Making a new campaign map.

[RTW King]

Sorry found it. BTW, in BI, in descr_regions.txt there is an extra line just below the region name saying

legion: whatever

Also, at the resources, they all have one called after a faction like berber or britain. Does anyone know what this does?

[Tittils]

The legion entry can be ignored. My map runs perfectly fine without the legion line in descr_regions.

[killerxguy]

Thanks! This toturial WAS HELPFUL!

[Mandragore]

long time no post here i don't want to create a new thread just for a little question i got a strange trouble with my new campaign map my map work but it's not at the center of the screen i think my map undergoes a shift has right,2 tiles on right i think. sizes of my maps:
map_ground_types 513*461
map_heights 513*461
map_regions 256*230
map_climates 513*461
map_features 256*230
map_roughness 512*460
map_trade_routes 256*230


i use 1.3 with bi for my map and use map_heights convertor and delete rwm file
every time i start the map.
i hope somebody can help me and if the similar question exist redirect me on it.

[Mandragore]

screenshoot of the trouble https://img456.imageshack.us/img456/2636/screenbug9bq.jpg (https://imageshack.us) here one can even the sea which does not exist and on the other to dimension a part misses~:confused:

[tbeal99]

can anyone help me campeign map doesn't work. I started buidling it off of the original BI files first I made the map smaller - I then tested it with the new smaller maps and descr_regions(all 25 regions with settlements in them) and obviously it din't work but it got to the campeign selection bit and even came up with an error message telling me that regions in desc regions aren't the same as those in the lookup and text files. So then I changed the text/campeign_etc.text and the lookup file to include all the names of the regions and removed the old text. Obviously this shouldn't be enough to make the campeign work as the old desc strat is still in data but now it just ctd's without error message and I check the text files for errors and even change all the bits in the strat but it still ctd's. help

[Tellos Athenaios]

"I don’t know what the triumph point value is." - Myrddraal

In the Extended Greek Mod, you would need a Victory Monument to build epic stone walls. Now, the thing is: this Victory Monument would only appear in certain cities, after certain victories. (I didn't really care for the Monument, since I always would eliminate it's function.) So maybe this triumph point value allows a Victory Monument to be build?

[Makanyane]

Is there a correct way of dealing with the one pixel difference between the map_regions.tga and a half sized map_heights.tga?

We're using satellite info to make a new map, satellite info has lovely detailed coastline. Tryed starting using this for the map_heights then reducing down to map_regions and filling in region colours but couldn't get this version to work at all.

2nd attempt shrunk satellite info to map_regions size first, then expanded it back to map_heights size, this ran OK but had chunky coastline because of the simplification. (If this is the way you're meant to do it, are there any rules about how far and in which direction you can go in adding detail to the coastline on map_heights?)

3rd attempt as 2nd but then pasted detailed version of satellite map back in to map_heights, this worked eventually but there was a misalignment on various points around the coast (not consistent) that gave loads of can't build port / settlement errors that then had to be amended on the corrected_regions.tga.

All above was experimenting using the same .txt regions as an existing mod so we didn't have to change text files too much, we're just about to start building the map for our mod so would be grateful for advice.

[Sylesia]

I take it this way of editting the map does not work in version 1.5? I have that installed, along with games going (which if needed, I will lose), but when I went in search of about half the files I should have in the Imperial folder, they weren't there. Is it just me, or must I down grade it? And if this was already asked/answered, I apologize.

[Ciaran]

Makanyane:
If you use the resizing function in Photoshop you should be careful which option you use for the picture calculation. Pixel Repetition (is that the right name, my version isn´t English) works fine with me, bicubic does not (it interpolates colours at the borderlines and RTW can´t handle the smudged colours that are the result).
As well, lock proportions when resizing.

Sylesia: Yes, that´s right, the Imperial Campaign folder doesn´t hold all files necessary for a complete campaign. The missing ones are in the Base folder. But it´s been that way ever since, it´s not a 1.5 issue.

[Tittils]

Use the "nearest neighbour" option when resizing.

[Makanyane]

Thanks chaps, I think the resizing was a problem with the early attempts, am using Paint Shop Pro and found 'Pixel Resize' seems to be the one to use in that. Misalignment problem was down to mis-use of 'paste into selection' and wasn't actually causing crashes (found out by accidentally loading a heights file from a previous - different topography but same file sized version - that the misalignment doesn't cause crash, just generates weird corrected_regions.tga).

Main problem seems to be that we were hovering on the edge of the sea v. landmass percentage limit. Hadn't realised it was so low! Largest percentage sea I could find on a working map was 27% (via. histogram in PSP). Have tried on squared off maps to work out exact limit but biggest I've got to work so far is only about 24% with a division, see below:
https://img61.imageshack.us/img61/8201/mapregions4ze.jpg (https://imageshack.us)
Without division it didn't work. Could be that the extra land tipped the balance but tests on europe type map show that dividing off atlantic sea from the med allows previously non-working map to load; so division of sea area seems to affect the allowable sea/landmass ratio?!

Does anyone know definitive answers on this, ie. exact ratio, and effect of separate seas?

[edyzmedieval]

I've got a small problem with a map. I have a "beach" near a river. It's not properly a beach, a small patch of land.

Nothing too annoying, except that the water runs a bit through it!!!
Any idea how to remove this?

I edited map_heights.tga, but nothing changed. Should I convert it?

Help! :help:

[Uranos]

Could you show a pic?

[edyzmedieval]

Works now. ~:)

Fixed it. Issue of map_heights.

[edyzmedieval]

Can't I change somehow the pattern of map_heights.tga?

Doing some low mountains, it proves to be a nightmare. I can't even see the tiles. :furious3:

:help:

EDIT: Fixed. Problem of overlapping colours, which made mountains too low to be visible.

[nikolai1962]

Looking at the vanilla map_regions there is one pixel of sea between the left map edge and spain and one pixel of sea between the top edge of the map and hibernia. On map_hieghts and map_groundtypes there is a 3 pixel gap so i *think* the extra pixel on those two is on the top and left edge and everywhere else it is 2 pixels for 1. This works so far on my very simple map but could just be a coincidence.


You can get the error "settlement (Name of settlement) is on an invalid tile at x, y" etc when you have a unit from a different faction on that square like when you've moved a settlement from one faction to another but haven't moved the starting unit. The odd error message can make this tricky to spot.

[Mirconus the Great]

Hi, guys...
:help: I also have a problem which is driving me crazy:wall: ...: I made everything that's written in here to add 2 new regions (Bretagne and Locus_suevii). So far i passed over all errors related to my new provinces, that means fixed any problem shown by show_err... Great...:laugh4: I was happy... But now it shows a new "show_err" type problem which sounds like this:
Error in bi/data/world/maps/campaign/The_Barbarian_Kingdoms/descr_strat.txt on column... at row...
Invalid tile value(0, 0) for the settlement of
It even doesn't show me the name of the settlement and, however, the point at those coordonates is blank...!!!
If anyone could help me, I'd be very thanksful:dizzy2:

[Tittils]

That means that one of your cities are standing on a sea tile.

[Mirconus the Great]

No, it isn't that... I couldn't find any settlement standing on a sea tile... Nor did ports or province tiles...
Anything else?

[Mirconus the Great]

Sorry for posting again, but, as i couldn't edit my post i had to do it.I also watched out for any "intruder" colour in my regions, but no way of them... What can it be?

[Mirconus the Great]

Oh, improvements... i redrew my regions, made again everything with the highest attention and now it tell s me that the settlement of Vicus Suevii (one of the new ones) is on invalid tile (0,0)...:skull: .
Again, i put the settlement in correct place (not on mountains, rivers, sea tiles etc.)

[Monkwarrior]

I've receive this type of message when there was a pixel of a non-defined color.
Look at all your region limits (also coast lines), just to see if there is some "lost pixel".

In that case the game detects a new region (the lost pixel), without a settlement and it tries to put it at (0,0).

In my case, the "lost pixel hunting" (the magic selection tool of Photoshop with zero tolerance was extremely useful :juggle2: ) solved this problem.

Good luck!:2thumbsup:

[xiong2811]

I am trying to increase the size of the Mundus Magnus map (about 1.5 times the original), and have been partially successful. My steps are outlined as follows using PS9 CS2:

1. map_regions - image resized to 1.5 x original
2. fixed the cities to one pixel RGB (0 0 0)
3. removed ports from map_regions and descr_strat
4. resized climates, ground types, roughness according to guide
5. using blanks/empty features and trade routes, with correct sizes
6. resized the radar maps
7. did not chnage the water surface tga
8. used the heights converter

I load up the game, and all goes well into the faction selection screen. After selecting a random faction, the screen transitions as usual. Thprogress bar keeps loading until it reaches maybe 55-60% before CTD.

What do you think could cause this problem?

:help: :dizzy2: :wall:

[Marcus Valerius MAximilianus]

i get error in descr_strat.txt saying expected faction - must add at leat two to the world. What should i do?

[Makanyane]

Marcus, try looking for errors in descr_strat before the
;>>>> start of factions section <<<<
if its got something above that it doesn't recognise it stops reading file so doesn't get to the settlements / factions part.
We had this within resources section when a comment was missing its ';'

xiong2811, have just had a similar one caused by trying to change radar maps (don't know what I did wrong yet) back yours up somewhere and try it without them (it loads just doesn't look pretty).

[Marcus Valerius MAximilianus]

Do i have to colour all ground in map_regions or can i leave some regions b&w ( copy of map_heights ) ??


Well my first very square px campaign map is working. Now i have made one new map that is more detailed.....only now i get CTD when it starts to load ( most of times dont creates .rmw )....what should i do?

[Marcus Valerius MAximilianus]

Nerer mind, yesterday at late night i had some strange ideas that were gone as soon i woke up this morning :furious3:

so now im working and we will see :thumbsup:

[Marcus Valerius MAximilianus]

Yes i have made it but now i have few questions:

1. why isnt map more detailed? Is becuase of size ( map_heights is 833*513 ). How do i fix this???

2. Why are violet spots on my map????

3. Thnks to this tutorial!!!!!

https://img53.imageshack.us/img53/7822/mapa4di.th.jpg (https://img53.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mapa4di.jpg)


https://img53.imageshack.us/img53/1220/tretja9nl.th.jpg (https://img53.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tretja9nl.jpg)

https://img53.imageshack.us/img53/634/druga9ny.th.jpg (https://img53.imageshack.us/my.php?image=druga9ny.jpg)

https://img53.imageshack.us/img53/4205/prva2nm.th.jpg (https://img53.imageshack.us/my.php?image=prva2nm.jpg)

[Makanyane]

Think pink bits are due to the colours on your map_ground_types being not exactly the right RGB value - refer back to page 1 of this thread for values.

Your heights looks fairly detailed to me, in game map doesn't start looking very good until you've tweaked ground types etc. Game unfortunately has nasty repeat patterns in mountains which give lots of little peaks rather than faithfully following the heights profiles, so generally avoid having large continuous blocks of the 'mountains high' terrain, mix in mountains low, hills and forest.

This is from map by Wilddog
https://img465.imageshack.us/img465/7721/wilddogmap29fc.th.jpg (https://img465.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wilddogmap29fc.jpg)

This did start from satellite data but ended up with mountains being raised within inaccessible areas for effect on the strat map.

[Piko]

Which editor should I use for Tga files? And where can I get it?

[edyzmedieval]

Adobe Photoshop or Corel Paint Shop Pro.
www.corel.com

Anyhow, I have a question. :help:
How can I equalize the colours fast? I mean, is there a formula?
Colour overlapping problem.

I have problems with the landbridge stuff. I put the pixel, but because of colour overlapping, it's totally different from what I wanted it to be. Plese help!!!

[Duke John]

I think you mean anti-aliasing? If you use PSP: set Hardness and Opacity to 100. In PS use the pencil tool (use help if you can't find it).

Edit: ...

[edyzmedieval]

I think so. Anyhow, I'll try it. Thanks. :book:

[Makanyane]

Also problem with land bridges can be due to lack of correspondence with map_heights. If map_heights has too big a gap it willl generate a corrected_regions.tga that does not have a land bridge. Look up the corrected_regions.tga in your main total_war folder to see if that is the problem.

