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Dol Guldur
04-27-2007, 12:44
Specifics of Modding Alexander - Total War

I could not find a thread or forum dedicated to the specifics of Alexander - Total War so I thought I'd start one here. I will - in time (hopefully) - list all the unique features of Alexander and how to mod them. But do feel free to help or take over as my time is very limited these days ;)

Alex:TW has some nice features, especially for perhaps the more heroic/mythical/fantasy mods out there and it would be good to see its moddability placed in such a Guide.

Unique Features List

* Alexander draws off of RTW and not BI (you do not even need BI installed), though you do need to make sure RTW is patched to 1.5 before installing Alexander. So BI features (swimming, shieldwall, schiltrom, loyalty, religion, night battles etc.) are not inherent within it.

* Victory conditions can state a "survivor" which requires that a specific unique character survive in order for that faction to remain in the game; the designated survivor needs to be the faction leader. The condition works when written as follows:

InternalFactionName
alexander Region1 Region2 etc.
take_regions NumberOfRegions
survivor Alexander
script world/maps/campaign/alexander/Alexander_Campaign_Outro_Script.txt

* Mercs can be designated as faction-specific in the campaign merc pool file

* DMB model entries increased from RTW/BI's 250 max (to at least 330)

* AI can be instructed in the DS file not to attack certain factions (unless at war already)

* Immortality trait can ensure that named characters do not die of natural causes

* Generals can be assigned unique strat map and battlemap models as well as custom portraits

* AI factions can be coded to not attack certain other factions (unless first attacked)

Specifics of modfolder setup

* make sure you include the chat_filter.san file in your modfolder's data folder

* TBC

Non-Alexander Features that can be used in Alexander

* Shadowing
* Re-emergence
* Loyalty

Lusted
04-27-2007, 12:52
Well most of the modding is almost identical to that of RTW. I did notice though that some of the map files were done differently, with just 1 water colour in map_heights, and the different water types defined in map_ground_types. Or the other way round, it's been a while since i modded it.

The unique general thing is pretty handy, in Alexandros i was going to add in all of Alexanders generals as unique characters.

Dol Guldur
04-27-2007, 12:59
Thx. Lusted.

I'm trying to get the survivor feature in win conditions to work for a new unique and it's not working. I suspect the survivor may need to be the leader - which I have not tested yet. I'm still not 100% sure what labels the character as - for example - Alexander is in the name list and so presumably other Alexanders can exist. Must be the leader label.

Anyway, will look into the map thing too, faction-specific mercs etc.

Gandalf the White
05-07-2007, 08:53
Well Alexander of course only has one campaign so my modded campaign didnt work; which was from RTW

Dol Guldur
05-25-2007, 16:14
The biggest difference between ALX and vanilla or BI is the hard coded limit on DMB. I have 330 entries in my mod and I haven't found the maximum number yet. BI and vanilla is limited to 250 entries.

The next big thing is, of course, the unique general models. You can have battle and strat model and portraits that cannot be used by any other general in the game.

Then there is ai_do_not_attack_faction in descr_strat, which prohibits the AI to attack certain factions, except when they're at war.

Another one I'm unsure if it's limited to ALX: the faction specific mercenaries. In ALX, you can specify regional mercenaries to be recruitable only by certain factions.

However, ALX cannot use the features of BI such as hording, shield wall, schilstrom and swimming.

from Wlesmana. Faction-specific mercs does not work in BI (and probably not RTW either).

Roman_Man#3
05-26-2007, 20:36
One comment and one question to Wlesmana.

Comment) I have noticed when modding ATW, that there is a lot of comments and things crossed off from the devs. I would just like to make a point to say that in files such as EDU.txt, do not be intimidated by all the lines saying stuff like:

;based off of: *insert vanilla unit here*

and stuff like that

Question) Wlesmana, did you have any difficulty porting Lotr - TW from RTW to ATW? I am wondering how difficult it is.

Thanks,
RM3

wlesmana
05-27-2007, 05:13
I never noticed the crossed out comments until you mentioned it. I wiped out all the EDU entries before adding my own.

It's not hard to port RTW to ALX since they're basically the same except for a few extra features for campaign. It's easier than, say, porting RTW to BI or vice versa. All the factions are the same and map system is also the same (no religion, loyalty, etc). Virtually all the new features of ALX are campaign based, aside from the higher DMB limit.

Roman_Man#3
05-27-2007, 16:13
Ok, thanks.


Keep up the good work on LOTR - TW,
RM3

Galloper
05-29-2007, 23:11
I have two problems with running mods with alexander.exe
1.All my generals are immortals, and can die only in combat. Anybody know how to fix it?
2.A can't run mods with "-mod:" command. It CTD when I click on imperial campaign, but I launched a BI with alex.exe when a use "-mod:bi". I think that provincial campaign not supported with alex.exe

wlesmana
05-30-2007, 12:02
I can have provincial campaigns with ALX, but the text in the menu would get jumbled up with the tournament battle feature, unless I edit Rome.Int I guess. In ALX, the main campaign is in the folder of Alexander and not imperial campaign.

-mod also works fine for me.

WImPyTjeH
05-31-2007, 17:06
Is it possible to play Alexander with BI (or RTW) using the -mod: command ?

If yes, are there any noticible differences ?

W

wlesmana
05-31-2007, 17:26
Yes, and no.
Yes, you can play Alexander with RTW's exe, but you have to trim down DMB because it's over 250 entries. The same with BI's exe. As for the campaign, you'll need to edit some stuff too, like mercenaries and ai_do_not_attack_faction line.

I can't tell if there's any noticeable difference. ALX is pretty much RTW with some extra features (and higher DMB cap). If you're not using any of the features, then I doubt it'd be any different.

Dol Guldur
06-01-2007, 10:20
Initial post updated. Keep the discussion going guys! :)

WImPyTjeH
06-02-2007, 10:55
Could someone specify what the differences (in the TXT) files are for the campaign map, please ? (Not detailed, just a short description)

I'm getting kinda interested in Alx. (I still have to buy it so I can play LotR:TW :2thumbsup: )

W

Galloper
06-05-2007, 11:41
* Immortality trait can ensure that named characters do not die of natural causes
Named characters don't die even without immortality trait. The problem is that I don't know how to make them mortal.

Dol Guldur
06-05-2007, 13:39
Is that so? I've not tested it or played it long enough to notice.

Wles?

wlesmana
06-05-2007, 16:24
Can't say myself since I haven't found examples first hand. But strictly speaking of my mod, even if it's true, it doesn't matter.

Galloper
06-06-2007, 23:08
So BI features (swimming, shieldwall, schiltrom, loyalty, religion, night battles etc.) are not inherent within it.
Loyalty,religion,night battles features works ok with ALX.exe.

I was wrong about mod: comand. When I created "alexander" campaign folder all works nice.

Bardo
06-12-2007, 04:46
I have seen you missed the better ATW feature (imho :beam: ): you can use specific campaign models, battle models and portraits for all the initial characters.
This the entry in descr_strat:

character Denethor, named character, leader, age 50, , x 149, y 80, portrait denethor, strat_model denethor, battle_model denethor


Victory conditions can state a "survivor" which requires that a specific unique character survive in order for that faction to remain in the game; however, it is uncertain if this can be used for anyone other than the initial 'Alexander' character. Needs more testing.
This survivor condition only works for the human player. I mean, if you play Persia, you can kill Alexander the Great and the game continues. But the game ends if you play Macedon and Alexander dies.


Named characters don't die even without immortality trait. The problem is that I don't know how to make them mortal.
I'm almost sure that I've seen characters dying of natural causes in ATW.

Galloper
06-12-2007, 08:19
I'm almost sure that I've seen characters dying of natural causes in ATW.
I'm talking about mods,which I run with alx.exe and not about official addon.

Roman_Man#3
06-18-2007, 23:48
I am having a little trouble setting up the ATW mod folder.

I set it up like the RTW mod folder, but put it in alexander folder. the short cut looks like this:


"C:\Program Files\The Creative Assembly\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-ALX.exe" -show_err -nm -mod:alexander:MA -enable_editor -movie_cam

Any ideas? It says there is an error with chat_filter.san

Dol Guldur
06-19-2007, 00:08
did you mean:

-mod:alexander\MA

?

Roman_Man#3
06-19-2007, 00:22
did you mean:

-mod:alexander\MA

?

Thanks. Mak just pointed that out as well, but it still seems to be the chat_filter.san problem.

Mak just helped again. It was seemingly because of the editor and cam,

Dol Guldur
06-19-2007, 18:37
How strange.

lt1956
07-06-2007, 14:59
Having the same issue I port SPQR over into a SPQR directory under Alexander and gets the chat error also.

wlesmana
07-07-2007, 04:54
I must include the chat_filter.san file in your mod folder.

Barbarossa82
08-20-2007, 13:44
I can have provincial campaigns with ALX, but the text in the menu would get jumbled up with the tournament battle feature, unless I edit Rome.Int I guess. In ALX, the main campaign is in the folder of Alexander and not imperial campaign.

-mod also works fine for me.

I am having a severe problem with the provincial campaign in Alexander. I solved the jumbled text by editing Rome.lnt - an adventure in itself! - but now I get a bad crash when trying to start it.

I have a provincial campaign folder located in alexander/data/world/maps/campaign, sitting next to the Alexander folder. For the time being, it contains exactly the same contents as the Alexander folder itself.

Clicking "Provincial Campaign (Unused)" on the menu takes me to the campaign selection screen, where the game recognises the new provincial campaign and allows it to be highlighted. However, clicking the "continue" arrow causes a hard CTD with a windows "appcrash" error message. The crash leaves major graphical problems in windows, requiring a log-out and re-log-in to solve.

What am I doing wrong? I have successfully created a provincial campaign for BI and never encountered anything this bad!

Makanyane
08-20-2007, 18:08
The crash leaves major graphical problems in windows, requiring a log-out and re-log-in to solve.Weird and nasty - the only thing that ever did that to me was problems with the preferences file changing things in ways my graphics card didn't like, preferences should be set above data level though so can't see how that could cause any problem with provincial campaign only.

One quick test that might be worth trying; move folder to
alexander/data/world/maps/campaign/custom/....
I found BI worked better with that to get descriptions to show up, so might be where provincial campaigns are meant to work from.

Barbarossa82
08-20-2007, 18:25
Thanks for the suggestion, Makanyane. Putting it it a "custom" folder did seem to improve matters, but not hugely. I got the faction description up for the first time, but the game still crashes when I try to get to the faction selection screen. No graphical weirdness this time though, just a CTD and "appcrash" windows error message.

My guess is that I've somehow left out a file that the game needs to see in order to construct that screen, but I can't imagine what.

Bardo
09-13-2007, 17:25
Did you know if it is possible to fight night battles in ATW? If so, what do you need to include this feature in a mod?

I have troubles getting night battles in the mod LOTR-TW, using ATW.exe. I have seen that ATW includes the traits noctophobia/noctophilia, so I guess it should be possible.
I have tried adding the trait NightBattleCapable (+1 to night command) and giving it to all characters, but the choice to fight at night still does not appear.
We have also added the command "night_battles_enabled" at the start of the descr_strat.txt. Am I missing something else?
Could someone confirm if he has seen a night battle under ATW?

Thanks in advance.

Makanyane
09-13-2007, 17:42
I haven't tried it but I wonder if you also need the
options bi
line in descr strat? According to this guide https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=59950
you needed that and the night battle line in RTW.

Bardo
09-13-2007, 18:34
Thank you very much! Now it works. :beam:
We though it could be a problem with traits or some ATW limitation, but it is the "bi options". I can confirm you need this command to play night battles.

Roman_Man#3
12-06-2007, 02:41
Is it possible to add custom campaign map textures to a modfolder in Alexander? I'm really confused.

Dol Guldur
12-08-2007, 15:18
Yes, why would it not be?

Roman_Man#3
12-08-2007, 17:44
I was running into trouble with the../ tags and everything, but I got it sorted out now.

Dol Guldur
12-08-2007, 21:53
I'm not getting time to put together updates for the first post but if anyone wants to post an addition to the opening post then please post it and label it as such and I will include it. Remember to only submit tried and tested things. Thx

Maksimus
12-09-2007, 00:39
We have fixed immortal trait bug.. :san_wink:

Follow the link:curtain:

Mad Hoplite
12-09-2007, 15:48
Is the faction limit the same as in RTW.exe (21)?

And does Alexander support superfactions, senate events and civil war?

Roman_Man#3
01-01-2008, 21:53
Alexander is really starting to tick me off. I have a map ready to be put in, but it doesn't load on ATW. It works fine with RTW, but not Alexander.

Do I need something special to put into the map to make it run?

RedFox
01-13-2008, 15:26
Roman_Man#3: Make sure you don't have any RGB 0,0,0 tiles in your map_heights, should cause a CTD if you have any.

Roman_Man#3
01-13-2008, 19:38
Thanks. But I found the problem a while ago. I had a little typo in descr_win_conditions.txt

RedFox
01-13-2008, 20:41
Well, if you have any other questions, feel free to PM me.

comrade_general
01-21-2008, 17:14
can ATW have emergent factions?

Makanyane
01-21-2008, 20:48
It doesn't support hording so I don't think so. Factions that emerge like the Slavs in BI have to be horde nations.

Some other method like shadowing might work in it though.

comrade_general
01-21-2008, 23:08
the romano-britons arent a horde nation, and they spawn on event just like the slavs. and what about the spawns_on_revolt, could that work in ATW?

Makanyane
01-21-2008, 23:41
The Romano_british emergence depends on hard coded triggers and the faction name "romano_british" - I seriously doubt the hard code for that is active in Alex, but you could try, you'd need to internally re-name a faction to find out though.

The spawned_on_revolt faction (ostrogoths) was a horde faction, I suspect it needs to be.

Shadowing ala empire_east and empire_east_rebels might work but that isn't quite the same thing.



Someone else might know more about this - I just know I tried getting a BI mod to run under Alex and first thing it fell over on was not recognising the horde sections in descr_sm_factions.

DimeBagHo
01-22-2008, 07:17
Re-emergence with loyalty and shadowing factions will work with the RTW and Alex exe's (I'm using this in XGM). Hordes don't work, so the mechanisms of emergence that require hordes won't work. I haven't tested the Romano-British mechanism.

comrade_general
01-24-2008, 05:19
Ok, thanks guys. Looks like I'll attempt a port to BI :furious3: :wall: :dizzy2:

Flying Pig
01-25-2008, 19:52
is the emergent factions syntax the same as in BI, and how do you add loyalty?

Makanyane
01-25-2008, 21:46
As explained a few posts above, most of the emergent faction syntax won't work as horde nations aren't possible. As DimeBagHo explained shadowing will though, and that syntax in descr_sm_factions would be the same.

I think if you add shadowing it triggers loyalty, as that is part of what determines when characters rebel to shadow faction. Look at a BI descr_strat, there is line near top
rebelling_characters_active
which you probably need in your version.

You may also have to alter the interface files to get the loyalty logo.

To make loyalty more meaningful and give most starting generals a base level you will may need to look at the traits and copy over, or assign new ones that give a loyalty bonus / reduction. There are tutorials in the scriptorium about adding / changing traits.

comrade_general
02-07-2008, 21:05
whats the syntax for telling ai factions not to attack other factions?
does this go at the end of DS?
and finallry, does this stop those factions from ever attacking, or does it "wear off" after awhile?

Aradan
02-07-2008, 21:28
For example:


faction egypt, trader mao
ai_do_not_attack_faction gauls, scythia, pontus
denari 20000


The command is supposed to halt a faction from attacking other(s) until attacked, but afaik an attack can still happen, due to the hardcoded mechanism the AI uses to choose enemies...

comrade_general
02-17-2008, 01:09
How do you change the movie that plays behind the menu? I know its the "dump0000" file, and I've tried changing it, but it always overlooks the one I add and uses the vanilla RTW movie.

Aradan
02-17-2008, 11:53
*If* it can be done, then you should probably put it in the mod pak. if it doesn't work from there (which I think will be the case) then you just can't have both yours and the vanilla one and you'll have to go with -nm. Otherwise you can mod the .lnt.

comrade_general
02-17-2008, 17:23
It can be done, it was done in LOTR-TW which is on alexander.

Aradan
02-17-2008, 17:43
My bad, sorry. Yes indeed, LotRTW has its own dump0000, in its own menu folder.

Roman_Man#3
02-19-2008, 03:31
They make a copy of vanillas and overwrite the vanilla with their own though.

comrade_general
02-22-2008, 21:38
isnt that the opening movie youre talking about roman_man#3?
i was talking about the looped movie clip that plays on the main menu, unless thats what you meant then disregard this

Roman_Man#3
02-22-2008, 21:52
Oh, my mistake. Disregard my comment. Dump0000 doesn't have to overwrite the vanilla one.

comrade_general
02-22-2008, 22:48
still when i replace the vanilla dump0000 with a different one, it always uses the vanilla one in the root rtw menu folder. editing the .lnt didnt work for me either

Spartan198
02-24-2008, 14:26
I wanted to try and port some Alexander units over to vanilla Rome,but all the entries in the EDU and other relevant files are virtually identical to those of vanilla,and I don't know which is which. Any advice?

