678 replies to this topic

[Nazgûl]

Zimoo, you wouldn't happen to know anything about my q in the other thread? :/ Changing interface/menus back to BFMEII?

(EDIT: if this friggin keybord could start OBEYING me the first time, I wouldn't have to edit all my posts *lol*)

Edited by Nazgûl, 27 January 2007 - 12:28 PM.

[zimoo]

I've already replied to it

[BigRedKane]

Sorry I ain't been around Nazgul, been busy with business stuffs and other stuffs.

I'm sure my Rohirrim can fire their arrows whilst riding/moving...however they don't do it often and they slow down when doing it. Sometimes I wonder if it's a bug/side effect 'cos I'm useing The War mod ini.big with the rest of the game being patched to 1.06...I've got other wacky things going on as well, so it wouldn't surprise me. However, on balance, I still prefer the game this way and despite the "wacky" stuff my game is more stable now than it's ever been.

I think it's a good thing to have as much extra content as possible in this game...movie stuff and other stuff, as then it gives more scope for the gameplay and player choices. As an example, since playing the game with The War mod and a few of my other mods I find it difficult to go back to the standard BFME 2 game...I tried 4 times...and it was boring compared to the heavily modded version...lol.

I would be interested in finding out more about your mod, Nazgul....what you plan to add, remove, change etc....if you have any info or link or whatever I'd appreciate it....if not I guess I'll have to wait until you're done...heh.

Also as a side note, but relating to you meantioning likeing the movie feel, one mod I did myself was change the ai behaviour with respect to unit construction....on my game now the ai doesn't build a million seige weapons anymore....I now have the value set to 0.04 for seige type weapons, I felt this more faithful to the stories since LOTR focuses more on heros and background armies and less on actual seige weapons. I also hope to change the range soon as I feel a mobile catapult should not outrange an immobile one which is usually at least 5 times the size, has height advantage and thus should fire a hell of a lot further.

[Nazgûl]

Hi "Mr Big"

No sweat, I figured you might pop up sooner or later with some help, as you've been doing lately
I've scrapped the "Rohirrim arrow fireing whilst riding" thing, since noone seems to have pulled this off without any problems. I've read a great deal about torsos turning 360 degrees and other problems making this simply not worth the effort They're still "bitchin" though, from all the cool skins and ha-upgrade in the form of shields only, their power and knock back, and so on. So they'll do I guess.

Tonight I also decided to NOT port the mod to RotWK after having tried the expansion extensively, and it was just as I thought... a BIG step even further from the gift EA received when gaining the licence to to this game in the first place. BFME1 was a lot about the movies... BFME2 was less about the movies, and the expansion even further away towards something that could easily be misstaken as any of the 136 gazillion other action oriented stress out "kids games" out there that are all about one thing, and ONE thing only; destruction of the enemy base within 5 minutes of gameplay. I HATE it! And especially I hate it even MORE when I buy a game for a particular reason - in this case beeing me wanting to have an epic Lord of the Rings strategy experience, involving seeing structures, enviroments, units and heroes that I recognize from the movies, and NOT an adrenalin rush to keep my farms safe from a few guys hitting it with swords, making a 7 ton structrure crumble to bits in 10 seconds... In short once again: having a M O V I E L I C E N C E to make a game based on a movie, I beleive that's what the company in question should do, and not a mediocre "look like all the other action oriented strategy rush games" out there with TONS of units, names and designs that no Tolkien fan has even heard of, or less seen before...

So... that said, I really like Zen, and I think he's done a hell of a job with his mod. He's really skilled and in control of the codes, but the way TheWar plays, it's not for me either. I think it's fun for a while, but I pretty soon got back to my mod, where I put weeks into making this game act like the movies in terms of balance of structures, weapons, armor, units and heroes. Changing colors and skins. Adding units, and more...

I guess I could post my manuscript containing all the stuff in this mod, and screen shots and such, but I think that I better start a new thread then and place it somewhere else in the forum. Is there a special section for that?

[BigRedKane]

Since it's about your mod, I'd assume it would be ok to post such a list in the modding forum here. If you want to be REALLY sure why not PM or ask one of the admin/staff openly?...
But I figure it's about modding...and this is a modding forum...heh

To be honest, no game out there is going to fit every gamer's expectations out of the box. There'll always be something that could be done better. I'm just thankful if a games company makes it easy to mod their game, 'cos then people like us can change the things we don't like.
I doubt I'd like all of the ROTWK expansion....but I did spot some things in the demo movies and screenshots that I do like. So if I ever get it I'll probably mod that too to undo the mess they made on the other bits...lol.

