[Advice] Custom Race/Faction, No Armour?

from Elemental Forums

First of all I would like to say hello to the FE community, after discovering the game recently, and seeing it on sale on steam... no brainer really, brilliant game!. Anyway to my problem.

I've had my hand in modding a little in the past and through trial and error and with the use use some of the handy tools out there I've been having a little creative fun. I've used the FE race editor as starting ground to create my own race and faction for the game. I haven't had any problems working out adding custom crests and icons as well as race related benefits/abilities for the race. but the problem I'm having right now is that any custom race I create once in-game with its own faction they don't seem to gain any armour once the appropriate research is complete, when I open custom unit design none of the researched pieces show up, same goes for the sovereign gaining armour loot or from the store. so I wanted to ask those with more experience in modding FE, am I missing anything? I've spent the last few days comparing xml's in the main game files as well as other mods but I'm at a stump.

Once I get around this obstacle, hopefully after some tweaking I can upload them for others to enjoy ^_^ any help will be much appreciated! 

Thanks

2,846 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Hiya / welcome,

Probably would help if you clarify exactly what files you have modded and post some of the changes you have made.

Having said that.. I haven't done much of that sort of modding, but as a bit of a guess... it sounds like maybe you have defined a custom <UnitModelType> for the units for your custom race?

If you look in ArtGameItem.xml you can see that each type of armor has a list of <SupportedUnitModelType>'s that can wear it.  So if you created a custom ModelType for your race you'd have to add it in there.

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting abob101, reply 1
Having said that.. I haven't done much of that sort of modding, but as a bit of a guess... it sounds like maybe you have defined a custom for the units for your custom race?

If you look in ArtGameItem.xml you can see that each type of armor has a list of 's that can wear it. So if you created a custom ModelType for your race you'd have to add it in there.

Pretty much, although not all art files are in there. Each unit has a model type that tells the game what art to use for that unit. The race editor should have given your custom race the model type of whatever your base race was. If your not using a base model type you will need to add that new model type to all the art files created by the race editor. I suggest getting Notepad++ and using the replace function as this will save you a lot of work.

CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks for the warm welcome and help! :), my apologise not listing the files that I have changed.

The Race Editor generated the following files: (ok /spoiler tags dont work...my bad)

race_animations.xml

race_clothes.xml

race_eyes.xml

race_hair.xml

race_heads.xml

race_mounts.xml

race_otherartitems.xml

race_raceType.xml

race_skins.xml

race_coreabilities.xml (tweaked with abilities, just a couple of simple resistances and weakness to certain magic)

race_coreunits.xml

race_artgameitem.xml

separately I renamed the faction xml generated by the in-game tools to raceconfig_race.xml which has only had the faction logo tweaked.

everything else has just been left untouched (artgameitem.xml included), looking at the artgameitem.xml everything seems to be listed as well as <supportedunittypes> for the racemodel. example:

 

<GameItemTypeArtDef InternalName="Art_LeatherBreastpiece">
<GameItemTypeModelPack InternalName="Art_LeatherBreastpiece_1">
</GameItemTypeModelPack>
<GameItemTypeModelPack InternalName="Art_LeatherBreastpiece_2">
<SupportedUnitModelType>raceMale</SupportedUnitModelType>
</GameItemTypeModelPack>
<GameItemTypeModelPack InternalName="Art_LeatherBreastpiece_3">
</GameItemTypeModelPack>
<GameItemTypeModelPack InternalName="Art_LeatherBreastpiece_4">
<SupportedUnitModelType>raceFemale</SupportedUnitModelType>
</GameItemTypeModelPack>
<GameItemTypeModelPack InternalName="Art_LeatherBreastpiece_5">
</GameItemTypeModelPack>
</GameItemTypeArtDef>

 

despite all that being in there the armour wont show up, after research which isn't making alot of sense. I based the race of the Amarian and the tech tree points to the Amarians tech tree so I'm still confused to why its happening, I still have a feeling I'm missing something obvious lol!

oh and i've hidden my race names in this post... some secrets i would like to keep for now ;) If I do share this race, its not going to be anything groundbreaking lol, for now I would still like to keep it to myself however! :D