Adventures in Editing -- New Troop Units

Greetings, Fun-Seekers!

This is primarily for The_Prussian_Musket, and anyone else who may be interested in creating "NEW troops" for "L'Aigle," by utilizing/re-purposing "old" EXISTING Items, meshes, and textures.
[We have to thank Docm,(whatever he calls himself, now), and his Team, for providing all of that content in the first place, Eh?]
All you need is "Morgh's Editor" (a free download -- but, you can also do it manually, by editing "Troops.txt" in Notepad), and
A "graphics program" that can open, edit, and save .dds texture files (I use "Paint.net" -- also a free download).

So, here we go --

Look familiar to ya, do they?
No, no, they are not who you think they are...
[The Prussian Landwehr didn't arise until 1813, and "L'Aigle" is focused on 1809, Right?]
These are Prussian "Trained Recruits" or "Freiwilligers" (intended for Level 8-9 "militia-level" troops), that can be inserted in the Prussian Troop Trees between the "Recruits" (#198, for Line, and/or #211, for Light), to form a "bridge" between the Level 4 Recruits and the Level 14 Regular Line or Light -- so people playing for Prussia don't have to wait so long for the next "upgrade."
[Yeah, I changed my Prussian Line Musketeers (#203) and Light Fusiliers (#212) to Level 14 troops, to make their Troop Tree more consistent with the other existing ones.  So, shoot me ... you do what you think best ...].

Anyway --  Item #517 Prussian Schirmutz (you would use #1193 Russian Cossack Cap); Item #519 Prussian Litewka (made by re-texturing Item #665 Austrian Landwehr Coat2.  But, you could still use that - although your new troops would then have green coats), Item #767 British trousers rolled and/or Item #764 Civilian trousers rolled (for black or white gaiters showing at the bottom. Or use both, as alternates); Items #731 Prussian musket 1801, and #158 cartridges.
Gets easier to do this stuff, the more you do it ...

Cheers!

DARoot

Danke! 

Sehr gut!

And if you create something interesting, and would like to tell others about it, please post something here in this thread, describing what you did and how you did it, for the benefit of other "do-it-yourself-ers."

Same for everyone.
That's what this thread is for.

Happy Gaming!

DARoot

Scots Grey


Cavalry Recruit -> British Dragoons -> British Dragoons Guard
Level 4                  Level 14                          Level 25
                                    |
                          -> Scots Grey
                                Level 14           

Items: #677 Heavy 1796 British Sabre, #940 British Dragoon Coat, #751 White Gloves, #1077 Polish Grenadier Bearskin, #1013 British Trousers, and #1273 French Cuirassier horse

The only thing I dont like is the Dragoon coat (Ill get over it  )

Hope you like it! 

The Ferguson Riflemen!


Second troop-upgrade choice for British Veteran Light Fusiliers

British Light Recruits -> British Light Fusiliers -> British Veteran Light Fusiliers -> Ferguson Riflemen

I custom make the items my troops use (armour/cloth items, anyways) so that if I make a mistake and use the wrong mesh, I can just change it. The items, however, are near mirrors of their original counterparts, being:

Ferguson Rifleman's Helmet (Bavarian Raupenhelm)
Ferguson Rifleman's Coat (British Marine's Coat)
Ferguson Rifleman's Gaiters (French Breeches) 
Cavalry Gloves
Sabre Briquet

And of course, a unique firearm: The Ferguson Rifle. Uses the module of the m1777 Musket and stats taken from the Baker Rifle except I removed the "Next item as melee" property: the Ferguson Rifle was actually pretty delicate, so I though swinging it around wouldn't end too well. And it, of course, has a very fast reload speed. 70, specifically.

Regiment Joseph Napoleon, made of Spanish prisoners.
Recolored and slightly edited Neapolitan (fusiliers and officer) and Italian (grenadiers) coats, and mostly French infantry equipment.

Here's some more "militia-level" troops for ya --
Russian Opolchenie
Line Opolchenie - Item #1192 Cossack hat; Item #1167 Russian greatcoat; Item #1199 Russian baggy trousers; Item #161 brown gloves; Item #716 musket_gd + cartridges.
[You already have them - Troops.txt #228 - but they're not currently "activated."  Just change the Recruits (#227) to point to them, and have them point in turn to #232 and #229 (Musketeers and Grenadiers) in their Upgrade Path, and you're done.]

