Okay, one thing that we've been meaning to do but haven't gotten around to is determining unit phenotypes. That might not be the best word, but it's close enough.
Short background on this, you don't need to read necessarily.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Essentially what I did a month or two ago was change the way the relationship between our EDB, EDU, and BMDB work so that we'd have less to do whenever we wanted to add a unit.
This meant giving duplicate textures to all factions for every unit in the BMDB, which changes the control to the EDU, as then we can decide who actually can use the unit by just changing ownership lines rather than having to fiddle with that demon of a file very often. The other thing I did was write a quick tool which let me switch out separate EDUs intended for campaign and custom battles. This enables us to have every faction own every unit in the EDU for the campaign game, along with no_custom tags so custom battle rosters aren't a mile long. Then the alternate version which can be switched in has traditional faction ownership only.
What this does is allow us to take the switch off the EDU, and put it on the EDB. So to allow the Mongols to recruit a Khmer unit all that would be done is a new recruit pool, and no changes would be needed in either the EDU or BMDB, which greatly simplifies the control. It also coincidentally opens up all 500 unit slots for use with separate units, because we don't need any AOR-specific entries(may still need mercs).
Every unit in the game generally has what I'll call a 'phenotype'. This is to say it has some pretty basic properties, mainly pertaining to its animations but also certain stats, which are similar in other units. 2H Swordsmen, 1H Swordsmen, Archer, Horse Archer, so on and so forth. What we want to do is determine all of these phenotypes, that way we can use an existing unit to 'sub in' for an incomplete unit. That enables us to implement units much more seamlessly and also to use the units as if they had been made for other things like recruit pools or scripts.
For example, say we have a unit called Khmer Swordsmen. We'd determine that the 'nearest neighbor' of the units we do have complete is, we'll say 'Dao Militia'. Then what we can do is create both BMDB and EDU entries for Khmer Swordsmen, using the Dao Militia texture and model paths as placeholders, and we could even write all the EDU stats. Then the Khmer Swordsmen could be recruited which allows that faction to function in a state similar to that it would be in if the unit were complete, with the only exception being the model and texture need replacing.
The most important thing here is animation. If a unit uses substantially different animations, it isn't a nearest neighbor, because the animations lines are some of the trickiest to deal with. If one unit is elite and another militia it doesn't necessarily matter, so long as they occupy the same niche in terms of their equipment.
So what we need is to look at what information we have on the rosters we have done and also those we have WIP or planning stages, so that most of the units can be 'classified' as they come up. Some, particularly siege engines, or things like the fire spears, won't fit a mold, but a lot will. You can help by looking through the rosters we have and the rosters we've got proposed and suggesting 'phenotypes' that we're missing. We may then look at prioritizing the completion of one unit in that category so placeholding can commence. Here's what I've got right now:
Phenotypes
Swordsmen (Two-Handed)
Nearest Completed Neighbor: Song Zhanmadao -or- Daito Bushi
Swordsmen (One-Handed)
Nearest Completed Neighbor: Dao Militia
This was compiled going through the three previews we've had and a look at the EDU. If anyone can expand on this list by looking through the unit WIP threads, the faction discussion threads where rosters are mentioned, or based on units which will conceivably be on a roster and don't fit any of these labels, that would be helpful.
This and the development of unit rosters will be Priority #1 for researchers once I update the tasks thread. We need to complete this initiative so that we can insert the framework for our factions and start placing units in the campaign without the need for fully developed unique models/skins, which will be some time yet.
The naginata is really more of a halberd than a spear, as is that curved Khmer weapon. There's also relief depictions of Khmer infantry with spears and shields, so that should be included.
So we need to classify unit? then in my purposed Xia roster it be something like...
Imperial army:
Hostage sons horse archers : Horse archers
Iron Sparrow Hawks : mounted lancers
Hostage sons guardsman : not sure here yet, maybe a pole arm guy maybe a foot archer.
Regulars:
Tangut Regular horseman: Horse archer
Tangut Regular infantry : Saber and Shield type
Tangut Regular spear man : Spearman
Tangut Regular lancers: mounted lancer
Foot treader archer : foot archer
Foot treader spear man : two handed spearman
Foot treader javelin man : javlin and shield
Charger spear-man : spear and shield ?
Charger crossbow-man : heavy crossbow, maybe pavis.
Artillery
Po-Shi catapults : if we're going to do this we probably need a special animation or something... it's supposedly a fast moving camel catapult.
Shi-Jiao Catapults : traction Trebuchet.
1180, an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity in East Asia, it's technology and wealth is the envy of the world. But soon conflict will engulf the entire region with great consequences and lasting effects for centuries to come, not just for this region, but the entire known world, when one man, one people, unites.....
Unit Phenotypes
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