First pop cap mod and how to mod your game.

[Armored Baron]

Hello, so this is a really simple mod that modifies your game's pop cap to 200 instead of 30 for the UNSC and 40 for the Covenant.

Link here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sbek6pvpf6gwapw/root.era?dl=0

How to install:
Download this: https://github.com/KornnerStudios/HaloWarsDocs/releases/tag/v1.0.2

After you download the Phoenix.7z file, extract it somewhere and open PhxGui.exe and NOT PhxTool.exe.

After you open PhxGui.exe, simply just drag and drop your Halo Wars: Definitive Edition's exe, after that you will get another exe file in your game's folder, called "xgameFinal_UNTOUCHED.exe", that is your UNMODIFIED exe file which you can use to get back to the vanilla game, the normal "xgameFinal.exe" is your MODIFIED exe file, which you will use to play the modified game.

So just rename your root.era file to something else so you don't replace it and put the modified root.era file in the game's folder.

So this is simply it to play your game with modded files.

To modify the game yourself and not just play it with modified files you can just simply read the github description on how to do that but I'm just going to list here how I did it:

I did NOT tick any of the boxes, just dragged and dropped the root.era file in PhxGui.exe, after which I got all of the unpacked files in the output folder directory and went to the "data" folder, in there I dragged and dropped the leaders.xml.xmb file in PhxGui.exe which converted the file from .xmb to .xml, which is an editable form of the file (fun fact, .xmb and .xml files were also used in Ensemble Studios' 2 other games, Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III).

After you convert the file from .xmb to .xml (any file, really) using PhxGui.exe, you can open it with any text editor, I use and recommend Notepad++. After which I changed ALL of the "<Pop Type="Unit" Max="X">Y</Pop>" lines to <Pop Type="Unit" Max="200">200</Pop>.

X was 99 and Y was different for each faction's leaders, like I mentioned in the beginning of this topic it was 30 for the UNCS leaders and 40 for the Covenant leaders, but for the sake of simplicity I just wrote them as X and Y here.

It's vital that you change BOTH of those, and not just the second value, since this: "<Pop Type="Unit" Max="99">200</Pop>" will NOT work and will just simply give you this error message when you try to rebuild the root.eradef file: http://imgur.com/a/dIL21

So, after I did that I saved the file in the same data folder and opened the root.eradef file using Notepad++ and I pressed "ctrl+F" to open the search function and searched for "leaders.", after which I found it's reference in the lines and changed it from "leaders.xml.xmb" to "leaders.xml" so the system knows which file to rebuild the root.era file with.

After that I just simply dragged and dropped the root.eradef file in the PhxGui.exe tool and it rebuilt the root.era file in the output folder I told it to put the rebuilt era files in.

And I just dropped it in my game's folder and played the game with a modified pop cap of 200 for all factions and leaders.

That's about it, this is part mod topic part how to mod the game topic so to speak, I hope I made it clear on how I did it exactly for any newcomers.

Cheers and have a nice day.

[Samuel.]

Good job on explaining stuff! The more modders, the more attention the Modding community will get. #BringWorkshop

[iMPERIALWOLF]

Originally posted by Samuelelelele:

Good job on explaining stuff! The more modders, the more attention the Modding community will get. #BringWorkshop :AOEKnight:

Samulelelele if you wanna discuss modding feel free to join the discord linked in kornman00's post for his mod tools

[Samuel.]

Since this didn't include the power/resource in there. I went ahead and made a simple, and hopefully understandable guide.

Guide for Arbiter: http://imgur.com/a/iDUxD same for the other covenant leaders


UNSC for unsc leaders there won't be any temple or leader. The unsc will have this line instead
<Pop Type="Spartan" Max="3">3</Pop>
Max="3" means you can only build up to 3 spartans


I manage to change the amount of starting resources to 999999, and the starting tech level to 100, and also the max population to 10000.

Final result http://imgur.com/a/W9LRP

[Samuel.]

If you wanna change start unit, so that you don't have to start with a ghost, but rather start with your leader.

