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View Full Version : Tutorial: How to add new units to the game, and make a mod without adding models etc)



Asmaedus
15th Jan 08, 5:26 PM
Ok people. Im not sure if there is a tutorial on how to do this already or not, but guessing by the amount of people on the dawn of war filefront forums, and with people pointing them towards this site, i thought i'd give it it a crack. today we are going to learn how to make a mod AND add a "lone sniper" to the space marines, using the scout model.

Step 1: Tools

First and foremost you are going to need corsix's mod studio, because thats the only modding tool i know how to work, and attribute editor crashes every time i run it.

thats about all you need.

Step 2: Setting up the mod

Since modding vanilla DC would screw up out multiplayer, we are going to make a mod. doing this is quite simple. firstly, go in to your dark crusade folder. standard directory for this is C:\Program Files\THQ\Dawn of War - Dark Crusade. now look a folder called My_mod. copy and paste that into your dark crusade directory. rename it sniper_mod. now look for another file thats called My_mod, but its not a folder, it a file, and the filetype is .MODULE. once you've found that, copy paste it and call it sniper_mod. now go into your sniper_mod.MODULE (from now reffered to as the "module file") and every time it says My_mod, replace it with sniper_mod. an easy way to do this is by pressing CTRL+F and typing in My_mod.

Step 3: Making the Entity

Now for the juicy part.

Open up Corsix's mod studio and click on Open DC mod. itll come up with a window asking you to look for a module file. click on sniper_mod. choose your language, then wait for it to load up.

now, click on data (NOT GENERIC), click on attrib, then on ebps, then on races, then on space_marines, then on troops. look at all the units that pop up. now, look for scout_marine.rgd. right click, and select "Make a Copy of This File". rename it sniper.rgd ***IMPORTANT*** REMEMBER TO PUT.RGD ON THE END, OTHERWISE IT WILL SCREW UP!***. now that you have copied it, lets make it into a sniper. (ebps stands for entity blueprints , sbps for squad blueprints. the difference is that, for example, one scout marine is one entity, however a scout marine [I]squad , is one squad (duuh). now that we've got that out of the way, lets get working on making the sniper squads entity, the actual sniper, into a sniper. first things first, renaming. now, look for a extension called ui_ext. in that is everything that is visual about the sniper, and, save for the actual model, everything is in there, from the icon, to the name. now to change the name, double click on ui_ext, then double click on ui_info. look for an entry called screen_name_id. click on it, then look on the right side of the screen, there will be something saying $97110. what does this mean? well the number is reffering to a text entry in a different folder somewhere. how do we find this file? go to your dark crusade folder, look for a folder called W40K, (NOT THE MODULE FILE!!!) go into it, there should be another folder called "Locale". go into that, and click on your respective language, for me, english. now there shouldbe a file called W40K, the filetype is .ucs, open that up with a text editor, e.g notepad, and you will see the magical treasure trove of words. scroll way the hell to the bottom, and add a new line under the very bottom one, that goes like this (without quote marks) "503528 Sniper Squad". i think you can see where we are going with this! now, save that, and return to corsix's mod studio. in the sniper.rgd, go back to ui_ext, the to ui_info, then at screen_name_id change $97710 to $503528. now your sniper is called what hes meant to be. save (in the bottom right corner)

Part 4: Making the Squad

now, return to the attrib menu, and look for an entry called sbps, open it and go into races, and from there Space_Marines. look for space_marine_squad_scout.rgd, do the same procedure we did in ebps. now you should have a file in sbps also called sniper.rgd. double click on that, and look for an entry called squad_loadout_ext. open that. now, we are going to do 2 things in here. first things first look for unit_min. select it, and on the right side of the screen , change it from 2 to 1. do the same with unit_max. now, onto the second thing. look for trooper_base in the same directory (squad_loadout_ext), and open it up. now, you see how it says type, well select that, and look on the right of your screen. it should say:

ebps\races\space_marines\troops\scout_marine.lua

well we want it to say

ebps\races\space_marines\troops\sniper.lua.

One last thing to do in the sbps file. changing the name for the squad. but hold on, didnt we just do that? no, we didnt. what we did was change the ENTITYS name, the name that pops up as help text when you hover your mouse over them ingame. now, look for squad_ui_ext, then ui_info. look for screen_name_id. 3 guesses what we are going to do here. do that. one last part i forgot. return to our sniper.rgd in the >EBPS< Folder. go into ui_ext. then look for ui_index_hint. change that from 2 to 9.

we are done with that part.

