Modding Questions and Help Thread

[Ngugi]

Doh, yeah, simply went with the notion that "the guild does it" so copy pasted the first levels effects, but you're right, hehe, these bonuses "merely" lower costs.

Should instead be

                construction_time_bonus_other bonus 50
                construction_time_bonus_defensive bonus 50
                construction_time_bonus_religious bonus 50

I take it

 

[scolsie1]

Well what can I say - after trying to change some unit voices (upon selecting them on the battlefield) a couple of days ago I had no success. Yesterday I selected a unit by chance which I gave a new voice and the unit apparently had a voice! It seems that I just need to restart my PC in order to make my changes work in game... I am confused but hey I take it^^

So with this out of the way I will try again to look up the construction boost and see what I can do!
Thanks for the tip!

I also want to change some more when it comes down to buildings and restrictions. (High) Elves can not build the highest tier of roads - I think they are now called trade roads or still great roads. My aim is to enable (as an example) Imladris (Egypt) to build great roads. Where and how can I allow them (add this building to the faction of Imladris) to build up great roads like Gondor, ND and the Dwarves?

Secondly I hate the plague feature in the game. I want to get completely rid of plague in DaC or turn down the effects (killing people, characters and soldiers) to basically zero.

I hope that someone can help me out again through linking a tutorial or give me some tips
Thanks very much!

 

[Ngugi]

Well what can I say - after trying to change some unit voices (upon selecting them on the battlefield) a couple of days ago I had no success. Yesterday I selected a unit by chance which I gave a new voice and the unit apparently had a voice! It seems that I just need to restart my PC in order to make my changes work in game... I am confused but hey I take it^^

The engine moves in mysterious ways hehe

I also want to change some more when it comes down to buildings and restrictions. (High) Elves can not build the highest tier of roads - I think they are now called trade roads or still great roads. My aim is to enable (as an example) Imladris (Egypt) to build great roads. Where and how can I allow them (add this building to the faction of Imladris) to build up great roads like Gondor, ND and the Dwarves?

Open export_descr_buildings.txt
Look up "highways" and you'll see what factions and cultures that can build it within the brackets:

highways city requires factions { gondor, southern_european, russia, turks, normans, } and building_present_min_level masons_lodge grand_lodge and event_counter bree_allied 1

Add egypt (Imladris) and saxons (Lindon) in order to allow them to build it:

highways city requires factions { gondor, southern_european, russia, turks, normans[COLOR=#ff0000], egypt, saxons[/COLOR], } and building_present_min_level masons_lodge grand_lodge and event_counter bree_allied 1

Secondly I hate the plague feature in the game. I want to get completely rid of plague in DaC or turn down the effects (killing people, characters and soldiers) to basically zero.

It's been as removed as is possible, by TATW originally and none been able to reduce it further; what's still in is hard coded it seems.

 

[Vifarc]

(High) Elves can not build the highest tier of roads - I think they are now called trade roads or still great roads. My aim is to enable (as an example) Imladris (Egypt) to build great roads.
Secondly I hate the plague feature in the game. I want to get completely rid of plague in DaC or turn down the effects (killing people, characters and soldiers) to basically zero.

For the elves, the plague feature is the go-west feature. Imagine the rat icon is a boat. Maybe then the feature will please you.

 

[Orkmann]

As I understand, from reading the forums, that the AI is getting bonuses to the auto resolve, based on the campaign difficulty. Is it possible to edit/remove these bonuses? I would prefer a setup, where the AI gets all the usual bonuses from H/VH, but the autoresolve works as it would be normal. Thx!

 

[Ngugi]

Hmm, seems it is hard coded and if so can't be affected.
Could not find any threads on the topic that offer other input; http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?445976-Auto-Resolve-Question

 

[Orkmann]

I see. Thanks Ngugi for checking.

 

[alreadyded]

I rebalanced it quite a bit and plan to focus on it more. Some difficulty bonuses are hardcoded but they affect many things not just auto-resolve. I don't think autoresolve is hardcoded, just very simple settings that don't allow much, essentially rock/paper/scissors. I also don't think the AI even gets a bonus in the autoresolve code, these are probably the bonuses that affect many things. This is not beginner modder stuff, but you may be able to copy/paste my stuff and get it working in whatever mod you are playing.

