Getting Rid of Boiling Oil (at last!)

As some of you will know - and as some of you will empathise! - I have wanted to get rid of boiling oil for what must be a year or more though have had little time to look into it myself. Well, I bugged Wlesmana about it and he came through. I cannot claim any credit for this one but I'm posting the tutorial for him and with his permission (it was discussed under the auspices of the fa:tw/lotr:tw "alliance")...

How to Get Rid of Boiling Oil

In the data folder (the base Rome data folder if you are modding BI) you will find a file called descr_oil_effect.txt. Simply change the fifth line of code as shown below in red (the comment in blue is the original data set):

Quote:

---

model_file data/models_building/models_spot/boiling_oil.cas
envmap_tex data/textures/oil_envmap.dds ; checker_tex.tga ;data/textures/envmap.tga
spurt_length 0.75 ; length of time to bbring spurt in and out.
effect_length 2.0 ; length of time to play main main
contact_pos_offset 100 100 100 ; offset in world units to ground contact position 0 -12 -5
envmap_blend 0.75 ; blend factor between envmap and texture
smoke_colour 75 75 75 ; red green blue
anim_speed_mul 6 ; Play the anim at this times normal speed
tex_scroll_speed 4 ; Units to scroll the texture per update.

effect_contact_pos_offset -1 -12 -2 ; offset in world units to ground contact position
effect_name burning_oil_set
impact_effect_name burning_oil_steam_set

---

Gatehouse/Tower Defences Modding/Negation - by Wlesmana, lotr:tw

- Go to desc_projectile_new.txt (or whatever file is controlling projectiles since BI has a different one)
- Make a copy of the entry "arrow", call it something else like "arrow2"
- Change arrow_fiery entry's flaming with "arrow2" instead of "arrow". This makes flaming arrows secondary to units with arrow2.
- Back in "arrow", change the min_angle and max_angle both with a value of 100. This will prevent arrows being shot at all because the angle is impossible
- Do the same to the entry tower_ballista and tower_flaming_ballista
- Do the same to scorpion entry to remove missiles from siege towers. Copy the entry first if you have scorpions in your game and rename to scorpion2
- Go to EDU.txt and change all "arrow" entry in missile type into "arrow2"
- Do the same to scorpion if you have it

Edited to include second section on Gatehouse/Tower Defences Modding/Negation.

I've used this technique myself to allow some archery units to have flaming arrows and others not. Very useful.

Thanks Dol Guldur, as is often the case, thats a very neat way around the problem.