Also one should bare in mind that LOTR books came before the movies and Peter Jackson's vision (altho I love it since it fits in with my vision of how things should be in such a realm) isn't entirely accurate to the books...in fact it's miles off base in some cases (like Arwen's involvement...originaly in the books it was Glorfindel that rescues Frodo on the way to Rivendell, not Arwen). Which is why I have no problem with stuff from the books being in the game.

That said, though, I think BFME 2 and ROTWK are missing two vital things to complete their so-called "complete LOTR RTS" (besides balance and what not which can be modded) and that is there is no Fellowship of the Ring/Two Towers/Return of the King Campaign...and there's no full map of middle earth for those of us that are insane enough to want to play on such a huge map. I don't count War of the Ring for the second one since that is, technically, several small maps that the player plays on seperately...not one map in RTS mode.
Until someone changes that the game will always feel incomplete to me.
I also feel it's missing things such as Shelob's lair and various underground tunnel type of maps...but maybe that's just me being picky...lol.

I agree about Zen doing an awesome job on The War mod...wish I could talk to the guy, he might be able to help solve a couple of probs...lol.

In any event I hope you found some stuff in The War that could/will be of use in helping with your mod...it's handy when other mods help to cut down on mod development time.

If I can help you with anything beyond what we've already talked about, let me know....I'll do my best to help...if I can....

[Nazgûl]

- Yes of course, but I think there's a special section for showing your work with screen shots and such, and I found it. Just go by the main manu and you'll see it

- Naturally no game is going to suit all users and their expectations, but in this case the whole concept of creation is pretty narrowed down, since its about a New Line Cinema MOVIE licence, from what I gather and not a BOOK licence from Tolkien Enterprises. And most importanly, not a creation of total free imagination, as 9 of 10 other games are. My point is thus that it would not be hard to follow the movies and their concept, if that is actually the intention, which I thought it was... *lol* Designing the game after the books has never been the goal, I would guess, and in my case, am also only after the movie experience, since designing after the books would only reflect the imagination of the game creators, and not the wonderful work of Peter Jacksons crew. That is NOT ment to be read as me not liking the books! They're fantastic, and yes a few things have been modified for film, but books are books and the speak to my imagination, that is surely quite different from your and others imagination. The movies are the same for all... You catch my drift?

I think BFME 2 and ROTWK are missing two vital things to complete their so-called "complete LOTR RTS" (besides balance and what not which can be modded) and that is there is no Fellowship of the Ring/Two Towers/Return of the King Campaign...and there's no full map of middle earth for those of us that are insane enough to want to play on such a huge map. I don't count War of the Ring for the second one since that is, technically, several small maps that the player plays on seperately...not one map in RTS mode.
Until someone changes that the game will always feel incomplete to me.
I also feel it's missing things such as Shelob's lair and various underground tunnel type of maps...but maybe that's just me being picky...lol.

I totally agree...

Now, a new problem of some heavier sort...
I've added a new unit for the elves (with the hidden Last Alliance skin) with great sucess!
I tried to ad a new unit for the dwarves in exactly the same manner... but just as the timer goes to zero and the unit is going to exit the barracks, I get Game.dat error... the worst error of them all, and my first since I started this mod... :( My theory is that it has something to do with the actual model beeing displayed - thus skin or texture? But the textures are there in the Art folder, Asset have been updated and everything seems to be in order otherwise...? HELP? Anyone experienced the same? What could be wrong?

Edited by Nazgûl, 28 January 2007 - 03:38 AM.

[adummy]

- sorry Nazgul, i didnt not mean to anger you with the legal matters about bringing ROTWK stuff into BFME2.
- with the dwaven mine shaft, i thought you didnt know where EA was using it so i was just telling you where it was used.
- i think you are right that the game.dat error is something with the skins. i think it is a problem where the game they are suppost to have a certain model but that model doesn exist/wont accept it

Edited by adummy, 28 January 2007 - 04:12 AM.

[Nazgûl]

*hizzzzzz*

No, no sweat really! I was just a bit tired at the moment, like now but in a better mood, despite not beeing able to aolve this. There seems to me a bunch of reasons that can cause this, and Ive tried to go through the affected inis all over, but I cant localize the cause of the crash. I HATE these crashes since they don't tell you what's wrong :(

I've added Last Alliance Elves, like I said, and that was without any problems, and the skins were already in BFME2's textures. Same with this unit, a dwarven unit that uses unused skins from BFME2... But exactly upon the timer reaching zero, the game crashes I don't get it?

[JEV3]

This happens to me all the time... Usually I solve it by removing a special power. I think it has something to do with a power referring to a nonexistant animation. Some times I solve it by removing the unpack time, at other times I have to remove the entire power. Check your powers and stuff, unfortunately, however, if this unit is made from scratch it won't be quite so simple as that.

