Romans And Celts in the same army????

spedius01 · Post by **spedius01** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 1:01 pm

Ave

I've just spent the entire morning investigating the Squads.txt file. (I should remind readers that I have copies loaded into Excel speadsheets for ease of analysis.) My plan was to split the 18,000+ rows of data into more managable chunks.
So I ceated a new file and proceeded to copy and paste into it sections of data by squad name.

One thing became clear as I worked my way through this exercise. Although each block of data related to a specific troop type all were identical with certain key elements switched on or off. Certain numbers altered up or down.

In Legion Arena the Roman army contains 17 choices and the Celtic army 12. What if you could have a multi-national
army containing squads from both armies. You could fight your way through the Roman campaign with a Celtic army or the Celtic campaign with a Roman army. I read a post in the Forum where someone "would give his eye teeth" to be able to do just that. We'd have to create a new topic "End of Game Multi-National Army Compositions"!!!

It really is very simple, and if you would like to know how, ask me?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

miki · Post by **miki** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 2:50 pm

Hi Spedius,

Definetively, I would like to ask (and kill to play the multi army)...

spedius01 · Post by **spedius01** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 3:52 pm

miki wrote:Hi Spedius,
Definetively, I would like to ask (and kill to play the multi army)... :shock:

Ave miki,

Thank you for your message.

First, create a back-up of the file Squads.txt, away from the Legion Arena directory.

Second, open Squads.txt using Notepad, if you look at the first squad (White Peasant) you will see the following five items:

Maintenance
MadeBy Republican
MadeBy Tutorial
MadeBy Gauls
MadeBy Cheat

Third, if you now scroll down to the next squad (Tunic Militia) you will see the following five items:

Maintenance
// No
MadeBy Tutorial
MadeBy Gauls
MadeBy Cheat

Fourth, you can see the difference between the first and second squad, all you need to do is ensure that both MadeBy Republican and MadeBy Gauls are included in each squad to bring them together in the same army. So you alter // No to MadeBy Republican and Tunic Militia can now be included in both armies.

You continue down the list repeating the process, when you've finished that, you save and close Squads.txt. The next time you start Legion Arena check out the recruitment list, you will find all squads from both armies ready to be selected.

I would suggest you don't activate "Ballista" and "Dummy General".

To restore Legion Arena back into its original form, copy the saved file back into the LA directory overwriting the alterations that you've made. Then restart LA and if you check the recruitment list it will be back as before.

It really is as simple as that!

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

miki · Post by **miki** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:01 pm

Ave Spedius,

You da man!

Thanks a lot. You have made me very, very happy with this tip!

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:51 pm

We've got these files in excel format but are in the process of tweaking some values. When they have been approved we'll release the files to make modding easier for you guys.

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 4:55 pm

I was looking through the files, and there are a lot of guys that don't seem listed. Are they used under a different name, or were there a lot of units that got scrapped? Horse archer, for one.

Also, what are the problems with "ballista" and "dummy general"?

spedius01 · Post by **spedius01** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 7:23 pm

sum1won wrote:I was looking through the files, and there are a lot of guys that don't seem listed. Are they used under a different name, or were there a lot of units that got scrapped? Horse archer, for one.
Also, what are the problems with "ballista" and "dummy general"?

Ave sum1wun,

Still racking up those victories, I see. Are you sure you won't publish the "sum1wun Book of Tactics"?

I too was curious about the units in the ProxySquads.txt file, there are some potentially exciting troop types mentioned. I wonder, would Slitherine like to make any comment about those?

There are no problems with "ballista" and "dummy general" as such, it's just that when I checked the recruitment list I saw a legionary not a ballista, so goodness knows what it will do when you activate it. Let me know if you care to try it. Regarding the dummy general thing, if you've "switched on" all the other troop types you can now recruit another Legate and a Celtic general. I thought another was a bit OTT (over the top). What would you say a ballista should cost, 500 denari, the same price as a squad of Auxiliary Archers?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

lcjr · Post by **lcjr** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:29 pm

I activated the ballista and the purchase graphic like you said is the legionary. Ingame you have a unit of 4 legionaries with the peasant icon on the troop list. They move at warp speed and throw javelins. I'd say it's a placeholder for a feature that didn't make the final cut.

spedius01 · Post by **spedius01** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 8:56 pm

lcjr wrote:I activated the ballista and the purchase graphic like you said is the legionary. Ingame you have a unit of 4 legionaries with the peasant icon on the troop list. They move at warp speed and throw javelins. I'd say it's a placeholder for a feature that didn't make the final cut.