The easier solution would be to add a unit bonus for experience for the player faction only to a building and use that to balance autoresolve to your liking. Editing the buildings file is saved game compatible so you can save before a battle and test it.

 

[Silvan Heir]

Sub Mod Creation in Progress for Dwarves (Hobbit Films)

Edit #1:

I no longer need help thanks.

 

[Ngugi]

Hello. Can someone tell me how to change the in game battle horn of a faction to a movie related sound ?

Example: Change a dwarf rally sound to the sound ThorinII made when he charged the orcs during the battle of Moria. I'm working on my own little mod.

That's no issue.

I do not know what experience you have with soundmodding, so I note that you must unpack the .dat- and .idx-files in data/sounds first.
A description to how to do this and to get the tool for it, see: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=352289
Read the section named Prerequisites and how to use them [do note that you do not need the Medieval II soundfiles that are linked to because they're in DaC already].
Note that your extractor-code should look like this:

.\xidx.exe -x SFX
pause

since you want to edit horns and not voices



The sound-file must be a .wav-file.
Place it in data/sounds/SFX/Individual/War_Horns

Open descr_sounds_units_anims.txt in the data-folder.
Look up the War Horn-section:

;##### SOUNDS - WAR HORNS #####

Dwarves use the southern european sound-theme (red), so look that up.
Then either replace the existing sounds with yours (the three in blue below in DaC's case), or add your new to them for even more ones;

    culture [COLOR=#ff0000]southern_european[/COLOR]
        event
            folder data/sounds/SFX/Individual/War_Horns
            [COLOR=#0000cd]horn_dwarves1[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#0000cd]            horn_dwarves2[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#0000cd]            horn_dwarves3[/COLOR]
        end

Save and close the text-file.

After the coding is done you should backup your SFX.idx and SFX.dat as well as your events.idx and events.dat.
Then delete the Voice.idx, Voice.dat, events.idx and events.dat and start your game (the files are recreated) and you can test in custom battle.

 

[Silvan Heir]

Thanks Ngugi. I'll start working on it now, and the linked tutorial will also show me how to give only a specific general's horn different sounds ? Or will I only be able to change it faction wide?

 

[Ngugi]

Faction wide - in fact for all Dwarven factions, as war horn is bound to culture and not faction nor general.

The only way to make it an individual, or somewhat individual, effect in that way ought to be to tie the sound to a hero ability on the battlefield, and that ability then is uniqe to the general or a few generals.
A tutorial on the topic of ability-sound; http://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...-to-add-Hero-ability-sound-effects&highlight=

 

[Silvan Heir]

Faction wide - in fact for all Dwarven factions, as war horn is bound to culture and not faction nor general.

The only way to make it an individual, or somewhat individual, effect in that way ought to be to tie the sound to a hero ability on the battlefield, and that ability then is uniqe to the general or a few generals.
A tutorial on the topic of ability-sound; http://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...-to-add-Hero-ability-sound-effects&highlight=

Hero abilities seem to be what I was aiming for then thank you !

 

[Ngugi]

Do so; I did the same in DCI in fact, so if you want the horn soundfile we have just give me a heads up.

 

[Silvan Heir]

No problem I'll let you know then .

 

[Sir Matthias]

Can you start factions with other faction's map information in descr_strat?

 

[Ngugi]

No, afraid not.
That might be possible via script (like spawning and deleting spies next to AI factions' settlements at turn 1) but I'm no scripter so can't propose anything practical, and I do would forsee it to require quite a massive script (as DaC has almost 200 provinces).
As a side note how they solved this for Roman factions in Rome 1 I do not know but not seen it repeated in any M2 mod.

 

[Araval]

You can take a look at Visible Allied Settlements script by Baron Samedi from his submod: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...ubmods-Compilation-for-TATW-3-1-V5-0-RELEASED!!!

 

[Sir Matthias]

Too bad, though I might pilfer quite a bit from baron samedi's stuff

 

[k966]

Re: MOS, the ultimate TATW experience.

