New Campaign Map: my problems

[Monkwarrior]

I think there is a minimum required number of provinces for every campaign, perhaps if you tried adding some...? Sorry that I can't be anymore helpful.

Thanks for your answer.
Yeah, I was thinking on something similar. But...how does the sons_of_mars campaign work?
Perhaps it would be necessary to change the victory conditions, (it is impossible to gain 50 provinces in a map with 36) but I don't know how.
Cheers.

[Myrddraal]

You could add more provinces...

[eadingas]

Have you checked disasters and events files?

[Duke John]

People have made working campaigns with only 4 provinces.

Have you edited the mercenary text file? In there are also references to provinces. Since it also works when it's completely empty just erase everything inside it.

After ending the first turn, the engine will place new mercenaries in each province according to descr_mercenaries.txt. If it finds an unknown region, CTD!

[Myrddraal]

I made that mistake, but the game wouldn't load, it said error in descr_mercenaries. It didn't even get to the end of the first turn. Still, that might be it.

It could be that in my case another error caused the game to fail to load and so the merc file error was displayed. have a look.

[eadingas]

It actually should crash even at starting campaign if the merc file is wrong - it usually does for me... but yeah, this might be it.
Finding out all the little bugs is a pain. It's never as easy as it seems, and the game never gives any clue about really serious bugs... I've found that going the map through the Campaign Map Editor is helpful, it's good at finding out bugs with the map files themselves. But if there's something wrong with armies, mercs, disasters or something like that, then it's just a guesswork from then on.
I'm fighting with a CTD-ing map right now, and I have found all sorts of bugs in the files by only guessing what can be wrong.

[Duke John]

Well, actually I have no idea what might be causing the CTD. IMO MonkWarrior has done far too much at once. After all the modding I have done I have learned the best way to progress fast is by progressing in very small steps.

I first edited the descr_strat to the bare minimum with 2 faction and 2 settlements. Then I edited the campaign map by removing regions a small batch at a time. Then move the provinces to small blocks on the side of the map so that you have the space to make a large blob that resembled Japan. Then I moved the regions back in (in small batches). Once that worked I started to edit height/boundaries/groundtypes (small changes). At lastly I added the factions back in. Since the changes were so small I could very easily pinpoint the error. And of course backup! I had 60+ backups that allowed me to return to an older version if I just couldn't find the problem. Since I only make small changes I had only lost 10-30 minutes.

[eadingas]

BTW, is it possible to have a faction without any characters, family tree, etc, and when the map works, add them in? Or is it necessary to have at least faction leader somewhere? I found that I have most problems with placing armies on tiles they shouldn't be...

[Myrddraal]

You know what (sorry about going off topic), sombody should make a template map. With say... Ten square shaped regions and some sea.

Anyone could download it and start from there. I would do it, if only I had managed to make my map work.

[Monkwarrior]

I first edited the descr_strat to the bare minimum with 2 faction and 2 settlements.

Is there any restriction about those two factions? I mean, it is needed that one faction is SPQR and the other one a roman faction?

I wonder about the senate missions. How are they assigned? This comes to me because the missions for the Brutii, for example, are assigned to regions that have been eliminated in the new map.

About victory conditions. In the imperial campaign there are two possibilities (50 prov+Rome, or 15 prov+faction destroyed). Where are they coded? In descr_strat of the imperial_campaign the victory conditions are the same as in the provincial campaigns but the option of short campaign does not appear.

Sorry. Too many questions and no one answer.

Edit: The victory conditions are locked by the imperial campaign. I started an egyptian short campaign (15 prov. + destroy seleucids and armenia) and after exit the objectives for ALL the factions in the provincial campaign were the same (15+seleuc+armenia).
I deleted all the events, disasters and mercenaries, but no solution.
I removed greek_cities and brutii as factions: no solution.
I eliminated the imperial campaign and renamed the Hispania campaign as imperial_campaign. It loads as imperial campaign and the objectives for the different factions are correct (even if macedonians are not among the factions): but again CTD.

[Monkwarrior]

Well, actually I have no idea what might be causing the CTD. IMO MonkWarrior has done far too much at once. After all the modding I have done I have learned the best way to progress fast is by progressing in very small steps.

You were right Duke John. I followed your advise and now I HAVE A CAMPAIGN THAT WORKS.
Using the same maps, I painted in map_regions just to have five provinces: Lusitania, Latium, Central Gaul, Africa and Sardinia. Each province had one owner faction: spain, SPQR, gauls, carthage and greek_cities. I reduced to the maximum the characters of each faction: only the leader, his wife and 2-3 children.
It was only necessary to eliminate all the other regions in all the text files (mercs, regions, regions_and_settlement...) and the campaign seems to work at least 10 turns.
I'll begin to include more provinces and factions step by step.

Many thanks.

(Last thing: I believe that the senate missions play some role in CTD. With the precedent configuration I was able to start the campaign with the Julii, first mission Segesta, but not with the Brutii. I imagine that it is due to the fact that the game cannot find the first objective.)