Ave lcjr,

I had a good old chuckle at your description of the "ballista's" antics. I think you're probably right about it being a placeholder. Still, a fun addition to any army, wouldn't you agree?

I noticed in the recruitment list the tool tip just says "ballista", how would you describe them. You can write something inventive in the localisation.txt file and everytime you read it you'll know you created it. How much should a ballista cost?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

spedius01 · Post by **spedius01** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:48 pm

iainmcneil wrote:We've got these files in excel format but are in the process of tweaking some values. When they have been approved we'll release the files to make modding easier for you guys.

Ave Iain,

I hope you had a good rest during your break. A belated happy New Year.

The big question is, which files? Will there be any new files, ones that we can mod? Any aid and comfort you can give to us struggling modders will be greatly appreciated.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:10 pm

Pretty much all the text files are stored in xls in an easy edit format & then exported on a special sheet as text files. We'll also see if we can do anything to make mods easier to share.

fatetriarrii · Post by **fatetriarrii** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:05 pm

And what about the map files? are they some kind of word, packed into ".bsf" format? Anything? and unpacker would help

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 10:14 am

No its all compressed data so nothing that can be edited.

spedius01 · Post by **spedius01** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 4:48 pm

iainmcneil wrote:No its all compressed data so nothing that can be edited.

Ave Iain,

That is disappointing, I was looking forward to more maps. It would seem we will have to make do with the 68 maps of the Roman campaign (or is it 19?) and the 41 maps of the Celtic campaign.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

fatetriarrii · Post by **fatetriarrii** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 5:16 pm

Well, we could change some captions and make copies of the current maps. The enemis would all be the same, though.

spedius01 · Post by **spedius01** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 5:55 pm

fatetriarrii wrote:Well, we could change some captions and make copies of the current maps. The enemis would all be the same, though.

Ave fatetriarrii,

How would you interrupt the pre-programmed sequence of games that each campaign will give you? How would you "change some captions"?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

fatetriarrii · Post by **fatetriarrii** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 6:00 pm

Well, it appears that all the battle opening messages and angles are controlled in the "battle" screen, so no problem there. And the captions are listed in localisation.txt under the code-name "briefing," and I believe the list of battles to fight is under sides.txt. That is mostly guessing, though.

spedius01 · Post by **spedius01** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 6:37 pm

fatetriarrii wrote:Well, it appears that all the battle opening messages and angles are controlled in the "battle" screen, so no problem there. And the captions are listed in localisation.txt under the code-name "briefing," and I believe the list of battles to fight is under sides.txt. That is mostly guessing, though.

Ave fatetriarrii,

Good job, I think? What is the "battle" screen?

Here's a poser for you, how would you make all games "No objectives", fight to a finish? I don't think localisation.text is a "driver", like squads.txt, it's more in the way of a "slave", it only records things. I think there is a "driver", most certainly on the DVD, that controls many of the aspects of the game.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

fatetriarrii · Post by **fatetriarrii** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:05 pm

Oh, sorry, the battles folder. All battles, no objectives would be cool, but it might be tricky (our impossible), as the objectives might be stored in the unreachable .bsf files

spedius01 · Post by **spedius01** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:43 pm

fatetriarrii wrote:Oh, sorry, the battles folder. All battles, no objectives would be cool, but it might be tricky (or impossible), as the objectives might be stored in the unreachable .bsf files :(

Ave fatetriarrii,

Have you looked at the files on the DVD? I haven't, not yet. I also looked for sides.txt and couldn't find it, where is it?

Do you have any idea what software created the .bsf files? Could'nt we get hold of it so we can look at the .bsf files?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo