Research: editing the campaign map

[5000]

i was recently able to get a completely remodeled campaign map up and running
and would like to thank everyone for the help they've offered and all the guides ppl are putting up.

i found something that might be of interest, in the data dir there is a file called template.txt, it seems like it shows how the desc_strat.txt file should look and operate, down at the bottm of template.txt, there are road and wall commands that would go in the rgions section of the descr_strat file, that i suppose would make predefined roads and walls to appear across the campaign map, i haven't been able to get either one to work, but if any body else can let me know.


-5000

[Encaitar]

The template.txt file is unfortunately hopelessly out of date. Many of the features you can see there (such as walls, roads, and including dead ex-faction-leaders in the starting family tree) do not seem to still be compatable with the game. Perhaps the syntax has merely changed, but I suspect in many of the cases they have been abandoned. Which is a real shame, because many of them (such as those I mentioned) would be very useful.

[sunsmountain]

I have a tip that some of you may use. Creating a new map from scratch can be challenging, so if you can find a .jpg or .gif from the internet of a beautiful, you can convert it into a (24-bits) bitmap using Paint. Then resize so there are a maximum of 256 pixels in the longest direction (horizontal or vertical) and that can give you a head start in modding.

[5000]

i have a problem, i was hopin that someone here might know what it might be.
here are two pictures i want you to notice the ground this is supposed to be just plain desert, but it looks patchy



this next one shows you a differnce between two side by side provinces, some areas seem to be fine while others get this patchy look, it seems to vary by faction.



i have no clue whats goin on


-5000

[Myrddraal]

Very wierd, are all the climates set right?

Could you post a jpg of your ground types and climates. This would help greatly.

[5000]

you know i don't think it has anything to do with these,

the one area in that second pic i sent prior, where the ground looks normal, i extended that faction's borders and the normal ground followed the newly defined borders.


-5000

[Encaitar]

Do the provinces that look patchy have farms built in them? Because the patchiness looks to me like parts of the farm texture being overlayed on top of the base climate/groundtype texture.

[5000]

thanks guys

i shoulda known better than to try and put farms in my provinces.

why is that a problem, and how would i go about solving it other than just having no farms.


-5000

[Dead Moroz]

This patchy ground is result of farming. These regions have lots of "fertile" ground. Without farms this ground looks like empty. When you build farms, you'll see that motley which actually imitates farming area "from bird's eye view". If you don't want any motley, just replace "fertile" ground type with "wilderness". But remember to keep at least small amount of fertility somewhere in every province.

[5000]

If you don't want any motley, just replace "fertile" ground type with "wilderness". But remember to keep at least small amount of fertility somewhere in every province.

cool thanks man, i will give it a try.


-5000

[thelordskinner]

Hi The Lords Skinner Here


I am starting to learn campaing map editing and this is a great tutorial But if or when i get eras i will post them here for....you to figure out
Thanks for this great tutorial!

[Myrddraal]

Hi Lords Skinner, I've actually condensed all the research done here into a tutorial:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=39456

[thelordskinner]

Yer thanx....I read that like a month ago and came up with all these eras so i will post them here.

[thelordskinner]

Script Error in Data/world/maps/campaing/mod Descr_regions.,txt at line 482 colum 5 Could not find settlment name of Rome in Stringtable


Was The Error Message But I have Rome In The mod_regions_settlments.txt thingy in the Data/text folder!

[Mirconus the Great]

Please help me!! I've got a problem which will soon make end up in a swamp of nerves... It sounds like that: I made a totally new campaign map. I've written show_err at my shortcut oin the desktop of RTW 1.5. But when I tried to run my campaign, it returned to the menu (usual when there's a problem). I got out of RTW and I saw the message the settlement "blablabla" x **, y ** is on an invalid tile... I tried everything, I enshured myself that everything is all right... Please give me the main reasons for this error...

[Monkwarrior]

Please help me!! I've got a problem which will soon make end up in a swamp of nerves... It sounds like that: I made a totally new campaign map. I've written show_err at my shortcut oin the desktop of RTW 1.5. But when I tried to run my campaign, it returned to the menu (usual when there's a problem). I got out of RTW and I saw the message the settlement "blablabla" x **, y ** is on an invalid tile... I tried everything, I enshured myself that everything is all right... Please give me the main reasons for this error...

I found the same error when the settlement was placed in an invalid terrain (mountains or deep forest, for example). You can roughly check this by looking in map_ground_types.tga, using double coordinates (2x, 2y). Look for a free place and move the tile of the settlement in map_regions.tga accordingly (be careful with the double scale of map_ground_types).

I usually solved those problems in this way.

[Mirconus the Great]

Well, I thought about this the first time it appeared to me. But this happened when I tried to add 3 more provinces on the bi campaign map...
So it's not about forest, mountains, sea or any other invalid ground type. I also checked that map_regions fits roughly with map_ground_types. Looks like I'm unlucky. Eachtime I modify provinces this appears. There's something wrong...
Any other reasons?

[Monkwarrior]

Well, I thought about this the first time it appeared to me. But this happened when I tried to add 3 more provinces on the bi campaign map...
So it's not about forest, mountains, sea or any other invalid ground type. I also checked that map_regions fits roughly with map_ground_types. Looks like I'm unlucky. Eachtime I modify provinces this appears. There's something wrong...
Any other reasons?

Did you check rivers in map_features?
If so, I cannot think in other reason.

[Mirconus the Great]

I found the same error when the settlement was placed in an invalid terrain (mountains or deep forest, for example). You can roughly check this by looking in map_ground_types.tga, using double coordinates (2x, 2y). Look for a free place and move the tile of the settlement in map_regions.tga accordingly (be careful with the double scale of map_ground_types).

I usually solved those problems in this way.

Well, this is the main problem: the bug doesn't look to be on that specific tile; the province with the problem is the first one in the region least in descr_regions.txt. Maybe the bug is somewhere else...

[Myrddraal]

Thread necromancy! Get back to the abyiss of page 3 foul shade!

[Uranos]

Well, this is the main problem: the bug doesn't look to be on that specific tile; the province with the problem is the first one in the region least in descr_regions.txt. Maybe the bug is somewhere else...

I had that many times Not shure now what was the cause of that but but if i remember correctly it was because in map_regions.tga there was an additional colout not matching to any province RGB value.

[stilgar]

hello

I've a question, when you make a new map, we must put the roman senate?

[Makanyane]

You do not have to include the romans_senate faction in descr_strat.txt (eg in a campaign) in RTW 1.5.

I think in some earlier patch versions you did need them.

Does that answer your question? I'm not quite sure what you are trying to do...

[Myrddraal]

If you have a general question, you'd be better off posting a thread to ask it. How do people find this thread anyway, however many times it pops off the 1st page, it somehow comes back. Like a weed.

It's an interesting document though. Those of you complaining about working out how to mod M2TW, think of the problems there were with RTW.