an attempt to animate spiders

[Lord Adherbal]

wow thanks, that sounds usefull - and complicated but hey, we modders kick on that kind of stuff

So once I've created such a cas file and use it in physical_info, the game turns it into a BPI file ? Or how are BPI files related to physical_info cas files ? Also, since we can't open/import BPI files (unless Vercingetorix takes care of that) could we have a hand full of examples of those physical_info cas files ? I guess we'll eventually figure it out, but I'm sure a few examples would get us on the right track much faster. Guess that'll be up to El Queso Grande again

[edyzmedieval]

OMG Jerome...

Great info. And when is the public allowed on the "secret" forum, Game Mechanics?! (if it's about RTW, of course)

[Dromikaites]

It's the same with things like modelling tools integrated into the game, and once the number of campaign maps the original game was going to ship with ended up being reduced to one, support for the campaign editor similarly declined, which is one reason why it was never released. And if you look closely at the text files you may still see hints for city buildings which you could hide troops in, which were going to be located in set spots within the layouts, or the Port settlement plans, or the on-battlefield supply trains or marching forts.

Even though it's too bad that those features didn't make it to the final product, you've done a really great game, Jerome. Speaking of abandoned features, do you happen to know what happened with spawn_character and spawn_army commands? Are they part of those abandoned features?

More speciffic questions:

1) spawn_character works OK for diplomats, spies and assasins. I works halfway when trying to spawn a captain or general (family member). A model af a soldier does show up on the campaign map but doesn't have a flag and seems to be just another piece of landscape. Since it does show up, maybe we don't use the right syntax for the command?

2) spawn_army command returns complaint about not recognizing the token "unit". To me this means that the command is recognized as a valid one and parsed till it gets to "unit". So it was implemented up to a pint. Again, is there a correct syntax for this command?

Thank you and looking forward to BI.

[SigniferOne]

So, any status on the Queso? :) I mean he is El Grande, after all.

[lt1956]

Jerome, thanks for all your support, you have been really good about helping us out when we need it.

These tools if allowed will help with that wonderful Camp you had for the romans that was not used. The pathfinding is all off and clipping through the corners arent great either. lol

I gotta ask though, why did you guys abandon the Original roman camp for the smaller one?

And a question about BI coming out. I read that some features of BI will be available in RTW acting like a 1.3 patch if BI is installed. Will the naming Legions and battle AI be one of those carry over features?

I hope they let you release the tool for us.

Thanks,

Lt1956

[JeromeGrasdyke]

Well, it turns out that the cas_converter utility currently also does a number of jobs for Spartan: Total Warrior, and contains a lot of proprietary things which we can't release into the public domain. So that scuppers that idea.

But our artists assure me that it would not be that hard to write a max script which does more or less the same job, ie scanning through the list of geometries and outputting a set of names, positions and angles as text for copy-and-pasting into descr_settlements.txt... for the time being I will have to leave that as an exercise for the reader, as max scripting is not really my strong point ^^

As to what's going to change with BI, well, essentially the Rome dataset will run through the BI exe. Some of the text files have changed format - not that many, but there were changes to descr_strat.txt for example, and installing BI will update your Rome data with these changed files. Hopefully this will not make too much work for you guys, but there will be some mods which will not support rtw 1.3 straight away...

But that does mean that all AI improvements, bug fixes and so on will become available in the Rome campaigns. Most of the new BI features like Hordes are controlled via options specified in the text files, and so can be individually switched on and off in future mods. Also, the new exe's will support keeping sets of save games, replays and so on for each mod, through the same mechanism that's used to seperate out the BI information from the old Rome information.

[Lord Adherbal]

little question: can a player choose to play RTW or BI without existing the game, simular to the Eras in MTW ? Or does it require restarting the game ?

[edyzmedieval]

Good info Jerome. Thanks a lot.

May I ask you, what's your favourite mod?!

[PROMETHEUS]

Mostly I would like to know if it is possible to finally drop a new list of units or buildings in a mod's folder so that we dont have to overwrite always the base texts like model battle etc to make the mod work and also the other normal CA versions of the game withour having to overwrite or substituite stuff around, so that we could have finally multiple different mods with their own unit lists in their specific folders , that would help a lot .....§Thanks for reply ...

[JeromeGrasdyke]

Choosing between BI and Rome will require a restart of the exe. They use seperate unit databases, building databases, and so on.

The '-mod' command line option has been hugely improved, and should now allow you to keep all your mod-specific data files in a data folder under the mod name, which will also be used to create a folder. Essentially when the game looks for files it will look here first, then for any files it cannot find there it will revert to the original Rome project directory. The game will also place assocated savegames, replays and so on in a directory structure inside the mod folder. BI works much the same way, creating a BI folder which contains the following directory structure:

bi/custom
bi/data
bi/preferences
bi/presets
bi/saves

The BI exe uses this as the default project mod directory, only reverting out to rome data when it can't find what it needs. Anyway, you'll be able to pick it apart soon enough and see what makes it tick...

Hopefully all mods will then be able to do the "right thing" and create a directory structure like this and put a shortcut next to the main exe which is used to play the mod, and starts up the game with -mod:mod_name on the command line...