Light Opolchenie - Item #998 British Cavalry forage cap; Item #664 Austrian Landwehr coat; Item #790 Civilian "filthy breeches"; Item #161 brown gloves; Item #714 musket_light + cartridges. 
Have Light Recruits (#241) point to them (you'll have to make them a new troop), and have them point in turn to #242 Yegers in the Troop Tree.  You'll have to name them something other than "russian_light_opolchenie" however, since that's already used for the Yegers.

I'm considering making some Opolchenie "Foot Cossacks" by giving them the Cossack Astrakhan fur cap, and arming them with pikes.
But, I have no idea how the Game Engine AI would cope with THAT.
[Have to study what Jatynski did to incorporate pikemen in his "Europe in Flames" mod, and possibly come back to this idea later].

@David_Dire -- I've had a terrible time trying to change NPC faces.  Using the method recommended by Morgh's Editor only seems to work sporadically, when I start a new game.  It's like the M&B:W game engine or Morgh's have some sort of "ancestral memory," that makes them want to revert to whatever the faces were originally.
There are two "face codes" that the game uses, and supposedly picks random faces between the two, but supposedly NOT for "Heros," only for recruitable troops.
All my newly-created recruitable troops have the SAME face codes in both boxes.  So, I wonder if those instructions are reversed?
Anyway, you can try giving your Amazons identical "face codes" in both places (to help prevent randomization), or try editing Troops.txt directly [the "face codes" there are 11-digit "ordinal (Arabic) numbers, not long Hex strings, found in the last line in their Troops.txt entry].
I've had the best luck using the Savegame Editor to change their faces there.  THAT method works flawlessly, 100% of the time.

@ The_Prussian_Musket -- If you want your Scots Greys on grey horses, mount them on #1271 French Dragoon (Cuirassier) horses.  The saddle furniture will be wrong, but that's the only white/grey horse we have available, unless you want to "go Native."

Great to see all the responses, and clever edits, shared here!

DARoot

With the problem with face codes, it turned out it was actually my stupidity in not applying the new face codes I made to the amazon mercenary troops.

Though, that is a few drawbacks with modding warband: some files will not change no matter what when modded unless you start a new game. I think in my case changing the sex of troops may have fixed it, though that still isn't directly related to your problems. I might try to recreate what you're doing to see if it's just you or an engine problem.

Oh, Thanks, that's OK.
I can accomplish what I want to accomplish.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
Happy to hear you sorted out your issue with your Amazons.

It is sort of interesting, though.
Using Blucher as an example (Kingdom 5, Knight 3), his face code in my original, backup copy of Troops .txt (from December 2015) is 56304350481.
I gave him 67511527110 (Sorry.  It's easier for me to use the face codes from "Troops.txt" rather than typing out all those Hex strings from Morgh's Editor or the in-game Edit Mode).
The game engine should read the face code from Troops.txt when starting a new game, right?
Well, this morning for a new game, he got face code 35299272390.  Where the game engine got that from, is a mystery to me.  Those numbers don't come from any other NPC knights nearby in Troops.txt, nor do they form part of any of the other number strings in Blucher's, or any other nearby, NPC entries.
[So, I'm pretty sure I didn't mistakenly leave out a space, or add an extra zero, when editing].
Curious, Eh?

DARoot

sorry for my noob question but, i already made the troop but i cant get it.

Do you intend for it to be a mercenary or a troop you get by upgrading another?

im very very very very very noob in this kind of things i only know by upgrading, i tried making ligth british infantry upgrade to my troop

@ Havajos
The current British Light Infantry troop tree starts with Index #94 Light Recruit, that can upgrade in two directions --
-- to either #95 Light Fusilier (which then goes on to #96 and *97) OR to #98 Rifle Recruit, that then goes on to #99 and #100.
[To get 60th Riflemen (#101, 102, and 103), you exchange 95th Riflemen for them in the Military Depot. That's a different procedure].
Where in the existing troop tree did you insert your new troops?  And what Level did you give them?
Did you simply over-write existing troops with them?  Or are they separate, new troop types with new index numbers?

#94 Recruits are Level 4 troops.  When they accumulate enough experience to reach Level 8, the "upgrade" button to #95 Light Fusilier should become active in your Party screen.
However, #98 Riflemen are Level 14 troops, so THAT button won't activate unless you forego "upgrading" your Recruits until they reach Level 14.
That suggest anything to you?  Did you wait long enough for your troops you are upgrading from to reach the level of your new troops you want to upgrade to?

