A Beginner's Guide to the Export_Descr_Unit

[QuintusSertorius]

Does anyone know where I can find a tutorial or discussion on naval battle mechanics? By which I mean how I can get different naval units to be balanced against each other, and things which are supposed to be better than others actually able to beat them?

[CavalryCmdr]

Naval battles are pretty straight forward. Just adjust the stats according to how you feel they should be. Since they are auto-calced there is always a chance the weaker unit will win, but generally the one with the better stats will win. To make it less likely the weaker unit will win, give the stronger units more soldiers as well.
Naval battles use the auto-calc mechanics defined in the <autoresolve> portion of the descr_campaign_db.xml

[QuintusSertorius]

Naval battles are pretty straight forward. Just adjust the stats according to how you feel they should be. Since they are auto-calced there is always a chance the weaker unit will win, but generally the one with the better stats will win. To make it less likely the weaker unit will win, give the stronger units more soldiers as well.
Naval battles use the auto-calc mechanics defined in the <autoresolve> portion of the descr_campaign_db.xml

Thank you for that. I had a suspicion that the number of soldiers might be an issue, this confirms it in my mind.

[Anthony_0311]

Is there a way to increase the unit sizes? As in if there is a unit with 120 men in it and I wanted to make it a 150 man unit, would that be possible?

[Gigantus]

soldier Swiss_Pikemen, 60, 0, 1
soldier – This is the first line with multiple values. They are all separated by commas and do different things. The first value (Swiss_Pikemen, 60, 0, 1) is the soldier "skeleton" to use. This references an entry in the battle_models.modelsdb file, which determines how the unit moves around. Changing this to a different entry will change the look (that is to say, the way the unit moves, swings its weapon, etc.) The second value (Swiss_Pikemen, 60, 0, 1) is the number of men in the unit. This is affected by your size settings. The smallest possible is 4, while the largest is 100. The third value (Swiss_Pikemen, 60, 0, 1) is used only with units with “extras” such as siege equipment. It tells the game how many of those to have. Here is an example from the Trebuchet line:
soldier NE_Trebuchet_Crew, 16, 2, 1
The bolded 2 tells the game that there are 2 Trebuchets in a unit.
The fourth and final value (Swiss_Pikemen, 60, 0, 1) tells the mass of the soldiers. 1 is normal. Note that this does not affect cavalry, as their mass is determined by their mount. More on that later. What this means is the higher the number, the more your troops weigh. Troops with a higher mass may blast people back on the charge like cavalry do. While funny and good for supermen, you may want to leave your mass at 1.

[ordoprinceps]

Mythic Commodore,
Fabulous tutorial! +Rep! Thanks!!

[erissimaco]

Hello to all,
I'm doing some tests with some units with javelin. specifically with "Acontistae". I think there is something that is not working properly. selecting the skirmish option, the unit starts to escape before launching. believing that this was due to an incorrect setting of the shooting distance in relation to the run away and not knowing how to change it, I tried to increase gradually the launch extent. up to the unrealistic value of 200 !! without any improvement. regardless of casting value that attribute, the unit waits without launching and when the enemy is sufficiently near it runs away
I do not know if and how I can change the distance from which a unit starts to run, to make it commensurate with the shooting ability, so she can throw at least one shot before fleeing. I ask for help and advice to you.
any help will be appreciated.
ps excuse my bad English

[Gigantus]

The range of the projectile will be shorter then the skirmish range. I am not what the range is but have a look at default models that use the javelin and have the skirmish ability and then check in descr_projectiles what the range of your javelin is.

[erissimaco]

@gigantus
yeah! I found the error. thanks, thanks, thanks for having advised to check the descr_projectile.txt.
I had made changes to descr_projectile.txt, including the speed of some projectile. I thought proper to assign to the javelin, launched by hand, a lower speed value to an arrow, the poor, thrown with the bow. I did not imagine that the projectile speed would change the behavior of a skirmisher units. unfortunately the value that I had assigned to the javelin (15) was too low. I found that the minimum value for the correct behavior of the units with javelin in skirmisher mode (throw and run away if attacked) it is 20. I have allocated 21, in relation to the shooting distance (60). Now, on the basis of this I will have to change, in proportion, the speed of various types of arrow and darts and verify that the units in skirmish mode, have good behavior.
thank you again.

[Gigantus]

One is glad to be of service

[ladddad]

Hello, I am a newbie, and I did this, and everything works fine, but when I start a campaign there is a lot of missing stuff like the details on the unit cards, and the menu popups don't have any thing written on them. I don't no which option or button I'm pushing. Please help.

[erissimaco]

Hello to all,
I'm back to you with the hope that you can help me solve some doubts about the small changes I am making to 'EDU.
I noticed that no units of lancers, pikemen and halberdiers, have the "spear_bonus_x" attribute. wanting to do some testing, I assigned some units this attribute with different values: spear_bonus_2, spear_bonus_4, spear_bonus_6 etc. but there is something wrong. Contrary to the description at the beginning of the EDU files, when I check, to any unit, the "spear_bonus_x" attribute with the value "2", the game crashes at startup. I ask myself and I ask you, if I'm doing something wrong or if it is inaccurate to the minimum value "2" for this attribute, as written in the early description of EDU files.
thanks in advance for any help
sorry English google translator
Hello

[The_Federation]

The final number (14, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, spear, 25, 1) is used when the unit has multiple weapons. Basically, it sets a preference.

Can you explain this a little more?

[Titus le Chmakus]

How do you organize the units in the recruitment pannel ? I mean how do you set them so that units are organized how you want them to, in the city's recruitment pannel ?
I have some cavalry units beside some infanrty or missile and thus, it is a big mess in the pannel. Can you not set the infantries to be all the ones below or beside the others ?

Thanks

[Gigantus]

They are sorted by category and type if I am not mistaken, one column for each category, hence why the agents are always on the right

[Titus le Chmakus]

Nop, it does unfortunatly not ... I know about the column system, like in TATW. This is what I would like ! Btw, is it category and type or maybe category and class ? Because type is the unit name ...
My recruitment pannel is organized as below :

HI     LI     MI     Gen     HC     MC     Dipl
LI                   LC                     Spy

HI = Heavy Infantry unit, LI = Light Infantry unit, MI = Missile Infantry, Gen = recruitable general, HC = Heavy Cavalry, MC = Missile Cavalry, LC = Light Cavalry

Is there any way to organize it as we want ?

[Gigantus]

It does appear to sort (kinda) by category: Infantry, cavalry, siege, agents and then by class: heavy, light, missile

The recruitable general seems to be the odd one out - but then the general_unit attribute may have priority as a class. In fact some other attributes may play a role in sorting, eg 'command'

[Titus le Chmakus]

Well I don't understand why it does not sort like :

LI    MI    LC    Dipl
LI          MC    Spy
HI          HC
            Gen

Or this kind of sorting, like in TATW for ex. ? Any idea on how to force the game sorting it out in columns ? And also, on the contrary to TATW, there is no scroll bar on the right ...

[Gigantus]

I have never gone into the depths of this, there is however the Unit Editor tool which sorts the units in the EDU which in turn appears to assist in this matter.

[Toranks]

What does a negative value mean in this position?

stat_pri 7, 1, pesarrow, 120, 30, missile, missile_mechanical, piercing, none, -500, 0.35

I have seen it in "Deus lo Vult Americas" on some mesoamerican distance units.