How much can you change in mtw2?

[botjer]

Sure you can switch out units and buildings and tweak stats...

but can you actually change the game play? say give the gamer control over just one character?
add more special abilities to a unit?

[Sir Mork]

you could make a faction with only one character in it, but i gues that would be boring. But You can change about anything, for unt stats just take look at the EDU file, or this tutorial about the EDU

[botjer]

yeah i know about changing stats. i was htinking of making a mod about having one unit each with several abilities

[Sir Mork]

you mean a 'one man' unit? cos the guys of warhammer or third age total war did that with dragons, don't know how they did that, but you could always ask. I also read something about making it into an artillery unit. I posted a thread on the 'one man' unit subject here

[botjer]

nono, one player one unit as in one player controlling one unit of spearmen, and only that unit.

[Sir Mork]

if you mean that you want to have like heroes, then, that's possible, it's a residue from RTW, you can have a man from a unit 'command' another unit. here's how to do that:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

this you will need to do in the EDU file (export_descr_stats)

officer Catalans

officer - Another relic of Rome: Total War that works fine. Officer lines are put right after the soldier lines. You can have up to three. Each line adds an officer. Basically, an officer is an extra soldier. The way that it works is by referencing the battle_models.modelsdb for a model, for example, Catalans. If I was to add the line

• officer Catalans

after the soldier entry for Swiss Pikemen, so that it looked like:

type Swiss Pikemen
dictionary Swiss_Pikemen ; Swiss Pikemen
category infantry
class spearmen
voice_type Heavyaccent German
banner faction main_spear
banner holy crusade
soldier Swiss_Pikemen, 60, 0, 1
officer Catalans
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, very_hardy, can_withdraw, pike
formation 1.2, 1.2, 2.4, 2.4, 8, square, phalanx
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 14, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, spear, 25, 1
;stat_pri_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr spear, long_pike, spear_bonus_8
stat_sec 13, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, sword, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr nostat_pri_armour 0, 5, 0, flesh
;stat_armour_ex 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 0, flesh
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 2
stat_ground 1, -2, 3, 2
stat_mental 11, impetuous, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 40
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 470, 185, 115, 90, 470, 4, 110
armour_ug_levels 0
armour_ug_models Swiss_Pikemen
ownership slave
;unit_info 14, 0, 5

There would be a Catalan with every unit of Swiss Pikemen, sort of like a mini-captain for that unit but without any morale consequences if he dies. You can have up to three officers per unit.

and here's a complete guide to the EDU

but if you want to command a unit, like in third or first person mode, and fight the enemy yourself by pushing buttons, that's not gonna work (in any Total war game), cos Total war is and remains a turn based strategy game.

hope this helps