GUIDE: Specifics of Modding Alexander - TW

Specifics of Modding Alexander - Total War

I could not find a thread or forum dedicated to the specifics of Alexander - Total War so I thought I'd start one here. I will - in time (hopefully) - list all the unique features of Alexander and how to mod them. But do feel free to help or take over as my time is very limited these days ;)

Alex:TW has some nice features, especially for perhaps the more heroic/mythical/fantasy mods out there and it would be good to see its moddability placed in such a Guide.

Unique Features List

* Alexander draws off of RTW and not BI (you do not even need BI installed), though you do need to make sure RTW is patched to 1.5 before installing Alexander. So BI features (swimming, shieldwall, schiltrom, loyalty, religion, night battles etc.) are not inherent within it.

* Victory conditions can state a "survivor" which requires that a specific unique character survive in order for that faction to remain in the game; the designated survivor needs to be the faction leader. The condition works when written as follows:

InternalFactionName
alexander Region1 Region2 etc.
take_regions NumberOfRegions
survivor Alexander
script world/maps/campaign/alexander/Alexander_Campaign_Outro_Script.txt

* Mercs can be designated as faction-specific in the campaign merc pool file

* DMB model entries increased from RTW/BI's 250 max (to at least 330)

* AI can be instructed in the DS file not to attack certain factions (unless at war already)

* Immortality trait can ensure that named characters do not die of natural causes

* Generals can be assigned unique strat map and battlemap models as well as custom portraits

* AI factions can be coded to not attack certain other factions (unless first attacked)

Specifics of modfolder setup

* make sure you include the chat_filter.san file in your modfolder's data folder

* TBC

Non-Alexander Features that can be used in Alexander

* Shadowing
* Re-emergence
* Loyalty

Well most of the modding is almost identical to that of RTW. I did notice though that some of the map files were done differently, with just 1 water colour in map_heights, and the different water types defined in map_ground_types. Or the other way round, it's been a while since i modded it.

The unique general thing is pretty handy, in Alexandros i was going to add in all of Alexanders generals as unique characters.

Thx. Lusted.

I'm trying to get the survivor feature in win conditions to work for a new unique and it's not working. I suspect the survivor may need to be the leader - which I have not tested yet. I'm still not 100% sure what labels the character as - for example - Alexander is in the name list and so presumably other Alexanders can exist. Must be the leader label.

Anyway, will look into the map thing too, faction-specific mercs etc.

Well Alexander of course only has one campaign so my modded campaign didnt work; which was from RTW

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The biggest difference between ALX and vanilla or BI is the hard coded limit on DMB. I have 330 entries in my mod and I haven't found the maximum number yet. BI and vanilla is limited to 250 entries.

The next big thing is, of course, the unique general models. You can have battle and strat model and portraits that cannot be used by any other general in the game.

Then there is ai_do_not_attack_faction in descr_strat, which prohibits the AI to attack certain factions, except when they're at war.

Another one I'm unsure if it's limited to ALX: the faction specific mercenaries. In ALX, you can specify regional mercenaries to be recruitable only by certain factions.

However, ALX cannot use the features of BI such as hording, shield wall, schilstrom and swimming.

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from Wlesmana. Faction-specific mercs does not work in BI (and probably not RTW either).

One comment and one question to Wlesmana.

Comment) I have noticed when modding ATW, that there is a lot of comments and things crossed off from the devs. I would just like to make a point to say that in files such as EDU.txt, do not be intimidated by all the lines saying stuff like:

;based off of: *insert vanilla unit here*

and stuff like that

Question) Wlesmana, did you have any difficulty porting Lotr - TW from RTW to ATW? I am wondering how difficult it is.

Thanks,
RM3

I never noticed the crossed out comments until you mentioned it. I wiped out all the EDU entries before adding my own.

It's not hard to port RTW to ALX since they're basically the same except for a few extra features for campaign. It's easier than, say, porting RTW to BI or vice versa. All the factions are the same and map system is also the same (no religion, loyalty, etc). Virtually all the new features of ALX are campaign based, aside from the higher DMB limit.

Ok, thanks.


Keep up the good work on LOTR - TW,
RM3

I have two problems with running mods with alexander.exe
1.All my generals are immortals, and can die only in combat. Anybody know how to fix it?
2.A can't run mods with "-mod:" command. It CTD when I click on imperial campaign, but I launched a BI with alex.exe when a use "-mod:bi". I think that provincial campaign not supported with alex.exe

I can have provincial campaigns with ALX, but the text in the menu would get jumbled up with the tournament battle feature, unless I edit Rome.Int I guess. In ALX, the main campaign is in the folder of Alexander and not imperial campaign.

-mod also works fine for me.

Is it possible to play Alexander with BI (or RTW) using the -mod: command ?

If yes, are there any noticible differences ?

W

Yes, and no.
Yes, you can play Alexander with RTW's exe, but you have to trim down DMB because it's over 250 entries. The same with BI's exe. As for the campaign, you'll need to edit some stuff too, like mercenaries and ai_do_not_attack_faction line.

