How to make Historical Battles

**AmbrosiusAurelianus** · 10-23-2004, 22:51

Originally Posted by Dragoncrusader

If you are using the standard maps, how about emailing your battles to me and I will give them a go. Are you using the ai coding to control the battle?Also I think that I will ask the moderator to put the guide somewhere where people can access it in the future - do you want to update it and add in the bits that you have found and especially about the images.

If you'll PM me your e-mail address I'll send you the Hastings version I have done, after some final changes that I at last have time to make. At the moment I have not reprogrammed any of the AI in the Historic Battles because it already does what I want: all I'm doing is changing the units, flags and the like to suit me. I have been tinkering with TheSilverKnight's excellent Bosworth battle so that I can play as Richard III; then I shall do Stamford Bridge with the proper banners and units.
I'll rewrite the stuff about the flags into something coherent, as you requested. I think that it is good that the moderator is allowing us to continue with this discussion, because although I am sure that it is all very obvious to those that have been modding for ages, it is notoriously difficult to get replies to some basic stuff if you're new at it. There is some good stuff about modding factions, units, and campaigns in the archives, but not so much if you just want to change historical battles. As you said before they are basically a custom game with more options. The last remaining thing that I don't know is how to use units from mods in them. Hopefully time will tell.

**AmbrosiusAurelianus** · 10-27-2004, 17:53

Okay, so at last I have time to put up the information on how to make the TGAs and BIFs for historical battles. Follow these steps. THis might not be the best method, but it has certainly worked for me.

(1) Load up Photoshop, or some other program that can handle TGAs.
(2) Load up a TGA from the game to use as a template.
(3) Load up the image that you wish to use, in Photoshop.
(3) Resize the image that you wish to use to the same size as the TGA from
the game (32 pixels by 32 pixels).
(4) Paste ths over the TGA from the game.
(5) Go to "Save As", select as TGA (TARGA etc).
(6) Rename the file to that which you want to call it - do not save over the
original unless you specifically wish to replace that TGA in the game.
(7) Click save, and select 24 bit when you are given the option.
(8) Place this TGA in the correct historical battle folder if it is not already
there.
(9) Resize the TGA in Photoshop to 18 pixels by 20 pixels and save it as
something different e.g. "Temp1", again in 24 bit.
(10) Use the CA BIF/BUF utility (downloadable at the org) Purpgrab to
convert this to a BIF.
(11) Give this BIF the name of one of the protagonists in the battle whose
name is encoded in the BDF file (see DragonCrusader's guide).
(12) Place this in the appropriate historical battle folder, overwriting the
original if need be, ie. if you want to replace a pre-existing BIF.
(13) Have a drink, you should be done. Load it up and see.

As I said this might not be the best method, but it has worked for me, so try it.

AA

**Dragoncrusader** · 11-04-2004, 00:00

Hi
You will be glad to hear that I have managed to change all my icons and flags to ones that I want. So my crusaders now have a proper flag to fight under but I have kept the various faction colours so that I can recognise my troops from allies.
I have updated the guide again and added in your image section. I have added two other sections, one on setting battle conditions and the other on defining an area on the battlefield. The new battle conditions are good if you want to make a condition of winning the battle, the capturing of a castle but there are other ones which look quite useful. I had a look at the historical campaigns, especially the Barbarossa ones and these really make it clear how they work. So I am going to try to incorporate these into the battles. Makes a change from just trying to slaughter the enemy. I thought that they would be useful in the forthcoming 'Field of Blood' battle, as there is no way Roger of Antioch can survive but I can set the player another task which might be achievable. Just an idea but to defend the Great Jeweled Cross of Antioch for 20 minutes. I could do this by defining an area on the battle field marked by a tent and to task the Crusader army with keeping at least 1 man in the area for 1200 seconds. Then the player wins the game if he can achieve this.

There are still a couple of queries, I would like to know where the weather file is and how it works and about this deployment thing. I wonder if your modded units will not appear because they are not exactly files in the same place as the ordinary units. I found the shield icons in a file recently and wondered if I could change the shield image. Oh by the way faction 14 is Burgundy! Obviously a test faction. I do not have any modded units so I cannot experiement.

In the RTW mods forum, NinjaCool has posted about 15 historical battles which are very good. I mentioned this guide to him and have asked how he does the RTW ones. I have not even looked at it yet.

**AmbrosiusAurelianus** · 11-08-2004, 20:31

Originally Posted by Dragoncrusader

There are still a couple of queries, I would like to know where the weather file is and how it works and about this deployment thing. I wonder if your modded units will not appear because they are not exactly files in the same place as the ordinary units. I found the shield icons in a file recently and wondered if I could change the shield image. Oh by the way faction 14 is Burgundy! Obviously a test faction. I do not have any modded units so I cannot experiement.

In the RTW mods forum, NinjaCool has posted about 15 historical battles which are very good. I mentioned this guide to him and have asked how he does the RTW ones. I have not even looked at it yet.

Sorry, I cannot help you with the weather or the deployment. If you are thinking about installing a mod then XL is the best IMHO. I've tried BKB's and MedMod, and both are good, but XL is the best I think. Thanks for incorportaing the stuff on images into the guide.

I have played NinjaCool's Battles, and yes they are good. It would be nice to try to amke a few for RTW.

I think that you can edit the shields, I found the file once too, but I think that it only really matters if you want to edit campaign factions; I don't, so I've never bothered. There is a blank template set that someone made. I have it saved somewhere, but I have forgotten where I downloaded it. I could e-mail to you if you wish.

At the moment I have been busy with RTW, so I have not been doing much MTW stuff for a while. When I get back into it and make some new battles I'll send them to you.