Modding in a clean way

[Re Berengario I]

I just started to mod MTW wanting to create a mod for a period earlier than the official early one. It starts at 1000 and it will be centered around the struggle between the Pope and the Empire plus the Byzantine of course (they're just after the reconquista period having Antiochia back).
There are no Normans in Sicily which is a muslim reble region. Anyway the details will be posted when the mod will be playable.

Since now I successfully modified the Europa Map (VI installation) having the need to make Venice an island with a city state and cutting easy way to access to Constantinolple, Maroc-Granada, Frisia-Wessex (as it was in reality) so to force invaders to mess with ships.

My problem is that to make the map to work I had to edit the official campaigns ones in textures\campmap so I lose complete compatibility with the original game. Trying to tell the startpos to load those maps in a different dir made the game go boom.

It also seems to me, at first glance (and trials), that other official files need to be edited to avoid crashes and there's no way to clean have different directories where to install a new mod (alà VI).

Am I wrong or there is another way I ignore?

Thanks for any help and greeting to everyone (being this my fits post).

[Lord Of Storms]

Greetings RB,editing the campmap is a bit tricky and I would suggest you search and read through the many pinned topics in the Dungeons Repository on this to get the latest tips, also theres a nice program being developed for campmap making called LMM or lukmapmaker which takes the guess work out of map making topic on this can be found in the dungeon as well,many have found that editing the campmap with such tools as paint, and photshop upset the intended color scheme in a way that will cause the game to crash, Hence the need for a program like LMM, also as to your question, this topic relates to that very well,(see link at the bottom )
treating the mod files as an expansion if you will this topic lays out the process step by step and may help, but I would be suspect of the map editing because of the color problem I mentioned ...LOS
How to make an expansion in VI (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=5;t=9246)

[Re Berengario I]

Thanks Lord.

I was searching exactly that kind of post.

The maps were working well even if I didn't use LMM.
I used mithel java program to convert the lbm files to png ones, opened the png in Ulead Photoimpact (it's handier than Photoshop for this sort of editing) and then the saved png back to lbm always with mithel prog.

I put the new maps in the main textures\campmap dir and I played with the modified maps for 200 years in early campaign, but I didn't want people to got rid of the ufficial maps to play my MOD(I have 2 different installations to test stuff). http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Then I used subdirs (setting them in a new startpos the way used in the viking startpos) but everything went boom http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/pissed.gif

I strongly suspect that is the startpos file my well of sorrows... I cannot find a coherent formatting that works with it still (examining it sometimes it seems that it's required the exact number of tabs, other times there's a mix of spaces and tabs with no order and it works fine, **shrug**). http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

[Lord Of Storms]

That seems the nature of the beast that is the startpos file, I have noticed more so in the VI version that the file is very sensitive to changes, what doesnt work one minute will work the next, it is very touchy, but trial and error makes for a good teacher, just be sure to back things up and I find making one change then run the game to check for the desired effect, tedious but effective and a time saver...LOS