Preparing Modding Summit

[wangrin]

WARNINGS

Please, not spam this thread with questions not related to those subjects or complains about CA.

Before posting here, please read :
ETW : Empire: Total War > Empire Mod Workshop > [ETW] Index of Modding Tutorials, Resources & Tools (Last Update: 21 Dec, 2011)
NTW : Napoleon: Total War > Napoleon: Total War Mod Workshop > [NTW] Index of Modding Tutorials, Resources & Tools (Last Update: 21 Dec, 2011)
S2TW : Total War: Shogun 2 > Total War: Shogun 2 Mod Workshop > [TWS2] Index of Modding Tutorials, Resources & Tools (Last Update: 21 Dec, 2011)

OBJECTIVE

This thread is intended to collect questions to prepare CA Modding Summit according to the agenda from CraigTW :

Building the Campaign Map – Alan Blair, (Lead Campaign Programmer) will talk through some of the difficulties surrounding the most requested “modable” feature – the campaign map. He’ll discuss what the process to design and build the Shogun 2 campaign map involved. This will not be a how-to session, more of a practical explanation of the many complicated elements that go into a campaign map.

Unit balancing, design and AI reactions – Jack Lusted, Lead Unit Designer, and familiar face to modders all, will discuss some of the thought processes behind balancing AI responses and how data values in the released tables can be altered to affect those responses, including some insight on how the AI is programmed. We’ll also talk about the data tables we released. How useful were these?

Total War infrastructure – Guy Davidson, Coding Manager, talks through the path of data in the game in detail, from raw source to packed data, and explains how the process works internally, and why.

PC Modding and Total War – A roundtable discussion on the state of PC modding in general and Total War in particular. What are the technical and social barriers and concerns? What do people do well? What infrastructure is available/used?

TEd Masterclass / Release and Development – Elliott Lock, Designer and TEd guru, will talk through the process involved in building the recent Shogun 2 editor, and will share tips and tricks in this masterclass. This session will also include feedback and discussions on TEd: What was found difficult, confusing or beneficial?

Complete post from CraigTW :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hi all,

Firstly, thanks for all of your comments on our proposed “mod summit”. We thank you for showing such passion and enthusiasm for a series we know you love as much as we do.

However, as I’ve said since the start, we do have to be very clear with setting expectations and say that if you’re expecting more to result from the event than a friendly chat, you’ll likely go away disappointed.

I promised to post an agenda of sorts, and this post will deal with just that. We’re still working out the final details of the summit, and what format the day will take exactly, but we’re getting close to nailing down some of the sessions we’re hoping to bring invitees on the day.

So I thought I’d update you guys with the latest thinking from CA towers. Below is a sample agenda. Just to re-iterate: there’s a good chance some of this will change, so don’t become too reliant on it just yet. It’s very much a work in progress.

In terms of what we’re expecting from attendees: You’ll need to have a very good technical grasp of English to participate. As much as we’d love to be able to speak lots of languages, English is the one we talk in, and some of the concepts will get technical. We’ll also be looking for people with a high level of expertise in modding – perhaps authors of community tools, or well-known mods.

In terms of who gets selected: well, that’s something we’re going to be looking to our community for. In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be consulting with moderation staff on our official forums and on TWC to determine who attends. A chunk of the development team are giving time that would otherwise be scheduled for making our games to attend this event, so we want to make sure we make absolutely the most of the day: and that means getting the right people in. Please continue to PM me if you are interested in attending.

Final location is still being confirmed, but the event will be held in the UK, so ease of transportation is a factor we will be considering.

Proposed agenda

Morning

Introductions - Round table. Who are you, what do you do, and what are you working on at the moment? Or what have you been working on most recently? Community Manager Craig Laycock will explain the agenda and the format of the day.

Opening remarks – Brand Director Rob Bartholomew will talk about the day and what people can expect to get from it.

Why is Total War hard to mod these days? – Jamie Ferguson, (Design Lead, Shogun 2) has been involved with the Total War series for years, and has tonnes of experience in just about every aspect of games design. He’ll talk you through how we work internally, and how that affects modding. He’ll also explain the differences between modding “then” and modding “now”. We’ll discuss the challenges you’re facing as modders.

