New Shogun Total War Campaigns by R. Mark Colborn
These new campaigns are homegrown and offered for your enjoyment only. They are not the creation of either Electronic Arts nor of Dreamtime. They will not be supporting these campaigns and have not endorsed them. They are offered at your risk, and any problems will be yours to own (although there should be no issues; they work fine on my system.)
Manifest:
This zip should contain the following items:
1. This readme file.
2. A folder named Warlords 1550 containing a text file named "positions.txt"
3. A text file named Warlords 1550.txt.
4. A folder named Seven Samurai 1550 containing a text file named "positions.txt"
5. A text file named Seven Samurai 1550.txt.
6. A MS Excel Spreadsheet called "Shogun TotalWar Campaigns.xls"
Introduction:
From the moment I finished my first Total War campaign, I wanted to be able to create or tweak the design of campaigns. The way I play, I never seem to get to the level to see one of my geisha make a kill. Also, I always wanted to see what it's like when the right house is in the right territory to make their clan units in the place where they're born with an extra +1 honor (Mori in Kaga or Kii, Imagawa in Iga, Uesugi in Totomi, etc.) Only Shimazu seems to start consistently in the right place for their forte, and I wanted to see what it was like for the others. With the announcement of Total War -- WE and the inclusion of an editor, I thought campaign tweaking would be mine at last. Alas, the editor was for battlegrounds only, and the good folks at Dreamtime have let me know that each campaign they have created is so customized with specific AI, art, and history, that a generic campaign editor just wasn't in the cards. Now they are working hard on the Middle Ages European sequel, so a campaign editor for Japan just isn't gonna happen soon. So, I located the campaign starting position files in my copy of the game, decoded them -- easy to do since they're in ASCII -- and have begun rolling my own. Sure enough, as Dreamtime said, there are things that can't be done easily and things that just don't work. When you do your own designs, you may find that some combinations just kill the campaign and make it not even show in TW's menu when you try to play it. Other times, it'll start, but you'll see no troops -- weird, huh? Follow the principles I give you below, and you should have pretty good success creating your own stable new campaign.
Campaigns Included in This Release:
Two campaigns are included here for your pleasure: Warlords 1550 and Seven Samurai 1550.
-- Warlords 1550: starts each clan in the territory areas most beneficial to them (not historical) with macho, clan-focused armies, and starting fortresses. Ronin are also beefy. This campaign rolls out big battles with tough units fast. Have not worked it long enough yet to know all the ins and outs of the play balance. Please feel free to send me your comments: rmcolborn@hotmail.com
-- Seven Samurai 1550: My version of the famous legend. I love Kensai and I love the Mori. In this campaign, if you select Mori, you get to experience the challenges and delights of starting with 7 kensai and a few peasants. For a year or more, you will be handling aggressive rebels with minimal forces. After that year, all your Kensai will be running around with amazing honor. How I have laughed out loud again and again as two Kensai run hundreds of bad guys off the map. How I have been amazed as they run straight for the enemy general and take him out. Enjoy.
To use these campaigns:
Each campaign consists of a folder (campaign name) containing a textfile (positions.txt), and one additional text file (campaign.txt). Unzip them and dump them in the "Total War - Warlord Edition\campmap\startpos" directory. Next time you start a campaign, you'll find them available. The text description for the campaign will not match the new story; it will describe the original campaign copied to make the new one.
Design Principles:
If you want to do your own campaigns, I have included a spreadsheet which explains the values I have found in the startpos files.
A. Each campaign in the startpos directory consists of a folder named after the campaign. In that folder is a text file called "position.txt" Matching this folder is another text file, not in the folder, called "nameofcampaign.txt" Both must be present for the campaign to run.
B. Since all of this stuff is specifically designed by Dreamtime, you will want to begin campaign design by copying one of the existing folders (including position.txt) and "nameofcampaign.txt". Change the name of each to the name of your new campaign. Make sure the names are exactly the same.
C. Do not edit the "position.txt" file. Edit the "nameofcampaign.txt" file according to your wishes. You will need to do the following: 1) set the region ownerships according to the clans as you want them placed, 2) review current buildings and change at will, and, 3) do the same with units. Buildings and units will automatically start owned by the side that owns the region.
D. Save yourself some headaches and don't screw around with the position.txt files, or the Daimyos -- except to relocate them into your selected regions. You'll also find that the three big campaigns, 1550, 1580 and Segoku Jidai are the ones most amenable to changes without crashing out. I have not monkeyed with 1530 or Mongol campaign with much success, although I think changing the starting troopies for Hojo would not be much trouble.
E. The Excel spreadsheet includes the values I have determined for clan designation, region IDs, buildings and troop. There may still be a mistaken region ID in the North end of the island. If you find one, let me know and I'll update the sheet.
F. As for editing tools, either MS Word or Notepad work well. I like Word because I can do mass changes using "Find and Replace". MS Excel is a hassle to edit these. Even when I save the files as "space delimited", it wants to get creative and screw up the text file.
Colborn Campaigns In Design:
The following campaigns are taking shape on my own desktop:
A. The Northern Barbarians -- start one of the clans with a stack of Mongols. What if they had come, conquered, stayed, and then a couple hundred years later faced revolt? Or maybe we just pretend Japan is the British Isles and there are dangerous barbars in the North.
B. No Place Like Home -- Start small, but with fully mature citadels.
C. The Emperor's Golden Guard -- A change to start in Yamashiro and call it home.
D. The Dark Lord -- Use Imagawa's Geisha and Battle Ninja like Sauron in Middle Earth. Kill your enemies with overwhelming forces of darkness.
Enjoy.
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New Shogun Warlord Campaigns.zip
