Guide To Adding New Cultures - Discussion

[Dol Guldur]

I have uploaded the first draft of my Complete Guide To Adding New Cultures in BI...

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...668#post945668

This is the thread for discussing it and getting it perfect! ;)

[Sahran]

So we dont have any hardcoded limit on cultures, or as I understand it, religions? That's pretty cool, and at least one limitation off the modders backs.

[Dol Guldur]

I'm going to need to research the sound files for a new culture; unit models in the battlemap seem to work, but strat_map voices are currently missing as are the battle events and music. Battle speech has defaulted to Roman.

This is an area in which help would be appreciated as I know little of the sound text files.


Sahran,

7 seems to be the hardcoded limit. Attempts to add an 8th culture fail even after swapping. But even 1 extra culture opens up quite a bit more for us modders!

[alpaca]

No problemo:
You'll have to go through each sound description file, every one of it has "culture" lines. Just search the culture you want (e.g. barbarian) in the text file and append your culture to it.
You can also add new culture blocks copying the old ones if you want to use custom sounds.
I guessed this would happen as I know some about sound files from my work on Chivalry...

[Dol Guldur]

Thx. Alpaca.

Adding my new culture to the culture lines in the export_descr_soudns_stratmap_voice.txt file produced no results.

I will look into it more.

[alpaca]

Oh, I forgot.
You have to delete or rename data\sounds\events.dat
But leave the .idx intact or the game will crash.
I hope that still works as it did in 1.2...

[Dol Guldur]

That did the trick! Thx - getting nearer to adding to the tutorial now. I see the folder you point out now contains a bi dat file too.

One question, a new dat file did not seem to generate...

[alpaca]

No it doesn't.
The sound files of the game are stored in the .dats or in a subfolder of data/sounds
You can unpack the dats with a tool of Vercingetorix', or at least you could in 1.2 to get all the sound files out but you shouldn't do that as it seriously slows down loading the game (in vanilla there are some ten thousands of sound files).
The idx files contain a list of the sound files used.
events.dat now is different insofar as it links the sounds to game events, but if you delete or rename this file, the "prerogative" goes back to the text files, i.e. the game reads them out instead of the events.dat file.
You still need the idx because it probably holds a list of game events or something to be linked to the sound files, but I'm not sure about that.

[Dol Guldur]

Thx. Alpaca, now I understand (I think). Are there any tutorials on modding sound anywhere?

[Dol Guldur]

The Guide to Adding a New Culture in BI has been updated to incorporate sound, music and vocal slots for your new culture...

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=55112

Comments welcomed.

[Lonely Soldier]

Dol Guldur - Shame its only one, but this is still a great discovery ! Every little bit helps!

[Dol Guldur]

Lonely soldier:

Dol Guldur - Shame its only one, but this is still a great discovery ! Every little bit helps!

Thx. I still awaiting feedback on those who have tried it out - and the way battle-map models tie in to culture needs to be addressed (I am woefully ignorant on the matter).

[hoggy]

I've got it working as per your tutorial, I used a copy of an Eastern culture to create the new one. Might be worth mentioning when you auto rename files in export_descr_buildings to watchout for unit types named the same as the culture ie 'eastern archers'. The new Lombardi faction ends up with mostly eastern buildings but some roman and barbarian too (I think it's hardcoded religion based buildings?) I've been trying to get my new eastern culture to use egyptian ITEM files but am at a bit of a loss. My modding skills in that department are a bit lacking. It's abit of a dissapointment that BI uses only 3 unique cultures as far as ITEM files go. Top tutorial though, cheers.

[Dol Guldur]

Excellent, not just me that has it working then ;)

Thx for the tip. Wish I could help on ITEM files, but I know nothing of that area. :(

(but keep us updated!)

[Ciaran]

Does the guide apply only to BI or does it work in Rome 1.3 as well?

