help with war wagon.

**mongrel** · April 18, 2009, 11:47 AM

I have worked out how to add a war wagon by treating it as one of those great cross things.

(from descr_engines-added the following);
type standart_war
culture all
class holy_cart
pathfinding_data none
reference_points siege_engines/great_bell_tower_standard_milan.modelReferencePoints

engine_model_group normal
engine_skeleton Great_Cross_standard
engine_bone_map siege_engines/BoneMaps/Great_Cross_standard.xml
engine_collision siege_engines/collision_models/catapult_collision.CAS
engine_mesh siege_engines/fortification_warwagon.mesh, 40.0
engine_mesh siege_engines/fortification_warwagon.mesh, 80.0
engine_mesh siege_engines/fortification_warwagon.mesh, max

engine_model_group dying

engine_skeleton Great_Cross_standard_dying
engine_bone_map siege_engines/BoneMaps/great_cross_destroy.xml
engine_collision siege_engines/collision_models/standard_cross_collision.CAS
engine_mesh siege_engines/fortification_warwagon.mesh, max

engine_model_group dead
engine_collision siege_engines/collision_models/standard_cross_collision.CAS
engine_mesh siege_engines/fortification_warwagon.mesh, max

engine_shadow none

engine_radius 3 ;7.0
engine_visual_radius 7.0
engine_length 5
engine_width 2.2
engine_height 11
engine_mass 6
engine_dock_dist 1.5
engine_mob_dist 4
engine_flammable true
engine_ignition 0.5
fire_effect engine_fire_medium_set

obstacle_shape rectangle
obstacle_x_radius 1.6
obstacle_y_radius 2.5

engine_formation 8, 7

engine_spo physical_obstacle

engine_health 10

However the AI tends to push the thing all round the shop instead of deploying it. Is there any way of getting it to deploy the same way as stakes? If so, which documents do I need to tinker with?

**Augustus Lucifer** · April 19, 2009, 02:32 AM

To my knowledge stakes aren't engines. They are hardcoded and tied to unit attributes and abilities, as opposed to comprising a 'piece' of a unit such as the war wagon and holy cross do. As such you probably won't be able to use them in that fashion, much less have the AI do it.

**mongrel** · April 19, 2009, 11:20 AM

Yes, I think I get it. Thank you. I can see the attribute "war_wagon" in edu. But as for as I can see it doesn't do anything, presumably because the war wagon is defined as a siege engine, not whatever piece of equipment stakes are.

**Surgeon** · April 19, 2009, 11:40 AM

AFAIK someone tried playing around with wagon forts at one point. The most he got in terms of AI was that they pushed up to your lines, then dropped them and attacked. However, I'm pretty sure he used melee infantry to cart them around. Maybe if it's a unit of crossbows, as it was intended by CA, they'll deploy farther away. Not sure how to make them turn the wagons so they're facing the enemy broadside though.

**Augustus Lucifer** · April 19, 2009, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by Surgeon

AFAIK someone tried playing around with wagon forts at one point. The most he got in terms of AI was that they pushed up to your lines, then dropped them and attacked. However, I'm pretty sure he used melee infantry to cart them around. Maybe if it's a unit of crossbows, as it was intended by CA, they'll deploy farther away. Not sure how to make them turn the wagons so they're facing the enemy broadside though.

Indeed. The AI is going to fail miserably at using unusual engine types sadly, but such is the way of things. Making the engine health large and the mass enormous might produce the 'wagon wall' effect for the player, but it would be better as an engine like a catapult is that has handlers who can't unattach, as opposed to like a ram where they'd drop it.

We have a similar problem, since while we could probably model our sword-wagon engine for the korean faction, and even make it move around and whatnot, the AI is unlikely to ever use it so it ends up being a garbage unit for them.

**Fishrudder** · April 23, 2009, 10:09 PM

I have to ask, War wagon? Is that a vanilla unit? If so how do you get it? If not, what mod?

**mongrel** · April 24, 2009, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by Fishrudder

I have to ask, War wagon? Is that a vanilla unit? If so how do you get it? If not, what mod?

You will need to mod.

Go to export descr unit, search under war_wagon and you should find two units. Remove no_custom under the attributes and you can play them in the custom game ( no wagons)

You can introduce the wagons separately - see my first post ( you will also need to change the unit stats on EDU to that of a great cross or similar for it to work) .But as you can guess I can't stop the infantry pushing the damned thing around.

**Fishrudder** · April 24, 2009, 07:44 PM

Haha, alright, thanks, I'll look into it

**mongrel** · April 25, 2009, 07:18 PM

Different approach, beyond me but someone might be able to figure it out. could a fort be made out of these things and the war wagon crew turned into a generals unit, with perhaps no cost to build fort?