N3O Age Of Empires and Starcraft 2 Clan

I was wondering, where does the data on all the units come from? I mean the real detailed stuff like what you find on the internet like different melee, seige, ranged attack points and bonuses. This stuff isn't available from the common sources like game manual, or on the details panel for a given unit in-game. To get all this information, do you have to wait until someone looks up the stuff in the code of the game and posts it?

No they are actually stored in xml Files (="plain textfiles", u can open and read them with every texteditor), which are quite readable if u spend a bit of time on XML.

People with deeper knowledge can even program a parser, so the data is put into a different format.

U can even read them in the game, when u click on the unit. The stats will be displayed on the bottom.

Weird. I've looked through my xml files in my aoe3 folder but i cant find a section with a list that would resemble these sorts of stats. Ill look again but I think i tried this in the past too...Could you suggest a file path?

Btw, the stats you find in-game on mousing over a unit are not as complete as what you could get from aoe heaven or something. Yea there are a few things they tell you but not everything.

Not all of the game icons were properly developed. For instance, there are art files for showing these flags: AbstractInfantry, AbstractHeavyInfantry, AbstractHeavyCavalry, AbstractCavalry, AbstractLightInfantry, AbstractLightCavalry (ranged), AbstractArtillery, Ship, Huntable, AbstractVillager, AbstractSiegeTrooper, Guardian, Hero, but not for showing these flags: AbstractHandInfantry, AbstractHandCavalry, AbstractPikeman, AbstractCavalryInfantry, AbstractRangedCavalry (light)  (this is different than the one previously mentioned), AbstractWagon, AbstractResourceCrate, AbstractGunpowderTrooper, etc.


Thus, they are in game, but some bonuses/penalties are hidden, meaning the game detects them but the art files are not present to present them in-game. 

That said, basically looking into the .xml can help quite a bit, but looking up Notepad ++ really makes coding it much less of a hassle.

Hmm, we are on different frequencies I think haha.

OK I think I solved my problem now though. I was looking my documents folder and going through the subfolders there, including data.....very limited information there....

I then checked aoe3 folder in program files and found all the stuff i think i will need - data --> proto.

Lots and lots of information i look forward to reading