Black Templars Mod :: Tutorials :: Getting Started with the AE ~ Runboard

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Black Templars Mod
Tutorials
Getting Started with the AE

Thesplurge
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Getting Started with the AE

This is taken from the rdnwiki. I'm posting it here so you guys have more easy access to it, instead of having to trawl through the wiki.

Introduction

This guide is the start of using the Attribute Editor. First things first:

Install the latest Mod Tools version.
Follow the Mod Tools setup gude to make sure you can run the Attribute Editor.
You must make a new mod for editing values less you ruin or break your normal game.

Once you have done this, you should be able to load the Attribute Editor. Follow these steps:

Go to the start menu and find the Attribute Editor shortcut. Once you select it, the attribute editor will open like this:
(Picture: AE open first time)
Go to “Open” and select your modification, not W40k !!!.
Wait for it to load. («Not Responding» just means “I'm loading, but not telling you that”) Trust me, this can take a matter of minutes to load the gazillion files – your RAM usage may rocket (for a time at least). Note: RAM usage can be quite high, around 155MB+, and so don't expect other things to run at good speeds at the same time.

Now you should have the attribute editor open, looking like this:

(Picture: AE Mod Fully Open)

Editing something – making the Space Marine Barracks cost 6000 requisition

To mess around and get started, editing values of exsisting things is very easy – just select something randomly, and look at the boxes at the right of any descriptions. Change values to change stuff.

EG: Changing the cost of the space marine barracks to 6000 requsistion, follow these steps:

Get to the barracks file by opening these in order:
entity_blueprint
building
space_marine_building
space_marine_barracks
Notice how this is a lot of information about the Space Marine barracks (wow!) To edit the costs, open these in the right hand plane:
cost_ext
time_cost
cost
Now you can see you have the population, power and requisition values. We can now change the requsisition value (currently 250) to anything we like. This is what changing it to 6000 is like:
(Picture: AE before 6000)
(Picture: AE 6000 requsition for barracks)
To now use this in-game, you must go to File -> Save to add it to our files...
(Picture: AE Saving 6000)
...then click File -> Save 1 Binary to save only a single binary file – the current selected one (the barracks). If you select Save Binary it saves all your custom saved LUA files – in this case, it should also only be one file.

Now, if you go in game, with your mod, and load a skirmish game as the Space Marines, the barracks will cost 6000 requsistion!

So, play around, enjoy making your Orks cost 1 each, or have the cultists pistol do 80000 damage per shot. Get used to how the AE lays out files, and how to get from one place to another using “Jump To Parent” and “Jump To Refence”.

Adding something new (a new subtype) – creating an entry for an Ork Building “Grot Pile”

To add something and then edit it is seemingly the stupidest/longest/most annoying part of the attribute editor (apart from lack of documentation, and burning files). You have to follow these steps to avoid greyed out boxes and files not exsisting... for example, adding a new Ork building: The “Grot Pile” I made up:

Go to the Ork Building's location: entity_blueprint\building\ork_building
Select the ork_building value, and go to Add new ork_building subtype...
Name it something – in this case, ork_grot_pile will do. Leave all options as they are – the current location is fine.
Once created, you need to do these sub-steps:
Edit the metatype – select the new value (ork_grot_pile) and select Edit Metadata...
Click “OK” at the bottom of the new dialog. There is no need to edit anything.
Select File -> Save back in the normal window, to save the current changes for the mod.
Now you can re-select the value (ork_grot_pile), and ta-dar, it can be edited and is no longer greyed out!

If this isn't done this way, the file doesn't exsist or get saved correctly and so will be uneditable, sadly.

Remarks

This starts the How To guides – well, hopefully it'll show how too. Nothing specific is mentioned in this starting guide apart from the examples – mess around and explore the Attribute Editor – else the more advanced sections may make no sense if you don't know the menu options (don't worry about what they do) or how to create a new subtype, or even editing a value, then the guides may make no sense when you are asked to do them.

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5/13/2006, 7:56 pm

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Doomseekers
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Re: Getting Started with the AE

Thats all very useful stuff, still waiting for a SIMPLE skinning tutorial

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5/14/2006, 11:12 am

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Thesplurge
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Re: Getting Started with the AE

I will search for one of them for you soon. Don't worry.

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5/14/2006, 11:16 am

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Brothercoopa
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Re: Getting Started with the AE

him so could i use this to set uo an entirly new army using alredy made models?

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5/22/2006, 10:43 pm

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Thesplurge
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Re: Getting Started with the AE

Yep. You don't need to have new models to make a new race mod, although they're nice to have. Look at the Tyranid beta's. They use placeholders of existing models instead of the new ones.

Part 2 of the tutorial coming soon!

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5/23/2006, 12:00 pm

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Brothercoopa
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Re: Getting Started with the AE

ok so the mod tools tell you how to et up a mod but it dont work for me, i change the first 2 things, i cant find the 3rd though, and when i go to select mods it just says my mod not what i qwant there