ITW: development diary

[Monkwarrior]

As some of your are wondering about the release of the version 1.1, I'm beginning this thread to keep you updated about the progress in that direction.

OBJECTIVE 1: Compatibility with RTW 1.5

Before the release of ITW 1.0, I had begun the conversion to RTW 1.3 with some advances that are still valid in 1.5.

Battles: the first problem is animations. Many people reported problems in importing new animations and because of that I started by using the skeletons in the original RTW 1.3.
All the units were functional, except three (one lusitanian and two celtic units). It seems that the models are "broken" (not detected by RTW 1.2) and Viriato is now "repairing" them.
As a consequence, the historical battles work perfectly.

Campaign: this is a harder work, due to the large amount of files involved.
Also from the problems reported in forums, I started with a the original building system. After modification of several files and the creation of a map_heights.hgt, the campaign loaded but it crashed at the end of the first turn.

Music and intro video: Viriato is working on this point. There is a version that it is functional in RTW 1.2, but we must try it in 1.5. He is also finishing the intro video (I hope it will be impressive).

Update: Dec 19th 2005

God bless CA and the 1.5 patch! The same campaign, with no modification (only deleting the .hgt file) works perfectly.!!!!

But all the news are not so good.
- CA has used the option of patch_1.pak that I discovered some time ago. That means that some graphical stuff (some banners and the new UI) will be more difficult to include.
- The help in the shortcuts roller is now deactivated. Some research will be necessary to find a method to launch the background script.


Next step: BUILDING SYSTEM

[Dr Fox]

do you mean when you press f1 and you get the keyboard shortcuts because if you go into the export_descr_advise file and scroll down and remove the semi colons the help advisor comes up normally this has to be done for trigger 2137 and the part further up in the file i don't no y ca disabled it but with semi colons the game believes it is a comment but remove them and the advisor comes up

[Monkwarrior]

do you mean when you press f1 and you get the keyboard shortcuts because if you go into the export_descr_advise file and scroll down and remove the semi colons the help advisor comes up normally this has to be done for trigger 2137 and the part further up in the file i don't no y ca disabled it but with semi colons the game believes it is a comment but remove them and the advisor comes up

Yes, I noticed when I was converting the 1.2 files into 1.5 files.
It should work just by elimination of the semi colons, but I wonder (and I'm afraid) why CA disabled this help advice.

Diary: Dec 20th 2005 (late night, after seeing Rome on TV )

From the suggestions in this forum, I've changed the files from a provincial campaign to the imperial_campaign. Unfortunately, the campaign crashes when loading bar arrives at the end.

All the new buildings have been included in export_descr_buildings (and the other files), at the same time, just to see if the patch 1.5 is able to manage them.
Fortunately, the campaign loads and I was able to play 4 turns. However, it CTD without error message.
I must look for the origin of this CTD.

[{nF}remix]

Hey this is cool. Keep it up. More mod's should do these diary updates. They really give insight into development, behind the scenes...so people could understand that modding is challenging work.

[Maethius]

I agree keep up the diary work.

[AmbrosiusAurelianus]

From the suggestions in this forum, I've changed the files from a provincial campaign to the imperial_campaign. Unfortunately, the campaign crashes when loading bar arrives at the end.

Why not just blank out the imperial campaign and leave the provincial one? It would seem like less work, and I'm sure I've seen other mods do it.

By the way I'm really enjoying my Celiberian campaign, which says something, because normally I don't bother with them. Nice work!

[Monkwarrior]

Deleting the imperial campaign would be against the idea of keeping the original installation intact.
I will try, by all means, to follow this idea unless the structure of the game will make it impossible.

[AmbrosiusAurelianus]

No, I didn't mean delete it, Monkwarrior. I just meant make it inaccessible in ITW by disabling the option (greying it out or whatever). I am sure I have seen it done (RTR?), but I couldn't tell you how to do it. It's no big deal really, but I thought that it might save you some work.

[Narakir]

- The help in the shortcuts roller is now deactivated. Some research will be necessary to find a method to launch the background script.

A method used by TFT is : when you click on a stellement the first time, the advisor apears and then you juste have to click on "showme" to lunch the script. Duno how it realy works but maybe it can help you.

[Monkwarrior]

Diary: Dec 21st 2005

A good night of bug hunting

The problem of the misplaced text

I was really upset because of those silly texts that appeared out of place in some occasions. As it happened in English and Spanish, it couldn't be a typing error (a blank space, or something like that) but something more "systematic".

A test with the original strat.txt showed me that the text were in the correct place. Thus I used the program ExamDiff to compare both files. There are only some additional lines that I included to give a message of victory for the factions that originally were not playable. Nothing more than six-seven lines. But, one moment! that's the difference in lines between the correct text ("number" years remaining) and the wrong one (Assassinated)!!! Efectively, after eliminating those lines, the texts appear again in the right place.

