Sinner
10-08-2004, 23:51
It's occured to me that the skeleton stat in the descr_model_battle.txt file might be the individual unit speed we've been hunting for. That's the good news, but the bad news it's a hardcoded movement class that we can assign individually without being able to directly alter the speed for each class.
Some units are described as 'fast', and these all happen to have a skeleton value of fs_fast_javelinman, fs_fast_swordsman, etc. For cavalry, it's the skeleton value of the horse that matters, with light horses having a value of 'fs_fast_horse'.
So it's possible that we could make Hastati faster by changing the skeletons they use from 'fs_javelinman, fs_swordsman' to 'fs_fast_javelinman, fs_fast_swordsman', or making Equites faster by either changing their mount (in the export_descr_unit.txt file) from 'medium horse' to 'light horse', or by changing the medium horse skeleton from 'fs_horse' to 'fs_fast_horse'.
It perhaps doesn't really give us much more than we already had, we still can't directly mod the movement rate like we could for MTW, but it's better than nothing.
EDIT:
Digging further, the various skeletons are defined in descr_skeleton.txt, which lists the animation used for each type of movement for each skeleton, eg. there is one animation file for walking, one for running, etc. For horses and fast horses, the only difference is the run animation, the former using 'Horse_canter.CAS' & the latter using 'Horse_Canter_1250cm_sec.CAS'. So if we can find a way to edit the .CAS files, reducing the amount of motion per animation cycle, we'd be able to directly modify the movement speeds. Anybody know anything about CAS files?
EDIT2:
Did some testing with Equites & Cavalry Auxilia, first running a race in a custom battle with the unmodded stats, with the Auxilia winning comfortably, then changing the light horse skeleton from fs_fast_horse to fs_horse. The Auxilia were no longer listed as 'Fast' in their unit description and no longer outran the Equites, so it looks like the animation file, via the skeleton, is what determines a unit's speed.
Some units are described as 'fast', and these all happen to have a skeleton value of fs_fast_javelinman, fs_fast_swordsman, etc. For cavalry, it's the skeleton value of the horse that matters, with light horses having a value of 'fs_fast_horse'.
So it's possible that we could make Hastati faster by changing the skeletons they use from 'fs_javelinman, fs_swordsman' to 'fs_fast_javelinman, fs_fast_swordsman', or making Equites faster by either changing their mount (in the export_descr_unit.txt file) from 'medium horse' to 'light horse', or by changing the medium horse skeleton from 'fs_horse' to 'fs_fast_horse'.
It perhaps doesn't really give us much more than we already had, we still can't directly mod the movement rate like we could for MTW, but it's better than nothing.
EDIT:
Digging further, the various skeletons are defined in descr_skeleton.txt, which lists the animation used for each type of movement for each skeleton, eg. there is one animation file for walking, one for running, etc. For horses and fast horses, the only difference is the run animation, the former using 'Horse_canter.CAS' & the latter using 'Horse_Canter_1250cm_sec.CAS'. So if we can find a way to edit the .CAS files, reducing the amount of motion per animation cycle, we'd be able to directly modify the movement speeds. Anybody know anything about CAS files?
EDIT2:
Did some testing with Equites & Cavalry Auxilia, first running a race in a custom battle with the unmodded stats, with the Auxilia winning comfortably, then changing the light horse skeleton from fs_fast_horse to fs_horse. The Auxilia were no longer listed as 'Fast' in their unit description and no longer outran the Equites, so it looks like the animation file, via the skeleton, is what determines a unit's speed.