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Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders

 
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Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 10:11:55 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		Hi there,

Somehow the word got out that I knew how to make leaders in ATG. Well I do! And errmm... they knew because I told them so. So the following is my attempt to make a Tutorial on how to make what I call: Simple Leaders.

Now what is a Simple Leader?

Basically it is a Leader/Officer that can be attached to a HQ.

What can they do?

They can command an HQ, give it bonuses in Combat ability and Morale. There are of course limits, they can only get these bonuses to the Staff number they can command. So basically they have stats.

They also have a picture, you can see, and a biography you can read.

What canīt they do?

Well, they donīt have any cards assigned, so they cannot use those. They also donīt gain experience. But on the flip side, they canīt die or get wounded either. All those things have to be coded using event code. So itīs beyond the scope of this Tutorial.




Post #: 1
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 10:21:26 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		So ... how do i create these leaders.

First you need to go into the Setng portion of the editor, and there access the rulevars. There in the lowest category, direct production, there is a rulevar with the number 343... this must be set to 1.

Hold on, can you show me a picture of that?

Sure I can here it is:






Attachment (1)

(in reply to ernieschwitz)
Post #: 2
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 10:22:58 PM   
lion_of_judah


Posts: 2113
Joined: 1/8/2007
Status: offline 		man this looks fantastic and cannot wait to sink my teeth into this. This will be perfect for my near east aflame scenario...

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Post #: 3
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 10:25:13 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		Once you have changed that 0 into a 1, then you can do wonders.

Like what?

Well, try pressing the Lead button in the top menu. And see what happens.

Oh, i get a picture with some buttons. It looks like this:






Attachment (1)

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Post #: 4
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 10:32:49 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		Well, donīt be shy, try and press the + button and add a Leader!

Well I will!

...

A prompt is shown, it says give leader a name?

Yeah, this is the name that the leader you are making will have throughout the game. Select one, please.

Ok, how about Fedor von Bock. Nice german name...

Great, now just press enter to put in that name

Ok, now it asks me to Give a Regime # for historical regime?

Yeah, it wants to know which regime you are assigning it to. You can start off by saying 0, if you donīt know which regime you want to assign it to... you can always look up the regime number you want to give him later, and change it then...

Oh, ok, 0 it is.

Good it should now show you a picture that looks something like this:






Attachment (1)

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Post #: 5
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 10:51:04 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		Wow, thats alot of buttons, and stuff. Are you sure I can do this?

Just sit tight, and ignorre the stuff you donīt know anything about, concentrating on the things I will tell you about...

Oh ok, I can do that

As you can see, there is a button called Regime, we can use this to change his regime. There will even come a neat drop down box to allow you to choose from the existing ones.

Oh great! That is really useful!

You bet! Also there is a button called Clear all, its yellow, stay away from it, unless you know what you are doing.

Ok, thats a fair warning, stay away from yellow buttons.

You will notice the Button called Fedor von Bock, here you can change the name of the Leader. Hitting it by accident can be really annoying, especially with long names.

Ok, lets avoid that one, i am satisfied with my leaders name.

Below that button there are two buttons, called - No Sprite - ... we will talk about those later. But for now, we will skip them. Instead lets talk about the cluster of buttons, next to the box called HisVar List.

Are you speaking of the ones called PP and so on?

Yes. Now the first one, PP, as you see it is called, is the Political Points that it will cost to recruit the officer from the officer pool (I think)...

The one below that MorMod is the amount of influence the leader will have on Morale. This can go from -100 to 999, and 0 is no influence. So there is really room to make a powerfull and inspiring leader if you want to.. or a guy that simply sucks at motivating people. The choice is yours.

Ok Iīll put in a value of 25, that seems reasonable.

Ok, now moving on to the one below that XP. Leave this blank, for now, there is no XP system in place, you have to program one via event code if you want one.

The buttons called tv with a number after each are tempvars stored in the leader profile, those are useful for event programming, but for our purpose they are not worth much. One of those in that cluster is called Descr though, we will need that one. It is the biography of the leader in question. Filling it in would be nice.

Ok, letīs click it.

...

It is showing me a prompt, where i have to type in some words, i guess that is his description, right?

Yup. Put in whatever you like, and donīt worry, if you have to edit it, later, the description will come up in the new prompt as well!

Ok, I am just going to put down that he is a German officer then....

There are two more buttons we have not yet discussed that are relevant. It is CombatMod, which is the effect he will have on Combat. Again this is between -100 and 999, where 0 is no effect.

The other button is Staff. Staff is measured in staff points. Each Subformation Type that has staff points, in a HQ, can add to this total. The number here is the number that the Leader can successfully give his bonuses to.