Building the Campaign Map – Alan Blair, (Lead Campaign Programmer) will talk through some of the difficulties surrounding the most requested “modable” feature – the campaign map. He’ll discuss what the process to design and build the Shogun 2 campaign map involved. This will not be a how-to session, more of a practical explanation of the many complicated elements that go into a campaign map.

TEd Masterclass / Release and Development – Elliott Lock, Designer and TEd guru, will talk through the process involved in building the recent Shogun 2 editor, and will share tips and tricks in this masterclass. This session will also include feedback and discussions on TEd: What was found difficult, confusing or beneficial?

Unit balancing, design and AI reactions – Jack Lusted, Lead Unit Designer, and familiar face to modders all, will discuss some of the thought processes behind balancing AI responses and how data values in the released tables can be altered to affect those responses, including some insight on how the AI is programmed. We’ll also talk about the data tables we released. How useful were these?

LUNCH

Afternoon

Total War infrastructure – Guy Davidson, Coding Manager, talks through the path of data in the game in detail, from raw source to packed data, and explains how the process works internally, and why.

PC Modding and Total War – A roundtable discussion on the state of PC modding in general and Total War in particular. What are the technical and social barriers and concerns? What do people do well? What infrastructure is available/used?

Open Question Session – Ask us anything. We reserve the right to say “no” or nothing!

Pub – Decamp to the pub for drinks and dinner, with discussion to be strictly limited to games and history only!

I’d love to hear what you think about this, so please do continue to give us feedback – but this is likely to be close to the final format of the day.

Thanks,

CraigTW

Studio director Mike Simpson (eurogamer interview)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Modding

Total War has enjoyed a vibrant modding community for years. But it wasn't until earlier this year that official map editing tools were released by Creative Assembly. The voracious community wants more.

"There's a whole group of them who want more modding tools and for the game to be more open from that point of view," said Simpson, "and we're certainly working on that, to try and get as close as we want to what they want.

"What they actually want is a toolset and capabilities which are better than what we actually have ourselves. They don't realise quite what a horrendous and manual process putting together some of these systems is!

"As we develop our own tools it becomes easier for us to support modders, so we're intending to do that."

Whether those map editing tools will be included in the Rome 2 box - "we haven't specifically said that yet", Simpson said. "But I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case."

"We haven't really fleshed out what we can and can't do from a modding point of view," Simpson went on. "We're going to spend some more time actually talking to the modder groups and try to come up with a plan that actually delivers them what they need rather than what we think they need, which isn't necessarily the same thing."

To that end, Creative Assembly has organised a modding summit at Total War HQ in Horsham, England. That's next month. Key modders from the community will be invited and both parties will work together for mutual gain.

"And we'll show them a bit more about how we put things together so they understand that a bit better, because a lot of the time they think there are these mythical tools we use, which we can just release and everything will be fine and everybody else will make their own campaigns and it will be happy land for them. And that just isn't quite the way it is - it's not as easy as that, I'm afraid," Simpson stressed.

ORGANIZATION

The first post underneath will be use to collect questions related to :

1. Building the Campaign Map
2. Unit balancing, design and AI reactions
3. Total War infrastructure
4. TEd Masterclass / Release and Development

So, topics are :

1. Mapping (campaign and battlemap)
2. Scripting (lua (luac, commands, functions, etc.) and UI)
3. DB, ESF and file formats
4. Model making (units, buildings, etc)
5. Media and 2D art

The second post underneath will be use to collect features we want to see about TW games modding abilities related to "PC Modding and Total War"

LINKS

Total War: Shogun 2 > Total War: Shogun 2 General Discussion > CA modding summit
The Capitol > CVRIA > Prothalamos > Making the most of the CA modding summit

[wangrin]

QUESTIONS

CAMPAIGN MAP MODDING

Uanime5 :

General

What are the differences between the regions.esf, startpos.esf, and DB tables? For example let's say I try to add a new settlement to the mexico_wilderness but the name doesn't appear on the campaign map. Is the problem with the regions.esf, startpos.esf, or DB tables? At present I have no way of knowing because I don't know the function of each file.

