New Race/4th Commander Project. (4th Commander 1.0 Released!)

[Promythyus]

I haven't really been working on this, lack of passion along with uni is fierce.

New races "work", as in they're completely playable (I've been working on a blood angels/dark angels new race mod), but 2 main issues:
1. Army painter doesn't work at all & can cause crashes.
2. When you exit the game with one of the new race selected, the new race's race_id gets put into your settings.lua, when you load up without the mod, it crashes.

I don't think there's anything I can do about these 2 issues, if anyone has any suggestions, please tell.

[newage_abc]

I'm sorry but I can not find a working link to down load files, can anyone point me to a working download link are PM me copies. @ Promythyus great work...Thanks head of time.

[Promythyus]

woops, my bad, edited the post, but they're also here;
Mod Files
GFX File
Flash Sources for hero_selection_panel

[newage_abc]

Sorry still no luck here is screen shot of error that comes up...

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=6a506...7645520C%21149

I get the same thing no matter what file I try to download do I need to setup some type of account? Otherwise if you could PM me the files that would be great? Interested in trying this out for a personal mod.

Thanks again for any help.

[Promythyus]

Oh dammit, my bad. I changed webhost recently to my own unmanaged server, not as smooth as anticipated

Try now;
Mod Files
GFX File
Flash Sources for hero_selection_panel

[newage_abc]

Thanks that worked, I will be looking at this on my next day off.

[Bloodravage]

Well it seems like no one has posted on this in awhile, and it would be a long shot messing with this but I feel the need to post anyway. I know Promythyus is gone for the time being so ive decided to look into this. I dont know anything about flash, but I picked up the cs6 trial and I havent been able to get any of this to re-publish properly. Looking at the current gfx file, I did notice something however. the main issue right now with this of course is the selected commander not showing up. I couldnt help but notices that the sound effects for the commander selected are working, so that sort of tells me that it is bringing up the selected commander, its just that the green background screen is in front of it. Ive tried removing the background screed and republishing this thing but im getting tons of errors and problems doing so. I know it seems like it may be something too simple for this to be the exact issue, but can anyone confirm that its something more than just removing the backdrop being in front of the chosen commander? If anyone else would be willing to look into this that would be awesome, I really dont have the time currently to work on anything else for i have a ton of projects right now as it is : /

[Promythyus]

This is what I think is happening.

In the original GFX file, the background is actually a directx texture/object that renders the scene. The directx scene is actually imported into the flash scene using the scaleform utils/libaries.

When we decompile the gfx file, since the SWF compiler doesn't know about the scaleform libraries it just interprets the directx scene information as junk and discards it. When we recompile our swf from flash with the scaleform utils, it doesn't have the original directx scene data so nothing shows up. We know the scene is running because we can still hear the weapon noises, we just can't see it because it's not being rendered onto the SWF.

So, to get the commander model to show up again we need to work out how scaleform can access directx scenes. I have absolutely no idea how to do this. There are some tutorials on youtube relating to getting directx scenes into scaleform but they are all for the unreal engine.

Since all we are basically doing (when adding new races) is editing the actionscript, I was investigating how to put the new, recompiled actionscript into the old gfx file (without decompiling the file, so we don't loose the directx scene information). Unfortunately this yielded few results and I've since moved onto other projects. This method wouldn't work when adding a 4th commander obviously because we actually need to edit the graphics section of the swf to reflect the new commander.

[Gabriel Gorgutz]

Since DOW2 is no longer being updated by Relic, why not just have one of the devs - perhaps one who isn't even working for relic anymore - explain how to do these things?

[Promythyus]

Oh how I wish.

Even if they weren't busy with their new games, I doubt they could because "lol that's the way companies work". Disclosing information seems to be a cardinal sin in the tech industry.

That said, if a Relic employee were to release any information on how to do this, I would certainly jump back on the project and get it working.

