Mapping Essentials-Thanks to Myrddraal
Here we go:
Step one:- Making your Campaign folder.
There are a couple ways to do this. One is to download Alpaca’s Mod Folder, this is probably the best way to do things if you aren’t familiar with the mod switch.
The other option is to make your own mod folder. If you don’t know how to do this I would advise just using Alpaca’s.
Step two:- know the files
In your new mod folder you should find the following files in your Sega/Medieval 2 Total War/data/world/maps/base:
descr_distaters.txt
descr_regions.txt
descr_sounds_music_types.txt
descr_terrain.txt
map.rwm
map_heights.hgt
map_climates.tga
map_heights.tga
map_FE.tga
map_features.tga
map_fog.tga
map_ground_types.tga
map_roughness.tga
map_trade_routes.tga
water_surface.tga
In your new mod folder you should find the following files in your Sega/Medieval 2 Total War/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial campaign:
campaign_script.txt
descr_events.txt
descr_factions.xml
descr_mercenaries
descr_regions_and_settlement_name_lookup.txt
descr_strat.txt
descr_win_conditions.txt
description.txt
description_milan.txt
description_sicily.txt
description_venice.txt
unlocked.txt
disasters.tga
map_aztecs.tga
map_byzantium.tga
map_denmark.tga
map_egypt.tga
map_england.tga
map_FE.pnd
map_france.tga
map_hre.tga
map_hungary.tga
map_milan.tga
map_mongols.tga
map_moors.tga
map_papal_states.tga
map_poland.tga
map_portugal.tga
map_russia.tga
map_scotland.tga
map_sicily.tga
map_spain.tga
map_turks.tga
map_venice.tga
radar_map1.tga
radar_map2.tga
vc_byzantium.tga
vc_denmark.tga
vc_egypt.tga
vc_england.tga
vc_france.tga
vc_hre.tga
vc_hungary.tga
vc_milan.tga
vc_moors.tga
vc_poland.tga
vc_portugal.tga
vc_russia.tga
vc_scotland.tga
vc_sicily.tga
vc_spain.tga
vc_turks.tga
vc_venice.tga
vcs_byzantium.tga
vcs_denmark.tga
vcs_egypt.tga
vcs_england.tga
vcs_france.tga
vcs_hre.tga
vcs_hungary.tga
vcs_milan.tga
vcs_moors.tga
vcs_poland.tga
vcs_portugal.tga
vcs_russia.tga
vcs_scotland.tga
vcs_sicily.tga
vcs_spain.tga
vcs_turks.tga
vcs_venice.tga
You should now delete:
map.rwm
map_heights.hgt
(you don’t need to backup as they are just copies from the Imperial Campaign)
Text files:
descr_disasters.txt
- contains a list of the possible disasters e.g. earthquakes and floods. We don’t need to edit this.
descr_events.txt
- this contains a list of pre-defined events that happen in game.
descr_mercenaries.txt
- This is where the availability of mercs in certain regions is determined. The pool is the overall area, the regions are the regions in this area, and the units are the units availiabe in the pool. We will need to edit this later.
descr_regions.txt
- This is one of the most important files. When we later edit the file map_regions.txt, we will define the areas of the provinces using certain RGB values. In this text file, there is a list of all the provinces on the map. This list also contains info like the name of the region (no spaces but you can use _), the name of the settlement, the default cultures, the RGB value used to define this region in map_regions.tga, the resources available in that province, the triumph point value and the basic farm level. We will be editing this a lot.
descr_regions_and_settlement_name_lookup.txt
- This should contain a list of all the names of provinces and towns as they are called in descr_regions.txt These aren’t the actual names as they will appear on the map, these are just references for the program.
descr_strat.txt
- This is also one of the most important files. In this file, we choose the factions, set the start/end dates, position 3D models on the campmap (e.g. wonders and resources), allocate settlements to factions, set the buildings and place armies and family members. I go into the format of this a bit later.
descr_terrain.txt
- This contains the info about the dimensions of the map.
