Question about modding castles

[Achilleslastand]

Ive searched and could not find anything on modding Forts-Keeps-Castles-Citadels-Fortress on the battle map. Has this ever been attempted? It would be a glorious addition to the already great Xl mod......or if someone could point me in the right direction to attempt to do myself,any tips advice,etc....thanks

[macsen rufus]

You can make new castle maps with the game's in-built battle map editor. There are a few things to be aware of - you will need a map for each level of castle in a series, for a start, so doing new ones for XL will probably involve 15 maps per castle.

There are rules on how castle walls work - they must be enclosed, for instance, you need to be careful with alignment to make sure everything meets at the edges - always use "snap to grid" in the editor, you will need to switch between snap to corner, snap to edge, and snap to centre to get walls of different alignments to meet.

It's best to start with an "empty" terrain map, do the landscape first, then set out a flat area for where your castle will stand, then build it up by degrees, saving each level as you add extra curtain walls, towers, upgrade from pallisade to stone etc. The file naming can be tricky, so bear in mind the following:

* file name must be along the lines of castlehilly01_x_x and there are two parts - a jjm file which is the "image", and an inf file which is a txt file that sets various parameters. These are both outputted by the editor, you just need to remember to copy them both into your battle/maps directory. New maps are found in the savemap directory when you create them (you can play CUSTOM BATTLEs on maps in the savemap directory - great for testing).
* the x_x part of the filename tells the game which level of castle it is, and what upgrades it has. In MTW (VI IS DIFFERENT!) a level 1 castle is a fort - hence 1_0 is your first level, 1_1 would be fort + motte, 1_2 is fort + motte + bailey. Look at existing castlemaps in your battle/maps directory and make sure you match the numbering in there for the new ones to work.
* mapseries need to follow on from where exisiting ones end, so if you have castlehilly04_x_x, then your new map should be called castlehilly05_x_x UNLESS it is a special map that you want to call for a specific province only, in which case you can call it castlehilly06_x_x - this means it will not be called up randomly (because the series is broken by jumping from 04 to 06), and will only appear if you use your province attributes entry in the startpos to call for castlemapgroup 6 (terrain type must match also).
* remember that in castle maps, the attackers always deploy in the south, defenders within the castle area. If there are two or more "layers" to the castle then defenders deploy in the outermost zone.
* a useful trick for de-bugging - I use a code based on different types of field, or different types of hut, in the map, so that I can encode the map-name into the landscape (eg six ploughed fields + two huts means it's a level 6_2 map, for example)

Really the best advice is suck it and see - have a play with the battle map editor (it's great fun, really!), maybe try some field maps first to get the feel of it, then try some castles, and let your imagination run riot

EDIT: Also read this thread - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=29944 some excellent advice from Antalis, who did the maps for Hellenic TW (still, IMHO, some of the best maps ever created for MTW games... )

[Lord_Rixk]

I have been searching info on the same subject without much success, for what i understand, the models for castles are .3xx files, though i am yet to encounter a 3d modelling program that makes 3xx files. other files are also used but seem to be easily edited with a notepad or equivalent, im not sure if you have come across the this thread which describes how to modify the texture of the existing castles
The Guild > Medieval Totalwar > MTW modification > Repository> Modding Buildings, Walls and Gates
it may be of use to you...
if you find a way to bring in new models into the game, do pls post it as the work im currently developing requires a complete new revamp of the castle shapes and other objects such trees and houses

tx

[dimitrios the samian]

Great news Lord_Rixk ... ... This would mean some incredible additions could become a reality ...
What ideas spurred you into looking into this ?

[Lord_Rixk]

for the last couple of months or so, i have been attempting to create a mod which will bring the battles to the americas just after its discovery, and it will have the spanish and portuguese (and possibly the english, french and dutch following at some point) to the new world and into direct conflict with some of the better known native names of the time (though that is all loosely relevant, rather than acurately depicted) as in caribs, arawaks, incas, aztec, chibchas, tupi-guaranies.... and so on, even maybe get the people from the easter island (rapa nui), which i understand to be some form of polynesian culture. The map is finished, but untested, some shields done, currently doing research on the names file (hard, hard work) and the startpost file is half way, although i have ideas for units which may include a form of the famous argentinian gauchos (stone slingers on horse) and some variants of the ones used on MTW, maybe some archers that can be specialized for jungle use, and of course poison darts blowers (though, i doubt i can master the graphics enough to achieve that)... but what i thougth should top the cake was to be able to 1st: show castles for the westeners on the strategic map and aztec style pyramids for all the indian nations (so far i have not had much joy at it, the game only allow the use of one type of castle line in the build_prod) and 2nd: to replace the castles in the battlemap for building resembling those found in inca, maya and aztec city ruins + maybe a few head-stone figures as seen at easter island, nazca drawings on the battle region of nazca, trees more appropiate for jungle scenery and so on... just ideas, which im not sure if could be brought into reality but still lot of fun to work on....

[cegorach]

Adding specific pieces for Aztec or any other American culture isn't too difficult - all you need is to limit these castles to those nations - the castle chain can have shortcuts giving the possibility to move straignt from a village to a city and ignoring any structures between.
This way if you code for example castles 3 to 6 as specific for Aztecs only you can give those their, specific map pieces and you can link certain battle maps to such structures- if the Spanish or anyone else conquers the province he will have to besige Aztec-specific fortress or storm it.
After the sige is successfull the aztec structures will be destroyed since they are not available to the Spanish...

There are many possibilities to explore here.