COH2 Modding: Getting started with the official tools

Heya, Janne252, thanks for the tutorial on that. I've been experimenting around with the mod tools ever since, had been waiting for this time to finally mod CoH2 like this. I need some help though;

I'm trying to create a custom-unit or a mix to say it differently. The unit is almost identical with the Guards Rifle Infantry, except this time, only 2 Guards and 4 Conscripts, like a cheaper version of the Guards. And I aim to place them in the barracks (1st building) of the soviets.

What I tried was to clone the Guards unit file and rename it to guards_troops_custom_mp, then I placed them as a spawnable (Spawn_item) in the barracks though when I started a game, they didn't appear at all. Mind helpin' me on this one? That'd be great if you can ^-^

Ah, another is if theres a way to change default weapons or so properly? I've already tried cloning a sniper and giving him an officer's model, but the sniper rifle seems to be invisible, even though he's doing the animations for it and even firing it.

Check the squad/entity requirements. There's most likely a requirement to the Guards Commander upgrade which prevents it from showing up in your T1.
About invisible weapons - currently we can't modify files which would fix this.

Ive been trying to get the Zis-6 to show up in tier 3 for MP, but i cant seem to get it to do that... Under "motorpool", i saw that there were MP versions of the KV-1 and Zis-6 alongside the normal units. I tried my best to edit some spawning data, but i still cant figure out what allows the MP Zis-6 to show up in T3. The M5 and Zis-6 took up the same slot, so i successfully removed the M5 from the slots, but that was as far as i got. I will also need to figure out how to switch the unit preview that shows up when hovering over T3 in the CE's build menu...

There is a unit called US-6. Is it a complete unit, since ive never seen any mention of the Studebaker anywhere? Im assuming no, but i wonder why it is in the game files to begin with.

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I made myself an Ostheer-Soviet mod checklist, and ill see if i can fulfill most of my objectives (though many aspects are based off of changes that people already made, so i know those are possible - mainly balance changes since im trying for my own faction design changes)

And... Is it possible to make a commander ability upgrade on infantry a stock upgrade for stock infantry? Like the Anti Tank tactics PTRS upgrade, for example.

Sorry for demanding a lot. I have never edited game files to change stats of... Everything and to add new content. I usually used the game files to look at hidden content.

If a squad is not showing up in a building - check the squad/entity requirements. There might be something blocking them from being displayed such as required_player_upgrade. For weapon package upgrades, you should take a look at existing upgrades like the Obersoldaten IR MP44 package, as it requires an upgrade before it can be used.

I've modified the costs of some vehicles, and it appears to work correctly for built vehicles, but the results for call-ins are all over the map. Some work as expected, some retain the original price, and some show a price that matches neither.

Are the attributes for call-ins specified somewhere other than under 'races'? I don't see anything special for them, and some of the vehicles under 'races' are obviously only used for call-ins.

Call-in are abilities. Usually they have their own cost_ext and the squad cost is ignored.

Hey guys, I'm having some problems creating a balance mod. I've followed these instructions exactly(and even tried the ones at the official forums too) but the Attribute Editor crashes every single time I've tried to open it. I've opened it through editing an attribute and opened it through the tool menu with the same results. When the loading screen finishes, I get this error message:
Your text..
If anyone could point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it. I would be happy to reply with any specifications or anything.

Hello, how do you add units not in the game to multiplayer? I have seen others do it, would like to do it myself, i can see the units in the mod editor but how do i add them to the multiplayer ?

If a squad is not showing up in a building - check the squad/entity requirements. There might be something blocking them from being displayed such as required_player_upgrade. For weapon package upgrades, you should take a look at existing upgrades like the Obersoldaten IR MP44 package, as it requires an upgrade before it can be used.

It was so obvious - The ZiS-6 is only available in 1941 ToW. So naturally, it had a ToW-1941 requirement. Simply disabling that allowed me to field the Zis-6 in a regular match.

I also looked around and saw how upgrade requirements looked like. Perhaps if I include an upgrade on a unit and disable its commander requirement, then I can have the unit use that upgrade every match.

The ZiS-6 is appealingly authentic to me. One decent advantage, aside from it being worse than the m5 in every way, is that 8 men can shoot out of it,

Could you tell us how you added units like that into the game?

Call-in are abilities. Usually they have their own cost_ext and the squad cost is ignored.

Are call-ins somewhere in the AE?

Yep, they are in the category "abilities".

Could you tell us how you added units like that into the game?

Somehow easier than i expected it to be.

Under the category "ebps" find the building you want, and clone it (if you want the building and its new contents to override the current building setup, clone it with the exact same name). In the building, find spawner_ext and go to spawn_items. If you want to replace an item, go to the spawn item that you want replaced, and where "squad" is, select the arrow at the far right of the squad/unit name and then select what you want to replace it. If you want to add a new unit altogether, then right click "spawn_items", select "add" and select "spawn_item". Dont forget to assign it a location in the building - "ui position"' with 11 being the top left of the building UI slot and 21 is row 2 column 1. Try not to have units occupy the same slot, and assigning a unit "-1" removes it from the Ui (but the building thinks it can still build it, so i would suggest removing the unit by replacing the spawn item slot with null in order to fully remove a unit - and i mean this that when you assign a unit the -1 slot, the unit still shows up in the builder unit's preview of the set building's units when you hover over it in the build menu, but you cant actually build the unit).

BUT... you need to make sure that the unit achieves the requirements that are set once they are moved to a building. Under "sbps" find the unit you are trying to add, and go to "squad_requirement_ext" and "require_player_upgrade". If you want the unit to simply be available once the tier is built, then set the requirement the current requirement to false. If you want to do it the right way, then set the requirement to activate the unit once the unit's building is built, (which should be set to true, them) by replacing the value of "upgrade_name".