Tga files:
disasters.tga
- Contains the locations on the map for the different disasters. This should be the same size as map_regions.tga, which should have the dimensions stated in terrain.txt
Map_FACTION.tga
- Where FACTION is the faction name. This is the image that appears when you select a faction to show what sections of the world it owns.
map_climates.tga
- This is where you set the different climates for the world. There are 12 different vanilla climates some of which will become snowed during winter. To create custom climates follow this tutorial. Here
The 12 different climates are:
Sub-Arctic - Dark Green RGB(0, 166, 81)
Alpine - Green RGB(57, 181, 74)
Highland - Light Green RGB(141, 198, 63)
Swamp - Yellow RGB(255, 242, 0)
Deep Temperate Forest - Light Orange RGB(247, 148, 29)
Light Temperate Forest - Orange RGB(242, 101, 34)
Infertile Temperate Grassland - Red RGB(237, 28, 36)
Fertile Temperate Grassland - Dark Pink RGB(237, 20, 91)
Mediterranean - Pink RGB(236, 0, 140)
Semi-Arid - Blue RGB(0, 114, 188)
Sandy Desert - Dark Purple RGB(102, 45, 145)
Rocky Desert - Mauve RGB(146, 39, 143)
The dimensions of this file should be twice the size of map_regions.tga + 1 pixel
map_FE.tga
- I’m not sure what this does, it appears to be a map of the world, but it doesn’t look like any of the radar screens.
map_features.tga
- This is where you give the position of rivers volcanoes and cliffs. For rivers you define the source, the river and the crossings using different RGB values. Cliffs are just lines you cannot cross. This should be the same size as map_regions.tga, which should have the dimensions stated in terrain.txt
Here are the RGB values:
River - Blue (0,0,255)
Volcano - Red (255,0,0)
Cliff - Yellow (255,255,0)
River Crossing - Light Blue (0,255,255)
River Source - White (255,255,255)
Rivers cannot go diagonally (i.e. from one pixel to the pixel down and to the right). They must go in steps (i.e. from one pixel, down one pixel, across one pixel). You cannot have a square of river (i.e. 2 by 2 pixels) and a river must have a source. You can have a river that splits, but it cannot re-join itself.
map_ground_types.tga
- This is where you set the textures for your campaign map (i.e. Fertile, desert etc). There are 14 different ground types defined using different RGB values. The dimensions of this file should be twice the size of map_regions.tga + 1 pixel
The RGB values are:
Fertile Low - Grey-Blue (0, 128, 128)
Fertile Medium - Light Green (96, 160, 64)
Fertile High - Olive (101, 124, 0)
Wilderness - Black (0, 0, 0)
Mountains High - Light Brown (196, 128, 128)
Mountains Low - Brown (98, 65, 65)
Hills - Olive-Brown (128, 128, 64)
Forest Dense - Dark Green (0, 64, 0)
Forest Sparse - Green (0, 128, 0)
Swamp - Bright Green (0, 255, 128)
Ocean - Dark Maroon (64, 0, 0)
Sea Deep - Dark Red (128, 0, 0)
Sea Shallow - Red (196, 0, 0)
Beach - White (0, 0, 0)
map_heights.tga
- This is where the 3D aspect of the campmap is determined.
Ground must be shades of gray (Red = Green = Blue i.e. RGB(100 100 100)). The lighter the shade of gray, the higher the point on the campmap.
Sea must be shades of blue (Blue = anything, Green = Red = 0). I think it is possible to use any shade of blue, but the existing campaign maps use RGB(0 0 253) so that’s a safe bet.
map_regions.tga
- Probably the most important file. It should be the size shown in desr_terrain.txt
This is where the regions are defined. Each region has a different RGB value which is then stated in descry_regions.txt as I said earlier. Each province must have a town shown by a single black pixel RGB(0 0 0). This pixel must not touch another province. Ports are shows as a single white pixel RGB(255 255 255). These must be in contact with the sea. Ports are not necessary for the game to run.
Each province must at least a city. This pixel may not touch or corner a different province.
single pixel with R:0 G:0 B:0
Ports are not necessary, even for coast provinces.
single pixel with R:255 G:255 B:255
When making your map, remember these requirements.
