Do Provincial Campaigns Actually Exist?

**Dol Guldur** · 12-24-2005, 01:56

I've become very confused by the use of the term "provincial campaign" on modding forums. It seems that any folder stuck in the campaign folder gets called a provincial campaign by default.

In a sense there is some truth to this: it shows up in the Provincial Campaigns menu in-game.

However, there is more to a Provincial Campaign than a folder ;)

The nearest I have been able to achieve a true Provincial Campaign (in BI 1.6) is by doing the following....

1. Take your mod's full campaign (or Barbarian Invasion campaign) map and related files and crop the map to the desired provinces and adjust all files appropriately. Don't overwrite your full campaign's files - do this in another folder entirely (for now)

Now, turning back to the bi\data\world\maps folder...

2. Create a folder in the campaign folder (where also resides the "barbarian_invasion" folder) called "provincial_campaign"

3. Copy all the files for the provincial campaign (not the files of the base folder) into this folder: descr_strat.txt, desc_win_conditions.txt, map_empire_east.tga etc.

4. Open up the aforementioned provincial_campaign\descr_strat.txt file and make sure you change the campaign name at the top, so the DS header should look like this:

Code:

campaign  provincial_campaign
options bi
playable

(note that it is a tab between campaign and the campaign name!)

5. Rename the full-campaign base folder (bi\data\world\maps) to full_campaign and then copy the provincial campaign base folder in bi\data\world\maps to take its place.

6. Rename the provincial campaign barbarian_invasion_regions_and_settlement_names.txt file to provincial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt and copy into the bi\data\text folder

7. Rename the full campaign descr_sm_factions.txt file to full_campaign_descr_sm_factions.txt and copy the provincial campaign descr_sm_factions.txt into the bi\data folder.

Now, to swap between campaigns you will just need to swap base folders and descr_sm_factions.txt files over, nothing else. You will of course have to make sure all your universal files are compatible - mainly resources declared/used in the EDB file will have to be kept an eye on for compatability with both campaigns, though if one is a provinicial of the other there shouldbe no need to make 2 copies of the EDB.

This is not a provincial campaign, technically, but it is the nearest I can get to it.

Well, this post is not a tutorial - it is a question: is there a better way to achieve this? Can the game look to any other folder than the base folder to get that provincial map working without the need of base-folder swapping/renaming?

**Lord Dazed & Confused** · 12-29-2005, 22:42

Yes, when you create your new campaign folder copy every thing from the base folder in to your new campaign folder, before you start editing, edit your files etc and delete the map.rwm and your provincial campaign will work fine.

**Dol Guldur** · 12-30-2005, 02:10

That does not work - you can copy the base folder into it or the files of the base folder into it. Neither works. (BI 1.6)

Have you tested this with BI?

**Lord Dazed & Confused** · 12-30-2005, 11:02

Yeah, I'm currently playing BI as the ERE, a provincial campaign, on a map with an extra 20 regions or so added, which I downloaded from the TWC, as I got fed up making my on map, altered to work with version 1.6 by adding BI options at the top of the descr_strat and its working fine, so far.

So it does appear to be working OK at the moment.

**Dol Guldur** · 12-30-2005, 13:51

Dazed,

Well - it worked! I think I've patched since I last tried so I wonder if that had something to do with it not working bofore? Thanks a lot for convincing me to try it just one more time ;)

The answer to this thread's question is : Yes!