[Bloodravage]

Well thank you for still looking into this. Im sure we will figure out something eventually, or that the very person who wrote the code for this to begin with will jump in and give an idea of whats goin on

[Gabriel Gorgutz]

I believe in an interview, one of the devs was asked about adding new races in mods. He said that "that's how we make our money, so maybe when we are done releasing race expansions, we'll allow it." Sounds like that time has come, so perhaps we should ask Hirm or one of the "friendly" devs to give use some tips? It's not like telling us how to mod new races in is going to hurt their business. Quite the contrary, if we can add Grey Knights, Necrons, Blood Angels and Black Templars to the race list, we'll be able to get a lot of people into DOW2 who were disappointed with the small army selection compared to Dark Crusade. We'll also be able to get people to come back into the game who had previously gotten bored with it, and we can attract more talent to the mod community since a wider variety of options are available to try. It cannot hurt relic to sell more copies of DOW2 and get more people playing again, so there's no reason not to help us add new races to the game now that they are done selling that kind of content.

[Promythyus]

I'm working on a new method for adding races to the menu. (NOT 4 commanders, that method cannot simply be done by replacing actionscript bytecode, so it will always screw up the UI).

Everyone who is interested, please submit the name of any races you want on the list. For reasons I'd prefer to keep private, this is a ONE SHOT METHOD. If you don't submit all the races you want in the menu now, I won't get a chance to do it again.

I'm thinking of adding default entries for most races I can think of also.

[Gorb]

Necrons
Tau
Inquisition (not Sisters of Battle)
Hivers
Gangers
Hrud
Ecclesiarchy/Sisters of Battle

That's about it, I don't believe we need the Grey Knights (Inquisition), Blood Angels, Dark Angels, etc, so I'm just listing the races I would want to see.

Also, I am being bad and breaking my rules, but will I receive an answer to my PM?

[Shuma]

Shame on you Gorb, you missed Dark Eldar.

Dark Eldar
Harlequins
Eldar Corsairs
Chaos Khorne
Chaos Nurgle
Chaos Tzeentch
Chaos Slaanesh
Death Korps
Heretic Guard
Black Templars
Blood Angels
Squats
Grey Knights

[Promythyus]

Gorb I'll respond to your PM I've just been busy

[uncle_anaesthesia]

all pre heresy marine chapters
vostroyan firstborn
tallarn
tanith
custodes
adeptus mechanicus
davinite cultists
deathwatch
dark mechanicus

[Gorb]

I knew I missed a really obvious one, Shuma

[Bloodravage]

I wouldnt mind seeing Grey Kights added to the list as a seperate selecatable race. I could chage over how they are currently set up so that they dont need the upgrade button and so that more commanders could be added to them in the future.

[spartan_x]

-Dark Eldar
-4 Different Chaos Marks(slaanesg/khorne/nurgle/tzeench) as 4 different races
-Tau
-Necrons
-Space Wolfs
-Inquisition

[Gabriel Gorgutz]

The entire list, including stuff we already have, would go like this:

Space Marines (Codex chapters, the standard SM forces)
Blood Angels
Black Templars
Space Wolves
Grey Knights
Inquisition (Focus mainly on inq. forces and assassins, other than GK units. Deathwatch would be included in this force.)
Ecclesiarchy/Sisters of Battle (Would include battle conclaves, SoB units, and other stuff from 40k fiction)
ADEPTUS MECHANICUS - Please!
DARK MECHANICUS - Pretty please!
Tau Empire (Could include various auxiliary units like Gue'vasa, Vespids, Kroot, Demiurg and other alien mercenaries)
Necrons
Tyranids
Orkz
Khorne Chaos
Nurgle Chaos
Tzeentch Chaos
Slaanesh Chaos
Lost and Damned (Chaos Cult, like traitor guard with demons and mutants, could include all traitor guard units)
Craftworld Eldar
Eldar Corsairs
Dark Eldar
Harlequin Troupes
Imperial Guard
Slaugth (Thought they were cool from Deathwatch RPG, much better xenos than the stupid "hrud" IMO)

The most potential other than having SM/CSM sub-races has got to be Adeptus Mechanicus and their Chaos counterparts. TONS of material to draw from in fiction, 40k RPG's and fan codexes. I've been wanting to make an Ad Mech army forever.