Required landmass
The engine requires a certain amount of landmass that is relative to the size of the campaign map. If that amount is not present than the campaign will crash before loading.
Jerome posted:
A few other caveats about regions:
- they should be 'convex' (one landmass, no inaccessible areas)*
- they should have only one settlement and only one port
- all land tiles should be part of a known region
- each non-sea region should contain at least some fertile tiles
- continuous sea surfaces should form one region
- the maximum number of regions supported is 200
- the distance between the centres of any two adjacent regions should not exceed 50 tiles*
*: not doing these things shouldn't cause a crash, but it may cause the AI to mess up.
map_roughness
- When it comes to this file, I am ignorant as to what it does, someone could help me out to finish this guide? I know that it has to be twice the size as map_regions.tga.
map_trade_routes.tga
- I believe this is what determines the green dash marks that show where the trade routes run.
radar_map1.tga
- This is the minimap for the campaign. It should be the same size as map_regions.tga
radar_map2.tga
- This is the map shown during faction selection. It should be twice the size as regions.tga
water_surface.tga
- This is a texture for the surface of the water, you won’t need to edit this.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Step 3:- Editing and adding new provinces (in detail)
This post seems very long, but reading it once is enough. Once you get the hang of it its easy.
This section of the guide can be a bit hard to follow as at some points you will have to do separate things if you are editing provinces or if you are adding a new province. The bits of this guide which are unique to editing provinces are in blue, and the bits which are unique to adding a new province are in red. Anything in black applies to both. Hope you can follow it:
Editing the size/shape of existing provinces / adding the shape of a new province to the map:
If all you want to do is edit the shape/size of a province, this section is enough. To add a new province completely you will have to do this section and the next sections.
There couldn’t be anything easier than editing existing provinces. Adding new provinces is a bit more complicated but the principles are the same. Open up map_regions.tga in a picture editor.
As you can see, the image consists of a different RGB value representing each province. Each province has a black dot in it. This is where the town in that province will appear. There is sometimes a white dot where ports will appear. Sea is represented by light blue RGB(41 140 233)
To edit a province simply use the colour of the province you want to edit and change the size and shape of the province.
Make sure you use the same RGB value as for the rest of the province, make sure you have at least one and no more than one black pixel RGB(0 0 0) where the town will be. Remember that this pixel cannot touch another province (it must be surrounded by pixels of the colour of the province). Be wary about changing the position of the town. If you place it in an invalid place (i.e. up a mountain) you will get an error. Ports are not strictly necessary even for coastal provinces. They must touch the sea.
To add a new region just choose a colour (make sure it’s a colour that hasn’’t been used yet) and draw in your province. Remember, each province need one and no more than one town (single black pixel), and remember the recommendations Jerome posted:
A few other caveats about regions:
- they should be 'convex' (one landmass, no inaccessible areas)*
- they should have only one settlement and only one port
- all land tiles should be part of a known region
- each non-sea region should contain at least some fertile tiles
- continuous sea surfaces should form one region
- the maximum number of regions supported is 200
- the distance between the centres of any two adjacent regions should not exceed 50 tiles*
*: not doing these things shouldn't cause a crash, but it may cause the AI to mess up.
If all you’ve done is edit an existing province, make sure you have deleted map.rwm and run the game. The province should be edited. To add a new region carry on to Editing/Adding the culture and resources and stats of provinces step
Nothing new so far, and that should be fairly easy.
Now for some extra info:
Editing / Adding the culture resources and stats of provinces:
To edit / add resources and cultures open up descr_regions.txt.
Here there should be a list of all the provinces on the map. The format for this list goes something like this:
Province_Name
--------- Town_Name
---------Culture (Faction)
---------Culture (Rebels)
---------Red Green Blue values separated by spaces
---------Resources separated by commas
---------Triumph point value
---------Basic farm level
Now I’ll go through what each one does:
Changing the names of existing provinces as they appear on the campaign map is not done in this file. The names given here are just references for the program and as you can see contain no spaces (Though they may contain underscores). I’ll come back to editing names further on.
The cultures define how loyal the people will be to nations that govern them and how they will rebel.
