Unlocking Sahara

[edyzmedieval]

Well, I followed a guide posted in the Repository about unlocking Sahara..... I followed every step, checked and rechecked, and when I go to the select time, the Early Period is missing....

Why?!

[EatYerGreens]

I'm putting together a mod to do some experimenting and this was on my list of additions too. I'll go through the tutorial myself and see if I get the same problem.

Actually, I've made some unit_prod and build_prod changes already. It's a bad idea to change too many things at once before a test session, so I'll have to come back for this later.

Here's what I've done so far.

1) Copied the entire MTW:VI (with king-death patch applied) directory
2) Pasted into the Total War folder and renamed the copy folder.
3) Run Gnome editor to alter the unit/build prod files.
4) No changes to startpos files yet.

[EatYerGreens]

Okay, I've been editing startpos and dicovered something worth looking at in your files.

All the vital entries are in the form (brackets for clarity only)
<Setsomething><colon><colon><TAB><sometimes more tabs><entries>

The "Setsomething" words are all slightly different lengths. In the case of <SetNeighbours::>, the gap between the second colon and the start of the data is only about the width of a space character.

At first I typed a space here...
I had to go back and correct this by substituting a tab. I've no idea what difference it makes but the program may be set to seek tab characters as column seperators.

The startpos file is inconsistent though. In one other place, there were 12-13 spaces after the label, one tab, then the data (tradeable goods and resources section).

The way to tell them apart is to insert a tab and watch to see if the data text 'jumps' across to the next tab stop. Your cursor will also be at a tab stop but may appear to have only moved a short distance. It's tricky to describe but the gap between the cursor and the data text 'expands' after you've inserted a tab. What you just inserted is to the left of the cursor, so the thing 'expanding' is a character not typed by you. (I hope this makes sense).

Anyway, simply backspace any excess tabs until the data entries align with the lines above/below.

[EatYerGreens]

There is nothing in the Repository thread about <AddTitle::>

I've no idea if its absence can trigger a crash or not but every other province in the game has one and I need to make this exactly like the rest in order to isolate the source of any bugs.

Ungoverned status may affect province loyalty and other factors, too.


I copy and pasted the line for Morocco's title and set the acumen attribute to zero. This title gives +2 loyalty and nothing else. My entry looks like this:-
(Message editor will have stripped out the tabs)

AddTitle:: ID_AFRICA "" +2 0 0 0 0 0 0

Some titles have text between the inverted commas, others don't. Most of the neighbouring provinces are like this one.

On closer inspection of
Loc\Eng\DEFAULT_REGION_SPECIFIC.TXT
I discovered an entry like this

@{" of the Sahara"} //@{"Africa"}

so it is safe to assume the game constructs the title - Duke, or Amir of the Sahara, as appropriate, by itself and the <""> part of the AddTitle:: command is for titles with unusual form to them (but adds to the list of things needing translation for non-English versions).

If you wanted to make the title "Lord of the eternally blowing sands", then use the Addtitle:: line and set that string inside the quotes.

[EatYerGreens]

Some optional changes.... (affect in-game messages only)

Loc\Eng directory

One occurence relevant to Sahara found in CHANGES.TXT

string says "Saha" instead of "Sahara"

Nine occurrences relevant to Sahara or ID_AFRICA found in DEFAULT_REGION_SPECIFIC.TXT

stings say "Saha conquered/lost/relieved" etc. instead of "Sahara"

Governor title will say "Amir of Saha", if not corrected, as the title string is affected too (included in my count).

Time to do some testing now.

[EatYerGreens]

I used AddBuilding:: in the startpos, to place a fort and port, just to see where the positions are. Looks like they picked Casablanca as the port location but I could find no significant towns where the castle is and I named it after a town much further east.

The Atlas mountain range actually goes far deeper inland than the campain map portrays. The choice of battle map type in the border crossing settings seems to have been based more on the painting than the real world. I'm sorely tempted to change mine so all attacks on Sahara are heading into mountains, to give the Almos a fighting chance of staying alive well into the late stages of the game.

I left the port and fort in place as a gift to the Almos and carried on playing. I also gave them hides as export goods and salt as a resource, just to nudge up their income. They have a ship permanently stationed in the Atlantic Coast sea region, maintaining the trade links well but this may have had something to do with me severing the land bridges to Granada and Cordoba! Keeping troop-movement lanes open helps preserve the trade links, it seems.

I also set a farm income level, using the same figure as in the thread in the Repository. Not that I think a zero setting would be enough to cause a crash, or anything, but the AI will dutifully build its farm upgrades on the province and get nothing in return.

Sahara does make a significant strategic change in the game. The Almos are no longer stuck in the pipe down which Spain's crusades run. They now have a bolt-hole, where they can let the things go past, then conquer back any temporarily lost lands.

I got through nearly 200 game turns (-ian command line switch and bursts of autoplay, with AI in command of all factions) before picking up a ship piece finally triggered a CTD, so I reckon the Sahara code is pretty solid. Both Spain and the Almos are still slugging it out, well into the High era. Sahara itself has quite some level of culture to it, as well.

edyz, I should add that I hand-typed all the changes, using the thread instructions as a guide and did NOT cut and paste from the thread to my modded file. If you have a backup version from before you made the Sahara changes, use that and retype everything again.

I've items which the writer of the guide either omitted to mention or never bothered with at all, yet Sahara worked okay for him. I've only done this to be thourough and hoping others will find these posts useful. I don't see it as being the reason why mine worked and yours didn't.

Let us know if you get yours working.