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Rob
11-19-2000, 16:15
Is there a FAQ on mods/editing in STW?

I ask because if there is not one, one should be written! I get asked a lot of questions in the EA Play chat room whenever the subject of map editing comes up and I think it would be good to have a FAQ, maybe posted here in this forum, which people could read to get an introduction Shogun editing/mods.

After all, we need more people to get involved in making and testing maps, and using them once they are created. A FAQ would be a good way of giving people the basic info on how to install maps etc.

If there is no existing FAQ then I would be happy to contribute all that I know to a new FAQ.

11-19-2000, 18:41
Great idea Rob!

If you know the knowhow and all the problems encountered, you may well contact Tosa Inu and prepare a FAQ. That would surely help the community!

------------------
Honour to Clan Kenchikuka.

Visit my resource centre at:

http://terazawa_tokugawa.tripod.com/terazawatokugawa

Yamaga Shimazu
11-19-2000, 18:47
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rob:
[B]Is there a FAQ on mods/editing in STW?


I ask because if there is not one, one should be written! I get asked a lot of questions in the EA Play chat room whenever the subject of map editing comes up and I think it would be good to have a FAQ, maybe posted here in this forum, which people could read to get an introduction Shogun editing/mods.

a good idea rob.
Guess it's a thread/subject/file/document you could easily start.
And about Tosa Inu ?
Since u are the top rank graphic artists http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
can u update us on your job ?
How is it going ? Can i help in testing ?

Rob
11-19-2000, 18:50
I'm no graphic artist, only a programmer http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

I have been posting updates on the Map Editor to the Map Editor thread http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

As soon as I need testers, I will let you know

[This message has been edited by Rob (edited 11-19-2000).]

TosaInu
11-20-2000, 02:49
Konbanwa,

I made a faq on mapediting. It's for download at my site in doc format. Hope it will help people out.

How to make maps for Shogun Totalwar by Toda TosaInu

Read the entire readme quickly before doing anything!
Backup any file you're going to edit and the important readme files you'll install together with the demo!

I'm Dutch, so forgive my weak English please. This write up is intended to use with the stw alpha demo editor, aka the battle trainer. This battle trainer is 100 mb in size. At this time (19-11-2000) it's still for download at http://www.totalwar.com/community/index.htm section downloads. One can also download segments of 10 mb each.

You might also need a graphic editor capable of using tga files: paintshop pro, photoshop. If you don't have a graphics app, then you might download at the same site TAG's TGA viewer (you can at least open screenshots).

Install the battletrainer to a different folder than the full stw game!
Browse the new made shogundemo folder first. It's a demo, so some things work slightly different than in the full game. There are for example different exe's for voodoo/tnt based cards. Read the readme carefully!
If you want to make scenarios for either the demo or the full game (historical battles) then you'll need Thorgrim's shogcrack (for dl at my site). Beware: installing the shogcrack overwrites the original readme (back this up!). Install the shogcrack to the shogundemo folder and run it. It might not work , try again. If it still doesn't work: bad luck, but you can still make maps! Don't get frightened by the word crack, it won't harm.

If you want to make historical battles, then also download my kawanaka.zip for full game. It contains a write up and an example. My NagashimaDelta.zip is a complete new historical battle, also check the ones Axial san made: by studying them you'll learn a thing or two.

We'll browse the shogun folder together.

There is a TGAs folder, it might be empty now, but if you make a screenshot (F2) then the picture will be stored here. The name will be something like 00000001.tga.

The loc folder contains the dialogues used ('Tzun Tsu said....', 'Make sure you control the heigh ground..'). Inside this folder are subfolders for the different languages. The txt and sl files can be viewed with notepad.

The sounds folder and subfolders contain waw files. These can also be edited with for example Cool edit 2000 (see my kawanaka(jima) mod for demo for example).

The battle folder might be the most important. open the subfolder batinit, the subfolders here contains descriptions for different tutorial battles. The folders of interest are: M3_1_0, M3_1_1 and M3_1_2; these describe the 3 different battles from the 'learn from the past scenario'. We'll open M3_1_0.

