How To: Port a RTW mod to ATW - guidelines(WIP)

[florin80]

I know MasterOfNone has started a thread on the .org about the specifics of modding Alexander, but I think it could be beneficial to have a thread here too and I also think that MoN hasn`t had the time to update his first post there with everything found on the thread. His findings will be used here so thanks to him for taking the initiative! Also thanks to the Alexander EB project for their findings!

Note: I haven`t actually done such a port myself yet so I can`t give guarantees. I will be quoting the experiences of others though and providing the source so if you want more details on something you`ll probably have to ask the person from which the statement originated.
Note #2: This discussion will be primarily about completely porting a rtw mod to atw instead of playing a rtw mod via the atw`s executable.

A few notes about Alexander Total War(quoting MoN):
Alexander draws off of RTW and not BI (you do not even need BI installed), though you do need to make sure RTW is patched to 1.5 before installing Alexander. So BI specific features(like hording, swimming, shieldwall, schiltrom) will not work in ATW.

I. The reasons why using Alexander could be beneficial

1. the hardcoded maximum number of entries has been raised for DMB to 512. Source. So alot more possibilities since in RTW v1.5/BI v1.6 the maximum was 255.

2. the victory conditions can state a "survivor" which requires that a specific unique character survive in order for that faction to remain in the game; the designated survivor needs to be the faction leader. Source. The condition works when written as follows:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

InternalFactionName
alexander Region1 Region2 etc.
take_regions NumberOfRegions
survivor Alexander
script world/maps/campaign/alexander/Alexander_Campaign_Outro_Script.txt

The "survivor condition only works for the human player.(...) if you play Persia, you can kill Alexander the Great and the game continues. But the game ends if you play Macedon and Alexander dies." Source.

3. the mercenary units can be designated as faction specific in the campaign mercenary pool file. Source. This would allow Carthage for example to have its separate set of mercenaries with its own officers and standard bearers without the risk of other factions recruiting them too.

4. the AI can be instructed via the ai_do_not_attack_faction in descr_strat to not attack certain factions(unless first attacked or already at war). Source. It remains to be seen how strict this interdiction is there being suggestions it`s not an absolute rule. Source. EDIT: it seems the command is effective, but only for the first faction listed. Source. Also, the ai_do_not_attack_faction line cannot be used more than once for one faction, otherwise the faction itself or the factions listed may be destroyed immediately after loading the campaign map. Source.

5. the generals can be assigned unique models/textures for both the campaign map and the battle map and also custom portraits. This eliminates the problem of making a custom portrait for Hannibal and some other character randomly being given it by the engine. Source.

6. immortality trait can ensure that named characters do not die of natural causes. Source. The downside is that all generals would be "immortals" and die only in combat. Source#1 & Source#2. The solution is listed bellow in the Specifics of alexander section.

7. maybe of a lesser importance, but ATW uses the same internal faction names as RTW which makes things nicer regarding a port from RTW to ATW than a port from RTW to BI(which has different internal names).The source is a discussion with Aradan so no link.

8. night battles are possible in atw too via the options bi
line in descr strat Source.

9 the AI of ATW is said by some to be better both on the campaign and in battles than the one in RTW with the ai controlled factions making proper use of naval invasions and also retraining their units. Source. The superior AI is not easily proven though and you`ll find people claiming it`s at the same level.

10 the marian reform works in ATW and apparently there`s also a change to the way it is triggered in the sense that it can not be triggered before 220 BC even if an imperial_place is built in a settlement/region that has the italy hidden resource. Source.


II. The downside of using Alexander

1. certain BI specific features do not work in ATW(though they did not work in RTW either): hording, swimming, shieldwall, schiltrom. Source#1 & Source#2.


