Problem with recruitable mercs

[Sfwartir]

Hi, I hope some of you are able to help me out here.

I've been trying to make Cretan Archers, Illyrian Mercenaries and Rhodian Slingers recruitable in certain Greek cities (while still being mercenaries for everyone else).

To not completely tip the balance of the game, I decided to make them available through hidden_resources in:
Crete (Cret.Archers) hidden resource "kreta"
Rhodes (Rhod.Slingers) hidden resource "rhodos"
Segestica (Ill.Merc) hidden resource "illyria"
Salonia (Ill.Merc) hidden resource "illyria"

I followed this guide:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...55&postcount=2
but I still can't make it work. I get no CTD, but the units simply aren't available.

Any ideas/hints?

Thanks a bunch in advance

[Monkwarrior]

It is not clear for me which factions would be able to recruit those troops.
In case of cretan archers, they are assigned to greek_cities and macedon (for battles), so if you don't change export_descr_units.txt this unit will be available only for those factions (sorry if this was obvious).

The hidden resource must be placed in the corresponding region (descr_regions.txt) and at the beginning of export_descr_buildings.txt.
Finally the unit must appear in this way:

        archery_range requires factions { spain, scythia, germans, gauls, dacia, ct_carthage, eastern, parthia, egyptian, greek, roman, } 
        {
            capability
            {
                recruit "merc cretan archers"  0  requires factions { greek_cities, } and hidden_resource kreta

I hope this help.

[Legionario]

If a unit is "tagged" as "mercenary",it's not recruitable,so you have to clone it, and give the second one , a new name,using "Caligula" semplify things a lot

[Sfwartir]

Thanks guys, I guess I'll spend the rest of the day scripting

Wasn't aware of the merc tag thingy, will try to find this Caligula editor.
Anyway, thanks for the (so far) help

[Sfwartir]

Er..how does one actually clone a unit? (Got Caligula just now)

[professorspatula]

If you're adding hidden resources, I think you have to delete the map.rwm file in the campaign folder which corresponds with whatever campaign you're using after you've made the changes to the descr_regions.txt file, and then load the game up. If you don't do this, I believe the game doesn't update the whereabouts of the hidden resources. At least, that's what I think happens. I pretty much have the same thing going on in my mod with recruitable mercs, and I too got stuck with the hidden resources for a while there.

Also, you do not have to create a clone unit to make mercs recruitable in the campaign. In the export_descr_units.txt file, where it says 'ownership' for the particular merc, add the faction name you want to be able to build the unit in the campaign game. Unfortunately that will also make the unit available to the faction in custom games, which may or may not be an issue to you. The Greeks probably already have cretan archers and Illyrians in custom games anyway, so you might not even need to change anything.

Regarding 'clone units', I find Caligula a bit buggy at times so I stick to using a text editor. I suggest loading up your export_descr_units.txt file with notepad or whatever, finding the entry for the Merc unit you want to clone, then copy it, then paste it underneath the current one (or at the bottom of the file if you don't want to mess up savegames). Now on the copied unit, where it says 'type merc some unit', change the name to something else like 'merc cretan archer recruit'. Make any other necessary changes to the 'clone' unit like ownership. Then in export_descr_building.txt, you need to add a line that recruits 'merc cretan archer recruit' instead of the original cretan merc unit. And that's about it - although it may be necessary to tweak the descr_model_battle.txt file if you remove the mercenary attribute.


Still you shouldn't need to clone the unit at all.

[Sfwartir]

Right, now I've used Caligula to "Make a new unit" of the three units I wanted. I used each original merc unit as a base, and (in Caligula) simply removed the chevron from "Mercenary Unit". Then I renamed the "new" versions of Illyrian Merc, Cretan Archers and Rhodian Slingers using "greek_" instead of "merc_" as a prefix. Well, whaddya know, they still don't show up in-game..

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong here. I've added the hidden_resources (kreta, illyria and rhodos) for the 4 cities I wanted (listed in my first post), I've added the names for all factions supposed to be able to recruit the units (=all factions with greek culture +"egypt"/ptolemaids), and added the units to the unit build lists in buildings_desc.txt, where I also added the "..and resource xxxxx" after each unit respectively.

Anybody able to help this poor, bewildered newb?

Please do PM me if you're able to make a good step-by-step "walkthrough" for accomplishing what I've explained in my posts.

[Sfwartir]

If you're adding hidden resources, I think you have to delete the map.rwm file in the campaign folder which...

AH! Thanks mate, that seems to have done the trick

[professorspatula]

Glad to have helped. I'll have the invoice for my payment sent to you tomorrow.

[Sfwartir]

Glad to have helped. I'll have the invoice for my payment sent to you tomorrow.

W h a t ? To me, with an old, sick grandmother and all? Arrr, the pain..

[Pannonian]

You also have to create a new map.rwm file in data\world\maps\base. Rename your old copy in case anything goes wrong, delete map.rwm if you've left it in there, then start a new campaign. The new map.rwm will pick up the new hidden resources. Once the hidden resources are there, changes to units.txt and buildings.txt will be detected without having to start a new campaign.

[khelvan]

Just to correct an error - it is in fact possible to recruit a unit tagged as "mercenary_unit." The only differences between this type of unit and a "normal" unit are that it can be placed in the mercenary pool (descr_mercenaries.txt) and it will use the mercenary texture in descr_model_battle.txt, no matter which faction recruits it.

Other than that it will be recruited just as any other unit will be. You must add the faction to the ownership line of the unit in export_descr_unit.txt, add a recruitment line (or multiple lines) in export_descr_building.txt, add the hidden resource to the hidden resource list at the begging of export_descr_building.txt, add it to the unit's recruitment line as you have done, and add it to the region's resource list in descr_regions.txt. Then, delete map.rwm and voila! It should work fine.

[Sfwartir]

Thanks a lot everybody, it seems to work out fine now

[Sfwartir]

...except, as I just realized, the unit card shows a peasant in a black shirt, and it holds no unit description.
This is kinda weird, 'cause I un-paked and added UNIT and UNIT_INFO for the relevant units from the folder "mercs" in the "pack" folder to my greek_cities UI folder (yes, lots of "folder" in that sentence).
I haven't had any problems with peasants on unit cards since I downloaded xpak and started using it..hrm. Any suggestions?

[Epistolary Richard]

Sounds like the dictionary name has changed, check inside text\export_units.txt to ensure there's an entry which matches the edu dictionary line.

[Sfwartir]

Sorry for asking noob questions and all, but the "edu dictionary"? Where do I find that?

[khelvan]

EDU refers to export_descr_units.txt (sorry, we use abbreviations for common text files). "Dictionary" is quite easy to find if you look in EDU - each unit has a "dictionary" entry. This entry is used in other places, notably to check for a unit card .tga and an info pic .tga. If the dictionary entry changes, you'll need to change the corresponding names of the unit card and unit info pic .tgas.

[Sfwartir]

Ah, ok! Got it. Thanks a lot Khelvan