Adding mercenaries

[Aetius]

How would I, for example, add mercenary hoplites to the Parthian units list for custom battles. I see on factin like POntus there are Thracian mercenaries so is it possible to add any mercenary on any faction? If it is I would be grateful if anyone would explain how to add them on. :original:

Whoever helps me first I will give rep points to! :wink:

[Lusted]

Just edit export_descr_unit.txt and add parthia to the ownership line.

[Aetius]

Just edit export_descr_unit.txt and add parthia to the ownership line.

OK

so I'm heres unit info:

type merc greek hoplites
dictionary merc_greek_hoplites ; Mercenary Hoplites
category infantry
class spearmen
voice_type Light_1
soldier greek_hoplite_merc, 40, 0, 1
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, can_sap, hardy, mercenary_unit
formation 0.8, 1, 2, 2, 4, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 7, 3, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, spear, 25 ,1
stat_pri_attr spear
stat_sec 0, 0, no, 0, 0, no, no, no, none, 25 ,1
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 6, 5, 5, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 3
stat_ground 2, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 19, normal, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 880, 340, 60, 90, 550
ownership slave, Parthia

And when I do this it won't effect campaign game, just custom battles right?

[Lusted]

Yup, it will only affect custom battle.

[Aetius]

Yup, it will only affect custom battle.

That right there deserves rep!

One more thing...can I add any unit to any faction? For example adding scythed chariots to Parthia? Will this affect the campaign game or only custom battle?
Do I have to do anything different to add non-mercenaries to other factions?

Ready and willing to give rep points!

[Mored]

Tutorial - How to add any unit in the game to your faction

This tutorial will show you how to add another faction's unit to your own, to recruit in a campaign, or to use in custom battles. It's quite easy, & I've included a lot of detail to help those who haven't modded before, but would like to try. For this tutorial you will need Vercingetorix's PAK Extractor. In this tutorial I will make a Seleucid unit, "greek elephant small", recruitable in my Julii campaign.
IMPORTANT: Before editing any file, make a backup of it. Select the file you're going to edit. Right-click, select copy, then right-click in folder, select paste. you should now have a "Copy of..." file that you can always restore if you've made an error & can't get the game to load.


1) Add your faction to the unit's ownership. In the "Data" folder of your root game folder, "Rome - Total War", find and open the text file "export_descr_unit.txt". In this file each unit has an "ownership" line that allows factions & cultures to recruit them. The file is huge so you may want to use Find (ctrl-f) to locate the unit. The last line for the unit will look something like this:
Code:
ownership * * * *seleucid

Whether there's just 1, or several factions listed, you will need to include your faction's name on this line. When you add faction names make sure you separate them with commas. For instance, if you were the Julii, it would now look like this:
Code:
ownership * * * *seleucid, romans julii

To help with spelling, here are the culture & faction names:
CULTURES: barbarian, ct_carthage, eastern, parthia, egyptian, greek, roman
FACTIONS: armenia, britons, carthage, dacia, egypt, gauls, germans, greek_cities, macedon, numidia, parthia, pontus, romans brutii, romans julii, romans scipii, romans senate, scythia, seleucid, slave, spain, thrace
NOTE: In this file only "greek_cities" has the underscore. The Roman factions each have a space between the 2 words.


2) Add the unit to your recruit building(s). In the same Data folder, find & open "export_descr_buildings.txt". Look for the unit you want to recruit. Look for where the unit you want is outlined. It'll look something like this:
Code:
recruit "greek elephant small" *0 *requires factions { seleucid, } *and resource elephants

Copy this line and paste it where you want it, depending on the level of building you want to recruit from. Then change the faction part, in brackets, to your faction:
Code:
recruit "greek elephant small" *0 *requires factions { roman_julii, } *and resource elephants

The "and resource elephants" part at the end only allows recruitment in provinces that have the elephant resource, like Carthage. If you want to recruit them anywhere it would look like this:
Code:
recruit "greek elephant small" *0 *requires factions { roman_julii, }

NOTE: In the "export_descr_buildings.txt" file some of the faction names are slightly different:
FACTIONS: Same as export_descr_unit.txt except: julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, and romans_senate (romans_senate is a guess since they don't appear anywhere, but they are included in the "roman" culture).
Well, now you can recruit in the campaign, but it'll only show a grey peasant icon in the recruit card & the right-click info. On to step (3).


3) Find the recruit card & info pic. Use Vercingetorix's PAK Extractor to unpack the .pak files in the "Packs" folder. Follow his instructions included in his download. This process will take several minutes. When it's finished you should have a "Data" folder within the "Packs" folder. Open that unpacked "Data" folder, find these directories\files:
Data\UI\UNITS\SELEUCID\#GREEK_ELEPHANT_SMALL.tga
Data\UI\UNIT_INFO\SELEUCID\GREEK_ELEPHANT_SMALL_IN FO.tga
SELEUCID would be the original name on the ownership line for the unit you want (from step 1).


4) Place the recruit card & info pic. To use these files for YOUR faction you need to recreate this Data folder structure in your Rome - Total War\Data folder for your faction. It's easy, because you don't have to repack the folders, just create them in the "Rome - Total War\Data" folder, like so:
Rome - Total War\Data\UI\UNITS\ROMAN_JULII\#GREEK_ELEPHANT_SMAL L.tga
Rome - Total War\Data\UI\UNIT_INFO\ROMAN_JULII\GREEK_ELEPHANT_S MALL_INFO.tga
In the Data folder create UI, open UI, create UNITS, etc... In ROMAN_JULII folders copy & paste the TGA files from step 3 to their respective folders.


That's it. You're done. Enjoy your new units!


The finishing touches: Well, that's not quite all. You will be able to recruit & fight with this unit, but they will still have the original color & design from the faction you got them from. The final touch would involve editing the skin, the card & the info pic to look like they belong in your faction. I use Paintshop Pro with the DDS plugin, but there may be a freeware DDS uncompressor that'll allow you to get to the TGA file, then edit directly, or convert to BMP to edit. If you find one please post here to let everyone know. I'm no expert in the graphics editing department, or I'd give you a more in-depth look at doing this.


ADDITIONAL NOTE: Adding factions to the unit's ownership will let you use them in custom battle, but I think there's a limit. If you add too many the custom battle may not load or may crash.

:original: :original: