Note that this is only about editing campaign_script.txt (and show_me scripts)
I had a novel idea:
We seriously need a scripting tutorial. I think it's pretty hard to learn it by yourself, but at the same time that's what you desperately have to do if you want to become good.
So, I will start working on a basic tutorial, which I will edit into this very post, but in addition to that, the script-o-rama will contain a few other sections (in following posts):
- Scripting examples (how-tos mainly, and tutorials about special script features)
- Scripting tasks (these are supposed to challenge would-be scripters to think a bit first, and will have a proposed solution attached)
- Scripting concepts (here, I'll talk about some tricks and concepts I often use that are not exactly trivial, but can be very useful - these will be more like articles really)
For all of that, I'd like to ask for the help of the community.
Anybody who feels like he'd like to contribute a bit can write an example, task or concept article - and over time, I hope that the script-o-rama will become a knowledge-base in which all different experience levels of scripters are well-served.
You can also ask questions here or pose a scripting challenge which people can try to solve - I'll do that from time to time, as I think it's a good way of finding a good solution to have thoughts from different people on the topic.
At long last, this will go to both the .org and the TWC which will give it hopefully maximum exposure.
To follow this tutorial, you'll need:
- Either the files released by CA(here) or the files export_descr_character_traits.txt, export_descr_ancillaries.txt, text/export_VnVs.txt and text/export_ancillaries.txt unpacked from the packs - for the latter two you need to convert them from the unpacked .strings.bin files using my .strings.bin converter
- A working mod folder, or a config using file_first. See this tutorial for instructions
- CA's docudemon files
It will also help to read these tutorials and articles:
- My traits tutorial
- My trigger tutorial
- The "Things to look out for" article
Please note that I will use [ex][/ex]-tags to signify additional information that you won't necessarily need, but you should refer to if you want to know something specific or didn't understand something. It will look like this:
-
In syntax definitions, I'll use the following symbols: <x> - required argument [x] - optional argument {x,y,z} - set of required arguments (i.e. choose one, the special set {logic_token} means you can use one of the following: {<,<=,==,>=,>,!=} so smaller, smaller or equal, equal, greater or equal, greater, not equal)
Scripting
Writing a tutorial is always a hard and arduous process. It entails a lot of frustration and demands a large time commitment, but on the other hand it's often a very good way to become better at what you're writing about.
So, why am I writing this tutorial? To get better at scripting? Probably not. I'm already somewhat good at it, and most of what will go into this tutorial will probably be daily routine for me.
I'm writing this tutorial to allow new modders an easier access to one of the most difficult, but at the same time most interesting, areas of modding.
The problem I have with writing a scripting tutorial is that it's already pretty difficult to explain the basic concept behind it, but once you have grasped that, thinking out and developing your own scripts won't become easier.
A last word before I get to the actual tutorial: Before attempting to script, you should make yourself comfortable with editing traits or ancillaries, and especially with triggers. These are a bit easier to handle and provide a good start before you continue with scripting.
In this tutorial I want to walk you through the steps that you have to follow to create your first own script, which will give you some money and fire an event once you conquer Constantinople playing the Turks (note that I'm not one to start with a "hello world" equivalent for scripting but will take you right into the action).
1. The campaign script
The campaign script (data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt) is executed once at the start of the campaign and will then continue to run until its end. The state of the campaign script (including counter values and such) is stored in the save-game, in contrast to RTW.
So, what can you do with this file? If you open it in a text editor and have a look at it, you will notice that it's already pretty long in its unmodded state.
It contains a part that handles the Mongol and Timurid invasions (which is linked to descr_events.txt) and a few tutorials for the player.
However, for this tutorial, please copy the file and in the original, delete everything until it looks like this:
Code:
script
wait_monitors
end_script
What you see above is an empty script, except for the wait_monitors command which tells the game to wait until all monitors are finished:
2. Monitors
Ah yes, the basic and most important scripting construct. If you want to become a scripter, it's paramount to understand these correctly.
