RTW Unit Editor

[GodsPetMonkey]

Presenting – Caligula, a unit editor for Rome: Total War, and Hadrian, a building editor for Rome: Total War!

Hadrian v0.3.0
Now you can add and delete complexes and buildings!

Finally, my building editor is complete, I had spent a day working in near 40C heat in order to get it completed, but it sure was worth it!

Same deal as with Caligula, any suggestions, post them! any problems, post them too! You will still need those VB runtimes mentioned in the readme, which you will also find at the bottom of this post!

Hadrian v0.3.0 -
http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Rt...drian_v030.zip

By the way, to whom it may concern, the "View" button in the RTW uploads section of this site links to the MTW uploads directory.

Caligula v0.3.2
And now, an even newer version with even more functionality! You can add and remove units at will!
For full details, check the readme.txt, conveniently quoted at the bottom of this post.
In a nut shell, it now allows for the editing of the descr_model_battle.txt, but this feature is still under development, and at this stage, isn’t as neatly broken up as the unit editing sections (due to 3 reasons, I'm running out of space to put stuff, the more complex nature of the file and I felt it was better to have the feature in use rather then waiting a few more days for it to be near 100% done), but it does work fine, as long as you know what your doing, RTW is very fussy with this particular file.

At this stage, it does not have much ‘error’ checking in it, so its possible for the user to input incorrect data and saving it to the file, an example being is that its possible to give a unit 3 or more formations, when the game only allows a maximum of 2. In many cases, this will cause the game to CTD when starting up. Always check the settings you just entered.
If you encounter an error with the program, or it writing bad data to a unit file, be sure to contact me about it, and I’ll attempt to fix it ASAP.

Caligula is still in its early stages of development, and I have a lot of ideas on expanding it, and hope to make it handle other game files as well. Of course, suggestions are always welcome.

Caligula v0.3.2 –
http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Rt...igula_v032.zip

Caligula is written in VB6, thus you will need the VB6 runtimes to run it.
Caligula is a very crazy program, and can stuff up your files bad, so I suggest making a back up before it covers them in sea-shells or something!

Hadrian v0.3.0

By - Samuel Roehr (aka GodsPetMonkey)

You can always find the latest version someplace on the org, head to www.totalwar.org and look on the forums!

ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR FILES!

Information - You will need some VB6 runtimes in order to execute this program, at a guess, these would include
- MSCOMCTL.ocx - http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/mscomctl.zip
- COMDLG32.ocx - http://www.ascentive.com/support/new...b/COMDLG32.OCX
- msvbvm60.dll - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en (thanks Soulflame!)

Put the OCX files you get into your /windows/system32 directory. the DLL is in a self installer.

Basic Guide - This guide will help you to enable a unit to be built by a certain structure. You must know the unit you want to use beforehand!
First, fire up Hadrian, then open your export_descr_buildings.txt file, then select the base building complex from the left most dropdown box at the top of the screen. Then select the particular iteration of the building to the right of that. Now select the capabilities tab.
If the building you selected can already build the unit, and you just want to enable it for a certain faction, select the unit from the "Units" dropdown box, and then add the faction by typing its name (or culture) in the editbox below the factions list box (note, you can remove the others by highlighting them and pressing the R button, if there are none in there, it will be enabled for all factions to be built) and press the A button, adding it to the list. Then press the E button below the "Units" drop box, then hit "Save Changes" and finally, press "Save" and select a file to save to. Your done, copy the file and rename appropriately.
If the unit has to be added to the building, proceed to fill out the relevant fields. Make sure you put 'recruit' (ALL lower case!!!) in the "Type" editbox and the "Name" editbox matches the 'type' entry from your export_descr_unit.txt file. When ready, press the A button, then hit "Save Changes" and finally, "Save". That’s it, make sure you copy the file and rename appropriately, and it should work. If the game CTDs, please make sure all your inputs where correct before contacting me about it.

Remember, if you don’t know what it does, leave it as it is!

Revision History -

0.3.0 - Added "Create New Complex" button and functionality
Added "Remove Complex" functionality
Added the ability to add a new building (level) to a complex by use of the "Levels:" listbox
Added the ability to remove a building (level) from a complex by use of the "Levels:" listbox
Many bugfixes

0.2.1 - Added autocomplete-as-you-type functionality for a limited number of dropdown boxes

0.2.0 - First public release! Reads, edits and saves RTW building Files!

0.1.0 - Testing release, Full read functionality.