[PROMETHEUS]

Thanks for the answer , Do you know anything on how to resolve some animation flipperings and especially the erraqtic chaotic behaviours of units after editin the turn around idle anims?

Thanks for your answer....

[SigniferOne]

Well, it turns out that the cas_converter utility currently also does a number of jobs for Spartan: Total Warrior, and contains a lot of proprietary things which we can't release into the public domain. So that scuppers that idea.

But our artists assure me that it would not be that hard to write a max script which does more or less the same job, ie scanning through the list of geometries and outputting a set of names, positions and angles as text for copy-and-pasting into descr_settlements.txt... for the time being I will have to leave that as an exercise for the reader, as max scripting is not really my strong point ^^.

:(

Do any of these artists visit the forums... so that we can ask them more questions about how this works? I've half a mind to learn max script just for this one task. Also, if the cas_converter has lots of proprietary things, doesn't that mean it has a lot of complicated things? Or are those additional functionalities, and the actual task of exporting names and positions is still simple?

[JeromeGrasdyke]

Our max script expert is on holiday at the moment, but I can ask him when he comes back what's involved. Generating the positions and things from the max data is straightforward, it's the Spartan tasks which the converter does which are more complex.

[SigniferOne]

Thank you :)

[edyzmedieval]

Thanks Jerome.

How can I apply to work at CA?!
Never thought that CA members could be so friendly. Before you came, only sparse replies to us. :(

[lt1956]

Jerome thak you for the information, and thats a great new feature for Mods. :-)

On answering my question I believe then that the New Start will be in the BI folder meaning that it can be used in BI and RTW if one wanted? In other words, if I wanted to use the Legion naming for RTW it can be done or is this feature filtered through the BI.exe? I guess it doesnt matter as having BI installed would mean making are own directory for the mod.

This is great, as I can see having different Varriants of Our Mods with only a few changes.

I hope you can have someone help us on on the 3D issues and pathfinding or Maybe some WONDERFUL genious can fix the issues with that WONDERFUL roman camp you had planned originally? The one with the pallisade walls and no gates.

I hope the Big Cheese sees how much your doing for RTW with your support!

Lt1956

P.S. I noticed that Carthage ect was hardcoded to behave a certain way and not doing certain things, will the NEW BI AI be more agressive and use Sea invasions more or atleast if I add carthage to BI will it be agressive more than in RTW or are the BI AI factions hardcoded the same way, and some will be backpeddlers like carthage was? If so which factions as the slow provinces so I can avoid them. lol

[SigniferOne]

Jerome... look what you did :)

[Lord Adherbal]

that's great dsyrow1

now add support for exporting underlay, overlay and especially pathfinding map

[Kraxis]

Thanks Jerome.

How can I apply to work at CA?!
Never thought that CA members could be so friendly. Before you came, only sparse replies to us. :(

That is because you haven't been here long... It used to be an almost daily ocurrent for a CA member to come by and give bit of info or enter into discussions.

I hope it is the work and not a change of attitude here that has caused the lack of communication.

In any case, Jerome, you have really kicked up a lot of dust here.

[JeromeGrasdyke]

Certainly not a change in attitude - it's the usual cycle of busy and slow periods. And I'm sure the fact that quite a few CA people have been busy producing offspring has contributed as well... we have about 6 new parents in the building now, who all have their share of red-eyes, hospital check-ups and parental leave to get through.

[SigniferOne]

Jerome,

Now, the next step is:

I'm afraid comments on pathfinding in cities are going to have to wait for another day

I am wondering if you guys had a special tool for pathfinding too, or just used the plain cas import export script.

[edyzmedieval]

Certainly not a change in attitude - it's the usual cycle of busy and slow periods. And I'm sure the fact that quite a few CA people have been busy producing offspring has contributed as well... we have about 6 new parents in the building now, who all have their share of red-eyes, hospital check-ups and parental leave to get through.

Thanks Kraxis for telling me.
Jerome also, I'm glad that it's not a change of attitude. Oh, and tell the new parents congrats!

[Kraxis]

Certainly not a change in attitude - it's the usual cycle of busy and slow periods. And I'm sure the fact that quite a few CA people have been busy producing offspring has contributed as well... we have about 6 new parents in the building now, who all have their share of red-eyes, hospital check-ups and parental leave to get through.

Any parents we know? Don't tell me Gil has gotten children...

[edyzmedieval]

Future CA members.

They should be proud that they have dads working at CA.

Kraxis, who knows?!

[lt1956]

Jerome, I notice that the new resource legion (name) for the provinces means that the First cohort can be named the resource name IF its recruited in that province.

How flexible is this system? Is it only for Romans? And can several name resources be added to a province or only one? I am curious and only ask because this feature of Naming legions was a major one on my list. lol

Also on recording battles won and lost, did you guys contemplate using a more detailed stats? Like how many romans died, and how many carthaginians you killed? I noticed Slitherine is doing something like this with their new Legion2 Game.




Thanks a bunch for all the replies and I am glad to hear its not attitude change.

Lt1956

[lt1956]

Good communication, let not let it die.