Adding new factions in VI

[Lord Krazy]

http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mtw_Uploads/MTWbeta/

A new faction mod for Vi has been posted
here for testing.

It adds Munster to the Vi campaign.

Let me know if it you have any probs.

It should cover all the basics of adding
a faction to Vi.

Quote[/b] ]My main goal is to get Vikings in Early/High/Late eras with all their units for MP.

Ithaskar,
could you give me a better idea
of what you are doing.
I'm not sure I understand.

Thanks

regards

LK

[Ithaskar Fëarindel]

It's pretty simple L_K. I just want to be able to play Vikings online in the Early/High/Late eras. Don't care about accuracy... I just want to add them. I've sorted almost all names out for them; my only problem is the Unit_Prod file - as ever.

Can't look at it right now since I'm not at home but for some reason I keep getting a message when I load the game:
"FN_VIKINGS" faction not defined in column 5 row 67
or something of the like. I think the problems in the names.txt I'll take a look later when I get back but like you I was a little tired so I turned in.

[Ithaskar Fëarindel]

BTW I had the Vikings working in the campaign but I had not edited Unit_Prod and they had just 5 units.

Grrr I h8 editing Unit_Prod it screws everything up.

[Lord Of Storms]

I.F. Are you using GnomeUnitBuildProd editorv2.0 to edit the prod files ?

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Mmmm. When purchasing certain units as mercenaries (Hobilars and Horse Archers) the game CTD. Has anyone else noticed this?

Also, I've recently tried to add the Portuguese. I've changed the colours of the shields and castle flags, but in the game their are white spots in the shield. I keep fixing it but this still keeps happening. Any ideas?

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

I'm having problems. I've made Highland Clansmen exclusive to the Scots but whenever I try and play a battle with them the game CTD. It happens with other factions and other units also. I did the same with Kerns and they crash with the Irish. Even units like Urban Militia crash with the new factions. I know it's something to do with the UNIT_PROD files but I'm not exactly sure what. If anyone has had the same problem and knows how to rectify it, could you please tell me? Thanks.

[scsscsfanfan]

I really admire all you "Lords" here. good work.

Now, I would really wants to ask that any chance to post kind of a "step by step" guide of Adding new faction here? I just has no time (and patience) to work it out myself with a crying new baby - just hope I still can have enough time to play.
many thinks

[Ithaskar Fëarindel]

scsscsfscf .... hmmm. ECS has posted a pretty easy to follow guide on one of the previous pages in this thread. That's pretty easy to follow and there are lots of tips in the files themselves.
-----------------------

Guys - at the moment I'm pretty stuck. If I put back the original Unit_Prod file the game works fine (there is one _minor_ problem that the King comes up as King SweynRoman_Numerals##Label not found but I ignore that for now)
Like I said, it works fine or atleast so far it has done, I've got up to about turn 25 with no problems. I even get my Vikings units since I'm in Norway region. But the units are not Faction Specific only Region Specific so I can't get them in custom games. As soon as I change the Unit_Prod I come up with faction not defined error.

This maybe a stupid question, but when I define the unit as Faction Specific, but I should be putting the same thing here as I declared in startpos right? So I declared as FN_VIKINGS I should put that in the faction specific column for the unit?

If so then I need to find out why my faction isn't being declared


p.s. LOS - Yes using Gnome's editor - but only since you posted that above
It did good to check I had entered things right thanks

p.p.s. BKB could you upload the files where you have Irish/Scots/Welsh working. I could probably find something I have missed knowing me
Thanks

p.p.p.s. BKB is that map supposed to be viewable for us?

Cheers all

[Lord Of Storms]

Quote[/b] (Ithaskar Fëarindel @ May 15 2003,19:02)]scsscsfscf .... hmmm. ECS has posted a pretty easy to follow guide on one of the previous pages in this thread. That's pretty easy to follow and there are lots of tips in the files themselves.
-----------------------

Guys - at the moment I'm pretty stuck. If I put back the original Unit_Prod file the game works fine (there is one _minor_ problem that the King comes up as King SweynRoman_Numerals##Label not found but I ignore that for now)
Like I said, it works fine or atleast so far it has done, I've got up to about turn 25 with no problems. I even get my Vikings units since I'm in Norway region. But the units are not Faction Specific only Region Specific so I can't get them in custom games. As soon as I change the Unit_Prod I come up with faction not defined error.