Culture (Faction) is the faction to which the people of this province will be most loyal too, i.e. england.
Culture (Rebels) determines which rebel faction the people of the province will join if they rebel. A list of all the rebel factions can be found in rebel_factions_descr_enums.txt in the ‘data’ folder.
The RGB value is, as I have already said, the RGB value of that province in map_regions.tga. For editing existing provinces you shouldn’t edit this if you are editing an existing province.
The resources are separated by commas and spaces.. Here is a list of existing resources:
Normal resources:
coal
fish
amber
cotton
furs
gold
marble
ivory
silver
tobacco
chocolate
wool
wine
timber
textiles
sulfur
sugar
slaves
silk
grain
dyes
tin
spices
iron
Hidden resources
Sparta
(I'm not sure about the hidden resources)
If you don’t want the province you are editing to have any resources, simply type ‘none’ here.
I don’t know what the triumph point value is.
The basic farm level is how good at farming this province is. The higher the basic farm level, the more money you will get from building farming buildings.
Here is an example province. Yours should look something like this:
London_Province
---------London
---------England
---------English_Rebels
---------177 170 58
---------none
---------5
---------3
To edit the cultures or resources just change the stats and saveTo add a new province go to the bottom of the list, and add a new province. Remember:
Province_Name
---------Town_Name
---------Culture (Faction)
---------Culture (Rebels)
---------Red Green Blue values separated by spaces
---------Resources separated by commas
---------Triumph point value
---------Basic farm level
Changing/adding the ownership, town level and buildings in a settlement,
This part of the guide contains a lot of ‘I think’ could someone please confirm what I’m saying, it will put my mind at rest.
Open up descr_strat.txt
As I said in the ‘Knowing the Files’ section, in this file it is possible to change the start/end dates, the playable/unplayable/unlockable factions. It is also possible to move around the 3D objects on the map such as the resources and the wonders of the world. It is also possible to change the armies, family members, agents and family tree of a faction. Most of these things will be self evident, but I’m going to skip them to get on to modding provinces.
Some of this will be self evident also, but I want to make this guide as simple to follow as possible so I’m going into detail:
Scroll down or search for:
;>>>> start of factions section
Here you should see a list of all the factions, within each faction area, there is a list of all the settlements, and then a list of all the family members and their armies, then a list of their agents, then a list of their ships and finally the info about their family tree. As I said, I’m going to concentrate on the settlements.
This is the basic format of a settlement (Note, the words in square brackets [] are my explanations:
settlement
{
---------level
---------region
---------year_founded
---------population
---------settlement_tax
---------plan_set
---------faction_creator
---------building
---------{
------------------[This is where the list of the buildings go]
---------}
}
The level is the size of the town, i.e. city or large_town. The possible values are:
village
town
large_town
city
large_city
huge_city
The region is simply the province in which the town is.
I don’t know what year_founded does. All the existing towns have 0 as the value here.
Population is the number of people. If you want your towns to be villiages, then they can have a huge population.
I think that with the settlement_tax, the higher the number, the more money you get from taxation (I think, but it seems that every existing town has a value of 51)
The plan_set is the layout of the town in battle.
The faction_creator determines the appearance of the town, i.e. the barbarian towns look different to the roman ones.
