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View Full Version : Creative Assembly Campaign map editor discovered? CA: just yes or no will suffice



Duke John
10-07-2004, 10:15
Looking through the files I noticed this:

http://chronicles.metw.net/dungeon/Editor_strat01.jpg

And it looks suspiciously much like the buttons for a campaign map editor. It's got elevation/texture/settlement/river/traderoute tools. You seem to be able to determine which areas are affected by snow in the winter, you can make a starting family tree and on top of this there seems to be a inbuild comedy show!

So what's the deal, hiding all this pretty stuff? I will even turn into a fanboy if you unlock these tools :grin:

I'm so excited it's getting silly :charge:

JeromeGrasdyke
10-07-2004, 12:13
Ho hum. No comment. (Damn, I knew we should've wiped those texture pages...)

Duke John
10-07-2004, 12:29
Ho hum.
That sounded like a yes to me! :grin: Don't think you can hide anything from modders:

(data/world/template.txt)
character JEROME, diplomat, level 0, exp 1, dig 30, drd 40, age 28, x 288, y 224
attributes military 1, administrative 2, diplomatic 5, subterfuge 1
skills rhetoric 2, bluster 1, bribery 5, flattery 6, leadership 3, financier 2


This clearly shows that if we bribe you with a flattering award that you are not able to make a subterfuge for the question.

http://chronicles.metw.net/dungeon/weloveyou.jpg

10 Stars, Jerome! 10! I bet none of your co-workers has 10 stars!

So care to answer that question again? :wink:

Degtyarev14.5
10-07-2004, 15:38
You have too much spare time Dukie.

A.

Myrddraal
10-07-2004, 16:20
Cmon, tell us... Why should it be a big secret

Meneldil
10-07-2004, 16:37
I simply don't understand this policy. We were told that RTW would be much more modable than MTW and STW, and now that it's released, they don't give any clue. Why not giving modders an readme file, or something like that ? Why not simply answering 'yes, there's a campaign editor', or 'no it's just here to annoy you'.

Hagbard la Suede
10-07-2004, 17:20
Perhaps the Editor wasnt fully finished,and they planned to add it in a patch.

Duke John
10-07-2004, 17:27
Please be patient. Sometimes things are not as easy as they seem. Jerome has said before that they are thinking about releasing tools but no decision has been made on this. If they decide to release it, it will indeed released together with a patch since it most likely means a modiefied RomeTW.EXE.

Unless my little trick did work :wink:

thebigcheese
10-07-2004, 18:06
if they release the campaign tool and studio max plugin the possibilities for the game mod wise would be endless.

I think we may be looking at the best game ever made modding wise ~:)

Stormy
10-07-2004, 18:16
Whooo hooo a map editor. I Can't wait to add new provinces like Corsica, Malat ( malta ) Aghbania ( Caucasian Albania in modern day Azerbaijan ) and Iberia ( Caucasian Iberia west of Aghbania ) The ideas are endless ~D

VikingHorde
10-07-2004, 18:50
Whooo hooo a map editor. I Can't wait to add new provinces like Corsica, Malat ( malta ) Aghbania ( Caucasian Albania in modern day Azerbaijan ) and Iberia ( Caucasian Iberia west of Aghbania ) The ideas are endless ~D

Lets hope there are no province limit or at least it's very high. The 108 province limit in MTW was'nt cool.

Aymar de Bois Mauri
10-07-2004, 19:02
Ho hum. No comment. (Damn, I knew we should've wiped those texture pages...)
LOL:joker:

It seems we're in for some great releases... :grin2:

Aymar de Bois Mauri
10-07-2004, 19:06
if they release the campaign tool and studio max plugin the possibilities for the game mod wise would be endless.
That would be gold on gold. But you're pushing it... :wink:

Inuyasha12
10-08-2004, 03:57
OR.. this could all be a great joke by C.A. on modders.~:joker:

JOKE'SON YOU!! :laugh4: :laugh4:

:furious3:

Thoros of Myr
10-08-2004, 05:38
WoW, I really hope this is included in a future patch/modding guide release.

Cut Jerome some slack guys and be patient. He is looking out for us.... :wink2:

Encaitar
10-08-2004, 06:31
Well the editor does exist. The comment at the top of the file Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\descr_s trat.txt reads:
; Custom campaign script generated by Romans Campaign Map Editor

So it's just a matter of whether CA can make the tool available to us (I suspect it may be similar to the battlemap editor and sprite-generator tools - included in the exe but hidden from our view).

Certainly if they can it will be fantastic ~:)

The Blind King of Bohemia
10-08-2004, 11:19
I tried adding a province the other day but I think it has more to do with that RVM (sp?) file then we realise - I think LOTS of stuff is in there. But all the seas seem to be the same colour, and if each province IS one colour like it looks to be, it might be possible to have 253 provinces in all ~:eek: , if you take away the seas, castle and port colours (256 possible RGB combinations). Given that you could have 107 in the last game, the possibilities could well be mind blowing if this is true.

EDIT

Or maybe not. Zooming in, each province seems to criss cross with two colours, and the sea also has two colours. That leaves 252, which should mean that you can add 126. But if that is the case, why do you only have to state one RGB value? As Jerome said, the RWM holds everything, perhaps rendering all files in the Data/Base folder obselete.

Lord De Moray
10-08-2004, 15:22
I think we have reached the waiting game now..... ~:confused:

Lord of Moray

www.thelordz.co.uk

Soulflame
10-08-2004, 20:11
Hehe nice find. If there is one thing you can bet your left hand on, is that if anything is left unattached, the online community, (which is so large that even if there is only the slightest chance that it could be found,) will find it.