[edyzmedieval]

Hmmm...

I'm modding the EB map, but the thing is, the landbridges practically are non-existant on the map_regions.tga. For example, when you cross the Bosphorus strait with a character, he walks over, no problems. But modding wise, there's no pixel in the strait!!! :help:

Help?:help:

[Makanyane]

edyzmedieval, are you looking at the corrected_regions.tga which will be at the folder level of your .exe file? If two pixels join corner to corner on that you will get a land bridge. Corrected_regions is generated when you make a new map.rwm to show you what the game is using inside the map.rwm.

If the corrected_regions is not showing the result you want you need to change the coastline in map_heights.tga as that is what is over-riding map_regions.tga.

[edyzmedieval]

Thanks Makanyane. I'm still a n00b at landbridges. :dizzy2:

[Encaitar]

Try this (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=52483) tutorial for help on land-bridges.

[Unit 35]

Are there any rules of placing ports?

because it keeps crashing back to the menu and when i quit i have an error saying that i have a port in an invaild postions, but when i look at my regions everything looks ok.

[Makanyane]

Make sure white pixel for port has at least one side adjacent to the sea and not just a corner. As above make sure you are checking this on the corrected_regions.tga as this is the one the game is effectively using (it is the adjustment of your map_regions to suit your map_heights coastline, so port may have moved inland on this!).

When you get the error message it should give you either a map co-ordinate or a line number in descr_strat referencing the port it can't build.

To check out a map co-ordinate remember that the game works from 0,0 = bottom left hand side; PaintShopPro etc have 0,0 = top left.

If message gives line number which is the last line in descr_strat, it could be that you have more than one white pixel in a region.

[Unit 35]

woah! whats up with the corrected regions? on mine it looks like a combination of the old map and mine.

[edyzmedieval]

Corrected regions is basically what's shown in map.rwm

Edit map_regions.tga to make sure your port is in the correct position, then delete map.rwm. Run and enjoy.

[Makanyane]

It is possible that only problem is you not deleting map.rwm, so do try that first.
However

on mine it looks like a combination of the old map and mine.
sounds like you haven't changed map_heights to correspond with your new map. Map_heights always over-rules the other maps to produce the coastline and corrected_regions tries to adapt the map_regions to fit.

[Unit 35]

ok so after a week of war my map is done, i want to start putting factions on it, but i want to see whats happening.

On other peoples screen shots i can see that they can see the whole map, i tryed changing the prferences to false on the fog of war but nothing happened

So is is possible to turn of the fog of war on the campaign map?

[Caesar5321]

Hi ive followed all of your instructions, switching on -show_err etc but my make just is not working, i made it only basic so that nothing would happen. Ive asked a few people and they dont know whats going on ??? if you could :help: i would realy appricate it. Here is were ive benn asking https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=65422 but you can download the map here http://www.filehosting.cc/download.php?id=7BF9F5EB i realy dont know whats going on please please help!!!!

:2thumbsup: thanks :2thumbsup:

[Makanyane]

Unit 35, when you are in the game hit the `¬ button (below Esc) on your keyboard to open rome shell type in that
toggle_fow
hit return, then hit `¬ again to lose the command line.
doing same again turns fog of war back on.

[Marius Dynamite]

Hi,

I made a new province and when I try to run it I get this error.


Script Error in data/world/maps/campaign/my_campaign/descr_strat.txt, at line 37, column 1.

Expected faction - must add at least 2 factions to the world.

line 37 is the win_conditions line. anyone have anything that can help?

[Mandragore]

1)the message is clear you can't play with only one faction you need to added more factions in descr_strat file

2)there is no "win_condition" line in descr_strat
another file is called desc_win_condition
or maybe i am blind or it's new descr_strat file :dizzy2:

here a few part of original "descr_strat" file


; Custom campaign script generated by Romans Campaign Map Editor

campaign imperial_campaign
playable
romans_julii
romans_brutii
romans_scipii
end
unlockable
egypt
seleucid
carthage
parthia
gauls
germans
britons
greek_cities
end
nonplayable
romans_senate
macedon
pontus
armenia
dacia
numidia
scythia
spain
thrace
slave
end


start_date -270 summer
end_date 14 summer

brigand_spawn_value 10
pirate_spawn_value 28


here a few part of "descr_win_conditions"



romans_julii
imperator
short_campaign outlive_factions
gauls

romans_brutii
imperator
short_campaign outlive_factions
macedon greek_cities

romans_scipii
imperator
short_campaign outlive_factions
carthage numidia

macedon
take_rome
short_campaign outlive_factions
greek_cities thrace

[Marius Dynamite]

Thanks, somehow I had win_conditions section. Anyway I deleted it and I am past that problem. :2thumbsup:

[WImPyTjeH]

with what program do i open TGA file because i can't open it with any editor i have :help:

W

[WImPyTjeH]

nevermind, i found it :sweatdrop:

thanks for tut ;)

W

[WImPyTjeH]

another question, when i have to resize the .tga files, how do i size them double the size of the previous ones

just paste my new map-regions in it and resize them from 255 * 156 to 510 * 312 ?

or something else: what do you mean with: "add one pixel" ?

W

[methoz]

ok,but i want to add onlly one region to the map...only region,nothing other changes...
how?

[Makanyane]

Try this tutorial its a bit old but looks like what you need:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=51387

[Neon twilight]

I've a problem porting my map on BI, it worked before on RTW without any problems but now it just return back to the menu and I don't know why...

I've made these changes for the port.
Descr_strat
- Changed RTW faction names for BI (factions names/city creator/diplomacy)
- Changed generals names for BI's
- Added "options BI" line

Descr_regions
- Added religion (pagan 100) to every region
- Changed faction/rebel faction names for BI's

I've kept RTW regions names in descr_regions and descr_regions_and_settlement_name_lookup

And also generated a map_height with HGT_converter

[Csatadi]

How can I make a lake?
I modified ground_types but it seems another change is needed.

[Makanyane]

The important file to modify to get water is map_heights.tga. The area you want as lake has to be the blue (sea) colour in that. If you have a map_heights.hgt currently you will either need to delete or remake that depending on which version of game you are running.

Please note that the lake will always appear at 'sea level' (equivalent of 0,0,0) in heights, so if you make one in an area much higher than that you'll have to adjust the heights around it or get unwanted very steep slopes down to it in the game!

[Csatadi]

I do this to MTW2.
Thanks! I will try it!
What about the water surface file?

[Csatadi]

Ok. Im ready.

Edit: Successed! I have the lake!

[nikolai1962]

Minor thing. If a region is completely surrounded by cliffs (the yellow lines in map_features.tga) then the game won't let you place a settlement there. You have to have a break.

(i'm guessing it is the cliff that stop rebels spawning in regions like that too.)

[Roman_Man#3]

I probably missed because I didnt want to read through all the pages, but are you going to update the guide so it has the properties of the other maps? like froughness, trade routes etc.


Other than that, great guide.

[Makanyane]

I could be wrong but I don't think anyone every worked out what map_roughness and map_trade_routes actually do. You have to have them and they need to be the right size (or you get error message) but having plain black ones doesn't seem to make any difference.

[Roman_Man#3]

oh, well that makes it alot easier to make a new map.

[wlesmana]

I thought map_trade_routes control the route the trade ships would follow from port to port? They don't seem to affect anything though and even ignores coastlines. So it's only used as graphical element, not gameplay.

[Ramashan]

Ok, so maybe I bit off more than I could chew.:wall:

I tried creating my own personalized map after reading the tutorial at the start of this thread. And, well, I can't get past the 'choose faction' portion of the screen. I am a newbie at all this moding stuff and from what I'm reading, this CTD right after choosing a faction is more than likely due to a problem in one of the maps right?

Because I created a short cut as suggested by Myddral early on in this thread. But when it CTD I get now error message. I deleted the map.rwm file and a new one has not been created after any of the crashes.

I have gone through all the Targa maps with a fine tooth comb, looking in all the the different color channels and squinting my eyes two inches from the monitor, and I can't find any stray pixels.

I checked the sizing and that all seems to be correct. I checked and rechecked that the region colors on the map_regions.tga all match up in the descr_regions folder. I double checked all my spelling to make sure the regions names agree every where. I placed a black dot with a true 0,0,0 in each region.

For map_heights, I made the water 0,0,255 and all the land 1,1,1. I just used this same file map_roughness.

For map_climates, I used 237,20,91 Fertile Temperate Grassland - Dark Pink for the land and 236,0,140 Mediterranean - Pink for my water just to have some variety with testing.

For map_ground_types I used 96,160,64 Fertile Medium for all the land and 196,0,0 Shallow sea for all the water.

I used just a black screen for map_trade_routes

Now, I didn't change radar_map1 or radar_map2, do these need to match the new land mass in the other maps? Also, I can't tell if I am exceeding the 24% water limit. Right now I am just too fried to go changing all the maps to test this. But its the only other thing I can think of, so I'll attack that tomorrow and see if it solves my problem.

I'm sort of at the end of my knowledge here and am at a loss. Any suggestions or advice would be well recieved. Thanks.:help:

[Ramashan]

So, of course, right after I send my post, I find where the error messages are hid. This is what it says:

Texture Load Error!: Textures\_land_default.tga.

Anyone know what that means?

[Ramashan]

NVM I solved many of my mistakes. Just started over and got it to work, now to make changes in little steps.

[Caius]

Do i have to mod all the files to make a new mine map?

[adembroski]

Does it matter what colors you use on the regions map?

[Caius]

Yes.You have to know the colors

[adembroski]

Yes.You have to know the colors

Meaning what colors I assign to what province? or a specified list of what colors are permissable?

The first is pretty clear, the second is what I'm wondering... if the game will recognize province of any color, so long as they're each different.

[Caius]

Meaning what colors I assign to what province
That

[Roman_Man#3]

It doesnt really matter what colour it is, just try to stay away from anything blue, that resembles what the actual water looks like. Apart from that, any colour is good, but never use the same colour for two different provinces, or else you will get a CTD.

Cheers~:wave: ,
RM3

ps. I think I stole that cheers thing from someone.

[Ossie The Great]

Hi does anyone have a guide or know how to make a whole new map so i could make one around india or something :grin:

[Caius]

Hi does anyone have a guide or know how to make a whole new map so i could make one around india or something :grin:
Check the BHD method

[adembroski]

defenses (notice that CA can’t spell defences)

American spelling:)

[Ossie The Great]

Check the BHD method
thanks :grin:

[Ramashan]

So, I was able to make most of the changes in the strat text file but whenever I made a change to the map tga's it would CTD. It drove me bonkers.

Finally I pulled the map.rmw file out of the Base folder and it loaded no problem. Just thought I would share in case anyone else is banging their heads against the desk wondering why your map wont work.

[Red Spot]

Hiya guys,


Have modded my game so much you can hardly even recognize it, mostly thanks to the info found here, but now I stumbed upon something I really cant get my head around ...

I'd like a bigger map so I made the vanilla map 4 times as big by basicly mirroring the original map, been working on it for 2 weeks and no matter what I did I couldnt get it to actually run, I could however get it to make a map.rwm file ...

decided after I found out that I made too many errors that I'd be better of with a new map that I could start testing from a basic level, so I made a map thats ~180% the size of the vanilla map, all tga's are in order, it even generates a "corrected_regions.tga" map, but no map.rwm ..

according to me these maps are all fine and everthing else is in order except for the descr_strat file but thats unimportant for forming a map.rwm file (afaik)


I packed up the map based on the last files (regions corrected according the corrected version) and included just about anything I think might make a diff.
would someone with some good mapmaking exp. please have a look at it, hoping I just forgat something, as I'm really in the dark here ..
(and at the brink of abonding mapmaking all together, as when I make a small quick and dirty map it works from the start, but a map I inversted 2 weeks on only causes problems .....)

Thanks in advance

ps;I want to use this as the imperial camp., but on failure I also check out the map in a provincial camp. just to be on the safe side ...


