Major breakthrough: editing cities!

**Lord Adherbal** · 05-01-2005, 09:41

good job

I managed to changed the layout of city walls, aslong as you keep them in a perfect closed "circuit" it works fine.

now all we need is the ability to edit pathfinding models. They can't even be exported atm :(

**eadingas** · 05-01-2005, 13:20

So, was that using battle editor for ground and 3dmax for overlays/underlays?

**The_Ferret** · 05-01-2005, 16:45

question, is middle earth total war the same as The Fourth Age Total War

**SigniferOne** · 05-01-2005, 17:00

eadingas, the overlays/underlays ARE the ground, there's nothing else. So the battle editor was only used as a way to check my work, I'd load up my settlement plan and see how it looked, I did nothing else in it, everything was done manually. Also, once the ground was fixed, I used the coordinates in the battle editor to place my buildings.

ER: keep in mind that none of the ground you see in that picture was generated with the Battle Editor. So you have complete control over what happens on that ground. Now, for the moment the hillsides are passable, but there's a way to make them not passable. My idea is: the 'something' which makes a building unpassable is its .bpi file. Same thing with walls. So that is what I'll do, I'll place the game's wall objects all around the paths, on each side, so the units will not be able to go left or right -- the .bpi file of those walls will prevent it. And to make things non-ugly, I will make the walls invisible with 100% alpha. Presto! Unpassable cliffs.

**eadingas** · 05-01-2005, 17:02

Did you play with the textures and ground types, or is it just what comes out automatically after you edit the overlays?

**SigniferOne** · 05-01-2005, 17:19

Yep, everything you see on that picture is 100% under my control, I chose the textures, their UVW mappings, everything. Literally the whole thing was made by me, not just some parts. The applications of this are innumerable, another one of them being: a moat! Sorround your city by a river and force them to go on a bridge.

**Lord Adherbal** · 05-01-2005, 17:32

keep in mind that none of the ground you see in that picture was generated with the Battle Editor. So you have complete control over what happens on that ground. Now, for the moment the hillsides are passable, but there's a way to make them not passable. My idea is: the 'something' which makes a building unpassable is its .bpi file. Same thing with walls. So that is what I'll do, I'll place the game's wall objects all around the paths, on each side, so the units will not be able to go left or right -- the .bpi file of those walls will prevent it. And to make things non-ugly, I will make the walls invisible with 100% alpha. Presto! Unpassable cliffs.

Have you even tested this or are you just "hoping" that'll work ? Because I'm not sure you can add more then one "ring" of walls - and there might be other restrictions.
And like I said until you can edit the pathfinding maps I doubt this will work properly - a human might be able to get his troops to the right place but the AI will probably go nuts if there are too many obstructions around, and no pathfinding map.
It's nice to see editing under/overlays works fine with the current cas exporter, but this alone will certainly not allow modders to create any city they want - atleast not without causing AI problems.

**Epistolary Richard** · 05-02-2005, 14:48

Originally Posted by dsyrow1

ER: keep in mind that none of the ground you see in that picture was generated with the Battle Editor. So you have complete control over what happens on that ground. Now, for the moment the hillsides are passable, but there's a way to make them not passable. My idea is: the 'something' which makes a building unpassable is its .bpi file. Same thing with walls. So that is what I'll do, I'll place the game's wall objects all around the paths, on each side, so the units will not be able to go left or right -- the .bpi file of those walls will prevent it. And to make things non-ugly, I will make the walls invisible with 100% alpha. Presto! Unpassable cliffs.

That's excellent, finally a solution to the repetitive sieges in the game. And more than that, of course, a real way of editing the terrain rather than merely editing 'battles'. So much potential here...

**Teleklos Archelaou** · 05-02-2005, 15:12

Originally Posted by Epistolary Richard

That's excellent, finally a solution to the repetitive sieges in the game. And more than that, of course, a real way of editing the terrain rather than merely editing 'battles'. So much potential here...

I imagine most sieges of a city like this would end with the defenders trying to break the siege instead of the besiegers actually trying to take the city. Would be great to be defending against the AI though and destroying a whole army with a few units of archers atop a citadel like that.

**Lord Adherbal** · 05-02-2005, 17:26

As a side question, can units 'stop' in between nodes, or must they always go from one node to another? Maybe this explains why units exiting a city gate have to go so far outside the gate before they can turn.

no, they can be placed anywere on a node or link. The
pathfinding models are only used when the unit destination is on another node/link then the current one - if not then they unit can move around unobstructed.
BTW, walls are not part of the pathfinding models. I managed to change the position and layout of walls (even going right trought buildings and roads in a settlement) and units still interact with them fine. So they use a seperate pathfinding system that doesnt need to be edited by the modder.