Renaming settlements

[vastator]

Is there a way to this? I'd like to rename Themiskyra (as it should actually be in Pontus) and populate it with barbarian rebels, while the Amazons appear around the Black Sea. Any advice?

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Yep, you need to edit the following text files:

descr_regions @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\base

descr_region_and_settlement_name_lookup @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign

imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\text

Simply Ctrl+F to bring up the search dialog box and type in your criteria to save time.

Btw, once you've made your changes, delete map.rwm @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\base, otherwise you might keep getting CTDs.

You might also want to have a look at old_imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names, although this is irrelevant for renaming exisiting settlments.

[vastator]

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

[Monkwarrior]

If you simply want to change the name of the settlement, you must only change it in imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names, in the text folder. Change only the name without {}.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Monkwarrior is correct, I've just found this out after receiving several CTDs. If you rename regions / settlements in the files I've listed above, when you play as a Roman faction (start of a new imperial campaign), the game will CTD. This is because the game is looking for the original settlement / region name and obviously can't find it.

In imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names, simply add new entries to the very bottom of the file, under the latest divider.

[Epistolary Richard]

I believe that's the case for only certain settlements the games references - namely Rome, Segesta, Apollonia and Syracuse(?) (for victory conditions and the first three senate missions). Or were you having trouble changing a different city?

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Yeah thats exactly what it was, I was testing the Julii and the game was obviously looking for Segesta in the various scripts. I'd originally replaced any reference to Segesta with Genova, so I figured that was probably the cause.

Thought the CTDs might have been caused by other factors, namely the spawning of SPQR family members around Rome (IE spawning onto the river). However, the game is pretty smart and spawns them onto fords instead, good stuff and saves more debugging

[Watchman]

Out of curiosity, should editing the starting buildings of settlements cause a failure in initializing a new campaign ? I did a few tweaks to the appropriate \Data\ --- \imperial_campaign\descr_strat.txt file, deleted the map.rwm just to be on the safe side, and when I tried to start a new Imperial Campaign to see if all was well I was promptly dropped back to the new SP game choice screen.

Fair enough, I figured, and undid the changes.
Which didn't help.
Then I went and re-did the changes, and made sure all the building preqs were met.
Which didn't help either.


Saved games still work right fine, but then again they obviously don't include the modifications. I am quite frankly rather perplexed by the issue, and can't figure out how to deal with it short of type reinstalling the whole damn game. The problem isn't a pressing one - the saved games still work like a charm after all, and I've several of them - but it is rather annoying.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Yeah usually in descr_strat you can get away with one-off edits without receiving crash to desktop (CTD) or kick to menu (KTM) because you are editing the end result before you start a new imperial campaign.

Which buildings did you edit? If you changed the various core buildings of a settlement, you need to change the level (which consist of village, town, large_town, (minor_)city (I always forget this one ), large_city, huge_city) so that it matches the core building type. The core buildings are as follows:

none --- used in village
governors_house --- used in town
governors_villa --- used in large_town
governors_palace --- used in (minor_)city
proconsuls_palace --- used in large_city
imperial_palace --- used in huge_city

You can safely remove most building types without receiving a CTD / KTM, I've got several 'empty' villages at the start of a new imperial campaign owned by the various rebel tribes across the map.

Also try this:

* On the desktop, right-click the RTW shortcut (if you don't have one, make one )
* Click Properties
* Select the Shortcut tab
* In the Target textbox, add the following (leave a space between the existing target location and what you are about to enter):

-show_err

Now when you encounter problems whilst modding, you may receive an error message advising you of which text file(s) the game doesn't like, but this is not always the case.

[DimeBagHo]

Watchman: Your map.rwm file is probably borked from your first attempt. Delete it and the game will generate a new one.

[Watchman]

Watchman: Your map.rwm file is probably borked from your first attempt. Delete it and the game will generate a new one.

Tried that. No use. I also tried moving the saved games away from their usual place (so the game doesn't know they exist), just in the case they were causing some sort of compatibility issue. Didn't work either.

I'll try Alcoholic's trick to see if it clarifies the issue.

[Watchman]

* In the Target textbox, add the following (leave a space between the existing target location and what you are about to enter):

-show_err

Just to check, do I make it "\*\*\*\RomeTotalwar.exe" -show_err or "\RomeTotalwar.exe -show_err" ? Inside or outside the quotes ?

[Atilius]

Watchman - you want "\*\*\*\RomeTotalwar.exe" -show_err

Your quote marks begin just before the drive letter and end after RomeTW.exe. The only reason you need the quotes is to protect spaces in the directory names.

[Duke John]

Outside the quotes. -ne (R:TW is run in a window) and -nm (no movies) are also useful for modding..

[Watchman]

I actually found it out in practice soon after asking, but thanks anyway. That -show_err one is proving quite useful, I must say. I've yet to get everything working correctly, but it's saving a whole lot of time, effort and nerves by clearly telling where the stink is most of the time.

[Watchman]

Right. I officially had my head stuck up my ass the whole time. Turns out the problem was I hadn't figured out the correct syntax for temples used in the descr_strat.txt (ie. "temple_of_XYZ temple_of_XYZ_*level*"). Fair enough.

Except I could have looked up the bloody BI descr_strat for the info.

Gah.

Well, the damn thing works now. Thanks to everyone for helping out, it was quite useful.