If you made new troop types, did you replace some "Native" unused troops with a LOWER number than #94?  The first upgrade should be to a higher-numbered troop type.
And, you never delete, move, or change the order of existing Recruit-level troops.  That can cause all kinds of problems, beyond not seeing your new troops.

DARoot

Question: How does one paint over existing L agile uniform textures without overwriting the textures and how does one add the newly created uniform textures to L aigle?

I have a question , is there a way to add mine itm_ thing?

".. I have a question , is there a way to add mine itm_ thing? .."

Click to expand...

Polska Duma, Johny_Nawalony!
Certainly.
Here's how I do it --
- Create your new Item, and add it to "Item_kinds.txt" with Morgh's Editor.
It will automatically be assigned an "Index Number," at the BOTTOM of the list (e.g., something like #1286).
- Then, use Morgh's Editor to assign that new Item to your selected troops' Inventory (by editing "Troops.txt").
Start a New Game, to see the changes you made.

Since I like to "test" any changes I make for myself, I have to take another step -- I open "Item_kinds1.txt" in Notepad, COPY all the info for my new item (from the "bottom" of the file), and then PASTE that over something "Native," further up the list, that I never want to see in "L'Aigle" (such as kite shields).  Then, I DELETE the new Item entry from the bottom of "Item_kinds.txt," and edit the "Header" number back to 1287.  That is because, the "Cheat Menu - Find an Item" in "L"Aigle" currently only works up to #1285.
If you do that, you then have to re-assign your new Item to your troops, with whatever new Index Number it gets from the move.

Maybe not the BEST way.  Certainly not the ONLY way.  Just the way I do it, and I can confirm that it works for me.
Hope this information is helpful.

DARoot

".. Question: How does one paint over existing L agile uniform textures without overwriting the textures and how does one add the newly created uniform textures to L aigle? .."

Click to expand...

I read your question yesterday, but figured somebody else might better answer it.
You seemed to be asking how to re-texture, while still preserving the original "L'Aigle" textures.
I don't know how to do that.
However, somebody named weiner_snitzel recently released a mod to add Brunswick Uhlans (replacing Austrian Uhlans), that seems to utilize NEW textures, with unique names, that will work with the EXISTING meshes.
He includes several new .dds (texture) files, AND edited versions of "napo_clothing.brf" and "napo_headwear.brf," that go into the \Resource folder. (No changes to "Troops.txt" or "Item_kinds1.txt").
Somehow, he managed to get the game to recognize, and utilize, these new textures.  I have to study what he did further.
Until he, or someone else that knows the answer, responds to you, you might want to look at that.

Today, you seem to be asking a simpler question, so I can respond with simple answers (for the moment) --
-- I cannot "paint over" an existing texture WITHOUT "overwriting" it.  So, it becomes a "design decision" about what you are willing to give up, in order to achieve your new result.
I've so far confined myself to editing "unused" (usually musicians') existing uniform textures, or "underutilized" ones (such as the 2nd Austrian Landwehr coat).
-- As for "adding" it after you re-texture it, since I keep the SAME texture name [e.g., "helm_aust_cavmusic.dds"], I just let the EXISTING mesh "call" it normally, and use the method I described above to Johny_Nawalony, to assign it to my troops.
I'm not all that clever, so for me, simpler is better.
And, once "L'Aigle" gets another upgrade, and those musician uniforms are actually utilized in-game, all my personal changes get thrown out the window.

If you are asking "How to Retexture," that's a much, much bigger question. 
There are several Tutorials available on this Forum, in other areas (such as "Module Development" or "The Pioneers Guild").
My answer to you is, Use what you are comfortable with.
[Although REAL "artists" tend to favor tablets and stylus pens, especially for finer work.  Moving the stylus with your fingers is easier and more precise than trying to "paint" with the mouse, using the muscles of your wrist and arm.  And, the stylus won't make your carpal tunnel sore after about an hour ...]

Hope (some) of this information is helpful.

DARoot

Danke for the info!

I wonder if you could copy and paste the texture you want to change, change the copy to your liking, then point the texture to a copied version of the mesh of choice (but make the copied mesh a seperate item altogether).

Interesting, huh? 

That's basically how you do it, actually.

I am the new Docm!

You wanna fight about that m8?