Custom Area Effects Not Working with Developer Version

[PaulStretch]

Before I added my mod files to the developer version of EE2 1.5, I had created a couple of area effects that all worked as intended. However after using the developer version, I had to move my effects to specific areaeffects files where certain sub effects are already present in the vanilla game. Specifically it seems like you can't use a sub effect that's not already present in the vanilla ddf file. For example I used the ResourceDropOff sub effect in areaeffectunitttype.ddf where it wasn't already present. I had to move the effect to areaeffect_leader.ddf ( where ResourceDropOff is already present) to get it to work again. I'm just curious if you made changes to the area effects hdr file, or something else that might change how area effects work in the game.

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Unfortunately, I don't know much about it, since in order to support multi-languages on EE2, I was never able to modify files inside db.zip. I would recommend you to try placing the same Area Effects file directly to the "zips" folder in EE2 folder, and see if it works the same way as on UP1.5. There was nothing more done to make the other file being read.

[PaulStretch]

It didn't work. I'm just curious why the sub effects are causing problems. I just used the MaxHitPoints sub effect. The game crashed if the effect was in unittypes, but It worked when I moved it to crowns, which already had MaxHitPoints subeffect present in an unrelated area effect. As far as I know they aren't tied to specific ddf files.

[Dr.MonaLisa]

Maybe it depends on file-names?

Like they're sorted from A to Z. Then the called sub-effect need to be present in the file that is loaded in the previously loaded one, not the one that would be loaded after it?

[PaulStretch]

I'll mess around with that to see if that's what's going on. In the meantime I'll have to put everything in certain files.

[PaulStretch]

Seems like that's the case. If I add any area effect to areaeffect_Crowns, the first file alphabetically, there is no problem. As far as I can tell the ddf that the effect is in, doesn't change when the effect is applied. Maybe dbareaeffects_scenario isn't loaded in skirmish battles? Or maybe the game always loads each ddf?

[Dr.MonaLisa]

I think the game always reads each .ddf, no matter if it's a scenario or not. But it can also be the case... Hard to say. I think it's better to base on our own tests than generic standards.