65 replies to this topic

[Wolvman]

Hey everyone, I'm new to these forums and modding BFME II in general so I was wondering if I could get some help with some of this stuff.

To sum it up, I'm eventually wanting to add five new races in all to my mod (It's going to be a TC). I have already been through a few tutorials about the INI and have already added my five races as an option to choose from in the races list . I have also given each of them a different placeholder fortress (just the ones that are already in the game for right now) and I'm now trying to give them a few powers that are already in the game. That's what I need help with at the moment. For example, I want one of my races to have the men's healing power and another to have the Summon Eagle Allies power. I was thinking that it would be in the science ini file but I can't seem to figure out what I must type to get those certain powers over to the right race. I have already been to www.the3rdage.net but can't find any tutorials that show me what I'm wanting to do. I also did a quick forum search here but didn't find what I was looking for exactly. I even looked into the tutorials at www.mevault.ign.com but still didn't find help with this. Anyways, that's what I currently need help with right now, and of course it would be very appreciated.

I'll just use this thread to ask my future questions to save space.

"The Sky has Fallen"

Edited by Wolvman, 03 June 2008 - 06:48 PM.

[m@tt]

Spellbook commandsets can be be found in commandset.ini

Btw, adding 5 new factions is incredibly difficult, even for experienced modders, and especially for inexperienced lone-modders. We have seen many people give up early. So don't get ahead of yourself.

[Wolvman]

Thanks for the info. I'll take a look into the commandset ini soon. As for adding 5 races, I doubt we're going to give up anytime soon. We already have nearly all of the ideas laid out for us as well as the basic models. We even have most of the sounds and music for each race. Now we just have to get the animations, textures, and ini files set up. Atleast, I hope that's all we have left heh.

Edited by Wolvman, 03 June 2008 - 08:27 PM.

[m@tt]

Well at least you don't sound deluded as some of the people we get here

Be sure to post screens up. What are you adding?

[Wolvman]

Well, I'd really like to post some screenshots but we don't exactly have any right now.

This is pretty much where we are at right now and what is going on with this mod. We're just a team of only a few new guys who really enjoy gaming. So me and a few of my friends decided to look into game design and decided we should start small. So it landed us here, modding for BFME II. Since we wanted to start small for game design we chose something easier than creating an entire game from scratch with no knowledge of how to do it. What we're working on right now for this mod is bringing back an old RTS (about 9 years old), to the BFME II engine. The game's name was Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. It wasn't a huge game like Starcraft but some people really liked it (like our team). That's why we're trying to bring it back, so that we can change what people hated about it and enhance what people loved about it. Plus I just really want to see the game with better graphics and physics.

Still, we're pretty much noobs when it comes to this, but we are trying hard to get where we want to be. Currently there is only 3 of us working full fledge on the mod. The other 2 people aren't doing much right now because they are currently learning how to do website design and programming for us. So that's pretty much it.

Edited by Wolvman, 03 June 2008 - 10:28 PM.

[Devon]

Sounds interesting.

But what exactly was total anhiliation: kingdoms?

[Wolvman]

It was a medieval fantasy based RTS. You know, dragons, magic, guys with swords, the works. The company that made the game is gone now due to financial problems of some kind, but hopefully we can bring Kingdoms back to it's feet.

The land that the game takes place on is Darien (Mostly). The way the whole war of TAK began was with a guy named Garicias. He was a crazy powerful immortal. Anyways, he raised four children. The oldest was Elsin, Monarch of Aramon. Next was Thirsha, Monarch of Zhon. Then came Lokken, Monarch of Taros. Last was Kirenna, Monarch of Veruna. When Garicias grew old and sick of living for so long he gave up his immortality to each of his children and sent them to different parts of the world. He kept just enough of his power to live for one human life worth of years just to watch his children grow into adults. After he sent each of his children away he sailed to Creon where he became the new leader of the people who lived there. He tought the people all that he learned in his immortal years, and when his human life ran out a new Sage took his place as ruler of Creon. His four children were all given a land to rule over.

Here are some pictures I have of each of the four siblings.

Kirenna-> http://s260.photobuc...gdomse30031.jpg

Elsin-> http://s260.photobuc...gdomse30041.jpg

Thrisha-> http://s260.photobuc...gdomse30011.jpg

Lokken-> http://s260.photobuc...gdomse30021.jpg


Each race is extremely different from each other so it doesn't ever get repetitive, atleast for me.

Zhon are a race of beasts and wild monsters.

Aramon are the more human and most civilized race with strongholds and massive castles.

Veruna have the more eligant looking structures and are also pretty civilized.

Taros, the race of undead and demons.

There's another race that was added in an expansion pack (Called TAK: The Iron Plague) that is pretty kick ***, but they are much more different than the other races. They're called the Creon, which are a race of humans that turned away from using mana (the resource of Kingdoms) and began using electricity and steam power. They have a huge advantage over the other races, machines, they know how to make machines which the other races have no idea how to battle. They're used to fighting with swords and bows but along comes Creon with mechanical dragons and flame throwers and just starts blowing the other four races away. I'm not sure how they beat Creon though as I haven't beaten the campaign yet, so I'll do that soon.



Also as just a side note each race has their own sigil element.

Zhon=Air

Aramon=Earth

Veruna= Water

Taros= Fire

Creon= They kinda control ice. But they do use a few other things too since they have machines that can shoot fire and such.

If you got anymore questions feel free to ask, hope that helped you understand it better.

Edited by Wolvman, 07 May 2009 - 10:12 PM.

[mike_]

Seems interesting. Will definitely be watching.