Ok, but what is a monitor? First of all, there are two different types of monitors: monitor_event and monitor_conditions. Of these, monitor_event is far more important and more frequently used, because most conditions have a trigger requirement and therefore can't be used in a monitor_conditions
For our tutorial, we will only use a single monitor_event that will observe our capturing Constantinople:
Code:
monitor_event GeneralCaptureSettlement SettlementName Constantinople
and FactionType Turks
add_events
event historic turks_capture_constantinople
date 0 0
end_add_events
console_command add_money turks, 20000
end_monitor
This monitor is fairly straight-forward. It checks on a general capturing a settlement, and if that settlement is Constantinople and the general is Turkish, it will execute the code.
Nothing much fancy happens there, either: We throw a historic event for the player (we'll need to describe that later, mind) and give the Turks 20000 florins in cash.
<Event> tells the game at which time it should execute the monitor and check whether all <Conditions> are true. Only if all of them return true at the time the monitor is run, the code will actually be executed.
Examples for events are CharacterTurnEnd, FactionTurnStart and ButtonPressed - examples for conditions are I_TurnNumber, CharacterIsLocal and I_InBattle.
Basically, an event is what it says on the box. The game has an event engine that will execute any triggers and monitors watching a specified event when that event occurs. I'm not sure about the order in which they are executed though.
The monitor_conditions command is in a lot of ways similar to monitor_event, with the important difference that instead of having an event that executes the monitor, it uses a meta-event that executes the monitor_conditions every now and then to check if all specified conditions are true.
The struct for monitor_conditions looks like this:
The syntax is basically the same as above, without the triggering event.
This command has the advantage that it gives you a way to "instantly" react on things, with the drawback that the game will slow down considerably if you use a lot of condition monitors.
The other important downside for monitor_conditions is that since it doesn't have an event that can export certain information, you can only use so-called independant conditions (usually signified by an I_ prefixed to the condition, but it works with all conditions that don't have a trigger requirement).
3. Counters
Another important scripting aspect are the so-called counters. If you did a bit of programming in the past, these are somewhat similar to variables, but not quite.
The main use of counters is to store values, however it's often difficult retrieve these values again. To do that sometimes requires a lot of creativity and unorthodox thinking (I'll write a few how-tos later to show some of these principles and get you started) so a lot of counters are only used for boolean (i.e. yes/no) operations.
To use counters, you will first have to declare them. The syntax for this is:
Code:
declare_counter <name>
This will initialize your counter and set it to 0
You can then interact with it via the set_counter and inc_counter commands and the I_CompareCounter condition.
set_counter:
This sets your counter to a fixed value. The syntax is set_counter <name> <value>
inc_counter:
This command is sometimes more useful. It doesn't set your counter but changes it's value by adding a number to it. The syntax is inc_counter <name> <value> where value can be negative to decrease the counter
I_CompareCounter:
This condition takes the counter name, a logic token and a comparison value as arguments (I_CompareCounter <name> {<, <=, ==, >=, >, !=} <value>). Note that <value> can only be a constant value (i.e. a number you enter through your keyboard) and not another counter or condition
In our example, I want to modify the above monitor to give the Turks less money when they capture the city for the second time and no money at all when they lost and recaptured it twice (but still fire the message).
Consider this code:
Well this doesn't actually have anything to do with scripting, but we need to do it to finish our tutorial. To add the turks_capture_constantinople event to the game, we need to give it a title and body in data/text/historic_events.txt:
Code:
{TURKS_CAPTURE_CONSTANTINOPLE_TITLE}The Turks capture Constantinople
{TURKS_CAPTURE_CONSTANTINOPLE_BODY}An incredible event has occured! The Turks captured the unconquerable, glorious city of Constantinople and now have a foothold in Europe. The whole occident trembles in fear before the mighty new conquerors who were able to take one of the greatest cities of Christendom apparently effortlessly.
If you also want to have a custom picture for the event, you'll have to create data/ui/southern_european/eventpics/turks_capture_constantinople.tga and respectively for all cultures (I used the Jihad successful picture).
This is one of the "daily bread" tasks for a lot of scripters and it's actually fairly easy to do.
spawn_character
To create a character by script (that is, an agent), the command you're looking for is the spawn_character command. It is described in the docudemon as:
Code:
Identifier: spawn_character
Parameters: faction, character as in character description in historical battle
Description: create an army at a particular location
So the syntax is spawn_character <faction> <character description>
The character description is in fact the same as the one used in descr_strat, so you should be comfortable with it. Just select the right tile, name and character type and you're set up fine.
A working example is
Code:
spawn_character england William, diplomat, age 18, x 2 y 15
Actually pretty much any tile is valid to spawn a character. You can spawn diplomats at sea or on woods for example, which will render them immobile and prone to die in storms
The only caveat to this command is that you can't give your spawned characters traits directly but you can use the console_command give_trait afterwards because, well, you know the name you entered in the character description.
spawn_army
This command is somewhat similar to the above but instead of creating agents it will create captains or named characters with whole armies attached to them.
In the docudemon it reads like this:
Code:
Identifier: spawn_army ... end
Parameters: faction, character and units as in army description in historical battle (character description for general and unit descriptions for remainder of the army)
Description: create an army at a particular location
Be careful with the syntax there, as the example is very outdated. The character description is almost the same as in descr_strat (except for the omitted army keyword), so this example would work:
Code:
spawn_army
faction slave
character Primus Branka, named character, age 18, x 73, y 28
traits GoodCommander 1
unit NE Catapult exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end
So the syntax is:
Code:
spawn_army
faction <faction>
character <character description>
[traits]
unit <unit description>
...
end
This command is commonly used to spawn rebel armies and such, but it can serve as a way to create generals for a faction (they don't go into the family tree).
I hope you like this little how-to and have fun spawning characters and armies.
Scripting for different difficulty settings and player/ai only scripting
by tornnight
declare_counter local_england
declare_counter ai_england
monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
and FactionType england
set_event_counter local_england 1
set_event_counter ai_england 0
if not I_HotseatEnabled
terminate_monitor
end_if
end_monitor
monitor_event FactionTurnStart not FactionIsLocal
and FactionType england
set_event_counter local_england 0
set_event_counter ai_england 1
if not I_HotseatEnabled
terminate_monitor
end_if
end_monitor
You can also add building capabilities specific to a campaign difficulty level and depending on if it's for the AI or player.
Code:
income_bonus bonus 200 requires factions { england, } and event_counter local_england 1 and event_counter difficulty_easy 1
income_bonus bonus 400 requires factions { england, } and event_counter ai_england 1 and event_counter difficulty_easy 1
You can now use the difficulty counter for events that occur during the Local Faction and AI Factions. The CampaignDifficulty condition only works correctly for the Local Faction. It returns medium for AI faction events.
Code:
I_CompareCounter difficulty >= 3
Section III: Articles
Logging for Scripters
This is quite a short article, but nonetheless very important.
I hope you are familiar with the game log file, as it can give you much valuable information about what happens in the game.
For our needs however, the whole trace information is a bit too much, we don't want to know which files are missing when we're scripting, so the right setting for us is:
Code:
[log]
to=logs/system.log.txt
level=*script* trace
This will give us information such as when a certain trigger fired (with the trigger name logged) and logs the execution of script commands, but won't discard any crucial error message from other parts of the game, either. So it's a very useful thing for scripting and I'd suggest to use it to everyone who wants to improve their productivity instead of wondering whether a certain trigger works.
Available UI Elements
This is a small thing few people besides R:TW veterans know about, but which is very useful. Consider for example the ButtonPressed event/condition combination. It needs the name of a UI element as a parameter, but except for looking through the .exe or sussing it out the advice file there's only one way to get these: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...25&postcount=5
The above are for R:TW, but most of the stuff hasn't changed. Just try out good candidates and if you're lucky you'll find the one you're looking for.
An example for the usage of these files: You want to trigger a monitor on the player's pressing the construction button. The right header for that is:
Please note that you have to use ButtonPressed twice, once for the event and once for the condition.
Things to look out for
Scripting in general
When you change something in your script, it won't work with saved games. You have to start a new campaign.
Commands
terminate_battle appears to crash the script engine. After using it, no monitors worked for me.
Events
The loading order for the TurnStart and TurnEnd events is: CharacterTurn[Start/End], SettlementTurn[Start/End], FactionTurn[Start/End]
Take care when using BuildingCompleted - after triggering, it disables the create_building console command for some time. Introducing a wait within the monitor works.
Conditions
MissionSucceeded doesn't seem to work properly. That is, it appears only to trigger on slightly_successful. A possible workaround is to use MissionSuccessLevel > not_successful
Section IV: Examples
A good four turns per year script
I made a very neat version for a 4tpy script that utilizes the power behind setting timescale to 0.25 in descr_strat (so years will take 4 turns). Here's the code:
Code:
declare_counter season_counter
monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionIsLocal
inc_counter season_counter 1
; 0 equals winter
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 0
console_command season winter
end_if
if I_CompareCounter season_counter > 0
console_command season summer
end_if
; Reset the counter on the autumn turn so that it'll be 0 next turn
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 3
set_counter season_counter -1
end_if
end_monitor
What this does is basically having a counter that goes in a cycle of four different states (0,1,2,3) where actually the states for 1,2 and 3 are the same. So it'll tell the game it has winter only on every fourth turn and summer on all other turns. Characters will only age on the transition from the winter to the next summer turn, so they'll age at the same rate as the years go by.
This script is also very easily adapted to an even smaller timescale (1/n where n is a natural number, e.g. 1/12=0.083333) by simply increasing the requirement of the last if statement to n-1:
Code:
if I_CompareCounter season_counter == 11
set_counter season_counter -1
end_if
If you use smaller timescales be careful with events because add_events with a date of 0 won't work anymore (discovered by wilddog, I can confirm it)
A take on a re-emergent factions script
by Red Spot
first of all it might be interesting to know there is only 1 skill-level at wich I play this game; Very Hard
side-effect is that some factions go bankrupt in a matter of turns on this setting, so I've included a sizeable cheat for the AI factions wich makes having a good econ. more or less a player-feature (AI does not know how nor is able to compete with the player in the area of having a decent econ.)
it is also needed for the respawned factions as I am not willing to add new (dummy) units with no upkeep.
secondly, as just about everyone knows, when you have like 12+ -ish settlements its basicly cat in the bag, you win ...
with respawning factions it means that whoever has slain a faction or at least owns their original settlements has some hard fighting to do every once in while when factions re-appear
I also find it somewhat dissapointing if I'm not at some point encountering certain factions as they have been slain before I actually really come into contact with them, now there will always be the option to face them in battle
the script; the events are dorment, I mean the script by itself does not start anything, it relies on an event in descr_events.
when this event is triggered it will trigger an event in the script that than does a check on destroyed factions the next turn and per destroyed faction calls an event to respawn the faction with a small(-ish) random interval.
at this point though the script keeps itself active, I mean it keeps calling the respawn event every [random x] turns and keeps doing so untill the game is finished, in effect keeping all factions alive though with possible "dead-intervals" :P
on a side note; no use in spawning agents with re-appearing factions as it doesnt really work, if say you have 1 town hall and 1 diplomat and than spawn a diplomat it wont spawn, when you're not at your agent-limit you can spawn one, but as when you dont own any settlements you dont have a town hall you also cant have a diplomat ...
do note; factions need the ability to horde for this to work, wich can be read about in the second post of this topic
Code:
;SET FOLLOWING EVENT IN DESCR_EVENTS TO START THE RESPAWNING!!!
;;;event counter faction_respawn_trigger
;;;date 1
;Interval set at 40-80 years -> 80-160 turns.
;faction_respawn_event ==> global spawn starter event
;faction_respawn_england ==> per faction spawn event
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
script
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;the trigger on a seperate event so it can be used in like EDB, kill it once it has done its job!
;;;
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType faction_respawn_trigger
and EventCounter >= 1
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_event
date 1
end_add_events
terminate_monitor
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
;;;
monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType england
and Treasury <= 10000
if I_LocalFaction england
terminate_monitor
end_if
console_command add_money england, 12000
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;check after the player did his/her turn, else we could miss out on yet an other victory.
;;;
monitor_event FactionTurnEnd FactionIsLocal
and I_EventCounter faction_respawn_event >= 1
;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
;;;
if I_FactionLeaderTrait england Factionleader == 0
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_england
date 3 25
end_add_events
end_if
;;;
;;;
;;;reset the counter and call the event again in order to have better control over the spawn-intervals.
;;;
set_event_counter faction_respawn_event 0
add_events
event counter faction_respawn_event
date 38 78
end_add_events
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;COPY FOR OTHER FACTIONS!!!
;;;
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType faction_respawn_england
and EventCounter >= 1
spawn_army
faction england
character William, named character, age 30, x 100, y 150, family
traits GoodCommander 4 , Loyal 4 , ContentGeneral 3 , BattleChivalry 3 , GoodRiskyAttacker 2 , Fertile 2
unit NE Bodyguard exp 2 armour 1 weapon_lvl 1
end
end_monitor
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
wait_monitors
end_script
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
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Allright people, this post is for now reserved for what I'd like to call scripting challenges.
I'll issue these from time to time to instigate research and thoughts about certain scripting problems, or simply to show off when I found out something cool and want to tell everyone how good a scripter I am
Anyways, here we go with the first challenge:
Scripting Challenge #1: Re-Emergent factions
issued on May, 20th 2007
The task is simple: Create re-emergent factions similar to those you know from the original MTW. I didn't try to do that myself, yet, so I'm not sure if it's possible. If you have a proposition, simply post it in this here thread.
The best one will be put into the script-o-rama, and I will participate, too.
Solution:
alpaca
The solution to this problem involves two basic steps. The first is to make the would-be emergent faction horde, and the second is to spawn it an army.
1. Hording
To make a faction horde, all you have to do is open descr_sm_factions and add some entries that look like those of the Mongols or Timurids:
Code:
horde_min_units 10
horde_max_units 20
horde_max_units_reduction_every_horde 10
horde_unit_per_settlement_population 250
horde_min_named_characters 2
horde_max_percent_army_stack 80
horde_disband_percent_on_settlement_capture 0
horde_unit Mongol Infantry
horde_unit Mongol Foot Archers
horde_unit Mongol Heavy Archers
horde_unit Mongol Heavy Lancers
horde_unit Mongol Light Lancers
horde_unit Mongol Horse Archers
These determine what happens after your faction loses their last settlement, and more importantly, allows it to remain in the code after it died. These are pretty self-explanatory, so let's get to step 2:
2. Army Spawning
First of all, you'll find a how-to about spawning above, so I won't explain the code here. What you have to do to have a re-emergent faction is to spawn it an army somewhere on the map with a family member which will re-introduce them to the game. You can see a good example of that by looking at how the guys at CA OZ did it for the Mongols and Tims:
Code:
spawn_army
faction mongols
character Jebe, named character, age 30, x 292, y 166, family ;command 8, dread 9, loyalty 7, piety 1
traits EasternWarlord 3 , GoodCommander 2 , Bloodthirsty 2 , BattleDread 4 , StrategyDread 2 , PublicFaith 1 , Loyal 2 , ContentGeneral 3 ;command 8, dread 9, loyalty 7, piety 1
unit Mongol Bodyguard exp 6 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
...
end
Notice the bolded "family" keyword which will allow you to set up a faction tree again.
Ok, that's basically it. Easy, huh?
There are two main problems with this: Firstly, you will somehow have to determine where to spawn (or move) the faction, unless you want to always spawn them in the same place and secondly, the family members will always have the same names. You can add a bit of randomization which will of course increase the complexity of the code by a fair margin.
Well, have fun with your newly re-emerging factions
Scripting Challenge #2: Attrition
issued on August, 30th 2007
This one is a very open challenge. I think a large part of the community is looking for the best way to simulate the effect that prolonged campaigns and diseases have on an army (especially a medieval one which would certainly live off the land in a very ruinous fashion). So, let's hear your suggestions! The best propositions will be put in here and if it makes sense I'll write a how-to or an article about it, combining them in some way.