G

[Red Spot]

oops ..

forgat the link to the .zip

my map;
http://members.home.nl/redspot/RSMapRTW.zip


G

[Makanyane]

Hi Red Spot, you appear to have a problem with too much sea.
I just experimented with your campaign and painted the map_heights.tga all 'black' (RGB 1,1,1 or greyer - don't use 0,0,0) and it generated map.rwm then. It's a shame as I thought you might have narrow enough and complex enough shapes for it to work...
See here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=66332
for some discussion on the issue. Try narrowing the 'seas' at some points, you might get away with slight narrowing but may need to actually let points of adjoining land areas touch so you get 'land-bridge' effect (or completely physically dividing areas off). You only need to change the map_heights.tga to experiment to get to something workable as you don't have ports you can ignore map_regions.tga for now. If tweaking sea areas doesn't work you might just have to make it to a smaller scale.

btw I only tested it as far as getting the map.rwm; it gave KTM and error about NightBattle trait after that.

[Red Spot]

Thank you very much Makanyane ..;)

I'd never had come to that my map only has slightly more waterpixels than the vanilla but in precentage I guess its smaller ..:dizzy2:

Thing is, I want to create a sort of part Iland-battle, part long stretches of land, cliffs, rocks, etc I dont need, but I do like to make crossing over more than just having to have been in a ship (why I tried to keep some deep_sea in the middle of the rivers

I'll check the link you gave me and see how much can be done about the problem without having to revert to really altering the map ..

EDIT 1: just added a few patches of land near the center of map and it worked ..:2thumbsup:

now I'm thinking about enlarging the map as its seems by dropping in a few "rocks along the coastline" I can not only make my map larger but also make it a bit nicer to the eye ...

EDIT 2: got the previous map to work (it still CTD'ed when I viewed a settlement not set up in descr_strat), so I decided to make a quick and dirty conversion of it to where the same map 50% bigger has the east and west oceans split, seems the aproach worked as I now have about the same water on a much larger map ..

didnt come without a problem ..
map.rwm was generated, the loadinbar appeared and when just 1/2 finished loading I still get a CTD
the descr_strat is only altered for the positions of the amies, the map.rwm file is generated so the tga's and water% are ok, and any other file was ok before and stayed unaltered

anyone have an idea what can cause this??
I've been through all files like 3 times now but cant seem to find a thing wrong with them ..


G

[Makanyane]

If it was perhaps more than half way along the loading bar it might be to do with radar maps, did you resize them again to match map_regions? What first post in tutorial says on that is actually wrong, too large a radar_map will crash game at I thought about 2/3rds way along loading bar. You can just leave old ones in or for later patch versions delete them entirely.

You can't edit posts as you are currently a junior member, I will try and merge your posts later if I find right button... If you disappear into oblivion as a result of my attempt I apologise most sincerely! :embarassed:

EDIT: merge appears to have worked, yay, I knew I'd get the hang of this eventually....

[Red Spot]

Thanks for the edit and reply Makanyane ..

You mean the tutorial is wrong where is says that the radar2 map has to be 2* the size map_regions is??

As iirc that is exactly what I did, resize the original map to be 2* my maps size ..

I'll be tempering with it right now ..;)


G

[Red Spot]

nope that wasnt it, I resized the map to be the size of my map_regions but it seems to make no difference, the crash comes at the same time ..


well I'll be widening the crack in my scull tomorrow ...:dizzy2:


G

[Makanyane]

it says:

radar_map1.tga
- This is the minimap for the campaign. It should be the same size as map_regions.tgawhich is true if map is same-ish size as original but not if you have much larger map_regions.tga than original, which I think you do now!

If you are using RTW 1.5 or BI 1.6 you can safely just delete radar_maps (re-name them to something else), and see it it loads then...

if that is problem you can re-instate them later by just making radar_map1 a proportionate but lesser size than regions and making radar_map2 twice the size of the new smaller version of r_m1.

[Red Spot]

Than I dont think its the radarmap, as I'm on v1.5 (have BI so actually 1.6) and already deleted radar1 in order to get my entire map to show on the radarmap ..

could it possibly still be the amount of water??

I'm of to work but'll see if modding the amount of sea has any impact when I get home ..


G

[Red Spot]

Dont recall having informed you about my middle name ...
its ... "Idiot!" .....:inquisitive:


Almost went nuts as I could just take my map and, 1 2 3 I had quick and dirty working slighty smaller version, so I was 100% sure the files where fine, but no matter what the darn huge map didnt load ..
Ended up again thru a few tutorials including the one you linked me to, up to the point where there is mentioned that the size of a map would reach its limit at 1021*1021(map_heights), that made me hurt myself as my map_heights is 1201*735 ...


yet an other mystery solved ..:P


G

[Gandalf the White]

whenever I load up RTW and try to play my mod it goes back to the previous screen! HELP!!

[Makanyane]

Gandalf the White, are you asking here because you have just tried making a new campaign map? Anyway you should refer to the modders guide to CTD's (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=58801). (what you have is known as a KTM = Kick back To Menu)

Instead of making this tutorial thread of infinite length it would be better if questions not related to a specific point in the tutorial were posted as new threads in the Modding Questions (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=73) forum.

For some general advice see here (http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Campaign_Map_Not_Loading:_RTW). Please note the bit about information to include when asking question:

What game are you modding? (RTW or BI) Which patch version? (eg 1.2 or 1.5)
Are you modding a released mod that you have downloaded? If so please state which.
Explain what you did last, eg. added region, removed faction, made complete new map etc.
Confirm that you have -show_err on your shortcut and state if it is giving a message or not.
If you are getting a message please quote it.

and welcome to the forums... :2thumbsup:

[Gandalf the White]

sorry now it is working. I redid the tutorial and it works fine is there one about deleting regions and making a whole new campaign map.

[Makanyane]

Don't think there is a tutorial for deleting regions but I did an answer for some-one else on it before:

Open map_regions.tga and in your image editor find the colour in RGB value of the province you want to remove, write that down, then paint over all that region with the colour of the province you want to take it over (making sure you cover city and port pixels too)

Use edit, find, to look up the RGB value you wrote down in descr_regions.txt, write down the region name of the province and delete it's entire entry from descr_regions.txt. Look up that region name in descr_strat and delete it's entire settlement entry - if there are watchtowers specified for it at the bottom of strat file, either delete them or re-assign them to the province that is taking it over, delete it's entry there if it has one. Search for the region name in following files in campaign folder: descr_mercenaries.txt, descr_events.txt, and descr_win_condititions.txt, if it exists in any of those delete it.

If game runs with background script (don't think MM does) search that for deleted region as well and delete / modify sections as appropriate.

You'll still have armies around that used to garrison cities, that won't cause immediate problem but you'll probably want to move them in the end - and your one big province will end up with all on-map resources for the deleted regions, so you might want to change that in the end.

Back up everything before fiddling.

If you are just deleting them to make map simpler before re-designing then there may be simpler ways of going about that.

As for making new campaign map that is largely what this tutorial is about. Various techniques have been described elsewhere, please refer to the index to the tutorials here:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local_links.php?catid=70
'using satellite imagery for map making' may interest you.

[ole-warhammer]

Plz help me:help: !! I am a n00b,I know. But I want to make an Warhammer mod (it is an old mod, but it is dead. I will make a new one)

For people who play warhammer, they know that the warhammer world is very different than the real world (i am trying to make the old world) but how do you make it?? I don't understand any thing :P

[Makanyane]

welcome to the forum ole-warhammer, if you are interested in a war-hammer mod you should talk to Jubal Barca (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/member.php?u=22287) who was last person seen in charge of one. As far as creating new map is concerned, this tutorial should help, there is also a thread about creating new map heights here in scriptorium which would be useful for fantasy map, and there are some recent how to start map threads in Modding Questions. Read all the mapping tutorials and recent questions then post any specific question in Modding Questions and any recruitment / mod proposals in Mod Discussion.

[ole-warhammer]

Thanks :)

[Red Spot]

just wasted 3 hours on some fun stuff ...:wall:

when your game freezes (not CTD or KTM) its probably that you have to little fertile tiles in a region, just a single extra low fertile pixel in your map_groundtypes can make the diff. between freeze or not ....

Edit;
seems to be a bit more to it ...
the map I'm working on has a lot of low mountain wich has been ok up untill now
I'm working on say roughly the last 1/3 of my map wich has relativly little rocks, if I add 1/2 the rocks in the map_groundtype file everything is fine, add close to all and it does generate a map.rwm but freezes, add it all and all I get is a CTD ...

weird thing is these regions dont even have 1/2 the mountain as some others, wich really makes me think there is a sort of maximum to the amount of non-fertile tiles you can have on your map...
/edit

Edit2;
Funny AI ... I guess ...
the areas I was modding where 2 pretty big landmasses, seems the game doesnt like me confusing the AI as a big region with mountains in the distance(far from the settlement) causes CTDs ...

weird thing is, if I add some mountains to 1 corner of the region it works and does so for all corners, if I do 2 corners at at a time it works in some combinations and in some I get a CTD
/edit


G

[Makanyane]

Red Spot, when you get the CTD you are probably finding a variation on the landmass problem;

See discussion on landmass problem here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=66332)
and me attempting to summarise it here (http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Landmass_Crash),

and yep that is a complete pain in the .... to work out, I had one map that worked if it was used one way but wouldn't if it was simply flipped over so left hand side went to right!

I really must try and write that up properly - but basically the impassable bits of land mountains and forests etc. can cause the same CTD problem as too large an area of sea. If your impassable land adjoins a sea area, the impassable land area and sea join together to form one large impassable area giving same problem as if both were sea! (did that make any sense?)

Your freeze with the addition of more fertile areas sounds like you might have found something new as well though... when you're experimenting use a beach ground_type or something that is passable but not fertile, to test if it is actually the fertility or the impassibility that is issue. :2thumbsup:

[Red Spot]

yep the freeze is about fertile land, tried it with light forrest and highland and both dont caused a freeze where making a few more pixels fertile land (doesnt matter if its low/medium/high) and it works just fine ..

not sure if what if this is a variation of the landmass problem, or at least it seems that its more or less an AI thingy, as when I divide the area in smaller area's it works fine (makes me think its sort of a pathfinding issue, same as not getting roads over very large distances)
than again I've been using mountains, should try with something else before I say its a pathfinding issue (yet I doubt I will as it took me way too much time figuring out what is going on)


G

[Makanyane]

not sure if what if this is a variation of the landmass problem, or at least it seems that its more or less an AI thingy, as when I divide the area in smaller area's it works fine (makes me think its sort of a pathfinding issue, same as not getting roads over very large distances)
that is exactly what the landmass problem turned out to be (not sure how it relates to roads though) - its just everyone had been calling it 'landmass ratio' etc for so long, I still do..., if you look at example pics below you'll see same effect applies to the amount of sea you can have, lots of little seas work but one medium sized (and regular shaped) sea doesn't!

I always thought it was to do with pathfinding as well but didn't get a long way to understanding why! The separating areas so there is a clear path between them part seems quite understandable, but fact that apparently also changing the shape of areas so they are more complex and still linked, but linked by narrower areas of impassable terrain / sea makes less sense.

images from the other thread, reposted as it might help other people: for map heights / sea arrangement;
https://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1341/11tallnotworkmapheights9el.jpg (https://imageshack.us)that didn't workhttps://img182.imageshack.us/img182/4794/26splitworksmapheights1dj.jpg (https://imageshack.us)that did

https://img246.imageshack.us/img246/821/blacksea2evtv3.jpg (https://imageshack.us)I can't find the map_heights version for that but it was arrangement where sea areas were still joined together but had narrower areas not quite 'dividing' them. That fairly obviously worked - though it didn't when I flipped it over back to normal orientation! :dizzy2:
EDIT: @Red Spot - I think your map is working on that sort of principal as far as water is concerned from what I remember of it. If you're adding impassible terrain that adjoins your water that could mess it up...

same sort of experiment with impassible forest in ground_types:
https://img402.imageshack.us/img402/8111/gttall1am.jpg (https://imageshack.us)doesn't work buthttps://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9645/gtsplit6bj.jpg (https://imageshack.us)does.

