Basic Modding?

[Ironhawk]

Hello! I've looked over some of the tutorials but I must admit to a great deal of confusion over the modding process. I have some basic questions about modding I was hoping you could answer.

I think the majority of AT is fine so I only want to edit the statistics for a handful of units. Say to make anti-aircraft a little more effective. Or to increase the speed of tanks. Things of that nature. I try to do these things in the editor but there it seems as if I am modding a specific scenario - not changing the units to be used in future games.

Can anyone advise me how to make these changes?

[Bombur]

You must create a master file (save as ptmaster) if you want the file to work as a platform for other scenarios.

[Zaratoughda]

To edit some things you must 'unselect' the master file. You do this by going to settings and then select master file but then cancelling that selection. This will leave you with no master file selected and with that you can make all changes. Then, when you are done, like Bombur says, you must save what you have as a new master file (do that as you would save a normal game except select ptmaster as the filetype) and then use that ptmaster when you create a random game.

Z

[Ironhawk]

Ok, I think I understand now.  I'll try it when i get home from work - thanks for the quick replies!!

[Ironhawk]

Unfortunately I was not successfull.  I made a copy of the generic.ptmaster and then started a random scenario using that.  I went into the editor and to the SFTypes menu and selected a random unit to begin to try and edit it.  But while all the statistics are visible to me, none of them have the little gray boxes next to them that allow you to click!  What am I doing wrong?
 
The mouse over text even reads "click to change the <statistic here>" but clicking does nothing.&nbsp; Its as if the file is locked or something??

[BK6583]

Well I see no one has answered the last post so I hesitate to piggy back of this this theme but I would at least like to know if I'm this is possible in the scenario editor. If I open one of the WWII scenarios can I, say, change all German rifle to level II?

[rickier65]

Ironhawk and BK,

you need to go in and DISCONNECT the master file from the scenario you are editing. There is a tutorial doc on the community site that goes through this I think.

Rick

[Zaratoughda]

Read my previous post a little closer.... it has the specific instructions on what to do so you can edit anything.

Z

[Ironhawk]

I've read and re-read all the posts in this thread and gone back over all the FAQs in the stickies at the top of the forum.  Still my problem persists.  I am a pretty computer saavy person (i'm a programmer, after all!) so I dont think I'm getting confused or something.  Rather there must be some disconnect in my understanding.  To try and clear it up I've taken sshots of my exact steps as I try to disconnect the masterfile.  Please tell me what I am doing wrong...

[Ironhawk]

Once I carry out those steps above I enter the editor, and navigate to the SFTypes, only to find them still locked??

[Lunaticus_matrixforum]

Hi,
I still think you need to select the button "settings" (top row third button) and then "Master+ReadPeople" and click there "cancel" also. It will give a text message: "Masterfile has been removed".

[Ironhawk]

Yes!!  Thank you Lunatics, that was it!   I can finally begin doing some modding!


Out of curiosity, I went back through the tutorials in the forums and finally found this data located at the bottom of Simple Scenario Creation #2 in the errata.  So this info was in fact posted there as one poster mentioned - however, I must admit to complete astonishment as to how this has been overlooked by the AT community?  Since you cannot mod at all until you detatch the masterfile, how has the fact that a key step is tucked into the erata not come up sooner with other prospective modders?

[Jeffrey H.]

Mods are not always created using a different master. It's not that big of a group that's doing mods that require alternate masters. That's my guess.
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I'm playing around with the editor a bit and finding it to be a bit quirky but indeed is something you need to get a feel for.
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