The Complete EDB Guide - discussion

[Renaissance37]

Are there any fully functioning scenario Mods (downloadable) for Rome?

Also, a question about Medieval War 2.....It seems Venice can have all the Knights orders, but the game is only letting me build Hospitallars. How can I build the chapter houses for the other orders? Also, are there any events that need to be triggered to build these chapter houses?

[Squid]

First question: yes plenty

Second question: wrong forum, try asking over in the M2TW part of the site

[Renaissance37]

First question: yes plenty

Second question: wrong forum, try asking over in the M2TW part of the site

Where can I get the Mods?

[Dol Guldur]

This is probably one of the most up-to-date compilations of released mods...

http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Released_Mods

And please do not ask these questions in the wrong forum/thread as others will use these to source certain information and have to wade through irrelevant postings. Thx ;)

[Renaissance37]

This is probably one of the most up-to-date compilations of released mods...

http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Released_Mods

And please do not ask these questions in the wrong forum/thread as others will use these to source certain information and have to wade through irrelevant postings. Thx ;)

Sorry about that.

[Red Spot]

something I just found out that seems to work, though I still wouldnt recommend using it .. :D

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

building core_building
{
levels governors_house governors_villa governors_palace proconsuls_palace imperial_palace
{
governors_house requires factions { barbarian, carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, }
{
capability
{
law_bonus bonus 4
law_bonus bonus 2 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
}
construction 4
cost 4000
settlement_min village
upgrades
{
governors_villa
}
}
governors_villa requires factions { barbarian, carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, }
{
capability
{
agent diplomat 0 requires factions { roman, }
law_bonus bonus 5
law_bonus bonus 3 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
}
construction 6
cost 6000
settlement_min town
upgrades
{
governors_palace
}
}
governors_palace requires factions { barbarian, carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, }
{
capability
{
agent diplomat 0 requires factions { roman, }
law_bonus bonus 3
happiness_bonus bonus 3
law_bonus bonus 3 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
recruits_exp_bonus bonus 1 requires not factions { romans_julii, }
}
construction 8
cost 8000
settlement_min large_town
upgrades
{
proconsuls_palace
}
}
proconsuls_palace requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, }
{
capability
{
agent diplomat 0 requires factions { roman, }
law_bonus bonus 3
happiness_bonus bonus 4
law_bonus bonus 3 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
recruits_exp_bonus bonus 2 requires not factions { romans_julii, }
}
construction 12
cost 16800
settlement_min city
upgrades
{
imperial_palace
}
}
imperial_palace requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, }
{
capability
{
agent diplomat 0 requires factions { roman, }
upgrade_bodyguard 1
law_bonus bonus 4
happiness_bonus bonus 4
law_bonus bonus 4 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
recruits_exp_bonus bonus 2 requires not factions { romans_julii, }
}
construction 16
cost 25600
settlement_min large_city
upgrades
{
}
}
}
plugins
{
}
}
building core_building
{
levels governors_house governors_villa governors_palace proconsuls_palace imperial_palace
{
governors_house requires factions { roman, }
{
capability
{
law_bonus bonus 4
law_bonus bonus 2 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
}
construction 4
cost 4000
settlement_min village
upgrades
{
governors_villa
}
}
governors_villa requires factions { roman, }
{
capability
{
agent diplomat 0 requires factions { roman, }
law_bonus bonus 5
law_bonus bonus 3 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
}
construction 6
cost 6000
settlement_min town
upgrades
{
governors_palace
}
}
governors_palace requires factions { roman, }
{
capability
{
agent diplomat 0 requires factions { roman, }
law_bonus bonus 3
happiness_bonus bonus 3
law_bonus bonus 3 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
recruits_exp_bonus bonus 1 requires not factions { romans_julii, }
}
construction 8
cost 8000
settlement_min large_town
upgrades
{
proconsuls_palace
}
}
proconsuls_palace requires factions { roman, }
{
capability
{
agent diplomat 0 requires factions { roman, }
law_bonus bonus 3
happiness_bonus bonus 4
law_bonus bonus 3 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
recruits_exp_bonus bonus 2 requires not factions { romans_julii, }
}
construction 12
cost 16800
settlement_min city
upgrades
{
imperial_palace
}
}
imperial_palace requires factions { roman, }
{
capability
{
agent diplomat 0 requires factions { roman, }
upgrade_bodyguard 1
law_bonus bonus 4
happiness_bonus bonus 4
law_bonus bonus 4 requires factions { romans_senate, germans, }
recruits_exp_bonus bonus 2 requires not factions { romans_julii, }
}
construction 16
cost 25600
settlement_min large_city
upgrades
{
}
}
}
plugins
{
}
}

Seems you can happilly use double entries in EDB, in the case of the core-building it will get you the regular core-building and a destroyable-regular-building, where the last acts as normal building and the first stays as it worked before ... (could possibly be usefull for mimicking settlement-levels, I guess ...)


