Unit design traits - where do they come from?

from Elemental Forums

I have a vague notion that the traits that are available when designing a unit vary. Of course Henchmen have access to the magic traits, but I'm sure I've seen other traits come and go. What determines the available traits? Technology, equipment, race? All three? Does the "charge" trait only appear if you have a mount equipped, for example?

I'd actually enjoy specific traits that come from any or all of those, but I've never noticed a pop-up window that informed me "researching this allows this trait" or "equipping this allows this trait".

10,201 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Most of the unit traits are pretty much the same for all factions.  Charge is available to all units, mounted.. foot, whatever.  Obviously it's more useful on mounted though.

Some are restricted by race, for example "Zealot" is for Wraiths only.  I don't think it's documented anywhere though.  If you really wanted to investigate open up the file "CoreAbilities.xml" and search for them all in there.  You'll find a "PreReq" tag on some of them.

If you happen to be playing a mod like Stormworld, that has a handful of race specific unit traits.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Oh and some are for specific types of Units.... the Iron Golem and Juggernaut come to mind, they have a few special abilities only available to them.  There's probably more examples but they're the ones that come to mind.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks, abob101! So I'm not crazy - some are restricted. I'll look through CoreAbilities tonight. 

Since Legendary Heroes will feature more special abilities for units to use in combat, it would be nice to see some traits that apply only to spears, mounts, etc.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Search for Unit_Design to find all the Unit Design traits, all the other abilities (faction, blood etc) are in there which makes it a bit painful when you're only looking for a certain type (which is most occasions).