Guide to the ETW map

[Slaytaninc]

ACtually, from what Craig said, it's damn hard for their mappers too. "Weeks of work" he said.

Well, this thread has been here over a year, and work on cracking the map predates this thread I'm sure.

So it's still much easier for them.

[r3deed]

what are the chances of cracking a map using a third party ware?
I'm not refering to the one used by CA.

[uanime5]

what are the chances of cracking a map using a third party ware?
I'm not refering to the one used by CA.

We can already open up all the esf files, we just don't know what we have to do with them. Not even CA knows as they create the maps then turn them into esf files. What we need is a programme that can turn the esf files into something easier to edit.

[alhoon]

We can already open up all the esf files, we just don't know what we have to do with them. Not even CA knows as they create the maps then turn them into esf files. What we need is a programme that can turn the esf files into something easier to edit.

Oh well... that would explain their suprise on "Hey! Why haven't modders already make maps? My cousin asks why he can't have France with 4 regions and he can't see the last island in S2TW! What are those lazy guys doing?!? They make us seem bad for giving half the map of Japan in S2TW."

QUESTION:
Can the landbridges be changed/errased? The one in Constantinople causes severe game lag and drop of performance and if possible, I would like to delete it.

[MrClean]

We can already open up all the esf files, we just don't know what we have to do with them. Not even CA knows as they create the maps then turn them into esf files. What we need is a programme that can turn the esf files into something easier to edit.

That's why I think if we knew who the vendor was that created CA's mapping tools, we might be able to approach them to find out how that data was created and to which bits mean what.

Of course, legally there may or may not be issues with them releasing that info, however it never hurts to ask. Plus, since CA was so giving on their XML information, we might be able to persuade them to consider it.

[☩Lord Inquisitor Derpy Hooves☩]

Don't remember if this has been discussed, but could you use the NTW main campaign and Peninsular campaign to compare and contrast? I don't think there is not a whole lot of fundamental differences where such a process wouldn't help.
Have been lurking in this thread for some time as I am greatly interested in seeing results. Keep up the good work.

[PietroMicca]

PietroMicca could you take part of the code such as
So that you could make an empty cell into a non-empty cell?

In theory if we made all the empty land cells into town cells then it may be possible to build a new town anywhere.

Just in theory.

This is for instance the list of traits that forms all figures contained in European part of Afghanistan.

#2759 220471296 41961632
#2762 2400461824 41961649
#2765 2400461824 41961665
#2768 2249204736 41961680
#2907 220471296 41962752
#2910 2400330752 41962767
#2912 2400326656 41962779
#2914 4010873408 41962789
#3104 226770944 41964189
#3107 2400329728 41964207
#3109 4010873920 41964217
#3316 1627463680 41965943
#3317 4248905792 41965947
#3597 1627463696 41968280
#3598 4248904720 41968284
#3899 1627463696 41970608
#3900 4248904720 41970612
#4239 1832980496 41973088
#4536 1832984640 41975292
#4834 1627463744 41977677
#4835 4248904720 41977681
#5134 1832980496 41980236
#5436 1832984640 41982742
#5629 1627463744 41984276
#5630 4246807568 41984280
#5812 1830883344 41985724
#6007 1830883360 41987259
#6202 1832980512 41988816
#6338 1832980512 41989961
#6536 1627463744 41991764
#6537 4248904720 41991769
#6539 4145094928 41991779
#6540 86134790 41991787
#6541 222568448 41991795
#6542 2952798480 41991800
#6543 2147504646 41991809
#6544 2249204736 41991821
#6777 1627459600 41993536
#6779 16957446 41993552
#6781 218365952 41993564
#6782 2952799248 41993570
#6783 2684375078 41993574
#6784 4010876992 41993581
#7051 1627455488 41995823
#7052 4246806592 41995828
#7327 1832980496 41997869
#7624 1627459616 42000068
#7625 3022005264 42000073
#7898 604000272 42002275
#8208 536875040 42004601

Every boundary is identified by two tags <u>. Each tag contains a number. In other words each trait is identified by two numbers. I don't know the usefulness of the first, but I know that the second defines the belonging of a trait to particular kind of areas. There are mainly three type of areas, but I don't want to speak about this in this moment. What I want you to notice that traits of a same path have a progressively numeration. So if you change order of traits, you have also change its second number. An this is maybe the easiest change. You have to change vertices list and then every reference to coordinates in all pathfinding. This confirm my old theory. Modding is hardest than make all from the beginning.

[uanime5]

Could the first number be a reference to what is contained in the region, such as a town or road?

