Adding new Units in map editor?

[maynard]

It has been a very long time since I worked with any of this. But in the old version of edit world I used to edit the templates.txt file and create new units. Then it would show up in the edit world program. But I noticed this file is not used by the new version of edit world??? So how do I create new units for warzone now? I am sure it can be done because I seen flying trucks in a mod. Also I can remember how to create a batch file to compile map with the old edit world and the make wdg program. Can a map be made using the old edit world then useing the new program to compile them or would you get an error about unfound objects? I think I would prefer to use the new prog if I can create custom units!!!

[whippersnapper]

It has been a very long time since I worked with any of this. But in the old version of edit world I used to edit the templates.txt file and create new units. Then it would show up in the edit world program. But I noticed this file is not used by the new version of edit world??? So how do I create new units for warzone now? I am sure it can be done because I seen flying trucks in a mod. Also I can remember how to create a batch file to compile map with the old edit world and the make wdg program. Can a map be made using the old edit world then useing the new program to compile them or would you get an error about unfound objects? I think I would prefer to use the new prog if I can create custom units!!!

Hello Maynard, creator of "Boot Camp" and other cool WZ toys, I take it.

We no longer use .wdg Instead we use .wz which is simply a .zip archive

In 32EW Unit Templates are declared in the ObjectList.txt so you can place them on your map. They are simply proxy placeholders and when the map.wz is run in-game it calls the unit templates that are in the mp.wz or base.wz text files (w/apt resource assoc.). If you wanna create a new unit combo which does not exist already in the game binary .txt files then you have to .txt edit first like HERE and from there you can put the new template designator you created into the 32EW ObjectsList.txt for proxy map placement..

Regards,whipper
(aka Rman)
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[maynard]

Hey Rman been a long time... I am the one who first added flying trucks to a skirmisk map. I think I am the first one anyway. And I also got the team who made warzone to reply to my email and give us some very useful info that lead to us get a cd of tools and then begin the N.E.W.S.T project. But as far as me writing any useful tools I never have been much at programing. That is more my old buddy Tromans thing... Btw is he still around?

Back to the subject. I added the line

Unit "SK-Panther-VTOL-Truck" "SK-Panther-VTOL-Truck"

to object list.txt and it didn't show up in the editor???

Is there a limit to the number of ojects that can be displayed by the editor?

[whippersnapper]

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Yes... a very long time it's been.... long enough to where memory can play tricks on us (and I very much include myself in that) which is why I always have my archives of original files going all the way back to Pumpkin's very own official Forums of 1999 to refer to - (see the end of my post for how events actually played-out back in the day..)

Here is a screen cap in 32EW of Unit "SK-Panther-VTOL-Truck" "*SK-Panther-VTOL-Truck*"



My bad.... besides adding to the "ObjectList" you also have to add to 32EW's copies of "Names.txt" and "Templates.txt" which also have to match-up exactly with the same changes made to the .txt files used by the game binary in mp.wz / base.wz in order for the Vtol Truck to be used in-game.... this also entails the decision to make the Vtol Truck part of Researching OR just "gift it" as we did in "Citadel Elite" and later v.1.11 Mod releases, for example..

AND - if you "gift" Vtol Trucks there are VERY serious BALANCE issues that arise in the form of "Vtol Truck Rush".... You may wanna get your hands on NiKer's balancing tweaks to v.1.11 Patch-Mod .wdg..... take it apart with Bones0's "WdgExplorer" and study the appropriate files.... you can also see just how the editing was done of the .txt files to get the stuff in-game.... Which you can re-use like folks are still doing by copy and pasting and just using the new .wz format and file structure for your mod to run in the WRP game binary.

Anyway, it's good to see you again Maynard and I trust you'll have fun playing the WRP's very fine version of WZ 2100 and making some kwel new stuff to boot..

