Questions

[Sigma]

I'm wanting to improve and modify NTW, and anyways...

Does anyone know how to add, rename, or delete factions? and how to assign units, and assign a newly added faction buildings and units it can build?

and how to add titles, new buildings, and finally assign leaders and heirs to a new faction...

one last thing, how do you access .bif files?

[macsen rufus]

Best place to start is here: Adding New Faction Guide This will cover the vast majority of what you will need - I certainly found it a great help.

Best way to delete a faction (assuming you don't want to re-use the slot) is simply to COM out the "SetStartLeader", "PlaceStartLeader", "RegionOwner" and "AddHeirs" entries. (The COM code is the // which you will see all around the startpos file.) This way you don't need to rewrite your faction_specific file. If you DO want to reuse the slot all you need to do is rename all the relevant entries in faction_specific and make any culture, religion, etc changes in the startpos. (Once you start modding you will gain a new respect for Notepad and the "Find/Replace" function ) If you're making big changes, a good spreadsheet is also handy, either Excel or OpenOffice Calc (which I use - handy tip - "Data/Load sheet from file" allows you to import a .txt file, and it gives you a "tab separated" option which means MTW files can be loaded in with all columns nicely intact).

For BIF images you will need to download a copy of BIFReader from the "Downloads" page. This allows you to convert BIFs into BMPs which you can edit in most graphic packages, and reload them to resave as BIFs once more.

Allocation of buildings and units to factions is done in the unit_prod and build_prod files, where you will find a column labelled "Faction association". Best to grab a copy of Gnome Editor for that, also via the Downloads section.

Other necessary tools: a few matchsticks to keep your eyes open during debugging sessions that last til 4am, a nice comfy chair, and a big bottle of whiskey

That should get you going, good luck with the project!

[Sigma]

Thanks, I got everything (minus new factions) worked out now :)

but now I've ran into another problem, I copied and pasted another list of provence starting units into my own campaign start pos file. Edited the start units to suit the period then started the campaign only to see that every faction only has 1 general unit which is the king. I tried re-editing the list back to the original but the same thing happens. Its like it dosen't recognize the start unit list anymore for some reason...

[macsen rufus]

Hmmm... sounds like something was corrupted in the startpos. I would suggest first off you revert to the back-up copy you saved before making any start-unit changes (you did, didn't you? ) and try changing them one by one.

Also, what were the complete symptoms? Namely:

1) Did you check EVERY faction?
2) Did you try going beyond the faction selection page (ie hit "Start campaign")?
3) If 2 is a yes, then what happened next? CTD or successful start-up without any units?
4) Did you make any other changes - eg to unit names in the names.txt file, or to the unit_prod?

If you do get any crashes, make a note of the error message. Useful tip: if the error message is not visible (ie window at the back) and the game freezes, then alt-tab out of the game and back into it, this will bring the message window to the top.