Save, and build the mod. Go on CoH2 and test to see if the unit is in the building you want it to be in, and that you are able to build it straight away (i noticed a problem when i replaced the Su-76 with the T-70 when i forget to adjust the requirements ). Hopefully that is an acceptable way to add units.

Janne: can you direct me to the location of where transport vehicles are set to spawn with infantry inside them? I tried to make the 250 halftrack in Ostheer T2, and i thought it would be empty (because the MP version was already drastically cheaper than Mechanized Pzgrenadier callin), except it still spawned with panzergrenadiers inside it...

Ah, thanks.

For those looking for it, click the "Categories" button on the menu and select "abilities", and you get a completely different tree view at the left. Pick faction->modal_ability->dispatch.

Edit: Actually, some of them turned out to be more scattered than that, including some in funny places, but I think I found everything under "abilities". Extract my "Mod: Infantry Emphasis" on the Steam Workshop to find where I found stuff.

I seem to have hit several walls in my core faction edits:
1. I do not know how to remove/apply squads to spawn inside troop carrying vehicles upon vehicle map entry.
2. I cannot seem to edit DSHK AP rounds (they seem to not be there where normal abilities are, at least when i compare the DSHK to other units - and i even found the DSHK sprint). Adding a new ability shoves the new ability between hold fire and retreat on the UI - i do not know how to change placement of abilities on the UI. Also, the new ability seems to have been permanently annoying me by saying "you cannot use this ability", but that could be another requirement overlook on my part.
3. Upon fiddling with the Ostruppen Reserves "ability" (of mobile defense) i found out that all the vet chances and the LMG chances are "actions". And so, i set all those spawn chances to "no action" for my own needs. I have instead made a copy of ostruppen reserves to be available for purchase in the Ostheer HQ, which is allowed to be activated at the purchase of BP2. I have found that the ability does not appear in the HQ at the start of the game, and magically appears after the purchase of BP 2. To my disappointment, once the squad is built, only one ostruppen squad comes out (costs 199 mp and 4 pop, apparently). That was the whole point of using a modified ostruppen reserve over regular ostruppen. I was thinking that would work using mechanics similar to the pioneer/CE/RE reserves that activate once the HQ is destroyed.
4. I do not know how to replace weapon stats with another set of stats. - I wanted a modified copy of the DSHK weapon to replace the current DSHK stat set. I know modifying the original and replacing it indefinitely would work, but i wanted another stat set on a different DSHK so it would perform differently than the regular DSHK.

Also, giving the 251 slightly more pen for its MG somehow broke the muzzle flash animation. D:

Is there a mechanism for loading external files, such as models, atmospheres, and scripts?

'Eya, thanks again for the recent help, really, but I need some help again, seem to be stuck;

I'm trying to work on several "Hero units", based on real-life veterans/heroes in the war, an example I've already made is-



Hero units would have their own unique abilities, effects, and stats even, which I could manage just fine. Thing is, I'm wondering how to make it so that these hero units I make can be called in as dispatch or produced through buildings ONLY ONCE.

Similar to the Tiger Ace dispatch, wherein we can only call it once, then we can't call another again, even after the unit has been killed/destroyed.
(Atleast, so I've heard, haven't actually used the Tiger Ace myself since I don't even have the commander in charge of it). But yeah, again, would really appreciate the help!

Janne: can you direct me to the location of where transport vehicles are set to spawn with infantry inside them? I tried to make the 250 halftrack in Ostheer T2, and i thought it would be empty (because the MP version was already drastically cheaper than Mechanized Pzgrenadier callin), except it still spawned with panzergrenadiers inside it...

check

ebps/races/german/vehicles/light_halftrack_250/mechanised 250 halftrack/


action_apply_ext/actions/garrison_squad_action

it says there squad blueprint then inserted into it is panzergrenadier.

Hey is there a way to increase/decrease the game speed overall?

'Eya, thanks again for the recent help, really, but I need some help again, seem to be stuck;

I'm trying to work on several "Hero units", based on real-life veterans/heroes in the war, an example I've already made is-



Hero units would have their own unique abilities, effects, and stats even, which I could manage just fine. Thing is, I'm wondering how to make it so that these hero units I make can be called in as dispatch or produced through buildings ONLY ONCE.

Similar to the Tiger Ace dispatch, wherein we can only call it once, then we can't call another again, even after the unit has been killed/destroyed.
(Atleast, so I've heard, haven't actually used the Tiger Ace myself since I don't even have the commander in charge of it). But yeah, again, would really appreciate the help!

afaik the tiger ace just has a ridiculous cooldown on it (9999 seconds) so you can only call it in once

Great to see the workshop buzz to life with all kinds of experiments. This game is going places.

Does anyone know how I can set the starting buildings of a faction? For example, I don't want the US to start with all 4 buildings.

afaik the tiger ace just has a ridiculous cooldown on it (9999 seconds) so you can only call it in once

Oh, well that's something then. In that case, anyone knows how I can set the custom unit as a dispatch for a locked-faction/soviets only as well as editing the cooldown time? Been exploring a while more for such, couldn't figure it out just yet.

check

ebps/races/german/vehicles/light_halftrack_250/mechanised 250 halftrack/


action_apply_ext/actions/garrison_squad_action

it says there squad blueprint then inserted into it is panzergrenadier.

Thanks. I didnt want to balance a unit's price around including a panzergrenadier.

janne please help me find out why my custom commander mod is not showing up in game

I have checked and rechecked my file pathing etc; I'm getting no errors and everything is where it should be. I'll post some pictures in a bit; any help would be appreciated. My mod still isn't appearing under the tuning pack dropdown.

Might it be something to do with Windows 8.1, the version of Java I'm using...?