How did you give it to the dwarves, did you copy it and change the side to equal dwarves, did you make a child object... Tell us how you made it go into the dwarves and then maybe somebody can be of more help.

Sorry to hear that you won't be porting your mod to ROTWK but if you don't like the game, I really don't blame you. Personally I like the new faction, of course I don't like the sorcerers as it makes it sound like a lot of other games I have heard advertised. However there are too many other features I like to let this ruin the game for me. Sure they have wandered away from the movie feel, but to me the new setting is refreshing. That said, I hope that sometime when you are more experienced, (not to say you aren't experienced now, you have done things I will not be able to do for a while!), you decide to port it to ROTWK and convert ROTWK into what you think it should be like.

Hope this helps,
JEV3

[zimoo]

game.dat's are nothing to do with missing art. If the art is missing it simply doesn't show up.

Post your code and I'm sure someone will have a look at it.

[Nazgûl]

Thanks Jev and Zimoo, I found it though - it was a missing special power from the unit.ini that was not listed in Specialpower.ini, causing the crash. I really friggin hate that these errors don'tr come with any quidance what so ever - like the others that tell you what's wrong. But going through the files step by step I could locate the problem... thanks to Jev for pointing me towards special power!

My next problem is that the w3d-obejct I have assingned for the units appears invisible in game (again). This is like the 1436:th time I get this problem, and usually it's solved by redoing the asset.dat and checing the Art folder, but not this time... Crap! I know there are like a ton of modders that have had problems with this too, and there seems to be miles of forum posts about this, so I guess I have a lot of reading to do - again

When this is done - there's merely like 2 things left on the list, before release

Edited by Nazgûl, 28 January 2007 - 11:51 AM.

[Nazgûl]

I solved it... dunno how actually, I just redid things over and over from different angels, sort of... *lol*

That pretty much concludes the adding of units. Don't think I need more now, except the darn Gothmog perhaps... But I have a plan to solve that by looking for a working Gothmog in another mod, and ask for permission to use it

This should make this next question the final q before adding the Mordor walls that Fingulfin's working on...

---
Mounting Treebeard? (This has been up before, but I'll "bump" it now)
I've read somewhere that someone managed to have hobbits mount treebeard, and from there throw rocks! Is this possible to do without TO much hassle?

[Nazgûl]

Right... I found some code that Argolis posted... and now I get them up there, but that's about it *lol*



Once up there:
- Treebeards commandset is "dead" (The wepon toggle is gray)
- The mounted hobbits can't do anything... I know I have to ad dismount somewhere, but they can't even be selected anymore, and less do something like throw rocks, which is the intention of this

Any ideas?

[JEV3]

Is there a child object for treebeard mounting the hobbits? And if so does it reference a nonexistant commandset. That is about all I can think of though.

Hope this helps,
JEV3

[Nazgûl]

No childobject, just a behavior in Treebeards ini + a new Commandbutton + Commandset:

Behavior in Treebeard.ini

		Behavior = TransportContain ModuleTag_TransportContainTag01
			ObjectStatusOfContained = UNSELECTABLE CAN_ATTACK
			PassengerFilter = NONE +HOBBIT
			Slots = 1
			ShowPips = No
			AllowEnemiesInside = No
			AllowNeutralInside = No
			AllowAlliesInside  = Yes
			DamagePercentToUnits = 0%
			TypeOneForWeaponSet = HOBBIT
			PassengerBonePrefix = PassengerBone:Passenger01 KindOf:HOBBIT
			EjectPassengersOnDeath = Yes
	   	ConditionForEntry = ModelConditionState: MOUNTED
		End

		Behavior = TransportContain ModuleTag_TransportContainTag02
			ObjectStatusOfContained = UNSELECTABLE CAN_ATTACK
			PassengerFilter = NONE +HOBBIT
			Slots = 1
			ShowPips = No
			AllowEnemiesInside = No
			AllowNeutralInside = No
			AllowAlliesInside  = Yes
			DamagePercentToUnits = 0%
			TypeOneForWeaponSet = HOBBIT
			PassengerBonePrefix = PassengerBone:Passenger02 KindOf:HOBBIT
			EjectPassengersOnDeath = Yes
	   	ConditionForEntry = ModelConditionState: MOUNTED
		End

New commandbutton

CommandButton Command_TransportEvacuateHobbit
 Command				 = EVACUATE
 TextLabel			   = CONTROLBAR:TransportExit
 ButtonImage			 = HSTheodenMountDismount
 ButtonBorderType		= SYSTEM; Identifier for the User as to what kind of button this is
 DescriptLabel		   = CONTROLBAR:ToolTipTransportExit
 InPalantir			 = Yes
 UnitSpecificSound	   = TreebeardVoiceDropHobbit
End