I'd also like to know if the startpos contains any information you need to edit when making changes to the pathfinding.esf.

Pathfinding.esf

Specifically regarding the pathfinding.esf I'd like to know the following:

1) What information each grid_cell contains? For example is it the weather or how quickly you can move through this region?
2) What is the function of the 0-3 flags?
3) Why was ETW's Native campaign and NTW's Spain campaign so different from the other campaigns? Their pathfinding information was in different format and I would like to know if there was a reason for this.

DB tables

Regarding DB tables I'd like to know if it's possible to code new towns. For example in ETW can you create a town which specialises in horse breeding?

BATTLE MAP MODDING

SCRIPTING (LUA, LUAC, etc.)

Wangrin :
LUAC :
Compiled lua are used to define a lot of feature in ETW/NTW/S2TW.
Thanks to taw, we can decompile some of them, but it's not easy.
Can you send us enough informations about luac and how you compile lua to be able to create our awn lua compiler/decompiler.

This will probably allow modders to create their own user interface, particularly the recruitment list.

DB, ESF, FILE FORMATS

FILE FORMATS :

Wangrin

.cs2.parsed :
Collision model informations seems to be define in cs2.parsed.
Can you send us .cs2.parsed file format information to allow modders to create a tools to create/modify/import/export such files.

Taw already work on those files ([Tool] cs2.parsed converter - alpha version arrived!), but we need more informations about file format.
It is necessary to be able to create our own cs2.parsed files if we want to be able to create real new buildings or engines.
This is a really critic issue.

.template :
uied.template is use to define, at least, parts of campaign user interface.
Albtraum23 modify it to create his Albtraum23UIModEmpire for 40 Units and for 30 units.

Can you send us .template file format information, it will be easier to mod this file instead of working with hexadecimal.

MODEL MAKING (UNITS, ENGINES, SHIP, BUILDINGS)

ADDING A NEW AGENT :

Wangrin :

We are able to add a new agent but he is unable to use its abilities (such as converting).

We have modify those db tables :

• agent_culture_details
• agent_spawning_to_government_types_tables
• agent_spawnings_tables
• agent_to_agent_abilities_tables
• agent_to_agent_attributes_tables
• agents_tables
• building_effects_junction_tables
• campaign_character_anim_set_agent_junctions_tables
• effect_bonus_value_agent_junction_tables
• religions_tables
• trait_triggers_tables

And also modify starpos.esf :

• CAMPAIGN_ENV > CAMPAIGN_MODEL > PORTRAIT_ALLOCATOR > European, Indian, etc. > CHARACTER_PORTRAIT_PATHS > CULTURE_PATHS : add agent to the list
• CAMPAIGN_ENV > CAMPAIGN_MODEL > PORTRAIT_ALLOCATOR > European, Indian, etc. > CHARACTER_PORTRAIT_PATHS > PORTRAIT_CATEGORIES : add files for new agent

Do we have forgot something in db tables, starpos.esf or elsewhere ?

NAVAL MODEL :

Wangrin :

What process (internal CA process) do you follow to add a new ship model to ETW/NTW/S2TW
Do you have documents about it/them ?
Do you have documents about file formats used (it is already possible to open rigid_naval_model and rigid_naval_animation using UU3D and ETW/NTW plugin) ?

BUILDING MODEL :

Wangrin :

Do you have documents about cs2.parsed file format
What process (internal CA process) do you follow to add a new building

MEDIA AND 2D ARTS

[wangrin]

PC MODDING AND TOTAL WAR

Uanime5 :

MODABILITY

Compared to M2TW I found the following easier to mod:
1) Unit meshes because you didn't need to make a new model for each different weapon or to give it different accessories. Separating the unit from their weapon and equipment was a good idea.

2) Unit textures because you can edit the gloss map so ETW will automatically paint a unit in the faction's colour. This means you only need to make 1 texture for 50 factions, rather than 50 textures.