Anyway, you must understand the reluctance of CA in this matter: if they give us total moddability, what could they put in new games to excite us?
There is a fine line between giving your customer just enough to keep him in the clouds, and giving him too much so they don't need you anymore.

And they need time to test everything, so that not everytime we accidentally put a mountain in the see, the game goes bonza.

I suspect at least a few months before they release tools... seeing as we already have a lot of people making crazy new things, I'm betting we have our hands full until that time anyway.

Stormy
10-08-2004, 20:11
"it might be possible to have 253 provinces in all" WhoaaaAa!! ~D
Now that sounds good also note like certain provinces don't allow you to go on. For Example: What is suppose to be Malat ( malta ) and Corsica in game you cannot walk your troops on becouse the Grey Hills/Mountians you see. If you can make them so the troops can walk on by some way adding some greens to it instead of grey I think you will be able to put units on them and even cities.

dessa14
10-09-2004, 08:39
There is a fine line between giving your customer just enough to keep him in the clouds, and giving him too much so they don't need you anymore.

we will always need them, because we lack the skills to program a game engine.
thanks,
dessa

hoggy
10-09-2004, 11:24
Anyway, you must understand the reluctance of CA in this matter: if they give us total moddability, what could they put in new games to excite us?
There is a fine line between giving your customer just enough to keep him in the clouds, and giving him too much so they don't need you anymore.


I don't know, any mod we come out with, even with all the tools of the devs will probably a) take so long it won't threaten any new releases b) won't be any where near as polished and well produced as a CA expansion due to lack of access to hardcoded areas/lack of time/lack of skilled people in numbers and c) just encourages us to buy the next expansion so we can update our mod.

CA you have nothing to worry about, let us have it all ~:)

Thoros of Myr
10-09-2004, 11:34
we will always need them, because we lack the skills to program a game engine.
thanks,
dessa

Agree! Plus we cannot change existing hardcoded aspects nor introduce new ones.

Realisticly, if next to nothing can be done with 3D models and the campaign map I don't think many of the talented people are going to stick around.

Silver Rusher
10-10-2004, 09:55
Aww, man. This is annoying. I could've used the original map, but I need scandinavia and scotland, as well as many more regions in Italy for my Citadel mod.

Please, CA. STOP HIDING IT FROM US!

Duke John
10-10-2004, 12:46
Calm down. Jerome already told us that they will talk about it. Releasing such a tool may have more consequences then we think. Seeing how helpful Jerome is with answering our many questions, I have no doubts that he will tell as soon as he is able to.

Encaitar
10-11-2004, 11:42
Yeah, you've got to remember that making such a tool would have taken quite some time and effort (and therefore money) from them. Although releasing it for use for modding isn't a bad thing, it's possible that it could be used to some degree also by competitors (or at least some of the code taken and adapted). That's a pretty significant concern for a business. You have to look to protect your competative advantage.

But of course, I very dearly hope they do release it ~:)

Kekvit Irae
10-11-2004, 17:29
Have patience, people. Remember when MTW came out? It was virtually unmoddable. Now look at it! It's.... virtually unmoddable. :army:

Midnight
10-11-2004, 21:04
It would be very handy to have a campaign editor - I have a few ideas of a mod I'd like to do, but I can't do it without heavy modding (new models, animations, strategic map, a whole host of other things...).

I certainly hope CA release something soon (I'm sure modders will manage the rest, in time).

Kraellin
10-11-2004, 21:21
there are many references to an editor in the game files. heck, there's even a folder called 'editor'. and from just a cursory look at many different files, some bright modder could actually make an editor without too much trouble, at least a campaign map editor.

as for jerome's remarks, sounds like a parent who's been asked by his kids, 'what am i getting for christmas?' :)

K.

Scipio
10-11-2004, 21:52
It kinda seems to me like we are more like lab rats. Kinda fun really, they are giving us hints all through ther codes, some more subtle than others..

metatron
10-11-2004, 23:02
*nibbles his cheese*

Midnight
10-13-2004, 07:55
I've put a post in the Entrance Hall (not allowed to make one here yet) about how to edit the strat map.

Duke John
10-13-2004, 08:43
http://chronicles.metw.net/dungeon/smile.jpg

Thoros of Myr
10-13-2004, 08:46
:jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :wink3: :stare: :fainting:

Duke John
10-13-2004, 14:41
Apparently Jerome did not know that the engine still auto-generated the campmap, so it was for him as much as a surprise as it was to us. Now let's go on to find what more surprises there are :grin:

adonys
10-13-2004, 17:46
hi guys!

I've found them long time ago (sic!)... even succeeded to enable a part of them... :)

here's the link:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9885&hl=

Stormy
10-13-2004, 20:35
:bow:

just some help for the modders

Great link with ancient provinces and city names and borders in pdf (http://iam.classics.unc.edu/map/map_idx.html)

Stormy
10-13-2004, 20:40
more.

Historical and political maps of Europe, year 1 to year 1000 (http://www.euratlas.com/time1.htm)

rc_848
02-15-2008, 17:23
:jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :wink3: :stare: :fainting:

What's the jaw-dropping about? I can't see what Duke John posted on 10-13-2004, 08:43.

Myrddraal
02-19-2008, 15:17
No spamming thread necromancy please.

I hereby banish this thread back to the abyss of page 2 and beyond.