EaW DEMO Modding Guide for Newbies

[Bodin]

EMPIRE AT WAR DEMO MODDING GUIDE FOR NEWBIES

 

 

The Tools

 

You’ll need only the EaW Extractor by Dante of Renevo which can be found in the Tools and Tutorials sticky. 

 

Extracting the Files

 

Unzip the Extractor and open it. Double click on Config.meg and select Tools>Extract all. Let’s say they’ve been extracted to a folder named EaW Extracted Data. In it, you should have a Data folder and inside it you’ll have 3 Folders: Resources, Scripts and Xml. In the Xml folder there should be a lot of Xml files and 2 folders. Good, because we’re going to work with Xml files only in this Guide.

 

Preparations

 

You should make another folder, like “My EaW Demo Mod”. Copy the “Campaigns_Singleplayer.xml, Factions.xml, Planets.xml and Spaceunitscapital.xml” from EaW Extracted Data/Data/Xml to “My EaW Demo Mod”. Then create a folder called Xml in “My EaW Demo Mod”. Cut all the .xml files in it.

 

Let’s Start

 

First we’ll edit the Campaigns_Singleplayer.xml (the one in My EaW Demo Mod/Xml of course). Hit Ctrl+F and write Demo Campaign, hit enter then. It should of scrolled down to something like this:

 

 

Good, this is the Demo Campaign you’re usually playing in the DEMO. Now we’ll edit it. Scroll down, down. Let’s change the locations. Clear everything that is beetween and . Now put beetween them: Galaxy_Core_Art_Model, Hoth, Atzerri, Bespin, Tatooine, Geonosis, VergessoAsteroids.

It should look like this:

 

Galaxy_Core_Art_Model, Hoth, Atzerri, Bespin, Tatooine, Geonosis, VergessoAsteroids .

 

Now let’s edit the Trade Routes. Initially it’s:

 

Hoth_VergessoAsteroids, Tatooine_VergessoAsteroids

 

We’ll edit it and it should look like this:

 

Hoth_VergessoAsteroids, Hoth_Atzerri, Tatooine_VergessoAsteroids, VergessoAsteroids_Geonosis

 

Very good, now we have 3 new playable Planets, actually they’re not playable now. Later on we’ll edit them so they are playable. Oh yeah, you’ll have to change the FALSE to True and should look like this:

TRUE

 

NOTE: When we’re editing the Campaigns_Singleplayer.xml you’ll allways have to hit Ctrl+F, write Demo Campaign and hit enter because we’ll be editing only the Demo Cpn.

 

Now let’s change the Starting Forces, Starting Credits and Starting Tech Level. First we’ll edit some Starting Forces. Let’s say, we’ll start on Hoth with 2 Mon Cal Cruisers, 4 X-Wing Squadrons, 3 Y-Wing Squadrons, 1 Nebulon B Fregate and 2 Correlian Corrvetes.

You’ll have to scroll down to „”. There you should find:

 

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_Star_Base_2

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_X-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_X-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Y-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Y-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Han_Solo_Team

 

Rebel, Hoth, R_Ground_Barracks

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_Infantry_Squad

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_Tank_Buster_Squad

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_Light_Tank_Brigade

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_Artillery_Brigade

 

Now let’s we’ll have to copy „ Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_X-Wing_Squadron ” 2 times so we’ll have 4 of them, and „ Rebel, Hoth, Y-Wing_Squadron ” so we’ll have 3 of them. Okay, now we’ll add some Ships. Copy any of these Space Starting Forces and replace the Text after „Hoth, ” with „Calamari_Cruiser” for Mon Calamari Cruiser, „Nebulon_B_Frigate” for you know what, and „Corellian_Corvette” for you know what, if you don’t, you’re stupid.It should look like this:

 

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_Star_Base_2

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_X-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_X-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_X-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Rebel_X-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Y-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Y-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Y-Wing_Squadron

Rebel, Hoth, Calamari_Cruiser

Rebel, Hoth, Nebulon_B_Fregate

Rebel, Hoth, Corellian_Corvette

Rebel, Hoth, Corellian_Corvette

Rebel, Hoth, Han_Solo_Team

 

Good, good. Let’s move on.

 

HINT1: You can change the Tech Level of the Star Base by changing the number after „Rebel_Star_Base_”.

HINT2: You can enable the Death Star by putting „Death_Star” after „Hoth,”

 

Were were we? Ah yes changing Starting Credits. Very simple. Find this in the Demo Campaign:

 

 

Rebel,  20000

Rebel, 2

Rebel, 4

 

Change for how many credits you wish to have. Change the number in   after „Rebel,” for the starting Tech Level, and the number in after „Rebel,” for the maximum Tech Level you want to reach. Well, basicly we finished with Campaigns_Singleplayer.xml.