3) Unit cards because you can edit the gloss map so ETW will automatically paint a unit in the faction's colour. This means you only need to make 1 unit card for 50 factions, rather than 50 unit cards.

Compared to M2TW I found the following harder to mod:
1) No error log. In M2TW the error log would often tell you what you did wrong or indicate where the problem was. In ETW, NTW, and S2TW you don't have any clue what you're doing wrong or which file you need to edit.

2) Mapping: in the regions.esf you have to code the boundaries of every region, settlement, resource, and town/port. Then you have to add the same boundaries to a host of grid_cells in the pathfinding.esf. Then you have to add it to the world and cai_world parts of the startpos. Finally you have to add it to the DB tables.

It would be helpful if there was a tool that would create a basic map which you could edit and compile into esf files. I'd recommend something like the Geomod tool for M2TW.

3) CAI_world in the startpos. Everything is assigned a numerical ID and a large number, which makes it very difficult to understand what everything is for. I had to make a spreadsheet for all of this part of the startpos before I was able to decode it.

wangrin :

UNIQUE REGIMENTAL FLAGS :

Battle flag's texture should not be assign to faction but to unit to allow modders to create unique flags for units.
It could be interesting to be able to choose the particle model used to be able to use different shape for battle flags too.
For instance, if a modder create Gardes Françaises unit, he should be able to give them Gardes Françaises regiment's flag.

To do this, one possibility could be 2 column in units tables:

• a column to define flag texture filepath
• a column to define the flag's particle model

A texture atlas could be added to allow even more diversity.
A same unit could use different flags cyclically.
For instance, a fusilier unit could use texture 1 with 1st unit recruited, texture 2 with 2d unit recruited, ... texture 10 for 10th unit recruited and then texture 1 with 11th unit recruited, etc.

This means that texture should be grouped depending of faction when using "generic" units.
Game should use French flag texture with French fusilier, Austrian French texture with Austrian fusilier, etc.
This means that the game should be able to extract information about what faction is using each unit and use it to search texture (maybe using filename (fr_european_fusilier, au_european_fusilier) or using filepath (textures\france\..., textures\austria\..., etc.)


UNIT EVOLUTION SYSTEM

ETW use a system to convert or disband units depending of government.
This is use after a successful revolution to convert, for instance, monarchical units into their republican counterpart or disbanded them.

A very similar system could be use to simulate military reform : depending of units, they could be convert into a new unit or disband.
For instance, Mousquetaires de la Garde Ordinaire du Roi could be converted into the same unit but with a new model and texture after a technology "1750 cavalry regulation" is reached.
The new unit could be then disbanded after reaching the technology "1786 cavalry regulation".

So, the modified system will be based on technology instead of government.
This could be done using a new db tables : "unit_evolution" for instance.
This table will use 4 columns :

• column 1 : technology id
• column 2 : old unit id
• column 3 : convert / disband
• column 4 : new unit id or null (if unit is disbanded)

The evolution system could use the slightly modified function used for converting or disbanding units depending of government.


UNIT MODELS : SKELETON (JOINTS)

Instead of hardcoding "skeletons" that units used (men, horse, camel and elephant), skeleton should be define using db tables to allow modder to use their own skeleton with their units and animations.

This could be done :
adding a "model_skeleton" tables to define skeleton (skeleton_id) and filepath to skeleton ;
adding a column into warscape_animated_lod tables to define what skeleton (skeleton_id) use for each models.


BATTLEFIELD UNIT FORMATIONS

It is not possible to modify nor create formation (line, square, etc.).
As CA create formation depending on vanilla game era, modders should be allowed to create their own formations.
This means, defining formation but also parameters used by IA to decide what formation use.

[wangrin]

Question 1 : agent (Campaign map)

We are able to add a new agent but he is unable to use its abilities (such as converting).