[Puppeteer]

Your determination and willpower is commendable, giving you a greater chance of success. I hope it all goes to plan!

Edited by Puppeteer, 06 June 2008 - 05:56 PM.

[Wolvman]

Thank you, I have another small question though. What are all of the codes I need to enter to get a useable porter for my new races. I'm currently wanting to just use the porters that are already in BFME II right now since I don't have the new models ready yet. I have tried a bunch of different things out and even used a short tutorial for it but I always get some kind of error no matter what I do. So I decided to just start over from scratch and wait for one of you guys to help me out.

Edited by Wolvman, 15 June 2008 - 06:06 PM.

[Ridder Geel]

for a porter all you need to do (basically) is change what he builds, so you have to change his Commandset.
Make a new commandset for you porter (and rename him of course)
and then you should be ready to go, and one other thing, change the side it is on to your factions side.
Also make the faction's starting units into your porter (PlayerTemplate.ini)
That should basically be all.

[Wolvman]

Awsome, thanks for the help. I got it working great now, but how can I control how many porters show up at the beginning? I only want one to appear at the start, but it is giving two.

Edited by Wolvman, 15 June 2008 - 07:08 PM.

[Ridder Geel]

just remove starting unit 1
so you have only starting unit 0
its not really that hard

[Wolvman]

Wow that really was simple. What about naming my new porter or any new units I put in. It say MISSING "Object:MenPorter" or something like that right now. What INI file holds the data for the naming?

Edited by Wolvman, 15 June 2008 - 11:53 PM.

[Ridder Geel]

the file: data\lotr.str
open it with Notepad or something to edit

Just make a thing like:

OBJECT:GondorPorter
"Builder"
END

in the LOTR.STR

and in the unit's code find:
Displayname:
and change the 'value' to
OBJECT:GondorPorter

Not that hard either.

[Wolvman]

Alright, I got that working but now I have a few more questions. I'm wanting to use Theoden as a placeholder for a hero unit for our Aramon race. The problem is that I want him to be able to both fight and build. I have the buildings listed down that I want him to be able to build in his Commandset but when I go to play all of the building's icons are greyed out no matter what. Also the icons are surrounding him instead of lining up on the right side of the screen like a porter's building icons do, which is how I am trying to get it. Another problem is that it is using Theodens mounted model and stats when I want him to be on foot instead.

So this is what I'm needing to know right now.
1. How can I get the Theoden placeholder to use the dismounted form.

2. How can I make him be able to build the buildings while still being able to fight like the normal Theoden.

3. How can I get the buildings to actually work instead of just being greyed out useless buttons.

4. How can I get the building icons to show up on the right side of the screen like a porter's buildings instead of surrounding him.

Edited by Wolvman, 22 June 2008 - 03:47 AM.

[Ridder Geel]

i think you make his KINDOF have a DOZER PORTER

I think this should be a good start...

On the right side of the screen...

Make sure your button has something like this;

CommandButton Command_ConstructGondorArcherRange
  Command		  = FOUNDATION_CONSTRUCT
  Object		   = GondorArcherRange
  TextLabel		= CONTROLBAR:ConstructGondorArcherRange
  ButtonImage	  = BGArcheryRange
  ButtonBorderType = BUILD 
  DescriptLabel	= CONTROLBAR:ToolTipGondorBuildArcherRange
  Radial		   = Yes  
End

[Wolvman]

Thanks for the help Ridder. I got the buttons to show up on the right side of the screen using your method but I still don't understand how to get the buildings from being greyed out. I'm trying to just get it to where he Theoden can just build what a normal human porter can build. I don't know why it isn't working, because the CommandButtons should already be there for those buildings right? The icons ARE showing up still like they should be only I can't click on them of anything. So what do I need to do?

[Ridder Geel]

Post all the code you edited;
Theoden
commandbuttons
commandset
....
and whatever else u edited!

[Wolvman]

Alright, this are all of the codes I have created/edited for Theoden in our Aramon race. In our mod he's named Elsin instead of Theoden so I'll just start calling him that.

This is what his commandset looks like.

CommandSet AramonMonarchCommandSet 
1 = Command_ToggleStance
2 = Command_SpecialAbilityTheodenLeadership
3 = Command_SpecialAbilityKingsFavor
4 = Command_SpecialAbilityTheodenGloriousCharge
5 = Command_PorterExtinguishFire 
6 = Command_PorterConstructMenFarm
7 = Command_PorterConstructMenBarracks
8 = Command_PorterConstructMenArcheryRange 
9 = Command_PorterConstructMenStable
10 = Command_PorterConstructMenWorkshop
11 = Command_PorterConstructMenSentryTower
12 = Command_PorterConstructMenWell
13 = Command_PorterConstructMenStatue
14 = Command_PorterConstructMenBlacksmith
15 = Command_PorterConstructMenMarketPlace
16 = Command_PorterConstructMenWallHubOuter;;Command_PorterConstructMenWallHub
End

This is what I have changed in his unit INI. It is just an altered Theoden.ini.

; Elsin
Object AramonMonarch

; ***DESIGN parameters ***
	Side = Aramon

KindOf = HERO PRELOAD SELECTABLE CAN_CAST_REFLECTIONS INFANTRY PATH_THROUGH_EACH_OTHER SCORE ARMY_SUMMARY HEAVY_MELEE_HITTER DOZER PORTER

CommandSet = AramonMonarchCommandSet
	CommandPoints = 0;;0

This is his lotr.ini stuff.

OBJECT:AramonMonarch
"Elsin"
END

That's pretty much it for Elsin.

Edited by Wolvman, 22 June 2008 - 09:04 PM.