[Warhammer Dark Omen Forum]

Warhammer Dark Omen Forum

As far as i remember (it's been a while) there is a clumsy hardcode of cavalry speed:
It checks unit armor. If unit has what editor refers to as 'mounted armor', then speed is hardcoded and equals to infantry speed 7 regardless of what you set in Mv.
But you can make cavalry type, non-zero mount byte (horse or boar), just set them regular armor: 0 through 4. Then you set mv = 9 (for wolfriders) and they run fast. Ijust hope that no 'mounted armor' does not prevent such unit from being a cavalry in all fight checks. It works properly in ctl though and no reason to suspect worse at lower code levels.

Addon: mounted armor may influence certain combat situations, like polearm infantry  cancels its bonus or something like that. But there is no other choice atm to make faster or slower cavalry.

Ghabry could you advise on the following dark omen start exception:

Windows8
Original dark omen starts properly and runs original campaign. So game installation is OK.

Olly's Modded version with mod selector and updated ddraw.dll and darkpatch.dll returns  this exception number:
0xc0000142.

I once had the same error at my bro's laptop operating under Win8. I failed to fix that problem using instructions.
Probably, Ghabry's solution would have helped. I cannot verify it atm though. Probably, the solution is worth mentioning at troubleshooting steps in Olly's instructions.

One more thought related to race speech checks.

2 Years ago I had no better solution than to hardcode a set of unit ids that would talk dwarvish or skavenish, and do it for every of 25+ ctl mission files. Even if I had a simple race check at hand, I would still have to edit all 25+ ctl files.

Is it possible to upsert global functions starting with certain func id? Functions that would override (at your own risk) default local functions.

Unit type. last 3 bytes are responsible for race.

if Type mod 8 = 0 - it's a human race etc. Type mod 8 = 1 is elves I think, etc.
I do not have race order at hand, but I think you know it yourself, just you forgot.

Update.
Order is as follows:
   <unittype>
      <item value="0">(None)</item>
      <item value="8">Human infantry</item>
      <item value="9">Wood elf infantry</item>
      <item value="10">Dwarf infantry</item>
      <item value="11">Night goblin infantry</item>
      <item value="12">Orc infantry</item>
      <item value="13">Undead infantry</item>
      <item value="14">Townsfolk</item>
      <item value="15">Ogres</item>
      <item value="16">Human cavallry</item>
      <item value="20">Orc cavallry</item>
      <item value="21">Undead cavallry</item>
      <item value="24">Human archers</item>
      <item value="25">Wood elf archers</item>
      <item value="27">Night goblin archers</item>
      <item value="28">Orc archers</item>
      <item value="29">Skeleton archers</item>
      <item value="32">Human artillery</item>
      <item value="36">Orc artillery</item>
      <item value="37">Undead artillery</item>
      <item value="40">Human wizard</item>
      <item value="43">Night goblin shaman</item>
      <item value="44">Orc shaman</item>
      <item value="45">Evil wizard</item>
      <item value="61">Undead chariot</item>
      <item value="67">Fanatic</item>
      <item value="55">Monster</item>
      <item value="53">Dread King</item>
   </unittype>

When editing CTL scripts in campaigns, I missed a few things badly.

1. A randomizer. It was needed in many occasions. Among them - enemy units popping in one of 2-3 places to reduce predictable scenarios. Also, random magic books for own troops. 2 spells set at random out of a list of 6, for example. Many other scenarios.

2. I missed ability to read a unit's race. I had to hardcode all skaven and dwarvish phrases based on unit's ID. It is very clumsy but at that time there was no better solution.

There maybe other things I will recall later...It has been quite a while since then so I almost forgot what CTL is in the first place

Hey all,
pity I am a rare guest here. Or I would have helped Leilond to save his time. I encountered quite a lot of things he figured or asked questions about while I was an active campaign builder. For one, I tested all Play_self values in order to use Dwarvish and Skavenish phrazes from SoTHR. But I was too lazy to add them to Wiki 

Anyways, I will try to pay more attention and share my experience in campaign building.