I'm trying to mod a very minor issue, and I'm running into CTDs.
I'd like to give Gondor Guardsmen some proper armour upgrade. I notice there are already mesh and texture for the said upgrade, so I simply followed to format laid out in modeldb for other entries, but to no avail.
Note that I have the number count and the file path correct (I moved the texture for easy copy-paste job).

Is the texture from the past versions broken, hence my problem? Or I am doing something wrong entirely?

I'm using Enhanced MOS, but that shouldn't be a problem to model db I assume.

Spoiler

20 gondor_guardsmen_ug1
1 1
53 unit_models/_Units/NGU/gondor_guardsmen_ug1_lod0.mesh 6400
2
6 sicily
65 unit_models/_Units/NGU/textures/gondor_guardsmen_ug1_diff.texture
65 unit_models/_Units/NGU/textures/gondor_guardsmen_ug1_norm.texture
51 unit_sprites/sicily_gondor_guardsmen_ug1_sprite.spr
4 merc
65 unit_models/_Units/NGU/textures/gondor_guardsmen_ug1_diff.texture
65 unit_models/_Units/NGU/textures/gondor_guardsmen_ug1_norm.texture
51 unit_sprites/sicily_gondor_guardsmen_ug1_sprite.spr
2
6 sicily
76 unit_models/_Units/NGU/attachments/gondor_guardsmen_attachments_diff.texture
76 unit_models/_Units/NGU/attachments/gondor_guardsmen_attachments_norm.texture 0
4 merc
76 unit_models/_Units/NGU/attachments/gondor_guardsmen_attachments_diff.texture
76 unit_models/_Units/NGU/attachments/gondor_guardsmen_attachments_norm.texture 0
1
4 None
10 MTW2_Spear 0
2
18 MTW2_Spear_primary
14 fs_test_shield 0
16 -0.090000004 0 0 -0.34999999 0.80000001 0.60000002

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Louis Lux]

Re: MOS, the ultimate TATW experience.

texture files don't cause ctds so you can rule that out. As far as I remember the modeldb file has a number of entries that must be correct, so if this is a new entry you should increase the number count by 1. You can search the forums on tutorials on editing the modeldb file, I'm sure there are plenty.

 

[k966]

Re: MOS, the ultimate TATW experience.

Thanks for the reply!
Sadly, inputting the correct number is exactly the cause of the CTD. Since I have made sure the syntax count, and file path correct, henceforth my suspicion in regards of the mesh.

 

[Jurand of Cracow]

Re: MOS, the ultimate TATW experience.

Hi Guys,
I've got a question that you may happen to know:
- do we know how much impact does the loss of stamina on the performance of the units have? (in my notes I've got: -2 atk tired, 3 atk, -1 def very tired, -4 atk, -2 def exhausted, -6 atk, -3 def totally exhausted - I'd like to know if this is the common wisdom: not %% but values, as it'd impact weak units a lot indeed; besides: no impact on morale, right?)
- do the "heat" parameters impact on other things than the speed of losing stamina?
- do we know what types of terrain impacts on the speed of regaining stamina?
I'll be grateful for assistance
cheers
JoC

 

[alreadyded]

Re: MOS, the ultimate TATW experience.

I recall reading about people attempting to find this stuff out from testing one unit vs. one unit. The short answer is no one knows, while the game is simple the game engine is dynamic. Meaning there is always more than just two factors to consider. I do scientific research, we can only compare two things at a time. The animations alone and how they impact this stuff is too much to consider.

If you find out the max and min setting of something you can get percentages to work with, it isn't real but it is better than nothing. This is what I did.

 

[scolsie1]

Hey there
Since V3 of DaC is released I restarted to further tweak the game to make it even more enjoyable - of course just in my opinion. So my questions concern Third Age Total War DaC.

My aim is to let some factions build some more buildings. To be more specific I want to make High elves (egypt, saxons) able to build great roads. Which files I have to edit in order to make it probably working?
I already tried and it worked to some extend. I was able to build great roads as High elves but playing a campaign in the building complete message at every new turn (only) sometimes the game failed to show the short description of great roads displaying instead: „Do not translate“. This is telling me that I did something wrong and I want to find out my mistakes.
If anybody knows how to help me out on that it would be great


Lastly I failed to correctly set unit voices.
From Reforged I imported the Elder Palace Guard for Mirkwood. The unit is probably working in game but when I select the unit on the battle map (click on their unit card or on one soldier they are silent. I want them to use the same voice files like the Elvenkings Guard (the Mirkwood Bodyguard unit uses it as well I believe) saying something like: „They may be near by“ or „We must reclaim our forest“.
Where do I have to make these changes?


