Hello everyone,
I developed a script that allows a fairly close representation of the city view feature for M2TW, and the feature will definitely go into our mod (Mediaeval Auctoriso). I am posting this thread here, because I thought maybe players who enjoy vanilla would be interested in such a mod, but since it's a lot of work I don't want to create it without having a good chance of a larger number of downloads.
Here's a description of the feature (taken from our preview thread):
I'm sure you all remember the view city feature from Rome: Total War and a lot of you will have enjoyed seeing how your small capital grows to be a prospering metropolis over the course of your game just as much as I did and were sad to see it gone in M2TW.
Well, don't fret anymore. I found a way to script something that allows you to check out your cities again, and with the new graphics it's much more impressive than in RTW. I couldn't reproduce the peasants running around, but that's a small price to pay and you'll get to see your army there instead.
From a player perspective, the feature will look like this:
As you can see, I made a fully built-up English city to show off my wealth. It even has a huge cathedral which really dominates the skyline as they say in the description
The first step is to open the construction scroll for the settlement you want to view
On that scroll, you have to click on "Locate position of settlement" which will open an advisor asking you whether you want to view the city on the battle map or not.
If you click on "Show me how", you will immediately be taken to the battle screen. You'll have to start the battle as normal (start deployment, then start battle)
But afterwards you will be able to roam your city freely:
Of course you'll have to pay an obligatory visit to the Pleasure Palace:
To remiss your sins afterwards, you should also have a little prayer in the Cathedral:
When you're all done, you simply press Esc and the battle will end after a short while (you'll win it, but don't worry, our trait triggers won't react on that):
Nothing changed on the campaign map, either:
Okay, now on to the explanation:
As most of you probably figured out by now, the script works by spawning an army on the campaign map and giving it the order to attack the settlement. Once in battle, the AI for the catapult will be disabled so it won't attack your precious city walls:
When you hit Esc, the catapult will be killed and the battle ends. Then you go back to the campaign screen.
The only problem is that the stats will show you won a battle more than you actually did, but if that overly annoys you, simply refrain from using the city view feature.
Please let me also hear more personalised opinions, if you have any to give
Edit: Ok, I already set to work on this mod. However, I need help testing it to get any possible bugs (such as certain cities not working). If you'd like to give me a hand with this, please send me a PM
*supports it - I'd use it occasionally for cities that never get combat but get heaps of upgrades
From wise men, O Lord, protect us -anon
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions, a statistic -Stalin
We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area -UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer
A definite download! The city view is a really nice little feature of RTW, and it´s sad it got lost with M2TW, which has so much more splendid cities - and castles! I´d rather call it the "castle view" to your skills, Alpaca!
A definite download! The city view is a really nice little feature of RTW, and it´s sad it got lost with M2TW, which has so much more splendid cities - and castles! I´d rather call it the "castle view" to your skills, Alpaca!
Well settlement view would probably be more appropriate
I wanted a city for the cathedral as it simply looks astonishing. Still a bit too small though.
All for it here. This is what converted a couple of friends to RTW, seeing the detail in the cities in City View. It would be great to have the possibility again.
"Die Wahrheit ruht in Gott / Uns bleibt das Forschen." Johann von Müller
There is a sense in which being able to see my empire up close gives a real sense of ownership. Massillia in RTW has a wonderful view over a river valley. There is also enough of a difference in the surrounding landscape to justify being able to study the view.
Well I wasn't too sure about it, but the cathedral screenshot bought me in. I realized that I've never seen one in my campaign sieges, and probably never will as it will probably only get built in well developed core cities, and the chances of enemies getting to assault them are slim at best.
It seems rather wasteful to have graphics soo cool in this game that can only be viewed on very rare occasions.
I voted "yes, do it", but if it's too much work to make it, better invest in something that impacts the gameplay.
Still, if it gets done, it will definitely be on my shopping list.
"That's what we need : someone who'll strike the most brutal blow possible, with perfect aim and with no regard for consequences. Total War."
This would be much appreciated. It was fun in RTW to view a newly captured settlement, especially if there were cultural differences from your faction. I'd like to see what the developed settlements in M2TW look like, without the distraction of managing a siege attack or defense.
Feaw is a weapon.... wise genewuhs use weuuhw! -- Jebe the Tyrant
Something like that, considering how often it would be used, really would play with your win/loss ratio.
It would also depend on whether the battlefield is the same depending on the direction of approach (ie whether each square had 8 possible maps or one)
From wise men, O Lord, protect us -anon
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions, a statistic -Stalin
We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area -UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer
Hmm... Would it be possible to make a script allowing you to see the battlefield an army is standing on?
No because to instigate combat you'd have to know the name of the target which you don't.
On topic: It looks like I'll be doing this. I'm searching for beta testers now who give it a whirl before I make a public release, any volunteers please send me a PM.
Slightly off topic, but with HoreTore's suggestion, would it be possible to have a custom character (moved around with the move_character cheat) with a known name instigate the battles?
On topic: sounds good
From wise men, O Lord, protect us -anon
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions, a statistic -Stalin
We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area -UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer
Slightly off topic, but with HoreTore's suggestion, would it be possible to have a custom character (moved around with the move_character cheat) with a known name instigate the battles?
On topic: sounds good
No, you need to know the names of both the attacking and the defending character. What I meant is that since you spawn him you know the name of the attacker, but you don't know the name of the target/defender
Well, what I was thinking was to have the player relocate a known character (the defender) to the battlefield that he wished to view and use that info, plus a known attacker, to generate the battle, but anyway,
From wise men, O Lord, protect us -anon
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions, a statistic -Stalin
We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area -UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer
I had imagined RTW would do Army view by loading the battlefield & either having the army march in from one side of the field & back out on the other if the army had been moving recently or milling around & parading by a camp if they had been static for that turn.
We were even supposed to get gladiator games & chariot races in RTW.
maybe those guys should be doing something more useful...
Modding the city view feature in
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to your skills, Alpaca!
Originally Posted by Ciaran
Re: Modding the city view feature in
. What I meant is that will it precede MA in terms of release?
Holy Mercenary Cavalry, Batman! I have been playing Rome Total War for months and never knew there was a city view feature.
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