[Red Spot]

thats just it, thats not the problem Makanyane ..
or at least not directly

thing is I can add extra mountains to the ones I made before but where causing CTDs, its just that the huge region had to be split up into smaller regions (wasnt to bright from me to call it "area" before ..)
thats also why it makes me believe its some sort of pathfinding issue as the settlement in this region was in the middle of the 1 of the 2 mountaines parts and removing the distant mountains solved the issue as well (but trees and stuff "seem" to trigger it just as well ...)

on a sidenote about land/water-mass
the way it "seems" to work I do get the impression its AI-pathfinding related
remember my previous map that you have/had, it gave me watermass problems untill I divided the sea's, the map I now have has fairly more sea and its all 1 sea and no landbridges
the only diff. between them is that in the previous map the sea was un-equal, what I mean is it had more big and small parts, where the new map has a sea thats "smoother" and better spread across the map (like each corner has ~1/4 the sea)


Edit:
from your examples about what map_height/groundtypes works, have you tried using a area of water as large as the one that doesnt work, but than as like a big ring or circle in the centre of the map??
/edit

Edit2:
What I feared seems to have become reality ... :(

I had a region that gave me issues as soon as I added some light forest to the groundtypes, so just to check it out I tried making some other regions have more low fertile groundtype intead of light forest/highland and did not tough the problem region, now I again could freely edit the problem region .... (relating the "freeze-problem")

meaning there is some sort of overflow, once you have a certain amount of non-fertile ground you can only use very little non-fertile ground in any other region, wich means you are tied to having a certain amount of fertile tiles in each region but also a sort of global minimum wich is achieved by not allowing any more non-fertile tiles ...

now I'll just have to see how much I can salvage from my current map_groundtypes ... :(
/edit

Edit3:
lol ... just removed like 2 times 3 pixels light forest from some mountain passes (tough they werent connecting the mountains) and later on added like 20 pixels deep forest to an other ..:P
seems my entire "too little fertile tiles" issue was related to 1 or 2 regions that where pretty hard to access (still as hard, just wont take you trough as mush forest as before) and for the game causing an issue as non-fertile tiles seem to be seen as inaccesable for pathfinding ... I guess
anyway, funny little issues this game has ...:wall:
/edit


G

[Red Spot]

ok, there is a serious issue with non-fertile tiles in large numbers ...

when I clear some hard to reach areas the game again gives me some room to place new non-fertile tiles, just one to much and its back to a game that just freezes
dividing large regions helps a bit but not much

this is a real pain and something to be real carefull about when making large maps!!!
(I currently as work-around made my entire sea low-fertile in map_groundtypes, but I'm afraid it wont give me enough room to finish my map as I'd like ...)

Edit;
Seems you are right Makanyane, in that this freezing is a variant of the landmass-bug
I edited my map to have beaches, small beaches, just around rocky areas to divide the sea and rock ..
this worked as I could again kinda freely add new non-fertile tiles and the entire freezing issue was gone no matter how much non-fertile tiles I added
But .. as soon as I added a bit of light forest to the rocks wich again touched a piece of beach wich again touches sea it back to CTD-land cause of landmass issues

Anyway after a lot of frustration I now understand why the vanilla map has little rocks that touch the sea, as they seem to cause this variant to the landmass-bug (and like with the landmass-bug itself, adding or removing bits of rock doesnt have to give the expected results(removing bits can cause the problem as well as adding bits!))
/edit


Edit2;
perhaps something influencing things, but it seems to me that the max. number of settlements is 199
as soon as I add #200 my map crashes generating a new "corrected_regions" but no map.rwm
/edit


G

[Red Spot]

did a bit of testing with cliffs, am glad I have absolutelly no need for them ...

let me show you why I say so
picture with cliffs;
https://img524.imageshack.us/img524/7963/0004vd9.th.jpg (https://img524.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0004vd9.jpg)

and a much nicer one without cliffs;
https://img239.imageshack.us/img239/2092/0005oe9.th.jpg (https://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0005oe9.jpg)

the diff. between with or without cliffs is a small elevation the game creates towards sea, units can still move ontop of cliffs (where the trees in this case prevent them), am not really sure if it blocks entering/exiting fleets as I havent tested that after seeing how (imo) ugly the cliffs looked on my map ..


G

[heisme]

Is it possible to re write this for M2TW as i am attempting to do this thnx

[Makanyane]

Welcome to the forums heisme,

I don't think this really needs re-writing for M2TW as the map tga's and text files are in principle the same. (though it could do with the hundreds of subsequent posts summarising if anyone ever gets time!)

M2TW is a bit more flexible in that it doesn't have the problem with too large a sea area any more - though there does seem to be a random CTD bug associated with very large maps that I don't think is fully resolved yet. Other than that and need to convert the data/text file from strings.bin there really isn't much difference.

Alpaca has made a stripped down map (& mod folder) for M2TW, see this thread:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=81780
The map only download link is contained in the spoiler in the first post - that's quite a good base to start from if you are trying to make a map from scratch.

[Albert0345]

This guide is great, thanks a lot, but i still have a problem i made a new test region, but it won't work:furious3: .
please :help: me.

[Makanyane]

Welcome to the forums Albert0345, please excuse the standard answer but you need to give some more information before anyone can help please answer:

What game are you modding? (RTW or BI) Which patch version? (eg 1.2 or 1.5)
Are you modding a released mod that you have downloaded? If so please state which.
Confirm that you have -show_err on your shortcut and state if it is giving a message or not.
If you are getting a message please quote it.

Also explain in detail the nature of your crash / problem. For campaign map problems that can be;
KTM = Kick-Back to Menu, you try and load campaign but get sent back to previous menu instead.
CTD = Crash to Desktop, if that is what you get please state what screen / stage of loading bar you where in when it crashed.
Other = loads map but with distorted graphics, loads map but crashes on scrolling.
If you haven't got -show_err on shortcut yet see here (http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Show_err)

[Red Spot]

Dont really know how clear this actually is, according to the tutorial I at least got a bit wrong impression of things.
The way map_radar1 and map_radar2 "seem" to work is that radar1 needs to be 255*156pixels (size of the vanilla map_regions) and radar2 "should"(at least seems to)have to be twice that.
Radar1 is, as is wel known, for the radarmap, but radar2, unlike what I got the impression it does, is the magnified version of the radar (you know when you "zoom in" on the radarmap ingame)


G

[Killy]

Does anyone know what this error means or what I should do:

Region of settlement not valid.No match in descr_regions.txt
Killfrica
at line 517

I tried to add in a new region called killfrica and my game crashes back to the provincial campaign menu when I try load it.:help:

[Ramashan]

The most obvious reason seems like you did not document the region properly in the desc_regions.txt file. Remember, when creating a new region you must.

Create a new unique color value.

Create a new listing in desc_regions.txt (I generally just copy and paste an exitsing one and add my regions colors, region name, and settlement name.)

Add this region to a faction in desc_strat.text (again copy and paste helps)

Add the region name and settlement name to (your campaign)_names_and_settlement_lookup.txt file.

Also, your error message lists a line. Go to the desc_regions.txt file, hit Command+G and type in that line #. If it takes you to the bottom of the page, it means you do not have the region listed in the document.

Hope that helps.

[Killy]

Thanks for the help ramashan but it still wont work and ive checked the details so many times.I think some of my files were corrupted when i copied rome so i wouldnt have to reinstall it.:no:

[Killy]

Hey i got it to work:smash: :laugh4: :2thumbsup:

i didnt have a port in the map but one in the buildings

[Killy]

Could someone make a list of files I need to edit to make an island.I've tried a couple of times but it won't work.I think I'm missing one or two:help:

[Ramashan]

Could someone make a list of files I need to edit to make an island.I've tried a couple of times but it won't work.I think I'm missing one or two

Are you adding the island to map_regions, map_heights, and map_ground_types?

Also, as per my last helpful hint, if your adding a new region you must also change the files I mentioned in my previous post.

Yeah, the port thing as bitten me several times. Just odd that it didn't say 'port' or building in your error message.

[Killy]

Yeah i added it in them but ill try again.I fixed my old error,the port thing was a new one

[AlexTheGood]

HI,
I am new at modding, and i have a few problems. I read the tutorial of this thread, and read it again and again... (i will tell you my problem later, now i will say the steps i followed to add an province and citie :dizzy2: )

Notice: i want to mod the mod EB...

1st: i maked an folder at the data/world/maps/campaing with name Campaing...
So then i copied all the files (and folders) from imperial campaing, and base and pasted it at the Campaing folder that i maked. After i copied the Imperial_campaing_regions_and_settlement_names.txt, and named it Campaing_region_and_settlement_names.txt. Then I started the game and go to the campaing chose. I choosed Provincial Campaing,and then Campaing. I select it and it started. Normal and ok!
2nd: I open the file MAP_REGIONS.TAG and i maked orange (252 168 92) the area that i wanted to add the province. i painted the area, and then i added the black pixel (for sure i put it in a place that has much orange :beam: ) and no white, for harbor because it isnt nessecary. Then i go to the descr_regions.txt and added at the bottom:

Ditiki_Peloponnesos
Patra
greek_cities
Peloponnesioi
252 168 92
gold, wine
5
3

Saved and quited...
Then i go to the descr_strat.txt and go to the Koinon Hellenon and added:

settlement
{
level large_town
region Ditiki_Peloponnesos

year_founded 0
population 2500
settlement_tax 51
plan_set greek
faction_creator greek_cities
building
{
type core_building governors_villa
}
building
{
type defenses stone_wall
}
building
{
type hinterland_farms farms+1
}
building
{
type hinterland_farms2 granary
}
building
{
type hinterland_mines mines
}
building
{
type port_buildings port
}
building
{
type navy_port naval_bay
}
building
{
type market forum
}
building
{
type amphitheatres game_field
}
;WG building
; {
; type theatres theatre
; }
;WG building
; {
; type Barracks_I muster_field_I
; }
building
{
type smith blacksmith
}
;WG building
; {
; type hinterland_roads roads
; }
building
{
type temple_of_forge temple_of_forge_temple
}
building
{
type uniques3 law1
}
}

After that i go to the data/text Campaing_regions_and_settlements_names.txt and go to the bottom of the script and added

{Ditiki_Peloponnesos} Ditiki Peloponnesos
{Patra} Patra

Thats it. Then i started the game and go to the Provincial Campaing, at the campaing choose. I selected the Campaing that i made... I press it and it begins to load but it stoped and throws me out to the desktop... No error messenge. I use the show_err (EB had it automaticly). I Changed position of the black dot, i changed the position of the provincial, i tried again and again but nothing... Then i re-entered at the Campaing_region... .txt the edit that i did, but nothing, then i deleted the {Patra} Patra
but the same thing... What do i wrong??? What i forrgot , what i missed????

I know that u are like that now :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull: :skull:
But i tried so much times that i will be soon like :helloo: crazy

I sorry that i spam

[Makanyane]

I haven't looked at your post in a great deal of detail - but I have a strong suspicion that EB might already have the maximum number of regions.

In which case you can not add any more. If you have a program like PaintShopPro that will tell you the number of unique colours used in a tga - check the map_regions.tga if it already has 202 you can't add any more regions.

If you can't find out that way it might be worth asking in their forum, they will know if they are at the maximum or not and I'm sure would tell you.

[AlexTheGood]

I tryied to make it at BI and nothing... and i am sure that there are no max provinces.
Maybe the modding for citie goes not cause of Gold Edition that i have?

[Makanyane]

AlexTheGood, you said you were modding the mod EB, I have checked with them for you they have confirmed:

The max number of regions is 199 provinces + 1 sea region. EB is at the maximum allowed with 199 provinces + 1 sea region.

This is the hard coded limit for the game - you can not add any more provinces to that mod, though you could move existing ones around and rename them.

It will have nothing to do with whether you have gold edition or not.

[the pasta king]

Hey Everybody,

I am running an experiment in resizing with the Mundus Magnus map, following the instructions, especially step 4, at the start of this thread.

Starting from a MM campaign that works, I have prepared a new provincial campaign by resizing all the relevant .tga files and adjusted the descr_strat file accordingly, but when I try to run it I select a faction, click to start the campaign when it CTDs. No error message or map.rwm is generated.

I think this is caused by the map_features, heights and ground_types .tga files not matching up exactly, but I'm not sure. Can anyone help?

