New modder requesting help

[Riekopo]

I just downloaded the Assembly Kit and have been going through the programs and files. I'm completely new to modding so I'm pretty confused. I haven't been able to find a tutorial to help me so I'm hoping someone here can help me. I would like to make a few very small mods and upload them to the Worskhop for others to use.

The first thing I want to do is make a mod that removes Mercenary Onagers from the AI or from the game completely. I want to do this because I think they are messing up sieges. The AI recruits them and then assaults on the first turn so we never get to experience defensive siege escalations. CA made them more expensive to recruit in a patch, but since the AI has so many funds I don't think this solved the problem. I'm not even sure if the AI has to pay upkeep on its troops.

The second thing I want to do is make it so scenery objects like wood fences, stone walls, baskets, and stalls etc do not explode when units run into them. I've never liked how those things are destroyed by units running into them. It looks very goofy to me.

The third thing I want to do is rename Army Integrity to Army Morale. The reason I want to do this is because as far as I can tell the only factor involved in this mechanic is morale. So I think that would be a more accurate description.

The fourth thing I want to do is make a mod that removes all Fire Ships from every faction except the Eastern Roman Empire. I think this would be much more historically accurate.

The fifth thing I would like to do is make a mod that changes the friendly fire cylinder hitbox to be the same height as the normal cylinder hitbox. I've no idea why they made the cylinder bigger for friendly fire. I think it's the main cause of the excessive friendly fire in Attila.

The sixth thing I would like to do if possible is make it so ships can block strait crossings. Currently armies can pass right through ships that are sitting on a strait crossing. I'm not sure if this is possible to do with modding, but I'm just putting it out there in hopes that it is.

The seventh thing I'd like to do is make a mod that adds more torches to units in night battles. Compared to Barbarian Invasion I think the lighting in night battles is lacking.


Note that I think some of these ideas have been done in more comprehensive mods already, but none of them separately. I personally think that mods should be as modular as possible. I don't like the all or nothing approach.

[Karnil Vark Khaitan]

I would recommend to start using PFM instead (it is a bit easy to make packs with)
A unit guide made by Sebidee:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-Unit-Creation
it should let you get a grip of the basic, how the DB works and how pack files works.
Believe it or not making your first unit, gives a lot of insight in how it all works.
But I can maybe give a few hints to your problem:
1: haven't worked to much with Mercs table, but I would say you need to remove the unit form mercenary_unit_groups table.
2: No Idea!
3: it is properly in one of the loc files, look in local_en.pack for it.
4: look at units_to_groupings_military_permissions table, and remove the wanted unit. (small point I think it is only ERE which can recruit fire ships on campaign map)
5:No idea.
6:no idea (don't they already do that?)
7:have never fought a night battle, can't help you that one.

Never shy away from reading Rome 2 guides, it is more or less the same, but Attila is abit more orderly.

[BladeUK]

1: haven't worked to much with Mercs table, but I would say you need to remove the unit form mercenary_unit_groups table.

You also have to remove them from the provinces in the startpos, otherwise you can still recruit them. That's even setting the campaign limit to 0 in the units table, removing the replenish chance to 0, max count to 0, max replenish to 0, and removing them from the mercenary to groups junctions.

It's a right pain in the backside!

[Karnil Vark Khaitan]

You also have to remove them from the provinces in the startpos, otherwise you can still recruit them. That's even setting the campaign limit to 0 in the units table, removing the replenish chance to 0, max count to 0, max replenish to 0, and removing them from the mercenary to groups junctions.

It's a right pain in the backside!

Nice haven't worked to much with it ^^

[Riekopo]

You also have to remove them from the provinces in the startpos, otherwise you can still recruit them. That's even setting the campaign limit to 0 in the units table, removing the replenish chance to 0, max count to 0, max replenish to 0, and removing them from the mercenary to groups junctions.

It's a right pain in the backside!

So it wasn't as simple as removing the unit from mercenary_unit_groups_tables? I see you uploaded it as a mod to the Workshop.

[BladeUK]

So it wasn't as simple as removing the unit from mercenary_unit_groups_tables? I see you uploaded it as a mod to the Workshop.

No unfortunatly it wasn't, they were still showing up, I found out the reason was the startpos has mercenary pools under provinces in them directly and changing the db values didn't get rid of them. I had to go into each province in the startpos and delete all references to onagers to get rid of them as well as the db tables :/

Yeah I posted a mod on steam yesterday with it, you are more than welcome to use the startpos in that pack file if you want to incorporate this into another mod you are making, to save you the trouble of going through all the provinces.

[Sheridan]

On scenery objects, you want to open the battlefield_buildings table with PFM or the assembly kit, and up their health considerably (not all buildings, just those that are actual such objects).

Fifth thing - the _kv_rules table. It's some of the keys towards the end(key being an entry). projectile_friendly_fire_man_height_coefficient etc. If you want to change the hitbox to be the same as for enemies, change both from 1.2 to 1. As of now, the hitbox is not far from twice as large for allies (1.2^3 compared to 1).

Number 6 is possible through scripting as far as I know, but delving into that might be premature. Few people know how to do it, but to my understanding it's a matter of algorithms. I'm afraid I can't help you with number 7.

Besides of that, Karnil Vark Khaitan has already explained most of what you need to know. Always nice to see new modders entering the scene. I wish you the best of luck, and if you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[fuzzyballs01]

I just edited the onager mercenary unit into a cheap meelee unit by copy-pasting stats from another mercenary unit, that works

[BladeUK]

I just edited the onager mercenary unit into a cheap meelee unit by copy-pasting stats from another mercenary unit, that works

Or you could make recruitment costs so high, no one does recruit them, that was one way I played around with, but I thought sod it, I want them gone! lol