Post your "must-know" modding questions here!

Thanks for the answers to those question Jerome, you can't imagine how much it helps modders to have a point of reference in these early stages.

I've got a quick one for you :bow: : How do we mod the UI? Thoros and I tried editting the files in Data\UI\ROMAN\INTERFACE but they seemed to have no effect on the interface in game. Are these files triggered by some other text file?

Would be good to be able to mod the Interface textures accordingto the mod style ie. japanese for DJs mod.

many thanks - hoggy

I am able to mod the UI, so I don't know how you are not able to. I can edit all the faction emblems, scrolls, infopics, buttons without problems. Except one: the parchment has a brown/yellow colour. If I change the parchment in the TGA it will still have the brown/yellow colour and gradiations in colours are also messed up. I posted this some pages ago. I tried with the M:TW scroll but will try it also with the S:TW scroll.

Something I need to find out- Where can I find and edit the banners used in the battle map by each faction?

Jerome please help us!

;bleeding_blood_set

effect bleeding_blood
{
type particle
{
texture battlefield/blood/bloodOil_1.tga
sprite_origin 0.15, 0.15
sprite_size 0.7, 0.7
size_range 2, 2.5
age_range 1.0, 1.5
grow_range1, 1 ;1, 2
vel_range 1,1
fade_time 1
die_size 4, 12
colour 186, 30, 69 ; R G B
alpha_max 100 ; 150 maximum alpha value
spin_rate 0, 0 ;0, 0 clockwise/counterclockwise
acceleration 0,2.0,0 ; 0,-6.0, 0
emitter cone
{
density 1; how many particles per second
emitter_falloff_dist 100 ; 400 distance in meters to reduce
emitter_falloff_bias .8 ;
angle 85 ;15 angle of cone in degrees
}
}
}




effect bleeding_blood_spray_1
{
type particle
{
texture battlefield/blood/blood_particle_2.tga

sprite_origin 0.15, 0.15
sprite_size 0.7, 0.7
size_range .5,2.5
age_range 0, .5
grow_range .2, 1.4
vel_range 0.5, 1.0
fade_time 1 ;
die_size 4, 6
colour 186,30,69
alpha_max 100 ; maximum alpha value
spin_rate 0, 0
acceleration 0,-3.0,0

emitter cone
{
density 12.5// ; how many particles per second
emitter_falloff_dist 50 ; distance in meters to reduce emission over
emitter_falloff_bias 0.5 ;

angle 15 ; angle of cone in degrees
}
}
}


effect bleeding_blood_spray_4
{
type particle
{
texture battlefield/blood/blood5.tga

sprite_origin 0.15, 0.15
sprite_size 0.7, 0.7
size_range .5,4
age_range 0,4
grow_range .2, 1.1
vel_range 0.5, 1.0
fade_time 1
die_size 4, 5
colour 186,30,69
alpha_max 80 ; maximum alpha value
spin_rate 0, 0
acceleration 0,.1,0


emitter cone
{
density 1.5// ; how many particles per second
emitter_falloff_dist 30 ; distance in meters to reduce emission over
emitter_falloff_bias 0.7 ;

angle 15 ; angle of cone in degrees
}
}
}

effect_set bleeding_blood_set
{
lod 1000
{
bleeding_blood
bleeding_blood_spray_1
bleeding_blood_spray_4

}
}

Here is the problem. This effect_set can only be called if I
1. Create a New projectile and add a line for end_effect.
2. Replace with and or add an end_effect to exsisting Projectiles.
3. Replace an Exsisting defined effect_set.

We can have all the blood we want only if it is a projectile or it replaces
and exsisting say flaming_man_effect.

I see a reference for a interaction_effect_edit_dialog. My assumption is that this is how the effect_set are linked to the particular exsisting effects.

