Dawn of War Codex

Hello community, given the relic forum is now dead, I have come here to ask for help.
Can someone teach me how to add the jump ability to tactical marines, just like in the
single player campaign where Tarkus puts on a jump pack and he can jump.
Please be specific and go through it as you would a toddler.
I know how to use CopesToolBox but nothing else !
I would gladly take lessons if there are links too !

Would you want the Tactical Marine to have the Jump Pack from the start, or would it be an upgrade? For now, I'll assume it's just by default.

The first thing to know is that both the Assault Marines and Tactical Marines use the exact same animations. This makes it pretty easy to transfer a jump ability.

So to give them the ability to jump, you'll need to open the Tactical Marine .RBF file and the Assault Marine file. The path to the Tactical Marine is ATTRIB>simulation>attrib>ebps>pvp>race_marine>troops>sm_tactical_marine.rbf. The Assault Marine file is in the same place, but is called sm_assault_marine.rbf.

In the Assault Marine file, you'll see a "jump_ext" dropdown. If you look in the Tactical Marine file, you should notice that the jump_ext isn't there. And if you find Tarkus' file from the campaign, you will see a jump_ext there.

Tarkus' file:


Assault Marine file:


Tactical Marine file:


So what you want to do is copy the jump from the Assault Marine file (right click on "jump_ext" and click on "Copy as Corsix String", or just use the hotkeys Ctrl+Shift+C). Then go to the Space Marine file, right click on the GameData node at the top, and click on "Insert Value From Corsix String Into Table". A window titled "Insert Corsix' style string" should pop up. Paste the string in the window, and click "Done". This should add the jump_ext to the Space Marines.

Next, you have to actually give them the Jump ability. The previous step only makes it possible for them to jump.

In the Assault Marine file, at the top is "ability_ext". Expand that, then expand "abilities" within that, and you'll see 4 "ability" strings. The third one should say "ability\pvp\race_marine\assault_marine\sm_jump_target_assault". Click on the third "ability" string in the GameData dropdown menu, and on the top right, where it says "Value", highlight and copy the file path. If you try to copy it directly from the table, you'll get an added word "ability" at the beginning, because you'd be copying both the string, and the row title.

In the Tactical Marine file, expand ability_ext and right click on "ability". Click "Insert Value From Corsix String Into Table" and paste the file path you copied into the "Insert Corsix' style string" as you did before. Click "Done", and the Tactical Marines should now be able to jump. You should go through the same process for the Tactical Marine Sergeant (file name "sm_tactical_marine_sergeant.rbf", in the same folder as the other two).

You'll also have to move the locations of the abilities around on the UI, because the jump will probably conflict with the position of the Tactical Marines' other abilities. And you'll have to actually give them a jump pack model, but that part is easy assuming it isn't an upgrade.

I haven't tested this myself, so if you run into any issues, let me know.

Hello, I have made the necessary changes, I could do with help on repositioning the UI and adding jump pack too please

Also. the jump ability now works, but it is greyed out !

AdmiralCheung wrote:Also. the jump ability now works, but it is greyed out !

Oh. That's probably because the Tactical Squad doesn't have energy. In the ATTRIB>simulation>attrib>sbps>pvp>race_marine>troops>sm_assault_marine.rbf file you'll see a node called "squad_energy_ext". Copy that in the same way I detailed above, and paste it in the ATTRIB>simulation>attrib>sbps>pvp>race_marine>troops>sm_tactical_marine.rbf file. The squad_energy_ext table says 200 energy, but don't worry about that. The total energy isn't determined there.

You can also do what I'll detail below and then remove the energy requirement from the new ability.

AdmiralCheung wrote:Hello, I have made the necessary changes, I could do with help on repositioning the UI and adding jump pack too please

Is the ability there by default, or is it an upgrade? Need to know that before adding the jump pack model.

If you change the UI, the UI for the ASM will change as well since it's the same ability. I'd recommend making a copy of the ability; right click it and click "Copy File", or Ctrl+C; then click on the assault_marine ability folder and paste the copy in there; then rename it to something like "sm_tac_jump_target_assault". You can paste it in the Tactical Marine folder too, which will make it easier to find later. Then change the file path of the ability in the Tactical Marine ebps file to the file you just named.