BTW -

Troman hasn't been active of late but he is still around and busy in RL and I suspect he'll be making a name for himself in the field of Artificial Intelligence.... his mastery over the years grew to towering heights and he pursued it in his University Education.... I wouldn't be surprised if his PHD Thesis wasn't based on a bunch of the work he did for WZ over the years, beginning in 1999. Lots of the folks we worked with in those early days went on to successful careers in the software industry (within and outside of gaming)...

ALSO....

Not that it matters much really but this is how it actually happened (the Wikipedia article on WZ is grossly inaccurate, btw which amuses me not to correct... a devilish streak in me, I'd say. ) -

Laws245 created the first Vtol Truck and released it as a map-mod shortly after we got Pumpkin to release EW in June '99 (we also had to petition Pumpkin very hard for months because they were stubborn about NOT releasing EW for a long time.)

I made up the name NEWST in July '99 and asked Carver, Sputnick, and Stratadrake to join me in making a new campaign based on Stratadrake's work (he was known as "Richard_Player back in those days when I admined for MPlayer and Moderated some of Pumpkin's BBs) and later petitioning Pumpkin for the CD dev tools. I wrote the initial letter to Alex McLean (and all subsequent correspondence over the years, especially in regards to getting the Source Code Liberated finally in 2004) which Carver, Sputnick and Strata approved and co-signed before I sent it to Alex. All the communications ran through me directly with Alex M. (I have all our email exchanges in my archives from 1999-2005) and it was to me that Alex sent the CD from England which I in turn duped and distributed to the initial 4 man team and later to folks like yourself, Troman, SLONNER, Prometheus, Bones0, TotalWar, BLACKSABBATH, 4nE, etc who joined NEWST early on to work not only on what became known as the "Mangodai Campaign" (the first 4 missions of which took place on the Map YOU created, which I later worked extensively on too after you were no longer active) but the very important tools we had to create to make any real progress starting with "ModSwitcher" (later WZ Starter, PIESlicer, WDGExplorer, WZ Customizer Kit, 2 AI Editors, etc) and of course all the maps, mods (some of which we called Patches like v.1.11 & v.1.12), new Ai's personalities, and Custom Tertiles we released as NEWST (and later, very same folks involved, as "Pumpkin-2" and "RTS.net").. not to mention all the new campaign work done but never released..

Anyway, enough of the history....


Regards, whipper
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[maynard]

Wow Your memory is better than mine.. And thanks for the info...Btw is there anyway to get that mission on the map I created? Oh yea this is how bad map memory Is What was that map named...Lol I am serious....Oh yea my version of the editor didn't come with the other txt files and I am sure that the ones that came with the old editor that I have are extenxively different.

One major problem that made put a big delay on my projects is the abitly of this Pc...And my other good one has something wrong that it wont connect to the internet

[whippersnapper]

Wow Your memory is better than mine.. And thanks for the info...Btw is there anyway to get that mission on the map I created? Oh yea this is how bad map memory Is What was that map named...Lol I am serious....Oh yea my version of the editor didn't come with the other txt files and I am sure that the ones that came with the old editor that I have are extenxively different.

One major problem that made put a big delay on my projects is the abitly of this Pc...And my other good one has something wrong that it wont connect to the internet

I have a decent memory especially in light of my "advanced years" , plus keeping good reference records on everything I'm into also helps.

In the case of WZ I also think the additional reason I remember so well is because the characters-personalities involved where vivid, memorable people on top of their talent, skills, intellects, contributions. They were just plain fun to hang with.

