Campaign map editor discovered? CA: just yes or no will suffice

[Duke John]

Looking through the files I noticed this:



And it looks suspiciously much like the buttons for a campaign map editor. It's got elevation/texture/settlement/river/traderoute tools. You seem to be able to determine which areas are affected by snow in the winter, you can make a starting family tree and on top of this there seems to be a inbuild comedy show!

So what's the deal, hiding all this pretty stuff? I will even turn into a fanboy if you unlock these tools

I'm so excited it's getting silly

[JeromeGrasdyke]

Ho hum. No comment. (Damn, I knew we should've wiped those texture pages...)

[Duke John]

Ho hum.

That sounded like a yes to me! Don't think you can hide anything from modders:

(data/world/template.txt)
character JEROME, diplomat, level 0, exp 1, dig 30, drd 40, age 28, x 288, y 224
attributes military 1, administrative 2, diplomatic 5, subterfuge 1
skills rhetoric 2, bluster 1, bribery 5, flattery 6, leadership 3, financier 2


This clearly shows that if we bribe you with a flattering award that you are not able to make a subterfuge for the question.



10 Stars, Jerome! 10! I bet none of your co-workers has 10 stars!

So care to answer that question again?

[Degtyarev14.5]

You have too much spare time Dukie.

A.

[Myrddraal]

Cmon, tell us... Why should it be a big secret

[Meneldil]

I simply don't understand this policy. We were told that RTW would be much more modable than MTW and STW, and now that it's released, they don't give any clue. Why not giving modders an readme file, or something like that ? Why not simply answering 'yes, there's a campaign editor', or 'no it's just here to annoy you'.

[Hagbard la Suede]

Perhaps the Editor wasnt fully finished,and they planned to add it in a patch.

[Duke John]

Please be patient. Sometimes things are not as easy as they seem. Jerome has said before that they are thinking about releasing tools but no decision has been made on this. If they decide to release it, it will indeed released together with a patch since it most likely means a modiefied RomeTW.EXE.

Unless my little trick did work

[thebigcheese]

if they release the campaign tool and studio max plugin the possibilities for the game mod wise would be endless.

I think we may be looking at the best game ever made modding wise

[Stormy]

Whooo hooo a map editor. I Can't wait to add new provinces like Corsica, Malat ( malta ) Aghbania ( Caucasian Albania in modern day Azerbaijan ) and Iberia ( Caucasian Iberia west of Aghbania ) The ideas are endless

[VikingHorde]

Whooo hooo a map editor. I Can't wait to add new provinces like Corsica, Malat ( malta ) Aghbania ( Caucasian Albania in modern day Azerbaijan ) and Iberia ( Caucasian Iberia west of Aghbania ) The ideas are endless

Lets hope there are no province limit or at least it's very high. The 108 province limit in MTW was'nt cool.

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

Ho hum. No comment. (Damn, I knew we should've wiped those texture pages...)

LOL

It seems we're in for some great releases...

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

if they release the campaign tool and studio max plugin the possibilities for the game mod wise would be endless.

That would be gold on gold. But you're pushing it...

[Inuyasha12]

OR.. this could all be a great joke by C.A. on modders.

JOKE'SON YOU!!

[Thoros of Myr]

WoW, I really hope this is included in a future patch/modding guide release.

Cut Jerome some slack guys and be patient. He is looking out for us....

[Encaitar]

Well the editor does exist. The comment at the top of the file Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\descr_s trat.txt reads:
; Custom campaign script generated by Romans Campaign Map Editor

So it's just a matter of whether CA can make the tool available to us (I suspect it may be similar to the battlemap editor and sprite-generator tools - included in the exe but hidden from our view).

Certainly if they can it will be fantastic

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

I tried adding a province the other day but I think it has more to do with that RVM (sp?) file then we realise - I think LOTS of stuff is in there. But all the seas seem to be the same colour, and if each province IS one colour like it looks to be, it might be possible to have 253 provinces in all , if you take away the seas, castle and port colours (256 possible RGB combinations). Given that you could have 107 in the last game, the possibilities could well be mind blowing if this is true.

