Adding Forward HQ Abilities and Upgrades?

Where can I add abilities and upgrades to converted forward HQ buildings? I (think) found how to add producible units, but still at a loss for upgrades and abilities.

A converted forward HQ building is an 'ebps' object like the standard HQ buildings. Units can be added in 'spawner_ext', abilities in 'abilities_ext' and upgrades in 'upgrades_ext'.

A converted forward HQ building is an 'ebps' object like the standard HQ buildings. Units can be added in 'spawner_ext', abilities in 'abilities_ext' and upgrades in 'upgrades_ext'.

I can't seem to find anything under the ebps that implies that it's the Soviet FHQ. There is one from the campaign but seeing how it already has a spawner list (of which some units have no special requirements) it can't be the same reference as multiplayer.

How does the convert_building action work? I only see the ID and the "remove upgrade". Can I specify what kind of building it converts into?

I misunderstood you ... I thought you meant buildings like the Forward Assembly.

The Soviet and British forward HQ's are ambient buildings and they stay that building (so there are 100+ versions in ebps...). The soviet ability to convert it activates the extension which spawns the medics and each building has this extension. The British HQ ability however adds new abilities, like recon, with an 'ability_add' action. I don't think it's possible to add upgrades that way. The 'upgrade_add' action immediately applies the upgrade. The only way to add upgrades is to add them to the 100+ ambient buildings and give them the requirement of the is_forward_hq upgrade to become visible.

So, what I am actually trying to do is create a Soviet command squad that starts with 3 members, but for the T1, T2, and FHQ tech buildings the 4th "unit" is really an upgrade that adds a single representative of that building that unlocks abilities for the command squad.

Is there a practical workaround to achieve the same effects via abilities or units?

You might use the player_upgrade for that (a regular upgrade with the player as owner instead of squad or entity). The FHQ is made with an ability which can add a player_upgrade. The command squad can have a requirement for that upgrade and add a squad member when it's available. The abilities can have the same requirements.

If I understand you correctly, you want to do the following:

Soviets get a special squad that starts with 3 men.

Every time you buy an upgrade from:
- T1
- T2
- Or a converted ForwardHQ

This will add a particular squad member to your squad.

Given that there are 400 different ForwardHQ entities, you are asking if there is a quick way to add a researchable upgrade to each one of them, rather than go with it by hand for each one of them.

Am I correct?

Hi modders:

This is my personal experience with FHQ.

I have this feature in Wikinger mod. I took the vanilla ability and do some extra modding work with it. The ability to convert buildings is a target ability and you could add it to any squad. But if you want this thing work properly you need to do extra modding work.

What I did ?

a. I cloned every single building in vanilla content to work with them in the best way

b. I modded in each buidling the repair extension. In there I added medics instead repair pioneers (for all factions). Also added my own medics and tweak the number of them and repair raidous

c. Also I added a retreat point ability on them using the conversion ability itself

d. You could add buildable units in those FHQ. There is two ways to do it:
1. Adding reinforce abilities in the ability itself
2. In the army ext you have an option "field support production style. In there you could add spawn items for your FHQ.

I am also experiment with the FHQ because they can be reverted doing right click on them for certain time, but I have not time to finish this feature. My idea is to do something like Coh1.

I hope this info could help you.

Regards
Olhausen

If I understand you correctly, you want to do the following:

Soviets get a special squad that starts with 3 men.

Every time you buy an upgrade from:
- T1
- T2
- Or a converted ForwardHQ

This will add a particular squad member to your squad.

Given that there are 400 different ForwardHQ entities, you are asking if there is a quick way to add a researchable upgrade to each one of them, rather than go with it by hand for each one of them.

Am I correct?

Yeah, that's exactly right. The command squad would start with 3, but ends up with 6 men. It's in ways similar to the USF officers except that it's all kept in one squad.

I'd like to mirror the USF officer system's UI layout as well though, so I'd prefer if there was a workaround as an upgrade or a buildable unit. An ability on the command card would technically work, but I'd like it to be queued in order like units or upgrades would be.

Olhausen, yes, thank you for the information. I thought so, but I was unsure and I haven't tested it yet.

In the worst case, we could write a script that add a reference to your upgrade for all convertable buildings.

Do try out Olhausen's suggestions, and let me know if that already solves the problem, though.

You might use the player_upgrade for that (a regular upgrade with the player as owner instead of squad or entity). The FHQ is made with an ability which can add a player_upgrade. The command squad can have a requirement for that upgrade and add a squad member when it's available. The abilities can have the same requirements.

This.

If the command squad is set to look for a player_upgrade that you would have added when a tech structure is built, you could set that player upgrade to be the flag that adds the entity to the squad or enables a specific ability.

This is how I was able to cap okw at vet 3 and have to purchase access to vet 4 and 5. It's also how I was able to get usf officers to function as 1 man squads that merged into rifles to make 6 man squads with specific abilities depending on officer AND cap the number of officers on the field, merged or not.

Hi modders:

This is my personal experience with FHQ.

I have this feature in Wikinger mod. I took the vanilla ability and do some extra modding work with it. The ability to convert buildings is a target ability and you could add it to any squad. But if you want this thing work properly you need to do extra modding work.

What I did ?

a. I cloned every single building in vanilla content to work with them in the best way

b. I modded in each buidling the repair extension. In there I added medics instead repair pioneers (for all factions). Also added my own medics and tweak the number of them and repair raidous

c. Also I added a retreat point ability on them using the conversion ability itself

d. You could add buildable units in those FHQ. There is two ways to do it:
1. Adding reinforce abilities in the ability itself
2. In the army ext you have an option "field support production style. In there you could add spawn items for your FHQ.

I am also experiment with the FHQ because they can be reverted doing right click on them for certain time, but I have not time to finish this feature. My idea is to do something like Coh1.

I hope this info could help you.

Regards
Olhausen

Excuse the necro but this is what I'm trying to do as well, but in CoH3.

Back in the pre-alpha we had this which I assumed was an upgrade - https://youtu.be/mY3FlwpEXgU?t=81

But looking at it now in the EA it turns out it's actually an ability.

Problem is I can't seem to be able to enable it again and there are only versions for the US and Brits, not the Wehrmacht or DAK. I'm also trying to bring back trenches and I'd appreciate any ideas for that also.