Each folder contains a bdf (battle description) file and two adf (army description) file.
Both file types can be opened with notepad. The adf files are only important if you want to make historical battles. Most important is that you see that each block of lines describes one unit (1-60 men). It's pretty straightforward to understand the meaning of most lines.
If you want to add a unit: copy and paste an entire block and change parameters you understand: names for unittypes are listed in Thorgrims readme. Any army can contain at max 16 units. The demo doesn't support alliances, the full game does (see bdf).

The bdf is more important. Adf files might be renamed like: Hugearmy.adf, the bdf file not! So, if you are about to make changes to this: back it up first!
Like in the adf files, any line after // is a comment and ignored by the game application, it's there for you to make notes/reminders.
First thing after the comments is Mapname::"Tutmap3"
This tell the game which map must be used, any name can be typed here between "" as long as it's a valid map in the shogun\battle\maps folder (see later).
The 2nd line should be:
BattleType::BATTLE_TYPE_TUTORIAL for demo mods
BattleType::BATTLE_TYPE_HISTORICAL for historical battles
3th line
Deployement::false
Season can be SUMMER WINTER SPRING or AUTUMN

Weather sequenceID doesn't work in demo.

InitialCameraPos describes how you see the battlefield when you enter.

Then PLAYER: the name between "" can be choosen freely (so you might replace Tutorial by Nobunaga if you like). The first integer indictes the color you'll be given, the second indicates the allied armies (doesn't work in demo)
The next name between "" "m3_1_0_0" indicates the adf file that is used by this player (the army you can use). This name can be anything like MyBraveBushiArmy provided that there is an valid MyBraveBushiArmy.adf inside this folder.
LOCAL means a human player: you!
The last digit in this line??? don't bother about it.
FALSE means that the player is not an attacker (FALSE and TRUE works only in full game!).

ARTIFICIAL means that this player is theAI/ the computer. He uses a different adf!

You can make as many armies as you want: all are enemies of all. Give every player an own digit (1-8). Only one army can be human. The full game does support allies. See my NagashimaDelta adf and bdf files to learn more.

TerminatingTrigger::"BATTLE_PLAYER_WON"
TerminatingTrigger::"BATTLE_PLAYER_LOST"
Seems to be the only valid trigger. if you delete thes, then you'll stay in battle when it's over. You need to leave by pressing esc yes.

Most information here is not relevant for map making. The following will: you might need to access the bdf files frequently. When you start the 'learn from the past' tutorial you can't influence which of the three you'll be given. So to optimize work: open all three M3 folders and make shortcuts to all three bdf files (click right on bdf file and choose 'make shortcut') and store them to your desktop. Have all three files make use of the same map: Mapname::"Tutmap3" or bMapname::"mymap"!

As said: the maps are stored inside shogundemo\battle\maps. Cooperating files for every map are in Heights folder (don't bother about this).

To make a map with the demoeditor you need starting material. This can be a map from the demo: Tutmap1, Tutmap2 or Tutmap3 (jjm files). Maps from the full game do have the same extension jjm, but can't be used (?). Maps made with the demoeditor can be used with the full game.

We use Tutmap3 as starting material (the bdf files are setup that way now). Backup the original jjm files first!
Start the shogundemo (voodoo card user might need another exe, see readme; readme also contains info about how to change resolution).
Choose Tutorial, choose 'Learn from the past' continue. When you enter the game press j key. Now you have activated the editor and the battle freezes; you'll see something like 'no spline moused'. This is one of the editor modes. Press j again to scroll the mode list: weird screen (does weird things too, don't fully understand myself yet), 'no patch moused' is used to change heights, 'models' you can insert bridges, houses etc thus far I don't know how to save these structures, 'RGB' used to change fog colors (also unable to save), 'tree bit' one method to add some trees.

I'll discuss 'no spline moused', 'no patch moused' and 'tree bit' as they are the only (?) functional and I will explain models as it's fun for yourself to see the result of some structures (a teaser ;-).

