Step-by-step : Adding/Importing a unit & Silver surfer bugfix
Sincere greetings honorable sires and fair ladies!
I've came up with a very simple tutorial on how to add a unit to another faction. I encountered some difficulties trying it (hours and hours of pleasure) and after doing some research I found that I was not the only one to have experienced the quite complex and still mysterious cogs of modding. I understood quite early and fast how the EDU, EDB and some other files work, but the battle_models file I opened for the first time recently just gave me a hard time. The hardest thing about this file, for me, is really understanding it, getting to read it right at least. Once we learn how to read it, the rest is relatively easy. And that's what I'd like to help people with, making it easier for them to read and by extention helping them to add an already existing unit to another faction. Of course I found other tutorials about this, but I did not find them very satisfying and maybe a little too chaotic, for some of them. I also hope this one might be more complete? Still I owe them most of my understanding of the battle_models and thank them.
Anywho, I'd like to ask you to be indulgent, this is my first contribution to TWC and besides if for some reasons this tutorial is not necessary, do not hesitate to inform me and to delete it and I'm sorry if I shouldn't have publish it in the first place. On the contrary, if this tutorial is found worthy and useful, I'll be glad to hear any feedback to make it better if necessary and correct any mistakes or oddities I could have made and probably wrote! So make no bones about it, comment and share your thoughts if it helped you out or if you like it!
Other relevant tutorials for battle_models and more
The files I will use as references for this tutorials are :
data/export_descr_unit.txt ;
Directory of all units in the game.
data/text/export_units.txt ;
Directory of almost all texts related to all units of the game, including their names and descriptions. Referring to this file will sometimes help you find a unit in the EDU (especially useful for RTK mod).
data/export_descr_buildings.txt ;
You will find in this file all the buildings and the units they render accessible in addition to their effects on the settlement, if any.
data/unit_models/battle_models.modeldb ;
If the EDU determines everything from one unit, from its attack to its defense and from the number of men it will be composed of, the battle_models allows their appearance in flesh and bone. If you do not make the necessary changes to this file, the units you will transfer from one faction to another or add if you do not exceed the limit of 500 will appear in silver surfer, without skin or texture. So this file is quite important.
I strongly advise you to download the relatively indispensable tool that is the UNIT EDITOR. Although the tool to modify the models that comes with it does not work, it's nevertheless a tool that greatly facilitates the modding process. And also, before going any further, make sure you have at least provided the effort to take a look at these tutorials below, because you still need a minimum of knowledge about modding before touching the battle_models file :
We also need to verify something before we start. Open your battle_models file with NOTEPAD++. If your file does NOT look like this in its form... :
... I strongly advise you to install this, courtesy of KnightErrant : CLICK HERE
Originally Posted by KnightErrant
The .zip file is called formatted_modeldb_version2.zip
This zip contains the following files:
readme.txt - brief descriptions of the files
formatted_battle_models.modeldb - the new version of the formatted modeldb file
formatmodeldbfile.m - MatLab script that formats the unformatted modeldb file into the new format
formatmodeldbfile.py - Python script which does the same thing
checkmodeldbsyntax.m - MatLab script that checks the syntax of the new formatted modeldb file
checkmodeldbsyntax.py - Python script which does the same as the above
The formatmodeldbfile.m and formatmodeldbfile.py are included just for interest, you don't really need them unless you want to modify them to create your own format.
You will need MatLab to run the .m file versions and Python 2.5 for Windows to run the .py file versions. MatLab costs big bucks and Python is downloadable for free. You decide. Python is available here:
ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP!!! This means you select the files you're about to mod, you left-click on them, you copy/paste them in a folder preferably OUT of your steam folder (like on the desktop) and if ever your modification cause problem and you cannot figure out how to solve it, you'll have at least backup files to start over or just give up and continue playing the game by replacing the modded files by their vanilla one lol (but don't give up, the results are worth it).
Once all the tutorials at the links I provided above have been read in their entirety, we will be able to start studying the battle_models file. In order to keep everything simple and avoid that I simply throw the codes at you, we will give ourselves a goal and follow the steps to reach it. And I decided that this goal would be to allow France to recruit Canons of the Holy Sepulcher initially reserved only for Crusader States (called Jerusalem in the files). So the first thing to do is to find this unit.
STEP ONE ⸻ FIND THE UNIT'S NAME FOR EDU
Open your data/text /export_units.txt with Notepad++ and then open the search window and write the name (or part of it) of the unit as it appears in the game. This will take you to three lines, no more, regarding the unit you are looking for. In our case it's the Canons of the Holy Sepulcher. The short description (first line) is for custum battles, the second is the description that can be read in the campaign and the third line is the name as it appears in the game. We are interested in the denomination of the third line BUT the one between the tags! It is this denomination that will serve us to find the unit in question in the EDU.
