Mapping in MTW?

[Roman_Man#3]

Hello,

So, I'm looking at creating a new map for MTW, but I can't find the link for a proper tool to do it. Seems nothings going well, so can somebody please link to a complete tutorial and the tools to do it?

Thanks,
RM3

[macsen rufus]

I assume you mean a campaign map, as all you need for battlemaps is included in the game's own map editor.

Here's the best place to start: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=13155

The tools you will need include:

BIFReader
Mithel ImageConverter
LMM
A good graphics package (eg Photoshop - you need to be able to operate in both indexed and RGB modes, handle colour palettes, draw things pixel-by-pixel in some cases, define colours precisely etc etc)

... and an endless supply of patience

Map making will tie into virtually every part of the game, so new maps need their own startpos files, probably their own unit_prod file, new region and faction_specific files and heroes.txt file, new names.txt file, minimap and mini_lukup and front-end lukup maps too. A LOT of different htings need to be right for a new map to work, and when something is wrong, you have very little indication of the error - only a CTD. Debugging is a nightmare, due to the complexity and lack of information.

Seriously, put aside about two months where you expect to do nothing else with your spare time. Once you get over that hump, and get used to the tools and have everything set up and running, you should be able to spit out new campaign maps.

Good luck, and if you have any specific problems, just holler

[Roman_Man#3]

Thanks for the reply. I have seen that thread, and new of a couple of the necessary tools, but I cannot seem to find any links for them. I've been thinking as well. Because the Europe map covers the areas I need, do I sitll need the tools to edit which provinces are which and where their boundaries and such are?

Thanks,
RM3

[macsen rufus]

It becomes a lot less complex if you are just making changes to the existing map. All that actually changes on the "map" part is the boundaries. These can be redrawn quite easily. If you want to change names, change terrain type etc, that is all done in the txt files. So if you wanted Wales to be called Cymru (which would be perfectly reasonable) then you'd simply edit the "region_specific.txt" and startpos files.

In each startpos file find the SetRegionAttribute:: line for ID_WALES, change the name where it says "Wales", to "Cymru" and "Wales_castle_xzy" to "Cymru_castle_xzy", then make matching changes in your region_specific.txt file. Everywhere you find Wales, replace it with Cymru and your province will now have its new name. If you want to change the terrain, simply edit the SetBorderInfo:: lines in the startpos files.

If you want to change the BORDERS of Wales, so they get the Marches back, for instance, but keep everything else the same, then that is a simple graphics job.

The really functional bit is the LUKUP.LBM map in the textures/campmap folder. (The original MTW has four copies, two large, two small - you only need TWO copies - one large, one small - compare with the textures/campmap/Viking folder)

First off you need to convert this to another format to work on. Either UltimatePaint or Mithel ImageConverter are needed here (there are others but I'll stick with the easier ones). UP can convert it to BMP format (IIRC), which is best, Mithel outputs in either JPG, PNG or LBM. It's best to get the LUKUP into BMP 256 colour format, with the correct palette. Open this in Photoshop or whatever, and then simply redraw the area of Wales using the correct colour - each province has two colours - a body colour and an outline colour. When you're happy with the re-absorbed Herefordshire, say, then save to 256 BMP, then double the size and save again as LUKUP2. Convert these two back into LBM format using Mithel (this is simply the best tool for this job), copy back into your textures folder and give it a go...

If you really want to go to town you can also grab BIFReader and change the borders on the minilukup and fe_minilukup maps, but something so small is probably not worth the bother ...

[caravel]

Personally I use only Ultimate Paint, Mithel Image Converter and Paint Shop Pro XI for map editing.

The first thing to do is open the lukupmap2 in Mithel and export the pallette. Then open it in UP and copy and paste the whole image as a new image into PSP, work on the image using PSP then paste it back into the same UP image and save it - that is click "save" and not save as or anything else. The image is never saved in PSP, as PSP will mess it up permanently. I use PSP to do the editing as it is much more user friendly and faster to use which is important considering the laborious manual editing involved. The next part is to open the saved image in Mithel, import the pallette and save it again. This gives you a working Lukupmap with the correct pallette. It takes a bit of practice, and I have struggled with this for a long time. Mithel is the key to the problem as without it, it's a massive struggle.

[axel]

hi all
i dont understand this, if i wanted to make or practice to make a campain map
wot program do i exact need and where cane i find them ? i have been looking at the link and cant find the tools, isnt there a step to step post how to make campain maps sommewhere?
i got photoshop CS2 and i got Gimp are those good for it?
sry mates i am new in this but i want to try and do somme helping by making maps