How to use the Official Modding Tools

[Freelancer Tex]

That's a really long way down the road... database works, but everything else is very complicated and might never work.
You should check Jinarik's rules.bob file tutorial, sounds like that could help you get those files into the pack.

Already checked,but even with the line: " <Files> = *.pack" it didn't work.
Thanks anyway for all your help. I really appreciate it.

[Akaie]

Startpos processing is AWESOME. Oh my dear lord, soo much manual crap I don't have to do anymore.

I toyed around with region & character ownership, which was a pain in the arse with xml. Lookie:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I giggled like a little girl when the frontend information was updated when I gave Oda the characters and Mikawa from the Tokugawa. It only got better, for the shroud data was also generated. There's just a few localisation bugs, but that's easy.

Sweet jesus. And to think I was getting bored with modding! 1560 Sengoku mod, here I come!

[AngryTitusPullo]

Did you unpack to the default /shogun 2/modding folder or custom ones ? I seems unable to process the startpos even for a simple turns per year change for Gempei.

[zhiphius]

Is it supposed to remove alot of random crap after editing building effects and creating a few new building changes?

Says it'll take 2 hours for me O.o

(trying to solve the mystery of crashing new buildings hehe, not sure what i should include when making new ones. i just skipped the "remove all this crap" option first times around. Maybe i should manually remove em with the old edit mmmm) ^^

Tossing BOB removing crap outta the window, popping up PMF to remove stuff i never edited. That worked O.o for now

[AngryTitusPullo]

Okay. Manage to reprocess the startpos finally after unpacking the assembly kit to root E:\modding.

However the changes not taking effect though a mod.pack file is created and activated via script.

????

What are the files I need to edit just to change the turns ?

[Akaie]

Compress and upload the pack. It'll probably save us a lot of time .

[AngryTitusPullo]

Ok. Will do tonight. Another 8 hours before I reach home.

I didn't try deleting the default startpos and that blob/bob thing in the working_data folder though. Might have to try that first and see how it goes.

[AngryTitusPullo]

Ok. Update.

Deleting rules.bob and startpos.esf in working_data\campaigns\jap_gempei works and now have 12 turns per year.

The startpost.esf is created but not the rules.bob so I'm not sure which one is the culprit though as Jack said on another post to try deleting the startpost.esf so that must be it.

Anyway, new question.

How do I change the building build turn ?

Sorry for beeing such a noob.

[Akaie]

building_levels > sixth column ('create_time'). The number is the amount of turns before it is created .

[AngryTitusPullo]

Thanks mate.

I'm going to practice with the vanilla first before doing the real Sekigahara or whatever name we can come out later.

[gunner_38]

I have to say that the modding tools are GREAT, even I can make tweaks to the game to accomode it (and IU don't know anything about modding) it is funny to have matchlock battles in game instead of the medieval arrow fights, suits better the age.

I already changed the trade nodes revenue, the order and time required to master some arts, changed the base behaviour of matchlock behaviour (range, spread, reload, AP, etc...), the cav charge and bonus against cav, etc...

Now I'm trying to make Portugal a playable faction to make a "Nanban Invasion" mini mod. They already have assingned a capital in Kyushu, turned into a major clan but they never get out of their castle and more important I can't make them playable in campaing (in custom battles it is done).

Any hints? Which table is the one containing the info about playable factions?

Thank you.

[Iutland]

A slight issue.
Every time I try to start any of the tools, I get an error message telling me:

The application was unable to start correctly (0x0150002). Click OK to close the application.

The installation path in game_path.txt does point to the folder where S2 is installed, and there isn't really all that much else to try. What might be the issue, if anybody has a guess?

The 0xc0150002 problem is related to the installation of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable

In other words CA is developing their mod tools using Visual C++ and everyone else who uses the tools on a non-development computer must install Visual C++ Redistributable (redist) in order to run the tools.

When Shogun 2 installs you are prompted to install the redist although it is not required by the game.

The redist files are located in the following folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Total War SHOGUN 2\redist

It solved my problem when I installed the "vcredist_x86.exe" (from that folder) for Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 and think you should try as well. Note that there are two other redist files in the folder that you may need to install as well. Restart of your computer should not be required!

Hope it was of any help?

[AngryTitusPullo]

Now that I finally manage to create my new ugly unit can someone show me how I can make it available in game ?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'm now officially a warscape graphic modder.

Anyone can assist me of figuring out why my unit did not appear in custom/campaign ?

[AngryTitusPullo]

Sorry to bump. I have manage to get the unit in game (tested with custom battle) but when clicking on the unit the game hanged (Shogun 2 not working).

Here's what I've edited using DAVE.

Unit name : Z_Ext_Kensei


units
building_units_allowed
cdir_unit_qualities
uniforms )not sure actually, can't add new entry it seems)
unit_required_technology_junctions
unit_stats_land
unit_to_unit_abilities_junctions
units_to_exclusive_faction_permissions
units_to_groupings_military_permissions
units_description_text

The unit card is blank though (not sure how to add them.