New commandset

CommandSet RohanTreeBeardCommandSet
	1	= Command_ToggleStance
	2	= Command_ToggleTreebeardRockThrow
	3	= Command_TransportEvacuateHobbit //Command_ExitGarrison
	12	= Command_CaptureBuilding
	13	= Command_AttackMove
	14	= Command_Stop
End

Situation now:
- Treebeard CAN shift toggle weapon when carrying ONE hobbit, but he cannot dismount hobbit!
- Treebeard can NOT shift weapon upon carrying TWO hobbits, but he CAN dismount ONE of the hobbits!

??? Any ideas?

[Lauri]

Think this might do something...

		Behavior = TransportContain ModuleTag_TransportContainTag01
			ObjectStatusOfContained = UNSELECTABLE CAN_ATTACK
			PassengerFilter = NONE +HOBBIT
			Slots = 2
			ShowPips = No
			AllowEnemiesInside = No
			AllowNeutralInside = No
			AllowAlliesInside  = Yes
			DamagePercentToUnits = 0%
			TypeOneForWeaponSet = HOBBIT
			PassengerBonePrefix = PassengerBone:Passenger KindOf:HOBBIT
			EjectPassengersOnDeath = Yes
		   ConditionForEntry = ModelConditionState: MOUNTED
		End

with just the Passengerbone, is should also include the Passenger01 and 02, and also any other bond that starts with Passenger, like if there where a bone called PassengerDrunkParty, it would be included, and Merry might've sit there

[Nazgûl]

Lauri... sweeet! Now the code looks like this:

		Behavior = TransportContain ModuleTag_TransportContainTag01
			ObjectStatusOfContained = UNSELECTABLE;CAN_ATTACK
			PassengerFilter = NONE +HOBBIT
			Slots = 2 //1
			ShowPips = No
			AllowEnemiesInside = No
			AllowNeutralInside = No
			AllowAlliesInside  = Yes
			DamagePercentToUnits = 0%
			TypeOneForWeaponSet = HOBBIT
			PassengerBonePrefix = PassengerBone:Passenger KindOf:HOBBIT
			EjectPassengersOnDeath = Yes
	   ;	ConditionForEntry = ModelConditionState: MOUNTED
		End

Status:
--------
- BOTH hobbits can mount, and unmount Treebeard!
- NO hobbit can attack from Treebeards branches! Enableing "CAN_ATTACK" will only make them stand (?) up, while mounted, but not attacking? :(
- When mounted, Treebeard can NOT toggle weapon, but he CAN attack with whatver wepon he was using before bobbits climbed up? :(

>>> Does someone know if it's possible to have them throw rocks "automatically" while mounted? Like the battle towers...
>>> How can I make Treebeard be able to use his weapon toggle while hobbits are mounted?

Ideas?

[Argolis]

I never had a problem with treebeards weapon toggle. also I think you need two transport evacuate buttons to clear both hobbits out (like mines and transport ships have).

I however also had the same problem you did with can_attack (my old pc died before i finished fixing it). Heres what I think though.

1 - if you want them to throw rocks from treebeard, they will need to be in rock throw mode BEFORE getting on treebeard.

2 - Try mounting Frodo up there, I think his animation code has something merry nad pippins dont.

Edited by Argolis, 29 January 2007 - 07:54 PM.

[Lauri]

well, I have NO idea what's causing that....

for the TypeOneForWeaponset... I've never seen anything like that... And I certanly wouldn't think it was HOBBIT... since I don't know what it does, try using CONTAINED instead...

Edited by Lauri, 29 January 2007 - 08:03 PM.

[Nazgûl]

>Two Transport Evacuate Buttons gives two buttons for Treebeard, but makes no other difference unfortionately...
>Setting them up for rock throw before mount is something Ive always done whilst trying this, but they still dont wanna do anything up there, other than sit...
>Frodo makes no difference either other than that he and Sam can't sit - they only stand up there...

I also forgot to mention that Treebeard always "try to" move away, when the hobbits get close, so it's a bit tricky getting them close enough to climb up.


In other words... this is not looking to be something I will include in the mod. If noone knows of a solution I guess I'll just comment this bit out from Treebeards code since it does not really have any use like this :( The only thing I could imaging this beeing good for, is perhaps to have Treebeard carry the hobbit heroes to safety when things get a little rough, but consider them beeing so weak, they'll probably fall before he reaches them anyway *lol* Too bad, it would have been cool to have them as extra artillery for Treebeard