Modding in R:TW compared to M:TW

[Psyco]

I'm a very novice modder, in both R:TW and M:TW, but what I have noticed is that M:TW's system was a lot better than the one in Rome. You were able to change more stats (movement speed) and it was easier to find where you had made a mistake (when there was an error, it gave an error report stating where the error was). Overall, it seemed more streamlined and easier to navigate.
Thoughts?

[Jambo]

I've been told you can enter the command line -show_err and that will inform you of any modding errors that cause crashes.

[Midnight]

That command has not caught a single one of my problems as of yet.

[Duke John]

With -show_err on I've caught alot more errors than with M:TW. With M:TW I largely depended on my experience and when the CTD occurred then depending on the few (inaccurate) dialog boxes.

Movement is still moddable but on a different level. It's now in the animation and that is alot more logical if you think about it.

M:TW was simpler and of course that makes it easier to mod.

I now prefer R:TW since we are almost capable of changing everything what was possible in M:TW and a lot more. If only we are able to add factions....

[JeromeGrasdyke]

That command has not caught a single one of my problems as of yet.

Mostly what it does is enable error checking in the script parsing. It certainly won't catch everything, but it will show a large number of simple gotcha's, such as misspelt commands, out-of-range values, and so on, and it will usually tell you the file name and line number where the error was found.

As far as modding movement speeds is concerned, yes that is one area where Rome is not as easy to change as Medieval, but it's the nature of the beast - the 3D poly men are the root cause of a great many of these changes. A lot of what happens on the battlefield is driven by the animations, and so in order to change these things that's the place to change them.

I did notice that someone suggested starting a Wiki for Rome know-how, which would be a cracking idea for sharing modding knowledge especially.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

I know this is gonna sound stupid, but how do you actually enter command lines?

[Merlin271]

I know this is gonna sound stupid, but how do you actually enter command lines?

you press the ~ key i think, although i seem to get it up when i press the ` key.

[JeromeGrasdyke]

you press the ~ key i think, although i seem to get it up when i press the ` key.

Ah no, that's the console. The -show_err option has to be added to the program command line. What you do is you create a Windows shortcut to RomeTW.exe, open up its Properties, and on the line where it gives the target you add -show_err to the end. Anything on this line other than the name of the executable gets passed to the game at startup, and there are a bunch of options it recognises, such as -ne for running in non-fullscreen mode and -nm for running without movies.

[khelvan]

I did notice that someone suggested starting a Wiki for Rome know-how, which would be a cracking idea for sharing modding knowledge especially.

I have never been involved in doing that, and I would be happy to if I had the first idea of how to set one up.

[Psyco]

Ah no, that's the console. The -show_err option has to be added to the program command line. What you do is you create a Windows shortcut to RomeTW.exe, open up its Properties, and on the line where it gives the target you add -show_err to the end. Anything on this line other than the name of the executable gets passed to the game at startup, and there are a bunch of options it recognises, such as -ne for running in non-fullscreen mode and -nm for running without movies.
I tryed that (putting -show_err in the command line) but it never worked. It always says that it is not valid. I tryed putting it before, then after (two seperate tries) the ' " ' on the end but it never worked. Am I doing something wrong?

EDIT- *slaps self on head* I didn't realize it needed a space before it... Oops.

[Duke John]

What is a Wiki?

[Thoros of Myr]

See here DJ :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

First I've heard of it aswell, looks interesting.

[Thoros of Myr]

How do you locate errors that kick you back to the campaign menu rather then crashing the game?

[tombom]

When you exit the game, the errors caught by show_err will be shown.

[Servius]

It would be very nice if someone from CA could just write us up a step-by-step how-to change movement speeds.

I've read the TWC post about movement speed linked to animation. My concern is that there are default animation speeds, so to slow a unit down you can swap it's RUN animation for it's WALK animation, but then you don't have a WALK speed anymore, and you only get to choose between defaults rather than set your own speeds.

Also, the animation speeds are per-class of unit (spearmen vs. swordmen for instance) so it doesn't yet seem possible to make x spearman faster than y spearman of the same class.

In MTW each unit had three classes of speeds (Walk, Run, Charge) and each was controlled simply by a number you could change to any other number. I understand 3D is more complicated, but this is one of the single biggest irritants I and many other RTW players are having. So, like I said, it would be really nice if someone from CA would write us up a how-to guide to editing unit movement speeds. And please be sure to include the way we change the speeds of individual units and not just entire classifications of unit types.

[Lord Gnome]

I'm a very novice modder, in both R:TW and M:TW, but what I have noticed is that M:TW's system was a lot better than the one in Rome. You were able to change more stats (movement speed) and it was easier to find where you had made a mistake (when there was an error, it gave an error report stating where the error was). Overall, it seemed more streamlined and easier to navigate.
Thoughts?

I disagree that MTW is better for modding than RTW. I've only just started looking at the RTW files but I can see very quickly that RTW allows much more to be done and with a more sophisticated engine to boot.

Modding for RTW may be more complex for the moment, but the possibilities are much greater. CA have also said/hinted that we will get a battlemap editor (and maybe a campaign editor? ~:cool: ) with the next patch, and I'm sure we'll get some more modding tools from the community that make things a little easier too.