Making the game allow me to siege assault on the strategic map w/o siege/infantry

[orgo.love]

So is my symptom really a problem? Can other people assault cities with just an elephant army? Perhaps I should re-install R:TW?

Here's my unit entry for the elephant above:

type             merc elephants
dictionary       merc_elephants      ; Mercenary War Elephants
category         cavalry
class            heavy
voice_type       Heavy_1
soldier          greek_elephant_crew_merc, 18, 6, 1
mount            elephant african
mount_effect     horse +4, chariot +8, camel +4
attributes       sea_faring, can_run_amok, frighten_foot, frighten_mounted, mercenary_unit
formation        7, 11, 13,16, 1, square
stat_health      1, 12
stat_pri         6, 3, arrow, 120, 60, missile, archery, piercing, none, 25 ,1
stat_pri_attr    no
stat_sec         6, 8, no, 0, 0, melee, other, blunt, none, 25 ,1
stat_sec_attr    area, launching, ap
stat_pri_armour  0, 4, 0, flesh
stat_sec_armour  13, 3, flesh
stat_heat        -1
stat_ground      0, 1, -6, -1
stat_mental      8, normal, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay  0
stat_food        60, 300
stat_cost        1, 2690, 490, 270, 410, 2690
ownership        slave

and the mount entry for the elephant:

type				elephant african
class				elephant
model				elephant_african
radius				5.5
x_radius			1.3
height				3
mass				15
banner_height		1
bouyancy_offset		3
water_trail_effect	elephant_water_trail
root_node_height	2.52
attack_delay		1
dead_radius			2.5
tusk_z				3.0
tusk_radius			2.0
riders				3
rider_offset		0.0, 1.225, 1.306
rider_offset		0.0, 1.1, 0.5
rider_offset		0, 1.1, -.25

I'm thinking about re-installing Rome and see if there was a problem with my installation...


Are other members really able to assault cities with just units of elephants?

[Makanyane]

I'm suspecting that maybe it elephants that just attack as elephants - eg with tusks (secondary attack only) can assault, but ones with missile firing riders maybe can't.

Try switching off your missile firing riders by using

stat_pri 0, 0, no, 0, 0, no, no, no, none, 25 ,0.7
stat_pri_attr no

(I know that doesn't help what you are trying to do if it is the case - but would determine if that is your problem - I doubt its a problem with your RTW installation!)

and yeah my elephant ogres definitely allow an instant assault

[orgo.love]

I'll test the vanilla elephants and get back to you. (Basic Carthaginian elephants w/o any archers)

EDIT: Nope. not possible. I'll test whether the "attacking with elephant" capability is faction limited... though since you can use your elephant ogres immediately, that's probably not the case.

[orgo.love]

WTF????? As carthage, even the basic elephants can siege assault!



The information for whether elephants can siege assault or not must be faction-limited somewhere... but where???

Actually, no. Maybe the wall level was different. I'll check.

[orgo.love]

???? At stone_wall levels or higher, the elephants can't assault... Wtf? what is this...

[Makanyane]

ah that explains the problem...

I realised they only went for wooden bits, eg. the earlier pallisade type walls, and I thought for gates as well?!

So maybe it lets them attack gates in the custom battle stone walls (I'm sure I've seen them dying under boiling oil) but doesn't count it as a valid enough assault method to use from strat map? (I probably wasn't paying any attention to whether my guys could still do it when city/wall size was larger)


Trying to change anything about that would mean looking at the walls files probably and not the elephants, you might be heading into hard-coded territory though. (might just be related to the wall level in export_descr_buildings.txt and not anything about the actual wall model/stat set up.

[orgo.love]

: (


Sorry for the late reply. I was just looking through the blue lotus list, and it seems like they already did my idea through fireball monks :/ I'm a little disappointed.

Anyway...

I don't know where to go from here. the ONLY units that can attack both buildings and units with impunity seem to be siege units. However, siege units seem extremely complicated to mod, and their movement range in the strategic map just sucks.


Two ways:

1. spend another week trying to figure out how to change siege engines and siege engine movement speeds

or

2. Just limit the wall levels of all cities to wooden palisades. Highly unlikely.


I wonder if the defense is limited to the "name" of the walls, or to the levels. Meaning, if I give them a defense with a "name" of wooden palisade (i.e. level 2, I think?) but give them wall level 4 in the EDB file-perhaps this will allow the elephants to still attack.

Still, this would only be a patch-up solution though. Testing right now, will get back to you shortly.