just an easy thing to do to crank up the early game difficulty a bit. remove stuff from the descr_strat file like buildings and units and then add them back in the campaign_script but AI only e.g
Code:
; ---------------------
; start up
freeze_faction_ai aztecs
if not I_LocalFaction spain
console_command create_building Leon, farms+1
console_command create_building Leon, port
console_command create_building Castille, garrison_quarters
console_command create_building Castille, bowyer
create_unit Castille, Peasant Archers, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0
create_unit Vaasco, Javelinmen, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0
create_unit Vaasco, Peasant Archers, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0
console_command add_money spain, 6000
end_if
similarly add some extra rebel garrison units in the nearest cities for the player faction e.g
Code:
if I_LocalFaction spain
create_unit Toledo, Peasant Archers, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0
create_unit Extramaduras, Javelinmen, num 2, exp 0, arm 0, wep 0
end_if
pretty quick and easy.
edit: just noticed on my test/mod version that adding the ports this way doesn't seem to work. the building is built in the settlement but no port on the map and no trade. i think this used to work in RTW but it must be different in MTW2. the recruitment buildings work though.
i'll add a bit here that i use a lot when i get home :)
Great, I'll start working on it after I tested 1.2 a bit more thoroughly. Actually primarily wanted to get some comments about the idea while I was doing that ;)
This is the classic spawn_army hint, considering the fact that the docudemon explanation always stumps newbies:
Code:
spawn_army
faction romans_julii
character Foedus Chaerea, general, command 0, influence 0, management 0, subterfuge 0, age 20, , x 54, y 124
unit roman generals guard cavalry, soldiers 20 exp 9 armour 1 weapon_lvl 0
unit roman legionary first cohort ii, soldiers 40 exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit roman legionary cohort ii, soldiers 60 exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit roman praetorian cohort i, soldiers 60 exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end
What's changed is that there is a comma after every unit name. This comma is absent in docudemon example of spawn_army, thus causing endless crashes and headaches for those starting out.
Great idea Alpaca, I should have a few more examples soon.
spawn_army
faction slave
character Primus, named character, age 18, x 147, y 379
traits GoodCommander 1
unit NE Catapult exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end
Not sure if the soldiers thing still works, the attributes are handled through traits now.
Hmm ok well I'll test it out soon enough, this is puzzling for me. Meanwhile, I dug up Epistolary Richard's two scripting threads, which are frankly worth gold. I really think you should make a prominent link to them, or else incorporate them somehow: Beginner's and Intermediate Guide to scripting.
There are some fascinating tidbits from the Intermediate Guide. For instance, say you want your script to automatically automerge all units for you, but there's only one problem -- there is no scripting command to automerge. No worries, because TW scripting allows you to call shortcuts! Thus, you can create a script to automerge, or to automatically call Ctrl+S to periodically save your campaign, or any other shortcut like that. Here's the code, from the Intermediate Guide:
Originally Posted by Stuie
Code:
monitor_event CharacterSelected FactionType romans_brutii
and FactionIsLocal
call_object_shortcut campaign_hud automerge_units
end_monitor
monitor_event SettlementSelected FactionType romans_brutii
and FactionIsLocal
call_object_shortcut campaign_hud automerge_units
end_monitor
monitor_event CharacterSelected FactionType gauls
and FactionIsLocal
call_object_shortcut campaign_hud automerge_units
end_monitor
or if you want your script to speed things up,
Originally Posted by Myrddraal
Code:
here is a neat scripting command which I found whilst working on the MP campaign:
call_object_shortcut
Here is an example of the syntax:
call_object_shortcut strat_ui speedup_ai
the strat_ui bit is the category of the shortcut. If you open data\text\descr_shortcuts.txt and scroll to the bottom end, you'll find a list of the shortcuts with their categories to the right.
One interesting thing from there is that you can have your script order a "order_halt" shortcut (Backspace), and trigger it whenever an enemy character becomes visible. Without this feature, normally your issued movement orders will be continued to full, even if enemies become visible in the meanwhile; else, you need to carefully watch all your characters' movements and quickly press backspace, not a pleasant alternative. Of course this script would need to be balanced, because you don't want it preventing your characters from movement altogether, when within sight of enemies. So you'd have the script disable itself after it first triggers.
Yep I was planning to go through these again to see what I can incorporate here.