G

[Dol Guldur]

That's interesting Red Spot. I had not thought to try that as every other file seems to complain at double entries.

Has it been tested thoroughly? What happens if you have building conditionals testing for the existence of that building? Which one does it take? How does it affect scripting when testing for a building in both those trees? Do the associated text files work correctly for both? How does it display in the building browser? Presumably the cards all work? Does the second entry count as another entry or can it be used to deceive the engine into having more than 64 tech trees? What happens if the tree name is the same but the level names differ? The EB file also accepts double entries then?

Lots of questions.

I'll update the EDB if this can be shown to be working smoothly and of use.

[Red Spot]

I think its some sort of legacy from before they implemented the actual core-building, as its displayed in the building-browser as something like "first building" but doesnt cause any errors ...

You can just build it as a regular building and any building requirement can be split up, 1 way, as you can check when a core-building is being build by attaching things to the settlement-lvl, but you cant be sure the other way around, afaik yet ...

Havent tried this with regular building, just tested it for an other feature I'm looking into, though I realised later on with a bit of trickery I can just as well implement it without the need for double entries in EDB, so it hasnt been tested very well at all ..


G

[Dol Guldur]

Important: Discovery

I should add here, as I believe I neglected to do it when I discovered it, the fact that there is a way of controlling recruitment of available units beyond the simple availability we have all been used to.

I have updated the EDB Guide (4 months ago in fact) but, with the exception of the EB Team, I believe I have not announced it generally. Sorry :(

The game will block recruitment of units that have a weapon tech that is in the negative. It is possible to use negative bonuses (see Guide) to achieve this. By restoring the negative to a bonus the unit with that weapon tech becomes available again. Both EB and FATW use this technique should you wish to see examples. I have not looked at how EB has implemented it but I should warn you the FATW implementation is very complex (advanced coders only!). lol

See the opening post of this thread for a link to the EDB Guide.

[Red Spot]

are there any sort of negative effects DG, something to look after ..

I've got an interest in this .. er .. feature though somewhere I wont use it untill some proper testing or confirmation its perfectly safe to use as something tells me this has its side-effects, though thats just "a feeling" ...


G

[Aradan]

No side-effects spotted so far in FATW (we have been using this since summer and added an extra 'layer' of complexity two-three months ago). And I can assure you DG *tests* stuff really well. ;) What does your "feeling" tell you the problem might be?

[Red Spot]

somehow the AI tripping over the fact that the building allows recruitment of X unit though it effectivly doesnt .... basicly you're fooling the AI (and player) in a way, wich could say for instance prevent them recruiting as much men as they would if the units that is available is available ...
An other would be it might screw up armour/weapon-lvl's in a way you'd have to "mod around" those issues, didnt really have any realistic doubts its a problem though I felt like *testing* once I first read about it in the guide.

Thanks for the reply and I hope you dont mind if I do have a looksee at some of FATW's features when I get around to certain tweaks ... ;)


G

[Squid]

I was digging around in exe with a hex editor, and found reference to a conditional port. I've tested port and it returns true in any coastal region. It works for both building conditions (i.e. to determine if a building can be built) and as a capability condition.

EDIT: The only thing I haven't tested is if it will return true in a coastal region that doesn't have a white pixel for a port in map_regions.tga.

[Dol Guldur]

Interesting. Have you tested to make sure it works both negatively and positively? Some legacy coding is recognized but just returns true all the time.

Also, can you give an example of your code.

Thx.

[Squid]

I don't think it's legacy code so much as a feature they didn't actually need to use (at least explicitly), my hunch is that the port building makes use of this conditional implicitly.

Both positive and negative work:

For capability I added the following to a building:

tradeable_income_bonus bonus 1 requires port

In a coastal settlement (without any port building built) the bonus appeared in the building browser, in an adjacent non-coastal settlement the bonus did not appear. So it gives true/false values as expected and isn't tied to the presence of a port building.

Similarily I added and port to the requirements for one building. I checked two settlements one on the coast the other inland, the coast settlement had the building in the browser, the inland settlement did not.

As I said in my last post, I still have to test if a coastal region without the ability to build a port would make the condition return true.