If CA could help and possible shine some light on if there is a placeor file I can define these effects to take place during melee.. for Example

descr_damage.txt

damage piercing
effect my_custom_blood_hit_effect
end_effect my_custom_blood_death_hit_set

CA please :help:

Dagoster

Hi Jerome, could you please ask CA to externalize more of how the Senate works, how it assigns missions, etc. Suppose someone wanted to make a Mod to make the interaction between the three houses and the Senate tighter, to make it literally like history where the families are little more than pawns for the Senatorial Foreign policy, with not much authority to act themselves. Such Mods that add "meat" to the game will be very interesting; we can already alter the various texts with which Senate speaks, but that doesn't affect much else other than the surface of the game.

There is a new better version of TheBloodMod posted at
twcenter

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index...c=10698&st=460

Dagoster

It seems that no one wants to try and answer this so I'll ask it here.

I ahve done some unit adding MODS to the Greeks and scythians (Companion Cav for Greeks, Chosen Swordsmen for scythia) and I have a problem with the unit card, when I build the buildings for construction of these units, I see another peasent unit card but with the descrition of the companion Cav and Chosen swordsmen, how can I edit the game so that I see Companion Cavalry cards instead of Peasent cards in the training queue for the Greeks, same thing for the Chosen Swordsmen and Scythia)?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JeromeGrasdyke

Does the presence of an officer in a unit (i..e centurions & signifers in legionary cohorts) confer any morale/combat bonuses to the unit or are they just for show? If the former is true can these bonuses be modified for each type of officer?

They do look cool, don't they... but they are mostly for show. However, they do get an extra two hit points, so they're worth more than a regular soldier on the battlefield. Interestingly being close to a unit marked with the 'command' attribute does confer a morale bonus - for example, the Legionary First Cohort.

---

Excellent! Yes, they look very cool, so much so that every pre & post Marian reform legionary unit in the game deserves to have them. Now that I know they don't boost a unit's combat ratings I'll mod them in. And I did know about the command status of Legionary First Cohorts. Thanks for the response!

Will it be possible to include custom wonders of the world?

Jerome - First of all I'd like to say thank you so much for answering so many questions. It's really appreciated. I have 2 basic question for you:

1. When you said, "It is worth noting that there is a set of pre-determined likes and dislikes which is baked into the faction setup, as well. Does that mean they're hardcoded? If it isn't, could you say what file it's in?

2. I'm trying to make a new campaign and am trying to understand the AI preferences such as Napoleon, Mao, Stalin, Smith, Henry, Balanced, etc. If I had even a basic understanding of what these are, I feel I could really get the factions to do what I'd like as far as balance is concerned. I'll list the options here, if you'd like to just post a super quick line after each to describe the tendancies it creates. If you can answer this, I will be thrilled beyond belief! Thank you! sincerely,
jpinard

* Trader
* Balanced
* Comfortable
* Bureaucrat
* Religion
* Fortified
* Sailor

* Napoleon
* Caesar
* Genghis
* Stalin
* Mao
* Henry
* Smith

What are the effects of the different difficulty levels on the campaign map?

You mention a HP limit of 15. Are there hard-coded limits for other unit stats, such as attack factor, defensive skill, and so on? If so, can we get a list of what they are?

This would simplify things for us immensely.

Thank you!

-khel

I believe 18 is the highest limit on defense values.

I know this is gonna sound really stupid, but I'm about as new to modding as you can get. I've been reading a bunch of things all over the place that require the editing of TGA files. Now, try as I might, I can't figure out which program I can use to edit these files. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I have found out that I have no clue what I am doing.

photoshop seems to work for me...

Yea, I tried Adobe Photoshop, but it keeps telling me that it can't be imported because the file type is not supported. ~:confused:

i'm new to moding as well,i have the same problem, i dl a tga viewer but the pic is all black

help please

and another question please

sorry for the ignorance but is there a map editor for rome total war? (a battle map editor) i cant find it anywhere! :help:

If you have Photoshop, you can use that. If you don't search for "The Gimp" for windows, you can use that, too. It's not as comfortable, though.

My photoshop keeps tellin me that the TGA files are "damaged or unsupported format." I'm at a total loss now, maybe I need a newer version of photoshop? Right now I have Adobe 2.0 Starter Addition, is there some other version I need to dl to view R:TW TGA files??? :help:

AssasinsShadow, Go to Duke Johns modding page entry.


