This tutorial was created by Sasquatch on relicnews.
How to create a new race skeleton using attribute editor and luas:
Requirements: idea for the race, idea for the units, idea for the buildings, a name, access and knowledge about the wiki.
- Inheriting: right mousebutton on the file you want to inherit from, select "Add new [something] subtype", press OK.
- Creating templates (nil files): inherit (sa.) from a file but select the option "Make template file".
- lua and nil files can be opened with every texteditor. Please do not use Word. Use editor, wordpad, or something similiar. Best one with a line counter.
**Important:**
Creating files: after Inheriting right mousebutton on the file, select "edit Metadata", press OK, save.
[YOUR_RACE]: means insert your race tag here without [].
Editing pipeline.ini:
- copy the my_mod block and edit all lines so they suit your mod
- create all directories you defined in pipeline.ini
In Attribute editor:
- Select your mod, press OK, and wait. This will take some time. This is normal.
- create a new race file by inheriting the race.nil (in designer mode the nil files are the ones with the T in the circle). Input all your data into the file. Most fields are selfexplaining, for others look at the wiki
- create a new template for every attribute type you will use later (abilities, addon, building, troop, squad, melee_weapon, shooting_weapon). Every file should have the same name as before but with [YOUR_RACE]_ added in front (eg. [YOUR_RACE]_abilities, [YOUR_RACE]_addon etc).
- Select Edit metadata on all new created files, press ok and save.
- close attribute editor.
Lua Editing by hand:
- Go to modtools\datageneric\. enter your own mod folder. enter attrib\ebps\races. Create a folder named after your race. In there create the folders Structures and Troops. move [YOUR_RACE]_building.nil to structures, [YOUR_RACE]_troop.nil to troops.
- return to the attrib folder, enter sbps\races. create a folder named after your race. move [YOUR_RACE]_squad.nil to this folder
- now feel fre to create more folders if you feel they will provide more order to your mod.
Attribute editor:
- Restart the editor, load your mod, wait.
- Now you can begin creating the new race.
Last tips:
- edit your [YOUR_RACE]_weapon.nil in editor and set all armor piercing types. This will help a lot since all other weapon will have the same armor at the same position
- create some more nil files, eg [YOUR_RACE]_soldier.nil for foot troops and [YOUR_RACE]_vehicle.nil for vehicles.
- use sometimes the validate fields option to check if you have all fields validated
- Don't forget to create your module file before starting the Mod.
- If your Attribute editor takes too oong to load and you know what you want, delete some of the other races lua wise. You'll
have to delete *all* files of this race since it could contain references to deleted files. If the ae loads without error, you have done it. Erasing all races increased loadtime from 10 minutes to 30 seconds on my PC.
And now, Happy modding.