This maybe a stupid question, but when I define the unit as Faction Specific, but I should be putting the same thing here as I declared in startpos right? So I declared as FN_VIKINGS I should put that in the faction specific column for the unit?

If so then I need to find out why my faction isn't being declared


p.s. LOS - Yes using Gnome's editor - but only since you posted that above
It did good to check I had entered things right thanks

p.p.s. BKB could you upload the files where you have Irish/Scots/Welsh working. I could probably find something I have missed knowing me
Thanks

p.p.p.s. BKB is that map supposed to be viewable for us?

Cheers all

I. F. Did you SETFORENAMES/SURNAMES in the default heroes file, if so you should not get the trtanslation error on your King I got that at first but for my faction name it turned out I had the name in to many places usuallly those errors stem from the Loc files dbl check for typos and spacing those files are touchy also, as far as the unit prod yes you would enter the name you declared in your case FN_VIKINGS what unit or units are you editing sometimes changing the column to read ALL_FACTIONS might work you also need to check for culture specifications if there is any being that Vikings are pagan this can sometimes cause problems.

[Grell]

I have posted a working version of a mod "Final Crusade_Alpha.zip" It contains 9 completely new working and playable major factions (without any old ones being over-written). Glory points can be earned for conquest, but not homelands for these new factions, also with (mostly) correct histroical Kings names and graphics. New factions are:

Navarre
Bohemia
Flanders
Friesland
Genoa
Kingdom of Jerusalem
Scots (adapted from Vikings)
Irish " "
Welsh " "
Cuman Tribes (replaced Novg) Have Cuman Royal Cavalry as their leader unit
Danishmendid Turks (replaced Burgundy) Use Turk Leaders

I have edited the Heroes.txt file so that Godfrey King of Jerusalem gets his brother Baldwin, and Roger I the Norman Sicilian King has his brother Robert, Bohemond and his nephew Tancred (these are missing and one goes to the Italian faction in the official campaign)

Adding new factions is not too difficult (just use FN_FREE21, FN_FREE22, etc). The problem is that the crusaderunitprod11.txt file will not recognise these new factions. Leaders are assigned to the default unit in the first row, i.e. Scottish Clansmen, so to get around this I swapped this position with Royal Early Knights. With futher editing of the unitprod.txt file I will assign units building reqs to Regions and Cultures so these new factions arent too disadvantaged. The unitprod needs massive work to get the rebellions at a dent level and other changes as made by other mods such as MedMod, I am in the process of doing this and entering in units and buildings for the startpos.txt file. I really dont like they way CA has only 1 or 2 units per region and bugger all buildings, e.g. historically there were churches, monastaries, royal palaces etc, all throughout Europe and much bigger armies than 100 or so, so I will be adding much more units and buildings than there are in the offical campaigns, this should be done and tested within the next few days for a final release of my mod The Eve of the First Crusade. I have tinkered with the Heroes.txt file but do not yet fully understand how the Kings Roman numerals and naming works, through trial and error I have it sorted for this mod.

All of the files need to be copied for the new factions to work (although I suppose you can stick with the official inaccurate Danes and Sicily). This is probably the best way to see how to add a new faction rather than me trying (and probably failing) to explain it in a tutorial. Which is why I am releasing this preliminary working version now. I can be emailed at thomas_norrish@yahoo.com..au or for a modding emergency, phoned (in Australia) on 0404 240 228

Grell aka Thomas Norrish 16 May 2003 Australia.

[eat cold steel]

Remember, if you use you newly declared Faction in the prod files, then ALL other startpos that reference the same prod file have to include the new faction declarations too. For example, if startposA.txt has faction FN_01, FN_02, FN_new and startposB.txt has faction FN_01 and FN_02 only then they can't share the same prod files unless the prod files does not mention FN_new at all.

[Lord Of Storms]

Quote[/b] (eat cold steel @ May 16 2003,04:11)]Remember, if you use you newly declared Faction in the prod files, then ALL other startpos that reference the same prod file have to include the new faction declarations too. For example, if startposA.txt has faction FN_01, FN_02, FN_new and startposB.txt has faction FN_01 and FN_02 only then they can't share the same prod files unless the prod files does not mention FN_new at all.

