need help with modding a unit...and frozen peas.

[Sextus the mad]

ji pplz hows life?i hope its good for all.

i was seeing how pplz were editing units and stuff like that in the data files, and i thought i would have a go at it myself. I wanted to try and make a cross between the roman samnite gladiators and the war dogs, pretty mush just making it so that the gladiators would have the war dogs with them. i also wanted to give the gladiators a more organised look so i chamnged thier formation and gave them a grrek hoplite officer...i think. any ways i did all this and started the game......it crashed right away.

this is what i changed to the "export_descr_unit.txt" plz tell me whats wrong with it and how i can fix it if anyone can plz.


type roman samnite gladiator
dictionary roman_samnite_gladiator ; Samnite Gladiators
category infantry
class heavy
voice_type Heavy_1
soldier roman_samnite_gladiator, 20, 0, 1.3
officer greek_standard
animal wardogs
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, can_sap, very_hardy
formation 1.2, 1.2, 2.4, 2.4, 2, horde
stat_health 2, 0
stat_pri 14, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, sword, 25 ,1
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 0, 0, no, 0, 0, no, no, no, none, 25 ,1
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 7, 7, 0, metal
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 3
stat_ground 2, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 14, disciplined, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 40
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 2, 720, 260, 80, 110, 720
ownership romans julii, romans_senate, slave, greek, german


I added the greek and german ownership in their cause i got the officer from the grreks and the dogs from the germans/

so yea any help on the matter is much appreciated.

thankz
StM No matter what you think. You are NOT safe in numbers.

[Ciaran]

First of all, did you use the -show_err command line? If not, do so, perhaps it´ll give you a hint where you went wrong.
Then, you don´t need to give the ownership to Greece and Germans just because you used their models, ownership defines which faction may use a unit in the game. There could be the reason of the crash, because if you change ownership, you must make sure the unit has a texture defined for every faction which may use it. And perhaps you misspelled the Julii faction in ownership, I think it has to be romans_julii ( with the _ instead of a space).
[edited in regard of Bwian´s post] It is also possible that it´s a space instead of the _ I´m not sure there right now, but definitely it´s one or the other, not both. Look at how it´s done with the unmodded Roman units, if CA did it, it´s usually right (in terms of working).
I hope that was helpful in a way.

[Bwian]

I think the category has to be 'handler' rather than infantry. Thats worth a try. Also...the ownership on the stock wardogs files shows:

romans julii,romans brutii,romans scipii,romans senate

Which makes it look like the senate SHOULDN'T have the _

But, as Ciaran said...if you add -show_err to your command line in the game shortcut, it should tell you both the file and the line in the file that it is choking on. That will tell you which element of the changes are giving hte crash.

[Sextus the mad]

ok thanks for the help but ummm, where and what and how do i get to the"command line"?

[Ciaran]

I suppose you´ve got a desktop shortcut to Rome, don´t you? Rightclick on it, choose "properties" (or something like that, myWindows is German, I don´t know what it´s in the English version), there you have a line which tells you to what file the shortcut refers, it should read something like "c:\programs\activision\rome - total war\rome - total war.exe". Now just add -show_err to that line (you can also add -nm additionally, that rids you of the intro movies, sadly not from the half-an-eternity displayed loading screen ) and there you are. Now, if something goes wrong a window should pop up telling you what went wrong.

[Monkwarrior]

I've never tried something like that, but this would be my first try in export_descr_unit.txt

type             roman samnite gladiator
dictionary       roman_samnite_gladiator      ; Samnite Gladiators
category         handler
class            heavy
voice_type       Heavy_1
soldier          roman_samnite_gladiator, 20, 60, 1.3
animal           wardogs
attributes       sea_faring, hide_forest
formation        2.2, 2.2, 3, 3, 3, horde
stat_health      2, 1
stat_pri         14, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, sword, 25 ,0.75
stat_pri_attr    no
stat_sec         14, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, other, piercing, none, 25 ,0.75
stat_sec_attr    no
stat_pri_armour  8, 8, 0, metal
stat_sec_armour  2, 1, flesh
stat_heat        16
stat_ground      4, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental      18, impetuous, untrained
stat_charge_dist 40
stat_fire_delay  0
stat_food        60, 300
stat_cost        2, 720, 300, 80, 110, 720
ownership        romans julii

Differences:
- category: handler (as bwian says)
- number of dogs: 60 (3 per soldier)
- the formation is still horde, with the numbers of a handler
- stat_health: 1 point for the dogs
- the secondary weapon and armour are those of the dogs

One possible problem is that all the hadlers use the fs_fast_dagger skeleton, whereas the gladiators use fs_swordsman. Perhaps this skeleton is not compatible with the handler.

My advice: don't change too many things at the same time. Formation and standard will come later.

[Sextus the mad]

ok. im just about to try it with the command line thing. thankz for the help guys i hope this points me in the right direction.thankz

[Sextus the mad]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

succses!!!!

it works!!!
thankz for ur help every one its much appreciated. but now that i now that i can forsee me screwing up and having to reinsatll my game several times

well im going to go and kill some germans now. thankz guys.

p.s.
if ne one here has MSN messenger and wnats to make a friend my email is

random_enduro_guy111@hotmail.com

kool.cya

[Epistolary Richard]

Use show_err, keep backups, be a cool modder.