Go here and read https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=37203

from there, enjoy

fenir

Jerome, One Question please if I may.

I have started looking at redoing MTW with the RTW game. In short, I am thinking of making a medieval TW update, by using RTW.

I have heard a rumour, nothing more, that CA maybe revisiting the MTW in the next series.
Now if this is true, it will be a waste of time me redoing MTW.

when will we know for sure, and can you give me a go for it, or a sutle try something else please fenir.


Thank you

fenir

Could be old versions of the program...

Try download the test version of adobe on download.com it works like a dream...

Is it possible to have several different models and/or skins in the same unit? Alternatively add more "unique" models, such as the standard bearer and unit leader? If this is somehow possible, it would be very useful especially for the bretonnians in the warhammer mod I'm working on.

Grateful for an answer.

Just curious about modding the comp map. In Duke John's page on modding (great work BTW: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...t=37924&page=1 ) he says to open up map_ground_types.tga, map_regions.tga, and map_heights.tga and layer them so that you can edit all three in the same spot. However, map_regions.tga is of a different pixel resalution then the other two, and I cant get them to layer as the same size, therefore making editing the campaign map nieh impossible. Any help what-so-ever would be extremely appreciated. ~:)

What steps need to be taken to add a new agent to the game? So far, I've edited the following files in the (what I feel is obvious) appropriate manner, consistent with other entries in them:

descr_agent_ancillary
descr_character
export_descr_buildings
descr_model_strat.txt
export_descr_character_traits.txt
export_descr_VnVs_enums.txt
/text/export_VnVs.txt
/text/shared.txt
/text/expanded.txt
/text/strat.txt

However the error message that I have gotten every single time is

Quote:

---

Script error in data/descr_agent_ancillary.txt, at line 14, column 1.

At least one culture (barbarian) has no agent/ancillary data supplied in descr_agent_ancillary.txt

---

Now, my entry for the barbarians is the same as for the Romans:

Code:

---

culture barbarian                                                                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
doctor                        data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary.tga                data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        100        1        10
quartermaster        data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary.tga                data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        100        1        10
priest                        data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary.tga                data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        100        1        10
scout                        data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary.tga                data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        100        1        10
engineer                data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary.tga                data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        data/ui/generic/generic_ancillary_info.tga        100        1        10
                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
spy                                spy.tga                        spy_info.tga                        spy.tga                                350        1        1
assassin                assassin.tga        assassin_info.tga        assassin.tga                500        1        1
diplomat                diplomat.tga        diplomat_info.tga        diplomat.tga                250        1        1
admiral                        admiral.tga                admiral_info.tga                admiral.tga                        100        1        1
taxcollector                        diplomat.tga                diplomat_info.tga        diplomat.tga                350        2        1

---

(I'm simply using the diplomat image and model for simplicity here.) Is there some file or process that I'm missing here? And I can see that of the three numbers, one is recruitment cost and one is likely build time, but what is the third? Starting level?

Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AssasinsShadow

Just curious about modding the comp map. In Duke John's page on modding (great work BTW: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...t=37924&page=1 ) he says to open up map_ground_types.tga, map_regions.tga, and map_heights.tga and layer them so that you can edit all three in the same spot. However, map_regions.tga is of a different pixel resalution then the other two, and I cant get them to layer as the same size, therefore making editing the campaign map nieh impossible. Any help what-so-ever would be extremely appreciated. ~:)

---

i would resize the layer in question and size it down afterwards again.. ~;)

(how do you edit your post??)

i don't know what program you use.. with photoshop id simply use free transform.. (not actually resizing the layer.. that sounded kind of wrong ~;) )

mhh.. i just tried to do that and found that using free transfrom is not that good an idea as i thought.. it resaples the edges in the original picture and by doing that changes the colot at the edges.. don't know how that'll effect the game but better not take a risk ;)

instead you could open the regions file seperately and resize it before you pase it into a new layer. make sure you use nearest neighbour as the resampling option to avoid the effect that happened above..
(there might be an some place where you can change the resampling options for the free transform tool, too; i just don't know where)

ps: sorry for triple-posting :embarassed: still don't know how to edit

Is it possible to alter the victory conditions to allow/require the taking of all regions for instance?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Arderon

Is it possible to alter the victory conditions to allow/require the taking of all regions for instance?