We have modify those db tables :

• agent_culture_details
• agent_spawning_to_government_types_tables
• agent_spawnings_tables
• agent_to_agent_abilities_tables
• agent_to_agent_attributes_tables
• agents_tables
• building_effects_junction_tables
• campaign_character_anim_set_agent_junctions_tables
• effect_bonus_value_agent_junction_tables
• religions_tables
• trait_triggers_tables

And also modify starpos.esf :

• CAMPAIGN_ENV > CAMPAIGN_MODEL > PORTRAIT_ALLOCATOR > European, Indian, etc. > CHARACTER_PORTRAIT_PATHS > CULTURE_PATHS : add agent to the list
• CAMPAIGN_ENV > CAMPAIGN_MODEL > PORTRAIT_ALLOCATOR > European, Indian, etc. > CHARACTER_PORTRAIT_PATHS > PORTRAIT_CATEGORIES : add files for new agent

Do we have forgot something in db tables, starpos.esf or elsewhere ?


QUESTION 2 : naval modding

What process (internal CA process) do you follow to add a new ship model to ETW/NTW/S2TW
Do you have documents about it/them ?
Do you have documents about file formats used (it is already possible to open rigid_naval_model and rigid_naval_animation using UU3D and ETW/NTW plugin) ?


QUESTION 3 : building modding (Battle map)

Do you have documents about cs2.parsed file format
What process (internal CA process) do you follow to add a new building

[husserlTW]

I am afraid that your goals is completely out of summit and CA related intentions. They have strictly noted that there will not be given any how to for anything. This summit is going to be only about how they made the game elements, why it is difficult is to be moddable and why -finally- there will be no modding tools at all! It is obvious that summit is a public relation marketing move to improve the bad image and reputation of CA among modders.

I suggest to exchange your potential presence with a CA statement of what modding solutions they gonna offer in this summit (they seem very well informed of the needs..). Else you should boycott it.

But that is my opinion...

[shokh]

I like your engagement, andy i´m sure anyone would be happy if some parts of warscape modding would be revealed.
But husserl´s statement is true, and Craig also said " if you’re expecting more to result from the event than a friendly chat, you’ll likely go away disappointed."

I really really hope we get some information which will help us, but i don´t want expect too much.

[wangrin]

At least, if we don't collect our questions we will certainly have no answer ^^

[DARTH VADER]

Thank you for the effort to organise this. I am going to wait for a definite CA answer about the date of this summit and then I will be able to provide questions etc. if are needed. I think this summit is going to work more as a brainstorm than a formal meeting about technical knowledge by the way.

[wangrin]

I think too that the meeting will be more a brainstorming than a technical meeting, but I think it could be useful to collect technical questions, not necessarily to get answers but maybe to select most important topics and focus on them.

[PietroMicca]

I think too that the meeting will be more a brainstorming than a technical meeting, but I think it could be useful to collect technical questions, not necessarily to get answers but maybe to select most important topics and focus on them.

If I should choose a topic, I would choose pathfinding.esf. I know I am repetitive, but this the real obstacle between us and a new campaign map. So I'd like to concentrate my attention on Building the Campaign Map and Total War infrastructure. I know we will not allowed to make technical questions, but anyway know how pathfinding works and why it is so important could be important.

[uanime5]

Here's a few things I'd like to know.

General

What are the differences between the regions.esf, startpos.esf, and DB tables? For example let's say I try to add a new settlement to the mexico_wilderness but the name doesn't appear on the campaign map. Is the problem with the regions.esf, startpos.esf, or DB tables? At present I have no way of knowing because I don't know the function of each file.

I'd also like to know if the startpos contains any information you need to edit when making changes to the pathfinding.esf.

Pathfinding.esf

Specifically regarding the pathfinding.esf I'd like to know the following:

1) What information each grid_cell contains? For example is it the weather or how quickly you can move through this region?
2) What is the function of the 0-3 flags?
3) Why was ETW's Native campaign and NTW's Spain campaign so different from the other campaigns? Their pathfinding information was in different format and I would like to know if there was a reason for this.

DB tables

Regarding DB tables I'd like to know if it's possible to code new towns. For example in ETW can you create a town which specialises in horse breeding?

Modability

Compared to M2TW I found the following easier to mod:
1) Unit meshes because you didn't need to make a new model for each different weapon or to give it different accessories. Separating the unit from their weapon and equipment was a good idea.

