How To: The Ancillary Guide

[J-Plague]

Super simple, thanks a lot

[makoto aoba]

excuse my ignorance but where I find the file "Export_descr_ancillaries" is in the files of Medieval II or I have to create?

[irishron]

export_descr_ancillaries.txt is in your data folder after you unpack the game.

[makoto aoba]

that is the problem not find it on any file, in the file "data" just have more file not found one txt and already look in the other files, but the game works fine, I have the medieval + kingdom without any mod, which could be the problem?

[irishron]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=397636 could be the problem if vista or win 7.

[ButtSwag]

I know this has been brought up before but after I have added my ancillary the game crashes at the loading screen, no error, no popup it just takes me to the desktop. I'm trying to add an ancillary to the Westeros mod, if that matters...
Is there a known fix to this, I tried that validator but it's pretty confusing and comes up with unhandled exceptions sometimes

[makoto aoba]

thanks for the answer friends, I found which is the problem was I had to use unpacker in the folder tools, but does not run on Win7 if not download and keep the files msvcp71.dll and Msvcr71.dll then appears the files I was looking

[The Forgotten]

Do you have to have a trigger? What if you would just rather have it die off with you one general.

[Aikanár]

Do you have to have a trigger? What if you would just rather have it die off with you one general.

No, you don't have to have a trigger. If you don't want to redistribute the anc, you can omit the trigger.

[MIKE GOLF]

No, you don't have to have a trigger. If you don't want to redistribute the anc, you can omit the trigger.

I was looking for this and it was at the very end! Very good info, very useful.

[Gigantus]

No, you don't have to have a trigger. If you don't want to redistribute the anc, you can omit the trigger.

It's called an 'orphan' if you use Squid's checker.

[The Forgotten]

Thanks for the answer although I still can't get it to work and I can't really make heads or tails out of the trait verifier.

[MIKE GOLF]

I have a lot of new ancillaries in mind for a modding project. What is the maximum number of ancillaries a character (general) can have? I don't want to have a character with too many ancillaries preventing an heir for example, from receiving the ancillary kings_crown after his father dies.

Edit: I just found the hard coded limit for ancillaries is eight. That being the case, is there a way to prioritize ancillaries so that lesser ancillaries are removed to be replaced by important, critical ones?

[Gigantus]

Ancillaries can only be removed through complicated scripting and is not always possible.
A way to do it would be to group ancillaries and then add a condition to the trigger only to have one ancillary per group.

Ancillary spyglass
    Type group_name ; use any name you fancy for the group
    Transferable  0 
    Image item_spyglass.tga
    ExcludeCultures mesoamerican
    Description spyglass_desc
    EffectsDescription spyglass_effects_desc
    Effect LineOfSight  2

Trigger standard_of_mohammed_killed_anc_trigger
    WhenToTest PostBattle
    Condition Attribute Piety > 3
          and WonBattle
          and not FactionReligion pagan
          and GeneralWithAncKilled standard_of_mohammed
          and not HasAncType group_name

    AcquireAncillary standard_of_mohammed chance  10

[MIKE GOLF]

So in this example, the spyglass will get replaced by the standard when the triggers for the standard have been met?

A second question I have concerns buildings as an ancillary requirement. Here is the description for the ancillary of falconer:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

;------------------------------------------
Ancillary falconer
Type Pet
Transferable 0
Image falconer.tga
ExcludedAncillaries hawker
ExcludeCultures eastern_european, southern_european
Description falconer_desc
EffectsDescription falconer_effects_desc
Effect PersonalSecurity 1
Effect Authority 1
Effect LineOfSight 1

And here is the trigger for it:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

;----------------------------------------------
Trigger falconer
WhenToTest CharacterTurnEnd
Condition IsGeneral
and EndedInSettlement
and SettlementBuildingExists >= farms+2
and TimeInRegion > 5
and not CultureType eastern_european
and not CultureType southern_european

AcquireAncillary falconer chance 2

Will this still be a valid trigger even after farms +3 are built? Or should I just make the trigger farms +3 from the start?

[Gigantus]

The anc and it's trigger was meant as an example to showcase the use of groupings. In your anc description you have excluded the hawker anc and two cultures and then set more conditions in the trigger (culture ones are duplicated).
Your's is a relatively simple anc - it does not exclude a groupname, merely one particular anc (hawker).


The >= farms+2 stipulates that this building level (=) or any higher (>) one [of this tree] must be present. No need to make another trigger.

[MIKE GOLF]

Thank you for your assistance in answering these questions.

[NewAgeOfPower]

I've been banging my head into a wall for a few hours already.

You can see how I set up my ancillary files in this picture:




See next post--->

[NewAgeOfPower]

See next post ->>>

[NewAgeOfPower]

Yeah, it won't let me put words in the same post as the picture; I have no ideal what words are banned.

So as you can see, I can't get anything to pop up in ancillary box...