; followed by the number of ordinary soldiers in the unit
    ; followed by the number of extras (pigs dogs, elephants, chariots artillery pieces etc attached to the unit)
    ; followed by the collision mass of the men. 1.0 is normal. [Only applies to infantry]
    ; officer Name of officer model. There may be up to 0-3 officer lines per unit
    ; ship Type of ship used if applicable
    ; engine Type of siege engine used by unit
    ; animal The type of (non ridden) animals used by the unit
    ; mount Type of animal or vehicle ridden on

    So we create a new unit with the 'category' set as handler, (I used the existing AS Ballista, as it is obsolete in my mod).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: 

    begin_block 6
    unit_type handler 1.0
    unit_type siege 1.0
    block_formation line
    block_relative_pos 5 0.0 -15.0
    inter_unit_spacing 3.0
    priority 1.0
    end_block

    Next we add the stats for the animal and all the other info to the new units details.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    type AS Ballista
    dictionary AS_Ballista ; Ballista
    category handler
    class heavy
    voice_type Heavy
    banner faction main_infantry
    banner holy crusade
    soldier Eastern_Captain, 12, 36, 1.2
    animal wardogs
    attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, hardy, can_withdraw, frighten_foot, mercenary_unit
    formation 2.2, 2.2, 3, 3, 3, horde
    stat_health 1, 0
    stat_pri 19, 8, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, knife, 25, 1.8
    ;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 5, 5, 0, leather
    ;stat_armour_ex 2, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 0, leather
    stat_sec_armour 2, 1, flesh
    stat_heat 1
    stat_ground 0, 0, 0, 0
    stat_mental 13, disciplined, highly_trained
    stat_charge_dist 40
    stat_fire_delay 0
    stat_food 60, 300
    stat_cost 1, 800, 150, 60, 140, 370, 1, 110
    armour_ug_levels 1
    armour_ug_models Eastern_Captain
    ownership mongols, timurids, slave
    era 0 mongols, timurids
    ;unit_info 7, 0, 7
    recruit_priority_offset -50

    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: 



    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 




    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    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

  2. #2
    Methoz's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    wardog? wow, sound great
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  3. #3
    S-te-Fan's Avatar Primicerius
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    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    Remote Controlled wagons .

  4. #4

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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!

  5. #5
    alpaca's Avatar Harbinger of saliva
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    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    Quote Originally Posted by Eothese View Post
    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.

    No thing is everything. Every thing is nothing.

  6. #6

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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?

    Author of the ---== Knights Templar Mod ==---
    Creator of the ---== Lord Calidor's Weapon Pack 1 ==---
    Member of the ---== Dominion of the Sword ==--- and ---== C.B.U.R.P ==---

  7. #7

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    Quote Originally Posted by alpaca View Post
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord_Calidor View Post
    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...

  8. #8
    alpaca's Avatar Harbinger of saliva
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    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    Quote Originally Posted by Eothese View Post
    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

    No thing is everything. Every thing is nothing.

  9. #9

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    Quote Originally Posted by alpaca View Post
    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...
    Last edited by Eothese; September 19, 2008 at 10:16 AM.

  10. #10

    Icon4 Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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

  11. #11

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

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

  12. #12

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    The game crashes when I tell the unit to attack someone

  13. #13

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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.

  14. #14

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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

  15. #15

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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.
    Last edited by Eothese; February 13, 2011 at 10:14 AM.

  16. #16

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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!

  17. #17

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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.

  18. #18

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    Eothese, we've came across the hard situation. If animal handlers are killed - dogs become invulnerable. Can you recommend something?
    Last edited by lekseus; May 13, 2012 at 12:32 AM.

  19. #19

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    Quote Originally Posted by lekseus View Post
    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.

  20. #20

    Default Re: How to add an animal handler unit (Wardogs)

    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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