2) Unit textures because you can edit the gloss map so ETW will automatically paint a unit in the faction's colour. This means you only need to make 1 texture for 50 factions, rather than 50 textures.

3) Unit cards because you can edit the gloss map so ETW will automatically paint a unit in the faction's colour. This means you only need to make 1 unit card for 50 factions, rather than 50 unit cards.

Compared to M2TW I found the following harder to mod:
1) No error log. In M2TW the error log would often tell you what you did wrong or indicate where the problem was. In ETW, NTW, and S2TW you don't have any clue what you're doing wrong or which file you need to edit.

2) Mapping: in the regions.esf you have to code the boundaries of every region, settlement, resource, and town/port. Then you have to add the same boundaries to a host of grid_cells in the pathfinding.esf. Then you have to add it to the world and cai_world parts of the startpos. Finally you have to add it to the DB tables.

It would be helpful if there was a tool that would create a basic map which you could edit and compile into esf files. I'd recommend something like the Geomod tool for M2TW.

3) CAI_world in the startpos. Everything is assigned a numerical ID and a large number, which makes it very difficult to understand what everything is for. I had to make a spreadsheet for all of this part of the startpos before I was able to decode it.

[wangrin]

PC MODDING AND TOTAL WAR

UNIQUE REGIMENTAL FLAGS :

Battle flag's texture should not be assign to faction but to unit to allow modders to create unique flags for units.
It could be interesting to be able to choose the particle model used to allow to use different shape for battle flags.
For instance, if a modder create Gardes Françaises unit, he should be able to give them Gardes Françaises regiment's flag.

To do this, one possibility could be 2 column in units tables:

• a column to define flag texture filepath
• a column to define the flag's particle model

A texture atlas could be added to allow even more diversity.
A same unit could use different flags cyclically.
For instance, a fusilier unit could use texture 1 with 1st unit recruited, texture 2 with 2d unit recruited, ... texture 10 for 10th unit recruited and then texture 1 with 11th unit recruited, etc.

This means that texture should be grouped depending of faction when using "generic" units.
Game should use French flag texture with French fusilier, Austrian French texture with Austrian fusilier, etc.
This means that the game should be able to extract information about what faction is using each unit and use it to search texture (maybe using filename (fr_european_fusilier, au_european_fusilier) or using filepath (textures\france\..., textures\austria\..., etc.)


UNIT EVOLUTION SYSTEM

ETW use a system to convert or disband units depending of government.
This is use after a successful revolution to convert, for instance, monarchical units into their republican counterpart or disbanded them.

A very similar system could be use to simulate military reform : depending of units, they could be convert into a new unit or disband.
For instance, Mousquetaires de la Garde Ordinaire du Roi could be converted into the same unit but with a new model and texture after a technology "1750 cavalry regulation" is reached.
The new unit could be then disbanded after reaching the technology "1786 cavalry regulation".

So, the modified system will be based on technology instead of government.
This could be done using a new db tables : "unit_evolution" for instance.
This table will use 4 columns :

• column 1 : technology id
• column 2 : old unit id
• column 3 : convert / disband
• column 4 : new unit id or null (if unit is disbanded)

The evolution system could use the slightly modified function used for converting or disbanding units depending of government.


UNIT MODELS : SKELETON (JOINTS)

Instead of hardcoding "skeletons" that units used (men, horse, camel and elephant), skeleton should be define using db tables to allow modder to use their own skeleton with their units and animations.

This could be done :
adding a "model_skeleton" tables to define skeleton (skeleton_id) and filepath to skeleton ;
adding a column into warscape_animated_lod tables to define what skeleton (skeleton_id) use for each models.


BATTLEFIELD UNIT FORMATIONS

It is not possible to modify nor create formation (line, square, etc.).
As CA create formation depending on vanilla game era, modders should be allowed to create their own formations.
This means, defining formation but also parameters used by IA to decide what formation use.

[Hinkel]

PC MODDING AND TOTAL WAR

UNIQUE REGIMENTAL FLAGS :

Battle flag's texture should not be assign to faction but to unit to allow modders to create unique flags for units..

