Making a new campaign map.

[Myrddraal]

Question 1 yes, but you must change all the files to their respective new sizes, remember, some of them are twice the size of map_regions + 1 pixel

Question 2 I tried, but I'm stuck at the moment, see the scripting thread in this forumn.

[5000]

cool thanks man, new question tho

the map size in descr_terrain.txt, what do those numbers represent, i'm using photoshop to edit the files, and they don't seem to correspond to pixels, so what are they

and that +1 pixel is that on both length and width



-5000

[Myrddraal]

The map width and height do correspond to the pixels in map_regions.tga

The plus one should be on both width and height. I think its all in the guide on page 1.

[5000]

ok in the guide it says that there is a minimum amount of land mass required, how much is needed?

and i read somewhere(maybe in the guide) that the maximum number of provinces is 200, is there a minimum required as well, if so what is it?

[Myrddraal]

I don't think there is a minimum number of provinces.

I'm not sure about the minimum landmass. I suggest that you make as you would like it, then if it doesn't load, add some landmass.

Sorry thats not too clear, but I don't really know myself.

[Encaitar]

I've got a campaign map to load with only 2 regions, so there's no lower limit.

[Duke John]

With landmass I meant the total surface of land. During the making of my own map I made at one point only one change: reducing a large piece of land to small. The campaign wouldn't work. If I reverted it back it would work. My conclusion was that the engine needs a certain percentage of land of the total map. What that percentage is I do not know, but if your campaign doesn't work and the only thing you changed was a change in landmass then you will know what to do. This has nothing to do with the amount of regions.

[Etwmodders]

alright, i have never done any kind of total war modding, but am trying 2 get into it.

i have a question that may seem kinda dumb, or maybe not.
when editing the map (4 a test im makeing an island) do i need 2 add the new provence 2 all of the map_whatevers or just regions?

[5000]

you also need to add the land to
map_heights.tga and map_ground_types.tga

the guide up top goes over pretty much everything, i know its long but very useful.


-5000

[Myrddraal]

You also have to add it to the text files descr_strat descr_regions and the names lookup and the names in the text directory.

[Monkwarrior]

The land or the corresponding portion of map (pixels) should be also included in map_roughness, map_features, map_climates, map_trade_routes, disasters, radar_map1 and radar_map2, in addition to the already mentioned map_height and map_ground_types.
The provinces (limits, settlement and port) are only included in map_regions.

I hope it is clear enough.

[eadingas]

Aargh.
Could somebody write a troubleshooting manual for campaign map editing? I get CTD, and as usual, no idea why. I have moved all the armies to a safe spot in the desert to avoid them stepping on a river or sth, I have checked the map in CMEd - no bugs, so the regions should be implemented correctly. What else can be wrong? Note that I'm only trying to add several regions to vanilla map, nothing challenging. I hate it when -show_err doesn't work, it's stumbling in the darkness then...

[Monkwarrior]

Could somebody write a troubleshooting manual for campaign map editing? I get CTD, and as usual, no idea why. I have moved all the armies to a safe spot in the desert to avoid them stepping on a river or sth, I have checked the map in CMEd - no bugs, so the regions should be implemented correctly. What else can be wrong? Note that I'm only trying to add several regions to vanilla map, nothing challenging. I hate it when -show_err doesn't work, it's stumbling in the darkness then...

Troubleshooting manual is a difficult task as many times we don't know why a modification doesn't work.
Did you add the regions one by one? Did you succeed in any ocassion? Could you explain the steps you followed?

What I've been doing:
- map_regions: with Photoshop 7.0 I painted the new province, with a single black pixel for settlement and a single white pixel for port. Be careful that the color is not used for another region (this causes CTD without error message).
- descr_regions_and_settlement_lookup: I write the names of region and settlement at the end of the file
- descr_regions: I copy and paste one existing region and I rename it. I change the name of the settlement and the color code (I search here for a duplicity in this code).
- {my_campaign}_regions_and_settlement_names: I copy and paste existing lines and I rename it with the names of new region and settlement.
- descr_strat: depending on the position of the region and its owner this can be the hardest part. I copy and paste one region of the same owner, I rename it (perhaps I eliminate some buildings) and I put some garrison. In general the mistakes in this file, such as incorrect positions, character names or family relationships, are detected by -show_err.
In this way I have completed a 72 provinces map starting from one with only 5.

