Allied Armies

[everyone]

good day,

I had a sudden idea after reading MAA's AAR, regarding those allied armies he used (e.g. the Roman legion used by his Makedon and etc). So I also decided to mod the EDB, EDU, DMB and add a few unit cards here and there, to give myself (playing as Makedon then) the ability to recruit a few more units, namely Roman Camillan units, Armenian units (I think they look cool), Galatian units, Epirote units, and a few others I though interesting.

so it was a long process of copying-pasting the hidden resource locations and unit names throughout EDB and after a two long afternoons I finally had my Armenian army for the new Satrap of Armenia.

now the problem is I decided to play as Aedui now and decided to subjugate Rome. however I remembered that I couldn't recruit Roman units (other than the hastati, equites and rorarii) in Italy. and it's going to waste a bit more time making another EDB so that I could recruit Roman/Iberian/etc unit as Aedui.

Therefore I decided to add a new building in EDB to represent forging alliances with the locals so that I could recruit their units. That new building requires a level 3 or above govt to construct.

however the problem is that I do not know how to mod EDB so as to include another building. never mind about this paragraph, I found out how as I was typing this paragraph; and spent another three more hours doing it so this topic was delayed.

presenting my first minimod:

current version: v0.3 (for EB 1.2, savegame compatible, and it's also compatible if you upgrade from a previous version of this minimod. However this is not compatible with other mods which modifies the files export_descr_buildings, export_descr_units and export_buildings)
download from:
-filefront
-rapidshare
-mediafire

(note: because of some strange bug, it does not work properly when you play as Romans.)

in the current version:
-Italian/Camillan Roman units for every faction except Romani (for obvious reasons)
-Galatian units (tindanotae, kuarothoroi, lavotuxri and the klerouch) for all factions
-Thracian units (rhomphapharoi, triballoi, prodromoi and a few others) for all factions
-Armenian units (Nakhararakan aspet, zrahakir netadzik, hai nizagamartik, georgian swordsmen and a few other units around Caucasus area)
-Hoplites (Massilian, Syracusan, Spartan, and those other hoplites that KH uses)

screenshots:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

update log:
15 Feb: v0.1 (outdated, had some bugs)
16 Feb: v0.11 updated, fixed the graphic error.
20 Feb: v0.2 (added new UI picture, Galatian and Thraikian units)
8 Mar: v0.3 (made the UI picture less unsightly, added Armenian units and Koinon hoplites)

Known bugs:
-some units, in particular the greek hoplites, are not recruitable even though it is shown on the "allied armies" building description. not sure why though, still working on it.
-CTDs occur when there are model conflicts. e.g. Romani with Roman units. the problem is already identified, though it'll take a while to fix it (by inserting a line for every faction and what sprite/model they should use; instead of lazily adding "merc" and let every faction use it)

Future versions will include:
-bug fixes, in particular for the Romanoi.
-Machimoi
-Goidilic/British
-Carthaginian (Liby-phoenician, phoenician, etc) units
-Germanic units
-other stuff which I may occasionally think of when I subjugate those people in my current campaign
-local/factional recruitable generals (RGBs) who won't turn into client rulers when you leave them to govern a city (so they're treated like normal FM's just that they don't appear on the family tree)
...more when I eventually think of making something else

and that would be the order which I would work on them.


If you are currently using other minimods and also wish to play this; this small tutorial helps you to manually install this minimod into existing minimods of yours

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. copy the part in the EDB under ";::::: allied armies by everyone:::::" into your current EDB (with the minimods and stuff)
2. see the units which are made available to all factions (there are 31 of them); by finding the unit cards under /data/UI/units
3. search for the units in EDU and add ", mercenary_unit" at the end of the "attributes" line
4. search the units in DMB and find the skins they use; at the end of "models" and "textures", add a new line and change the faction name into "merc" for example:
models.........romans_julii filename1 filename1
models.........slave filename2 filename2
models.........merc filename1 filename1
textures.......romans_julii filename1 filename1
textures.......slave filename2 filename2
textures.......merc filename1 filename1
5. and finally dump the unit cards inside the RAR file into /data/UI/units/merc and /data/UI/unit_info/merc

[desert]

Hmmm. Some screenshots plz?

