Battle Editor: Number of Questions

[RegiaSaxon]

Okay, I thought it would be a good time summarise some of things I've discovered about the Battle Editor as I attempt to create a tutorial. I don't know if this is of any interest to anyone - this seems like a very lonely thread . Beuller? Beuller? Beuller?


Edit Battle Details requester
1) Set time limit to 0 to have no time limit for the battle. This causes a Sanity error but still works.

2) There is no option in the editor to set the battle year - this must be added by editing the descr_battle.txt file manually.


Edit Army Details requester
1) Is reinforcement doesn't seem to work or the associated Joins in 0 minutes setting. Reinforcements will appear in the battle at the correct time but they will do nothing. Occasionaly, the unit tooltip reports them as marching when they are still. The Is reinforcement tick box resets itself immediately the requester is closed and then opened again.

2) The purpose of Num supporting armies is unkown at present.

3) The Command setting does not work. It is not written to the descr_battle.txt when you save your battle and needs to be added by editing this file manually. However, if you later resave you battle via the editor the Command setting will be reset to 0.

4) When trying to edit an army you have already created the requester does not update it's settings in accordance with the army you have selected. Therefore, if you have two factions - Romans and Britannia (created in that order), and you select Romans, the Select faction option will still read Britannia. The option is disabled I presume to stop problems with changing a faction that already has faction-specific units assigned to it. I'll be looking into this a little more.

5) There is no option to choose if the current faction is playable or not. This must be added by editing the descr_battle.txt file manually.


Settlements
1) Settlements are highly unstable when it comes to placing them in the battle editor. Most of the time they appear fine unless you delete them (although this isn't always the case). This causes the 3D models to separate from the ground textures and appear elsewhere on the map (randomly, it would seem). Using settlements from within Default_set and Default_port_set is a lot more reliable than using the others.

2) Moving settlements is not very well explained. Click and hold the left mouse button down on the settlement. With the button still down, move the mouse to the location you want to move the settlement to - you will see the green placement area. Release the left mouse button.

3) Moving and placing settlements can cause holes in the map, which are square and show sky through them. These will not show up in the actual battle but you can 'fall' through them when moving the camera over them in the battle editor. This can cause the entire 3D world to go black and you will need to exit and reload the battle editor to clear the problem.


Models
1) There doesn't seem to be any way of adding bridges over rivers, although this could be related to the campaign map and the way in which the campaign 'grows'.

2) When placing a model near a river, the base area of the model is huge and 'dries up' the river. Although the visible model area is only tiny, they seem to have a huge second area. Imagine a Roman legion has to build a fort but needs to clear an area 500 miles square and you'll get the picture. Alternatively, just give it a try.


Misc
1) Rotating the camera facing directly down will result in the view flipping and you will suddenly be looking at sky. Just rotate the other way to restore the view.


Well, there you go, my findings so far. It may well be a case that a lot of the problems are deliberate or possibly linked to game mechanics that are controlled elsewhere (such as adding bridges). It is certain that some are just quirks. Maybe one of the CA guys will gatecrash my topic and help out.

Cheers
Chalky