[Gorb]

1. the game already has Tyranids.

2. you missed out Hivers and Gangers (Necromunda) and the Hrud. I don't particularly care if you don't like them, I want them

[Gabriel Gorgutz]

I was just giving the "full list" of races/factions that would be ideal, including the ones we already have.

Are hivers and gangers really suited to dow2 combat? How do they deploy off-world to conquer, say, Aurelia? How would gangers do against a tyranid invasion if even the full might of the SM and IG has to fall back sometimes? I could understand them having a supply network within a hive city on their homeworld, but they wouldn't have a space fleet capable of deploying them to fight Chaos on a far away planet, for example, and they'd have no logical reason to be out conquering the galaxy for the Emperor or anyone else.

Also, do hivers/gangers have gear and training sufficient to take on SM/CSM? How would they deal with a formation of Leman Russ tanks, or a Chaos Land Raider flanked by predators and 2 squads of Chaos Termies leading the Chaos Warband? Hivers/gangers seem too smalltime for the level of threat that the Inquisition, SM/CSM, Nid invasions etc. would pose. They'd be more suited to a game about Necromunda than a game about the elite armies of 40k. We could add genestealer cults too, but again the cults would be on the level of ragtag PDF plus some dangerous genestealer bioforms, and in that case why not just add the broodlord and genestealers to the regular Tyranid list?

[Gorb]

Who said Hivers and Gangers had to be incorporated alongside every other race?

Not all of us are so intent on including every variation of every race into a single modification. If there is a way to create unique race IDs, I would prefer to have unique ones for the races I desire (as according to the devs, a lot of stuff is controlled by race ID).

[Shuma]

Oh! That reminds me, if we have Hivers and Gangers shouldn't we have Arbiters?

[Gorb]

I knew I forgot one! Yes, Arbiters as well please, Promythyus

[Promythyus]

Thanks everyone, noted. I will be working on this every so often and see where I can get it to go. As gorb says, raceid stuff is very fiddly! Creating raceids is pretty simple (zero based, must be in alphabetical order from rbf filename), but getting it to cooperate with the swf is another thing entirely!

[Stratovarius]

Noticed there was a couple mentions of adding extra heroes to the Last Stand. Has any progress been made on that? I'd love to try my hand at making a Commissar Lord or similar.

[Promythyus]

Last time I tried to edit Last Stand I had to use steam achievement manager to unfuck my account So I haven't fiddled with that much.

[Stratovarius]

Can't say I'm that surprised, sadly. I've heard reports of new wargear breaking characters. Was kind of hoping new characters would be less problematic.

[Grimngor]

Hello all! Just wanted to know... Promythyus did you find a way of creating new races already? Any new info about that?
Thank you very much!

P.S: I am very interested in finding collaborators for working in a mod for adding the dark eldar race and/or collaborate in the horus mod intending to add dark eldar as well as Necrons and Tau races.

[ITSSEXYTIME]

Does anyone have a mirror for the downloads?

[Promythyus]

Nope, however the method detailed here is old and doesn't work very well.

I'm still working on this every so often though, so I might get the new method working to my satisfaction and I'll post up some details on how to achieve it.

[ITSSEXYTIME]

That'd be awesome.

[Gabriel Gorgutz]

As soon as you get this done I'll gift you the game of your choice on Steam.

[Idaeus III]

Sorry this is a fairly late post/reply but.... you forgot teh Dark Angels :3 Sorry. Just had to point that out. Other than that, this "race(s)" mod sounds great. Is it still alive?

[Promythyus]

Dark Angels are my favourite, they'll never be forgotten

This mod is just allowing access for other modders to implement the races, but yes, it's certainly still "alive". I'm working on it when I can, but rather than being an issue of willpower or time, it's an issue of ability. I know it can work, I just need to find out how to stop it crashing

[Idaeus III]

Awesome. You make the Emprah and the Lion proud, Brother Captain/Veteran/Techmarine/Whatever rank you are Can't wait to see how this stuff turns out.