Formations & Army Colours

[professorspatula]

I suppose a simple, but slightly time consuming endeavour that will solve your colour related issue is this:

Make a backup of your descr_model_battle.txt file located in your RTW data folder: (eg, c:\games\rome total war\data)

Now open that file with a text editor such as Notepad. Now simply find every line that mentions romans_brutii (use the find tool) and change the texture files referenced so instead of being Brutii ones, you use the Julii ones.

Example:

Mirmillo Gladiator Entry before editing (senate, Scipii and rebel entries removed for this example).

type				roman_mirmillo_gladiator
skeleton			fs_spearman
indiv_range			40
texture				romans_julii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_julii.tga
texture				romans_brutii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_brutii.tga
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_400.cas, 8
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_300.cas, 15
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_200.cas, 30
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_100.cas, 40
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_70.cas, max
model_sprite		romans_brutii, 60.0, data/sprites/romans_brutii_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_sprite.spr
model_sprite		romans_julii, 60.0, data/sprites/romans_julii_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_sprite.spr
model_tri			400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

Now change the _brutii parts so they say _julii (I've put them in bold type)

type				roman_mirmillo_gladiator
skeleton			fs_spearman
indiv_range			40
texture				romans_julii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_julii.tga
texture				romans_brutii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_julii.tga
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_400.cas, 8
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_300.cas, 15
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_200.cas, 30
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_100.cas, 40
model_flexi_m			data/models_unit/unit_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_70.cas, max
model_sprite		romans_brutii, 60.0, data/sprites/romans_julii_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_sprite.spr
model_sprite		romans_julii, 60.0, data/sprites/romans_julii_roman_mirmillo_gladiator_sprite.spr
model_tri			400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

You'll have to do it for every single Roman unit. It'll take a while, but afterwards all your soldiers will be dressed in red. Obviously if you fight the Julii, it'll be harder to see who is who.


The other thing you ask is quite simple to change. You need to edit the descr_formations.txt file. Back it up first. It's in the same location as the other file you've edited. I think the part you need to change is the: inter_unit_spacing 2.0 bits. If you change these to say 1.0, the gap should be much smaller. You might want to play around with the numbers. It's about 2 years since I last edited that file so I'm not 100% sure that's exactly what is required.

[Edit] Actually you may just require editing the last part of that file, under where it says: ; Formation used when multiply selected units get moved
Editing the 4 inter_unit_spacing files from 1.0 to 0.5 should reduce the spacing between units a fair bit. Editing the other inter_unit_spacing entries I mentioned earlier really only applies when you use one of the preset unit group formations. Still you can edit them anyway. Won't hurt to try different combinations out, and you have a backup if you make a mess of everything. [/End of Edit]