How to edit climates

I've done some research and found out how to edit climates. One of the weaknesses in the existing climates that can be edited for the campaign map with the map_climates.tga is that all climates except semi-arid and deserts have snow in the winter. That is very unrealistic.

In order to create a new climate, copy and existing climates structure in descr_climates.txt and add it at the bottom:

climate your_climate
{
colour 100 100 100
heat 1
winter

strategy summer sparse_tree cypress_a.cas 11
strategy summer sparse_tree olive_a.cas 10
strategy summer dense_tree olive_a_impassable.cas 10
strategy summer canopy olive_a_canopy.cas 12

battle_vegetation
dense_forest medi_dense_forest
dense_scrub medi_dense_scrub

battle_winter_vegetation
dense_forest medi_dense_forest
dense_scrub medi_dense_scrub
env_map data/battlefield/envmaps/grass.dds
}

Then add the name your_climate at the bottom of descr_climates_lookup.txt. Change your_climate to any name you want, but spaces etc. aren't allowed, stick to simple characters and underscore. You can also edit the existing climates. My suggestion for a huge improvement of the vanilla R:TW campaign is to make the temperate_forest_open and fertile_grassland climates without snow in the winter, then do some minor changes of the map_climates.tga file if necessary. For total conversion mods this also gives a better opportunity to customize the looks of different areas. The climates map determines a lot more than one might think - it has a greater impact on how a particular area will look than the map_ground_types.tga has, as it determines all the textures.

The attributes that can be edited for a climate are:
- color: which RGB value in map_climates.tga that will represent this climate
- heat: only has to do with fatigue modifier, not whether snow will exist or not. It has been confirmed that heat doesn't matter at all when it comes to decided whether there'll be snow in the winter or not.
- winter: adding or removing the line "winter" below the line with heat will determine whether the climate will have snow in the winter. NOTE! This removes the snow on the campaign map, but snow still remains on the battle map. I'm still working on how to remove snow on the battle map. Will return with more info on that soon. So far it hasn't worked even when I deleted map.rwm for the campaign map. That could otherwise have been an explanation for snow on battlemap remaining after snow on strategy map disappeared.
- strategy map vegetation icons: add one to three (more might be possible) lines beginning with the keyword strategy. Then specify whether it's summer or winter vegetation, then tree type (sparse_tree, dense_tree or canopy seems to be the only available), then a .cas referring to the tree you want. Simplest thing is to use any existing .cas names used by other climates that have the trees you want. The numbers last mean how often every tree icon will occur. The numbers last seem optional.
- battle vegetation: Same thing as for strategy map vegetation, the different attributes mean the same things.

This should be moved to guides subforum...

Could you post some pictures of how this works in practice? I remember that we've had this approach taken before (see here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=50454 ) and a few people replied that it was more complicated that this. I just want to be sure. :wink:

Sure, here are some shots:

BEFORE:
https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y1...rix/c_snow.jpg

AFTER EDITING VEGETATION:
https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y1..._baretrees.jpg
Note, trees have gone green.

AFTER REMOVING LINE "WINTER" FOR 2 CLIMATES:
https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y1...ix/no_snow.jpg
Now also the ground becomes green.

BUT SNOW REMAINS ON THE BATTLEMAP:
https://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y1...ix/winter1.jpg

This method for adding custom stuff like in the thread you linked to, can also work, but gameplay wise those things will still be trees, it seems. I think that if you call the .cas models as dense_tree rather than sparse_tree, you'll get impassable objects on the battlemap. Otherwise they'll work like trees that you can pass and hide in, gameplay wise.

If it becomes possible to change the battle map textures too, that would be REALLY handy for me! At present, I have had to make the bulk of my map semi-arid to keep the snow away from where I don't want it.

Mind you...just knowing how I can make desert climates that DON'T cause fatigue will help me a great deal for teh Robots...so I might just make a custom climate with the heat thing set to minimal values.