If you want to make a mod the firs thing you should do is backup all the files in AoW\Release. If you have any mods installed you might be able to skip this step, but it's better to make sure before you start.
When this is done create a new folder in Release and call it whatever you want. This will be your mod's folder and you will put the edited files in here.
Now enable DevEd and run AoWEd. Select Developer\Open Mapset. The editor will first look in the custom scenarios folder, but you need to open the release.hss file in the Release folder. When you do so the fun can begin. Save any changes you make by selecting File\Save as. Move to your mod's folder and save as release.hss. Next time load the release.hss from you mod's folder rather than from Release.

LESSON 2: units

When you open a mapset select Settings and then Units. You should now be able to see many squares with numbers in the upper left corner. Some of them are filled with a unit gfx and represent the existing units. You can edit them by double-clicking on them. To create new ones double-click an empty square. I think you should be able to figure out how the rest works by yourself. But just in case you don't:

-general: here you can choose the race of the unit, it's name, alignment, size, blood type, unit type, gender, cost and transport capacity. I don't know what size is good for, it doesn't seem to affect anything.
Unit types are humanoid, creature and machine. This (together with gender) defines if a unit can be affected by abilities like seduce (only affects male non-undead humanoids) or possess (does not affect machines). It also seems that machines can't be stunned, but I'm not 100% sure.
The maximum level of a unit is 40 (just imagine a unit 10 times as powerful as a Red Dragon ). The level affect the amount of expirience the unit need to achieve silver and gold medal status. For a silver medal it needs 2x it's level of expirience (a lvl 1 unit needs 2, a lvl 4 unit needs 8, etc.), and for a gold it need 6x it's level.
The maximum cost you can set with DevEd is only 255 gold.
To change the transport capacity of units who already have transport you will have to also change transport in the list of abilities.

-statistics: here you can set the stats and abilities of a unit.
Attack, defence, damage and resistance can range from 1 to 10, while hits and movement can range from 1 to 50.
At rank abilities you set the abilities a unit will have when it's newly produces or reaches a medal rank. Click edit to change them. A new window pops up. On the left there is a list of abilities the unit already has. To remove an ability select it and click delete. On the right there is a list of available abilities. To add an ability select it and click add. Note thar some abilies (like charge, parry and magic strike)require strike. If you want to give them to a unit at a higher expirience level you will have to select strike once again.
About possess ability. When a possessed unit dies it turns into an Incarnate no matter what unit possessed it in the first place. As a result you can only have one unit with possess. However this can be used in a rather fun way. When I started making my first mod I got the idea of creating an evolving unit. The DE Shadow would be a level 4 unit and would get possess at gold medal. The it would have to possess something and when that something is killed you have a flying Shadow Demon.

-gfx: here you select how your unit will look like.

-description: here you can write the description of the unit.

edited:
The index numbers in the upper right corner of the squares are very important because the game uses them to indentify the units.

[This message has been edited by LordDragatus (edited 05-05-2002 @ 06:25 AM).]

Select Settings\Units GFX. Again you will see lots of squares with little index numbers. To edit the gfx double click one.

LAYERS

See that icon that looks like an opened windows folder? It's used to add layers. When you add a layer you have to select an image library (for example to add glows use USHADOW.ILB), a mode (default is "none" which simply adds the selected picture), and the index numbers for the frame table (if you want to add a red glow simply write 102). You can drag layers around with the mouse.

To be continued...

Quote:

Why bother with this guide when you fade out on the important information?

Alex Mars, I thought editing units (once you overcome the first obstacles) was so simple anyone could figure it out by himself, but now you say it I guess you are right. I'll edit the post.

[This message has been edited by LordDragatus (edited 10-12-2002 @ 03:07 AM).]

[This message has been edited by Rorschach (edited 04-27-2002 @ 05:59 AM).]

My all units floater displays all units.

I was messing around adding various units and blah blah blah, I had the Wolf with the Frostlings, the Black Spider with the Dark Elves, etc...

And I thought about the Leaders (the guys on foot with the cane and the robe, yeah, them) and said to myself, HEY! Why not make them into a mini-elemental type thing?

What I mean is this: the Undead Leader would have Path of Decay, Doom Gaze/Black Bolts and Death Strike. The Frostling Leader would have Path of Frost, Frost Bolts and Cold Strike. Get the idea?

Well I fiddled around with them for about an hour and a half this morning out of sheer boredom. Foolish me didn't save any, either. Anyway, I finished the Undead last (all in the bottom few rows) and cut and pasted them in with their respective races. Well, as soon as I placed the final Leader, I got a tiny little window pop up that said, "Oh no, its the end..." or something to that effect. Now, does it do that just because its the Leader, or because I put one in every race, or what?!?

That turned out to be a magnificant waste of time! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! I kept them all relatively balanced and tied to their races, but of course they'd need some playtesting for finalization. But I didn't even get the chance! Fooie! Help here would be great, thanks.

P.S.- I was trying to add the Werewolf and all of the other units Warlock had in his mod that aren't readily available in AoWEd. I was just wondering...where did he get them?! Where are they? I just wanna know!

[This message has been edited by White Wolf (edited 06-07-2002 @ 02:40 PM).]

I don't know where Warlock got those units. I found the .ILB files required to generate the gfx for these units, but that was after I installed WR. If you really want to know you might try to contact Warlock. You might find him in the AoW2 general discusion forum.

I think this might interest you: there can be more than one hero and leader for each race. Just give them different names and make sure they are marked either "hero" or "hero leader" and not just "leader".

Uh...I think I found another question too. I found the tab that says "Races" and decided to look at it. I double clicked on one of the little boxes (I think it turned out to be Dark Elves) and I was wanting to add the Giant Spider to their buildable units. How do I do this? I clicked the tab that says "City" or somesuch, but that didn't help.

