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 fenir_A Guide to Editing Medieval Total War.v1.zip
This is 47 pages guide.
A Guide to Editing Medieval Total War
Originally Produce by “Wellington”, Taken From the www.totalwar.org Forums. Reproduced by fenir.
Part 1. The Basics, Images, and BIF files.
There are over 120 individual units in the game. Each unit is built up from a combination of the following -
- a generic unit
- a generic mount (for cavalrymen)
- a specific weapon (optionally)
- a specific shield (optionally)
For example, the generic unit 'Peasant' is used for multiple specific units -
- Peasant
- Spearman
- Pikeman
- FeudalSergeants
.... and MANY others!
These specific units are different insomuch as they carry different weapons/shields, and (in the case of cavalry) may use different mounts.
The generic units are contained in their own folders within the folder 'Textures\Men'. The images for these are contained in 2 BIF's in each of the generic-unit folders.
The relationship between a specific-unit and the generic-unit (in terms of which generic-unit and, optionally, generic-mount to use for any specific-unit) is contained in the crusader_prod11.txt file.
Most graphics associated with the generic-units are contained in their own folders, within the folder 'Textures\Men' (flags and banners are not). These generic-units are represented by 2 BIF files, for the low-res and high-res images. Each of these 2 BIF's contain 12 frames.
The low-res BIF frames are all 256x256, the hires ones 512x512. Images in the high res BIFs are twice the size of the low-res ones. This is important for weapons/shields resizing when a specific unit is being 'built' in the MTW engine.
These BIF files also contain images of all weapons and shields that may be used, in conjunction with the generic unit, in order to create a specific unit.
Both BIF graphics plates have the same name as the folder, with the high res BIF plate adding "_H" for differentiation. For example, the unit plates for the specific-unit Longbows are contained in the folder 'Textures\Men\Bowman', along with several related text files, and be named -
- Bowman.bif
- Bowman_H.bif
(Note: within the generic unit folders there is also a TGA file - ignore it - it isn't used)
Any figure image, shield image or weapon image in a BIF is defined by its own 'image rectangle', the size of this image-rectangle being constant for all 12 frames.
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Mithel_ImageConverter110.zip
Version 1.10
Changes:
Loading and Saving a color table is now supported.
Current scale is displayed.
Documentation dialog added.
This program is designed specifically for creating "LBM" graphics for games like "Medieval Total War" that
use the index of a color palette entry to identify which part of the graphic was selected. Thus the primary
feature is the ability to click on a color in the image and assign that color to a specific color palette
position.
The concept of this program is that you can use your favorite powerful graphics program (Paintshop Pro, Photoshop, Fireworks, etc) to create the image and then our "ImageConverter" program can be used to assign the colors to specific location in the color table.
This program can read GIF, JPG, PNG and LBM formats and can write (export) PNG, JPG and LBM formats.
This program was developed with Java 1.4.1 and thus should run (and requires) the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.4.1 or higher. You can also obtain the Java JRE from Sun at:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/downloads.html
The image is automatically scaled to make it easier to work with selecting a region(color) and assigning it a position in the color table.
When saving images the original file name will be used with the new extension. If saving as the same file type this file will already exist so to avoid overwriting the original file "NEW" will be appended to the filename. It is your responsibility to rename the files appropriately for actual usage.
Please note: this was just a quick programming job and lacks the frills of a full professional version. Specifically there are no progress dialog boxes while loading or saving a file. Large files like Medieval Total War uses can take several seconds to load or save even on a high end PC. Errors will mostly just crash out or silently occur, there is very little error reporting.
To work with large graphics sizes the Java Runtime Environment needs larger memory settings. I've provided "ImageConverter.bat" to run automatically with an allocation of 256 MB. For small graphics you can simply double click and run "ImageConverter.jar". (but the command line messages are handy to see if you run it from the batch file or a command line)
Author: John Wright
Website: http://www.StarfireResearch.com
Copyright 2002 by Starfire Research
License: This program is provided as a free service to the world. Use it freely and enjoy it.
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Tosa_Inu_FactSel.zip
ShadesWolf mentioned the possibility to use mongols online. Some people were exited and a bit worried about setting it up. This bat file allows 3 things:
-A: the default 1.1 startpos files.
-B:play campaign in any era with any faction that's present in that campaign (except for rebels).
-C: play any faction in any era in online battles. This setting will 'work' in campaigns, but it's not balanced for that (some factions are impossible).
5 'slots' to put your own files in.
It copies Early.txt, High.txt and Late.txt into MTW\campmap\startpos.
Use WinZip (or similair) to extract the content to your main MTW gamefolder; do NOT
drag and drop but use the EXTRACT menu.
Users of Windows XP need to install the included Choice.com. Please check the directory choicecom for further details.
Have fun
TosaInu
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Mods
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Giskard_mtwcamphowto_V2.zip
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