After that I have found some other error sources causing CTD without a message, for example corruption in some of the files encoding the rebel factions, when I tried to add new rebels for the new regions. I don't know where the error was, but eliminating the rebels in descr_rebel_factions, recopying one existing rebel faction and renaming it solves the problem.

Sorry if you knew all those details.
Cheers.

[eadingas]

Well, the problem is this: when there are bugs in descr_strats, the game goes back to menu with error, no problem. When I fix all the bugs in descr_strats (hopefully), the game CTDs after creating map.rwm file. I didn't add any mercenaries, and proper regions are added to descr_mercenaries file. The map loads into newest CMEd, which has pretty decent bug-finding routines for things like mislocated cities and ports, besides, moving cities around doesn't help a bit.
I commented out all diplomats,spies and admirals, and moved all generals and armies to the desert.
And it still doesn't work.

[Monkwarrior]

The mislocation of ports and settlements are also reported by -show_err, even mistakes in descr_mercenaries.
This kind of CTD seems to be a problem of a file different from descr_strat. In my opinion you should have a look in descr_regions. Perhaps deleting the last region included and repeating the same process again.
If this doesn't work, you should take again the last successful set of files (you should have a copy ) and repeat the whole process. Sometimes I found that doing that, the game worked (even if the files were apparently identical to the previous ones).

Sorry but my knowledge is not deeper than this.

[Etwmodders]

thx 4 help but
i have 2 questions/problems

1.i seem to be having the same problem as PacPomarnacki was having when the game just quit when i try to run my campain. i tried the error message thing, but it didnt come up, and i deleted the map.rwm it gener8ed, but still no error message, and it makes a new map.rwm every time. help?

2. what happens if 2 of the maps dont exactly line up?

[Myrddraal]

That depends which two. It doesn't matter in the short term (Ie it doesn't CTD but it looks bad) if the regions and heights don't line up so long as the ports and cites are on land. the borders can go into the sea.

map_ground types and climates don't need to line up with anything.

As to your problem, have you tried downloading Duke Johns campaign map template, then take it in steps copying your map to it bit by bit. By this I mean, copy the shape of the land, then the provinces...

@Etwmodders and eadingas, in my experience, when it doesn't come up with an error, it is often an error in the images

[eadingas]

Well, in one case, it was a name of a greek rebel commander - as greek name is Alexandros, not Alexander :) Doh! There were a couple of other minor bugs like that. -show_err sucks on debugging descr_strat, it really should just catch on these, instead of just CTD-ing!

[Duke John]

Eadingas, you shouldn't do so much at once. If you mod with small things you would have immediately known that the game crashes after you added another character.

[eadingas]

Yeah, but I'm just unorganized like that :) Besides, sometimes I have to do more than one step at once to get some changes working - this particular case, for example, giving a province to rebels, requires moving original garrison out of the city, moving the settlement to 'rebel' section of descr_strat, and placing a rebel general in the city - that's just way too much opportunities for small bugs to mess things up.
Anyway, I still think bugs in text files like that should be caught by the debugging routine instead of just manually checking all files. Call me lazy :)

[Myrddraal]

I added an in detail resizing the map section

[dclare4]

Actually I think if the province is not given to any factions it defaults to the rebs.

Clare

[Myrddraal]

That is true.

[infernalbob]

This might be a stupid comment but just to be shure. I haven't created my own campain yet because i see a lot of members have been having problems with the guide and some bugs. so if i follow the guide EXACTLLY how it says their isn't going to be a problem?

[Myrddraal]

If you don't make any mistakes then yes. It works.

[BabylonTW]

i did all that u said but my campagin dosent start !!!!!! ive been working on it for like 3 days now.

what make the campgin not work?

in a list plz

[Myrddraal]

Are you sane? In a list? That would be a work of a lifetime. There are so many things that can make a campaign map go wrong.

Are you using the -show_err extension on your game. This may tell you where the error is. What happens, how does the error take place? Does it CTD?

[Mackaaan]

is it possible to make a campaign map with the width: 156 hight: 255 if you edit the descr_terrain(like if you doing a long map and not a wide map)?

[Myrddraal]

I can't see why not. So yes.

[Monkwarrior]

is it possible to make a campaign map with the width: 156 hight: 255 if you edit the descr_terrain(like if you doing a long map and not a wide map)?

The only problem will be that all the height exceeding 156 won't be visible in the radar map (left bottom corner).
If anybody knows a solution for this problem, please post it here.