Open the same file again "leaders.xml" and go to the desired covenant leader. I'll be using
Brute Chieftain. for this one

Now go to line 109 and than you'll see this line
<StartingSquad FlyIn="false"
Offset="60,0,-20">cov_veh_bruteChopper_01</StartingSquad>

Than what you will do is change the "cov_veh_bruteChopper_01" into "cov_inf_bruteChief_01" without the "

so the final result will look like this
<StartingSquad FlyIn="false" Offset="60,0,-20">cov_inf_bruteChief_01</StartingSquad>

Custom

First pick one of these
cov=covenant
unsc= unsc

Second pick one of these
inf=infantry
veh=vehicle
air=air

Third pick a unit by using its real name.. Like Hornet, hawk, scorpion or spartan.


So if you wanna add a air unit(hornet) as a starting unit, you just replace it with
unsc_air_hornet_01 Simple as that.. Remember add _01 at the end

[Armored Baron]

Originally posted by Samuelelelele:

If you wanna change start unit, so that you don't have to start with a ghost, but rather start with your leader.

Open the same file again "leaders.xml" and go to the desired covenant leader. I'll be using
Brute Chieftain. for this one

Now go to line 109 and than you'll see this line
<StartingSquad FlyIn="false"
Offset="60,0,-20">cov_veh_bruteChopper_01</StartingSquad>

Than what you will do is change the "cov_veh_bruteChopper_01" into this "cov_inf_bruteChief_01" without the "

so the final result will look like this
<StartingSquad FlyIn="false" Offset="60,0,-20">cov_inf_bruteChief_01</StartingSquad>

Too bad we need custom models for Captain Cutter and the Prophet of Regret in order to add them sadly.

[Samuel.]

Sadly, we will have to stick with the normal 3 covenant leaders

[Armored Baron]

Originally posted by Samuelelelele:

Sadly, we will have to stick with the normal 3 covenant leaders

Right, I forgot the Prophet of Regret has a model, so the only one that's left is Captain Cutter.

[Abaddon]

I have finally found what unit I can add to the Pelican, Forge. Also having Red team as starting units is great. Unkillable spartans in skirmish. Best thing

[Armored Baron]

Originally posted by Syndiwolf:

I have finally found what unit I can add to the Pelican, Forge. Also having Red team as starting units is great. Unkillable spartans in skirmish. Best thing

Yes, I was thinking of giving Heroes (Anders, Forge and Forge in Jeep for Cutter) as starting units for the UNSC as well as adding special units such as the Rhino Tank for Cutter, Pelican transport for everybody or only Anders and Rebel snipers as UNSC snipers for Forge.

[Abaddon]

Pelican transports as units. Done
Trianable unsc Snipers. Done
Rhino's. Done
Btw pelicans cannot actually transport units. It's the godpowers script that does it. But you can work around it

[Armored Baron]

Originally posted by Syndiwolf:

Pelican transports as units. Done
Trianable unsc Snipers. Done
Rhino's. Done
Btw pelicans cannot actually transport units. It's the godpowers script that does it. But you can work around it

Huh, thought it would be easy to do, saw it was possible in the game's Alpha in a video by Gamecheat 13.

You mind adding me as a friend? I can even add you to our modding group if you want on here.

[Abaddon]

Well pelicans can transport. But only through the god power. you want a pelican you train to transport things and you need to do a work around

[Abaddon]

You understand the video is of the game before final units were even decided. Pelicans were completely removed as a unit out of basic data needed for cutscenes and the god power

[Samuel.]

what she said....

[Armored Baron]

Originally posted by Syndiwolf:

You understand the video is of the game before final units were even decided. Pelicans were completely removed as a unit out of basic data needed for cutscenes and the god power

Yeah I figured as much, I'm just saying.

Btw there was a transport unit in Age of Mythology called "Roc" or something of that sort, it was basically a giant bird with some sort of tent which it had grabbed with it's legs, it looked kinda funny but it beat water transport.

I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out.