I think you called the campaign map you made "reflyingin" (I really loved its asymmetry - truly an adventure playing on it) The mission scripts I wrote for it are being used in an other project (on different maps I've made w/32 bit .pngs) that I'm working on con-currently with "War School" so I don't wanna distro them.. I'm sure I have your original map .wdg archived on one of my stored comps but i won't promise to reset-up the hw to retrieve it any time soon. I built a new super-duper dev box a few months ago and I'm literally cramped for space (I'm a pack-rat, can't bring myself to discard my antiquated comps even) ... However if you do get around to wanting to script new campaign missions I have stuff I can pass on that would be of help I'm sure. I'm also certain I gave a copy of it to Lav_Coyote but he also has a ton of archived stuff so it may not be anymore convenient for him to find either. The version he has uses my RJCustom tertile set (16bit .pcx) which I never re-did for 32bit .png so you'd have to run it under the Pumpkin v.1.10 binary if the .wdg is ever unearthed by one of us.

Your version of 32EW didn't come with those .txt files.... hmmm... when I get home later tonight I'll make copies for you and try to attach here - been some issues lately with file attachments in these bbs.... so we'll see.

Regards, whipper
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[maynard]

I be more interested when I can get a version that don't crash every 15 secs. Version 2.2 or 3 I think it is looks very cool but keeps crashing.

[whippersnapper]

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I don't know what I was thinking.

I'm assuming you have the latest WRP WZ v.2.2.1 game installed so you can grab the .txt files from there for 32EW like so:

Open the mp.wz file in your v.2.2.1 folder with any .zip utility

and you will find templates.txt in the Stats Folder and names.txt in messages > strings > names.txt

In 32EW you put both in Samples > Stats > here

That should do it..

Regards, whip

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EDIT:

I be more interested when I can get a version that don't crash every 15 secs. Version 2.2 or 3 I think it is looks very cool but keeps crashing.

Post your system and GFX hw specs in the "Trouble-shooting" bb along with crash dumps, error mess, stddr log.

Usually these issues are related to GFX hardware drivers and their Opengl efficacy. Usually updateing resolves these probs or if you recently updated, rollback. Also playing around with your HW GFX options as well as the graphics options in the game usually also helps in finding the "happy" working medium for your set-up.

I run v.2.2.1 and the way more demanding Trunk game binary on a Lap Top that's almost 4 years old with an Intel Mobile integrated chip-set just fine and that is really the most crap HW for current gaming.
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[maynard]

I got the unit to show up in the editor but now it don't show up in the mod?

[whippersnapper]

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Your modifications to 32EW files have to match text editing you did to the files the game binary uses in .mp.wz - assuming you did modify
those files the game binary uses.

The cleanest way I have found is to make a copy of .mp.wz, call it maynardsmod.wz (or whatever), text edit as per the Dev Wiki articles and Lav's Docs Project tuts and then command line your maynardsmod.wz so that when you run your map.wz it draws on the modified resources of your maynardsmod.wz (which match your modifications to the 32EW proxy files) to show-up and run in-game...... If you did not modify the game binary resource files then whatever you did to 32EW files will either be ignored or, if it conflicts, will cause a CTD.

Text Editing Wiki page here: http://developer.wz2100.net/wiki/TxtEditing * I just added some handy info a few days ago...Weapons Internal IDs

Sounds like you are NOT creating an entirely new unit to add to the game's existing ones which makes dealing with .wrf and research files not necessary and thus a whole lot simpler to do.

You are basically swapping around existing resources so it sounds like the files you need to work with (cut and paste text editing basically), in your maynardsmod.wz are:

• assignWeapons.txt
  Names.txt
  Templates.txt

I am also assuming that this "new" unit (new as in 32EW's SKI-Templates) is gonna be used to "gift" the player in 32EW as a pre-placed unit and / or you want the default skirmish a.i. to make & use it.

That said you should understand this about templates.txt as written by Dancing Moogle (aka Chainsaw Monkey & Radiosity) from Lav's Doc Project which is a wee bit more discursive than the same info in the Wiki article:

Templates.txt is where the most critical information for a new skirmish template is stored, and tells the game exactly how to handle the AI templates. This is a typical example of a skirmish template (and is also the last entry in the document, so any new templates will come after this one:

SK-Veng-Track-HvyLaser,623,Body10MBT,ZNULLBRAIN,ZNULLCONSTRUCT,ZNULLECM,6,tracked01,ZNULLREPAIR,DROID,DefaultSensor1Mk1,1

What each part represents - some parts won't interest you at all since they never need to be changed so I will state that as I get to each one:

Name - Obviously this is the name of the new template. This again must match the template name specified in names.txt and assignWeapons.txt.