---

In the totalwar/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/descr_strat.txt it has a section quite near the top called win_conditions. However, the only one specified is land_owner, so I think the only thing you can change there is the # of terr. required to win. I'm sure someone else can help you out with changing the conditions.

Is it possible to modify the movement points of units on the campaign map, either by individual units or classes of units? Such as allowing ships to move approx 2-3 times further then they currently are able to.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moosehead115

Is it possible to modify the movement points of units on the campaign map, either by individual units or classes of units? Such as allowing ships to move approx 2-3 times further then they currently are able to.

---

Admirals are agents, give them a special trait upon creation with, say 20 movement points, and make it a hidden trait so the only affect you see is the movement range (you won't even see the trait. perfect solution)

See my post here (scroll down a lot) for the exact changes I did to effect this, because it's a lot of typing and it's easier to just link

Is it possible to mod the factor of bribe ?
(I would like to multiply by 3 or 5 all the prices of bribing, but without altering units themselves)

Would it be possible to increase the advantage that height gives you on the battlefield. Seems a little toned down from MTW, not as realistic. If this isn't in the works for the patch can it be done through modding and if so how? :help:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JeromeGrasdyke

Would CA be so kind and move as many as they can (all would be the best!) actually hardcoded values/constants from the RTW exe file into an editable text file, to allow us to modify them if we really need/want to?

There's over 500k of setup scripts open to modding and you want more?!? Well, we'll see what can be done. All constants would be a bit optimistic, as there are an awful lot of them, but we may be able to extern a few more things.

---

Jerome

Glad to see y'all here. Contributing to these threads goes a long way toward releiving tension amongst the disgruntled (even mildly disgruntled). I'd like to point out to the moderators here that Jerome has provided a wealth of info here that isnt apparent to people who havent visited this modding thread (I'm only here because I'm looking for a way to turn off the damn floating pop-ups on the strat map).

I guess the request for moving the hardcoded values to a text file is based upon the fact that most of the game parameters that 'old vets' have the most problems with (such as cav turn speeds) appear to be hardcoded.

I havent done much to TW (yet) but have some experience modding CIV so my question is this, given that the game was 'meant' to be modded why are some things hardcoded at all. Going back to my CIV experience, the arbitrary nature of whether a game component was hardcoded never failed to amaze me. For example, the early CIV3 versions had limits on the numbers of units because a file 'somewhere' had a numerical limit. There was no reason to set the number at 80, it just was. From reading here, y'all have set a unit limit to 300. Is there a reason for that?

Just to be clear, I'm not complaining about this. I'm not a programmer and I'm trying to get some insight into the kinds of decisions that are made for my own interest.

Jerome perhaps you can help me here.

It seems to me that snow covers way too much of Europe during the winter. So I decided to try to change the snow coverage.

First, I went to the descr_climates folder. I started experimenting. First, I removed "winter" from the temperate_grasslands_fertile climate area. Perfect on the first try. On the strategy map, primarily mountains and closely surrounding areas in Europe remain in snow during the winter-plus a good chuck of Russian. In the changed areas of the strat map, trees remain covered in snow but the ground is green. I like it.

So I test a battle in the newly altered areas. Not good. The battle map is complete blinding snow.

Next I go into the descr_geography file. Each climate type has different textures assigned dependent on whether it is summer or winter. OK, maybe this is it. For temperature_grassland_fertile, I replace the winter textures of grass, rocks, etc with summer textures. One texture is a pure snow texture. I remove it as well. I leave the winter "tree" and "shrub" textures. Back to test it. No go...still all blinding winter battlemap.