III. Specifics of alexander that need to be addressed in the case of a port from rtw

1. the cure for the immortality trait. Source#1 & Source#2.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You need to edit 3 files:
In export_descr_character_traits add this before all other traits:

;------------------------------------------
Trait Immortal
    Characters family
    Hidden

    Level Immortal
        Description Immortal_desc
        EffectsDescription Immortal_effects_desc
        Threshold 1

In export_descr_VnVs_enums add this at the end of the file:

Immortal
Immortal_desc
Immortal_effects_desc

In export_VnVs add this part at the end:

¬--------------------
{Immortal} Immortal

{Immortal_desc}
Hidden immortal trait

{Immortal_effects_desc}
No Effects

¬--------------------

2. cure for a possible crash if ai formations(the descr_formations_ai file) made for rtw are used in atw. Source.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

To avoid these ctds when you port descr_formations_ai.txt files to ATW, you need to add this alternative ambush formation (included in the vanilla ATW formation file):

;****************************************************************
; Alternate Ambush deployment
; Column marching formation for the army being ambushed, allows stretching
;****************************************************************

begin_formation alternate_ambush_defender_deployment

	alternate_ambush_defender_deployment
	ai_priority 0.1

	;;; general at the front
	begin_block 0
		min_units				1
		max_units				1
		unit_type				general_unit			1.0
		unit_density			close
		block_formation			line
		block_relative_pos		0 0.0 0.0
		inter_unit_spacing		2.0
		priority				1.0
	end_block

	;;; all other units behind
	begin_block 1
		unit_type				any					1.0
		unit_density			close
		block_formation			column
		block_relative_pos		0 0.0 -2.0
		inter_unit_spacing		2.0
		priority				1.0
	end_block


end_formation

Note the difference with the default RTW ambush formation is that it has been removed the line:
max_unit_width 4
It seems this line causes ctds with ATW engine, at certain map locations (usually forests). And just adding this alternative formation the ctds are fixed.

3. The main campaign of ATW is placed in an "alexander" folder instead of "imperial_campaign" as it was in RTW. Source.

4. For a mod that is modfoldered you need to copy the file chat_filter.san found in alexander\Data to yourmodfoldername\Data. Source#1 & Source#2. For a mod that is not made mod switch compatible and overwrites the vanilla atw files this step won`t be necessary. Source: my logic and discussion with Aradan.

5. Provincial campaigns are possible in ATW, but you need to edit Rome.lnt to solve the menu text getting "jumbled up with the tournament battle feature". Source#1 & Source#2. For a guide on how to edit Rome.lnt see this.
Some issues relating to provincial campaigns implementations have been reported. Source#1, Source#2 & Source#3.

6. To make series of historical battles where you need to win one battle to unlock the next battle you need to do the following: Source

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-to copy inside the folder of the custom battle the void file named "locked", if you want this battle locked by default
-file unlock.txt with the name of the previous battle needed to unlock this battle
-file order.txt with the order of this battle in the series

7. implementing the night battles. Source#1. From what I can see it seems the same thing as with implementing night battles for RTW. If someone knows of any specific difference that should be treated separately please say so.

8. For the custom battles(based on a map loading under Alex) to work a certain setup needs to be in place. According to Aradan(PM) the specific folder setup should look like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

data
--world
----maps
-------base -> map files here
-------battle
----------custom -> empty text file in here and the Historical Battles folders
----------tournaments -> empty text file in here
-------custom -> custom battles stuff in here
-------campaign
----------Alexander -> campaign files
----------Battlefields -> copy of descr_strat in here

9. The revolt CTD happens pretty much the same in ATW as in RTW with the mention that in ATW if there are faction restricted mercenaries the CTD only happens if the faction the city is about to revolt to has an available mercenary unit in the area (and can't build it's own troops). Having mercenaries available to the faction that's about to lose the city doesn't cause the problem Source.

10. The text file Battlefields_regions_and_settlement_names(specific to ATW) from Rome - Total War\alexander\data\text needs to have the content of the file alexander_regions_and_settlement_names. This is important for the custom and historical battles to work correctly.Source.

11. A new text file that exists in ATW`s main data folder and did not exist as such in RTW and BI, descr_fmv allows the repath of the intro movie clip or the rename of the file itself. Source. Also important to know is that while in vanilla ATW there is only one intro clip, you can set it up to have two, just like in vanilla RTW, playing one after the other. By adding an extra line under the first. For example:

no_skip alexander/data/fmv/ATVI_Spinning_Logo_640x480.wmv
no_skip alexander/data/fmv/rome_title.wmv

Now, the no_skip command will make it so that you can`t .. skip the intro movies by pressing Esc. If you wish to be able to skip the intro movies at any time during their play replace the no_skip command with can_skip. For example:

can_skip alexander/data/fmv/ATVI_Spinning_Logo_640x480.wmv
can_skip alexander/data/fmv/rome_title.wmv

Source.