Conclusion: I was wrong when I supposed that the game would identify the correct text by the argument {SMT_X_YEARS_REMAINING}. IT MUST BE IDENTIFIED BY THE NUMBER OF LINE. This explains the movement of the texts when inserting a new line, and the addition of new arguments at the end of the file when patching, instead of grouping the texts by subjects.

The case of the "broken" models

Another problem that made me crazy was the three models that didn't work in 1.5 (but did in 1.2).
Viriato open my mind by saying: But the Wolf Warriors (Celts) have the same model as the Roman Velites!!

Mmmmh. So let's look for the difference. It cannot be in the model itself, but somewhere else. Let's say, in descr_model_battle.

And... VOILÀ. The three "broken" models were the only three in the whole file that didn't have a model_flexi ending with max. Too much for a coincidence.
I changed the last model_flexi or insert a last line ending with max....

And now all the units of ITW 1.0 work perfectly in RTW 1.5 !!!!!

Just to be sure, I tested the campaign map and it worked until CTD. But that CTD was while moving the camera on the map (no other action), so it will be necessary to look the problem in that direction.

But that will be tomorrow.

[Ano2]

GJ Monkwarrior your making fast progress compared to a lot of mods.

[saulot333]

Yes, this progress diary is really good to keep in touch with the fan base...no "it's secret" nonsense

[Monkwarrior]

Thanks to all of you by following this small diary.
I will try to keep on doing it, until the interest will disappear.

Diary: Dec 22nd 2005

The sounds and the culture

Today I wanted to do something new, and decided to look for a solution for the arrow_instead_of_stone bug related to sounds. In fact, I never had modified any sound file, so the first task was to find the correct file.
Fortunately it was not so difficult, as among the several descr_sounds_whatever files there is one named descr_sounds_units_fire.txt.

If I understood well this file, the default sound for a missile unit is that of an arrow (considered the same as one javelin). But there is another entry specific for slingers, where all the units of this type are listed. Easy solution: to substitute the old/eliminated slingers by the new ones.

But... after activation of the mod, the slingers again sound as archers.
Some research through the forums told me that any modification in the sounds must be accompanied by the elimination of the file events.dat, considered as useless. And efectively, after elimination of this file the slingers sound properly.
My only concern is that the elimination of this file will have to be done by the player/fan, unless somebody knows a program able to do this from the mod installer.

Another new feature of RTW 1.5 is the file descr_culture, that must be connected (I suppose) with descr_sm_faction and descr_sm_settlement. I've changed several things. For example:
- The factions that appear in the custom battle menu for faction selection. Now, only the playable factions are visible.
- The ability of the factions for naval invasions. I've given the carthaginians and greeks this ability/tendency. From the preliminary tests it seems that it works, more or less, as both factions produce lots of ships.
- The culture assigned to each faction. The Ilergetes (thrace) are Iberians, as Turdetani and Edetani (armenia and pontus respectively). I've changed thrace from greek culture to eastern. At the same time I've splited the barbarians in two cultures, the original barbarians (gauls) and egyptians converted into new barbarians (Celts, Celtiberians and Lusitanians). From the preliminary tests, it seems that the conversion is effective, as the rebels from each one of those cultures have changed the banners in their settlements. In addition, this conversion open the way to the "new egyptians" to large cities and huge cities, forbidden for barbarians. As I'm not modeller, these factions have to adopt one of the strat models for cities and walls.

I've been able to play up to 11 turns in the campaign, but it suffers from a weird CTD, even without touching anything or moving the cursor on the map.

It's time to go bed (almost 2:00)

[Maethius]

So the Ilergetes are no longer a greek culture?

[Radier]

Cool diary Monkwarrior.

[Karmipoka]

@ Maethius:

The ilergete is a simply impregnated culture by the Greek colonization in the same way that the whole peninsular northeast was impregnated (ausetanos, indiketes, ilergavones, etc...) :wink:

[Maethius]

@ Maethius:

The ilergete is a simply impregnated culture by the Greek colonization in the same way that the whole peninsular northeast was impregnated (ausetanos, indiketes, ilergavones, etc...) :wink:

Yeah I can understand that. I was only talking about the culture in the mod. :laughing:

[Karmipoka]

Yeah I can understand that. I was only talking about the culture in the mod. :laughing:

Sorry!

[Maethius]

Thats ok. So what's the deal with the Ilergete culture? :laughing:

[Monkwarrior]

Thats ok. So what's the deal with the Ilergete culture? :laughing:

They are as greek as the Turdetani are eastern. :laughing:
I mean, I tried to group the factions by cultures, but nothing to see with the original ones.
Turdetani and Edetani were assigned to eastern factions, and perhaps it would have been easier if Ilergetes had been parthia from the beginning. But I didn't think at that and finally the work was too hard.
Now it is easier and it is only a question of "culture penalty" (if such thing exists). I don't want that one of the Iberian faction has some culture penalty with the other two Iberian ones.
And it is also to have a uniformity in all the elements, from buildings to music.

That's all. Forget the original culture. I'd like all the "culture elements" were different from the original ones, but we have no people devoted to model buildings and other elements.

P.D.: today I had no time to mod (pre-Christmas Eve)