Roman_Man#3
02-26-2008, 04:11
Check the DMB for the new skins and models.

comrade_general
03-05-2008, 04:47
how high can i turn up the starting_action_points?
i read somewhere that over 100 in rtw can make the game act "buggy", does that apply for alexander?

Makanyane
03-05-2008, 09:12
you might need to experiment if no one else has an answer for you, as far as I remember the 'buggy' description was that map actually CTD'd on load for RTW if you tried silly values like 300, so it should be quite clear if you get that! Think I had 130 running fine in RTW before.

Best thing is to test the figure you want by letting computer play itself on campaign map by using -ai in same place you put -show_err on shortcut. That should show up if you're getting problems.

comrade_general
03-05-2008, 23:59
ok, thanks. i knew i would have to just try it out and see, i just wanted to check if there was any heads up beforehand, so thanks. :2thumbsup:

Bardo
04-06-2008, 21:07
ATW sometimes crashes to desktop when there is a succesfully ambush, if you are using the fomations_ai file from other RTW versions.
To avoid these ctds when you port descr_formations_ai.txt files to ATW, you need to add this alternative ambush formation (included in the vanilla ATW formation file):



;****************************************************************
; Alternate Ambush deployment
; Column marching formation for the army being ambushed, allows stretching
;****************************************************************

begin_formation alternate_ambush_defender_deployment

alternate_ambush_defender_deployment
ai_priority 0.1

;;; general at the front
begin_block 0
min_units 1
max_units 1
unit_type general_unit 1.0
unit_density close
block_formation line
block_relative_pos 0 0.0 0.0
inter_unit_spacing 2.0
priority 1.0
end_block

;;; all other units behind
begin_block 1
unit_type any 1.0
unit_density close
block_formation column
block_relative_pos 0 0.0 -2.0
inter_unit_spacing 2.0
priority 1.0
end_block


end_formation

Note the difference with the default RTW ambush formation is that it has been removed the line:
max_unit_width 4
It seems this line causes ctds with ATW engine, at certain map locations (usually forests). And just adding this alternative formation the ctds are fixed.

Dol Guldur
04-07-2008, 14:35
Good info Bardo - can you state the exact point at which the CTD occurs with this? Thx.

Bardo
04-09-2008, 00:49
Yes, the ctds occur in the loading screen just before the ambush battle is loaded. At the same point that other ctds caused by formations that I have seen.

Bardo
04-11-2008, 10:19
I think nobody has commented the possibility to make series of historical battles where you need to play one battle to unlock the next battle. You just need:
-to copy inside the folder of the custom battle the void file named "locked", if you want this battle locked by default
-file unlock.txt with the name of the previous battle needed to unlock this battle
-file order.txt with the order of this battle in the series

Makanyane
04-13-2008, 07:17
This is probably a silly question....

but with the above do you have to achieve a victory in the first game to unlock the second? That would be rather neat if it did work that way!

Bardo
04-13-2008, 19:50
Yes, it works that way.
Not a silly question, in fact I said "you have to PLAY the previous battle", when I should have said "you have to WIN the previous battle to unlock the next". ;)

Smeel
05-20-2008, 20:36
Warcry from Bi works in Alexander. Strange, huh?:inquisitive: Woulda been awesome if the other attributes and formations would work too

beatoangelico
05-21-2008, 01:30
warcry was already in RTW 1.0 :sweatdrop:

AqD
06-04-2008, 17:12
Anyone tried to get it to work with -mod:BI? I can enter campaign but not the custom battle (kicked back to faction selection menu) :help:

Bardo
06-09-2008, 01:12
I don't own BI so I can't test it, but you could test:

1- coping the file chat_filter.san from your Alexander/data folder into your the BI\data folder

2- adding "-mod:bi -noalexander" to your shortcut

3- Editing the file descr_strat.txt of BI campaign by adding the line "options bi" at the start of Campaign section (at the top of the file.). It should look like this:

campaign ...
options bi
playable ...