[Dol Guldur]

Guide updated to include reference and link to Squid's research/findings on plugins here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=101525

Thx. Squid - hopefully I will get time to ponder this and the above some time soon, but due to lack of time you may need to step forward as the EDB guru now

[Ramashan]

I've been trying to edit the EDB file for the better part of a day now, but whenever I add a new building, the game simply crashes at start up. I've been modding for a year now and have managed to change just about everything in the game, including settlement plans, but adding a building, which seems simple enough has, completely stumped me.

Here is what I am doing.

At first, I'll admit I attempted to bite off a bit more than I coud chew by attempting to follow not only this Guide to EDB but also trying more advanced editing found here: Adding 500+ Buildings

As I was editing the EDB I not only had both the Complete Guide to EDB and the above thread open, but also this tutorial: Building editing, building adding, guide

I am trying to create a new building set that I named: barracks_aztec

I have also kept the original barracks set, just removed the factions I want to use in the barracks_aztec.

I am also trying to create a branched barracks tree that will be based on whether or not a specific temple is built in the city. This way we can have recruitment specific to the existance of that specific temple.

At first I followed the EDB Guide and the 500+ and came up with this;

;building barracks_aztec
;{
;    levels aztec_militia_barracks warrior_missile_barracks warrior_heavy_infantry_barracks elite_warrior_barracks house_of_eagle_warriors_quauhcalli priest_missile_barracks priest_heavy_infantry_barracks elite_priest_barracks  
;    {
;	aztec_militia_barracks requires factions { pontus, dacia, }
;	{
;	    capability
;	    {
;	    }
;	    construction 2
;	    cost 600
;	    settlement_min village
;	    upgrades
;	    {
;		warrior_missile_barracks		
;		priest_missile_barracks
;	    }
;	}
;	warrior_missile_barracks requires factions { pontus, dacia, }
;	{
;	    capability
;	    {
;	    }
;	    construction 3
;	    cost 800
;	    settlement_min large_town
;	    upgrades
;	    {
;		warrior_heavy_infantry_barracks
;	    }
;	}
;	warrior_heavy_infantry_barracks requires factions { pontus, dacia, } 
;	{
;	    capability
;	    {
;	    }
;	    construction 4
;	    cost 1600
;	    settlement_min large_town
;	    upgrades
;	    {
;		elite_warrior_barracks
;	    }
;	}	
;	elite_warrior_barracks requires factions { pontus, dacia, }
;	{
;	    capability
;	    {
;	    }
;	    construction 5
;	    cost 3200
;	    settlement_min city
;	    upgrades
;	    {
;		house_of_the_eagle_warriors_quauhcalli
;	    }
;	}
;	house_of_the_eagle_warriors_quauhcalli requires factions ( dacia, pontus, }
;	{
;	    capability
;	    {
;	    }
;	    construction 7
;	    cost 6400
;	    settlement_min large_city
;	    upgrades
;	    {
;	    }
;	}	
;	priest_missile_barracks requires factions { pontus, dacia, }
;	{
;	    capability
;	    {
;	    }
;	    construction 3
;	    cost 800
;	    settlement_min large_town
;	    upgrades
;	    {
;		priest_heavy_infantry_barracks
;	    }
;	}
;	priest_heavy_infantry_barracks requires factions { pontus, dacia, }
;	{
;	    capability
;	    {
;	    }
;	    construction 4
;	    cost 1600
;	    settlement_min large_town
;	    upgrades
;	    {
;		elite_priest_barracks
;	    }
;	}	
;	elite_priest_barracks requires factions { pontus, dacia, }
;	{
;	    capability
;	    {
;	    }
;	    construction 5
;	    cost 3200
;	    settlement_min city
;	    upgrades
;	    {
;		house_of_the_eagle_warriors_quauhcalli
;	    }
;	}
;    }
;	plugins 
;	{
;	}
;}

Which made the game crash at start up. I was also adding all the building levels to desc_ui-buildings so that I could perhaps test it with out creating all the building cards.

When it didn't work, I ; out all the code and the game loaded fine.

The next step was to see if I screwed up the other files that needed to be edited. So, I edited a building in the vanila barracks line:

building barracks
{
    levels muster_field aztec_militia_barracks city_barracks army_barracks royal_barracks 
    {
        muster_field requires factions { barbarian, carthaginian, armenia, egyptian,  } 
        {
            capability
            { 
            }
            construction  2 
            cost  600 
            settlement_min town
            upgrades
            {
                aztec_militia_barracks
            }
        }
        aztec_militia_barracks requires factions { barbarian, numidia, armenia, egyptian,  } 
        {
            capability
            { 
            }
            construction  3 
            cost  1200 
            settlement_min large_town
            upgrades
            {
                city_barracks
            }
        }
        city_barracks requires factions { barbarian, carthaginian, armenia, egyptian,  } 
        {
            capability
            { 
            }
            construction  4 
            cost  2400 
            settlement_min city
            upgrades
            {
                army_barracks
            }
        }
        army_barracks requires factions { carthaginian, armenia, egyptian,   } 
        {
            capability
            {
            }
            construction  6 
            cost  4800 
            settlement_min large_city
            upgrades
            {
                royal_barracks
            }
        }
        royal_barracks requires factions { seleucid, roman, } 
        {
            capability
            {
            }
            construction  7 
            cost  9600 
            settlement_min huge_city
            upgrades
            {
            }
        }
    }
    plugins 
    {
    }
}

