Mapping Tool

[ReluctantSamurai]

Is there a mapping tool for making custom tactical maps that could be imported into the original game?

I'll save the next logical question of how to import them provided there is such a tool.

Thanx:book:

[Makanyane]

did you mean campaign maps, eg where you see all the different countries?

if so there is the TIME editor see
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=117944

but I'd personally recommend making maps manually see
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=50437


for individual battle maps there is a tool built into game, but its not very user friendly.... please say if you meant that and I'll try and explain more.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Yes......I meant battle maps. I've done plenty enough cursing at the laziness & lack of imagination (IMHO) of the tactical maps.......'bout time I tried to put my money where my mouth is and see if I can do better.

I make maps for several other war games, and there seems to be a conspiracy by game producers to make mapmaking as difficult and confusing as possible by providing incomplete/inadequate or difficult-to-use mapping tools.:book:

Nevertheless, I'm willing to make a go of it, if there's a way:yes:

[Makanyane]

copying here some stuff I wrote for the Gahzette a while back (as it's easier to view on thread), some images and comments relate to M2TW


Editing the Landscape
(method originally explained by JimmyTwoHand)
You can also add a custom_location that has been edited in the battle_editor (with which you can have hours of fun). In RTW add –enable_editor to the properties line of the shortcut you start the game with, in exactly the same way you add –show_err. In M2TW add editor = true under [features] in your config file. Go into your options menu and you will see that a button for the battle editor has appeared, go into the editor and load the location you want to use from the map display. Once that is loaded into the editor you can change the contours of the land, the ground types used and add trees or buildings, settlements or ambient structures.
Fig 1:
https://img222.imageshack.us/img222/140/farmssmallix7.jpg (https://imageshack.us)
Fig 1. Shows the addition of a couple of farms and a small fortified house overlooking them. Press esc and save the battle using the name you want displayed. You’ll get a ‘Sanity Report’ saying very rude things about your sanity in trying to save a battle with no units or deployment areas, ignore that! Exit the editor and look in your world/maps/battle/custom folder, you will see a new folder with the saved battles name. Copy that folder into world/maps/custom. When you re-load the game you will find that your battle comes up as a new option on the custom battle menu.

Fig2:
https://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1064/gahzettecbrj5.jpg (https://imageshack.us)

Tweaks; the folder generated has a battle.txt file in it, you can change the weather condition used by default for the custom battle by changing the entry after 'weather' to any of the existing weather ID's for M2TW. If you read last months gahzette article and made new weather conditions you’ll be able to use those as well, you can use the constant_weather line mentioned there for historic battles to set the defaults for RTW. Once your custom battle location looks as you want it take a screenshot of an interesting view, resize it as above and save it as snapshot_custom.tga and place it in the relevant battle folder. Fig 2. Shows new custom battle image appearing on selection screen.

Warning: the battle editor is not a very user friendly thing, it’s a little light on explanatory information and seems to be missing an undo function. To avoid losing hours of work because you accidentally do something to ground profile you can’t correct make sure you make frequent saves.

Once you've made your edited custom battle map, you can also get it to appear at that location when you have a campaign map battle, for information on that search forums for "custom tiles".

More Fun for RTW users only….
(this won't work for M2TW, modders are still trying to unravel how settlement plans work for that)
Fig 3:
https://img229.imageshack.us/img229/4548/olympiabattleab6.jpg (https://imageshack.us)

In RTW you can make your own 'settlement plans' to combine objects items together to be placed on the battle map. You can do a lot more with this if you have someone making new models and importing them into game, but you can also have some fun just with existing items.

To add a new plan make a copy of an existing settlement plan from RTW/data/settlement_plans re-name it to ‘new_plan.txt' and add it to your mod_folder/data/settlement_ plans. Add it to the list of ambient plans at the bottom of descr_settlement_plans.txt eg:

plan new_plan new_plan.txt
also add it to descr_landscape_ambient_settlements.txt eg:

ambient_settlement new_plan
{
type special
plan new_plan
st -20

}
Next time you fire up the editor your new_plan should appear as an option under special pieces menu.

Existing plans have a format like
plan

{
floor underlay_name.cas overlay_name.cas
item_name, x co-ordinate, y co-ordinate, angle, height co-ordinate
}
the underlay.cas sets the shape of the ground under the plan and the overlay.cas colours it. An underlay appears to be essential though you can place objects beyond it. The overlay is not essential and if you’re playing with existing items might be better removed. You can view the contents of the existing plans by selecting and placing them in the battle editor. For example the olympia_battle.txt plan looks as shown in fig3. By copying the text file for that, placing it on a smaller underlay so the edge perimeter heights can be varied, deleting all the trees and large building items I made a little walled cemetery as shown in fig4.
Fig4:
https://img235.imageshack.us/img235/6236/graveyardvh9.jpg (https://imageshack.us)

The sharp eyed might note that having changed which underlay cas, some of the objects are floating slightly above ground level, they can be adjusted using the height co-ordinate, and that is were the hours of ‘fun’ can come in!
Be warned also that if you bury an object below ground level it still casts its shadow on the ground above, Gah!


useful links
JimmyTwoHand's thread:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=49984
Editor documentation (don't get too excited it doesn't explain a lot):
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=1162
placing custom tiles on campaign map:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=43149


while using the editor save frequently - it crashes randomly and also doesn't have an 'undo' mechanism for most of its functions!

[ReluctantSamurai]

while using the editor save frequently - it crashes randomly and also doesn't have an 'undo' mechanism for most of its functions!

Why am I not surprised:inquisitive:

Thanx Makanyane.......looks like I'll have to play around with it for awhile to get the hang of it........:dizzy2:

Sure wish those guys had continued their research into the use of it (from the links you provided:2thumbsup:)...................