Caligula v0.3.2

By - Samuel Roehr (aka GodsPetMonkey)

You can always find the latest version someplace on the org, head to www.totalwar.org and look on the forums!

ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR FILES! Caligula isn’t infallible, indeed, his kind of unstable, so don’t come screaming if exiles your files to the neither regions of the empire!

Information - You will need some VB6 runtimes in order to execute this program, at a guess, these would include
- MSCOMCTL.ocx - http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/mscomctl.zip
- COMDLG32.ocx - http://www.ascentive.com/support/new...b/COMDLG32.OCX
- msvbvm60.dll - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en (thanks Soulflame!)

Put the OCX files you get into your /windows/system32 directory. the DLL is in a self installer.

Basic Guide - Run the program. To edit units, press "Open Unit Data" and navigate the dialog box to where your unit file is. Once opened, select a category, then a unit from the drop down boxes at the top of the window, and it will load automatically all the data into the tab-ed section. Change the values you want, and hit "Save Changes", rinse and repeat for all units you want edited, then press the "Save Unit Data" button, to save it to a file. I recommend you don’t overwrite your existing unit file.

Advanced Functionality - As well as editing just unit stats, you can load a list of all available models into to "Soldier" and "Officer"s drop down boxes. To do this, press "Open Model Data" and select your model data file, the filter is set so it by default searches for the correctly named file. This process does not write anything to your model data file, so there is no need to worry about corruption of your model data.
In addition to listing all available models, you can now edit them too! WARNING - RTW is very temperamental about descr_model_battle.txt, and whilst Caligula does write all data back in the correct format, you must be very careful about what you go editing here.
Once again, press "Open Model Data", and navigate to your model data file, then press the "Model Data" tab, and select the model you wish to edit from the dropdown box just below the main tabs. Edit the details to your liking and hit the "Save Changes" button next to the dropdown box. When your done, press "Save Model Data" to save it all to a file. Again I recommend you don’t overwrite your original file here, it can get VERY messy!

Revision History -

O.3.2 - Several interface enhancements
Added "Add New Unit" button and functionality
Added "Remove Unit" button and functionality

0.3.1 - Enabled autocomplete-as-you-type for selected dropdown boxes
Added Unit Category drop down box, now you have to select a category of units, then select a unit from that category

0.3.0 - Added Model Data editing capabilities

0.2.2 - Added listing of all models into the "Soldier and "Officer"s dropdown boxes

0.2.1 - Fixed some minor interface issues

0.2.0 - First public release! Reads, edits and saves RTW Unit Files!

0.1.0 - Testing release, Full read functionality, limited write.

[barocca]

Looks Good

Uploaded to RTW Uploads

to browse RTW Uploads go here
http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Rt...ads/RTWupload/

to UPLOAD for RTW a file use this tool
LINK TO RTW UPLOAD TOOL

to upload a file to any section AND for links to local upload files check this page
http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Upload_Index.shtml

cheers,
B.

[Morat]

Very useful. Haven't used it for modding yet, but it's good for just seeing all the units stats in one place.

Thanks very much.

[moksha]

Thanks GPM-where's the best place to get the VB runtime files pls?

[moksha]

Ignore that--got em!

Thanks again for excellent mod..

[GodsPetMonkey]

Currently I'm working on getting enabling the changing of the required building for construction, unfortunately, its going slow, mainly due to the totally different formatting used in export_descr_buildings.txt, which is much less strict then the rules governing export_descr_unit.txt. I wos hoping to have it done before I upload my latest version, but I may anyway.

Ignore that--got em!

Thanks again for excellent mod..

It would be great if you could share where you got them with everyone else so we can avoid such questions in the future. Its better then saying do a google search for them.

[Soulflame]

It sounds good. I just downloaded it, and the VB6 runtime components (get it here, I think... http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en)

Haven't tried it yet... but I'll post again (or edit this) when I do...

[joeygbh]

Great editor, just a suggestion if you want one and have some time, could you group the units by infantry, calvalry, missile and ship? That makes it easier to look for the unit you want.

[GodsPetMonkey]

Great editor, just a suggestion if you want one and have some time, could you group the units by infantry, calvalry, missile and ship? That makes it easier to look for the unit you want.

I have been thinking of better ways to organise the units, I was orginaly thinknig of someway to give them more logical names (eg. what they are called in game) but it should be pretty easy to organise them by category too, as only cavalry have a mount entry, only ships have a ship entry, etc.

