ETW Data

At the heart of any game beats a spreadsheet (the cleverer ones hide this fact well). For complex games, there are several.

Thanks to the excellent Pack File Manager by LtChambers, we can now look at (many of) the data files for Empire: Total War.

When the Steam client caches the game on your system, it tucks the data files into %ProgramFiles%\Steam\SteamApps\common\empire total war\data, as a collection of .pack files. These are archives that contain other files, much like .zip or .cab files.

There are several .pack files: the following sub-sections contain a quick look at some of the interesting things revealed.

anim.pack

6,335 files in animations/, from aaa_warscapeframe to test.

battlepresets.pack

103 files in battleterrain/presets/, from afghan_mountains to wooden_fort.

battleterrain.pack

1347 files in battleterrain/: blend_maps/, cliff_maps/, colour_maps/, detail_maps/, farm_templates/, forest_underlays/, grass/, groundcover_density_maps/, groundcover_distribution_maps/, rock_maps/, surfaces/, tiled_maps/, tiles/, and walls/.

boot.pack

Front End User Interface TGA, .fx, and .dds files for Initial loading: commontextures/, fx, and ui.

groupformations.pack

1 file: groupformations.bin.

local_en.pack

1362 Localization resources, in the "en" (English) locale: advisor/, font/, and text/.

main.pack

663 files. This is the Big Kahuna, the key to most of the non-"eye candy" aspects of the game. As of version 1.11, the Pack File Manager does not decode all the contained files. But many that it can understand are quite useful.

campaign/

TGA, mesh, and .dds files for clouds/, coastline/, and terrain/.

commontextures/

.dds files for battle_building_brdf .. velvet.

db/

Rather than just present them in alphabetical order, we've grouped the files into (hopefully useful) categories:

Geography

The tables in these files describe elements of the strategic map.

• regions_continents
• regions
• region_unit_resources
• campaign_map_settlements
• campaign_map_towns_and_ports

Buildings & their Effects

• building_levels
• building_chains
• building_upgrades_junction
• building_effects_junction
• building_factionwide_effects_junction
• building_research_thread_junction
• building_resources_junction
• building_units_allowed

Factions & Groups

• factions
• groupings
• units_to_groupings

Units

• unit_category
• unit_class
• units
• units_to_special_editions_juncs
• unit_required_technology_junction
• units_to_exclusive_faction_permissions
• unit_abilities
• unit_to_unit_abilities_junction
• unit_experience_thresholds
• unit_stats_land
• unit_stats_naval

Governments

• government_types
• units_to_gov_type_permissions

Economics & Trade

• region_economic_factors
• trade_theatre_commodities

Technology & Research

The "tech tree."

• technology_threads
• technologies
• technology_required_technology_junctions
• technology_effects_junction

Historical Events & News

• events

Traits & Ancillaries

The E:TW VnV system.

• trigger_events
• trait_triggers
• trigger_effects
• trait_level_effects

movies.pack

The .bik files.

patch_en.pack

Patch data, localized for the "en" (English) locale.

seasurfaces.pack

The waves and cute lighting effects: wind_level_{0-4}_{sea,swell}.

sounds_animation_triggers.pack

2,602 .anim_sound_event files in animations/:

animals/

camel/, elephant/, and horse/.

matched_combat/

draw/, finish/, kill/, and parry/.

men/

archer/, artillery/, axe/, camel_rider/, campaign/ agents, captain/, elephant_rider/, flag_bearer/, horse_rider/, musician/, musket/, pike/, sabre/, and sword_shield/.

sounds_other.pack

Windoze WAV files, borrowed from M2:TW -

other/med ii/arrows/med2_arrow_flyby_{01-25}_gme.wav

sounds_sfx.pack

Special effects noises.

subtitles.pack

Localized subtitle text strings, in CSV format, for various .bik files.

testdata.pack

TGA, mesh and .dds files for animations, buildings, campaignflags/terrain/trees, clouds, coastline, diplomat, euroline, fence, gun, legs, loki, musketman, overlays, ranger, splines, terrain, victory, wakes and water, and XML files for the world.

Very important -- start here before modding!

ui.pack

User Interface elements.

ui_movies.pack

Gentlemen shooting themselves in the face, etc.

voices.pack

24,055 .mp3 files, for events from armies_generic_response (for each Government type) to unit_type_selection on the generals_unit, from 7 actors, localized to 17 locales (ar, cz, du, fr, ge, hi, it, pe, pl, po, ru, sp, sw, tu, uk, us, us_trib).

---

--MikeV 7 April 2009