Adding custom battle maps

[Jimmytwohand]

Hello all. I am new to this forum but not to the TW series. I am a relative novice modding wise. I am sure most of you here will be well aware of how to add maps to be played as custom battles. I was not though and could find no resources on how to do this. I thought i would write my discoveries here to aid any other novices who would like to do this and have been flummoxed without the old editor. My interest was piqued here thanks to Epistolary Richard and his warm welcome. Helpful info was also found here in a post by Myrddraal whose campaign map editing technique allowed me to extrapolate this process.

1) Make sure you have the latest (1.2) patch.
2) Add "-enable_editor" on to the end of the game extension (without quotation marks).
3) Use the Battle Editor (found under the options menu) to edit the map as you want it. Basic documentation for the editor can be found here:
http://download.activision.com/totalwar/editor_docs.zip(thanks to Nihilist)
4) Save the map with whatever name you want (e.g gobblersknob) without adding armies, units, victory conditions etc. You will get a sanity report listing lots of errors. Do not worry about this.
Note that you can change the name which will show up on the custom battle screen later in descr_battle.txt. It is easier however to save it with the final name you want whilst still in the battle editor.
5) Open the Total war folder. Default location for this is C:/program files/Activision/RTW
6) Navigate to "Data/world/maps/battle/custom" and open the file in which you saved your map e.g gobblersknob.
7) Copy the contents (there should be 5 files)
8) Navigate to "Data/world/maps/custom" and create a new folder with the new map title.
9) Paste the contents you previously copied into this new folder.

When you now start the game, the map you edited will be available under custom battles allowing you to add whatever factions or armies you want.

If you would like to add a custom image to be displayed on the menu screen:

1) In photoshop resize your selected image to 256 pixels wide x 152h
2) Convert it to .tga format if it is not already.
3) Save or copy/paste the image into Data/world/maps/custom/"your battle name" that you created in step 8 above.
4) Rename the image "snapshot.tga". This must be done to ensure the game realises the image is there and utilises it.

I have not yet devised a way to change the deployment areas if this is even possible. I will continue research on this.

Apart from that this will allow you to fight custom battles exactly where your house will be in another 2000 years without having to create a new historical battle every time you want to change the units that are fighting. If you so wish........

[Epistolary Richard]

Thanks, JimmyTwoHand. As to your graphic question, I believe that if you press Print Screen while you're in the editor (or anywhere else in the game for that matter) it will create a new tga file in the Rome - Total War\tgas\ folder. You can edit the tga file in Photoshop just like any other image file.
.

[Jimmytwohand]

Im having problems getting PSP 8 to load my .tga screenshots. They just load as a black page. I did however download a historic map and played about. In photoshop I resized it to 256 pixels wide x 152h which is the default for all the other images. I then converted it to .tga and dropped it in to the Data/world/maps/custom/(insert your map title here). It must be renamed to "snapshot.tga" otherwise the game will not detect it. Thanks Richard. Should i add this information on to the original post or leave this as an additional snippet of info? I dont want to destroy the syntax old boy.

[Epistolary Richard]

Best to ask over on the General forum, I'm afraid I can't remember if I did anything to my Photoshop in order to view tgas. As for editing the original post, I think it would be for the best, so that people following the tutorial (as I will) have all the information they need in the one place.

[ShadesWolf]

3) Use the Battle Editor (found under the options menu) to edit the map as you want it. Basic documentation for the editor can be found here:
http://download.activision.com/totalwar/editor_docs.zip(thanks to Nihilist)....

Does anybody have a new link, as this seems to have gone

[paullus]

the black screen comes from antialiasing, doesn't it? i turned it off and now i get screenies.

[kungfuserge]

http://download.activision.com/total...ocs.zip(thanks to Nihilist)


This link is dead ; is itpossible to learn how to use the editor ?

[Makanyane]

Try this:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=1162
it's meant to be the documentation for all the editors.

Please say if that helps or not so other people know

[kungfuserge]

Exactly ! thanks
Starting to study it;
I'll let you know in the next few days

[kungfuserge]

the tool works ! but I didn't find out How to erase a unit once you have put it the Editor...only by ereasing it from the battle script itshelf ...if anyone knows ; please tell me .

This is the thermopyles battle I just made for me; it works; exept I don't know how to prevent troops from climbing the cliff

[Gandalf the White]

When in the editor click on create/edit units then select the right faction and click on the captain then units; you will see a list of units click on the one you want to delete and hit delete. That is the way to delete units.

[kungfuserge]

Hello;Thanks answering
the thing is that I can't see any Delete button on board....
Where is it !?

[zalalzabob konsorbud]

Where do you put (-enable_editor)? lol.

[Makanyane]

same place as you put -show_err see
http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Show_err
for pic.

you can put them on both together just remember space between them like:
-show_err -enable_editor