To be honest, I want to replace the drop down box as well, or atleast reduce the ammount of entries in there. Perhaps 2 dropdowns is the way to go, one with category, one with the units in that category.

Oh yes, and you do realise you can start typing in the name of the unit you want, and if you have the box expanded, it will select the 'closest' match to what you have typed in, so type in greek, and as you type it will 'scroll' to the first entry starting with greek, and luckily, most of the units are grouped by race in the file itself!

[joeygbh]

Yeah I actually noticed that, it does make it a lot easier to edit it now. Now all I gotta do is make carthage into a merc powerhouse... I look forward to seeing your buildings editor, it would certainly make for easier modding of the buildable units from each faction.

[OctavianAugustus]

awesome

Thanks Alot

[GodsPetMonkey]

Yeah I actually noticed that, it does make it a lot easier to edit it now. Now all I gotta do is make carthage into a merc powerhouse... I look forward to seeing your buildings editor, it would certainly make for easier modding of the buildable units from each faction.

Its my current project, and I hope to have it done soon.

Seeing how little time it took me to do the whole models txt editing part, I'm hoping it wont take to long, I have learnt alot about the best ways to process the files.

[GodsPetMonkey]

Yeah I actually noticed that, it does make it a lot easier to edit it now. Now all I gotta do is make carthage into a merc powerhouse... I look forward to seeing your buildings editor, it would certainly make for easier modding of the buildable units from each faction.

It’s now done and ready for use!

It sadly seems I can't edit the title of this thread to include the fact that there is both a unit and building editor available here. I wanted to keep the thread in the EH so that anyone can comment on it, but it makes more sense that it be moved over to the RTW modding section, and the uneditable thread title provides some opportunity for that.

And next up, some time off I think. Apart from bug fixing and maybe some smaller features (I already have some new stuff for Caligula done, but its nothing worthy of a new release) I think I shall take a few days easy.

[Soulflame]

Hey hey, nice work once again

Perhaps a link in your readme to where they might be able to download the VB6 runtime files would be a nice addition. Saves people the search.

A bit off-topic:
What does Caligula and Hadrian mean? Are they names of famous people in the past?

[GodsPetMonkey]

Hey hey, nice work once again

Perhaps a link in your readme to where they might be able to download the VB6 runtime files would be a nice addition. Saves people the search.

A bit off-topic:
What does Caligula and Hadrian mean? Are they names of famous people in the past?

That’s a good idea, I was hoping someone who had found all 3 files could provide us with the links in the thread, and I'd give credit to them in the readme's, but I guess I can search for myself.

Hadrian and Caligula were Roman emperors.
Caligula was a bit of a nutter, hence the sea-shell joke (those who know their Caesar dynasty will get it) and I used his name for the editor because I thought it was a crazy undertaking. It kinda stuck after I used it as a working name.

Hadrian is famous for stopping the expansion of the Roman Empire, and a certain wall in England. I used his name in keeping with my first editor, and the rather loose link between the slowing of Roman territorial expansion and the increased emphasis on city and frontier build-up.
Ok, I couldn't think of a emperor with a closer tie to building...

[Soulflame]

Well I already gave the link for the entire run time package a bit up in this thread:
VB6.0 runtime files)

But that's hardly any trouble to put me in the credits... It's only an 1 mb file, so I think it's not too much of a hassle to download them.
Plus you are sure that you have the right files, or you can sew Microsoft if they are not

Well, GodsPetMonkey, looking forward to what you brew up next

[GodsPetMonkey]

To late, given you credit

Next up.... I don't know. I have covered units and buildings, which are the popular ones, and even model data, mainly because alot of people have been cranking out new models.
I was thinking maybe a campaign file editor, but that would be a HUGE undertaking, probably call it Nero then, as I'd have to be stark raving mad to do it

Hmm, dunno really, I'm open for suggestions, but for now, I am content to sit back and just slowly work on what I have already.

I'm hoping to get more people using Caligula and Hadrian though, I would like some more feedback, particurly on bugs (I know there are some there, I jsut don't know what they are yet!) So tell all your friends, spread the word through the TW community.... or don't, see if I care

[Soulflame]

Never thought to be associated with Microsoft tools

As for new projects, well, there are loads of text files in the data map
Seriously, Character traits (exp_decr_character_traits.txt) or ancillaries(\export_descr_ancillaries.txt) are both quite popular too I think. So if you really are the only person on earth with true spare time ... .

Edit: it seems both readme files are called the same, perhaps it's better to rename one of the two or both, since now you may accidentally overwrite one with the other when extracting them...