GUIDE: Specifics of Modding Alexander - TW

[Dol Guldur]

Specifics of Modding Alexander - Total War

I could not find a thread or forum dedicated to the specifics of Alexander - Total War so I thought I'd start one here. I will - in time (hopefully) - list all the unique features of Alexander and how to mod them. But do feel free to help or take over as my time is very limited these days ;)

Alex:TW has some nice features, especially for perhaps the more heroic/mythical/fantasy mods out there and it would be good to see its moddability placed in such a Guide.

Unique Features List

* Alexander draws off of RTW and not BI (you do not even need BI installed), though you do need to make sure RTW is patched to 1.5 before installing Alexander. So BI features (swimming, shieldwall, schiltrom, loyalty, religion, night battles etc.) are not inherent within it.

* Victory conditions can state a "survivor" which requires that a specific unique character survive in order for that faction to remain in the game; the designated survivor needs to be the faction leader. The condition works when written as follows:

InternalFactionName
alexander Region1 Region2 etc.
take_regions NumberOfRegions
survivor Alexander
script world/maps/campaign/alexander/Alexander_Campaign_Outro_Script.txt

* Mercs can be designated as faction-specific in the campaign merc pool file

* DMB model entries increased from RTW/BI's 250 max (to at least 330)

* AI can be instructed in the DS file not to attack certain factions (unless at war already)

* Immortality trait can ensure that named characters do not die of natural causes

* Generals can be assigned unique strat map and battlemap models as well as custom portraits

* AI factions can be coded to not attack certain other factions (unless first attacked)

Specifics of modfolder setup

* make sure you include the chat_filter.san file in your modfolder's data folder

* TBC

Non-Alexander Features that can be used in Alexander

* Shadowing
* Re-emergence
* Loyalty