How to change faction colours in the campaign map and other questions

[Masaniello]

Hello modders, I hope that someone of you can help me to solve this age-old problem in Medieval - Total War version 1.00.

Until now I managed to modify some campaign files (e.g.: early.txt) to play with "unplayable" factions, and I was able to solve some minor problem with names in "names.txt" too (e.g.: adding princess Uracca's missing translation in Italian), but I wasn't successful in changing colours.

I could find some threads talking about colours, but none of them is referred to my version of the game, I think, or i've been a bad retriever. Give me please some information; the black colour of the HRE, in particular, doesn't allow to correctly interpret the minimap on the top-left corner.

More, I would be happy to configure some different campaign to fit with earlier periods situations, from 500 to 1000 AD.

I am anxiously awaiting for your replies - Masaniello

[drone]

Not sure about v1.00, but with the VI expansion the faction colors are defined in the campaign startpos file (EARLY.txt, etc.). Look for the lines that start with "SetFactionCol::" these will specify the faction's major and minor colors in standard 3 number RGB groups. If you can't find those, let me know and I'll install without the expansion and look around.

Welcome to the Org, Masaniello! ~:wave:

[Masaniello]

I thank you very much, drone. By the way, it could be funny to see drone units :balloon2: in some TW production.

Following your tip, since I could not find any "SetFactionCol::" statement in EARLY.TXT, I tried to modify it adding the following text:

//Manually added by Me 2012-04-02
SetFactionCol:: FN_ALMOHAD 100 100 100

Where, instead of spaces among fields, I used the "tabulation" code (hex 09) as usual.

Result: when loading the campaign menu, the EARLY period doesn't appear at all :no:.

Either the format of the statement is not correct, or my version doesn't support it, in my opinion.

I would be happy if you could verify the matter. On the other hand I could try to find the Viking invasion pack, if still in commerce :book2: in the Italian version.

[drone]

With the expansion startpos files, the lines look like this (exact copy/paste here):

SetFactionCol:: FN_ALMOHAD 255 138 0 32 32 32
You would need 2 sets of numbers, major and minor. The Danish line looks like this:

SetFactionCol:: FN_DANISH 255 255 255 255 0 0
which gives the white/red combo.

But if the lines weren't in your EARLY.txt, the colors are probably specified elsewhere and adding them will make the parser fail on the file when the game comes up. There are v1 compatible mods out there that added factions, so I'm sure there is a way to do it.

[Masaniello]

I tried again copying and pasting your suggestion into EARLY.TXT, but the result was the same: no EARLY period available as a choice on the menu.

So, I agree with you: in version 1.00 faction colours have to be declared elsewere ... I think (and hope) that they are not inside the executable, because the logical structure used by the program to acquire game parameters and to translate everything into different languages denotes a very high level of flexibility, despite the year of production.

I detected an empty directory named "CustomGames", and the unique text file inside it says: "Contains the saved customgame configuration files created by the player. Each startpos has its own directory, containing the custom game files relevent for that startpos only".



There are v1 compatible mods out there that added factions, so I'm sure there is a way to do it...
This is an interesting information, links could be useful if you have some.

Hopefully RUL - Masaniello

[drone]

From the looks of this post (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?13171-Changes-to-startpos-files-in-VI), I'm guessing the faction color option was added to the startpos files with the VI release. I'm not familiar with the v1 file setup at all. Axalon should know, MTW Redux has both standard and VI versions.

[Masaniello]

Well, this thread sounds to me like "every thing I always wanted to know about MTW, but was afraid to ask": by reading the signalled post I could discover how many personalizazions it is possible to implement, including the addiction of new factions, resources or tradable goods.

You told me about a "VI" version. Unfortunately, my version seems to be an earlier one: the "Medieval.ver" file says me 1.00, the "version.inf" includes the following rows:
[Version Info]
ExtVersion=1.00
IntVersion=5.0
Language=16
Branch=0.0
QA=2738

I can't understand what MTW Redux may be, probably a later packaging of the product?
Concerning this, I could find both MTW Gold Edition and MTW Viking invasion on Amazon.com; someone of you knows which is the former and wich the later?

Anyway, I'll contact Axalon and ask him more explanation on this topic.

You gave me a big help drone, I thank you again :smiley2:, but please don't forget to refer to me any addictional information you could encounter in the immediate future.

[drone]

MTW Redux is a mod that Axalon created, it's hosted here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?263-MTW-Redux) at the Org.

MTW Gold is a combined pack (both MTW and VI together), Viking Invasion is just the separate expansion, the original game (which you have) is necessary. The VI expansion is worth it, the engine and AI is improved and it opened up the modding options. There is a surprising amount of modding flexibility with the game, both with little gameplay tweaks and full conversion mods.

Also, you might want to patch your installation, CA released a v1.1 patch for the original game. If you do get the VI expansion, there is a patch for that as well that gets you to the final rev v2.01 (the patch file you need for this depends on whether you get the Gold version or the separate expansion). You can find the patches on our host here (http://www.atomicgamer.com/directory.php?id=2732), they are very hard to find on CA's website. You want the one named "MTW_v1.1_US_Euro_RELEASE.zip" to update MTW to v1.1.

