Acronyms Abbreviations Shorthand

Acronyms, Abbreviations & Shorthand used in the TW ("Total War") community, and here at the .Org (especially in the ETW Data pages).

Word 

Definition of the word

.bik 

Bink Video file format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bink_Video

CSV 

Comma-Separated Values, a text file format for exchanging data between programs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values

CTD 

Crash To Desktop (pronounced "see tee dee." It even has its own music video -- Carlos Mencia's "dee dee dee" song)

.dds 

Microsoft Direct Draw Surface file format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectDraw_Surface

ETW 

(or, E:TW) Empire: Total War (#5 in the TW series)

.fx 

Microsoft DirectX D3DXEffect Object definitions

GDP 

Gross Domestic Product: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDP

LUA 

Scripting language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_(programming_language)

.luac 

compiled LUA bytecode files. The LuaDec de-compiler can reverse engineer these: http://luadec.luaforge.net/

M2TW 

(or, M2:TW) Medieval 2: Total War (#4 in the TW series)

MIDI 

Musical Instrument Digital Interface sound file format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI

MiNO 

Medieval in Name Only, a contemptuous abbreviation for M2TW used by Megas Methuselah and others who were dissapointed with the game

MTW 

(or, M:TW) Medieval: Total War (#2 in the TW series)

RTI 

Road To Independence, the 6-part "episodic" mini-campaign / tutorial in E:TW.

RTW 

(or, R:TW) Rome: Total War (#3 in the TW series)

STW 

(or, S:TW) Shogun: Total War (#1 in the TW series)

TGA 

Truevision TGA graphic file format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truevision_TGA

VnV 

Vices and Virtues, introduced in M:TW, that has evolved into the Traits & Ancillaries system

WAV 

Microsoft sound file format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAV

AFAIK 

As far as I know