The list of buildings takes this format:
---------building
---------{
------------------Type [Type of building] [Name of building e.g. muster_field]
---------[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]}
The type of building is its category as in export_descr_buildings.txt in the ‘data’ folder. This includes:
Core_buildings
wooden_pallisade
wooden_wall
stone_wall
large_stone_wall
huge_stone_wall
motte_and_bailey
wooden_castle
castle
fortress
citadel
tower
castle_tower
equestrian
barracks
castle_barracks
professional_military
missiles
siege
castle_siege
cannon
castle_cannon
urban_equestrian
smith
castle_smith
port
castle_port
sea_trade
admiralty
market
hinterland_roads
hinterland_castle_roads
hinterland_farms
hinterland_mines
hinterland_castle_mines
health
academic
hospital
temple_catholic
temple_catholic_castle
temple_orthodox
temple_orthodox_castle
temple_muslim
temple_muslim_castle
taverns
city_hall
art
bullring
bank
paper
icon_art
music
tourney
castle_academic
caravan
temple_pagan
Guilds:
guild_assassins_guild
guild_assassins_muslim_guild
guild_masons_guild
guild_theologians_guild
guild_merchants_guild
guild_alchemists_guild
guild_thiefs_guild
guild_explorers_guild
guild_swordsmiths_guild
guild_templars_chapter_house
guild_st_johns_chapter_house
guild_teutonic_knights_chapter_house
guild_knights_of_santiago_chapter_house
guild_woodsmens_guild
guild_horse_breeders_guild
The name is its name as in export_descr_buildings.txt
To add another building just repeat this format. For example:
---------building
---------{
------------------Type barracks garrison_quarters
---------}
---------building
---------{
------------------Type core_building wooden_wall
---------}
To edit a province, just scroll down till you find it, or search for the name of the province it is in (e.g. North_America not Miccosukee), and change the stats. Save the file, make sure you’ve deleted map.rwm and run the game. To add a new province, find the faction you want to add it to (If you don’t want to give it to a faction add it to slaves) and scroll to the bottom of the list. Add your faction using the formatting I gave above:
settlement
{
---------level
---------region
---------year_founded
---------population
---------settlement_tax
---------plan_set
---------faction_creator
---------building
---------{
------------------[This is where the list of the buildings go]
---------}
}
Now there’s only one more thing to do before you’re province is playable.
Changing/adding the name of a province as it appears on the campmap
Open up my_campaign_regions_and_setlement_names.txt in the data\world/maps/imperial_campaign folder.
Here you should see a list of all the references used by the comp surrounded by curly brackets {} and then what appears on the campmap, no spaces.
e.g.
{Miccosukee}Miccosukee
To edit the name as it appear on the campmap simply edit the right hand column. To add your province at the bottom of the list add this (with your own names):
{my_province}My Province
{my_town}My Town
Save and quit.
You’re new province should now be working. Make sure you’ve deleted map.rwm and run the game.
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Section four: Resizing the campaign map (in detail)
Resizing your campaign map is a fairly easy procces. First, open up map_regions.tga. Resize the canvas to the dimensions you want.
I recommend that you resize from the top right hand corner, as all measurements in descr_strat.txt are measured from the bottom left hand corner. If you want to resize in another direction, you will have to change all the co-ordinates in descr_strat.
I recommend you fill this new area with sea colour. You can always edit it later.
Now take a note of the new dimensions (in pixels) of map_regions.tga.
Open up desc_terrain.txt. Here you should see the x and y dimensions of the map. These are the dimensions of the map_regions.tga. Edit these so that they match the size of your map. Save and Quit.
Now you have to edit these files:
disasters.tga
map_climates.tga
map_features.tga
map_ground_types.tga
map_heights.tga
map_regions.tga
map_roughness.tga
map_trade_routes.tga
You have to resize them to the right proportions. Remember to resize from the top right hand corner (i.e. add canvas to the top and right hand sides).
Remember the dimensions of the files:
disasters.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
map_climates.tga - Twice the size of map_regions.tga + one pixel
map_features.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
map_ground_types.tga - Twice the size of map_regions.tga + one pixel
map_heights.tga - Twice the size as map_regions.tga + one pixel
map_roughness - Twice the size as map_regions.tga.
map_trade_routes.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
radar_map1.tga - The same size as map_regions.tga
radar_map2.tga - Twice the size of regions.tga
As in map_regions, you should make this new area sea colour. This is not the same for every file, and some files do not require a specific colour for the sea. It should be easy enough for you to do.
Delete map.rmw, and run the game.
NB: A new map.rmw will be generated every time you run the campaign, you must delete it EVERY time. If a new one isn't generated, then it is pwrobably an error in the tga's.
I have merely changed some things for this to be better for M2TW and this is still a work in progress. Without Myrddraal this is not possible so everyone give him props for his work at the .ORG! Here
Vorge
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Originally Posted by dm04
im still cannot adding new region
and.... I got trouble in descr_sattlement and settlemnt_name_lookup and imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names
.
