Making Custom Armies

[steve]

so i tryed that out, but now when i go to play as soon as the game begins it goes back to my desktop?

[Monkwarrior]

Unfortunately it is not so simple.
In fact you want to assign new units to greek_cities faction. Thus you need to edit several files. If I remember well you must begin with descr_model_battle.txt. For example, companion cavalry is coded as greek_royal_cavalry. There you must have assigned a texture for the faction, as here:

type				greek_royal_cavalry												; combat spear
skeleton			fs_hc_spearman, fs_hc_swordsman
indiv_range			40
texture				macedon, data/models_unit/textures/unit_greek_royal_cavalry_macedon.tga
texture				greek_cities, data/models_unit/textures/unit_greek_royal_cavalry_greek.tga
texture				seleucid, data/models_unit/textures/unit_greek_royal_cavalry_seleucid.tga
model_flexi_m		data/models_unit/unit_greek_royal_cavalry_400.cas, 8
model_flexi_m		data/models_unit/unit_greek_royal_cavalry_300.cas, 15
model_flexi_m		data/models_unit/unit_greek_royal_cavalry_200.cas, 30
model_flexi_m		data/models_unit/unit_greek_royal_cavalry_100.cas, 40
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_greek_royal_cavalry_70.cas, max
model_sprite		greek_cities, 60.0, data/sprites/greek_cities_greek_royal_cavalry_sprite.spr
model_sprite		seleucid, 60.0, data/sprites/seleucid_greek_royal_cavalry_sprite.spr
model_sprite		macedon, 60.0, data/sprites/macedon_greek_royal_cavalry_sprite.spr
model_tri			400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

If this unit has not a particular texture for the desired faction you have to make one or to assign one existing texture, although the unit would have the colors of the other faction.
After that it is necessary to allow the faction to recruit the unit. This is done in export_descr_unit.txt. This is the example for companion cavalry:

type             greek royal cavalry
dictionary       greek_royal_cavalry      ; Companion Cavalry
category         cavalry
class            heavy
voice_type       Heavy_1
soldier          greek_royal_cavalry, 27, 0, 1
mount            heavy horse
mount_effect     elephant -8, camel -4
attributes       sea_faring, hide_forest, hardy
formation        1.5, 4, 3, 6, 4, square, wedge
stat_health      1, 0
stat_pri         10, 16, no, 0, 0, melee, blade, piercing, spear, 25 ,1
stat_pri_attr    no
stat_sec         12, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, sword, 25 ,1
stat_sec_attr    no
stat_pri_armour  11, 6, 0, metal
stat_sec_armour  0, 1, flesh
stat_heat        2
stat_ground      0, 0, -6, 0
stat_mental      10, disciplined, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 40
stat_fire_delay  0
stat_food        60, 300
stat_cost        2, 760, 240, 80, 120, 760
ownership        macedon, greek_cities

After that you must modify the export_descr_buildings.txt file as told before. Pay attention with the space after the last comma.
Finally it remains the question of the unit card and info_picture. If not, you will have the image of a peasant (default image) for the new unit.

In any case a more detailed tutorial about how to include new units can be seen in this thread:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=39092

[Epistolary Richard]

so i tryed that out, but now when i go to play as soon as the game begins it goes back to my desktop?

If the game CTDs (crashes to desktop) when you try to boot it up, it sounds like you've got a problem in one of the files that the game reads on start-up, probably in this case export_descr_buildings as I would have imagined you already made your changes to export_descr_unit to get the units available in custom games.

Ensure that your other files look like Monkwarrior's instructions and make a new shortcut for the game with

"C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" show_err

in the target line. Make sure you modify this to wherever your copy of RTW is located. If you start the game through this shortcut and the game CTDs this will hopefully generate an error message telling you where the problem is.

The game is very picky about certain spacing and commas in these files so try to follow his instructions exactly. If you have no joy, restore your vanilla versions of the files and then make one change at a time.

From my experience, it's not always necessary to edit descr_model_battle, but doing so lets you make sure that the model looks how it's supposed to look. The graphics files already exist for the Greek Companion Cavalry, but you won't find anything for the Beserkers so you can either rely on the german default or venture into the world of skinning.

[steve]

ok, ive gotten that working, with the exception of the skinning part, but i dont care about that anyways. I was wondering if it is possible to up the number of men in units, for example i want to boost the 45 number in my sycthed chariots to 200.

[Epistolary Richard]

From Monkwarrior's post on export_descr_unit

soldier          greek_royal_cavalry, 27, 0, 1

The 27 is the number of men in the unit on normal scale. This number can go as high as 60 and as low as 6. Read through the comments at the very top of the export_descr_unit file as these explain what all the variables are.