Template Number - Simply the number of the template. New templates should have this number increased by increments of '1', so a new template after this one would be #624, then #625 and so on.

Body internal ID - Tells the game which body to use for the template. I'll list the Body Internal ID's at the end.

ZNULLBRAIN, ZNULLCONSTRUCT, and ZNULLECM should be left as they are. The only time you'd need to change one of these is if you are making a new Truck template (ZNULLCONSTRUCT).

The next number corresponds to the Group this template belongs to - see the Assign Weapons resource post for details. Again, this should be left as '6' for Skirmish.

Propulsion - Tells the game what propulsion the template should use. I'll list the ID's for propulsion after the Body ID's.

ZNULLREPAIR - As above, you don't need to change this, unless making a new Repair unit template.

DROID - Just identifies the Template as being a game object.

DefaultSensorMk1 - Leave this as it is, it's the default sensor type that all units require.

The last number simply identifies the unit as either a combat unit or a special unit (such as repair or truck). 0=Special Unit, 1=Combat Unit.

• Body Internal ID's:
  
  BODY1REC = VIPER
  BODY2SUP = LEOPARD
  BODY3MBT = RETALIATION
  BODY4ABT = BUG
  
  BODY5REC = COBRA
  BODY6SUPP = PANTHER
  BODY7ABT = RETRIBUTION
  BODY8MBT = SCORPION
  
  BODY9REC = TIGER
  BODY10MBT = VENGEANCE
  BODY11ABT = PYTHON
  BODY12SUP = MANTIS
  
  BODY13SUP = WYVERN
  BODY14SUP = DRAGON
  
  Propulsion ID's:
  
  tracked01 = Tracks
  HalfTrack = Halftracks
  hover01 = Hover
  V-Tol = VTOL
  wheeled01 = Wheels

Note that these are CaSe SenSitIvE, so tracked01 should be all lower case, whereas HalfTrack should have the Capital letters.

Regards, whipper
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[whippersnapper]

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If the "new unit" is that Panther Vtol truck you mentioned then the files you need work with are "Names.txt" & "Templates.txt" and that is like less than 5 minutes work to have be in game like so -




DUE Note: Like I mentioned earlier Vtol Trucks lead to some balance issues in MP as in "Vtol Truck Rushes" if you just simply throw them in without doing anything else to address that in some form of re-balance change(s).

Regards, whip
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[maynard]

I got the unit to show up in edit world. and I used the short cut mp_mod whatever.wz... The mod shows up but the unit is removed and so is my factory?

[whippersnapper]

I got the unit to show up in edit world. and I used the short cut mp_mod whatever.wz... The mod shows up but the unit is removed and so is my factory?

In the copy you made of the stock mp.wz file to build your mod from what changes to what files did you make ?

Regards, whip
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[maynard]

I only changed two file in editworld directory. Templates.txt and objectlst.txt.
This is what I done to templates.txt
SK-Panther-VTOL-Truck,625,Body6SUPP,ZNULLBRAIN,Spade1Mk1,ZNULLECM,0,V-Tol,ZNULLREPAIR,DROID,DefaultSensor1Mk1,0

Now for some reason I can't get any of the other mods to show up when I use the shortcut line mp_mod whatever.wz????

[whippersnapper]

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Changing the 32EW files is one task..... changing the resource files the game binary uses is another necessary task and they must be compatible with each other for the changes to show-up in game.

Mods may be compatible with the game binary but necessarily with each other.

Regards, whip
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