After you have a copy, open the ability .rbf file. Within that, go to ability_bag>user_interface down near the bottom. Changing the icon_index to 2 should prevent it from conflicting with Kraken Bolts and They Shall Know No Fear. The values start at 0 (left) and go right as they increase.

This change would be by default. Thank you very much.

Okay, you'll only need to change two files then. Open up the Tactical Marine ebps .rbf file, and the Tactical Marine Sergeant ebps .rbf file (ATTRIB>simulation>attrib>ebps>pvp>race_marine>troops>sm_tactical_marine/sm_tactical_marine_sergeant).

In those, and in all ebps unit files, is a node called "entity_blueprint_ext". Expand that and you'll see three nodes that will be useful here: "animator_attachments", "chapter_animator_attachment", and "online_level_animator_attachments". You will need to change at least two of these.

The one you will definitely have to change is the "chapter_animator_attachment". That node is responsible for the application of the DLC scheme models. When you expand it, you'll see some "chapter_animator_attachment" nodes. If you click on the first or second one, on the table on the right of the application, you'll see "SM_Ultramarines_DLC", or "SM_Darkangels_DLC". That's where the Ultramarines and Dark Angels DLC skins are applied. Expand them further, and you'll see "animator_attachments". Click on that, and to the right, there will be a list of file paths, each pointing to a different model.

We can start with the Dark Angels DLC. On the table of "animator_attachments", there should be a line that says: "art\race_marine\troops_wargear\accessories\space_marine_backpack\space_marine_backpack". You'll be changing that one to (copy this line and paste it over that one): art\race_marine\troops_wargear\accessories\force_commander_jumppack\force_commander_jumppack

That will give the Dark Angels Space Marines Jump Packs instead of the standard backpack. Do the same thing for the Ultramarines. The third animator_attachment is the same as the Dark Angels one.

The Sergeant file will be a bit more difficult because the head applied to the Dark Angels Sergeant has a backpack attached to it, rather than being a separate animator_attachment. So we'll have to give him a new head.

So for the Dark Angels DLC, try replacing "art\race_marine\troops_wargear\heads\thule\thule" with "art\race_marine\troops_wargear\heads\thaddeus_nobackpack\thaddeus_nobackpack. If you don't like that one, try another until you see one you like. I can't remember if there's one that is just Thule's head.

For the Ultramarines Sergeant, you can do the same as you did with the Tactical Marines because the backpack and head are separate.

So that takes care of the DLC, but now you need to change the non-DLC marines. You can do this either with the "animator_attachments" or "online_level_animator_attachments". The animator_attachments are the default models always applied to non-DLC units. You'll be doing it with the "animator_attachments" because that's where the backpack is currently applied. But if you ever want any models to change based on army level, you would use the online_level_animator_attachments to define which models are applied on which army levels.

So expand the "animator_attachments", and you'll see a table on the right very similar to the DLC tables. And so you'll do the same thing as before: For the Sergeant, replace "art\race_marine\troops_wargear\accessories\space_marine_backpack\space_marine_backpack" with "art\race_marine\troops_wargear\accessories\force_commander_jumppack\force_commander_jumppack".

For the regular Marines, we have the same problem as with the Dark Angels Sergeant. The head is not separate from the backpack. So we'll have to change some models around.

First, replace the line "art\race_marine\troops_wargear\heads\space_marine\space_marine_head" with "art\race_marine\troops_wargear\heads\space_marine_nobackpack\space_marine_nobackpack". Then we'll need to add another line to the animator_attachment. So copy the "attachment" string, and paste it within the animator_attachment node. That should give you a table on the right of two attachments, and they should be identical. Now, change the second one to "art\race_marine\troops_wargear\accessories\force_commander_jumppack\force_commander_jumppack".

Save the file, and the models should be good to go. Let me know if you have any issues.

Working absolutely beautifully.

Thank you so much!
With this I can even add loads more than jump packs !