 

Ok, moving to Factions.xml. Open it with Wordpad. First thing we can change here is the colour by changing these:

 

185, 40, 39, 255

185, 40, 39, 255

 

Just put random numbers till you find the colour you want. The first one’s red value, the second it green and the third is blue value. The fourth... I dunno.

 

Next. The Space Battle Population Capacity? What is that? You know that you can’t bring your entire fleet into the battle, don’t ya? Well by changing:

 

25

To:

70

You surely can!

 

What’s next? Retreat, well this is just tweaking it, to enable it you’ll have to do something else (Cain’s Enabling the Retreat Guide  ). Anyway, changing the retreat time is done by editing:

 

10.99

And the colour of the Countdown Seconds by editing:

255, 255, 255, 255

 

Okay, now I’m gonna teach you how to be able to play as the Empire. It’s actually quite simple. Cut the Empire half and put it in front of the Rebel Half so the Empire is the first, the Rebels are the second and then the other factions. Open up Campaigns_Singleplayer and hit Ctrl+F and type Demo Campaign. Hit Enter. Scroll down till you find:

 

Empire, None

Pirates, None

Rebel, SandboxHuman

Change it to this:

Empire, SandBoxHuman

Pirates, None

Rebel, BasicRebel

 

One more step. A little higher there should be:

Rebel

Change it to this:

Empire

 

Goooood, now close it. Open Planets.xml with Wordpad. Firstly, we’ll enable our three new planets by changing both their and . Change them so they’re like this:

 

_Land_Planet_Tatooine_02.ted

_Space_Planet_VergessoAsteroids_01.ted

 

Otherwise it won’t to battle on them. Now a little cool thing for the ones who love Space Battles. You can edit the:

 

Yes

To:

No

 

And there won’t be any land battle on those Planets.

WARNING: DO NOT MODIFY THIS TO THE HOME PLANETS (HOTH AND TATOOINE) OR YOUR GAME WILL CRASH.

 

Now, let’s edit the Planet Credit Value (This will modify your daily income). Hit Ctrl+F and type Hoth. Then Hit Ctrl+F again and type „Planet_Credit_Value”. It should find you this:

60

Change the number for how many credits do you want to get from Hoth every day.

 

Now, let’s change the Galactic Population Capacity. You know when you can’t build anymore because the Pop Cap is full, don’t you? Well simply hit Ctrl+F... again and type „Additional_Population_Capacity”. For that it should give you this:

 

5

 

ROFL, 5?! We gotta change it:

 

70

 

There. Of course if you want more, change it to 100, or even more. How much you want it to be.

 

Done, now heading towards Spaceunitscapital.xml. Open it with... Wordpad of course. Since you’re the Rebles, you’ll edit the Mon Cal Cruiser.

First you can change the Size:

1

Change „1” to how big you wish.

Then you can edit it’s strength by modifying:

60

Change „60” to how much damge you want it to do.

You can also edit it’s speed:

1.5

Change „1.5” to how fast you want it to be.

You can change it manuverabilty too:

0.4

Change „0.4” for how manuverable you want it to be.

Next? The Hyperspace Speed:

1

Change „1” to how fast you want it to be.

To make it buildable in the DEMO change:

Yes

To:

No

To change if you can steal its technology edit this:

Yes

To change the price of stealing the technology edit this:

2000

Change „2000” to how much you want.

To change its requiered Star Base Tech Level edit this:

4

Change „4” to how much you want, even 1.

To change the planets it can be built on edit this:

MonCalimari, Kuat, Fondor, Sullust

Add the planets you want it to be built, let’s say Hoth.

To change its Health edit:

8500

Change „8500” to how strong you want it to be.

To change its Shield edit:

2000

Change „2000” to how strong you want its Shield to be.

To modify its cost edit this:

4000

Change „4000” to how expensive/cheap you want it to be.

To change its build time edit this:

90

Change „90” to how long you want to wait for it to be built.

Well that’s all about this xml. If you want to change these things for other Space Units like Nebulon B Fregates or X-Wing Squadrons you’ll have to edit Spaceunitscapital.xml, Spaceunitscorvettes.xml, Spaceunitsfighters.xml and Spaceunitsfregates.xml.

 

Ending and Credits

 

Modding the EaW DEMO is easy and fun. I hope this guide helped.

CREDITS:

My brain -

PFF – Petroglyph Fan Forums – Great comunity, very helpful.

