Jimmytwohand
06-29-2005, 18:32
Hello all. I am new to this forum but not to the TW series. I am a relative novice modding wise. I am sure most of you here will be well aware of how to add maps to be played as custom battles. I was not though and could find no resources on how to do this. I thought i would write my discoveries here to aid any other novices who would like to do this and have been flummoxed without the old editor. My interest was piqued here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=49973) thanks to Epistolary Richard and his warm welcome. Helpful info was also found here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=43149) in a post by Myrddraal whose campaign map editing technique allowed me to extrapolate this process.
1) Make sure you have the latest (1.2) patch.
2) Add "-enable_editor" on to the end of the game extension (without quotation marks).
3) Use the Battle Editor (found under the options menu) to edit the map as you want it. Basic documentation for the editor can be found here:
http://download.activision.com/totalwar/editor_docs.zip(thanks to Nihilist)
4) Save the map with whatever name you want (e.g gobblersknob) without adding armies, units, victory conditions etc. You will get a sanity report listing lots of errors. Do not worry about this.
Note that you can change the name which will show up on the custom battle screen later in descr_battle.txt. It is easier however to save it with the final name you want whilst still in the battle editor.
5) Open the Total war folder. Default location for this is C:/program files/Activision/RTW
6) Navigate to "Data/world/maps/battle/custom" and open the file in which you saved your map e.g gobblersknob.
7) Copy the contents (there should be 5 files)
8) Navigate to "Data/world/maps/custom" and create a new folder with the new map title.
9) Paste the contents you previously copied into this new folder.
When you now start the game, the map you edited will be available under custom battles allowing you to add whatever factions or armies you want.
If you would like to add a custom image to be displayed on the menu screen:
1) In photoshop resize your selected image to 256 pixels wide x 152h
2) Convert it to .tga format if it is not already.
3) Save or copy/paste the image into Data/world/maps/custom/"your battle name" that you created in step 8 above.
4) Rename the image "snapshot.tga". This must be done to ensure the game realises the image is there and utilises it.
I have not yet devised a way to change the deployment areas if this is even possible. I will continue research on this.
Apart from that this will allow you to fight custom battles exactly where your house will be in another 2000 years without having to create a new historical battle every time you want to change the units that are fighting. If you so wish........
1) Make sure you have the latest (1.2) patch.
2) Add "-enable_editor" on to the end of the game extension (without quotation marks).
3) Use the Battle Editor (found under the options menu) to edit the map as you want it. Basic documentation for the editor can be found here:
http://download.activision.com/totalwar/editor_docs.zip(thanks to Nihilist)
4) Save the map with whatever name you want (e.g gobblersknob) without adding armies, units, victory conditions etc. You will get a sanity report listing lots of errors. Do not worry about this.
Note that you can change the name which will show up on the custom battle screen later in descr_battle.txt. It is easier however to save it with the final name you want whilst still in the battle editor.
5) Open the Total war folder. Default location for this is C:/program files/Activision/RTW
6) Navigate to "Data/world/maps/battle/custom" and open the file in which you saved your map e.g gobblersknob.
7) Copy the contents (there should be 5 files)
8) Navigate to "Data/world/maps/custom" and create a new folder with the new map title.
9) Paste the contents you previously copied into this new folder.
When you now start the game, the map you edited will be available under custom battles allowing you to add whatever factions or armies you want.
If you would like to add a custom image to be displayed on the menu screen:
1) In photoshop resize your selected image to 256 pixels wide x 152h
2) Convert it to .tga format if it is not already.
3) Save or copy/paste the image into Data/world/maps/custom/"your battle name" that you created in step 8 above.
4) Rename the image "snapshot.tga". This must be done to ensure the game realises the image is there and utilises it.
I have not yet devised a way to change the deployment areas if this is even possible. I will continue research on this.
Apart from that this will allow you to fight custom battles exactly where your house will be in another 2000 years without having to create a new historical battle every time you want to change the units that are fighting. If you so wish........