It's a very nice program, but I'm afraid to use it. It's almost like modding a unit. I'm wondering if you can reset them back to normal so your game isn't all screwed up.

Yap, check the top menu - Options - Reseat Default Settings. Vachu thought of everything.

This is still far from a change objectname/stat trigger.
#1 The unit's name/stat will be whatever you changed it too forever since you've edited stuff in the unit stat file.
#2 You can't play multiplayer if your unit stats are edited

Luckily, theres a stat restorer to solve this problem included with the program.

Vachu is a genious, none the less for coming up with this program.

yeah...BUT, is it me or does ALL the unit stats are inside the .scn file as well? Course if so, this should work online as well...

NOOOO theres no Kemsyt! Im using him in my scen too! man...

and can you not change the name of a unit?

[This message has been edited by Swift_Vengeance (edited 12-05-2002 @ 09:39 AM).]

To change the name of a unit you need to get the text editor it's on the same site as the object editor.

If I use this for a scenario, people can play the scenario with the edited units without needed this or changing their files, etc?

If I place an object (A), then exit the game and change the stats of that object, then go into the editor and place that same type object (B). Will A and B's stats differ?

Vachu please please please add Kemsyt! I need to modify him.

do you need #D editor to do it?

oh nm no art editor but still that is cool

more proof that VACHO IS GOD

if you don't reconize that, you don't go to gameFAQs and i despise you :P

Okay... this editor, what it does, is it edits the proto.xml file. Which means:
1. You must distribute this proto.xml with every scenario you have. Also, it does not affact only one unit, but all of the same units.
2. People without the proto.xml will not be able to have the changed thingys.
3. You can edit the name, jsut open up the proto.xml in a text editor and change the name.

What you cant do:
You cannot make a duplicate unit with other stats? Why? The game gets confused between the two if you use the same IDs, but if you change the IDs, you will not have model information.

While this eidtor will do, it gets annoying and can mess up newbies alot.

Heres somethign that might help you guys out with editing the .XMLs. And since this program got you guy's attention again in XML editing, hopefully you guys can further improve our knowledge. So far, I can make custom techs .
http://mods.dgdn.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42

[This message has been edited by AzN (edited 12-05-2002 @ 07:23 PM).]

Oh I found Kemsyt! If anyone else is looking for him, hhe is undr the name "Shaba Ka" I dont know why it wasnt kemsyt but oh well.

i got one question in the editor is it posible to make athena attack. i have tryed for a while but she can't do any attack type i can only get her to heal units and empower buildings but no attack if anyone knows how to make her attack plz reply.

Thats because she doesn't attack

You can make any unit do anything you want if its already been done in the game. Today, i added 3 units based on existing models. (the "add unit" feature is in the next version i'll release soon)

I made these units do leap jumps, throw units, use osiris bolt. I'm telling you can make almost anything concerning protos with this editor.

By the way, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V cut and paste things in the editor. For example, if you want to make a unit regenerate HP, just find a unit that has the "regenerate" option, like Amanra, and copy/paste it to another unit.

Another example of what you can do, i made the docks heal boats. And i made the priest cant heal the boats anymore.

Also for those who dont want to mess up their online experience, you can save your modifications to another file name with the editor. Then reset the default to play online. When youre done, you can load your modifications again. You can even have a lot of modification files.

Anyway i'll soon post the new version that allows to add new units to the game.

See ya all.

Vachu

Personally (no disrespect to Vachu) the point of the program eludes me, since you can edit anything by hand anyway.

TSD, it took ya long enough to understand how proto.xml worked.

This is a great day for AoM scenario designing ! Hip hip hooray for Vachu!

But I can't giver anyone a scenario without them having the edited file, right?

Quote:

Yeah, and you can edit text usign the ASCII numbers or even binary, but why the heck would you if you can jsut use a keyboard! The point is, this jsut makes it alot easier for newbs and everyone else who doesnt want to have to worry about how everythings working so long as it freaking works .

The Shadow Man : Yeah if you want to edit units manually go for it. No one can blame you for wanting to do things by yourself. But keep in mind that if you want to edit the file, you have to open data.bar, extract porto.xmb in the data folder, convert it to xml and then editing. Those steps you dont have to do with the editor. Also if you want to have multiple mods with your game, you have to rename proto.xml to another name each time you want to switch mods. The tools does this automatically when you open and apply settings of whichever mod you have saved with the tools. Also, when you manually edit the file, there's always a risk you do a typo, which cannot be the case with the tool since every parameters are in lists. Also if you are editing a property calle "allowedciv", you wont have a list with 5000 choices, you'll have a list to choose between "egyptian","greek","norse". The lists adapt to the property you are editing. And you dont have to worry about the XML structure when adding actions and properties. Should i also mention that you can filter protos to show specific ones. And there's also the quick restore function.

Anyway, i made this to make things simple for everyone cause i wanted to see more mods around here.

Vachu

I certainly see the usefulness of this unit editor in terms of modpacks and some scenarios or campaigns. It will be a huge help to those interested in editing unit statistics, and I commend Vachu on a job well done.

However, I do question it's usefulness on an individual-scenario basis. As far as I understand, each user must have the proto.xml file installed, which means that each user must have the utility as well. Also, as far as I understand, this means that the changes made will affect all units in all scenarios, as well as in random maps and multiplayer.

Historically, this has proved be to a fairly large obstacle to get around. The casual gamer does not want to be downloading files that will alter the data of the game and going through what they view as a complicated procedure to play a single scenario, and then restore the original data afterwards. To the hardcore gamer this is not an issue, but I am pretty sure that any scenario that requires the editing or altering of external files will have a tougher time getting downloads. I found this out firsthand with a campaign series I made for the original Age of Empires, which included a modpack. Although the series was popular and recieved great reviews, there were many people who were dissuaded from trying it because they simply did not want to go through the hassle of installing the modpack, and they were unsure as to the risks posed by altering data files.

In terms of modpacks, this utility will have far-reaching and impressive results, and may be useful for scenario designers as well. However, I would question the statement that such a utility is a substitute for a real unit editor... such a substitute does not appear to be possible without support from ES.

If any of my assumptions are misplaced, please let me know... I haven't had the opportunity to test the utility yet, so my comments are based on what I've read so far in this thread.

Ok first when you distribute a scenario and proto.xml, the downloader doesn't have to have the utility.

Also, ES made the .scn files different this time. They sadly do not contain the tech info of the units in them, meaning you cannot change the unit properties for one scenario. Maybe there's is a way but it has not been found yet. And looking at the size of a .scn, i doubt they contain units info.

Vachu