IV. Confirmed ATW hardcoded limits

Unless specified bellow, the limits are to be presumed as unchanged from what they were in RTW v1.5. For the list of the hardcoded limits in RTW click HERE.

descr_model_battle - maximum is 512, up from the 255 of RTW. Source.

export_descr_unit - maximum is 500, same as for RTW. Source.

to be completed.


To be further updated.

[Lü Bu]

Nice,I love it

[Squid]

The command line for alex I believe should also include -noalexander as well.

[florin80]

That`s valid in the case of a modfoldered mod, right? You`ll have to keep in mind I don`t actually have it yet so I need as much details as I can get since I`m basically collecting stuff here.

[Squid]

I believe that's needed if you are running alex without a unique Alexander character. I don't know exactly what it does but . . .

[florin80]

I think I have covered pretty much everything from the .org thread started by MoN.

Does anyone know if the marian reforms are possible with ATW?

[Killerbee]

I think marian reforms are only RTW.exe ? But i could be wrong ofcourse you could check it out if you want ...

[florin80]

I don`t have atw. I need someone who has it and has tried such a thing. I think it was asked in the .org thread, but no reply given.

[Killerbee]

Lol , you don't have atw , yet still write a tuto about it respect !

[florin80]

It says so in the first post. I haven`t actually written a tutorial. I have just compiled all the info provided by modders who have tried modding atw so that others can find these otherwise scattered bits easily and in an organized form.

EDIT: and to anticipate a why? question: because nobody else is doing it.

[AqD]

I think marian reform works... I encountered it once, although it has virtually no effect in my mini-mod except for the special message


If it doesn't work, EB Alexander would have told us

[florin80]

Yes, but does eb uses the marian reform of vanilla? I was under the impression that theirs are scripted.

[AqD]

I think EB uses it for one of the roman reforms....

One problem: superfaction dosn't seem to work with Alexander. It gives CTD whenever I put it into RTR.

EDIT: I was wrong. RTW+RTR gets CTD too.... something wrong there.....

---

UPDATE: superfaction is confirmed working! But if you use it with "ai_do_not_attack_faction ... whatever", the faction would be destroyed immediately in new campaign!

[makanyane]

I think I have covered pretty much everything from the .org thread started by MoN.

Does anyone know if the marian reforms are possible with ATW?

not explicitly but they work in BI
https://wiki.twcenter.net/index.php?...Marian_reforms
that was me testing - the Severin campaign for EoDII Lycan Rising has them in - there's a user mod that runs EoDII under Alex, which loads all the campaigns fine, but I don't know for sure if the reforms actually trigger (would assume they're likely to if they work under BI)

[maksimus]

hi all,

you should come on alexeb thread and read a bit about it. Alot of stuff is there you can all see. ty

[florin80]

Yes, but the thread has 30 pages and is cluttered with alot of install problems, features requests and other issues that relate to EB or alexander eb and not the ATW engine specifically. Going through all that to find relevant bits ain`t easy.

I was hopping more things about the atw engine are already known and that people will add them to this thread. Anyway, it will have to stay as it is I guess since I don`t have enough time for modding anymore. I hope it`s of some help none the less.

[makanyane]

Just to add - as it came up on another forum recently:

You can definitely have religion ala BI in Alex

that's more relevant for porting BI mods, but there seems to be some confusion about the issue so might be worth mentioning.

EDIT: and yep Florin, thanks it's very helpful

[Maяcel]

---------custom -> empty text file in here
---------tournaments -> empty text file in here

how should that text file be named?

[Gen.jamesWolfe]

I don't get it: how do I make a custom battle work again? I don't get that chart.

I think a picture of the files in action will do.

[florin80]

Well, according to Aradan the empty files can be named "however you want". Also, I`ve edited the chart because there was a mix up between the historical battles and the custom battles. See the first post.