[Masaniello]

Mmmmm ... now I begin to understand something about different versions.
When you write "VI" you mean Viking Invasion, I suppose, not VI (sixth) as in roman numerals. Ok, acquired.

I downloaded and installed successfully the MTW_v1.1 patch, which has a lot of corrections and improvements, even if it does not solve my declared goal to change factions' colours. In short, I'll be obliged to expand to VI or to find the Gold Edition ... won't I?

A modder's life isn't so easy, I see. Forgive my perseverance, it has always been the juice of my life.

[drone]

Ah, sorry for the confusion. Just to clarify, here is the version history for MTW:

Base MTW game, released as v1.0. CA released a v1.1 patch for this.
Viking Invasion expansion released, this brought the engine to v2.0. A bug slipped through the cracks, and CA released a 2.01 patch to fix.
MTW Gold contains both MTW and Viking Invasion. Depending on the source, the engine will either be v2.0 or v2.01. The version number should appear in the corner when on the main menu screen. A separate patch for MTW Gold is available to bring it to v2.01, it's just the updated Medieval_TW.exe file.

If you want to upgrade, you can get either the Viking Invasion expansion or MTW Gold, whichever is cheaper and easier to find. Just make sure you run it at v2.01, or else your kings will die at age 56.

[Masaniello]

ROGER :2thumbsup:

P.S.: Of course MTW Gold Edition & MTW 2 ar quite different ... aren't they?

[Axalon]

Hello Masaniello,

You wanted my comments on this stuff, so here goes.... In short, you can forget all about changing colours as long as you don't work with VI/v.2.01. In v.1.1 faction-colours are all hardcoded no matter what you do. Sad but true....

There is one option left, that is to rename factions within the files, and that way create the illusion of different colors assigned to faction X - however this is strictly out of the existing faction colours. And, all that means plenty of work and a bunch of other things that can go wrong as well in the process, so I would hardly recommend it. It is easier to just buy whatever V.2.01 version you can find (don't have a clue if the V.2.xx+ was ever localized. If so, try to get an English version. That is my suggestion anyways, less fuss that way).

That said, personally I actually prefer the v.1.1-experience above VI/v.2.01 on general terms. I know that this is total blasphemy around here to say such a thing but it is the truth. As modder however, I'll take the VI/v.2.01 any day, as it is easier and friendlier to work with - less screwed up essentially. And you get more options there. Anyways, if you do decide to stick with V.1.1 you can still play a bunch of major mods like Redux, Medmod and probably Italia TW as well (I think? Have I forgotten some stuff?). The rest of the major stuff are solely made for VI/v.2.01, while Redux, Medmod (different version) and Italia TW are available for that version as well. Alright, that's that...

- A

[Kront the King]

Hello Masaniello,

You wanted my comments on this stuff, so here goes.... In short, you can forget all about changing colours as long as you don't work with VI/v.2.01. In v.1.1 faction-colours are all hardcoded no matter what you do. Sad but true....

There is one option left, that is to rename factions within the files, and that way create the illusion of different colors assigned to faction X - however this is strictly out of the existing faction colours. And, all that means plenty of work and a bunch of other things that can go wrong as well in the process, so I would hardly recommend it. It is easier to just buy whatever V.2.01 version you can find (don't have a clue if the V.2.xx+ was ever localized. If so, try to get an English version. That is my suggestion anyways, less fuss that way).

That said, personally I actually prefer the v.1.1-experience above VI/v.2.01 on general terms. I know that this is total blasphemy around here to say such a thing but it is the truth. As modder however, I'll take the VI/v.2.01 any day, as it is easier and friendlier to work with - less screwed up essentially. And you get more options there. Anyways, if you do decide to stick with V.1.1 you can still play a bunch of major mods like Redux, Medmod and probably Italia TW as well (I think? Have I forgotten some stuff?). The rest of the major stuff are solely made for VI/v.2.01, while Redux, Medmod (different version) and Italia TW are available for that version as well. Alright, that's that...

- A

Wow, this was a good helpful read in regards to my aspirations to build a VI style/editable color start_pos file for v1.1. I guess I might need to seek the retro disk to replace the one my PC ate. :\

But this settled my mind as to if colors can be changed in the original format.

Thanks for pointing me here, drone, and my thanks to, Axalon, for taking the time to share this with the forum, you save folks a lot of hair pulling by doing this. ;P

That said, there is a lot to love in the v1.1 game and none of the prebattle angst that makes you dread a loss before a fight, and allows both sides to set up a blitz for the beginnig of every battle. It runs like the original Shogun, where you just get the units you got at random and you're more prone to fight a battle you might have simply simulated out of hopelessness in the VI version. :) I miss certain of the new units in VI and the ability to make those simple changes, like you point out, but the first MTW is still a great format! ;)