4- Go - ''Rome - Total War folder/bi/data/export_descr_character_traits.txt''
Open the file and add the Immortal description at the end of trait section:

;------------------------------------------
Trait Immortal
Characters family
Hidden

Level Immortal
Description Immortal_desc
EffectsDescription Immortal_effects_desc
Threshold 1

Go - ''Rome - Total War folder/eb/data/export_descr_VnVs_enums.txt''
Open the file and add the specified enums at the far end of the txt file! That should look like this:

Immortal
Immortal_desc
Immortal_effects_desc

I'm not sure, but I guess this could be enough.


EDIT: It seems ATW.exe does not support several features of BI like hordes, swiming, schiltrom/shield_wall, so the above will probably not work...

Roman_Man#3
07-31-2008, 21:37
Barbarossa, did you ever get your provincial campaign map to load? I'm have a rough time getting a map from RTW loading into Alex.

Makanyane
01-22-2009, 23:52
Has anyone checked yet if the revolt CTD still occurs under Alex.exe and if the solutions found in
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=71772
work?

I can go test but thought I'd see if anyone else had tried first

Dol Guldur
01-23-2009, 11:59
I assumed Alex would be the same as RTW and BI. I've thus not tested anything. Never had any problems with revolt CTDs for a long time now, in fatw or any other mod I've done since (including GaFm for Alex.).

Makanyane
01-31-2009, 18:02
For info:
The revolt CTD still works the same way, but in Alex, if you have faction restricted mercenaries
you seem to only get the CTD if the faction the city is about to revolt back to has an available mercenary in the area (and can't build it's own troops)

having mercs available to the faction that's about to lose the city doesn't cause the problem

Makanyane
02-01-2009, 22:38
having got BI based campaign (and campaign battles) loading under Alex.exe.... any idea what stops custom battles based on same map loading under Alex? have tried most permutations I can think of for either copying BI mod campaign map files and naming Alexander / imperial_campaign which didn't work, and also tried importing original Alexander base map / campaign files... anything I try is giving KTM without error message

Aradan
02-02-2009, 13:01
Have you tried with adding a "Battlefields" folder in 'campaign' with a copy of DS in it?

Makanyane
02-02-2009, 14:31
Just tried that - nope it didn't help

Dol Guldur
02-03-2009, 11:58
I had these problems getting everything to work in GaFm. Of course, I have forgotten it all now :oops: BUT if you carefully look at how GafM is set out in terms of folders, files, locations and vanilla remnants then this should be a pattern as to how to get it to work.

Took me days to sort it out and I almost gave up at one point! Not intuitive at all.

Hoginator01
07-28-2009, 22:35
Is it possible to enable stone walled cities for barbarians with alexander.exe as it is with bi?

Makanyane
07-30-2009, 07:23
it should be - look for tutorial for doing it in RTW - method should be the same

Hoginator01
08-11-2009, 23:57
2- adding "-mod:bi -noalexander" to your shortcut


Why do you put -noalexander in your path to your mod folder? Does this stop the Alex.exe from loading the Alexander campaign files or is this part of your mod folder name?

Hoginator01
08-12-2009, 05:17
For example:


faction egypt, trader mao
ai_do_not_attack_faction gauls, scythia, pontus
denari 20000


The command is supposed to halt a faction from attacking other(s) until attacked, but afaik an attack can still happen, due to the hardcoded mechanism the AI uses to choose enemies...

It still happens and it happens a lot. This code is useless.

Hoginator01
08-12-2009, 19:18
having got BI based campaign (and campaign battles) loading under Alex.exe.... any idea what stops custom battles based on same map loading under Alex? have tried most permutations I can think of for either copying BI mod campaign map files and naming Alexander / imperial_campaign which didn't work, and also tried importing original Alexander base map / campaign files... anything I try is giving KTM without error message

Makanyane,

Have you figured out how to make the custom battles work yet? I am having the same issues you had in the quoted post above.

Makanyane
08-13-2009, 06:21
Sorry, no, I haven't had time to go back to it... Florin started another tutorial thread about Alex here
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=263469

see if anything in that helps

Bardo
08-31-2009, 20:03
EDITED with new information and tests

having got BI based campaign (and campaign battles) loading under Alex.exe.... any idea what stops custom battles based on same map loading under Alex? have tried most permutations I can think of for either copying BI mod campaign map files and naming Alexander / imperial_campaign which didn't work, and also tried importing original Alexander base map / campaign files... anything I try is giving KTM without error message
I have been making some tests to try to understand the correct folder structure so Custom and Historical Battles can work under Alexander TW:

The related files are placed at these folders:


1) \data\world\maps\campaign\Battlefields\
2) \data\world\maps\base\
3) and the file: \data\text\Battlefields_regions_and_settlement_names.txt

1) \data\world\maps\campaign\Battlefields\
You need to copy a descr_strat.txt (DS) file into this folder for the Custom Battles (CB) to work. It seems you can copy any DS from any campaign. I have tested with the DS from our mod, the DS of vanilla Alex and also from vanilla RTW. It seems they all work.
You do not need any other file into this folder.

