Help about modding programation MTW-VI

[Sultan_Suleyman]

Hello, i need help about how mod the program. of game; example, change END date of game from 1453 to xxxx year, change title "sir" or "don" in factions, change "Lord Plantagent" to "Lord Henry Plantagenet", including the complete name in generals, things like that; i found in all files from game, but nothing, anyone can help me?

[macsen rufus]

Hi Sultan Suleyman,

Welcome to the Org

I hope you realise that once you start modding MTW, both you and your life will be changed forever

I'll do the easy bit first:

To change the dates in the game you need to open up /campmap/startpos/[ERA].txt

where [ERA] is either VIKING, EARLY, HIGH or LATE.

Then find this section (example from VIKING.TXT):

[QUOTE]//========================================
//Start Date and Period
//The year in which this campaign will
//begin and the time-period in which this
//campaign is set.The year can be any date
//and the period can be EARLY, HIGH or LATE
//========================================

SetStartDate:: 793
SetPeriod:: EARLY
SetEarlyPeriodStartDate:: 793
SetHighPeriodStartDate:: 1205
SetLatePeriodStartDate:: 1321

// And the games End date..
SetGameEndDate:: 1066

//========================================

The bit to change the end date is in bold, but I'm sure you've worked that out already. Note the EARLY, HIGH and LATE files don't show an end date, but it should work if you have the Viking Invasion version and just add the extra line of text. You will need to change ALL THREE files if you want the game to end later whatever period you start in (although if you just want to make it end later if you start in LATE, say, then you can just change that one).

Changing titles like 'Sir', 'Don' etc is a little more involved...

If you open up /loc/eng/NAMES.TXT, there is a section like this: (assuming you're using an English-language version of the game, if not the 'eng' folder will have a different name)

//Forenames & Surnames for constructed names. 
//
// titles

	["Sir"] {"Sir "}
	["Don"] {"Don "}
	["Lord"] {"Lord "}
	["Amir"] {"Amir "}
	["Captain"] {"Captain"}
	["Prince"] {"Prince "}
	["King"] {"King "}
	["Princess"] {"Princess "}
	["Emperor"] {"Emperor "}
	["Sultan"] {"Sultan "}

The first column is a LABEL, the second is the TRANSLATION. If you wanted to, say change 'Amir' to 'Emir' you can change the line to read:

	["Amir"] {"Emir "}

and then all Amirs will be caled Emirs instead. This will affect ALL FACTIONS THAT USE THE TITLE.

For things like 'Lord Henry Plantagenet', though, things start to get even more complicated. In MTW, a full name such as 'Henry Plantagenet' is created in two parts - the forename and the surname. These are handled seperately, and once a character is given a title, the title ('Lord' etc) replaces the forename.

It is possible to change this so you get 'Lord Henry Plantagenet', but it involves a lot of work, although the basic idea is simple: you would need to set up the surname as a compound name 'HenryPlantagenet' and the forename as a blank. In NAMES.TXT the surname would then be translated like this:

["HenryPlantagenet"] {"Henry Plantagenet"}

Each faction's forename and surname list is found in the file /campmap/names/DEFAULT_HEROES.TXT (or VIKINGS.TXT, for that era)

This file has numerous lists of names and each faction is pointed to the right list


SET_SURNAMES:: FN_ENGLISH 1

The list is further down the file:

// 1: english_surnames
ADD_SURNAMES::
"Plantagenet"
"Howard"
"Cromwell"
"Pole"
"Talbot"
"Stanley"
"Roos"
"Mobray"
"Grey"
etc
etc

NOW if you change the first Plantagenet to HenryPlantagent, your ENTIRE ROYAL FAMILY would be called Henry (and your Kings would become 'King blank')... probably not the best outcome.

All in all, there are a lot of potential problems in there, but it could be done. However, you will need to set up a HUGE list of surnames - make a compound name of every possible forename + every possible surname and add them to the surname list. Then work through all the errors it produces, one by one....


OK, hope that gives you some pointers - with modding remember to make back ups of everything, even back ups of back ups.... better still make mods in a totally seperate install of the game, and start small. Make a small change, test it, move on when you know it works. And go through the forums here, as well. Most modding questions have been answered somewhere or other, though you may have to go back a long way to find some things. There are a few guides that have been made. It may be worth starting with one of these and checking to see if you get the same results. Good luck

[Sultan_Suleyman]

Hi again, please, you can explain me this file campmap/starpost/any era:
Place Faction Leaders
SetStartLeader:: FN_BYZANTINE 4 8 1 4 7 2 3 11 2 1

What is the meaning of this numbers? i dont understand

[dimitrios the samian]

Sultan .....
The answer you seek has been answered from long long ago !
starting point is here ....

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...os-files-in-VI

& then use search engine with keyword "startpos" for more to read & learn
Macsen maybe is busy with his own mod .

enjoy the search & studying
cheers
D

[Sultan_Suleyman]

Once question more, how custom portrait in Famous King, in that line say -1 for random and i put 23 from folder (portraits/catholic/kings/king23.tga) for one special, but not change nothing, what am I doing wrong?

[macsen rufus]

Hi Sultan

OK, first off:

SetStartLeader:: FN_BYZANTINE 4 8 1 4 7 2 3 11 2 1

If you look at the [ERA]_HEROES.TXT file you'll see the Byz have ten royal names listed. This bit in the startpos file means your starting king will be King (Name 0) IV.

Any subsequent kings will have had as many predecessors as are listed here, so when you get your first King with the next name (name 1), he will be King (name 1) IX. This need not be your NEXT king though. MTW normally names the first-born prince the same as the starting king, so you are more likely to see King (name 0) V. But should you carelessly lose your first two sons in battle, you are very likely to have the third son take the throne and he would be King (name 2) II. If you were even more careless it might be son four, in which case he would be King (name 3) V.

And to part two:

Once question more, how custom portrait in Famous King, in that line say -1 for random and i put 23 from folder (portraits/catholic/kings/king23.tga) for one special, but not change nothing, what am I doing wrong?

The simple answer is that you are doing exactly the same thing wrong that I did, until I worked it out

The more useful answer is that you must check a few things - first look at the startpos file and see if your faction has a 'portraits override' set - it may be set to 'MUSLIM' or 'VIKING' or something totally different in a mod. Then once you have checked that, you know which portraits folder to use.

But the MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember is that FAMOUS KINGS and HEROES do NOT use the 'Kings' and 'Generals' sub-folders as you would expect, but the MISC subfolder. To get your famous king portrait, copy your King23.tga into the MISC sub-folder, the RENAME it to the next FREE filename (so if you have 3 TGAs make it MISC04.TGA). Then you call that from from your HEROES.TXT -- remembering that the MTW engine starts lists at 0 and not 1 - hence to call MISC04.TGA as your portrait, you must enter number 3 as the portrait entry for your king.

Hope this helps you (and anyone else looking for the answer, of course!)

(EDIT to add: to double check this, take a look at the hero entry for Joan of Arc, and find where her portrait comes from. The reason the MISC folder is used is to stop random generals having the same portraits as your unique heroes)