[everyone]

oh yes, sorry about that; I tested it but didn't take screenshots. I'll post them in a while.

edit: I made an update concerning a bug and added screenshots

[Sarkiss]

so you invest 25K and get that shiny stack spawn?

[everyone]

sort of, but it's still being worked on, so currently it's only usable if you intend to make Romani a 'client state', but in the very near future (which is this weekend) I'm going to add a significant number of regions which you could get more shiny stacks.

but any comments or suggestions or criticism for this idea/minimod?

[Raygereio]

I like the idea.

Well, that's not really much of a commentary, suggestion or criticism, but I though some support would be nice as well.

[everyone]

just made another update to 0.3; I was finally motivated to add new content.

[HunGeneral]

I like the idea of this mod and Id does look quite good so far. Any news about possible CTD's yet?

Good luck to any further work you should do with it.

I might eveen try it one day

[everyone]

so far none, I think they happen when the game can't decide whether to use the factional skin/model or the merc skin/model. but how Hayasdan manages to use the same skin for two different units (nakhararakan tiknapah, Armenian heavy infantry and Shipri Tukul, Babylonian spearmen) may show that it's not possible.
and the Armenians, Galatians and Thracian allies are behaving well in my current Koinon campaign, I don't have any CTDs yet; the only ones I had was when I was testing it where there were some line break errors in the EDB and it crashed while loading the game.

[Raygereio]

No crashes yet in my Koinon game, I haven't tested the Roman and Armenian units yet, but the Galatan and Thracian ones work just fine.

I don't know if you want to update your first post with this, but updating from a previous version to a newer one of your mod seems to be perfectly save game compatible (at least I didn't get any crashes with a save game after updating from 0,2 to 0,3. As long as you allready have the Allied Alliance building in your EDB everything is allright, I guess).

One thing, I noticed some default RomeTW peasant unit pictures when I was checking out the indian provinces and in your EDU you have the indian Infantry Guild Warriors listed as mercenary units, yet their picture files aren't in your merc folders in the UI files.

[everyone]

thanks for the notice and support. I must have accidentally done that when I was attempting to mod my Macedonians to have an Indian Satrapial army.

[Darth Revan]

I've noticed a problem in your minimod........after installing it, the option to recruit a client ruler/allied general from a Type IV government disappears.............pls fix this problem.......Thanks for your minimod anyways.......

p.s. one more thing could u pls lessen the turns required to construct the local alliances building.......I mean frankly 20 seasons is a little too much for a small building.....& also reduce the 25k cost a bit coz it burns a big hole in my tiny little treasury............

[everyone]

I don't know what exactly causes the option to recruit a general disappears, and I'm also rather busy, so I don't have much time to investigate the cause.
as for changing the construction time, you can change it by scrolling to the bottom of your export_descr_buildings file and changing this section:

            construction  20
            cost  25000

by replacing 20 and 25000 with the relevant numbers.

and beware, this mod does not work with some factions who use the troops (in particular when you go into battle mode) involved; when there are model clashes, e.g. the Romani.

[Darth Revan]

and beware, this mod does not work with some factions who use the troops (in particular when you go into battle mode) involved; when there are model clashes, e.g. the Romani.

Is there any such problem with Makedonia ?????????

[everyone]

not that I know of.
It's only currently known to cause problems with Romans and Hayasdan (the troops from their native MICs); and possibly some hoplite units for KH.

I'll update it sometime in June. since my exams are still ongoing.

[Darth Revan]

Okay dude, I'll wait till July........Best of luck for your exams........

[strategos roma]

I just installed this minimod but my computer showed something like “ Windows cannot identify this file”.

[Luis Sera]

I have installed it, i have no other mods installed but while the buildings are there the units are not