EDIT

Or maybe not. Zooming in, each province seems to criss cross with two colours, and the sea also has two colours. That leaves 252, which should mean that you can add 126. But if that is the case, why do you only have to state one RGB value? As Jerome said, the RWM holds everything, perhaps rendering all files in the Data/Base folder obselete.

[Lord De Moray]

I think we have reached the waiting game now.....

Lord of Moray

www.thelordz.co.uk

[Soulflame]

Hehe nice find. If there is one thing you can bet your left hand on, is that if anything is left unattached, the online community, (which is so large that even if there is only the slightest chance that it could be found,) will find it.

Anyway, you must understand the reluctance of CA in this matter: if they give us total moddability, what could they put in new games to excite us?
There is a fine line between giving your customer just enough to keep him in the clouds, and giving him too much so they don't need you anymore.

And they need time to test everything, so that not everytime we accidentally put a mountain in the see, the game goes bonza.

I suspect at least a few months before they release tools... seeing as we already have a lot of people making crazy new things, I'm betting we have our hands full until that time anyway.

[Stormy]

"it might be possible to have 253 provinces in all" WhoaaaAa!!
Now that sounds good also note like certain provinces don't allow you to go on. For Example: What is suppose to be Malat ( malta ) and Corsica in game you cannot walk your troops on becouse the Grey Hills/Mountians you see. If you can make them so the troops can walk on by some way adding some greens to it instead of grey I think you will be able to put units on them and even cities.

[dessa14]

There is a fine line between giving your customer just enough to keep him in the clouds, and giving him too much so they don't need you anymore.

we will always need them, because we lack the skills to program a game engine.
thanks,
dessa

[hoggy]

Anyway, you must understand the reluctance of CA in this matter: if they give us total moddability, what could they put in new games to excite us?
There is a fine line between giving your customer just enough to keep him in the clouds, and giving him too much so they don't need you anymore.

I don't know, any mod we come out with, even with all the tools of the devs will probably a) take so long it won't threaten any new releases b) won't be any where near as polished and well produced as a CA expansion due to lack of access to hardcoded areas/lack of time/lack of skilled people in numbers and c) just encourages us to buy the next expansion so we can update our mod.

CA you have nothing to worry about, let us have it all

[Thoros of Myr]

we will always need them, because we lack the skills to program a game engine.
thanks,
dessa

Agree! Plus we cannot change existing hardcoded aspects nor introduce new ones.

Realisticly, if next to nothing can be done with 3D models and the campaign map I don't think many of the talented people are going to stick around.

[Silver Rusher]

Aww, man. This is annoying. I could've used the original map, but I need scandinavia and scotland, as well as many more regions in Italy for my Citadel mod.

Please, CA. STOP HIDING IT FROM US!

[Duke John]

Calm down. Jerome already told us that they will talk about it. Releasing such a tool may have more consequences then we think. Seeing how helpful Jerome is with answering our many questions, I have no doubts that he will tell as soon as he is able to.

[Encaitar]

Yeah, you've got to remember that making such a tool would have taken quite some time and effort (and therefore money) from them. Although releasing it for use for modding isn't a bad thing, it's possible that it could be used to some degree also by competitors (or at least some of the code taken and adapted). That's a pretty significant concern for a business. You have to look to protect your competative advantage.

But of course, I very dearly hope they do release it

[Kekvit Irae]

Have patience, people. Remember when MTW came out? It was virtually unmoddable. Now look at it! It's.... virtually unmoddable.

[Midnight]

It would be very handy to have a campaign editor - I have a few ideas of a mod I'd like to do, but I can't do it without heavy modding (new models, animations, strategic map, a whole host of other things...).

I certainly hope CA release something soon (I'm sure modders will manage the rest, in time).

[Kraellin]

there are many references to an editor in the game files. heck, there's even a folder called 'editor'. and from just a cursory look at many different files, some bright modder could actually make an editor without too much trouble, at least a campaign map editor.

as for jerome's remarks, sounds like a parent who's been asked by his kids, 'what am i getting for christmas?' :)

K.

[Scipio]

It kinda seems to me like we are more like lab rats. Kinda fun really, they are giving us hints all through ther codes, some more subtle than others..