(in reply to ernieschwitz)
Post #: 6
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 10:56:47 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		What does that mean exactly, can you give an example?

Yes, of course.... it sounds pretty cryptic anyway.

Lets say you have a leader that can lead 400 staff points. However his HQ contains 500 staff points. What does that mean do you think? Well it means that he can give his bonus to 80% of the staff, or in other words, his bonuses are only 80% of what they normally would be.

Oh i think i understand that. :)

Good.

Now what about those sprites? where it says - No Sprite -, what is that supposed to mean?

Ok, we are ready to move onto those anyway.

Basically a sprite is a picture.

Ok cool, now i know that. Why is that important?

Well first of all, if you donīt have a picture for your officer, he wonīt show up!

Great, now what to do?

Luckily I have a picture of Fedor von Bock.... here it is:






Attachment (1)

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Post #: 7
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 11:04:54 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		Ok, lets just use that... Which sprite do i choose?

Well, let me describe what the two Buttons do first, will ya.

The first one is a picture that is drawn with shading in the regime color, chosen elsewhere... The second one is a picture that is drawn using no shading at all.

Great! Lets use the second one then! I want my picture to be just as is

No, that would be a bad idea.

Why is that?

Well if you have chosen NO PICTURE for the first sprite, NO PICTURE will be shown at all. And your officer will not appear.

Oh? Strange? Why is that?

Itīs because the first picture also determines the size of the picture being shown in the game, when you click on the bio of the officer. Without a picture the game simply thinks there is no officer!

Oh? But I donīt want a shaded version of my officer to show up. So what do i do?

You make a transparent picture, in the size you want it to be. Vics original pictures are 177 x 194, so I suggest using that size. Here I made you a transparent picture, that you can use and download for that matter too from this guide: (uploaded as a zip file, as the forums, don't allow BMPs)




Attachment (1)

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Post #: 8
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 11:14:04 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		Great, now i have made me an officer!

Great, so now it is time to assign him to a HQ.

Ok? how do i do that?

You start out by going to the topmenu again. The one at the very top, and there choosing Map. Then you click on a HQ, of the regime your leader belongs to, and then go back to the top menu again, and click Units...

Ok got that, i get the standard units screen, as far as I can tell ...

Not quite standard, below the button called Make Copy of Other #, the yellow button, you see a button called "CLick to set to different leader"

Clicking that will give you a dropdown menu, that has a list of available officers, including Fedor von Bock.

Selecting him will allow you to have him lead the HQ.

Ok, Great, i now also know how to assign them! Is there anything more i need to know, before starting to edit a scenario without leaders, and adding my own Simple Leaders?

Actually, yes... but lets just take a look at that Units menu again:





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< Message edited by ernieschwitz -- 1/25/2014 12:14:39 AM >

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Post #: 9
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 11:19:25 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		"... But what more can there be?"

Well, if you start a game up with these new leaders you have made, and leave some unassigned, you will notice that the officer pool button does not work!

It doesnīt? Why is that? And how do i get it to work?

The game needs to know how to react to you creating new leaders, even if you are not going to create new ones, it still needs a StringList to have them defined in.

Oh, this sounds complicated.

It really is not.

Ok, then show me!

First you need to go to the top menu, again, and select String you should get a picture that looks somewhat like this:






Attachment (1)

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Post #: 10
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 11:23:07 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		you then click on the + button, the one that says Add Simplelist.

You will get the choice of several options, choose the one that says Officerpool Algorithm.

Ok, Done.. looks complicated...

Yes, and it could be, but we wonīt need to edit it, or even fill it in, itīs just a "dummy list". Something the game needs to have but we are not going to use.

Ok, what a relief!

This is how it should look now:





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< Message edited by ernieschwitz -- 1/25/2014 12:23:48 AM >

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Post #: 11
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 11:29:08 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		Now forget all about this list, and how it looks, you donīt need to know.

Right, I will gladly do that!

Ok, now click the Reg button in the top menu.

And you should now be inside the Regime editing menu.

Here you choose a Regime (I suggest you choose the one with an officer in it).

Oh ok

And then choose Statistics from the box in the middle. A menu should become available to the left on the screen. There there is a button called Officer Pool. It is currently set at -1 (none)...

The whole setup looks like this:






Attachment (1)

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Post #: 12
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/24/2014 11:32:51 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline 		Now choose the button that is called Officerpool.

Ok, done, it gives me a drop down menu, with all the stringlists in the game...

Good, now choose the one you just made, in the String part of the editor.

And you are now done.

Of course you have to redo the process for each officer, hitting that + sign in the Lead part of the editor to create a Leader more... But i think you get that. And for each regime you are going to assign officers to you need to click the officerpool button and set it to the same stringlist as before...

But I think you knew that by now...

