Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War

74 ratings
Basic Modding Guide for dummies with no experience
By PotatoMcWhiskey
This guide is designed for people with no experience to start modding the game. The guide will teach you the very basics of how to access the game files, make backups, edit the game files and so on.

2
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Introduction, Aim of Guide
This guide is aimed at people with no experience modding games, and is designed to get people started modding the game at the most basic level: Editing values in the game files.

This is the most basic step required to start creating new content.
Required Software
For you to be able to use this guide, you will need "Notepad++", either google search or grab it from the following link before continueing.

Notepad++ Website: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Step by Step Guide (With Pictures!)
  1. - Open up Notepad++
  2. - Open Steam -> Library
  3. - Right click on Warhammer 40,000 Gladius: Relics of War in the Steam Library and select "Properties"

  4. - Left Click Tab "Local Files"

  5. - Select "Browse Local Files" button from "Local Files" Tab. A new folder window should appear.

  6. - OPTIONAL: Create a clean backup of the games files by selecting the Folder "Data" and creating a copy of it. Save the copy somewhere other than the game files. You can also simply make backups only of files you intend to change. Although backups are optional, they are highly recommended.
  7. - Open the File Location in the Folder "...\Steam\steamapps\common\Warhammer 40000 Gladius - Relics of War\Data\World"

  8. - Open the file "guardsman.xml" in Notepad++

If you followed these steps, you have now successfully accessed one of the game files and are ready to start making changes.

Recommendation: Do not change things you don't understand, make sure to be very careful to preserve the structure of the file or it may not work.

When you open the guardsman.xml file in Notepad++ you should see something like this:
Next you are going to want to start editing the values. But first you have to find the values.

  1. Press Ctrl+F in Notepad++ to open up the "Find" dialogue window.
  2. In the "Find" dialogue window there is a text box named "Find what:", type the string* "hitpointsMax"

You should see the following:

You can now change the health of the Guardsman unit to whatever you want it to be. I suggest setting it to 10, and seeing how that affects your game. Since this game uses a "Squad" system, all unit attributes tend to be multiplied by the size of the squad. Since Guardsmen come in squads of 8, setting the hitpointsMax string to 10 will mean Guardsmen squads in-game will have 80 total health.

Congratulations, you have now made your first mod and are ready to start making changes. Most of the things you can change are named after what they do. Health is named hitpointsMax, Movement speed is named movementMax. If you have a good understanding of the game, you can very easily start to make changes just by browsing the World/Data/... files and editing units, weapons, skills, buildings etc.

* A string is simply a name given to a number or piece of data. Instead of having to type 123456789+123456789 we can tell a computer that "BigNumb = 123456789" and do the same function by telling the computer to add BigNumb+BigNumb and it will calculate based on the value given, this allows us to manipulate numbers using language more similar to english than just typing numbers. Theres more to it, but thats a very simple explanation.
Step by Step guide (Without Most Pictures)
  1. - Open up Notepad++
  2. - Open Steam -> Library
  3. - Right click on Warhammer 40,000 Gladius: Relics of War in the Steam Library and select "Properties"
  4. - Left Click Tab "Local Files"
  5. - Select "Browse Local Files" button from "Local Files" Tab. A new folder window should appear.
  6. - OPTIONAL: Create a clean backup of the games files by selecting the Folder "Data" and creating a copy of it. Save the copy somewhere other than the game files. You can also simply make backups only of files you intend to change. Although backups are optional, they are highly recommended.
  7. - Open the File Location in the Folder "...\Steam\steamapps\common\Warhammer 40000 Gladius - Relics of War\Data\World"
  8. - Open the file "guardsman.xml" in Notepad++

If you followed these steps, you have now successfully accessed one of the game files and are ready to start making changes.

Recommendation: Do not change things you don't understand, make sure to be very careful to preserve the structure of the file or it may not work.

When you open the guardsman.xml file in Notepad++ you should see something like this:
Next you are going to want to start editing the values. But first you have to find the values.

  1. Press Ctrl+F in Notepad++ to open up the "Find" dialogue window.
  2. In the "Find" dialogue window there is a text box named "Find what:", type the string* "hitpointsMax"

You should see the following:

You can now change the health of the Guardsman unit to whatever you want it to be. I suggest setting it to 10, and seeing how that affects your game. Since this game uses a "Squad" system, all unit attributes tend to be multiplied by the size of the squad. Since Guardsmen come in squads of 8, setting the hitpointsMax string to 10 will mean Guardsmen squads in-game will have 80 total health.

Congratulations, you have now made your first mod and are ready to start making changes. Most of the things you can change are named after what they do. Health is named hitpointsMax, Movement speed is named movementMax. If you have a good understanding of the game, you can very easily start to make changes just by browsing the World/Data/... files and editing units, weapons, skills, buildings etc.

* A string is simply a name given to a number or piece of data. Instead of having to type 123456789+123456789 we can tell a computer that "BigNumb = 123456789" and do the same function by telling the computer to add BigNumb+BigNumb and it will calculate based on the value given, this allows us to manipulate numbers using language more similar to english than just typing numbers. Theres more to it, but thats a very simple explanation.
FAQ
Questions that are asked frequently related to this guide will go here.
13 Comments
Lampros 16 Dec, 2024 @ 11:04am 
Erik Taurus,

Good point. But on the same token, that site explains how to upload a mod you've already created to the Steam Workshop. So we are still stumped. How do we create a mod for ourselves that won't be over-written with every darn patch?
Draken 18 Sep, 2024 @ 12:09pm 
Mr. Potato i have followed you on you tube for a long time, and now you are showing up with helpful tips on my steam account, you truly are hero, first teaching me the how to progress through the difficulties of Civ 6 and now modding lol.
Erik Taurus 30 Sep, 2023 @ 5:28pm 
These instructions are on how to edit the core files.
This will not only break any mods when the game updates but will also make the game crash without reason and become unplayable in multiplayer.

The mods go into "..\Documents\Proxy Studios\Gladius\Mods\<modName>"
Then the structure has to match the one you described with "..\<modName>\Data\etc."
If the files are placed in Documents they are recognised by the game and can also be uploaded as Steam mods.

As described here
https://gladiusrelicsofwar.fandom.com/wiki/Modding
Boru The Herald 10 Jul, 2023 @ 7:46pm 
hey mister civ man
Achilleez 21 Jan, 2023 @ 4:47am 
PMcW, I thoroughly appreciate this. I am trying to edit the Wire Weed color. He absolutely cannot see it due to 'color blind'. Darn it! Additionally, I could not find a mod that addressed this. <sigh> Take care my friend and, 'Thank You, Good Sir!'
Doc 30 Apr, 2022 @ 7:05am 
Thanks so much for the teaching! This is probably a ridiculously basic question, but once I've modded, how do I upload it to the Steam workshop so others can try it? I'm mainly thinking of modding and adding to the "barks" and city names, and other text files in the game, so nothing too serious.
AguilaDeAcero 1 Jun, 2020 @ 5:35pm 
Excellent tutorial. Quick question: How can I change unit portraits images? This guide it's more for unit values. Or I'm missing something?
Lampros 20 Jul, 2019 @ 6:41am 
Where are the actual mods to this game?
Tossblade 30 Oct, 2018 @ 6:39pm 
This is interesting in general, thank you.
DawnQuixote 26 Jul, 2018 @ 2:06am 
Thanks a lot mate!