Activate 'no spline moused' by pressing j. Mouve your mousepointer to a spot on the map, press the left mousebutton: the terrain at this spot (and some surrounding) will be raised! pressing the right key will lower it. You made your fisrt editing. Don't worry, there is more. Assume you made a very beautiful hill, you're very proud and you want this hill in your new map; making a mistake can spoil the divine result, so press s. A save dialogue will pop up. The name of the actual map Tutmap3 is displayed, change the name to mymap1.
Press ok, press esc and confirm to leave the battle, leave the game. Open all three bdf files (nice those shortcuts!), and change Mapname::"Tutmap3" to Mapname::"mymap1" save and close.

Restart the shogundemo. Play the same tuturial again. Now the map will display your new hill too!
We'll do some more editing now. Press j again to activate the editor. You can edit some more hills, valleys. If you lower the terrain much you'll see water. Nice to see, but the AI is like many cats: it hates water. Water or low terrain (swampy ground) will cause no go area's and might cause gamecrahes too.

There is one more thing you van do in 'no spline mouse' mode: change the height of the entire map. To do this press ctrl key while pressing mousebutton.

If you save, the save box will pop up. You can type any name, if you just press ok then the present map will be overwritten without a warning!

Some background information.
Shogun maps consist of two layers: the first is the sea layer, the 2nd is an invisible wireframe containing and connecting tiles: land. By lowering terrain you'll submerge land and you'll get water.

'No patch moused'.
Press j several times to select this mode. This might be the most exiting but also most time consuming mode. It's time consuming as this mode is not wysiwyg (what you see is what you get).
Click any point in the map on open ground, you'll see something like: 173934,15282=63. The 63 is the texture ID. Use - and/or = (the + key without shift located on main keyboard) to change this ID to 38. You'll see many thing change across the map: textures with banners, roads, dark fields etc, only focus on the texture ID you're changing. If that is set to 38 press s to save the map (new name? If so leave the game and update the bdf files). Start the tutorial again (use the proper map) and you'll see the same map again, except for that there is a monastry at the spot you changed texture. Texture 38 is not only a texture, it's also one of the textures that has a model included. For a list of textures see end of write up.
You like the monastry, but not the direction of the (closed) gate. Press [ or ] to change the direction, everytime you hit [ it will be rotated 90 degrees in one direction. Again this is not wysiwyg. Save the map (same name this time), esc the game, choose replay this tutorial and you'll see your temple rotated (unless you pressed [ 4 times!).

There are textures that include models (woods, houses, castle, monastry), green, roads, rocks, rocky ground,
cultivated ground, make a smooth transition from one type to another (for example 4 = grassgreen, 63 is light green; 86, 87 and 88 changes gradually from 4 to 63). Texture 8, 6 (7) and 5 are needed to make a smooth wood in an texture 4 environment

Changing textures is a non wysiwyg work. You need to save, esc and replay this tutorial again to see the result (I said it was time consuming, making Tami Kochi took me 12 hours. Great deal of the time I was working on the about 200 textures). Once you have a part done you might save it under a differnt name, once again you need to update the bdf files (really nice shortcuts).

There are 127 textures, texture 0 (127?) are null textures. If you include them to your map, you'll remove land from that spot. it's not water, but you'll see the sea layer below. This texture can't be restored. Your map will be ruined and you have to start over.

Tree bit.
Activate this mode by pressing j key several times. You can insert 100 trees this way. Leftclick anywhere in the terrain to insert a tree. Use - and = to change its size. Use [ and ] to select differnet types. The type of tree you see in the demo can be different than the one you see in the full game. Backspace removes the last tree you inserted. The way to make forests is via textures. Use tree bit to add extra trees.

