Anyone have any idea how to "flatten" the battle maps!?

[Dearmad]

What TGA map file can I manipulate to make the height scale much less in battle maps. anyone know? Or does modding the strat map have no effect on the battle maps. Where are the battlemaps then?

Help.

[Caliban]

If you want to start with a flat battle-map you can grab the grassy plains map and use it as a base. Or simply use the 'Plateu' tool on full strength ( < and > keys adjust tool strength, holding shift jumps in 10s).

The custom battlemaps are found here: data\world\maps\Custom\
you can copy the grassy plains folder, rename the folder and rename the descr inside to a new name. Then load that map up in the battle-editor to edit. To change the climate (texture and vege set) you can edit the co-ordinates of the descr_battle.txt under the 'start of battle section'

battle 101, 151 <-- these values are X,Y co-ords from the campaign map, they determain where the tile is from and the climate from that tile. You can safely change these to move your map to a new climate.

[Dearmad]

Wow thank you for that.

I am confused about one thing: I thought the undrescribed battle maps were generated somehow dynamically in the game taking something from the strategy height map. Are you saying that all maps qare actually created beforehand and just indexed?

I'm just looking to eliminate a lot of the cliffs from the Alps region and other places where battlefields occur that make engaging the two armies impossible (they can't get to one another). I didn't think these regions were always indexed...

[Caliban]

Right, in that case have a look at data\world\maps\base\map_heights.tga
you may need to delete map_heights.hgt before changes will take effect after editing the height map.

[Dearmad]

Thanks again.

I'm pretty familiar with height maps and such (having been an avid 3d raytracer since POV days), and so manipulating the TGA was no big deal.

I replaced the ones in the folder you said... deleted the the file oyu mentioned... and the cliffs and STEEP inclines in places I FLATTENED (made very dark (13,13,13)) are HUGE still- exactly the same... so i REALLY screwed around with the terrain type maps, the roughness maps, everything... they did nothing.

Are they then supposed to be moved from the BASE folder to the imperial_campaign folder or somewhere else?

Sorry to need the handholding here... but I don't get this.

[Caliban]

I'll have to get back to you on the heightmap prob. I'll find out the procedure, or maybe one of the more experienced campaign guys on here could help.

If you just want to flatten the campaign map so its not so hilly, you can edit:
\data\descr_geography_new.txt

search for: height_scale 1.0

and change the 1.0 to a smaller value. This determains the height range of all the terrain. Changing it to 0.5 will effectively halve the total height range of the ingame terrain everywhere. 0.1 will be extremely flat. This will only effect the campaign map, and not historical maps or custom-made maps.
You will also need to delete \data\descr_geography_new.db I havn't tried any of this stuff in the retail build so there may be some issues with duplicate data (such as pack files etc) that cause your changes to not take effect. Normally deleting those pack files or databases make your changes re-build on next game load. I Hope this one works for you :)

[Dearmad]

Oh that is EXACTLY what I wanted to do! But do you mean the campaign map or the battle map?

I'm simply trying to generally flatten the battlemaps a bit- especially the hilly/cliffy ones...

Unfortunately there is a tragedy- with the retail version and the unpacker, descr_geography_new.txt is one of the files you must delete from the exposed files as there is a time-stamp error to it and it crashes the game... so we (the forlorn out in the cold) cannot access that precious variable you mention... So if this indeed changed the battle maps (not campaign) there is no way to access this yet...

Thank you VERY much for helping thus far!

[Caliban]

The scale modifier would change the height scale for the battlemaps. To make the height map changes take effect, apparently you need to delete data\world\maps\base\map.rwm and data\world\maps\base\map_heights.hgt edit the map_heights.tga and re-load the game. It should re-build those files upon load.

[alpaca]

Wow Cal as a modder :P
This is a modding question though.

[Dearmad]

well I HOPE cal doesn't lose the thread now!

[Dearmad]

The scale modifier would change the height scale for the battlemaps. To make the height map changes take effect, apparently you need to delete data\world\maps\base\map.rwm and data\world\maps\base\map_heights.hgt edit the map_heights.tga and re-load the game. It should re-build those files upon load.

Ok, I'll try it.

[a_b_danner]

Let us know if it works. I tried both the modifier, and the change in map_heights.tga/deleteing map.rwm and .hgt Neither worked, but i had done them indepentently of one another.

Edit; still doesn't work. The game CTD's when going to a tactical map. There is a nano second flash of a winter landscape (even in summer), which is 2/3rds the size of the screen, as if it is in windowed mode.

[Dearmad]

same ehre. Crash and things jsut don't load up.

We simply need access to the file he references above that dynamically shapes the ground- but we DON'T with the packer because of some time stamp issue.. so we have to delete it. Grrrr

[MSB]

Wow Cal as a modder :P
This is a modding question though.

Well he is the person who allowed us all to edit textures and models.

It's good the CA have decided to help with modding. We can just hope that one day they release the hardcode We can dream, we can dream

[SigniferOne]

I found this ancient thread, and wanted to bring it up to the top again, as it contains a fascinating tidbit that all mapmakers should know.

I'll have to get back to you on the heightmap prob. I'll find out the procedure, or maybe one of the more experienced campaign guys on here could help.

If you just want to flatten the campaign map so its not so hilly, you can edit:
\data\descr_geography_new.txt

search for: height_scale 1.0

and change the 1.0 to a smaller value. This determains the height range of all the terrain. Changing it to 0.5 will effectively halve the total height range of the ingame terrain everywhere. 0.1 will be extremely flat. This will only effect the campaign map, and not historical maps or custom-made maps.
You will also need to delete \data\descr_geography_new.db I havn't tried any of this stuff in the retail build so there may be some issues with duplicate data (such as pack files etc) that cause your changes to not take effect. Normally deleting those pack files or databases make your changes re-build on next game load. I Hope this one works for you :)