Cultural-only elements

[Dol Guldur]

I think these forums are among the best for modders and research, but the search feature is awful :(

I am looking for a list of those parts of the game which cannot be broken down into factions; in other words, all those elements which can only be defined in terms of culture.

For example, I have heard that family portraits, forts/watchtowers/ports, and sound files are culture-only (?).

Any help/link appreciated.

[Dol Guldur]

Hmm..maybe I phrased that wrong. Let's try again

Which elements of the game are unalterably tied to culture?

[Epistolary Richard]

If you unpack your pak files and then look in the UI folder you'll get a pretty good idea of what images are tied to culture. Contrast that with the units folder which is broken down by faction.

Message strings tend to be culture-based as well, sounds also.

[Dol Guldur]

Thank you Epistolary.

[Simetrical]

Building descriptions are culture-based, too. There are one or two culture-specific hardcoded things, like the Pyramids' removal of the culture penalty from Egyptians, and the barbarians' warcry.

-Simetrical

[Epistolary Richard]

On the topic of cultural building descriptions, I think there's an exception in that Parthia's building descriptions are separate from Eastern.

[Dol Guldur]

That is true; although buildings (EDB) themselves can be designated by both culture and faction.

I wonder if parthia and eastern are also separated for the purpose of using named character portraits? Anyone know?

[Dol Guldur]

And does anyone know why Parthia is listed as if it were different? If you look through the building files (EDB) you will see that every time Parthia is listed as a required culture/faction so is Eastern - so why list the latter at all?

Temples do list Parthia separately but that is beside the point: temples list all factions!

As far as the building desc are concerned, there is no reason for the separate texts (whcih are nearly exactly the same with some small differences in places such as the Governor's House where Parthia replaces the Eastern's "the state" with "Parthia" but hardly a reason to make Parthia different.

Is Parthia read as a faction (it would seem to be) or a culture? I wonder. And why would "Eastern" be Pontus and Armenia alone in these files? Or is it?

Hmmmm..

[The samnite]

export_buildings allows culture or faction to be designator's as well.

Parthia is not separate from Eastern culture as far as I can tell. Maybe at one point in development they were, but I think the separate parthia entries in EDB are just leftovers. I tried adding Parthia as a separate UI folder but it did not work.

City styles and siege-built objects are also culture based I believe.

[Dol Guldur]

That's my guess too Samnite.

So Pontus & Armenia will draw on the same family member portrait pics (in the family tree and represented on unit cards) as Parthia?

I can't believe they didn't allow for faction-based leader pics!

[Simetrical]

I think that for the purposes of EDB.txt and export_buildings.txt, Parthia is its own culture. If it's not, that would actually suggest that different factions could have their own distinct entries in export_buildings.txt, along the lines of {governors_house_seleucid_desc}. But that's probably too much to hope for. Anyone feel like testing?

-Simetrical

[The samnite]

I'm pretty sure I can confirm that it works Simetrical.

[Dol Guldur]

It does...

Method:

1. EBD file:

added numidia to this line:

governors_house requires factions { barbarian, ct_carthage, eastern, parthia, numidia, egyptian, greek, roman, }

2. data\export_buildings.txt

added following entry:

{governors_house_numidia_desc}
The Numidian Governor's House is the centre for all administrative functions in a settlement. This is the power of Parthia made solid for the people who live here.\n\nThe administrator based here collects taxes, issues instructions to improve the settlement and manages the small day-to-day business of an empire.\n\nWhile not exactly luxurious, the Governor's House is usually the best building in the settlement, and locals try to build their own houses close by so that some prestige rubs off on them!

{governors_house_numidia_desc_short}
The Numidian Governor's House is the controlling hub of the settlement, and the basis of all state power. Without enlightened Parthian government, nothing else can develop.


(NOTE: text is altered to "Numidian Governor's House")

3. export_descr_buildings_enums.txt

Added:

governors_house_numidia_desc
governors_house_numidia_desc_short

RESULT: (Governor's House building scroll playing as Numidia)




Step 1 probably isn't necessary to get the result but does show that factions can be designated and will be needed if this is implemented of course.

[Epistolary Richard]

I think these forums are among the best for modders and research, but the search feature is awful :(

Dol Guldur, we're always looking for ways to make these forums more helpful to modders who want to learn. How about writing a 'how to' on this subject and posting it in this thread so it's readily available for other users who may have the same question?

[Monkwarrior]

Once the question of descriptions is solved (Good work! )

Does anybody know how to change the assignation of the type (culture) building to a given faction?
I mean that probably in a mod new_germans and new_gauls won't belong to the same culture and I would like to give them different building cards and, if possible, different models of cities in the campaign map.

[Epistolary Richard]

I'm not sure what you're asking, Monkwarrior. The factions' cultures are hard-coded. Can you give us an example of what you mean?

[Dol Guldur]

OK. It's posted in the tutorials thread. I wish I could edit my posts and for some reason it is rare that images diplay (I cannot see my own image in that post and th eone above - can someone confirm that it is displaying?).

Any responses and research on this would be appreciated, I'm heavily involved in many things and have so little time. Thx.

I, too, would like different building models per faction and not per culture. There are some limited ways in which I believe this can be achieved but they are not satisfactory for robust use.

I wish there was a way of getting the portraits functioning by faction rather than culture. I need to know how these work but have drawn a blank thus far.

[Epistolary Richard]

Only users with full membership status can edit their posts, you should now find you have an edit button to the left of the quote button on your own posts.

Your image is displaying fine for me. Building models are unfortunately set by culture - a way to have different building images within a culture is to have different buildings within the export_descr_building file which are only available to a single faction within that culture. There's a series of knock on effects of that, however, and it's not open for all buildings.

Most of the UI elements (graphics etc.) are unfortunately done on a cultural basis. A notable exception to this are unit cards which are faction based.

[Dol Guldur]

So the named characters' (generals) unit cards (containing a portrait of said family member) can be faction-based, but in implementation will not match up with the family tree portraits?

Excuse my graphical ignorance.

Yes, that is about my understanding of the building models.

Thx for the dit button ;) I wonder why I can't see the images...

Anyway, a little further research shows that:

export_descr_buildings_enums.txt does not need to be altered for it to work - in fact you can delete the whole file and the thing still works! I wonder what this file does then?

The order of the new text descriptions in export_buildings.txt does not seem to matter.

[Epistolary Richard]

Sorry, when I said unit cards I meant unit cards for the units only. The family portraits are held within the cultural folders rather than split down by faction.

[Dol Guldur]

Carthage (presumably ct_carthage (i.e. carthage + numidia) ) has no folders for portraits...

Does this mean it shares portraits with another culture, such as Eastern? Is there a file which would clarify this?

[Epistolary Richard]

Yes, it shares portraits with eastern I believe. But I think you can make your own portraits folder inside the culture folder and it will reference those instead - or at least as well.

[Dol Guldur]

I copied the Egyptian portrait folder to the Carthaginian folder but Carthage gave me Eastern portraits still :(

[Epistolary Richard]

It's probably still reading the version inside the UI pak files, you may have to rename them so they aren't referenced anymore.