Part 5: Making the squad requisitionable.

this is the easiest part of the process, but vital nonetheless.

we are going to make our sniper team deployable from the listening post. go to our ebps folder, then into races, then Space_Marines. BUT instead of going into troops we are going into structures. now, what we want is space_marine_listening_post.rgd - go into that, then look for that, then go into spawner_ext, from there go into squad_table. double click on squad_02. on the right hand side there should be an empty box. put into that box:

sbps\races\space_marines\sniper.lua

bam done. now, at the moment, our sniper is just a regular scout, with a bolter. the serious modding, changing what weapon he has into a sniper rifle, making him have more health, more sight etc etc coming in part 2.

now, launch dark crusade, then go to game manager. there should be a mod there called sniper_mod. select it, then restart.

if youve done everything right, the game should load up (if you've done something wrong, it wont work). load up a skirmish game as space marines. now you should be able to requisition our friend the sniper! (with a bolter :agree: )

have fun and thanks for reading!

Jaguar-Lord
15th Jan 08, 6:22 PM
excelent work Asmoddeus !!
i suppose doing the same for environment entities is the same ?

or will this come in part 3 ? :stupido:

Asmaedus
15th Jan 08, 6:26 PM
lol i dont know much about environment stuff

took me ages to write.

i didnt realise i knew that much about modding dow until i saw how many people were asking questions about real easy stuff, and i just worked this out on my own!

do you think theres a spot for a 13 year old mod on these forums? hehehe

EDIT: and remember its ASMAEDUS NOT ASMODDUES! dont take it personally... lotsa people get my name wrong

Asmaedus
15th Jan 08, 9:56 PM
Part 2

PART 1 OF PART 2!

ok, now that we have set up our sniper so he spawns, now to properly make our sniper INTO a sniper

first things first. giving him his gun

Open up corsix's mod studio and go to sniper.rgd in the EBPS part. look for combat_ext, open it up, open up hardpoints, then hardpoint_01, then weapon_01, then weapon_01. see name_for_this_weapon_choice? change it from

space_marines_bolter

to

space_marines_sniper_rifle

that changed the model, now to change the actual weapon.

under weapon_01, there is an entry called weapon. change that from

weapon\space_marine_bolt_pistol_scout.lua

to

weapon\space_marine_sniper_rifle.lua

1 last thing to do in here.

see how under weapon table there are 5 weapons? delete them all except weapon_01.

Congratulations! your sniper now has a fitting weapon, however... this is just a "placeholder" weapon, the standard space marine sniper rifle. if you are content with just having the crappy standard sniper rifle, then you are almost done with this tutorial. now, to make the sniper rifle so it doesnt need research (we need to do this, otherwise the game will crash, or the sniper wont have a gun until the sniper research has been completed.

Part 2: Removing Research. (you need to do this part, even if your going to make a new sniper rifle)

in the attrib menu, down the bottom is an entry called "weapon" (now i wonder whats in here?) now, look for space_marine_sniper_rifle, and open it up. there is an entry called "requirements". delete it, fully destroy it, friggin OBLITERATE IT!!!, thats the easy way. now last of all, there is an extension called "cost_ext", go into that and change time_seconds to 0, then go into cost (the one IN cost) and change power and requisition both to 0. now our sniper is set up and ready to go.

Part 3: Creating a new weapon

If you just want the standard, unmodified sniper rifle, this tutorial is finished for you, for those of you who want an edited sniper rifle, read on.
______________________________________________

now, return to the "Weapon" Entry, and find space_marine_sniper_rifle. copy that (like how we did with the scout) and name it simply "sniper_rifle.rgd. now for making the sniper rifle ZOMGWTFBBQPWNAGE! which basically means, increasing damage and range. with sniper_rifle.rgd selected, go into area_affect, then weapon_damage, then armour_damage. there are 3 things in here we want to change. First, select armour_piercing change it from 3 (this may differ depending on your patch ) to hmmm... lets say, 1000! woot! now, select min_damage, and change it from 345 (once again, this may differ) to... hmm... 1000! TEH WOOTNESS now select max_damage to... 2000! hehe... i think this snipers going to be effective...

Now for the last step of the entire tutorial! go back to sniper.rgd in the EBPS part (not SBPS) and go into combat, then hardpoints, then hardpoint_01, then weapon_table, then weapon_01. select weapon, and change it from

weapon\space_marine_sniper_rifle.lua

to

weapon\sniper_rifle.lua

save in the bottom right corner, and now your done! enjoy your new incrediblely powerful sniper. we are going to leave the range for the moment, but if you want to change the range, i think you can work that out.

++ASMAEDUS SIGNING OUT++

medes
15th Jan 08, 10:16 PM
suggests this be moved to modding tutorials and how-tos for safe keeping and future reference

Nice work btw

Cheesenium
15th Jan 08, 11:01 PM
@Asmaedus,

Could you make a simple tutorial for replacing a vanilla DC model with Medes's C2C model?Im still looking around for one to finish my mod.