This is the coding in export_desc_building_enums:

aztec_militia_barracks
aztec_militia_barracks_desc
aztec_militia_barracks_desc_short
aztec_militia_barracks_pontus_desc
aztec_militia_barracks_pontus_desc_short
aztec_militia_barracks_dacia_desc
aztec_militia_barracks_dacia_desc_short
aztec_militia_barracks_armenia_desc
aztec_militia_barracks_armenia_desc_short
aztec_militia_barracks_barbarian_desc
aztec_militia_barracks_barbarian_desc_short
aztec_militia_barracks_numidia_desc
aztec_militia_barracks_numidia_desc_short
aztec_militia_barracks_egyptian_desc
aztec_militia_barracks_egyptian_desc_short

And here it is in export_desc_building

{aztec_militia_barracks}	Militia Barracks

{aztec_militia_barracks_desc}	WARNING! This baseline description should never appear on screen!

{aztec_militia_barracks_desc_short}	WARNING! This baseline description should never appear on screen!

{aztec_militia_barracks_pontus_desc} 
Militia and light infantry warriors were an essential part of every Mesoamerican army. Usually positioned at the rear of the battle line they would help fend off enemy attacks and assist the noble and elite warriors to take as many captives as possible.

{aztec_militia_barracks_pontus_desc_short} 
Militia barracks train militia and light infantry warriors who were an essential part of every Mezoamerican army.

{aztec_militia_barracks_dacia_desc}
Militia and light infantry warriors were an essential part of every Mesoamerican army. Usually positioned at the rear of the battle line they would help fend off enemy attacks and assist the noble and elite warriors to take as many captives as possible.

{aztec_militia_barracks_dacia_desc_short} 
Militia barracks train militia and light infantry warriors who were an essential part of every Mezoamerican army.

{aztec_militia_barracks_armenia_desc} 
Militia and light infantry warriors were an essential part of every Mesoamerican army. Usually positioned at the rear of the battle line they would help fend off enemy attacks and assist the noble and elite warriors to take as many captives as possible.

{aztec_militia_barracks_armenia_desc_short} 
Militia barracks train militia and light infantry warriors who were an essential part of every Mezoamerican army.

{aztec_militia_barracks_barbarian_desc}
Militia and light infantry warriors were an essential part of every Mesoamerican army. Usually positioned at the rear of the battle line they would help fend off enemy attacks and assist the noble and elite warriors to take as many captives as possible.

{aztec_militia_barracks_barbarian_desc_short} 
Militia barracks train militia and light infantry warriors who were an essential part of every Mezoamerican army.

{aztec_militia_barracks_numidia_desc} 
Militia and light infantry warriors were an essential part of every Mesoamerican army. Usually positioned at the rear of the battle line they would help fend off enemy attacks and assist the noble and elite warriors to take as many captives as possible.

{aztec_militia_barracks_numidia_desc_short} 
Militia barracks train militia and light infantry warriors who were an essential part of every Mezoamerican army.

{aztec_militia_barracks_egyptian_desc}
Militia and light infantry warriors were an essential part of every Mesoamerican army. Usually positioned at the rear of the battle line they would help fend off enemy attacks and assist the noble and elite warriors to take as many captives as possible.

{aztec_militia_barracks_egyptian_desc_short} 
Militia barracks train militia and light infantry warriors who were an essential part of every Mezoamerican army.

I also read that the carthiginian culture sometimes gives things problems with desc_ui_buildings so I followed the steps in the building editing tuorial and removed it.

Still the game crashed.

Then I went ahead and created new graphic files for aztec_militia_barracks and placed them in all the cutlure UI folders and named them appropriatly. And still is crashed. Everytime, its a CTD with no errors.

I am running the files out of a mod folder, so I don't know if there's anything else I need to do because of this.

Also, is there anything more I need to do to create a new building group other than writing it in the EDB and then adding barracks_aztec_name to EDBE and EB?

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to show all my steps and my coding to make it easier for someone to see my mistakes and learn where I went wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I've looked over all the coding and can't find any mistakes, but I'm not perfect.