Edited February 14, 2006 by Bodin

[Megajames]

Thanks a lot, I have just learnt a ton about modding

[Bodin]

I hope this guide helped

 

EDIT: You're wellcome!

[Quickshot14_pff]

Heya,

 

Nicely done this will defintly give thoese the basics of not only how to mod eaw war but a genreal idea of how eaw handles things, keep up the great work

[kingdark]

1 thing to all modders: you shouldnt touch the speed setting because it can mess up your game, i tried this myself so...

[Valeforth]

Nice little guide, I myself was wondering how to extract the files. Although I had already modified existing mod files I had. Thanx very much.

 

Next to try and get my head around .lua  ;D

[Bodin]

Thank you everyone!  You know that if you put your starting credits to let's say 900000, they suddenly drop to 80000. Well I think I found a way to disable that.

 

Stay Tunned!

[kingdark]

yhea i noticed that too, there is a easy way to goo around this,

you go to planet.xml and you look for 1 of the planets you control

there you see somehwere how much that planets let you earn

you can change that into 10k. if you do that with each owned planet you make at least 30k per tick and sometimes it takes a couple of ticks before the enemy makes a move against a owned planet

[Bodin]

Now, let’s edit the Planet Credit Value (This will modify your daily income). Hit Ctrl+F and type Hoth. Then Hit Ctrl+F again and type „Planet_Credit_Value”. It should find you this:

60

Change the number for how many credits do you want to get from Hoth every day.

 

And I meant that if you had 900000 starting credits it won't be dropped automaticly when you build something to 80000. I'm going to test it now.

[kingdark]

ooh, ok but why would you want to start with that much money?

[Bodin]

Fun? I like kicking the Rebels' @$$! 

 

Anyway, it works, though it looks like the MAXIMUM Credit limit is 180.0007. How to do it?

Simple, open up Factions.xml and hit Ctrl+F. Type "SFXEvent_Max_Credits_Limit_Reached". Delete it for the faction you want to have max 180.0007.

 

EDIT: Oh and you said something about Speed settings. Why not? I moddified them. I made the Rebel Ships (All) faster (Nothing happened, except they were faster, as I planned), a bit bigger and more manuverable. And the Imperial Ships (Not all) bigger and powerful. Since they were bigger, I had to change their speed to, again all was how I planned.

[kingdark]

i dont know what the default speed is but i changed it into 5.0 all the fighters y wing x wing etc

and when it fired it was like the fireblast came later then the sound...

but i only adjusted the speed and cost so nothing else there was something i think you need to adjust to prevent this

[Bodin]

Lol, of course because you changed it to 5. It's way too much. And yes to balance the speed you have to edit the size.

[FleetAdmiral AK]

Cheers for this it really helped me. p.s Atzerri could not be accessed without putting bespin in. 

[Bodin]

I'm glad it helped.

 

About Atzerri, thanks, I'll edit it.

[kingdark]

how could you compenstate it then? when they where at the speed of 5.0,.. it was the speed as it should have been!

[Bodin]

The X-Wing's original Max Speed is 4.0. Increasing it to 5.0 is too much. Try less.

 

The Y-Wing's Original Max Speed is 3.0. If you increased that to 5.0, it's waay too much. Again, try less.

[Joebwan]

Fighters and bombers are very sensitive to speed increases. Other factors come into play that can have an adverse effect. The game does 2nd order predictive calculations for firing, but not 3rd order prediction (i.e., it doesn't take into account the rate of change in the rate of change in fighter flight movement) which means fighters become very very hard to hit at high speeds due to the time it takes for a laser bolt to reach the fighter.

[kingdark]

that explains the weird effect i got too! well its a bit sad you cant increase it that much! starfights should be realy realy realy quik

[FleetAdmiral AK]

that explains the weird effect i got too! well its a bit sad you cant increase it that much! starfights should be realy realy realy quik

 

You can't have everything...

[kingdark]

no your right

[Bodin]

Yeah... but anyway, 5.0 for the Y-Wing is way too much. Edited February 15, 2006 by Bodin

[Joebwan]

You may get the desired result (much faster fighter movement) by slowing the larger ships down and then increasing the game speed. Or you could increase the travel speed of bolts, missiles, and torpedoes greatly to compensate for the targeting issues against faster fighters/bombers. Another issue that can have an adverse affect on targeting fighters is if they are reduced in size the collision mesh is reduced in size as well, so if all other things are equal, a fighter that is 50% smaller is about 4x harder to hit.

[Megajames]

Yeah... but anyway, 5.0 for the W-Wing is way too much.

 

W-wings ???

[Foshjedi2004]

maybe a ywing ;D whats x-a? w