A few simple questions

Hey guys,

I've been playing around with the Attribute Editor for fun to see what I can accomplish. I have tried to look up my issues but there is a really big literature or tutorials about using this program

Anyway, my questions are about veterancy in this game...

• Why are there squad and entity veterencies? I heard before about some glitch that wasn't patched for years... not sure if this is why? When for example, I want to change weapon accuracy for a squad vs change received accuracy, where would I have to put each veterency, and why?
  
• Why do squads have the modifier "entity_veterancy_experience_modifier" with usage_type multiply_add and value 0.2? I've seen this time and time again and don't understand what it does?
  
• Why do some squads have a scar function call? For example, when the grenadier vets up, there is a scar function call with function name XP1_Vet_Level2. What does this do? Why is it there? Why do some squads not have it? Also, is there somewhere where I can see a list of scar functions that are called? I can't seem to find it.
  

Also, how does construction speeds work? Barbed wire has a time cost of 24. Is this time divided by the number of models building? So would a 4 model engineer take 6 seconds, and a 3 model engineer 8 seconds? If that's true, and I change a 4 model squad to be a 3 model squad, would I have to increase the construction speed modifier on the 3 model squad by 1.33 to achieve the same speed?

Also, I am eager to learn in general. Are there any hidden sources of knowledge I haven't found? Or is this a trial and error sort of game?

Thank you in advance.

Welcome to the modding forums! Please read this thread for our (very short) list of guidelines and to see the (also very short) list of existing tutorials. Anything that's not covered by those tutorials is indeed either trial and error or copypasta from the vanilla game and other mods. But you can of course ask any questions you might have here on the forums or even request us to write a more extensive guide if you think that the modding community might profit from it! As for your questions:

• Why are there squad and entity veterencies? I heard before about some glitch that wasn't patched for years... not sure if this is why? When for example, I want to change weapon accuracy for a squad vs change received accuracy, where would I have to put each veterency, and why?

Yes, that's the reason. Some veterancy modifiers were not applied to newly reinforces entities, making veterancy... not as useful as it should have been. I know that weapon accuracy was affected, maybe also cooldown and rate of fire, but I'm not quite sure about that. So these should be applied to entities, while received accuracy can be applied to squads. Basically, just look at how veterancy works for existing squads and try to copy it. If something is implemented in a certain way, there's usually a somewhat good reason for it.

• Why do squads have the modifier "entity_veterancy_experience_modifier" with usage_type multiply_add and value 0.2? I've seen this time and time again and don't understand what it does?

It increases the amount of XP you get for destroying that unit - so veteran units yield more XP when killed.

• Why do some squads have a scar function call? For example, when the grenadier vets up, there is a scar function call with function name XP1_Vet_Level2. What does this do? Why is it there? Why do some squads not have it? Also, is there somewhere where I can see a list of scar functions that are called? I can't seem to find it.

I'm not sure what it does... I'm not even sure it does anything. I have removed it for some units and didn't notice any effect, so you can probably safely delete it, if you want. It might be a leftover from campaign and ToW units, actually. There is a list of scar functions, but it's not complete and I didn't see this one anywhere.

Also, how does construction speeds work? Barbed wire has a time cost of 24. Is this time divided by the number of models building? So would a 4 model engineer take 6 seconds, and a 3 model engineer 8 seconds? If that's true, and I change a 4 model squad to be a 3 model squad, would I have to increase the construction speed modifier on the 3 model squad by 1.33 to achieve the same speed?

Exactly! Construction speed is set per entity.

• Why are there squad and entity veterencies? I heard before about some glitch that wasn't patched for years... not sure if this is why? When for example, I want to change weapon accuracy for a squad vs change received accuracy, where would I have to put each veterency, and why?
  

Note that for certain team-weapons you might want to apply the modifiers only on the gun, rather the entire squad (e.g., raketenwerfer range).

Also, veterancy on teamweapons that can pack up is bugged/unreliable. We have a fix coming for it in the next patch.

• Why do squads have the modifier "entity_veterancy_experience_modifier" with usage_type multiply_add and value 0.2? I've seen this time and time again and don't understand what it does?
  

Multiply add stands for add + 20% of the original (pre-modifiers) value. This is different from a multiplication 1.2, when you intend to apply this multiple times.

Applying a 0.2 multiply add 3 times gives you a +60% difference from the original value
Applying a 1.2 multiplication 3 times gives you +72.8% difference over the original value

Also, how does construction speeds work? Barbed wire has a time cost of 24. Is this time divided by the number of models building? So would a 4 model engineer take 6 seconds, and a 3 model engineer 8 seconds? If that's true, and I change a 4 model squad to be a 3 model squad, would I have to increase the construction speed modifier on the 3 model squad by 1.33 to achieve the same speed?

Note that the construction entities themselves may also have a cap on how many models are allowed to contribute at the same time. Usually this is 8 models, but you can finetune it. E.g., if you want to prevent the sim city commander Tommies from powerbuilding emplacements, you can set that there.

Why do some squads have a scar function call? For example, when the grenadier vets up, there is a scar function call with function name XP1_Vet_Level2. What does this do? Why is it there? Why do some squads not have it? Also, is there somewhere where I can see a list of scar functions that are called? I can't seem to find it.

There is a SCAR file in the Data.sga (DATA:\scar\prototype\specialaefunctions.scar) where these are defined. They are additional actions/behaviours that can only be done with scripting (like having sandbags created around an entity).