:help:

[Makanyane]

greetings, the pasta king

the section about re-sizing at the beginning of this tutorial refers to adding a new piece of map by adding to the canvas size of the tga not expanding an existing one by re-sizing its image size. could you clarify which one you are doing please, and also say what the finished size of the map_heights.tga you are trying to achieve is. (I think making Mundus Magnus map too large can give you problem due to size of sea in bottom right corner)

to get a map to load you need the map_heights.tga to be the right size in relation to the map_regions.tga. (eg twice size + 1 pixel on the height and width) and you need the map_regions size written into descr_terrain.txt

you need city positions on map_regions to correspond with land in map_heights.tga and you need ports to correspond with coast.

Map_features can cause crashes it is better just to make yourself a plain black one while you are getting map to load.

Map_ground_types.tga is not that relevant, unless you moved it so much you've got impassible mountains or forest under city locations. You can just make a version of that which has one of the fertile ground type colours all over, if you want to get things loading initially.

[the pasta king]

the section about re-sizing at the beginning of this tutorial refers to adding a new piece of map by adding to the canvas size of the tga not expanding an existing one by re-sizing its image size..... and also say what the finished size of the map_heights.tga you are trying to achieve is.


Hey Makanyane,

I didn't add canvas, I took the existing map_regions and doubled the height and length in photoshop, then increased the size of the other files to match, I have checked the dimensions carefully, they are as dictated in the tutorial. The final map_regions is 768 by 468 pixels, map_heights is 1537 by 937. I have changed the descr_terrain file.

I haven't altered map_heights or ground_types so I am certain all cities are in good positions, not so sure yet about ports (as far as I can tell the map_regions does not exactly overlap map_heights, I am working to change that).

I will try a map_features with no rivers etc. tonight. Is there a maximum size map that the game can handle?

Edit 1: OK, plain black map_features and again, I select a faction, press go and CTD, no error message.

Edit 2:

- the distance between the centres of any two adjacent regions should not exceed 50 tiles*

*: not doing these things shouldn't cause a crash, but it may cause the AI to mess up.



1. Does each pixel correspond to a tile?

2. Has anyone seen evidence that having a separation of more than 50 tiles will cause a CTD when trying to start a campaign?

[Makanyane]

Hey Makanyane,

I didn't add canvas, I took the existing map_regions and doubled the height and length in photoshop, then increased the size of the other files to match, I have checked the dimensions carefully, they are as dictated in the tutorial. The final map_regions is 768 by 468 pixels, map_heights is 1537 by 937. I have changed the descr_terrain file.

I haven't altered map_heights or ground_types so I am certain all cities are in good positions, not so sure yet about ports (as far as I can tell the map_regions does not exactly overlap map_heights, I am working to change that).

I will try a map_features with no rivers etc. tonight. Is there a maximum size map that the game can handle?

Problem one - Yes maximum size for RTW/BI is 510 x 510 map_regions which equals 1021 x 1021 map_heights. Maximum limit is on dimension not area, so your 1537 length is much too long! That will be problem number one.

Problem two - as you haven't mentioned that you spent hours doing it I assume you haven't.. when you re-size map_regions.tga you will have increased the size of the cities and ports as well, they can only be 1 pixel size, so you'd need to edit them back carefully using the surrounding region or sea colour to overwrit e the additional area. (the expansion will have caused problem to map_features as well as rivers can only be 1 pixel wide or CTD, but having black version will fix that for now)

Problem three - if you do, do smaller version but aim at 1021 long map_heights, I think you might find you have problem with the size of the sea in the bottom left corner, too large a sea can CTD the game, to make sure that isn't issue initially you can just put a block of extra land in there in map_heights.tga - it won't need a city on it so don't worry about including it in map_regions, it will just default to nearest regions ownership.

Possible problem four - now you know you can't double the size of the map, if you decide to multiply it up by smaller percentage so it reaches 1021 you need to make sure you are using a resize method that doesn't invent new merged colours around borders between colours. Use nearest neighbour in photoshop or pixel resize in paint shop pro.

Good news one - no having greater than 50 tiles (pixels on map_regions.tga I think) doesn't cause CTD, it might just mess up AI movement a bit.

Good news two - you should find you can now edit your posts here, please try and do that instead of posting multiple times in a row.

Good luck..... :2thumbsup:

[the pasta king]

Problem two - cities and ports.... they can only be 1 pixel size,

...... Use nearest neighbour in photoshop or pixel resize in paint shop pro.

Good news one - no having greater than 50 tiles (pixels on map_regions.tga I think) doesn't cause CTD, it might just mess up AI movement a bit.

Good luck..... :2thumbsup:

I did change the size of cities, ports and rivers as it happens, it doesn't take as long as you would expect.

The 50 pixels is good to hear, I have been comparing with Warmap but without much accuracy.

Are you certain about the 510 by 510, I have been looking at the hardcode thread and didn't see any mention of it.

[Makanyane]

Yeah I'm sure on the 510 thing, I think it was actually IceTorque of WarMap fame who discovered that. I did try testing as well, it's mentioned on the Campaign Map not loading - common problems section:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1554002&postcount=2
I tested it going only slightly over and it did actually generate a map.rwm but crashed before going to loading screen.

I'll go and put a note in hardcode thread - hadn't realised it wasn't in there.
(In M2TW I think they managed to get over it going in one direction only - but that doesn't really help.... and large M2 maps also seem to have some random CTD problems in game)

If you weren't getting a map.rwm your primary problem was probably the sea size, but fixing that still wouldn't get that sized map to load...

[the pasta king]

If you weren't getting a map.rwm your primary problem was probably the sea size, but fixing that still wouldn't get that sized map to load...

It was CTDing immediately after I try to start a campaign, so as far as I can tell it doesn't even start to generate a map.rwm before crashing.

The purpose of my experiment was to see if I could build a map with cities spaced like in IceTorque's Warmap but with the geographical area of MM, since that isn't possible I will try expanding the MM to maximum dimensions of 510 by x and see what happens.

[Myrddraal]

Obvious question, but are you using -show_err?

[the pasta king]

Obvious question, but are you using -show_err?

Yes, I have just finished putting on the finishing touches. It appears (from 3-4 turns playing) that all is OK. I can try posting some screens if you're interested.

@Makanyane, thanks for your help and the link above, it saved me huge amounts of time at the end when I had some trouble at the loading bar stage.

[DVK901]

If you want to put trees in specific places, how do you do that? And in what file? :)

[Makanyane]

dvk, question looks simple, as you're the one asking I assume I'm missing something!

Impassable forest and woodland are placed according to map_gound_types.txt, the type of tree that gets used is effected by the combination of that and map_climates.txt (ie different ones are used in different climates) see the colours listed in the tutorial at the start of this for which colours are which.

Are you trying to place something very specific / or in specific location?

[DVK901]

dvk, question looks simple, as you're the one asking I assume I'm missing something!

Impassable forest and woodland are placed according to map_gound_types.txt, the type of tree that gets used is effected by the combination of that and map_climates.txt (ie different ones are used in different climates) see the colours listed in the tutorial at the start of this for which colours are which.

Are you trying to place something very specific / or in specific location?

Guess the question wasn't very pointed. :)

Let's say you wanted to create a denser\impassable forest for a stretch along
the steppes just above the Crimea...in our case, to prevent the Bosporans from going north so easily, and in effect funnel them south. It's those files that determine it? And is it just 'hit and miss'? Make a change and then look and see if you got it in the right place. LOL :)

[Red Spot]

thats pretty much it, except that its far from hit and miss, its pretty darn exact ...:)

the map_groundtypes file is 2* map_regions + 1 pixel

so the easy way to remember it is that the 1st pixel in regions is the 2nd in grountypes, the 2nd in regions the 4th in groundtypes
like the following bit hopefully explains;


1 2 3 4 5 ---> groundtypes
1 2 ---> regions


###########
#x#x#x#x#x#
###########
#x#x#x#x#x#
###########

now on the map you can for instance get your cursor position by opening the console and entering the command show_cursorstat
now if like it returns x=162, y=68 you know you need to be looking in the area of pixel 324, 132 of map_groundtypes


G

[EdwardL]

Having an issue with my map. I've expanded the canvas of the americas map for kingdoms north and east, and followed all the directions from the guide. The campaign itself will run, but once i get into battles it will CTD. The only files i've modified are the ones listed in this guide, and the fog.tga. I deleted both the radar maps so the campaign radar map will adjust itself to the map. now the only problem i have is when i go into a battle on the campmap, custom battle, or scenario battle, the game will crash just after loading. from what i see it looks like the game ground texture is thrown off; some maps have ground with a big black hole under the troops start local, some look like the troops are starting in the sky or water.

[Makanyane]

if you look around the M2TW forums you will see that if you unpack your M2TW files (which I presume you did to get to the text file) you need to delete a couple of the geography files including the db file, or you get CTD like yours when you try and play battles. Have you done that?

It does sound like probably an M2 problem anyway so you should probably try that forum.

[ovidius]

Hello to everybody.
I was trying to create an new map for SQPR mod, but I've run in to some trouble. The game crashes at the end of the loading bar. I know that this crash is asociated with whrong rebel faction used in descr_regions.txt witch is not added in descr_rebel_factions.txt and rebel_factions.txt. But I've checked all those files 3 times, and those are OK. Do u know another bug that cause this CTD? Or there is anybody who can have an look at my files, maybe he can spot errors that I don't. I will be verry thankful if u can help because I am trying to solve this problem for 3 days and have run out of ideea of where to look tor the bug. Thankyou verry much.

[Makanyane]

think this has now been solved by Charge, removing non-included factions from unplayable list in descr_strat and including the hard-coded regions required for first senate missions :2thumbsup:

(for future reference, please don't post same thing in multiple threads, same people read all of them and will get round to answering eventually :yes:)

[ovidius]

Problem fixed, thanks to Charge. See here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?p=1741984#post1741984

Sorry about posting it in other threads, I won't do it again.

[Marcus Furius Camillus]

Is this new campaign compatible with the original RTW campaign, I mean, can I play the original campaign AND the new campaign with the same game ?

[Charge]

from descr_aerial_map_ground_types.txt

climate
{
cultivated_low
cultivated_medium
cultivated_high
fertility_low
fertility_medium
fertility_high
forest_dense
forest_sparse
hills
mountains_high
mountains_low
swamp
beach
scorched
}

I'm wondering there is 'wilderness' (0,0,0) texture entry?
it uses fertility_low texture indeed

@Marcus Furius Camillus
this is called provincial campaign; you have original imperial_campaign folder, and new campaign folder. In new descr_strat set different campaign name:

; Custom campaign script generated by Romans Campaign Map Editor

campaign new_campaign
and in data/text folder instead 'imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt' you need 'new_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt'

[Red Spot]

something I noticed some time ago but forgat to ever mention anywhere ...

Check your ports very carefully on the map itself!!

On my map I've 3 ports that where there in the regions map generated by the game, wich was identical to the one I actually had, but on the map itself they did not show, they where simply not there and no road led to where it should be ...

it seems you can "correctly misplace" a port ... :inquisitive: .. er ..
when you put a port on a part of regions that has no 4 pixel part in heights (iirc) than the port isnt actually placed on the map..

I'm not really sure how or what and find it even harder to try and explain so just check your ports carefully when you make a new map and have ports positioned on corners of land in map_regions ...


G

[Makanyane]

good point, I did find that if you over-use the dark sea on map_heights technique to bend coast, you can get areas that look legit on corrected_regions but where ports don't show up. That can also result in roads looking like they extend into sea as well :wall:

[Herennius Volsinius]

map_ground_types.tga

Beach - White (0, 0, 0)


That should be: Beach - White (255, 255, 255)

[Birdman2008]

hum... well read the stuff on the 1st post, and did them correctly, modded the map on adobe photoshop CS2... but when opening a new campaign this messge pops up:

"script error ( the folder ) could not create settlement"

my 1st attempts at creating settlements were in scandinavia and cerdeña.. ( 1 at a time, but i always got the same stuff of "invalid tile"... so i chose campus sarmatae, which is a huge plain, to make a big square ( not cutting campus sarmatae, dont worry... and well.. it wont work.. i ll make a screenshot


... hum... cant figure out how to browse an image and insert it.

well.. anyway... i need help.


Thanks, Birdman.

[Makanyane]

welcome Birdman2008 :thumbsup:

I think you've had some answers in the modding questions thread, could you respond there (not here) if you're still stuck, so people don't get confused as to where you've got to.

thanks
Mak.

[Emperor Basil]

Great tutorial. It's mainly going rather well which was unexpected.

Just a few small things are troubling me: (I'm modding M2TW btw)

1. Why is my game running uber slow? I know mods can make the game run slower but what I've done so far is very minor and I've only changed a few things not added anything. It seems the more I do the slower it gets. Mind you the whole computer seems to be running slow.....

2. Why are all the small letters (eruoas not tdfkl) cut off at the top? Not a problem really, just random and slightly annoying.

3. I've so far been making small changes to existing provinces in the Balkans and in order to check they're where I want them to be I've been adding provinces to the Byzantine Empire but for the life of me I can't find Durazzo in descr_strat to add to Byzantium's starting provinces. Has someone missed it off? I've looked all though the list of rebel settlements at the bottom and can't see it.

4. How do I put army units in settlements? Adding settlements to the Byzantine faction has worked fine so far but I don't start with any units in them.

That's all for now..........

[Charge]

3 - if you cant see certain province in descr_strat you need to add it there. copy any other prov and rename region to durazzo's region (is it Durazzo_province in vanilla?) and other stuff with buildings, owners etc..

4 -

character Alessandro Selvo, named character, male, age 28, x 290, y 170
traits LoyaltyStarter 1 , PoliticsSkill 2 , GoodAdministrator 2 , ReligionStarter 1
army
unit SE Bodyguard exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Italian Spear Militia exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Italian Spear Militia exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit Peasant Archers exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
basically like this, add general or family member, put him in city you need (coords), add army you need.. Be careful with names and spelling as always

2-no idea what you mean
1-same if you hadnt change any models textures or put forests everywhere, unless you opened photoshop and other programs and have 512 megs of ram

[Emperor Basil]

Thanks. I'll try 3 and 4 tomorrow.
I think the slowness was my computer being retarded again.


https://img159.imageshack.us/my.php?image=menuyp2.jpg


If you look at this image then you can see the tops of the smaller letters are missing. It's most clearly seen on 'Campaign'.

[Makanyane]

The text issue you won't be able to do anything about, the fonts themselves aren't changeable. You should really post question on that separately in M2TW forum.

Only things you can do about it are change the text and shadow colours in descr_colour_ui_db . Or switch to a different font in the menu.lnt file - there are only 2/3 possibly font types and sizes though.

[Neekeri]

Well I'm new to both this forum and to modding in general, and I could use a bit of help.

What I ultimately want to do is make a completely new map, but for now I'd simply like to get my head around how to edit existing regions. For some reason (probably nothing too complicated, I'm just dumb) my edits don't show up on the campaign map.

The following is what I've done so far:

- Made a duplicate of the imperial campaign, got it to work just fine.
- Deleted map.rwm and map_heights.hgt.
- Edited the map_heights.tga, added a small strip of land to the eastern shore of britannia.
- Edited the map_regions.tga, added some land to the same part of britannia as in map_heights.tga, with some overflow into the sea.

The land I've added doesn't show up ingame. As I'm rather terrible at these things I haven't been able to solve the problem myself despite trying for roughly a week now. I'm hoping one of you could assist me. I read, re-read and re-re-read the guide and did it all over again about 5-6 times, but there's clearly something I'm missing.

[Makanyane]

welcome to the forum Neekeri :thumbsup:


check that you haven't still got a map_heights.hgt in the 'base' folder, if the map in the campaign folder is the same size as the original one it will still read that file from the base folder....

when you checked your copied campaign was working, game will have made a new map.rwm, you will need to keep deleting that file each time you make a change - have you done that?


EDIT: other thought - when you added 'land' did you make it RGB value 1,1,1 or lighter? RGB 0,0,0 (pure black) will appear as sea...!

[Neekeri]

I got it to work by using RGB values 1, 1, 1, thanks alot :D Now I'll start experimenting.

[Red Spot]

Just read the tutorial very carefully, possibly a few times ..

Once you get going it may all be a bit much at once, but once you get the hang of it map-making isnt really very hard ... just very time-intensive ..
(also look at my tut, about map_heights (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=83714) .. it can help you a lot as while you mold you can actually see whats happening)


G

[Neekeri]

I started a brand new test campaign map and seem to have overcome some of the errors I've made in the past. Now it seems I've run into a brand new error and I have absolutely no clue what file(s) need editing for it to work.

The campaign fails to load and I'm kicked back to the menu, when I exit I get the following message: https://img91.imageshack.us/img91/4382/errorba1.jpg
The character in question is the faction leader of the first listed faction in descr_strat.txt, and as far as I can tell (from map_heights.tga and map_regions.tga) he stands on solid flat ground, map.rwm is deleted, files resized to the required dimensions, RGB values correct in descr_regions.txt etc..

After several hours of research and testing I haven't been able to find a solution, some assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[Emperor Basil]

Hi,
I want to make a map of the Balkans and Asia Minor. Is it possible to cut out the area I want out of the vanilla map and expand it or will I just have to create a map basically from scratch?

[Aradan]

Read here: Campaign Map from a Small part (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=50447)

[Emperor Basil]

Thanks.

[Flying Pig]

Am I the only one that does this in Fireworks MX? If not can someone give me the complete n00b's guide to making maps in FWKS, thanks

[illustrius]

Ave all, I'm new to this place, but I'm a very ancient total warrior. I've played many mods and modified a few things too in my time. I'm truly amazed at the work you guys have put in to discover this fine game.

Lately I've been pondering the idea of making my own completely new campaign map (based on RTWs map) and Ive been reading up on here this last few days.

However I've a quick question before I decide whether to continue, after realising just how intricate this process could be for me as a fringe modder.

Q1. What is the maximum size (in pixels) that any map could ever be?

Thanks in advance.

[Makanyane]

Q1. What is the maximum size (in pixels) that any map could ever be?

Thanks in advance.
map_regions.tga size 510 x 510 pixels
which equals
map_heights.tga size 1021 x 1021 pixels

is hard coded max for RTW

beware though also the bigger the map you have the less percentage of sea you can use (big seas crash the game before it builds the map.rwm for the new map)

[Calminion]

Hey guys need a little help if you can,

First Id like to thank all of those who have taken the time to discover a way to do these mods. Im a long time player but a noob to modding. Im a 3D student and artist and thought that modding this game would be a great challenge for me. I am currently modding Medieval TW 2 but I am have a problem "surprise surprise" heh heh. My last working test campain I managed to get down to 7 factions with 7 Provinces based on the current campaign map. I managed to strip the map down to a flat surface and one ground type and no resourses and no rivers or features of any kind. I also managed to move the few armies I left in the game, to the center of the map lined up in columns. I stripped the txt files as much as I could...leaving only a few lines that looked important (Im no coder so I left things I had no clue about)

The map works fine like this so the only thing I had left to do was to start changing the actual continents how I want them. So I did a very basic map, to start, made of squares that sort of resemble the modding campaign template that mydrall once recommended. I followed the intructions of the first post directly and Ive checked and rechecked my tga's colors and size. It all seems fine. I put the tga's in from my working campain, it works. I put my custom tga's in, it doesnt. It just reverts back to the Custom Campaign selection screen. So I then assume I must be missing something in my tga's

I checked the original sizes of MTW2 tga's and found only one difference from the posted intructions. disasters.tga is 255 by 156 in the original, which is not the size of the map_regions.tga which are 295 by 189 as the posted instructions said it sould be. So I tried it at that size. Still doesnt work, again it just goes back to the Custom campain selection screen

So Im currently at a loss. and since -show err doesnt work with MTW2 I have no way to find out whats wrong.

So i must rely on the advice and skill of you fellow modders.

Im about ready to give up on actual map making and make my factions and hope that they are good enough someone will make my map for me...so any help keeping me making my map with be much appreciated

Thanks guys
Calmenion

[Calminion]

If any of you could be kind enough to look into my problem I would appreciate it. I have my files zipped and linked for anyone willing

or someone may know my problem by glancing
or I may have missed something
I swear Ive read those instructions 20 times though and checked and rechecked my colors and sizes.

My test campain with custom tga's link
http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/51247/mymod-zip.html

Last working test campaign tga's
http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/51250/Last-working-test-campaign-zip.htm

Folder I worked out of with my custom tga's
http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/51251/Simple-Campaign-M2tw-zip.html

Folder with MTW2 disasters.tga at 255 by 156
http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/51254/SimpleCampainTargasInstr-zip.html

Thanks
Calminion

[Squid]

You might want to post in the M2TW modding forums, as you're likely to get more accurate help there.

[Makanyane]

^ what Squid said, plus in the M2TW forums look up how to use the log file, it actually does about the same and sometimes a bit more than -show_err did.


I had very quick look - in the test campaign one you have ports on the map_regions but the land shape on the heights map doesn't tie up with the coastline shape so you've probably got 'inland' ports. That will stop it loading.

Try just getting rid of any ports in strat file and regions map for now.

[Calminion]

Thanks for the advice guys will do

Calminion

[Danzifuge]

defenses (notice that CA can’t spell defences)
no i'm pretty sure they spelled it right:beam:

[Monkwarrior]

I had very quick look - in the test campaign one you have ports on the map_regions but the land shape on the heights map doesn't tie up with the coastline shape so you've probably got 'inland' ports. That will stop it loading.

This problem can be solved by using the corrected_regions.tga map, if I'm not wrong.

[Makanyane]

This problem can be solved by using the corrected_regions.tga map, if I'm not wrong.
you would be right for RTW - but the guy posting the problem files was actually in wrong forum (doing map for M2TW) which doesn't have a corrected regions file......... so he's stuck with resizing and trying to get coasts to match using layer / selection method. But otherwise yep. :thumbsup:

[Monkwarrior]

you would be right for RTW - but the guy posting the problem files was actually in wrong forum (doing map for M2TW) which doesn't have a corrected regions file......... so he's stuck with resizing and trying to get coasts to match using layer / selection method. But otherwise yep. :thumbsup:
Sorry :embarassed: I didn't remark you were speaking on M2TW.
In any case, it is crazy that one RTW feature interesting for modders has been eliminated in the following game of the saga. :inquisitive:

[garrett4390]

I hi am new and one question. What program do i need to open and edit .tgas?

[Makanyane]

welcome to the forums garrett4390 :thumbsup:

If you already have a good image editing program like PaintShopPro or PhotoShop or Photoshop Elements they will open .tga's. The cost money though so if you don't already have one try GIMP which is free. I also saw someone else recommend paint.net recently (also free) but haven't tried that myself.

[Hannibal Smith]

:help:

Hi guys very new to this I'm trying to produce as the instructions here but keep getting an error message.

"Generic Error Regions_DB;;default faction for region (5) isnt present in the descr_strat.txt file"

I know I must have done something wrong but cant work it out.

Can any one help please

[Makanyane]

Greetings Hannibal Smith, welcome to the forum

that probably means you aren't using all the factions in your descr_strat file - its fine to do that - but if you don't include a faction in that, you can't then use them as the faction creator in the descr_regions.txt file that's the third line down in the regions entry like


Tribus_Saxones
Bordesholm
germans
Saxones
232 41 55
timber, slaves, amber, dogs, pigs
5
3

check that file and make sure you aren't using anyone you don't have in strat....

[Hannibal Smith]

Thankyou very much, it works now :laugh4:

I make sure I only post once in future. thanks again.

[anelious phyros]

All of this is really cool. :2thumbsup:
I've made it to the part were you go into map_regions. But I use Windows picture and it says no preview. What do I use to see it?

Please :help:


Thanks -

[zalalzabob konsorbud]

Hey umm Im a n00b when it comes to Editing rtw, or any TW games for that matter. So I was wondering do you need any programs to be able to edit the Campaign map?

Thank yon.

[Aradan]

The map uses text and image files. For text files you can use any text editor and for image files you can use Photoshop, PaintshopPro etc There are pretty fine tutorials in the Scriptorium analysing how and what, such as this.

[anelious phyros]

Thanks Ardan I'll go try that out

Yes! :verycool:

[Clovis I]

Step one:- Making your Campaign folder.

Make a new folder in \data\world\maps\campaign\ called my_campaign and copy the entire contents of the Imperial campaign into it. Also copy the contents of \data\world\maps\base\ into it.

Is it possible to choose >bi< before choosing data if I want to make a new campaign map for a BI mod?

[Makanyane]

Hi, welcome to the forums :balloon2:

and yes if you're adding new map to existing mod just put it wherever the mod's data folder is,

eg

rtw/mod_name/data/world/maps/campaign/new_campaign
or
rtw/bi/mod_name/data/world/...... etc

you get the idea, just whichever data folder the mod is using

[x836]

Is there a way to increase the maximum allowed territories from 200 to a desired quantity?

[Squid]

No, that's why it's a hardcoded limit.

[sasha577]

That really helps

[anelious phyros]

map_FE.tga
- I’m not sure what this does, it appears to be a map of the world, but it doesn’t look like any of the radar screens.
When you make a unplayable faction playable that's what comes up for it's faction map.
Sorry if this has already been answered.

[Darkvicer98]

I get an error when running my campaign. It comes up as error in descr_strat.txt at line ..... settlement could not be created.

I have edited the files correctly and even changed the resources so the resources that are in my region are not belonging to the region next to me.

[chillifire]

Hi,

thanks for your tutorial, and yes, I am a total noob.

I first created a modding environment in my own modding folder with its own copy of the data folder according to the instructions of user alpaca in this forum. So far so good.

I now wanted to create a custom camaign and folllowed this tutorial. It is for RTW not MTW2 1.3 I am using, I understand that, but I could not find another more specific one for MTW2.

Now here is my issue: When I start my mod I thought a Provincial campaign should be able to to be seclected in the Single Player menu of the campaign. However, I can still only see the Imperial Campaign and the Tutorial. So how can I ever access my custom campaign?

I feel I must miss something very fundamental and stupid. Can anyone put me on the right track?:help:

Thanks

[chillifire]

I found an answer
here (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=93141)

[Motep]

I get an error when running my campaign. It comes up as error in descr_strat.txt at line ..... settlement could not be created.

I have edited the files correctly and even changed the resources so the resources that are in my region are not belonging to the region next to me.

Is the settlement 1 pixel away from the next region?

[SSJVegetaTrunks]

I don’t know what the triumph point value is.

If you look in the Trait files, there are certain trait conditions that have "Triumph Points" as a condition. I believe that this is a point system the game uses to give certain traits (like the "Victor" trait). Conquering Wonders, Destroying Factions, and Conquering cities gives you these points. If it works has it's supposed to, I believe the "Triumph Points" labeled for each city is how many of those points your general gets for conquering it.

If you'd like, I could test it out.

[Spaniard Emperor]

Hi very nice tutorial. Question, what does this mean:


I recommend that you resize from the top right hand corner, as all measurements in descr_strat.txt are measured from the bottom left hand corner. If you want to resize in another direction, you will have to change all the co-ordinates in descr_strat.

and how to do it with photoshop?

thank you

[LestaT]

What's the RGB color for the sea are in map_regions.tga ? Thisis for M2TW map though.

Thanks. :help:

[Amex]

Hi
First I have to say, this is a very good tutorial! :thumbsup:

So I followed the instructions and it works well but when I like to add generals and units the game crashes. I don't know where my fault is.
I put the following text under the other slave-generals:

character, sub_faction britons, Abascantus, general, age 20, , x 37, y 150
army
unit barb archer slave exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit barb druids slave exp 1 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

I hope, anyone could help me!

thanks

[Makanyane]

If you use sub_faction britons, the name you use must be in the britons section of descr_names.txt

unless you have altered that, Abascantus isn't in that section, so the section you posted won't work.

You either need to select an existing briton name or make sure you've added it to their list.

[christof139]

Hi Mak,

So, can I simply add more names to the EoD descr_names.txt for more of a variety in names. I need to add 'Elvis the Pelvis' for the Satanae, and a few other ones methinks to add some humor. 'Friar Tuck' for Albion, 'Jean lafite the Barefeet Pireet' for Francia, 'Siegfried the Pretzel Eater' for Germania, 'The Pope Without Hope' for the Papacy, 'Rodrigo el Cid' for Hispania, 'Ho Chi Minh' for the Shambhala, etc.

IOTW, all I have to do is add the names in the faction sections of this one file (descr_names.txt) and no where else??

I had problems adding names in MTW1, but back then I confused myself and the mod I was working on, METW (Tolkien), I think had a goofed-up names file to begin with and I think the names may have had to go in two different files, I forget.

Thanx for any help, Chris

[Aradan]

You need to add the internal names (the entries the engine uses) in descr_names.txt in the appropriate faction lists, and then edit text/names.txt, in order to link your new internal name with a corresponding on-screen name (the one you'll be seeing).

[JoristhePagan]

I don't know or it's said before, but if you want to know coordinates of a settlement or anything else, use ~ and then: show_cursorstat
And I have a question: is the collor of map_roughness important? I have a black map with the right size. Same question about map trade routes

[Aradan]

Both are unused afaik, just leave them black.

[JoristhePagan]

Thanks

[JoristhePagan]

I have two others questions: can I make map_disasters black and can I remove all disasters from descr_disasters, so it's empty except the tutorial?

[Aradan]

Yes and yes.

[Gror]

First of all, thanks for this tutorial, it really helps a lot!

Now I have a small question, is it possible to have no sea at all? I know about getting a landmass crash when you have a to large area of sea, but I was wondering if no sea at all will also gives you a CTD or problems with pathfinding of AI.

And if it's possible to have no sea, what files should I edit? I know that you would have to remove ports from map_regions and descr_strat and that you should remove admirals and ships from descr_strat. And also remove floot disasters and edit map_regions, map_heights and map_ground_types. But beside those do you also have to edit for example water_surface?

[Aradan]

You can have an all-land map without any problems.

No, no other files that need editing.

[Greek_Prince]

Hey there, I'm a n00bish modder working on something other than units for the first time. All i was doing was editing the imperial campaign to include 2 extra provinces for dacia at first everything went fine a couple of KTMs that were easily fixed then when i clicked on start the campaign it happened. Instead CTDing or sending me back to the menu it started a black screen and the music played well i got the polite informal message that an error had occured:furious3:. Anyways is this a problem with not making a new campaign, a problem with GIMP or something?

- One of the ideas that came to me was placing armys which i have no idea how to do so does anyone know how to find the coordinates without show cursor stat because the text at the bottom of GIMP was no help.
- Secondly i removed the named character entry for all my new army leaders (thinking this would make them captains) but i'm not to sure now any ideas?

[Greek_Prince]

Okay update i removed everything i changed but somehow i get KTMs on everything something about invalid settlement coordinates of course the line it tells me to look on is the line of semicolons after the starting diplomacy section any help?

[Makanyane]

sounds like your map_regions is still messed up, from this thread
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=85902


Symptom: KTM's with message on exit: 'Script error in .../descr_strat.txt, at line xxx, column x. You have chosen an invalid tile(0,0)for the settlement of
If line xxx is the bottom of the descr_strat file and the settlement name is not specified.

* Pixels on map_regions.tga of a colour that do not belong to any region colour specified in descr_regions.txt - watch out for merged colours when editing map_regions.tga as that is usual cause.

[Greek_Prince]

Wow that helped so much you sir rock! Anyways that fixed my problem and my initial one (the names of the commanders) i thought you could draw them from anywhere not a list anyways that was a huge help thank you.

[JoristhePagan]

I'm having the same problem. So I have to make sure all colors used in map_regions.tga are excisting in regions.txt?

[JoristhePagan]

I've been cheking everything in map_regions.tga and descr_regions.txt, but all colors are valid and for sea I used RGB 41 140 233. I 'made' the colors in paint, but adobe photoshop CS3 also says they're right. Maybe it's the problem I used 5 different versions of 41 232 198?

[JoristhePagan]

Sorry for the tripple post, is there a way to edit your old posts? Anyway, I've solved the problem by replacing map_regions.tga by corrected_regions.tga.

[PopePopo]

I have a little problem regarding the map expanding . I'm using GIMP , and to expand the RTW map (for a mod) , i go to picture -> scale picture and then scale it to 507*365 .. but when i zoom in to add new regions , it's really blurry . And by sharpening it , i get weird results .. Anyone knows how to fix this ?

[Makanyane]

for whatever program you're using - if you rescale an existing map you need to find the option that doesn't blur the colours

for Gimp it looks like using the Interpolation (none) setting when you first scale the map might work
https://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1505/gimpnonefh2.th.jpg (https://img140.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gimpnonefh2.jpg)

trying to use sharpening or anything else after you've got a blurred map definitely won't help!

[PopePopo]

No , it's okay :) i had permission to use another mod's map , so i just cut a part from it :) And also , for GIMP , the unsharp_mask tool worked pretty well , but still not good enough :)

Anyway , thx for your help ;)

[miniwally]

this work for M2TW?

[PopePopo]

yes i think it also works for M2TW :)

Is radar_map1 the same size as map_regions ? Cause i am cutting RS map for another mod and the radar_map1 is there half of map_regions.tga ..

[Aradan]

Radar maps should be exactly the same size as the vanilla radar map files are. The game will resize them automatically in-game to fit your map.

[PopePopo]

Alright , thanks aradan :)

[miniwally]

1st step doesn't even work on M2TW no provincial campaign to select :( i was looing forward to messing around with this someone please make one for M2TW

[Makanyane]

You need to make some menu changes before provincial campaigns will show up in M2TW - try using the pack that Alpaca issued:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?p=1503980

[BlackKnight123]

Thanks for informations

[miniwally]

i opened my region tga file with photoshop then saved it as .tga now when i try and open it it says .tga :( took me 2 hours can someone plz tell me what to do?

[PopePopo]

. i can't really understand you .. if you edit your vanilla map_regions , can't you just press 'save' ?

[miniwally]

i saved it somewhere else though by accident :(

Doesn't matter now made new one using same regions (maybe more) and found u can save as tga file from photoshop :D onto editing first text file you need to edit

[PopePopo]

Hmm .. I get an error with no CTD - no new map.rwm generated .. i think this means that there's an error in the .tga's , especially the features.tga file .. Because my features.tga file was messed up , i painted it totally black , but it still doesn't work .. I just cut an existing mod's map , so normlly there aren't any mistakes with wrong clour , etc ..

What could be a possible error/solution ?

[Makanyane]

How about

Incorrect height or width listed in descr_terrain.txt - dimensions must match map_regions.tga
? from this thread (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=85902)
others don't seem likely

[PopePopo]

Nope , i have checked that already .. Maybe an error in the text files ?

[Makanyane]

Try reading through Monkwarrior's tutorial here:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=50447
which seems to be for what you were doing

it is for slightly earlier version of game - you can ignore bits about
leader_pic_factionname (as many as factions), map_factionname (as many as factions)
that won't cause problems for 1.5/6

see if there is anything in that you missed - also double check you calculated all the map sizes correctly

your symptom (not getting rwm) isn't normally to do with text files - but if you mess up a lot of things you can sometimes get CTD where normally you'd only get error message.

[PopePopo]

Oh , looks like i didn't edit water_surface .. I'll try it out , thanks Makanyane :)

(And of course Monkwarrior)

About the text files : For instance , if i have 10 regions in descr_regions , but they aren't listed in descr_strat , would that cause this problem ? Or a double settlement in descr_strat (having one region for two or more factions)

[Makanyane]

not listing some regions in descr strat doesn't cause problems for some versions of game (BI)- can't entirely remember but think that might be different for RTW / patch version....

not listing any regions in descr strat would be very likely to cause crash

duplicated regions in descr strat I think cause error message


to get campaign loading initially simplify it as much as possible, but do try to get things like descr_strat accurate and matching descr_regions - descr_regions must definitely match map_regions, any discrepancy in that will stop it loading

[Sir_Lysander]

not listing some regions in descr strat doesn't cause problems for some versions of game (BI)- can't entirely remember but think that might be different for RTW / patch version....

not listing any regions in descr strat would be very likely to cause crash

duplicated regions in descr strat I think cause error message


to get campaign loading initially simplify it as much as possible, but do try to get things like descr_strat accurate and matching descr_regions - descr_regions must definitely match map_regions, any discrepancy in that will stop it loading

Bolded mine.

