How to give Sylvania Skeletons their Weapons Upgrades back, also fix for Skeleton Crossbows

Alright, let me post here how you give your skeletons and graveguard their weapon-upgrades:

Open the export_descr_unit.txt in the data folder, of course.

Here, the skeleton spear unit for example:

type Vampire skeleton spears
dictionary Vampire_skeleton_spears ; Peasants
category infantry
class spearmen
voice_type Light
banner faction main_spear
banner holy crusade
soldier Vampire_skeleton_spears, 60, 0, 1
attributes sea_faring, can_withdraw, very_hardy, mercenary_unit, free_upkeep_unit
move_speed_mod 0.9
formation 1, 1, 2, 2, 6, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 6, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_simple, piercing, spear, 0, 1
stat_pri_attr spear
stat_sec 0, 0, no, 0, 0, no, melee_simple, blunt, none, 0, 1
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 1, 2, 4, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, leather
stat_heat 0
stat_ground 0, 0, -3, 0
stat_mental 3, normal, highly_trained, lock_morale ;8$+1$
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 600, 120, 100, 100, 600, 6, 1690
armour_ug_levels 0, 3, 3, 3
armour_ug_models Vampire_skeleton_spears, Vampire_skeleton_spears_ug1, Vampire_skeleton_spears_ug1, Vampire_skeleton_spears_ug1
ownership hungary, slave
recruit_priority_offset 40

Note the underlined, bold melee_simple.
This should actually be melee_blade, as only this way it is able to be upgraded. There are many units afflicted by this, specifically the skeleton spears, normal skeletons, graveguard, vampire black knights, skeleton mount. And yes, the skeletons get their nice new weapon models with the upgrades.

I changed it for me and it works perfectly. It simply creates a nice feeling in your stomach when your legions of darkness are equipped with morningstars instead of bare bones.

Alright, there was also a severe bug with the skeleton crossbows. Their standard undead attributes do not apply, effectively rendering them nothing but standard weak crossbows.

Ok, look at this:

type Vampire skeleton crossbow
dictionary Vampire_skeleton_crossbow
category infantry
class missile
voice_type Light
banner faction main_missile
banner holy crusade
soldier Vampire_skeleton_crossbow, 50, 0, 1.2
attributes sea_faring, can_withdraw, crossbow, mercenary_unit, free_upkeep_unit, very_hardy
formation 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 5, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 6, 2, light_crossbow_low, 155, 35, missile, missile_mechanical, piercing, none, 0, 1
stat_pri_attr ap
stat_sec 6, 2, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, sword, 0, 1
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 3, 2, 0, metal
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 0
stat_ground 0, -1, -2, 0
stat_mental 7, normal, highly_trained, lock_morale
stat_charge_dist 40
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 800, 160, 100, 100, 800, 4, 1000
armour_ug_levels 2
armour_ug_models Vampire_skeleton_crossbow
ownership hungary, slave
recruit_priority_offset 50

In the standard EDU file, the underlined, bold attributes do not exist for the Skeleton Crossbows, they do however exist for all others of VC's units, the lock_morale grants the fearlessness of the undead, while very_hardy grants them their high fatigue, without them the skeletons would be nothing but utterly useless crap, as they would run from anything and get tired extremely fast.

just add the bold, underlined attributes and the crossbows have their undead feeling back.

Have fun playing.

Thanks for this further update, which in part follows on from what we were discussing a week or two ago. I tried this back then and it also works, much more satisfying!

<SALUTE>