Adding and Altering Characters in DESCR_STRAT

[Aemilianus the Younger]

Guide.

the purpose of this thread is to help modders with the details of adding and altering characters.

[Aemilianus the Younger]

Also for newer modders to ask questions and get answers about the modding of characters and their abilities, traits, ancillaries etc.

[ByzantineKnight]

Are you going to post a guide or do the Modders do that?

[Aemilianus the Younger]

I was going to have more experienced modders do that but if you want me to i can. Although i must admit my knowledge is a little limited to adding characters and a couple traits.

[ByzantineKnight]

K,

Adding Characters:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There are 6 types of characters in descr_strat, Faction Leaders, Faction Heirs, Family Members, Generals, female Family Members, and underage male Family Members. While some require very little time to add, others take a lot more time

I will start with the simplest first:

Female and Underage Male Family Members

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Underage Male - These family members are placeholders for your new male generation. They come of age at 16, whereupon the character_record is deleted and a new Family member is spawned on the campaign map.
NOTE: the game will CTD if you have a male character record over 16.

Female - These family members are only there to have children for your family members. They come of age at 12 when they can get married.

The only part of the code they come in is the character records,

character_record Amulius Julius, male, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 13, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Manius Julius, male, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 10, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Decius Julius, male, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 7, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Marcus Julius, male, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 3, alive, never_a_leadercharacter_record Faustina, female, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 48, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Poppaea, female, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 29, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Alypia, female, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 29, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Claudia, female, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 28, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Fadia, female, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 13, alive, never_a_leader

Males are in Italics, Females are Bold

character_record is required for characters that don't appear on campaign maps, for female and underage male family members. It means that the following character is a non-campaign map one.

Names following the character record is the name of the character, this name is found and edited in Data\descr_names, Data\descr_names_lookup, and Data\text\names. I will not go into adding names until later, but just look in descr_names for the faction\gender to name designation.

Gender follows names, it determines if the character is female or an underage male, Female dictates a Female character, male dictates an Underage Male character.

Command, Influence, Management, and Subterfuge are useless, because the character does not appear on the campaign map

Age This says how old the characters are.

Alive/Dead for a Female character, it tells the computer if it needs to keep generating children for the family.

never_a_leader is the last part of the character record, it tells the computer not to include these records in its search for faction leaders/heirs.

First part done, I'll do more later

[Aemilianus the Younger]

What About altering Underage characters?
can you do that?
how?
age? command/management/influence?

Do these changes show up on the character once he "come of age".

[ByzantineKnight]

What About altering Underage characters?
can you do that?
how?
age? command/management/influence?

Do these changes show up on the character once he "come of age".

As far as i know, there is no way to edit underage characters...

[Aemilianus the Younger]

Thats what i thought.

[Motep]

What About altering Underage characters?
can you do that?
how?
age? command/management/influence?

Do these changes show up on the character once he "come of age".

The only way to edit the underage characters is to edit their parent. You will get traits passed on thanks to these triggers at the bottom of data\export_descr_character_traits

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

;------------------------------------------ EXAMPLE
Trigger dads_a_bit_drunk_vnv_trigger
WhenToTest CharacterComesOfAge
Condition FatherTrait Drink >= 1
and FatherTrait Drink <= 2
Affects Sobriety 3 Chance 50
Affects PhlegmHumour 1 Chance 20
Affects Drink 1 Chance 30

You can alter the affects and chance after them to get the desired result. You can make the sobriety chance 100, and your kid will be garunteed to have a high level of sobriety. If you do want a high level, make sure that you make the little number anfter sobriety the highest level possible for that trait.

(Im not sure, But I think there is a tutorial for just this...)

edit: eeesh...im answering a question asked over a year ago...