Well, its already possible (since november 2010) to have unique regimental flags and also 2 different flags in each single unit...

[wangrin]

Yes, the trick is to create a new equipment but those flags are rigid.
What I was speaking about was using the "animated" flag (particle model).
It's a shame that CA didn't think to define textures to use in units tables or in a "regimental_flags" tables.

[DARTH VADER]

Still no news from CA by the way.
If there was a possibility to go there, now it gradually diminishes, because I must book tickets etc. and cannot do this at the last time + I have some obligations in Late July that I cannot postpone any further.
Does anybody know the exact date of this modding summit?

[wangrin]

Eurogamer interviewed Mike Simpson early July :

To that end, Creative Assembly has organised a modding summit at Total War HQ in Horsham, England. That's next month. Key modders from the community will be invited and both parties will work together for mutual gain.

So, if CA really prepare a Modding Summit, it should be not append before August.

But we still have no direct news from CA.

[wangrin]

Question :

• .cs2.parsed :
  Collision model informations seems to be define in cs2.parsed.
  Can you send us .cs2.parsed file format information to allow modders to create a tools to create/modify/import/export such files.
  
  Taw already work on those files ([Tool] cs2.parsed converter - alpha version arrived!), but we need more informations about file format.
  It is necessary to be able to create our own cs2.parsed files if we want to be able to create real new buildings or engines.
  This is a really critic issue.
  
• .template :
  uied.template is use to define, at least, parts of campaign user interface.
  Albtraum23 modify it to create his Albtraum23UIModEmpire for 40 Units and for 30 units.
  
  Can you send us .template file format information, it will be easier to mod this file instead of working with hexadecimal.
  
  
• LUAC :
  Compiled lua are used to define a lot of feature in ETW/NTW/S2TW.
  Thanks to taw, we can decompile some of them, but it's not easy.
  Can you send us enough informations about luac and how you compile lua to be able to create our awn lua compiler/decompiler.
  
  This will probably allow modders to create their own user interface, particularly the recruitment list.

[taw]

• LUAC :
  Compiled lua are used to define a lot of feature in ETW/NTW/S2TW.
  Thanks to taw, we can decompile some of them, but it's not easy.
  Can you send us enough informations about luac and how you compile lua to be able to create our awn lua compiler/decompiler.
  
  This will probably allow modders to create their own user interface, particularly the recruitment list.

It's interesting you're asking about three things I worked on....

For luac we have full spec of lua 5.1 VM and we can disassemble luac files. There's nothing ETW-specific about these files, they just use 32bit floats rather than 64bit floats as in default lua settings.

The issue is that decompiling any VM code back to source code is a big project, and nobody made any good decompiler for lua 5.1. We can use hacked decompiler for lua 5.0, but it fails for more complex code.

Releasing .lua sources corresponding for .luac files would solve the problem completely.

[wangrin]

Yes, I know that you have and you work on cs2.parsed files and on luac and you've done a pretty good job.

I also know that tools aren't completed yet.
We still have problem with cs2.parsed file format (all the "unknown" fields).

For luac, I suppose that CA had its own compiler, it could be time-saving if they give us as much informations as possible, or even release it for modding community.


I'm only a modder, I'm not able to create my own tools.
Morever, I'm also busy with Imperial Splendour mod to create models, to search for historical materials, modifying stats, etc. and I cannot spend too much time on modding due to "Real Life".
So I know what I need, something that is not too complex to use and, if possible, using a GUI instead of command lines.

Don't you think that having informations about file formats wouldn't help ?

If we want to keep the modding community alive, we need tools that are easy to handle and not restrict to few modders.
I've seen too many people that wanted to work on mods but finally abandon because using tools was considered as too complex.

[taw]

For luac, I suppose that CA had its own compiler, it could be time-saving if they give us as much informations as possible, or even release it for modding community.

They use totally standard lua 5.1 compiler, nothing custom about it, you can build it using scripts in etwng (the script doesn't actually work for Windows, only Linux and OSX, but that's just because I never bothered..., it's really just a few lines).