2) \data\world\maps\base\
You need to copy some files into this folder.The list used by the vanilla Alex and also our lotr-tw mod is:

descr_disasters.txt
descr_regions.txt
descr_terrain.txt
map_climates.tga
map_FE.tga
map_features.tga
map_ground_types.tga
map_heights.tga
map_regions.tga
map_roughness.tga
map_trade_routes.tga
water_surface.tga

You do not need the .tgas once the map.rwm has been generated. But I suggest to keep them all.

3) \data\text\Battlefields_regions_and_settlement_names.txt
Finally, the most recent discovery is that you need this file to fit with the region names of \data\world\maps\base\descr_regions.txt

My problem was that I though Battlefields_regions_and_settlement_names.txt should fit with
\data\world\maps\campaign\Battlefields\descr_strat.txt (something more logic, but incorrect)


I have verified that:
1) Juts changing the file Battlefields_regions_and_settlement_names.txt, you can make the Historical and Custom Battles to ctd while loading.
2) Juts removing the file descr_regions.txt from \data\world\maps\base\, the Historical battles stop working too, while Custom battles run normally.
(our case in lotr-tw all these years)
3) Just removing the file \data\world\maps\campaign\Battlefields\descr_strat.txt, the Custom battles stop working, while Historical battles run normally.
(opposite than previous test)


Why do you put -noalexander in your path to your mod folder? Does this stop the Alex.exe from loading the Alexander campaign files or is this part of your mod folder name?
It is not part of the mod name, it is a line command to force Alx.exe to search the standard campaign names ("imperial_campaign_") in stead of the alexander ones ("alexander_"), so you do not need to change any folder or file name when you port your mod from BI or RTW.

You can find more here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1761427&postcount=105

Anarchon
07-16-2014, 06:28
Hi All,

Dunno if I can expect replies on a thread last added to in 2009!
But here goes.
I have a problem relating to the levels for a barbarian city in descr_cultures.txt

I have a heavily modded mod built to use the Alex.exe.
At some point I lost the ability for tac battles(strat was just dandy).
Could not track the cause so starting rebuilding from the ground up.
I can now get the tac battles but have another problem.

I can get it to launch but it pings during loadup and gives me an
error message on closing.

"Script error in ed_bldgs.txt line 44901(this is last line of file)
Building DB error. culture db max settlement level differs from
building db max settlement level for faction scythia. (bdg huge city
vs clt city)"

I know what is causing this.
descr_cultures.txt only has 3 levels for barb cities while my
buildings file has 5 levels.
The problem is solving it.

I have amended descr_cultures.txt along the lines of BI(which has 5 levels).
And added the files referenced by this version.
But the result is the mod will not load at all.
In fact it CTDs almost immediately after launch.
Anyone have ideas as to solution?
I really want the 5 levels.

Anarchon

Anarchon
07-16-2014, 06:33
Hi All,

Dunno if I can expect replies on a thread last added to in 2009!
But here goes.
I have a problem relating to the levels for a barbarian city in descr_cultures.txt

I have a heavily modded mod built to use the Alex.exe.
At some point I lost the ability for tac battles(strat was just dandy).
Could not track the cause so starting rebuilding from the ground up.
I can now get the tac battles but have another problem.

I can get it to launch but it pings during loadup and gives me an
error message on closing.

"Script error in ed_bldgs.txt line 44901(this is last line of file)
Building DB error. culture db max settlement level differs from
building db max settlement level for faction scythia. (bdg huge city
vs clt city)"

I know what is causing this.
descr_cultures.txt only has 3 levels for barb cities while my
buildings file has 5 levels.
The problem is solving it.

I have amended descr_cultures.txt along the lines of BI(which has 5 levels).
And added the files referenced by this version.
But the result is the mod will not load at all.
In fact it CTDs almost immediately after launch.
Anyone have ideas as to solution?
I really want the 5 levels.

Anarchon