So then I go to the actual terrain TGA's contained in Data/battlefield/ temperate_grassland_fertile folder. Again the TGA's are divided into summer and winter folders. I replace the winter TGA's with summer TGA's. This has got to do the job. Back to battlefield test, sheeshhh...still blinding snow everywhere!!!

Ok, I have spent several hours this morning on this. Any ideas where I am going wrong???

I have tried giving provinces to other factions but it didnt work because the error i mention in this post kept coming up.So i have changed the descr_strat.txt back to normal well not normal as it is edited to a certain extent although i have edited previosly this error comes up: Script Error in data/world/maps/imperial_campaign/descr_strat.txt at line 481 , column 5 The core building level should be one less than the settlement level what i want to know is how to find line 481 column 5 please can you help thanks

I read someplace and forgot towrite it down, but where is the file or files for adjusting building times for buildings and units? I"d like to set the building times to 1 turn.
Thanks

Hi Duke John I hope you can answer my question as you do textures in paint shop pro.
How do you do it? I downloaded the plug ins from nvidia but it says in the instructions that I need some files that I have to put in windows/system32, any idea on where to get these?
Thnx in advance :book: :furious3:

it seems that when we change the scale values in the skeleton.txt the units don't change their scale. How do we change the scale of units?

Also how would we implement a 1 character unit like a Kensai

Can new units be added to increase the number of unit choices available, or are there limits as there were with the MTW ones?

The game supports a maximum of 300 units.


My question is how do i cange the number of units?????

CANT WAIT FOR THE NEW MOD
~:cheers:
CHEER

Is jerome coming back to answer any questions here?

I have a question that relates to mod testing thats driving me batty -

on the command line, when you reference a character, you can do it like
give_trait "Anarch Brutus" etc etc
or
give_trait Heras etc etc

The names that have things like 'Jon the vanquisher' or "Pete the Wrathful' can still be addresses by putting quotes around their proper names, os using underlines, like Jon Brutus or Pete_Julius.

However -- whenever a character has an 'of' in there name, like Michael of Sparta, I cannot get the game to recognize the character. The list_characters command shows him as Michael of Sparta. Nothing special.

I have tried endless combinations with about 20 different 'of' characters. Have tried using their proper names, tried underlining, tried the 'of' first, tried it without the 'of', etc. But I cannot get the game to recognize them. Always 'cannot find unit or faction'.

So what is the proper syntax when manipulating a character who is 'of' a certain place?

thanks!

Question: What are building plugins, and can they be used (and how?) or is this some abandoned idea?

What are the food costs on the unit and can they be used in any interesting ways?

Some additional mod requests (in order of importance)

1 Seperate a units population cost from it's physical size. Please please make these seperate stats.

2 Allow us to specify a unit as replaceable but not recruitable at a building.

3 implement parenthesis for conditionals

Quote:

---

2 Allow us to specify a unit as replaceable but not recruitable at a building.

---

One way to do this (at least from a human player's perspective) is to give the unit a build time of 999 turns (or some rediculously huge number). Retraining still happens in 1 turn, but you won't have time to even recruit 1 of the units during a game. The only thing I'm not sure about with this method is how the AI would manage with it.

The thing I'd like to know is whether there is any means of turning off bribing. I couldn't see any traits to allow this and couldn't find any other bribe type parameter that did anything when switched off e.g. the 'bribe' action in the character files or the Talk/Bribe options in the cursor files.

I don't think Jerome is coming back. So why waste your time.

I hope that my little rant hasn't chased him away :shame:

Anyway this topic will remain stickied since it contains some valuable information. But you will have much greater chance of getting an answer if you make a new topic with a title that covers your question.

I think it would be best if people didn't ask any more questions for now. We wouldn't like for Jerome to return look over this thread and say: "Nahh it would take too much time."