Thanks for your help

 

[Lothar135]

A bit of modding help...

Hello to all,

I really love this mod! It can be described only as "awesome".

However, I would like to change it a bit. Could someone who knows his way around modding be so kind and help me?

I would like to do just a simple little mod - change the effect of chivalry. It seems not to work much...I would like it to be more similar to the vanilla medieval, to add more to population growth. Can it be done in some easy way? I was searching for it for more than an hour, without any bigger effect...

Thanks in advance to all good souls who point (or kick) me in the right direction

 

[Ngugi]

Hi Lothar

There are two ways to change the efficiency of cavalry: the mass of mounts in descr_mount.txt and the attack stats in export_descr_unit.txt (both in the data-folder).
Always backup the files before you edit them.

Example descr_mount:

type                northern heavy horse    ;;;;;  Northern standard horse
class                horse
model                northern_heavy_horse 
radius                1.2
x_radius            0.5
y_offset            0.7
height                2.5
[COLOR=#ff0000]mass                3.25[/COLOR]
banner_height        0
bouyancy_offset        1.8
water_trail_effect    horse_water_trail
root_node_height    1.0
rider_offset        0.0, 0.38, 0.70

What's good settings is up for debate; note that the TATW settings are already higher than in M2, but this is an easy way to improve cavalry without edit each unit.

Then in the EDU you can change the attack values for each cavalry unit. The line of interest is stat_pri as that's the lance [in case cavalry has it], while stat_pri refer to swords etc used by lance- and missile-cavalry.
The first value (6 here) is the base attack, the second value (9 here) is the charge bonus.

type             Gondor Cavalry
dictionary       Gondor_Cavalry      ; Gondor Cavalry
category         cavalry
class            heavy
voice_type       Heavy
banner faction   main_cavalry
banner holy      crusade
soldier          gondor_cavalry, 30, 0, 1
officer             gondor_captain_early_flag
officer             gondor_captain_early_flag
mount            gondor horse
mount_effect     elephant -4, camel -4
attributes       sea_faring, hide_forest, can_withdraw, legionary_name, can_formed_charge, knight, free_upkeep_unit
formation        2, 4.4, 3, 6, 2, square
stat_health      1, 3
[COLOR=#ff0000]stat_pri         6, 9[/COLOR], no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, spear, 25, 1
stat_pri_attr    no
stat_sec         8, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, sword, 25, 1
stat_sec_attr    no
(...)

~~~~~~~~~~


As for population growth easiest change out to be descr_settlement_mechanics.xml (use Notepad to open it*) and look up:

      <factor name="SPF_BUILDINGS">        ;EDB population_growth_bonus
         <pip_modifier value="[COLOR=#ff0000]1.0[/COLOR]"/>
      </factor>

Not quite sure what's a good new level. You can check what's now, then change it to 1.5 and see what's the difference. Tweak till you're pleased.


*Recommend you get Notepad++ in case you do not have that yet. It's a freeware and much better and safer to use than normal Notepad.

 

[Withwnar]

Chivalry, Ngugi, chivalry.

descr_settlement_mechanics.xml it is though...

      <factor name="SPF_GOVERNORS_INFLUENCE">	;Governor chivalry
         <pip_modifier value="0.12"/>
         <pip_min value="0"/>
         <pip_max value="1"/>
      </factor>

Vanilla M2TW...

      <factor name="SPF_GOVERNORS_INFLUENCE">
         <pip_modifier value="1.0"/>
         <pip_min value="0"/>
         <pip_max value="10"/>
      </factor>

Some earlier posts were discussing this too...
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...elp-Thread&p=13126745&viewfull=1#post13126745

 

[Ngugi]

Ah yes, would make for a better RP experience, and not risk to make the growth generally overpowered.

 

[Lothar135]

Great! Thx a lot, good people of middle earth