I can't tell if there's any noticeable difference. ALX is pretty much RTW with some extra features (and higher DMB cap). If you're not using any of the features, then I doubt it'd be any different.

Initial post updated. Keep the discussion going guys! :)

Could someone specify what the differences (in the TXT) files are for the campaign map, please ? (Not detailed, just a short description)

I'm getting kinda interested in Alx. (I still have to buy it so I can play LotR:TW :2thumbsup: )

W

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* Immortality trait can ensure that named characters do not die of natural causes

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Named characters don't die even without immortality trait. The problem is that I don't know how to make them mortal.

Is that so? I've not tested it or played it long enough to notice.

Wles?

Can't say myself since I haven't found examples first hand. But strictly speaking of my mod, even if it's true, it doesn't matter.

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So BI features (swimming, shieldwall, schiltrom, loyalty, religion, night battles etc.) are not inherent within it.

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Loyalty,religion,night battles features works ok with ALX.exe.

I was wrong about mod: comand. When I created "alexander" campaign folder all works nice.

I have seen you missed the better ATW feature (imho :beam: ): you can use specific campaign models, battle models and portraits for all the initial characters.
This the entry in descr_strat:

Code:

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character        Denethor, named character, leader, age 50, , x 149, y 80, portrait denethor, strat_model denethor, battle_model denethor

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Victory conditions can state a "survivor" which requires that a specific unique character survive in order for that faction to remain in the game; however, it is uncertain if this can be used for anyone other than the initial 'Alexander' character. Needs more testing.

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This survivor condition only works for the human player. I mean, if you play Persia, you can kill Alexander the Great and the game continues. But the game ends if you play Macedon and Alexander dies.

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Named characters don't die even without immortality trait. The problem is that I don't know how to make them mortal.

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I'm almost sure that I've seen characters dying of natural causes in ATW.

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I'm almost sure that I've seen characters dying of natural causes in ATW.

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I'm talking about mods,which I run with alx.exe and not about official addon.

I am having a little trouble setting up the ATW mod folder.

I set it up like the RTW mod folder, but put it in alexander folder. the short cut looks like this:

Code:

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"C:\Program Files\The Creative Assembly\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-ALX.exe" -show_err -nm -mod:alexander:MA -enable_editor -movie_cam

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Any ideas? It says there is an error with chat_filter.san

did you mean:

-mod:alexander\MA

?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dol Guldur

did you mean:

-mod:alexander\MA

?

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Thanks. Mak just pointed that out as well, but it still seems to be the chat_filter.san problem.

Mak just helped again. It was seemingly because of the editor and cam,

How strange.

Having the same issue I port SPQR over into a SPQR directory under Alexander and gets the chat error also.

I must include the chat_filter.san file in your mod folder.

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Originally Posted by wlesmana

I can have provincial campaigns with ALX, but the text in the menu would get jumbled up with the tournament battle feature, unless I edit Rome.Int I guess. In ALX, the main campaign is in the folder of Alexander and not imperial campaign.

-mod also works fine for me.

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I am having a severe problem with the provincial campaign in Alexander. I solved the jumbled text by editing Rome.lnt - an adventure in itself! - but now I get a bad crash when trying to start it.

I have a provincial campaign folder located in alexander/data/world/maps/campaign, sitting next to the Alexander folder. For the time being, it contains exactly the same contents as the Alexander folder itself.

Clicking "Provincial Campaign (Unused)" on the menu takes me to the campaign selection screen, where the game recognises the new provincial campaign and allows it to be highlighted. However, clicking the "continue" arrow causes a hard CTD with a windows "appcrash" error message. The crash leaves major graphical problems in windows, requiring a log-out and re-log-in to solve.

What am I doing wrong? I have successfully created a provincial campaign for BI and never encountered anything this bad!

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The crash leaves major graphical problems in windows, requiring a log-out and re-log-in to solve.

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Weird and nasty - the only thing that ever did that to me was problems with the preferences file changing things in ways my graphics card didn't like, preferences should be set above data level though so can't see how that could cause any problem with provincial campaign only.

One quick test that might be worth trying; move folder to
alexander/data/world/maps/campaign/custom/....
I found BI worked better with that to get descriptions to show up, so might be where provincial campaigns are meant to work from.

Thanks for the suggestion, Makanyane. Putting it it a "custom" folder did seem to improve matters, but not hugely. I got the faction description up for the first time, but the game still crashes when I try to get to the faction selection screen. No graphical weirdness this time though, just a CTD and "appcrash" windows error message.

My guess is that I've somehow left out a file that the game needs to see in order to construct that screen, but I can't imagine what.

Did you know if it is possible to fight night battles in ATW? If so, what do you need to include this feature in a mod?

I have troubles getting night battles in the mod LOTR-TW, using ATW.exe. I have seen that ATW includes the traits noctophobia/noctophilia, so I guess it should be possible.
I have tried adding the trait NightBattleCapable (+1 to night command) and giving it to all characters, but the choice to fight at night still does not appear.
We have also added the command "night_battles_enabled" at the start of the descr_strat.txt. Am I missing something else?
Could someone confirm if he has seen a night battle under ATW?

Thanks in advance.