I suspect your right about modding being hard. Even if we figure everything out it will be difficult to add even one town. Nevertheless I still feel that it will be worthwhile to continue this research as there is likely to be at least one group of modders with the time and patients to add more towns and resources to the map.


I've decided to upload my attempt to add a new region to see if anyone can get a better result. It contains all the esf files I edited and a pack file with the new region. To get these files to work you have to play as a non-European faction, such as Maratha, or ETW will crash while loading. Even when playing as Maratha ETW will crash when you exit it.

I'm currently using the pathfinding.esf from ep1 as it doesn't cover Europe, so I don't need to worry about it the new region not working due to pathfinding problems.

I attempted to split Syria and Cyprus because it was easier to turn an island into a separate region as I wouldn't need to calculate the region boundaries. As I can't add new buildings I turned the iron mine Paphos into the capital.

So far I have managed this.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

ETW is using the settlement model but it doesn't display the name of the settlement or region. It also seems to think that this region still belongs to Syria.

[PietroMicca]

Have you modified DB tables referring to campaign map?

Sorry, stupid question

[Flikitos]

Uanime5, have you succeeded in making Cyprus an independent region?

[PietroMicca]

what I've always wondered is whether a campaign can be added to the starting menu

If possible we can work on a perfect copy of global campaign

[Primergy]

You mean as button?

Should be doable, atleast in NTW since there we have converters for the UI Layout Files, but no idea if those are working for ETW, too.

[uanime5]

Uanime5, have you succeeded in making Cyprus an independent region?

No that's why it still says Syria when you move the cursor over Cyprus and why ETW keeps crashing. It I was able to add a new region I'd release it as a mod.

I feel that I've missed something but I don't know what.

what I've always wondered is whether a campaign can be added to the starting menu

If possible we can work on a perfect copy of global campaign

Warpath was able to add another campaign to the menu so it should be possible.

If we knew how ETW chooses which folders to use we could create new folders and make ETW use them instead of the vanilla folders.

Also in S2TW all the esf files are part of the pack. It may be possible to do something similar in ETW so we can make a new campaign without having to change any of the vanilla files.

[Flikitos]

No that's why it still says Syria when you move the cursor over Cyprus and why ETW keeps crashing. It I was able to add a new region I'd release it as a mod.

I feel that I've missed something but I don't know what.



Warpath was able to add another campaign to the menu so it should be possible.

If we knew how ETW chooses which folders to use we could create new folders and make ETW use them instead of the vanilla folders.

Also in S2TW all the esf files are part of the pack. It may be possible to do something similar in ETW so we can make a new campaign without having to change any of the vanilla files.

Oh okay Thank uanime, I did not understand it well. Well it is on a really good track. Keep up your great work, we are rebuilding the other stuffs in IS.

[T.C.]

Warpath was able to add another campaign to the menu so it should be possible.

If we knew how ETW chooses which folders to use we could create new folders and make ETW use them instead of the vanilla folders.

It's quite easy to do, using a decompiled lua. It's how alpaca make mod-foldering possible and how I made multiplayer mod-foldering possible (by editing what campaign the game loads when the button is clicked)

Also in S2TW all the esf files are part of the pack. It may be possible to do something similar in ETW so we can make a new campaign without having to change any of the vanilla files.

Mod-foldering is the common solution to this. As for packing, it can be done. It wasn't previously done as patches caused issues (due to the game reading the most recently time-stamped lua file) and people just got into the habit of releasing the esf's unpacked.

[PietroMicca]

Someone here knows something about 8-digit hex colors?

[MrClean]

Pietro, unforutnately I know almost next to nothing on 8-digit hex, however after a quick google search, it seems that the extra 2 digits might relate to transparency. Could that be the case here?

[PietroMicca]

Pietro, unforutnately I know almost next to nothing on 8-digit hex, however after a quick google search, it seems that the extra 2 digits might relate to transparency. Could that be the case here?

Maybe. I'm trying.

This is about bin6 values in pathfinding.

In general a not-empty cell contains two 8-digit hex, an empty cell three 8-digit hex.

Maybe are colors. I have always thought it could be. Three colors for empty cell, two for a not empty

[izzi]

Maybe. I'm trying.

This is about bin6 values in pathfinding.

In general a not-empty cell contains two 8-digit hex, an empty cell three 8-digit hex.

Maybe are colors. I have always thought it could be. Three colors for empty cell, two for a not empty

I thinck its indeed about the colors(RGB)
Its like the necessary primary colors(red-green-blue) you need to make a mix color,this is showed like a number with 8bits that is between 0 and 255.
For HTML they use hexadecimale system where the amount of every primary color can vary between 00 and FF

[hellfire15]

looks to me like you are making progress..