Models.
Activate this mode by pressing j key several times. Right click anywhere on the terrain to add a structure (it's displayed white while working on it). press [ and ] to rotate it (wysiwyg ;-), - and = to change type, . (period) to increase the size, , (comma) to decrease. Insert another structure or press j again to see the result.
In model mode you can remove a structure by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

Screenshot.
Once your map is finished and has been given its final name 9remember that you can also remember the jjm files by rightclick rename, you need TGA file.
You can do thit with the full game (also possible with demo). Copy the map to the maps folder. Start the full game, new game, custom battle, take 2 armies, give both 1 unit, start the game and hide all pictograms, overviewmap, unitcard by pressing F5, F6 and F7. Use / * - and + from numerik keypad to adjust angle height (deselect restrict camera in options menu to fly free over the map). A sunny clear day gives a good picture. Press F2 to make a screenshot. Leave game and locate TGAs folder in full game. The highest numbered tga file is your screenshot. Open it with a tga capable program (TAG’s TGA) to verify.
The TGA files are about 2 mb in size (quite a huge dl for a map!). So if you have something like paintshop pro, open the file, go to Image menu, choose resize… select maintain aspect ratio and resize to about 120*90 pixels; it should be about 30 kb now. Give the tga file the same name as the map: tami Kochi.jjm and Tami Kochi.tga. Make a readme, telling people to copy both files to shogun\battle\maps zip the three files and your map is ready for distribution.

Some texture ID.
I suggest you look at the textures in some maps using mode no patch moused. Good maps to search are: tutmap1, tutmap3, and tami kochi. Also take a smooth plain (like the one you'll find in tutmap3) and change 3 times 3 tiles to 9 different texture ID's at once (10, 11, 12,..). Save and look at the results. Make notes.
Something special is making castles. You can make small wooden) castles by changing one texture to 30, big stone castles by changing adjecent tiles to texture 30. It's also possible to make gates and donjons. See tutmap1 how. Texture 5 will sometimes not display his single tree when it's not oriented properly to the forest.

4 smooth green
5 one tree (corner)
6 some trees (transition wood ground to smooth green 4)
7 about same as 6.
8 centre dense wood
21 cultivated ground
22-29 roads (these are only some of the roadtextures)
30, 31, 32 castle
33 four trees
37 house
38 monastry/temple
39, 40, 41 small peasant houses
43 one tree
63 'plain texture'
86, 87, 88 change from 4 to 63.

One final thing: if you update your bdf with a non existing map, then shogun might use a map you haven't seen before: save this map and use it as starting material.

I hope this information will help you (understand how to) make maps. Maybe you'll discover new features.
Have fun and good luck.

Ja mata
Toda TosaInu

19-11-2000 http://www.boy-co.demon.nl

Kraellin
11-20-2000, 10:24
hmmmm,

ran into something goofy, tosalnu. i altered the height of tutmap3 and saved it with a different name. i quit out and altered the mapname:: "" in all 3 bdf's to match my new map name. when i tried to start the game again i got an error message: data files corrupt reinstall game. so i altered the .bdf's back again to tutmap3 and it worked fine. any ideas?

i tried a second map only this time i altered a few textures, saved and altered the .bdf's and restarted. same error message again. you sure you havent forgotten something in your docs?

K.

TosaInu
11-21-2000, 01:23
Hello Kraellin,

The error message indicates that you do need Thorgrims shogcrack, but I don't believe this is the case (you might however give it a try).

-Are the bdf files still in their default folder?
-In changing names: did you include enter or something?

Try the following, please: backup Tutmap3, edit the original Tutmap3 and save it under the same name (just press s & confirm). Close and relaunch shogun.

I might have forgotten something, but this readme is complete enough to allow one to make maps.

Tell me about the progress?

------------------
Ja mata
Toda TosaInu

[This message has been edited by TosaInu (edited 11-20-2000).]

Kraellin
11-21-2000, 03:33
tosalnu,

yes, i think i did hit enter. that could be it. it might be entering that as another char in the name. i'll try again.

i did take those maps i made and ran them into the full game and they worked perfectly, but of course you dont have to alter a .bdf for that. still, i see no extra chars in my file names so i'm not sure quite what's going on.

btw, one extra discovery: if you alter the map edges to lower the terrain along the edges, the game puts the edges back up somewhat. seems they dont want folks seeing the lack of a coastline or something.

K.