Asmaedus
16th Jan 08, 12:11 AM
ill get around to it.

i havnt replaced models before, but i have ripped a model out of a mod and made a new unit using that

*cough cough* winterdynes and zany reapers titan *cough cough*

Asmaedus
16th Jan 08, 10:24 PM
:bump: we need to keep this thread aliiiiiive!!! till a mod moves it... im looking at you finaldeath

Promythyus
17th Jan 08, 12:12 AM
lol, it's best to PM Finaldeath if you haven't already

Octopus Rex
17th Jan 08, 1:59 AM
until i saw how many people were asking questions about real easy stuff, and i just worked this out on my own!Christ, ain't that the truth! Kudos to you.

FinalDeath usually takes a little while to move the threads etc, as he's not on the boards so much these days, but yeah PM him.

SmEg
17th Jan 08, 3:45 AM
Hi, nice tut :)

I made a small C2C tut a while ago, reading this kind of reminded me about it, I assume it's ok to post it up??

Asmaedus
17th Jan 08, 2:30 PM
post it up, itll save me having to write it up :agree: :stick:

SmEg
18th Jan 08, 4:58 AM
Ok cool, will post it when I get home in a few hours.

Now back to work....:bored:

Nilyen
11th Mar 08, 2:27 PM
This is a brilliant guide, but ive tried making my own thing its a chaos aspiring champion on its own that transforms into the bloodthirster, ive changed abilitis_ext > abilities > ability_01 acoordingly but he just wont do it, could i get some help? :D but ill try and look how to do it on the forum :read:

Asmaedus
12th Mar 08, 2:21 AM
PM Me. i just wrote a big reply to you, but it stuffed up.

9ball
12th Mar 08, 5:06 PM
The mod in question isnt really so much of a mod as it is a major reskinnig of units,vehicles,and buildings. I found the faqs very useful but im having trouble figyring out how to turn a space marine model into a Zaku II (please copy the name and google it since I cant seem to paste a picture)

Asmaedus
12th Mar 08, 9:10 PM
well, if you have the models all ready to go, that shouldnt be to hard. PM me

akate
4th Apr 08, 5:23 PM
nice work!! so will the computer use the new unit in the skirmish mode?

Asmaedus
30th May 08, 9:46 PM
well this is a VERY late reply but

no i dont believe so, you will have to write AI for the new unit

Barnster
9th Oct 08, 5:22 AM
Hi, I´d like to replace SM Terminators with Grey Knight Terminators from Daemonhunter-Mod, but the game crashes all the time.

I admit I´m a noob at editing. I just thought it would be enough to add the line:

sbps\races\inquisition_daemonhunt\troops\inquisition_grey_knights_terminator.lua

to the squad_table of space_marine_barracks.rgs, but apparently it´s not. I´ve tried same thing with the GK Hero unit at space_marine_ability_building.rgd and it worked fine.

Has it anything to do with the GK Terminator Commander, the "Justicar"?

Some help would be appreciated.

EDIT:

Nevermind, I figured it out myself. Should have read your tutorial more carefully. ;)

zuthen
13th Oct 08, 1:37 AM
thank you so much asmaedus, your guide was just what i needed to make sense out of all this. first mistake i made was useing the ae to mod things, corsix is SO much better and finaly helped me mod all the files that seemed impossable to edit with ae (like inquisition and nids). your guide also helped me figure out how to use corsix since ive never touched it before, and tought me VERY quickly too. im trying to learn scar and Lua as well but thats not going as good im afraid (arrrgh brain fry!) soooo much to learn and so little time! but atleast now when i screw around with the files i know a little bit about what im messing with. again thank you for your guide, i found it very noob-friendly.

zuthen
13th Oct 08, 3:58 AM
ps i tried to use winterdyne's war hound as a buildable unit from mars pattern in ttru but have failed and am not sure why. i was almost certain it would work as i have the right path and the war hound seems to be made already. any tips?

zuthen
20th Oct 08, 11:56 PM
nevermind i think i got it. from what i could tell it wasent working becouse of the build buttons. one was blocking another.

Abstract
6th Nov 08, 7:36 PM
Thx Asmaedus, very helpful tutorial :Hail: As you can guess, I'm a bit of a modding noob :confused: I can re-skin the models and do simple stuff like make the SM eyes colourable again for SS, as art is what I do best. but as far as messing with lua I wouldn't know where to begin :(

I also read Hangar-8's tutorial on how to replace Thule with Angelos. problem is... I got the idea into my head that I wanted to make a mod to add all three FC as playable units (with all associated sounds) for SS skirmish. Is this even possible?

plz me help :cry: its bothering me so much I'm actually loosing sleep over it, I'm a bit OCD :redeye:

zeigfreid
20th Dec 08, 11:01 PM
Hi

Very helpful, but I have a problem. When modifying the W40K.ucs file I am unable to save it. This is probably because I am using vista? And require permission for everything I do? Despite that I am the sole owner of my computer?