So then as you told us before we make copies of the prod files then enter them in the copy of the txt files so they will be recognized yes?

[Turbo]

Quote[/b] (Lord Of Storms @ May 15 2003,07:20)]I.F. Are you using GnomeUnitBuildProd editorv2.0 to edit the prod files ?

LOS,

Can you use Gnome 2.0 for VI? I noticed that there is an extra collumn that Gnome apends to its last column entry. I noticed some errors when I tried to use Gnome, but who knows....

[Lord Of Storms]

Quote[/b] (Turbo @ May 16 2003,09:09)]

Quote[/b] (Lord Of Storms @ May 15 2003,07:20)]I.F. Are you using GnomeUnitBuildProd editorv2.0 to edit the prod files ?

LOS,

Can you use Gnome 2.0 for VI? I noticed that there is an extra collumn that Gnome apends to its last column entry. I noticed some errors when I tried to use Gnome, but who knows....

Well I contacted Lord Gnome (see the pinned thread on his editor) and he is seeing about a updated version or if one is needed, I myself have used it in VI and it works fine as have others. So try it for yourself just make sure you make your changes in a copy of the file and then declare that file in your mod txt file.

[Lord Of Storms]

ECS, in the Names/VIKING HEROES file , this line //name no. c d p a portrait vnv, I get the name no. portrait and vnv what do the letters c,d,p and a represent? Also if I am doing a mod with the Vikings txt file can I also have one for one of the MTW eras at the same time, If the Vikings txt is different as far as the startpos set up would both mod txt files work or would it conflict?

[Turbo]

Quote[/b] (Lord Of Storms @ May 16 2003,09:43)]

Quote[/b] (Turbo @ May 16 2003,09:09)]

Quote[/b] (Lord Of Storms @ May 15 2003,07:20)]I.F. Are you using GnomeUnitBuildProd editorv2.0 to edit the prod files ?

LOS,

Can you use Gnome 2.0 for VI? I noticed that there is an extra collumn that Gnome apends to its last column entry. I noticed some errors when I tried to use Gnome, but who knows....

Well I contacted Lord Gnome (see the pinned thread on his editor) and he is seeing about a updated version or if one is needed, I myself have used it in VI and it works fine as have others. So try it for yourself just make sure you make your changes in a copy of the file and then declare that file in your mod txt file.

LOS,

As the official 'pioneer' of adding new factions, would you consider putting together a user guide? Yours is the only new faction that operates flawlessly.

I am still trying to figure out what you did differently from mine and this would help me and others as well.

[eat cold steel]

Man you are gonna kick yourself with this one - those are his stats: command, dread, piety and acumen.

[Turbo]

Quote[/b] (Grell @ May 16 2003,02:02)]I have posted a working version of a mod "Final Crusade_Alpha.zip" It contains 9 completely new working and playable major factions (without any old ones being over-written). Glory points can be earned for conquest, but not homelands for these new factions, also with (mostly) correct histroical Kings names and graphics. New factions are:

Navarre
Bohemia
Flanders
Friesland
Genoa
Kingdom of Jerusalem
Scots (adapted from Vikings)
Irish " "
Welsh " "
Cuman Tribes (replaced Novg) Have Cuman Royal Cavalry as their leader unit
Danishmendid Turks (replaced Burgundy) Use Turk Leaders

I have edited the Heroes.txt file so that Godfrey King of Jerusalem gets his brother Baldwin, and Roger I the Norman Sicilian King has his brother Robert, Bohemond and his nephew Tancred (these are missing and one goes to the Italian faction in the official campaign)

Adding new factions is not too difficult (just use FN_FREE21, FN_FREE22, etc). The problem is that the crusaderunitprod11.txt file will not recognise these new factions. Leaders are assigned to the default unit in the first row, i.e. Scottish Clansmen, so to get around this I swapped this position with Royal Early Knights. With futher editing of the unitprod.txt file I will assign units building reqs to Regions and Cultures so these new factions arent too disadvantaged. The unitprod needs massive work to get the rebellions at a dent level and other changes as made by other mods such as MedMod, I am in the process of doing this and entering in units and buildings for the startpos.txt file. I really dont like they way CA has only 1 or 2 units per region and bugger all buildings, e.g. historically there were churches, monastaries, royal palaces etc, all throughout Europe and much bigger armies than 100 or so, so I will be adding much more units and buildings than there are in the offical campaigns, this should be done and tested within the next few days for a final release of my mod The Eve of the First Crusade. I have tinkered with the Heroes.txt file but do not yet fully understand how the Kings Roman numerals and naming works, through trial and error I have it sorted for this mod.