Can someone kindly take a look ?

I have made this available for Major ROTS clans only.

Here are some images.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

p/s: How do I edit the color ? Why ae they so pink ?

p/p/s: I need to go to bed. Already 1.30 am...

Here's the latest file.

[AngryTitusPullo]

Introducing the Pink Samurai !

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It still crash when clicking on the actual unit but using CTRL + A and move seems to work.

[Jinarik]

working_data Subdirectories, and Modular Mods

After playing around with BOB, it seems to have 3 basic purposes:
1. Copying Xml files from raw_data\db to raw_data\EmpireDesignData
2. Converting the Xml data from Xml files in raw_data\EmpireDesignData to binary
3. Create game files (pack, cs2, etc)

The third purpose is what this post is about, specifically creating pack files. When you create a pack file, it packs up everything that the rules.bob files specify (generally more inclusive than exclusive thus the 22mb issue), and puts it in the pack file, maintaining the directory structure it finds. The rules.bob files however, can tell BOB not only which files to include, but folders as well, your own sub-directories in working_data is a good way to do this. For example, if you create a My_Mod folder (J_Mod below) in working_data, unless you tell it otherwise, the My_Mod folder and everything in it will be put in a pack file. If we copy the db and text folders from working_data into the My_Mod folder, and give it a rules.bob file however, we can use this sub folder to create our mod pack with only the needed information.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This is all well and good, but what good is it, since really it's the Xml files that need to be kept separate? Because it allows you to not only allows you to keep track of what goes into a mod pack, but also control what goes in better. Using a sub-directory, you can avoid the 22mb issue. As an example grab the sample mod at the bottom extract the contents into the working_data folder, then open BOB and tick the bob_test.pack on the far right, then Start. An 2kb bob_test.pack file should be created in the retail\data folder as usual. Fully working, it increases the maximum amount of shells an off-map naval bombardment (FotS) fires from 48 to 96.

While you're messing with the binary files prior to conversion, it is also possible to rename them. In the example mod I have below, you'll notice the campaign_variables binary file in db\campaign_variables_tables\ has been renamed to BOBTest_campaign_variables. This will prevent the table from overriding the standard game tables, found in the CA packs, allowing me to use partial tables (i.e. tables that only contain the entries needed for the mod).

Getting those partial tables using DaVE can be a bit trickier though, if not down right impossible. The reason being dependencies. For tables like unit_stats_naval you are free to delete entries at will, since it only has dependencies, meaning it relies on other tables to feed it possible values (the combo box columns). If you try to delete records from the units table, on the other hand it won't let you because the units table (specifically the key/unit id) is a dependency, meaning there are other tables that rely on that column/table for valid data values; and since DaVE enforces constraints on its data set, it won't let you delete something that is used elsewhere.

Thus, DaVE can only be used to create partial tables (tables with only the entries needed) for certain table types. In order to create a units table with specific entries, you will need to open the Xml file up with Notepad (or whatever your prefered text editor is) and manually delete everything you don't want. A tedious process, but a necessary one for some.

An interesting note about BOB, if you look in the bob.log file following an Xml to Binary conversion, the log output will be the following:

=== Database Export / Convert Table To Binary  (c:/games/s2tw_ca_mod_tools/working_data/db/units_tables/units from  <raw>/empiredesigndata/units.xml) ===
execute add_units_table  "c:\games\s2tw_ca_mod_tools\raw_data\EmpireDesignData\units.xml"  c:\games\s2tw_ca_mod_tools\working_data\db\units_tables\units
There is no pack file to add a file to.
Added table  c:\games\s2tw_ca_mod_tools\raw_data\EmpireDesignData\units.xml as  c:\games\s2tw_ca_mod_tools\working_data\db\units_tables\units

=====================================

That second line is what seems interesting (execute ...), it looks like a command line argument for BOB, but using it as such results in this error:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

suggesting that there are command line arguments for BOB, at least for the binary conversion; have yet to figure out the correct syntax though...

[amaROenuZ]

Just a quick question, is there any way to automagically reset the modified tables back to defaults after you're done modding? My tweaking is starting to snowball

[Akaie]

Lesta, add an entry for the unit in the uniform table.

[rainkloud]

Just a quick question, is there any way to automagically reset the modified tables back to defaults after you're done modding? My tweaking is starting to snowball

As best I know, you can just unzip the original assembly tools pack and overwrite everything. It's unfortunate they didn't have some sort of marker system to let you quickly see files that have been modified.

[daniu]

Just a quick question, is there any way to automagically reset the modified tables back to defaults after you're done modding? My tweaking is starting to snowball

Use MMS. It lets you organize your mods and automatically restores the data set for each.