If I think of any other questions, I'll post 'em here, thanks again!

P.S.- One more thing. I have a building that produced flying creatures. I would like it to look like Warlock's Dragon's Nest, BUT I can't get it to change the image that appears when I double click on it. Any help here would be welcome as well!

[This message has been edited by White Wolf (edited 06-09-2002 @ 09:43 PM).]

LESSON 4: races

To add units to a race click on settings, then races, 2click a race and a window pops up, select units. This are the units that will be buildable in cities. The rest is pretty much like adding units to a stack.

If you click city you will be able to select the special lvl 1 unit that needs to be installed. If a race has no special unit all lvl 1 units will be buildable right away. For the rest this window seems to be more or less useless (from a modmakers point of view).

A city can only produce the first (by level) 12 units of a race, so if you make a race with 15 units and 3 are level 4 you won't be able to build any lvl 4 units. Cities also can't produce level 5+ units.
------------------------------------------------------------ ---

I don't know any way how to change the list of buildings a builder can build.

LESSON 5:structures

(For now) I will focus on unit production structures like the Shipyard and Builder's Guild. Other structures (like exploration sites and magic nodes) can be modified in a rather similair way.

To change the looks of a building 2click it and select complex. The window you now see works very much like the units gfx window.

On the left you see a load of numbers. If there is a "u" next to the number it means that there is a layer there.
Usually the following numbers represent how the building looks on the following terrain (in case of builders guilds at least).

1-grass
2-desert
3-snow
4-steppe
5.wasteland
12-dirt(underground)

I may have mixed up 1,2&4. There are also numbers reserved for water and other things, but I don't remember them right now.

There's more to it, but I don't have much time, I my end it tommorow.

[This message has been edited by LordDragatus (edited 10-12-2002 @ 03:19 AM).]

Not really, but I'll figure it out. Thanks.

Oh yeah, I got your e-mail. If you want to change the color of sprites you might want to check out SmurfHeroe's AoWCGE (AoW campaign and graphics editor). AoWCGE v0.1 is available here There is a progress report thread about it in this forum.

[This message has been edited by LordDragatus (edited 06-12-2002 @ 03:05 AM).]

I)
Have a slight problem though. I took the Necromancer's gfx and created a Necromancer for the Undead race. It crashes the map editor and the game when one is placed or built, respectively. Help?
Also, the "Freezer" does the same thing. I have two versions: The Freezer we all know from Warlock's mod, and a "Kettle" for use with the Halflings (for some reason I just saw them with tea and a Kettle just seemed fitting, and it has gaseous breath--sp?--and thats about the only change).
Not sure about the Werewolf, gonna have to check.

2)
Oh, and I made a "Frost Sprite" All I did was take the Fire Sprite and replace the haze/glow around him with a blue one. Not the bright one the Syron has, but a step down. It has path of frost, physical protection, pass wall, cold strike, frost bolts, and all that fun stuff. Its only level 2 so its stats are like Att: 3 Def: 2 Res: 4 Dam: 2. I've seen better, of course, but it's pretty.

3)
I feel kinda dumb about this, but I made a "Barrel" as a tribute to a WW1 tank. Its just the drill for now, but I plan on changing that. It doesn't have fire cannon though, it has fire musket. No tunnelling or wall crushing, a defense of 6 and transport capacity of like 4. But has only 20 movement points. And its for the Highmen no less. I was gonna give it to the Dwarves, but I have always hated the idea of their balloon, so I changed it to the Dirigible which now has different stats, and hurl stones--thought about archery, and may change it yet.

4)
And sometime I'm going to make a pack of golems. I'm gonna try one for each race, but I don't know if I can do that, here's my thoughts:
(and remember, this is AoW 1 here)
Azracs: Fire Golem/Sand-type guy
Humans: Uh...?Steel Golem?
Lizardmen: Water Golem?
Frostlings: Ice Golem--look like Yeti, but different...?
Halflings: Hmm...?
Dwarves: Stone Golem, like the earth elemental, but weaker
Elves: Treeman (I've always wanted one for them!)
Highmen: Uh...
Dark Elves: ?
Orcs: ?
Goblins: ?
Undead: A Bone Golem?

Yeah, the bunches of '?' proove to be a nuisance. So that needs some polishing.

5)
Oh, and one more thing. With this thing you just had me download, the AoWCGE, can I take the Elephant and give it a rider? There's another thing I wanted before I heard about in AoW 2, a Mammoth Rider. (Yes, Frostlings are my favorite.) But that's cool if I can't. Oh well, thanks again, you'll probly get more questions later.

Nice idea, but doesn't work. I've tried the same thing except I called it a "War Wagon" in honor of the old John Wayne movie, but if you give transport to a walking machine then any walking units stacked with it use their own MP when the stack moves. And since at 20 MP it's slower then they are, you gain nothing. Transport will only work the way you want if you give your tank flying or possibly floating, but that overpowers it.

1. I never experienced that problem. Maybe someone else can help.

5. Yes you can. You'll have to draw him yourself off course. This version still has some bugs so it might not work. I think there might already be a newer version available.

[This message has been edited by LordDragatus (edited 06-14-2002 @ 04:59 AM).]

It seems that new when I play AoW with my current mod--and mine only, it doesn't seem to happen with Warlock's--but after I quit playing and go off and do something for a while...come back, decide to play again, start game...get nothing. I have to restart my computer everytime I want to start AoW without problems. If I don't it will begin to load, I'll get a black screen for a few heartbeats, then back to Windows I go.
Any Ideas?

And on a minor note, Chowguy: the transport works fine with me, did you give your unit the stats and put the correct number on the unit window?

Two more posts to delete from this thread

Any Ideas?

No, no ideas.