All of the files need to be copied for the new factions to work (although I suppose you can stick with the official inaccurate Danes and Sicily). This is probably the best way to see how to add a new faction rather than me trying (and probably failing) to explain it in a tutorial. Which is why I am releasing this preliminary working version now. I can be emailed at thomas_norrish@yahoo.com..au or for a modding emergency, phoned (in Australia) on 0404 240 228

Grell aka Thomas Norrish 16 May 2003 Australia.

Grell,

Your mod works fine for a while then crashes to desktop. It is usually during unit building. I completely reinstalled Viking + MTW then added your mod, and am still getting the same issue.

Is it possible that you didn't include a file or something?

[Lord Of Storms]

OK I am done kicking myself, for some reason I did not even think of that I overlooked the obvious I thought new file new structure that cant be it thanks ECS Turbo, I would consider it once I get all my bearings and go over more files as you see it is easy to miss some of the more obvious things
, I would not call myself a pioneer , I just want to learn what I can and share it so we can all Mod the game we love so much I am not to proud to ask if I dont know something especially when we have fellows like ECS to help,if we can pick his brain and learn more and faster then I say lets do it Lord Krazy has posted a working faction "Munster" and I think he covers the bases more thorughly than I do, he has the knowledge where the flags,shields etc need to be, so I think between all of us especially those that have been following this thread can compile the info for all to see. Thanks to all fellow modders and game lovers I think we will be seeing alot of new Mods real soon, and thanks to ECS for pointing us in the right direction you the man ECS P.S. Turbo, what exactly are you having trouble with?

[Lord Of Storms]

Quote[/b] (Turbo @ May 16 2003,10:02)][

Adding new factions is not too difficult (just use FN_FREE21, FN_FREE22, etc). The problem is that the crusaderunitprod11.txt file will not recognise these new factions. Leaders are assigned to the default unit in the first row, i.e. Scottish Clansmen, so to get around this I swapped this position with Royal Early Knights. With futher editing of the unitprod.txt file I will assign units building reqs to Regions and Cultures so these new factions arent too disadvantaged. The unitprod needs massive work to get the rebellions at a dent level and other changes as made by other mods such as MedMod, I am in the process of doing this and entering in units and buildings for the startpos.txt file. I really dont like they way CA has only 1 or 2 units per region and bugger all buildings, e.g. historically there were churches, monastaries, royal palaces etc, all throughout Europe and much bigger armies than 100 or so, so I will be adding much more units and buildings than there are in the offical campaigns, this should be done and tested within the next few days for a final release of my mod The Eve of the First Crusade. I have tinkered with the Heroes.txt file but do not yet fully understand how the Kings Roman numerals and naming works, through trial and error I have it sorted for this mod.

All of the files need to be copied for the new factions to work (although I suppose you can stick with the official inaccurate Danes and Sicily). This is probably the best way to see how to add a new faction rather than me trying (and probably failing) to explain it in a tutorial. Which is why I am releasing this preliminary working version now. I can be emailed at thomas_norrish@yahoo.com..au or for a modding emergency, phoned (in Australia) on 0404 240 228

Grell aka Thomas Norrish 16 May 2003 Australia.

Grell,

Your mod works fine for a while then crashes to desktop. It is usually during unit building. I completely reinstalled Viking + MTW then added your mod, and am still getting the same issue.

Is it possible that you didn't include a file or something?[/quote]
Turbo, If you look closely at the post Grell states he did nothing to edit the unit prod files so most likely the cause of the problems,is he did not add his factions to the prod files. You should make copies of the prod 11 and 13 files to work in, then you must declare them(For Viking only) in your mod txt file for them to work properly.

[Turbo]

Quote[/b] (Lord Of Storms @ May 16 2003,10:17)]

Quote[/b] (Turbo @ May 16 2003,10:02)][

Adding new factions is not too difficult (just use FN_FREE21, FN_FREE22, etc). The problem is that the crusaderunitprod11.txt file will not recognise these new factions. Leaders are assigned to the default unit in the first row, i.e. Scottish Clansmen, so to get around this I swapped this position with Royal Early Knights. With futher editing of the unitprod.txt file I will assign units building reqs to Regions and Cultures so these new factions arent too disadvantaged. The unitprod needs massive work to get the rebellions at a dent level and other changes as made by other mods such as MedMod, I am in the process of doing this and entering in units and buildings for the startpos.txt file. I really dont like they way CA has only 1 or 2 units per region and bugger all buildings, e.g. historically there were churches, monastaries, royal palaces etc, all throughout Europe and much bigger armies than 100 or so, so I will be adding much more units and buildings than there are in the offical campaigns, this should be done and tested within the next few days for a final release of my mod The Eve of the First Crusade. I have tinkered with the Heroes.txt file but do not yet fully understand how the Kings Roman numerals and naming works, through trial and error I have it sorted for this mod.

All of the files need to be copied for the new factions to work (although I suppose you can stick with the official inaccurate Danes and Sicily). This is probably the best way to see how to add a new faction rather than me trying (and probably failing) to explain it in a tutorial. Which is why I am releasing this preliminary working version now. I can be emailed at thomas_norrish@yahoo.com..au or for a modding emergency, phoned (in Australia) on 0404 240 228

Grell aka Thomas Norrish 16 May 2003 Australia.

Grell,

Your mod works fine for a while then crashes to desktop. It is usually during unit building. I completely reinstalled Viking + MTW then added your mod, and am still getting the same issue.

Is it possible that you didn't include a file or something?

Turbo, If you look closely at the post Grell states he did nothing to edit the unit prod files so that is most likely the cause of the problems, You should make copies of the prod 11 and 13 files to work in then you must declare them in your mod txt file for them to work properly. [/QUOTE]
Ah, yes you are right. Thanks.

[Grell]

THanks for pointing this out I had no idea that all other campaigns in the startpos folder must also contain the same FN refernce entries for the unit prod file.

Also please hold off on installing my mod, it still needs a lot of work, but feel free to use my new graphics files in the .zip file, or are they corrupted as well?

OK hit a major obstacle to adding new factions:

Battles with new faction slots crash 80% of the time

Is this a problem with the Musnter new faction?? Will try it now.

I added in the Prebat shield files, which works fine (just copied and renamed existing ones of similar colours to get it going). The pre-battle screen comes up fine for all the new factions. But when the battle is loaded it crashed. So I reswapped Highland clansmen and early royal knights, so far so good the red bar loading battle screen comes up, but then it "usually" crashes for the new factions. I have no idea why sometimes it works but mostly it doesnt. For all of the new factions I added in battle/flags/FN_x.TGA files (again just copying and renaming existing ones) and "factionname_lge.bif" files in campmap/shields/colours. The ones I used from Vikings, ie. Welsh and Scottish work fine, I even assigned the brown and white Picts FLag and colors to Bohemia and about 20% of the time the game loaded up the battle fine (versus Hung, HRE). I have had the Scots (New faction FN_FERE26) fight the Welsh fine, then the follwing turn when the Scots went to fight a battle with the English the game crashed?? battle/FacShield files arent the issue as somethimes a battle will work with exactly the same troops then crash when I reloaded and tried it again. Maybe there is some sort of hardcoded battle settings somewhere that make adding completely new faction entires unstable? Or maybe I was a bit too ambitious by adding 9 new factions, might try getting 1 100% then look at adding more.

[Lord Krazy]

Quote[/b] (Grell @ May 17 2003,00:05)]OK hit a major obstacle to adding new factions:

Battles with new faction slots crash 80% of the time

Is this a problem with the Musnter new faction?? Will try it now.

I think I might have noticed.
I t only crashed once on me.
(before I finished it)

I will post another with 3 factions added
It is a bit more sorted.