STEP TWO ⸻ EDU RELEVANT ELEMENTS
Open the data/export_descr_unit.txt and the search window and search for that same denomination. You will probably be directed to the second line of the entry of the unit we are looking for, that is to say the dictionary. Just above this line there's its name without underscore as it appears in the game, but this denomination can sometimes be different from the one that appear in the game or even in other files! That's why the denomination that interests us is really the one with the underscores because it refers us to the same unit as in export_units.txt and export_descr_buildings. Do not forget that. Anyway, once you find the entry of the unit you are looking for, there will be a maximum of 6 lines that we are interested in: soldier, officer, armour_ug_models, ownership lines and era's (which are sometimes absent).
soldier ;
The first part of this line is very important for the battle_models file because the word before the first comma is the one that will allow us, more often than not, to find the entry of the unit in the battle_models file. Note that there is ONE entry per unit in those files (both EDU and battle_models). This knowledge might help you understand those files a little better, it sure help me for the battle_models one!
officer ;
I include this one because it is very likely that the officer of some unit you may alter will be only accessible to its faction of origin, that is why it may be necessary to change it otherwise you will have a silver surfer officer. However you can wait and see during your tests, if you see a silver surfer you will know what you have to do. To find out which officer to use for the unit you are altering, refer to the officer line of a unit that each faction you are interested in can recruit. And if there is no unit, I think you can use a mercenary unit officer.
armor_ug_levels & armour_ug_models ;
Armor levels giving to a unit as well as the smith level needed to confer them & Skins/Textures for each upgrade level respectively.
ownership ;
On this line you will need to add the faction or even the culture to whom you want to make the recruitment of this unit possible. To find out how, refer to other units in the EDU. It is also possible to simply write "all" if you want to give ownership of the unit to every factions of the game.
eras ;
Simply copy / paste the ownership line to these lines.
STEP THREE ⸻ UNDERSTANDING OF BATTLE_MODELS
Once you finish the alterations/adjustments in the EDU, we will finally tackle the beast in order, first, to understand it and then to mod it! Open the data/unit_models/battle_models.modeldb with Notepad++ and open the search window. Write the first part of the line "soldier" you saw in the EDU (the word before the first comma). In our example, the word is identical to the one found on the dictionary line, but BEWARE, this is not always the case! And that's not all! Before starting the search, count the number of characters/letters of the word (do it in the EDU) including underscores. The number should be 28. Enter this number at the beginning of the search and make sure to create a space between the number and the denomination of the unit! Click search. There should be only one result for this search and here it is (note again that there should be only one entry per unit in this file) :
Above is the COMPLETE entry of the unit that interest us in the EXACT form in which it must be. We will dissect it in several parts to better understand it, it's quite simple, do not despair. There are three golden rules to respect at any time when modifying this file :
I. String lenght number (which is 28 for our unit) and string (the denomination of our unit) must be on the same line!
II. String lenght number and string must absolutly match or you will have a CTD (without any entry in the log I think). That's why Unit Editor is important, because when you load your mod with it, it produce a log in which every error is indicated (sometimes way too much to be readable like Stainless Steel ).
III. Every line ends with a single space!
Now to the dissection! This entry of the Canons of the Holy Sepulcher is divisible in two big categories and these are divisible into 4 subcategories :
STEP FOUR ⸻ ADJUSTMENT IN EXPORT_DESCR_BUILDINGS
Now the Canons of the Holy Sepulcher is currently recruitable only in custom battles, so in order to make them recruitable during the campaign they must be assigned to a building and this part of the tutorial will help you. The building that interests us is a wonder that exists only in Jerusalem, it's the Holy Sepulcher. To find it in the file, open the search window and write the name or part of the name of the building. This should take you to this :
Code:
{
levels wonder_holy_sepulchre
{
wonder_holy_sepulchre city requires factions { northern_european, middle_eastern, eastern_european, greek, southern_european, } and hidden_resource wonder3
{
capability
{
recruit_pool "Canons of the Holy Sepulcher" 1 0.085 1 0 requires factions { jerusalem, } and hidden_resource Constable
happiness_bonus bonus 1
law_bonus bonus 1
}
material stone
construction 12
cost 12000
settlement_min large_town
upgrades
{
}
}
}
plugins
{
}
}
As this tutorial is not about explaining all the mysteries of modding, I strongly advise you to consult the links I shared above to deepen your knowledge or just start to gain some on this file. For the purpose of this tutorial I'll just show you the change that need to be done without explaining anything further.
Code:
{
levels wonder_holy_sepulchre
{
wonder_holy_sepulchre city requires factions { northern_european, middle_eastern, eastern_european, greek, southern_european, } and hidden_resource wonder3
{
capability
{
recruit_pool "Canons of the Holy Sepulcher" 1 0.085 1 0 requires factions { jerusalem, france, } and hidden_resource Constable [add "france," or whatever is the name of the faction you want after "jerusalem," and this line must always end with a comma and a space]
happiness_bonus bonus 1
law_bonus bonus 1
}
material stone
construction 12
cost 12000
settlement_min large_town
upgrades
{
}
}
}
plugins
{
}
}
If you play with SS6.4 mod, you should know that in its current downloadable version and even with the Meloo's bugfix it still has several bugs. There are at least 5 that affect the game in battle_models and by memory they are Saracen Mercenaries, Syrian Auxiliary (including a syntax error somewhere where we can read Auxillaries instead), Templar Squires and I cannot remember the others. They all appear in silver surfer. I'll include the bugfixe later maybe. In any case feel free to ask Meloo.
Whew... it requires a great deal of patience, time and most of all determination to do a tutorial, very glad that I finish it! Again, don't hesitate to comment and give advises and suggestions if it helped you out or if you like it!
Last edited by R.P. Gryphus; July 08, 2018 at 05:11 PM.
Step-by-step : Adding/Importing a unit & Silver surfer bugfix
data/export_descr_unit.txt ;
Directory of all units in the game.Originally Posted by KnightErrant
).
Reply With Quote