Any tips on how to access these hidden files and save them as .ucs files would be appreciated!

Thanks,

z.

Octopus Rex
21st Dec 08, 5:22 AM
Well, in this instance Vista has saved you from a potentially large cock-up. Don't edit the w40k.ucs file, you need to leave it untouched. (follow the instructions linked in the other thread).

tburd22
17th Jan 09, 4:15 PM
can someone please make a mod that includes dire avengers for the eldar?!?!?

Varellian
17th Jan 09, 4:33 PM
Have a look round at the Completed Mod Forums - the TTRU mod has some. Not memberating, but try the Search all Forums. It'll take a little bit of time, but will come up with one.

Asmaedus
27th Jan 09, 9:06 PM
If you have any questions regarding modding in any way, or if you are thinking of posting in this thread, please dont, as i check it very rarely. Email me instead, at wopper_copper@hotmail.com

Cheers

Miniman352
15th Apr 09, 10:56 AM
my game manager keeps saying for any of my mods that it failed to load requested game

Hunter331
30th Apr 09, 11:05 PM
Miniman, I know that when you are creating a mod, it gives you a path to choose where your game is located. Make sure this is correct. For me, creating a regular DOW mod means clicking Browse and navigating to c:\program files\THQ\DOW

I also have what I think to be a noob question. How do I create things like units and buildings, and even races from scratch? For instance, I right click on the RaceEbps folder, but I do not see the option to create a subtype (in this case, a new race) within the folder.

Somi
12th Jul 09, 5:28 PM
Million thanks ! this tutorial just came in handy !

WilliamBlack91
20th Oct 11, 3:48 AM
Asmaedus I've got a problem, I've tried to do all dose things with a space marine's Thunderhawk, and although I followed all your steps the game keeps on telling me that the requestedd game can't be opened, could you please help me? (By way the I'm playing SS)
Thanks in advance.

Chiu ChunLing
20th Oct 11, 10:08 PM
If you look up a bit you might notice Asmaedus is offline.

The reason that a game would fail to load is usually because some of the .rgd's that do exist reference .rgd's/.lua's that don't exist. If you created a new squad, with a new entity, which uses a new weapon, and is built from an existing (modified) building, then you've got a bunch of places where a typo will result in one of your .rgd's calling for something that the game can't find. This problem compounds itself as you consider requirements, abilities, addons, and all that sort of thing.

To fix this, you can try moving all the "higher" .rgd's (revised building, new squad, new entity, in our example) to somewhere else, outside of the Soulstorm directory (you can use the Recycling Bin, as long as you don't empty it). Then, with your mod containing nothing but the weapon.rgd, see if it loads. If not, then you need to go over the weapon.rgd to find out if it references anything (requirements, projectiles) that doesn't exist. Once you can load the mod with the weapon.rgd, put back the entity that uses the weapon and make sure that works, then the squad that uses the entity, then the building that builds the squad.

When you are unsure whether a reference to another file is exactly correct, use the right-click menu to copy the filename to clipboard, and paste it into the place it is supposed to appear (changing .rgd to .lua and removing unnecessary parts of the path, of course). This way you can be eliminate the chance for a typo to creep in.

WilliamBlack91
20th Oct 11, 11:47 PM
Thank yoou very much I'll try that :)

VoIdDrAgOn
27th Dec 11, 8:42 PM
my notepad says i can't because access is denied

Chiu ChunLing
28th Dec 11, 2:45 PM
If you are referring to the UCS editing instructions, then I would suggest that you not use those anyway. If you're using Corsix's Mod studio, then under the "Mod" menu you can open the Corsix UCS editor. This should be a lot more reliable and let you create a new UCS file for your mod rather than mess with the existing UCS files (which shouldn't be changed) If you need a large UCS range and intend to distribute your mod, check in with the UCS range allocation forum (check with them anyway, just so that you'll know what ranges to avoid).

VoIdDrAgOn
9th Jan 12, 1:39 PM
Okay cool, one question, i have the TTRU mod and want to get the warhound titan buildable in the mars pattern command, for my own mod, that is, without the other TTRU modifications and everything, (YES i will give credit to the creator, whose name i'm still trying to look up.), can you import units from other mods into your own mod, like a single unit, and then, how do you put in the mars pattern command to spawn? Its part of my "Planet of the TITANS" mod i'm making, for IG, SM and chaos.
Any helps would really help

Chiu ChunLing
10th Jan 12, 7:49 AM
Since that specifically involves working with getting new models into your mod it falls somewhat outside the purview of this thread. You should try reading the List of Tutorials, How-To's and Tools at the top of this forum.