Allies in P&S ?

[Athos1660]

(Modding) Would it be possible to manually add foreign units to the Army list of a given nation (in the ArmyList.txt) while keeping their textures and, if possible, their own national flag ?

For example, adding TYW German units in the TYW Swedish Army list. The flag of these units would remain German during the battle among units with Swedish flags. The player would choose them (instead of the sole Swedish units), place them in his deployment zone and control them during the battle alongside with his Swedish units.

Right now, copy-pasting a foreign unit in an Army list make it appear without texture (blue) and with the host flag.

(not to mention a (complicated?) script (with ALLIES1, ALLIES2 in the host Army List…) that directly adds some units of chosen Allies to an Army, like the feature in FoG2.)

NB : I searched the forum and didn't found any thread/post about this subject but if it has already been discussed, I am sorry.

off-topic but still about modding : is it possible to change the default Campaign for Skirmish, that is currently TYW, to make a Campaign from the PSCAMP\CAMPAIGNS folder (or any other Vanilla campaign) the default one ?

[Paul59]

I don't think what you want is possible, at least not without a lot of complicated scripting.

In the ArmyList.txt each army list has a few header lines, for instance:

// 1618 - 1619
[ETYW_BOHEMIAN]
SIDE ALLIES
SIDEID 19
NAME IDS_ARMY_ETYW_BOHEMIAN
YEARS 1618 1619
SKIN TYW_Bohemian

The Skin line determines which texture folder the units take their skin from. So for instance, the units in this Bohemian army list will all take their skins from the TYW_Bohemian texture folder.

So if you added a unit to this army, and it did not have the appropriate skin in the TYW_Bohemian texture folder, it would display the strange glowing blue colour in the game. If the appropriate skin was in the TYW_Bohemian folder it would be the Bohemian skin, not the skin of the Allied nation.

A possible alternative solution would be to add the unit to the Army list, and also add the appropriate texture to the designated texture folder. However it becomes much more complicated if the army already uses that texture name for it's own units.

I cannot think of any way to get the national flags to appear for the allied units, you only get one flag per side. Of course the unit flags are part of the unit texture, so they are not a problem.

As far as I can remember, this subject has never been raised before in the forums.

[Athos1660]

I don't think what you want is possible, at least not without a lot of complicated scripting.

In the ArmyList.txt each army list has a few header lines, for instance:

// 1618 - 1619
[ETYW_BOHEMIAN]
SIDE ALLIES
SIDEID 19
NAME IDS_ARMY_ETYW_BOHEMIAN
YEARS 1618 1619
SKIN TYW_Bohemian

The Skin line determines which texture folder the units take their skin from. So for instance, the units in this Bohemian army list will all take their skins from the TYW_Bohemian texture folder.

So if you added a unit to this army, and it did not have the appropriate skin in the TYW_Bohemian texture folder, it would display the strange glowing blue colour in the game. If the appropriate skin was in the TYW_Bohemian folder it would be the Bohemian skin, not the skin of the Allied nation.

Thank you for this explanation

A possible alternative solution would be to add the unit to the Army list, and also add the appropriate texture to the designated texture folder. However it becomes much more complicated if the army already uses that texture name for it's own units.

As far as I can remember, this subject has never been raised before in the forums.

I thought of adding mainly types of Allied units the host Army doesn't have in his army list, such as giving Allied Commanded shot to an army that doesn't have this unit, based on historical alliance.
So I guess the army won't already use the texture name of the imported unit, right ?
So it is a matter of copy-pasting the appropriate texture to the right texture folder ? Where are those folders ?

I cannot think of any way to get the national flags to appear for the allied units, you only get one flag per side. Of course the unit flags are part of the unit texture, so they are not a problem.

No big deal for a mod

[Paul59]

So it is a matter of copy-pasting the appropriate texture to the right texture folder ?

Yes.

Where are those folders ?

It depends if you have a Steam version of the game or not. In Steam it is

Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/common/Pike and Shot Campaigns/Data/Battle/Unittextures

Non Steam:

Program Files (x86)/Slitherine/Pike and Shot Campaigns/Data/Battle/Unittextures

BUT, you should not tamper with your main game installation, instead replicate the Data folder structure in your mod/scenario folder. You can download one of Odenathus or my scenarios to see how it is set out.

[Athos1660]

So it is a matter of copy-pasting the appropriate texture to the right texture folder ?

Yes.

Where are those folders ?

It depends if you have a Steam version of the game or not. In Steam it is

Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/common/Pike and Shot Campaigns/Data/Battle/Unittextures

Non Steam:

Program Files (x86)/Slitherine/Pike and Shot Campaigns/Data/Battle/Unittextures

BUT, you should not tamper with your main game installation, instead replicate the Data folder structure in your mod/scenario folder. You can download one of Odenathus or my scenarios to see how it is set out.

I managed to do it. Thank you!

I copy/pasted only the DATA\Battles\UnitTextures folder to my mod folder (in PSCAMP\CAMPAGNS), not the whole DATA folder from Program Files (x86)/Slitherine/Pike and Shot Campaigns. Did I do right ?

[Paul59]

So it is a matter of copy-pasting the appropriate texture to the right texture folder ?

Yes.

Where are those folders ?

It depends if you have a Steam version of the game or not. In Steam it is

Program Files (x86)/Steam/Steamapps/common/Pike and Shot Campaigns/Data/Battle/Unittextures

Non Steam:

Program Files (x86)/Slitherine/Pike and Shot Campaigns/Data/Battle/Unittextures

BUT, you should not tamper with your main game installation, instead replicate the Data folder structure in your mod/scenario folder. You can download one of Odenathus or my scenarios to see how it is set out.

I managed to do it. Thank you!

I copy/pasted only the DATA\Battles\UnitTextures folder to my mod folder (in PSCAMP\CAMPAGNS), not the whole DATA folder from Program Files (x86)/Slitherine/Pike and Shot Campaigns. Did I do right ?

That sounds correct, but you don't need all the texture files in your PSCAMP\CAMPAGNS. You only need the ones you want to change or add.

[Athos1660]

That sounds correct, but you don't need all the texture files in your PSCAMP\CAMPAGNS. You only need the ones you want to change or add.

Indeed. Thx, Paul.

As for real Allies in P&S keeping their own skins and flags in battles, I guess we have to wait for P&S 2 (if there's a a P&S2, if the feature is chosen)

[Athos1660]

Example : TYW Swedish, France's ally in 1632 :