In RTW 1.5, regions/settlements not listed in descrt_strat are rebel held villages with no buildings or garrisons - at least that's what it did for me.

Further clarification: if no garrisons are defined for the x/y coords, no garrisons appear. It's possible to create a rebel army in descr_strat at the same x/y values as the village, in which case the village would be garrisoned.

[misteed]

what program i need to add new provitses ?

[maozen]

Hi Guys!!!
i'm really new to mod rtw so to start i'm tryng to add a new province using this tutorial, but i'm having some problems.... i've tried to check all the post but i didn't find a solution.... may be i've lost it... there's a lot of post!!!

following you will find al my step to create a new region.... the problem is that when i launch the new campaign come back to the campaign menu and whe i exit rtw i found the error message

error........... in desc_strat.txt

could not create settlement at xxxxxx

and is the line of my new settlement.

i've found a post that says :

* Symptom: KTM's with message on exit: 'Script error in .../descr_strat.txt, at line xxx, column x. could not create settlement at script line xxx'

* Mis-match between colour on map_regions.tga and colour listed in descr_regions.txt for affected settlement.
* Using identical colour for two different regions.

i've triple checked but i use the same color and the color is not used for any other province....

HELP!!!

so following my steps......

1) created the new campaing folder data\world\map\campaign\atlantide

and i've copied all the files from maps\base and from map\campaign\imperial_campaign

2) deleted map.rtw and map_heights.hgt

3) edited (with photosop using pencil) map_regions.tga and created a small province in the desert with color 24 16 16 with one town in the middle of the province

4) added the province to the end of descr_regions.txt

Sicania
Panormus
egypt
Libyans
163 20 8
gold, slaves, wild_animals, camels
5
8

5) Assigned the new province to the egyptians adding the following script after the last egyptian town present in the original descr_strat

settlement
{
level large_town
region Sicania

year_founded 0
population 4500
plan_set default_set
faction_creator parthia
building
{
type core_building governors_villa
}
building
{
type defenses wooden_wall
}
building
{
type barracks muster_field
}
building
{
type port_buildings port
}
building
{
type market market
}
building
{
type hinterland_roads roads
}
}

6) added at the end of descr_regions_and_settlement_name_lookup.txt the following code

Sicania
Panormus

7) created in data\text the file atlantide_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt
and added to the original file at the very end the following code

{Sicania} Sicania
{Panormus} Panormus


then launch the game!!!

[maozen]

i made a mistake writing the prvious post

i've tryed 2 color 24 16 16 and 163 120 8

the name of the file in point 7 is atlantide_regions_and_settlement_names.txt

thanks!!

[Bardo]

I have recently discovered 2 new commands usable in the settlement definition inside the descr_strat file and I wonder if they were already known:

1) The creator of each building in the city. This allows to create buildings of different cultures from the beginning. For example a roman stone wall in a barbarian town:

building
{
type barracks muster_field
creator gauls
}

2) The location of the city model in the battle map:
(not sure, but they seems coordinates from center of the tile: x, height, y, rotation, ¿unknown?)

battle_pos -480.000 1214.038 224.000 rotation_90 0



The source comes from the code automatically generated by the battle editor:

settlement
{
level huge_city
tile 149 80

year_founded 1
fortification 4 carthaginian, walls 0 towers 0 gates 2 gate_defences 0
population 24000
battle_pos -480.000 1214.038 224.000 rotation_90 0
plan_set default_set
faction_creator carthage
building
{
type barracks muster_field
creator gauls
}
}

Both commands seem very useful to create custom cities.

[Dol Guldur]

I had forgotten about these - I came across them when doing a HB for FATW a few years ago. I never tried them though and the creator one works and may be useful! Thx Bardo.

Did you know about putting the "sieging" command on the line after the army listings for an army that is next to an enemy city so that the campaign starts with that city being sieged?

Thus:


....
unit militia exp 2 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit militia exp 2 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
sieging

I'm not sure how to add rams etc. though.

[Bardo]

Hey, I didn't know, and it could be very useful in many cases.

I did know the command to add siege equipment to an army since AlexanderTW uses it by default in his DS, but it had no sense without that "sieging" line. :2thumbsup:


siege_equipment ram 1
siege_equipment tower 1
siege_equipment ladder 1
siege_equipment sap_point 2


I have been searching and I have found this TWC topic with more useful commands that I didn't know: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13660&page=3


I've made a couple more finds today:

1. It's possible to set the starting building health. For example,


building
{
type defenses stone_wall
health 75%
}

2. It's possible to define a garrison for a settlement right when you define it, without having to create a separate army. For example,


settlement
{
level town
region Lucania; Grumentum
year_founded 0
population 1480
plan_set default_set
faction_creator epirus
garrisoned_army
unit fac rome light infantry exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit aor oscan skirmishers exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
building
{
type core_building governors_house
}
}

3. Ambush parameter (still unknow effect)


unit rtr caetrati skirmishers ambush 75 exp 2 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

[Dol Guldur]

Yes, I commented there and had forgotten. lol.

All good stuff - few mods use them and they could.

[Weebeast]

Hey ladies and gents. Does anyone know at what exact point a tile becomes impassable as in mountain or is that actually determined by ground types rather than heights? First post doesn't quite tell me that. However by looking at certain familiar section of EB map, ground_types file dictates what is passable and what is not. Just trying to clarify as I can't check because I work on different computer. Saves me the trouble of migrating back here to this computer! Thanks.

[Bardo]

Unpassable terrain is dictated by the ground_types.tga: water, dense forest and mountain terrain types are the non-passable, that I know.
You can view which terrain is passable in your campaign map while you are ingame using the console command:

"toggle_terrain choke"

There are many other useful parameters to view different map features:


toggle_terrain
Availability: campaign
Usage: toggle_terrain <opt:region/tiletype/climate/choke/landing/frontier/features/frontier_defend> : toggles the terrain to display various data sets, no param resets to normal

[Makanyane]

when you're looking at map_ground_types or map_heights the bits that are passable or in-passable are determined only by the type of terrain (sea / land - from map_heights or mountains / forest / normal land - from ground types) that are on the odd, odd pixel co-ordinates e.g 1,3 or 51, 97.... the other coordinates e.g. 1,4 or 52, 98 only effect perimeter bits of appearance....

that result shows up if you use "toggle_terrain choke" on loaded map, as explained above.....

but if you're trying to alter map via the tga's it's useful to know that the only relevant bits for pass-ability are the odd, odd co-ordinates

[Samofrome]

you said about descr_mercs, and yet you never said a word
so, can you help me?

[kidrocker]

Hay, umm..., don't call me stupid but I have been trying to open and edit the regions map for hours, and now i'm guessing that I need specific modding software for rome total war.
Would you be able to send me a link,

nice turtorial by the way
thanls

[Bardo]

kidrocker, you do not really need any specific tool to mod the campaign regions or maps. You just need a image editor like photoshop or gimp. But I would suggest to use a fixed pallete to avoid introducing new undesired colours. And of course you need to match the changes in the maps with the changes in the related txt files.
That is why a tool like TIME becomes really usefull: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=12718


when you're looking at map_ground_types or map_heights the bits that are passable or in-passable are determined only by the type of terrain (sea / land - from map_heights or mountains / forest / normal land - from ground types) that are on the odd, odd pixel co-ordinates e.g 1,3 or 51, 97.... the other coordinates e.g. 1,4 or 52, 98 only effect perimeter bits of appearance....

that result shows up if you use "toggle_terrain choke" on loaded map, as explained above.....

but if you're trying to alter map via the tga's it's useful to know that the only relevant bits for pass-ability are the odd, odd co-ordinates
Btw, I did not know this info when you posted it, Makanyane, even when I was modding the maps of our mod... I always though it was a combo of the 4 pixel used to decide the type of terrain, but you are right, only the odd pixel is taken into account. Thank you for pointing it out.
Note the other pixels are still usefull to change the looking of the map in the battlemap, I verified it with the heights and vegetation.

[kidrocker]

Sorry, another question :help:

Hi again, i'm going to begin by saying thanks for the great tip---- this being photoshop or gimp, thankfuly I now got phototshop...

However I have encountered a new problem, now i'm trying to change the size of my map and I've been useing these sizes

510 by 337 (for the normal files e.g. map regions)
1021 by 675 ( for the twice plus 1 pixel)
1020 by 674 ( just for the twice)

Now... I don't see a problem with this, I have made the following adjustments to the correct files. I have also repeated this process about 3 times and it keeps on crashing when I try and load up the campeign

However when I adjusted the files I simply put in the measurments in the image size option on photo shop (image, image size)
Could this be a problem, I didn't really understand what you meant when you were saying 'resize from the right hand corner' did you mean stretch the image?

This is the process of how I edited the files, so did I miss anything?
note that i'm only editing the imperial map nothing more

Kidrocker-----Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Makanyane]

I have made the following adjustments to the correct files.
erm what adjustments did you make after resizing? You may have problem with city / port / rivers etc that should only be one pixel having been stretched etc...

you could also have problem if your area of sea is now too large (problem is worse on bigger maps)

try reading symptoms on
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?85902-Campaign-Map-Not-Loading....&p=1554002&viewfull=1#post1554002
and see if you can describe more acurately exactly when / how the game crashes - with / without generating map.rwm etc.

[kidrocker]

hmm... tht would make sence (stretching the pixels)

I have found out that after I try and play the game another map.rwm isn't produced and sadly when i do delete it this is when the game crashes.
when it does play no change occurs except for the radar maps, when it does crash it crashes when I have finished my faction selection then before a loading screen happens it just crashes.

As I use Photo shop, how do you guys or gals change the size of the map, without stretching the pixels?

Thanks a lot Makanyane

[Makanyane]

there isn't a 'not stretching' pixels option in photo shop ..... the not blurring things option which is next best is 'nearest neighbour' resizing which at least doesn't add any other merged colours....

using 'nearest neighbour' is best bet but will still mean you need to sort out manually size of city and port pixels and rivers in map_features if you have them...

best recommendation is whilst trying to get initial map to load, remove all ports from descr_strat and all white pixels in regions, so you don't have to worry about them, make map_features the right size but load it as pure black without any rivers etc...


if you're not getting map rwm generated it may be because whole thing has so many problems its not working or because map is otherwise fine but has too much sea area.... if you go the route of deleting all the ports, then you can also try loading with almost pure black RGB 1,1,1, map_heights.tga, which rules out the sea issue.

[kidrocker]

Thanks, once again Makanyane you're filled with helpful information!

But I am struggling to find this 'not blurring' tool, you said it was in photoshop right? I'm also getting a vibe tht it perhaps easier creating my own map rther than editing the main campeign map, would this be quicker?
OR perhaps just removing the black and white pixels in map regions and also getting rid of the sea etc...would be easier and less fiddely

Sorry for the noob questions, and I do believe that I am perhaps aiming a little bit too high by doing this to start off with...

[Myrddraal]

The 'not blurring' which Mak is referring to is an option when resizing an image. The sampling method you should use is 'nearest neighbour'. This uses the colour of the nearest pixel in the original image to make the colour of the resized image, ensuring that only the colours found in the original end up in the new version.

Hope that helps, and don't give up, I think tweaking the campaign map is a good way to start modding.

[Baxon7]

Thanks for this tuts.

has a question...i have make a map in Provincial Campaign...
but can't figue out of how can edit text on all description.txt.(( description_julii.txt and description_romans_julii.txt)).
have write on all that files..but that dont work in Provincial Campaign.
do i need too rename all files?...my folder is Crusade_campaign...just need edit text and write some history etc.

[Myrddraal]

If I remember correctly, those description files are obsolete and don't do anything.

[General Brittanicus]

Hi all,

I have a problem after editing the map where i try to start the provincial campaign, but then i get the following error "You have chosen an invalid tile(0,0)for the settlement of" which points to the last line of descr_strat as well. I've been over map_regions with a fine tooth comb and couldnt find any errant pixels and also went through all my region colours to see if they were in descr_regions, which they were. I was just wondering if there were any other reasons this could be happening other than errant pixels/missing colours from descr_regions.