Would be cool if you could explain a bit about the scripts you mentioned so I can copy&paste them into one of my above posts as examples, or about the call_shortcut as a concept (that was actually one I had planned but I am not at all averse to somebody else doing the work )
Yep I was planning to go through these again to see what I can incorporate here.
Would be cool if you could explain a bit about the scripts you mentioned so I can copy&paste them into one of my above posts as examples, or about the call_shortcut as a concept (that was actually one I had planned but I am not at all averse to somebody else doing the work )
Sure, no problem. I'll do it in a little bit, when I get everything straightened out over here.
and EventCounter > 0
; ADD SCOUTING INVASION
add_events
event counter mongols_invasion
date 4 8
end_add_events
if I_EventCounter mongols_invasion_warn == 2
terminate_monitor
end_if
end_monitor
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType mongols_invasion
and EventCounter > 0
if I_EventCounter mongols_invasion == 1
add_events
;;; SCOUTING INVASION
events emergent_faction mongols
date 0
; region Ani_Province
region Volograd_Province
region Baghdad_Province
movie event/mongols_invade.bik
;ADD MONGOL INVASION 1
events counter mongols_invasion
date 2
end_add_events
is there anything wrong with this script. The mongols will not appear and i keep getting CTD.
i traced the problem to this
00:50:00.781 [game.script.exec] [trace] exec <if> at line 42 in Europa/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt
00:50:00.781 [game.script.exec] [trace] exec <add_events> at line 44 in Europa/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt
00:50:01.546 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.
I think it's the create_unit command that doesn't work if you leave out the comma after the unit name.
As I said earlier, it's a freaking working example
@lordyu:
Code:
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType mongols_invasion_warn 1
and EventCounter > 0
Should be
monitor_event EventCounter EventCounterType mongols_invasion_warn
and EventCounter > 0
lordyu, the actual problem in your code (aside from the "1" typo in the event handler) is that you use == in your if statements. You need to use =. The error log was helpful in tracing down that one.
Ok, I resumed to work on this by adding a bit more to the tutorial. Will have a look at adding more stuff, too. Kick me a bit in the backside from time to time so I don't let this slip
Could You maybe make a list of new/changed features from RTW scripting?
That would be really helpful. I love that You can triger events from script, storing trigers in save files is pericles and IsSettlementBesige (Dont know exact frase) event is so great.
What else M2TW holds?
Links for CA docudemon files would also be great.
Well I actually don't remember much about what has changed from RTW.
One of the things is that map-related stuff often doesn't work in show-me scripts (because the map isn't loaded at game start anymore but at campaign start).
The state of the campaign script is saved now though so that's no huge problem because we can use that for almost everything.
Another important change in 1.2 is the set_event_counter command which allows you to interact between different scripts, the edb and all files requiring triggers, and the ability to dynamically change leader AI personalities by script.
Anyways, I'll see what I can get together. A link to the docudemons will be added to the tutorial prerequisites.
Hi!
Does not work with a patch 1.2
Why? Here my command:
monitor_conditions I_TurnNumber = 1
spawn_army
faction turks
character Bel_Kermek, named character, age 30, x 279, y 138
traits GoodCommander 2
unit ME Bodyguard exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkomans exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkish Archers exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end
Hi!
Does not work with a patch 1.2
Why? Here my command:
monitor_conditions I_TurnNumber = 1
spawn_army
faction turks
character Bel_Kermek, named character, age 30, x 279, y 138
traits GoodCommander 2
unit ME Bodyguard exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkomans exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Turkish Archers exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
end
terminate_monitor
end_monitor
And in a patch 1.1 works.
Hmm it still works with that syntax for me, maybe you didn't add the name to the Turks' list of names?
If other commands stop working you made a mistake or used a command that disables them somewhere. Some commands aren't safe to use, so try just putting spawn_army into your script and nothing else (and be sure to put it into a monitor because the script can't spawn armies on game start)
If other commands stop working you made a mistake or used a command that disables them somewhere. Some commands aren't safe to use, so try just putting spawn_army into your script and nothing else (and be sure to put it into a monitor because the script can't spawn armies on game start)
And how it is better to make?
Write please that there was an army.
alpaca's Script-O-Rama
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Originally Posted by nikolai1962
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