Thanks ahead of time.

-Rama

[Makanyane]

To get round the Carthaginian problem you just need to remove one of the lookup lines for them at the top of descr_ui_buildings.

Not sure what your original problem was, but on the later example where you are replacing militia_barracks with aztec_militia_barracks, I would have thought you should have been getting error messages. The normal militia_barracks is part of a trigger in export_descr_advice.txt - removing buildings that are mentioned in that normally gives you a message if you're using -show_err....

I'd suggest fixing your EDB back to working condition and trying some a deliberate error in another file that you know should give error message, to make sure you are still getting -show_err messages, if you've got some other error somewhere blocking that it will add to your problems considerably.


On rest of stuff if you're patched to 1.5 you don't need to add anything to the enums file. I'd suggest you put in text file references for each culture though, eg like
{aztec_militia_barracks_eastern_desc}
and then put the faction specific stuff in below it. So you have the culture reference as fail safe - not having text in there for anyone who ends up with building will give an errorless CTD, but not until you try to view the building...

I've not tried the technique in your first bit of coding so can't really advise on that part.

[Ramashan]

Thank you for your help Makanyane.

Its usually takes at least one question before I figure out where I went wrong.

I did as you suggested and edited the EDB back to working perfectly then removed a coma from a the requires factions list and it gave me the expected error message.

I also created graphic cards for all the building levels. I was hoping I could get away with just placing them into the desc_ui_buildings file, but that doesn't seem to work for me.

I also went back through all my text and found I missed a word in only one of the building levels, this must have been the major issue. Now I have everything working, including the branched building tree.

Thanks for the prompt reply. It led me to figuring out all my problems.

[HouseOfHam]

A couple small corrections for the list of building effects, based on what I see coded in the BI exe and EDB files:

1) "population_fire_risk_bonus" -- the exe says just "fire_risk"
2) "bodyguard" -- should be "upgrade_bodyguard", as used in the BI EDB

[Dol Guldur]

Thx. Ham.

Edited

[Dol Guldur]

Just a small update - the "port" condition can be used for capabilities as well as building conditionals. So, for example, you can have a unit in a barracks that only is available in a coastal area (there is no CTD when right-clicking the unit name in the building scroll to bring up the unit info scroll). So no need for resource conditionals anymore in this context.

Still awaiting response from Squid as to whether the port condition detects the actual coast or just the presence of the port in map_regions.tga though.

Guide updated.

[Squid]

Sorry, I totally forgot about checking that. I removed the port from a coastal region in map_regions.txt, and the building linked to the port condition was not available to build. The port condition is linked to the white port pixels being present in map_regions.tga

[Dol Guldur]

Thx Squid. Guide updated.

[Centurion Varricus]

I noticed in the "Complete EDB Guide", there was a reference to "building_faction { x }"
Do you know if this feature works in BI?

Many Thanks

[Dol Guldur]

No, it does not as far as we can tell. I, and others, have tested it and it seems to be ignored.

[Centurion Varricus]

Thanks DG

I also wanted to ask about merging building trees

Im Using a hidden resource to make available part of a tree in some regions, which ultimately returns to the main trunk. But this is returning a gap in building tree error msg when I exit the game.


Example

Building 1 (Base Building of tree) Upgrades Bldg2, Bldg3

Bldg2 if hidden resource (A) not available then upgrades to Bldg4
Bldg3 if hidden resource (A) is available then also upgrades to Bldg4

I hope that makes sense

Is there a guide to error messages anywhere or do you have any ideas what is causing this and how to prevent it?

Many Thanks

[Dol Guldur]

A NOT conditional will block the level and cause the gap error most likely. Use a positive conditional to test it out, if not then you have left a genuine gap in the factions for the upgrades.

[Centurion Varricus]

Blimey that was quick

This is the first code line with the NOT conditional

kelt_govt_2 requires factions { gauls, } and not hidden_resource indo_european

How can I use an AND and still obtain the same effect?

Also going back to my first question above, I thought you might like to see the result of something I tested.

Under the capabilities of the roman xxxxxx building, I added the following code line

law_bonus bonus 40 requires building_factions { rome_republic, }

This returned the result
bonus due to law 200% in the building description

On completing the building the public order had jumped from 80% to 205% in the city scroll for rome

To complete the test though, we need another faction to conquor a region where this is built, and check the bonus doesnt give the new faction that bonus

[Dol Guldur]

I'm on my lunch break ;)

You need to use a positive such as not_indo_european. Try that.


building_factions, as I said before, is ignored and so the result you get is not unexpected. Let me know if it changes but I think you'll find it will not.