Have fun making Simple Leaders :)

(in reply to ernieschwitz)
Post #: 13
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 1/27/2014 4:35:57 PM   
Vic


Posts: 8262
Joined: 5/17/2004
Status: offline 		Thanks a lot Claus! very in depth and should help everybody get simple use of leaders in their mods.

Will be glad to help answer any questions in how to expand on this. 3 main subjects that this simple leader use could be expended on are:
-allow recruitment of random new officers
-equip officers with cards
-make experience of officers play a role & other advanced scripting to make things more dynamic

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(in reply to ernieschwitz)
Post #: 14
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 5/4/2015 10:37:55 AM   
gazfun


Posts: 1046
Joined: 7/1/2004
From: Australia
Status: offline 		Thanks Claus Im glad you did this, Im now looking to improve the Napoleonic Mod to have leaders now. Hope I can do it.

Also thanks for joining us here at TGHQ


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Post #: 15
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 5/4/2015 10:40:01 AM   
gazfun


Posts: 1046
Joined: 7/1/2004
From: Australia
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: Vic

Thanks a lot Claus! very in depth and should help everybody get simple use of leaders in their mods.

Will be glad to help answer any questions in how to expand on this. 3 main subjects that this simple leader use could be expended on are:
-allow recruitment of random new officers
-equip officers with cards
-make experience of officers play a role & other advanced scripting to make things more dynamic

I really want to thanks you for this game, as we have been enjoying with our group, and the features we are learning more each time, now these leaders are the icing in this game.
Im interested in the other 3 main aspects of which you talk about for Napoleonic Leaders, and there is enough info about them, with French leaders having a better knowledge than a lot of the other of the time. There where particular differance with a few of the know leaders like Blucher, Wellington, Archduke John, Kutusov to name a few.


recrutiment of randon new officers
equip with Cards
make experience of officers play a role & other advanced scripting to make things more dynamic

Thanks for any help here


< Message edited by gazfun -- 5/4/2015 12:10:29 PM >

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Post #: 16
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 5/4/2015 11:01:43 AM   
gazfun


Posts: 1046
Joined: 7/1/2004
From: Australia
Status: offline 		Im trying to make Napoleonic Leaders here, which I think will add a great feature

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Post #: 17
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 5/4/2015 3:00:42 PM   
ernieschwitz

 

Posts: 3893
Joined: 9/15/2009
From: Denmark
Status: offline
quote:

recrutiment of randon new officers
equip with Cards
make experience of officers play a role & other advanced scripting to make things more dynamic


Making a recruitment of random new officers is not something Iīve delved much into. I am sure Vic could, if and when he has the time, go deeper into the subject.

Equiping with Cards is easy enough, making those cards is alittle harder.

Making experience count is something that needs to be done with event code. Not quite sure how to, but I have a general gist of it. Again, Vic could probably say some more on the subject.

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Post #: 18
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 5/18/2015 12:32:01 PM   
LJBurstyn

 

Posts: 626
Joined: 4/19/2011
Status: offline 		Is there a way to "import" names and some history of historical leaders so we don't have to look them up?

<edit> Or enter each manually? <end edit>

< Message edited by LJBurstyn -- 5/18/2015 1:33:31 PM >

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Post #: 19
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 5/19/2015 7:50:56 AM   
gazfun


Posts: 1046
Joined: 7/1/2004
From: Australia
Status: offline 		Is there any chance that you could give us info on this VR ?
Be helpfull. Ive got a Napoleonic Mod Im trying to get leaders to be a bit more dynamic


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Post #: 20
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 5/19/2015 8:19:39 AM   
Vic


Posts: 8262
Joined: 5/17/2004
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: gazfun

Is there any chance that you could give us info on this VR ?
Be helpfull. Ive got a Napoleonic Mod Im trying to get leaders to be a bit more dynamic



Taking a look at the scripting, stringlists and rulevars of NewDawn masterfile shows an implementation of:
* Random new officers on recruitment (stringlists + rulevar setting)
* Levelling of officers and improving their stats and giving them cards (event scripts)
* A wounded/killed script upon playing action cards and returning them after some time they are healed again (event scripts)

best wishes,
vic

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(in reply to gazfun)
Post #: 21
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 5/19/2015 9:07:31 AM   
gazfun


Posts: 1046
Joined: 7/1/2004
From: Australia
Status: offline 		I see
So all I will have to do is to change images flag and names, and I could make a random Napoleonic game period right?

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Post #: 22
RE: Tutorial: How to make Simple Leaders - 5/23/2015 8:20:39 AM   
gazfun


Posts: 1046
Joined: 7/1/2004
From: Australia
Status: offline 		So I have made the right assumptions then?

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Post #: 23
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