Rome 2 ships to Attila. How is it done?

[Carracalla]

Since as far as I know the AE team is the only to succsesfully port the Rome 2 ships to Attlia I figured it was best to post here for best answers.

I have been trying to get triremes and biremes into attila for a week now with no succsess. It seems that naval_unit and ship_dg tables (not sure of full name for that table) cause crash for some reason.
Since I'm so new to modding Attila means that I need to learn how to port the ships from squeare one. I hope this thread can help me and others since I have seen other threads about the subject but they never lead anywhere.

Quite frankly, I need a step by step guide for making new ships/naval in Attila. I do know however how to make a standard unit completlly fine, and have made several just fine.

[Petellius]

Those specific tables need to be done through the Assembly Kit, otherwise you'll get a crash like you said. As for a step by step guide, I didn't do it myself so I'd have to ask. Unfortunately the modder who did do it (abh) has been gone from the team for over a year. I might know some people who could help though.

[You_Guess_Who]

To be precise you'll need a combination of Assembly Kit and PFM work via some dummy entries in the Assembly Kit.

How far do you went into naval modding? Assuming you understand the basics for unit moddings, and that you have difficulties in naval_units and ship_db, that's quite far, I'd assume you've already understand and done most of the work.

Okay, here's what you'll need to do:
PFM Work
1. Import models_naval from R2 to your modpack. Rename the imported models_naval to something else, so it will not rewrite Attila's own models_naval (try add a suffix, e.g r2_models_naval). R2 models_naval format is identical to Attila's, so no edit is required. Models_naval are editable, but that's for another day.
2. Import the R2 ship variantmodels and the variantmodeldefinition to your mod pack.
TWEAK Work
3. Prepare the necessary battle_entities for the ship. I expect you already understand this. For now just copy the values of R2 ship battle_entities into it.
4. Go to models_naval. Add every entries of R2 ships into the form. Only the ID is important, the rest of the columns aren't, just fill it with anything. This is the first dummy table, so when completed do not convert this table into db, keep it in xml form.
5. Create your ships_db. Assign the prepared battle_entities and models_naval to the ship_db. This table shall be later referenced by naval_units.
6. Work your naval_units entirely in Assembly Kit. For some reason you can't edit it in PFM in my experience. For now I'm only explaining how to add the ships themselves, so naval_weapons are for another time.
7. You may or may not work the variantmodels in TWEAK, its up to you.
8. Do all of the rest of unit-making process. I believe you already understand this.
9. Import all of the mentioned tables xml into db using BoB except the models_naval
PFM Work
10. Import the processed tables from BoB into your mod pack.

[Petellius]

Helpful as always buddy, thanks for all the help you gave AE

[Julio-Claudian]

I've been wondering something sort of similar... how do you get the building models onto the attila campaign map? Specifically the circus and amphitheatre models.

[You_Guess_Who]

I've been wondering something sort of similar... how do you get the building models onto the attila campaign map? Specifically the circus and amphitheatre models.

Fun fact: R2 building models are actually still in Attila model packs. Those just need to be reactivated in the battlefield buildings tables. Making them appears in T'Ed need a little trick in the form of self-loading movie pack. Not sure how AE people did it (not a team-member), but I believe they edit and then transplant R2 siege maps into Attila tiles, dunno if straightforward replacement or advanced scripting I don't know how.

It is possible to have both ramming and boarding but you'll need to create a script to switch between them.

Interesting. How and what do you mean by that, however? I'm aware that back in R2 ships can ram once then board, in Attila it can only full rammer or boarder.

[Petellius]

Interesting. How and what do you mean by that, however? I'm aware that back in R2 ships can ram once then board, in Attila it can only full rammer or boarder.

You can have units in attila switch between ramming and boarding, the AI can do it fine... but the player has no button to switch so you just get stuck with one... except for some weird and whacky exceptions which are very buggy.

[Julio-Claudian]

Fun fact: R2 building models are actually still in Attila model packs. Those just need to be reactivated in the battlefield buildings tables. Making them appears in T'Ed need a little trick in the form of self-loading movie pack. Not sure how AE people did it (not a team-member), but I believe they edit and then transplant R2 siege maps into Attila tiles, dunno if straightforward replacement or advanced scripting I don't know how.

I actually meant the buildings that show up in the cities on the campaign map when you construct something.
But thank you, that's still useful information.

[Carracalla]

Hello Bois

Sorry for the late reply but I have been busy. I have made progress however and the game don't crash anymore, due to the use of Assembly Kit just like You_Guess_Who said I should do (Thanks Man).
The only problem I have now is that BoB when is finished the ship entry (not the id key) in the naval_table says heavy liburnian instead of roman trireme. Might be a typo or wrong key when I mucked about in Assembly Kit, or BoB might be slightly retarded. However I'm gonna follow You_Guess_Who's guide and look into guides for the Assembly Kit, just so I minimize CTD, since I'm more used to PFM.

Thanks for the help!

[Petellius]

Hello Bois

Sorry for the late reply but I have been busy. I have made progress however and the game don't crash anymore, due to the use of Assembly Kit just like You_Guess_Who said I should do (Thanks Man).
The only problem I have now is that BoB when is finished the ship entry (not the id key) in the naval_table says heavy liburnian instead of roman trireme. Might be a typo or wrong key when I mucked about in Assembly Kit, or BoB might be slightly retarded. However I'm gonna follow You_Guess_Who's guide and look into guides for the Assembly Kit, just so I minimize CTD, since I'm more used to PFM.

Thanks for the help!

Good luck!

[Carracalla]

Breaktrough!

Not only did I find out what the BoB issue was (more correctly a PFM issue), but also managed to get the roman trireme in attila!
When the naval_unit tables is placed in PFM the table collums is rearranged out of order. This makes it very important for the ship and description text entrys have the same id, in this case roman_trireme.
Wich means that using placeholders is a no-go. In the pics you can see them ingame as transports, but with ramming ability . They took down a few ships befor they got swarmed by angry rebels.


So I'm REALLY HAPPY right know and would like to give a special thank You_Guess_Who and all of you guys: TUSEN HJERTELIG TAKK (thousands hearthelt thanks from the bottom of my heart in Norwegian)

PS: posting pack.file incase wanna look at it.
We_did_It!.zip

[Carracalla]

Breaktrough!

Not only did I find out what the BoB issue was (more correctly a PFM issue), but also managed to get the roman trireme in attila!
When the naval_unit tables is placed in PFM the table collums is rearranged out of order. This makes it very important for the ship and description text entrys have the same id, in this case roman_trireme.
Wich means that using placeholders is a no-go. In the pics you can see them ingame as transports, but with ramming ability . They took down a few ships befor they got swarmed by angry rebels.


So I'm REALLY HAPPY right know and would like to give a special thank You_Guess_Who and all of you guys: TUSEN HJERTELIG TAKK (thousands hearthelt thanks from the bottom of my heart in Norwegian)

[Carracalla]

Re-try of image upload

[Carracalla]

Sorry for multiple copy post. Somthing caused problems so I had to try and reupload.

[Petellius]

Something you might want to do, that AE did to differentiate ramming and boarding ships is to put towers on boarding ships.

It is possible to have both ramming and boarding but you'll need to create a script to switch between them.

[Petellius]

Ah, thats something more difficult. AE has its own script that allows us to put our own maps onto the campaign map, I believe we'll be releasing this sometime after release.