| name | new-culture |
| description | Author or revamp a TAOM culture's armor set, troop tree, and recruitment wiring end-to-end. Use for new cultures or troop-tree revamps. Follows docs/ai-includes/new-culture-authoring.md. |
| argument-hint | ["culture-id"] |
New Culture — Armor + Troop Tree + Recruitment
End-to-end authoring of a culture's visible-in-game armor + troops + recruitment. Read the authoritative guide first: docs/ai-includes/new-culture-authoring.md. This skill is the entry point + checklist; the guide has the full per-phase detail (modeled on the Dale session, ~11 commits).
When to invoke
- Solus delivered a new culture's
.tpac armor pack to wire in, OR
- An existing culture needs a fresh troop tree (revamps like #99 / #211 / #212 / #224 / Dale).
If creating a net-new taom_spcultures.xml Culture object, read docs/cultures.md FIRST (the ~80 culture attributes + 16 NPC files). This flow picks up after the culture definition exists.
Phases
- Prereqs — confirm the 5
.tpac files exist; decide culture ID (custom vs XSLT-passthrough — check kingdom-culture-mapping.md memory); decide tier cap; pick 3–4 Tolkien lore citations.
- Armor — harvest mesh IDs (
tools/tpac_skeleton_scan.py --all-types) → clone tools/generate_dale_armor.py → emit XML → register the <culture>/ folder in LOTRLOME_Armory/SubModule.xml.
- Troops — lore + tier design on paper → generator →
troops_<culture>.xml → register in Main/_Module/SubModule.xml.
- Wire —
spcultures.xslt (every CultureObject template/troop attr), taom_partyTemplates.xml (9 templates), VolunteerRecruitmentService.cs (culture + optional settlement/clan pools), add tests.
- Validate —
python tools/validate_all_troop_refs.py (underwear-bug gate), then /ship.
- Iterate — expect 5–10 follow-up commits (renames, equipment swaps, balance, settlement-specific recruitment, colors). The first ship is a draft.
Gotchas (cost rework if skipped)
- Mesh typos are load-bearing — the engine binds by exact mesh name; preserve Solus's typos verbatim (Dale's
chivlary/infrantry).
- Canonical Armory folder — grep ALL
LOTRLOME_items/*/ for the item prefix before authoring; first folder with that prefix wins (CLAUDE.md per-prefix table). Wrong folder = duplicate-ID shadowing.
- Cover attributes — leg items need
covers_legs="true", gloves covers_hands="true", or the mesh doesn't render (bare legs/hands).
<Flags UseTeamColor="true" /> on every armor item for banner tint.
- Run
/xslt-check after editing spcultures.xslt.