[hoggy]

Ok, I think I've mostly cracked it... mostly. I followed your guide and created a new eastern based culture instead of barbarian. I then when through each step changing this new culture to egyptian and copied the egyptian UI from RTW 1.3 over the newly created eastern based culture UI files. Then in descr_settlement_plan.txt as well as the section around line 8576 you mentioned I editted the two sections above that (plans and plans by level) using text from RTW 1.3 settlement files to ad the egyptian paragraphs. This basically resulted in my new culture using mostly egyptian ITEM files in battle mode. I think the remaining buildings are the remnants of the Lombardii tech tree where it can't find egyptian equivalents... I've not tested heavily yet but I think it's close. Hopefully with a new tech tree we will have another set of ITEM files to edit unique to the new culture.

[blindfaithnogod]

thats good news hoggy. good goin, i was kinda headed in that dirrection aswell....

[Dol Guldur]

Ciaran, it's just for BI. Although you can of course use RTW resources (as hoggy is doing with Egyptian).

Hoggy, Great going. You will of course provide the step-by-step tutorial for this so that I can link to it from the New Culture Guide when you are finished? ;)

[Burns]

Having an extra culture is better than nothing.

[Dol Guldur]

Having 7 rather than 6 cultural groupings for the portraits, buildings, audio etc. of your factions will open up a whole new dimension for most mods I think, especially those based in fiction or those wishing to create subcultures (or new cultures) in historical mods.


And please post in the discussion thread - this is for the tutorial! :)

[hoggy]

Ok DG here it is, this is possibly more long-winded than it needs to be but this is how how I did it:

Part 1: New Eastern Culture

Follow Dol Guldur’s tutorial but with these variations:

Step 1

part.2: ‘Eastnew’ instead of Chinese.

Step 2 and 3

Copy the content of the eastern folder not the barbarian and call your folders ‘EASTNEW’

Step 4

Copy eastern section and replace Chinese with eastnew

Step 5

Change from barbarian to eastnew

Step 6

Follow instruction but replace ‘eastern’ with ‘eastern, eastnew’ instead of ‘barbarian’ with ‘barbarian, chinese’ (go back afterward to alter where your eastern archers have been renamed too)

Step 7

Instead of chinese Barbarian_plan_levels put eastnew Eastern_plan_levels

Step 8

{UI_EASTNEW} EASTNEW instead of {UI_CHINESE} CHINESE

and {EASTNEW} Eastnew instead of {CHINESE} Chinese

Step 9

Copy Eastern section instead and put eastnew on banner line

Step 10 and 11

Rename files with prefix eastnew instead of Chinese

I’ve not gone into sound and music here
Test this to check it’s working and that the Lombardi use eastern portraits etc.

Part 2: Changing NewEast into Egyptian culture that uses Egypt’s ITEM files:

Step 1
open campaign_descriptions.txt in the bi data\text folder

change eastnew to Egyptian

Step 2
Rename your BI EASTNEW UI folder to EGYPTIAN and copy the contents of your Rome Egypt UI files into this folder

Step 3
Open up BI data\descr_cultures.txt and rename eastnew to egyptian including the building tga paths.

Step 4
Open up BI data\descr_sm_factions.txt change Lombardi to Egyptian culture

Step 5
Open up BI data\export_descr_buildings.txt

Replace all ‘eastnew’ with ‘egyptian’

Step 6
Open up the BI data\descr_settlement_plans.txt

Go to around line 8438

In the ‘plans’ section add:

plan Egyptian_Fort egyptian_fort.txt
plan Egyptian_Village egyptian_village.txt
plan Egyptian_Town egyptian_town.txt
plan Egyptian_Large_Town egyptian_large_town.txt
plan Egyptian_City egyptian_city.txt
plan Egyptian_Large_City egyptian_large_city.txt
plan Egyptian_Huge_City egyptian_huge_city.txt

in ‘PLANS BY LEVEL’ add:


plan_levels Egyptian_plan_levels
{
village Egyptian_Village
town Egyptian_Town
large_town Egyptian_Large_Town
city Egyptian_City
large_city Egyptian_Large_City
huge_city Egyptian_Huge_City
}

and in PLAN SETS

replace: eastnew Eastern_plan_levels
with: egyptian Egyptian_plan_levels

Step 7
Edit tags and text as in step 8 of DG’s tutorial (I think there are already Egyptian entries but best to check)

Step 8
Open up BI data\descr_banners.txt

Change eastnew to Egyptian

Step 9
I think that’s it. You’ll see that the Lombardi are using Egyptian buildings in battles. You need to adjust their export_descr_buildings to match Egyptian building production closer to make sure the last few are replaced (for example Christian churches etc). You can then edit portraits, ITEMS etc of the egyptians to any culture. I’m hoping I haven’t missed anything. If anyone finds anything post here. Cheers to Dol Guldur for sorting the process.

