Modding Units Question

[Fingy]

Hi, I'am new here. I have been wondering how to do this for a long time.
I'am playing as Macedon in the campaign game and thougt that it would be nice if I could train war elephants at my stables (or whatever building they come from) but obviously macedon does not have this ability. I know that I will have to edit a game file to do this, so were do i start? All i want to do is make the war elephant units from carthage or the selucids available to be trained by macedon in the campaign game. someone must know how to do this.
I tried doing this myself by going into the export_descr_unit file and export_descr_building file.
I managed to change unit ownership but it doesent effect the campaign game, just the custom battle. So I edited the building files to make elephants available to macedon but then RTW wont start! Help please!

[Publius]

1) go into descr_model_battle.txt
2) Find elephant entry (need both elephant and elephant riders)
3) copy texture line, past underneath
4) Change faction name to macedon
5) do same with sprites
6) add edu ownership
7) open export_descr_buildings.txt and find entry for stables (probably high end). Find the elephant entry for the carthaginians, and add macedon into the brackets

I think thats it

[Fingy]

Thanks, but I dont understand steps 3 and 5.

What is a sprite?

[Publius]

type carthaginian_elephant_crew
skeleton fs_forest_elephant_rider
indiv_range 40
texture carthage, data/models_unit/textures/unit_mm_elephant_archer_carthage.tga
model_flexi data/models_unit/unit_carthage_archer_high.cas, 15
model_flexi data/models_unit/unit_carthage_archer_med.cas, 30
model_flexi data/models_unit/unit_carthage_archer_low.cas, 40
model_flexi data/models_unit/unit_carthage_archer_lowest.cas, max
model_sprite carthage, 60.0, data/sprites/carthage_carthaginian_elephant_crew_sprite.spr
model_tri 400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

type carthaginian_elephant_crew
skeleton fs_forest_elephant_rider
indiv_range 40
texture carthage, data/models_unit/textures/unit_mm_elephant_archer_carthage.tga
texture macedon, data/models_unit/textures/unit_mm_elephant_archer_carthage.tga
model_flexi data/models_unit/unit_carthage_archer_high.cas, 15
model_flexi data/models_unit/unit_carthage_archer_med.cas, 30
model_flexi data/models_unit/unit_carthage_archer_low.cas, 40
model_flexi data/models_unit/unit_carthage_archer_lowest.cas, max
model_sprite carthage, 60.0, data/sprites/carthage_carthaginian_elephant_crew_sprite.spr
model_sprite macedon, 60.0, data/sprites/carthage_carthaginian_elephant_crew_sprite.spr
model_tri 400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

Ok, your dmb file should look something like what is posted first, and you should change it to what it looks like in the second quote there. That is steps 3, 4 and 5

Note: You will have to do the same with the entry for the elephant itself as well

[Fingy]

thanks again

Hmmmm.... still won't work. Whenever I edit export_descr_buildings.txt in any way RTW starts but exits back to windows before the main menu even loads. The problem is with the buildings file. any ideas?

Merged double post. - Trajan

[Fingy]

What does the merged double post mean?

[Publius]

It means that you posted twice in succession (like you did again here) and that a moderator combined your posts as they came one after the other. Its nothing huge, but for the future just try to use the edit button instead of posting twice in a row :happy0144

As for your problem, either use the show_err function or post the part of the code you think is bad

[Fingy]

I think the problem occurs when I edit export_descr_buildings.txt


circus_maximus requires factions { carthage, parthia, macedon, seleucid, roman, }
{
capability
{

recruit "carthaginian elephant african cataphract" 0 requires factions { carthage, macedon } and resource elephants

All I do is add macedon to the factions bracket but when I start up the game it just exits to windows. When I remove macedon from the bracket the game runs fine. I don't know what I'am doing wrong. :sign0163:

[Halie Satanus]

I'll take a guess here, there is no elephants resource in macedon, so you'll get a ctd, try removing the, and resource elephants , part, if you've done everything else right it should work fine.

Also,

Welcome to the forums, in my sig theres a link to the TWC faq, have a look through it, especially the rules, and enjoy your time on the forums.

Good luck. :wink:

[Publius]

Also make sure that the elephants you gave to the macedonians are indeed the cataphract elephants. There are I think four (five if you count the cheat Yutseb) types of elephants, so it may be possible to have your elephant types mixed up perhaps

[makanyane]

recruit "carthaginian elephant african cataphract" 0 requires factions { carthage, macedon } and resource elephants

Don't forget you need a comma after macedon ie.
{ carthage, macedon, } and resource elephants

Think not having the elephant resource in macedon regions wouldn't make game crash, just stop macedons building unit, unless they invade carthage regions etc that have elephant resource.
Removing, 'and resource elephants', would make them recruitable anywhere, if you want to keep restriction, I think you need to add elephants resource in descr_strat (as its a visible not hidden resource)
ie.
resource elephants, xxx, yyy
you'll need to find the xxx and yyy co-ordinates for an accessible point in the relevant regions when you get game working again. And / or (if I'm wrong on that) add it to resource line for region in descr_regions.txt

[Fingy]

Thanks everyone! I got it working. Just had to add the coma after macedon and take out the elephant resource line. But why do the elepant unit cards show up as peasents?

[PatWest]

Thanks everyone! I got it working. Just had to add the coma after macedon and take out the elephant resource line. But why do the elepant unit cards show up as peasents?

This tutorial will explain everything you need to know about making units and simpiler tasks such as just adding them to another faction http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=51750

To get the right unit cards you'll need the pack extractor http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=43

This next bit is from Alcords UI readme

1. Download xpac
2. Make a new folder, rename it to 'UI' and place it in your DATA folder. You must use xpac to extract all of the files from 'ui_1.pak' under data/packs (you can modify the .bat file to unpack only the ui_1.pak) and copy all of the files there.
3. Rename the new empty txt file to 'ui_1.pak' and place it in the packs file with the other pak files. This will trick the game to look in another location for the file.


All you have to do now is go into your new UI folder and look in unit_info under carthaginian find the elephants your looking for CARTHAGINIAN_ELEPHANT_AFRICAN_CATAPHRACT_INFO copy this file and place it into your macedon folder. Do the same for the UI units folder and you'll now have the proper unit and unit info cards to look at. It's a little complicated the first time.