Modding - How easy will it be for me to simply change the cost of a unit?

[LordStark]

Hi there,

The game is not working for me which means I have not actually had a chance to play it. However, I see that it is designed to be very moddable. I'm wondering if it that means that if you already have quite a lot of skill in game development the game offers a lot of scope to make changes or if it means that anyone with limited skill can make their own changes. I used to mod Generals Zero Hour which was quite an easy game to mod so I'm hoping this will be similar.

The changes I want to make:

1. Increase build cost of units.

2. Increase build time of units.

3. Develop Personalities for individual soldiers:

3a. For my mod I want it to be possible to select a soldier and choose to designate that soldier as a "Master at Arms" or "Marshal of the Army" or "Captain of the Guard" etc etc. Effectively this would be an upgrade which you might want to give to a very experienced soldier. Each upgrade would lock out the other upgrades. You could then choose additional upgrades to make the unit better at some things while locking out upgrades that would have improved them in other ways. Effectively I want to end up with the option of designating the following units:

1. Lord - Don't know.

2. Warden - Admin type upgrades.

3. Marshal - Command type upgrades.

4. Bailiff - Economic type upgrades.

5. Captain - Combat type upgrades.

Will any of this be possible for someone who does not have a computing degree?

[Stan`]

Hey, 

See my answer in the other thread for the crash.

1 hour ago, LordStark said:

1. Increase build cost of units.

Easy, you copy the XML file containing the stats in your mod, usually in simulation/templates/units and you change/overwrite the cost component e.g for all cavalry_swordmen

template_unit_cavalry_melee_swordsman.xml in ps/trunk/binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/templates – Wildfire Games

Change this part

15 <Cost>
16	    <Resources>
17	      <wood>40</wood>
18	      <metal>10</metal>
19	    </Resources>
20	  </Cost>

You can add stone and food too.

1 hour ago, LordStark said:

2. Increase build time of units.

template_unit_cavalry.xml in ps/trunk/binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/templates – Wildfire Games

21	  <Cost>
22	    <BuildTime>15</BuildTime>
23	    <Resources>
24	      <food>100</food>
25	    </Resources>
26	  </Cost>

Change the BuildTime part

1 hour ago, LordStark said:

3. Develop Personalities for individual soldiers:

3a. For my mod I want it to be possible to select a soldier and choose to designate that soldier as a "Master at Arms" or "Marshal of the Army" or "Captain of the Guard" etc etc. Effectively this would be an upgrade which you might want to give to a very experienced soldier. Each upgrade would lock out the other upgrades. You could then choose additional upgrades to make the unit better at some things while locking out upgrades that would have improved them in other ways. Effectively I want to end up with the option of designating the following units:

This a bit trickier, but you can use the upgrade feature to change an entity to a different unit.

See defense_tower.xml in ps/trunk/binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/templates/structures/han – Wildfire Games

14	  <Upgrade>
15	    <GreatArcheryTower>
16	      <Entity>structures/{civ}/defense_tower_great</Entity>
17	      <Tooltip>This tower has greater range, greater attack, greater health, and is twice as difficult to capture.</Tooltip>
18	      <RequiredTechnology>phase_city</RequiredTechnology>
19	      <Cost>
20	        <stone>200</stone>
21	      </Cost>
22	      <Time>40</Time>
23	      <Variant>upgrading</Variant>
24	    </GreatArcheryTower>
25	  </Upgrade>

You can have multiple upgrades and the name is arbitrary. The upgrades will be exclusive. Pyrogenesis (The engine) has an experience system that works through promotion, from base to advanced to elite, and you could wait till the unit has reached elite experience to enable the upgrade

_b units are base they promote to

_a units are advanced they promote to

_e units are elite