[Dol Guldur]

Hoggy,

Thx. Much appreciated. I've added in the link.

I've changed step 6 of my Guide to read:

Simply replace "barbarian," with "barbarian, chinese,"... which will avoid replacing any units (I thought I had it that way anyway - strange).

Thx. again.

[alpaca]

Has anyone tried how (and if) the Combat_V_Culture modifiers used in the traits file and with ancillaries work with new cultures?
Hope this is not hardcoded, maybe anyone can test it, I don't really have the time right now...

[Dol Guldur]

That's a great question, but I'm not going to have time to check it this week :(

Anyone?

[Rodion Romanovich]

Great guide, made adding a slavic culture easy!

[Rodion Romanovich]

Some things I've noticed:

- not editing diplomacy will result in messages like DRT_MESSAGE_BLA_ (looking like the tags for diplomatic messages) appearing instead of the real messages ingame. No crash. But editing them doesn't seem to fix the situation either! Has anyone successfully fixed a new culture with correct diplomatic messages? I tried to copy the roman section of the diplomacy file in Data/text, then editing the part "roman" to "slavic" (the name of my added culture), but to no avail. The diplomacy scroll still shows messages like DRT_MESSAGE_WELCOME_NEUTRAL etc. instead of the actual messages it should show. Screenshot:

https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y1.../diplomacy.jpg

- in order for building descriptions etc. to work in-game, you need to edit export_buildings.txt in Bi/data/text/.
1. Copy all entries of the form:
{proconsuls_palace_barbarian} Great Hall

{proconsuls_palace_barbarian_desc}
The Great Hall is an unmissable statement of might. The building's size and grandeur are intended to impress all who walk through its doors. The servants based here collect taxes, manage improvements to the settlement and carry out the 'business of empire'. The Great Hall allows for sophisticated development in the city outside its walls, as costly building works can now be undertaken. All aspects of government - civic, military and religious - can be improved as a result.

{proconsuls_palace_barbarian_desc_short}
The Great Hall is an unmissable symbol of the tribe's might. Those who live in its shadow can have no doubts as to who is in charge.

2. In the pasted copy, edit the tag from barbarian to your new culture. In this guide, it would be "chinese". For me, it was "slavic".

3. Edit the texts if desired

[Dol Guldur]

Legio,

Thanks for your post. I will have to look into the diplomatic element when I get time.

I usually think of the buildings on a factional basis - and mod faction-specific descriptions - which is why it probably never occurred to me to address this matter. Thx.

[Dol Guldur]

I have added Step 15 to the Guide which now allows you to set up all the diplomacy messages for your new culture.

Thanks to Legio for pointing out this omission. Legio, let me know if you can't get it to work - but I have tested it and it works for me.

IMPORTANT EDIT: Legio, it looks like you were right - though it is the bottom-most culture that gets displaced, not necessarily the new one. I have subsequently discovered the error your reported now exists for the Nomad culture after adding my new culture. It is strange that it should not allow another when everything else does - I won't have any time to revisit this for a few days :( Any help is appreciated.

Can a mod please sticky the tutorial? I think it's quite important.

[Dol Guldur]

Problem solved - full diplomacy messages now available for all cultures...

Note that the game rejects the last-occurring culture entry, so place Greek (or Egypt) entries at the bottom of the file for all BI culture diplomacy messages to work - this will not cause Greek diplomacy messages not to display correctly in R:TW as it is read from its own file in the R:TW data folder.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Wow, this is interesting. Shouldn't this mean it's possible to add some more cultures by removing for instance Egyptian too like greek was removed above? Then we could get 8 cultures