Does the game output any of the battle results to a file or a temp file anywhere? I can't find one, but if anyone knows where it sticks the data I'd like to write a parser for it to save battle results and unit information/ratios.
:book:

I apologize if I've missed this one but would you mind telling me how to mod the distance ships can travel in a single turn? It seems ridiculous to have a ship take 2 years to get from Sicily to Egypt. Traveling at a leisurely 5 knots per hour the trip would last only about 10-15 days. I may be off in my distance but you get the point.

Hoping that these still get read and answered: How do you go about editing and assigning sounds to units, especially new ones?

I've looked high and low for help on this and no one seems to know the answer.

Is there any way to change the number of men in a unit and/ or give each of those men a different color so you can tell them apart?

Also to repost a question I saw in an earlier post. Is there any way to adjust the possible level of zoom?

I want to use RTW to do some Machinima but theres no way to differentiate on soldier from another so I cant use voices or really do an effective story. I already used it to make two short vids but right now I'm limited to just staging battles (though I did make a cool arcani vs gladiators battle with mortal combat in the background)

I'm currently working on the new campaign map for NTW 2.

Now one thing handy to know in advance is how roads appear on the campmap.

There is no file - at least as far as I can see - that determines the roads on the campmap. So I suppose that they are generated automatically in relation to some map files.
Probably the groundtypes and height tgas are involved.

Is there anyone who has experiences with that or did deal with this issue.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hal

Can gmax be used in place of 3dsmax for modeling purposes? :help:

At hal, do any of your roads appear. As far as I can see, the only way you can affect roads is by 'guiding' them with bits of wood, mountain etc.

At Panda, you can use it, but I think that the CAS extractor only works for 3dstudio

Hi
Though i'm new to moddeling for Rome TW.
I have an extensive questions!

HOW can i moddel the 3d Buildings of the BATTLEMAP! (you know the map where the 3d fighting is going on .......NOT the Campaignmap)

i can't finde files for 3dsmax ....as like you do when you edit Units.
i extracted the pak files but there where only textures for the buildings.
~:confused:

So could anyone give me a good tutorial for editing those buildings or tell me where to find the needed files? :help:
i want try editing Fortifications for Napoleonic TW.

can anyone PLZ help me. :help: :help: i need verdix's download in order to modify the models of rtw. everytime i try, it asks me if i want to save it or open it. i click open. but when it opens(after download) the file can't be viewed because the program mplayer2 tries to open it instead. and it obviosly wown't since it's not a wmv. so what i'm trying to say is how can i change the program it uses to open it. i remember getting into the files once and since it was a tga (btw i don't know what .tga is) so i open it with mplayer2 and by aciddent i left the box that says "open everyother document the same way" checked. so whenever i try to open a zip file, it opens with mplayer2. plz someone help, anybody.

is it possible to mod wedge formation for infantry ?.

i just seen a documentary about queen Boudica.

in it they showed how the roman infantry used the wedge formation
it resembled one big wood saw it looked like they used the RTW engine.

i tried adding wedge to the unit txt did'nt work

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by infernalbob

can anyone PLZ help me.

---

well, can you save it instead of opening it right away?

if so, you should be able to right-click on the file (save it instead of opening) and go to properties. right there in the 'general' tab there should be a field titled "open with:" and then the name of the program that's opening it (mplayer2 in your case) and then there should be a button titled "change...". if you click that change button you should be able to tell windows what program to use to open the file. under the 'recommended programs' choice you should see something called "Compressed (zipped) folders"; this is the default windows zip handler. choosing it should allow you to open the file.

alternatively, you can download a third-party program that will steal the file-association from mplayer2, like winzip, winace, etc.

yet another option would be to use a different browser (i use firefox myself, but i hear opera is good now too).

one thing i'm not sure about is whether IE (i assume that's the browser you're using) uses a different set of file associations than the windows shell, it's not transparent, iirc. if you haven't installed sp2 yet (i'm assuming you're using XP), you may try that, b/c i think the security changes (security center specifically) will reset alot of your IE defaults. lemme know.

This topic was created to make a list of questions that were to be answered by Jerome. He answered them some time ago and since he hasn't been around for along time this thread has ceased to be functional.

Thread closed.
I will keep it stickied since it contains valuable information.