1. For Conflagration you need a 3rd level Bright Wizard. If you were too lazy to shoot fireballs left and right in the first half, then you can fix it by giving him Banner of Wrath to gain exp quicker. Even a 3rd level wizard does not have Conflagration each battle. Still, it is a random pick of the spells set.
Just remember: experience gained by your wizard - is not gained by your other units, and that's bad. So once you have 3rd level wizard and conflagration, do not use it everywhere. Use it only at desperate need.

2. There are no artifacts in Night Forest mission with Galed. Tactics is the one that works in 90% of battles: Concentrate somewhere in the west-south corner out of Catapults' reach, lure the waves of undead and hold your ground.

My Observations for DO: Straightforward logic "sprite swinging weapons=>unit taking part in melee" seems to work properly. Based on merely my own rich experience about who was swinging who was not, who gained experience in the end, who did not etc.

SOTHR: I do not quite remember as it has been a while. But probably something similar.

Ice Mage spells are very useful and in general match fire spells except for teleport. I consider the last one a cheat and limit its use in my modded campaigns

As for original campaign, there are 2 things that make fire wizard preferable:
1. Simply, mana pool is shared and it is does not make much sense to use both. Bright Wizard appears much earlier and is almost accomplished by the time Ice one appears. It does not make sense to invest in practicing ice then.

2. Original campaign is not a great challenge except for mummy regiments in the last 2 missions. And mummies are vulnerable to fire.

Latest version:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5glz1su3ayy5x88/Cuthalion%20Mod%20Pack%202016_10_15.zip?dl=0

It includes Chaos Campaign (light mod so far), where you control Chosen, Chaos Knights, Demon Prince and other armies of chaos. New sprites included.
Also, Goblins (light mod) are updated. A few new sprites, and the campaign does look goblinish now, with a few tough orc regiments to compensate for goblins unreliability.

Olly included the updates in his latest global Dark Omen pack.

Yes, this appears to be a correct view on initiative and speed.
Yes, it is more correct to compare a vampire to a treant, and to compare orc boar boyz (i=2) to a human cavalry(i=4). In both cases, it is notable that a regiment with higher initiative turns faster, gains speed faster. The latter is particularly notable when you order a unit to move in the opposite direction to the one it was moving: It takes much longer to a low initiative unit to regroup and start moving backwards.

As for initiative in combat, yes, we hope it influences 'first strike'. No confirmed info about it, as DO modding was database modding to the most part, and low level battle mechanics are hidden. But all players who had rich experience with modded campaigns - with dwarves, elves etc - note that high initiative units (elven wardancers) strike first.

Yes,
In Dark Omen, initiative affects the rate at which a regiment turns.
That said, if two regiments have the same speed, a regiment with higher initiative will move faster across the battle field.

Additional info:
If we compare a treant (i=2, mv=6) vs a vampire (i=7 or 8, mv = 6), we see that vampire accelerates much faster. Also, as there is usually no straight way between A and B, units have to turn slightly every now and then, and at each such turn vampire increases the gap between him and treant.
Vampire may even overtake a cavalry regiment (mv = 7), though if both units move along a straight line, cavalry seems to move a bit faster as it should be.

A short remark on Chariot game mechanics, not sure whether it was noted before.
When an enemy chariot charges into my unit, the unit sometimes (but not always) shouts "We are under fire" as if enemy archers shoot at it.
Quite likely, this is the way chariot mechanics are implemented in DO: At times, it kills up to 4-5 units a second after it enters close combat.

I made a few more sprites in order to entertain myself.
Chaos Knights (I looked through some old sprites in order to collect army for Archaon campaign. I found Chaos Knights there but was not quite satisfied with their quality, though I did like a few other Chaos sprites out there.)

[attachment=2]
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ni2fpgsdsl94cyf/023ChaosKnights.spr?dl=0

P.S. Those jet black horses prompt me to remove shadow from the sprites...In battles, shadows blend with the horse, concealing sprite details.

Also, new Goblin Spider Riders version, already in my Goblin Adventures (Light Mod)
[attachment=1]
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pmg9c0n0p3956dl/014SpiderRiders.spr?dl=0