Help in making an new map

[komninos]

Hi all,

For some time I have tried to make a new map for RTW but I can't manage to make it. Though I have modified many existing maps I have never managed to get a new map working in the game. This is the latest attempt to make a new map. It uses the terrain parameters of BareBones big map. I have set all the files and made a minimum start file with 3 regions (two for the faction and one for the slaves) but as all others files to load.

Can any one help me with what is wrong with this thing? Click here to get the self extracting file

Thanks

[Makanyane]

Can you explain exactly when it crashes i.e from which screen and does it return to menu or go straight to desktop.

Also would it be possible to post as a normal .zip or .rar file? (I'm not keen on loading self extracting .exe!)

[komninos]

Hi Makanyane,

I though it would be better since not all of us prefer the .RAR format I to don't trust exe files but I would like to believe fellow modders will not play tricks, I am a bit old school on ethics. It is a self extracting rar of the map directory "test3" with all the txt and the TGA files in it.

The CDT happens after you select your faction and it tries to generate the map. Unfortunately RTW is not very verbose at this point on error messages.

Apparently it has to do with the ratio thing ... but I cant avoid it, the map is based on the East Mediterranean Basin that means a lot of sea in it. But please have a look an drop me a line on what to do with it.

Thanks

[Silver Rusher]

I think you may have to include quite a bit of the Middle East and North Africa for this map to work, unless you want to shrink it down. The landmass ratio is probably the most pointless of all the hardcoded restrictions in RTW, and that's saying something, and to this day I have not been able to understand why CA put it in. Perhaps it has something to do with CPU being taken up by the 3d graphics of the sea?

[Makanyane]

Hi, Komninos, wasn't mistrusting you really just didn't wondered where it was going to want to extract to but browse function makes it OK.
Silver Rusher is right that you will definitely have problem with that large a sea area on that size map, see:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=66332
for some research and experimentation with that.

the mod Silver Rusher mentions in that thread is the closest one I've seen to what you were aiming at (the Crusades) but they say that they had to reduce map heights down to 521 x 591 and its also got more land.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...t=61093&page=3

If you want to test out that other files are working take the ports off map_regions rename / backup your map_heights and make a replacement version that is right size and flood fill with RGB 1,1,1 'black' so all is land - so temporarily eliminating land-mass ratio problem. That will let you test out that your text files are working.

P.s. I'm not sure if for that size map you might also meet a problem on the maximum size of a region (thought I had a flaw with that once but never really tested) - I've normally use a few more provinces since just in case.

[komninos]

Hi thanks for the info,

I made a large number of regions to avoid any region problems and deleted initially the deep part of the Mediterranean.

This worked but then when I inserted at the lower side a patch of land (sahara) it failed to load ... so I returned to the use of a land piece for the central part of the Mediterranean sea this part is now surrounded my unpassable mountain so it will not be used ... as it was in bronze age ships moved on costal waters.

Now my problem is that the game does not recognize the first region in descr_regions.txt ... what might be causing it??

The message is "Couldn't find region name 'Mycenae_reg' in string table. All the files (descr_regions.txt, descr_regions_and_settlement_name_lookup.txt, test3_regions_and_settlement_names.txt, descr_strat.txt) have the definition.