Creating and Using Units¶
Now we get to the fun part, creating new units. Because there is so much we can do, we’re going to focus on creating one unit, and only look at modifying a few bits.
There is a guide for creating units at http://wiki.wesnoth.org/BuildingUnits, but the basics will be given here. See http://wiki.wesnoth.org/UnitTypeWML and http://units.wesnoth.org/1.12/mainline/en_US/mainline.html for what is possible.
Creating a Unit Image¶
http://wiki.wesnoth.org/Creating_Unit_Art provides some rules for creating your unit image, but here’s a short summary:
- The image must be 72x72 pixels
- It must be a PNG
Creating images from scratch is hard, so Battle for Wesnoth provides frakenpacks, collections of unit parts which can be “glued together” to create a new unit. I’ll give you a copy of the images so you don’t need to download them.
Save your image in the images/units
directory,
giving it a useful name.
Setting unit attributes¶
To set the properties of a unit,
we need to create a file inside the units
directory of your add-on.
Here’s an example of what you need in that file:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 | [unit_type]
id=Vampire
name= _ "Vampire"
race=undead
image="units/vampire.png"
ellipse="misc/ellipse"
{MAGENTA_IS_THE_TEAM_COLOR}
hitpoints=34
movement_type=undeadfoot
movement=7
experience=35
level=1
alignment=chaotic
advances_to=null
cost=20
usage=fighter
description= _ "Vampires are creatures of the night, looking to feed on unsuspecting victims."+{SPECIAL_NOTES}+{SPECIAL_NOTES_DRAIN}+{SPECIAL_NOTES_POISON}+{SPECIAL_NOTES_PLAGUE}+{SPECIAL_NOTES_BACKSTAB}
[abilities]
{ABILITY_SKIRMISHER}
[/abilities]
[attack]
name=sword
description=_"sword"
icon=attacks/longsword.png
type=blade
range=melee
damage=4
number=5
[specials]
{WEAPON_SPECIAL_BACKSTAB}
[/specials]
[/attack]
[attack]
name=fangs
description=_"fangs"
icon=attacks/fangs.png
type=pierce
range=melee
damage=10
number=1
[specials]
{WEAPON_SPECIAL_DRAIN}
{WEAPON_SPECIAL_POISON}
{WEAPON_SPECIAL_PLAGUE}
[/specials]
[/attack]
[/unit_type]
|
There’s a number of things you will need to set to get your unit working:
- Set the path of the unit image (i.e.
image
) to the image file you created.- Set the
id
andname
to something unique.
You also would want to modify the description
, cost
etc. to make your
unit your own.
Adding your unit to a faction/era¶
To actually play with your unit, you need to add it to a faction in a era.
The easiest thing to do is create a new era from the default era.
To do this, create an era.cfg
file in your add-on directory,
with the following contents (replacing Vampire
with your unit name):
[era]
id=core_and_vampires
name= _ "Core and Vampires"
{RANDOM_SIDE}
{multiplayer/factions/loyalists-default.cfg}
{multiplayer/factions/rebels-default.cfg}
{multiplayer/factions/northerners-default.cfg}
{multiplayer/factions/knalgans-default.cfg}
{multiplayer/factions/drakes-default.cfg}
[multiplayer_side]
id=Undead
name= _"Undead"
image="units/undead-necromancers/dark-sorcerer.png"
{MAGENTA_IS_THE_TEAM_COLOR}
type=Dark Sorcerer
leader=Dark Sorcerer,Revenant,Deathblade,Bone Shooter,Necrophage
random_leader=Dark Sorcerer,Revenant,Deathblade,Bone Shooter
recruit=Skeleton,Skeleton Archer,Walking Corpse,Ghost,Vampire Bat,Dark Adept,Ghoul,Vampire
terrain_liked=Ss, Hh, Ha, Ww
[ai]
recruitment_pattern=fighter,fighter,archer,fighter,scout,archer
[/ai]
[/multiplayer_side]
[/era]
This has added your unit to the Undead faction.
You could add it to a different faction, by changing what appears inside the
multiplayer_side
section.
Further information on factions and eras appears at http://wiki.wesnoth.org/BuildingFactions and http://wiki.wesnoth.org/EraWML.