Time saving suggestion for the ABSOLUTE NOOB Mapmaker

Not really a tutorial but its something that saves me plenty of headaches - I'm sure most of us do it but for the absolute NOOB mapmodder here goes.

You don't have to delete the map.rwm file right away - instead I would suggest that you make a copy of your map_regions.tga file and add the word OLD to the start or end or both so its "OLDcopy of map_regions.tgaOLD" (do the same to whatever file you plan to change) and RENAME the map.rwm to OLDmap.rwmOLD. You can keep them in your campaign directory and they won't be a bother. Then you can change the map_regions or whatever you want to change and then start up the game. The game won't recognize it so it builds a new map.rwm when you play your campaign. Now if it either Crashes To Desktop or returns to the Provincial Campaign choice screen (indicating there's something wrong with your map) simply return to your backups by deleting your 'defective' files (whichever file was modded plus map.rwm) and replacing them with the OLD backed up files.

Now lets way you got it right, the game loaded and you're in the game now. I suggest hitting the Turn Advance button once - let the game advance one game turn because there's a chance you may crash with one of the factions, the Rebel faction most notably - then once you're sure that the map doesn't crash after the first turn you can take note of further changes to be made, exit to windows and then your present files now must be backed up to your OLD files.

As Duke John so wisely said, make changes SLOWLY. At least if there's a crash you can narrow it down.

I would also recommend working out the map regions/terrain etc FIRST before you try messing with the desc_strat file. If you can get a WORKING map.rwm file you can pretty much play around with the desc_strat file (again making haste slowly).

Hope this helps the absolute NOOBs.
Cheers,
Clare

One thing I would suggest, though, is once you have your first set of changes in place, copy them and rename them '1' instead of 'OLD'.

I like to keep more than one stage of backups. If your changes become more involved, you may end up having something that works for now, but causes problems with future changes. I tend to keep 4 or 5 levels of backup when I am 'modding'.

It has helped me in the past when I forgot how I had got something to work. Going through my backup lists I could follow the steps through :D

I may be a mewbie when it comes to TW modding... but I have modded before :D

Okay, I'm stuck - what are the most common reasons for the end-of-first-turn crash? The weird thing is, I reverted to a working backup, and I still can't get past rebel first turn. I know the ground_types and height maps should fit each other, and I don't think it's a problem.. what else could it be?

Easy way to check to see if the ground types are the problem is to fill the entire ground types file with grass. This will work, even in the sea regions. But otherwise there are tons of reasons. Not sure what the most common are though.

End turn problems are usually to do with settlements or armies. If you have a settlement defined in descr_regions.txt as culture: britons and the same settlement defined as faction_creator: romans_julii for example, the game will CTD when the AI 'sees' the settlement - it doesn't know what culture it should be. Similarly, armies placed in the sea or navies on land can cause AI problems.