Munster, Connacht and Ulster have been added as factions

I have added some names as an example also.

It work's fine for me so it should work for you.

LK

[Lord Krazy]

http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mt...20Kings_vi.zip

You can get the 4 kings mod here
if you want to test it.

I only added one name as i could have spent all week end
adding all the names I wanted to.
"Animnua" is the new name.
It means new name in Irish

It is the second name in the Irish list.
The first Irish King should have this name.

Quote[/b] ]LOS,

As the official 'pioneer' of adding new factions, would you consider putting together a user guide? Yours is the only new faction that operates flawlessly.

Are you saying mine don't



Anyway LOS in between all the other work you do
surly you could fit in the several hours
needed to write a easy to read comprehensive
guide.


In the mean time read the comments in the
text file you are editing and follow the instructions step by step and you won't need a guide with a bit of luck.


Thanks

Regards

LK

[Lord Of Storms]

Lord Krazy,Anyway LOS in between all the other work you do
surely you could fit in the several hours
needed to write a easy to read comprehensive
guide.
In the mean time read the comments in the
text file you are editing and follow the instructions step by step and you won't need a guide with a bit of luck. Sound advice LK, I think it is to early for any type of guide, as all of us are still "pioneering" the VI file structure and we have enough here courtesy of ECS and those who have posted here in this thread and have gone through trial and error to get a faction started. The important thing is that we can and do share all our findings with each other these are not secrets that only a select few can use this is modding information that we share with fellow modders and for people who are trying modding for the first time, and our goal should be to make it accessible to all who wish to use it. You wont hear me say "only for those who know how" because this forum is for information gathering and sharing and it should be made for all to understand and use. So lets continue to post our trials and erors here, I am not to proud to ask something if I dont know it and I know someone else does hey I am asking Regards to all

[Turbo]

Quote[/b] (Lord Krazy @ May 17 2003,09:34)]http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mt...20Kings_vi.zip

You can get the 4 kings mod here
if you want to test it.

I only added one name as i could have spent all week end
adding all the names I wanted to.
"Animnua" is the new name.
It means new name in Irish

It is the second name in the Irish list.
The first Irish King should have this name.

Quote[/b] ]LOS,

As the official 'pioneer' of adding new factions, would you consider putting together a user guide? Yours is the only new faction that operates flawlessly.

Are you saying mine don't



Anyway LOS in between all the other work you do
surly you could fit in the several hours
needed to write a easy to read comprehensive
guide.


In the mean time read the comments in the
text file you are editing and follow the instructions step by step and you won't need a guide with a bit of luck.


Thanks

Regards

LK

Have you had any success adding a faction to the Medieval game? I successfully added a faction to the Viking game, but the Medieval part is majorly more difficult. Initially I thought this would be a breeze, but with the different file locations it is a nightmare. Also, in the Medieval game some units (feudal sergents, etc) have individual shields for battle.

After 5 hours today, and every error and lockup imaginable, I have thrown in the towel. I am a casual modder, and the complexity of modding the Medieval game is beyond me.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

I have put 6 factions into early. Irish,welsh,scots,croatians,Portuguese and Wallachians. They come up fine and training the units are fine but with certain units when it comes time for a battle,it crashes to desktop.
I have been through the crusader unit files and assigned units to various factions. This seems quite irratic though as gallowglasses work in battle for the irish but kerns don't. Can anyone help me out?

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Perhaps adding a faction (bug free) to the main game is harder than adding one to VI? However, I tried to put the Danes in 'Vikings', and although I did, it crashes while the main game loads up. I had a similar problem with the factions I put in early but really can't see what I've done wrong with this time. But I assigned the Viking units to them and they ALL work fine in custom battles. If I could just get it to work I feel there would be no problems with it at all.

[Ithaskar Fëarindel]

Turbo that ia much like me only I haven't given up yet - I just hven't changed my mod much since I last posted. In fact I am still down with the same problem it is only I haven't had proper time to get into it - I know I need atleast a 2 hour break and probably lots more...

[Ithaskar Fëarindel]

Bohemia that is all I would like to do - get a faction to work in MP (custom battles.) Hmmm. Will have a look soon if I get chance.