Author: Caligula the Mad
Original Thread: How to Create A New Faction (from existing faction) Using the Assembly Kit and PFM

How to Create A New Faction (from existing faction) Using the Assembly Kit and PFM Sorry about the above post, I was testing whether the image would show up (and it didn't)
Dresden's tutorial is very good and it made me be able to do this stuff but I'd like to go into some more "advanced" stuff.
You need the Assembly Kit, PFM and some kind of picture editing software such as paint.net
In this mod we will:
Make the Brigantes a playable faction
Change the Brigantes' flag into the Scottish flag
Change the name "Brigantes" into "Scotland"
Change the political parties to "Scottish National Party" and "Scottish Conservative Party"
Give Iceni and Macedonian to the Brigantes


Before You Start:
Make a folder somewhere on your desktop and put a vanilla, unedited Assembly Kit into here. This will form the basis of your modding as you can simply copy and paste the Assembly Kit whenever you want to create a new mod.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


Once you've got the folder, copy and paste the Assembly Kit into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Total War Rome II
Double click on the Assembly Kit - Binaries - TWeak.AssemblyKit.
Click on Tools - DAVE and click YES
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Go to View - Table Launcher
Search "start_pos_settlements" in the search bar
Scroll down to the first Rome campaign ID (ID 153 atm)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


Make a Microsoft Word document and copy and paste all the settlement_ids in one column, and then scroll to the right and copy and paste the corresponding onscreen_names
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This will allow you to easily work out what regions are actually called and yeah, its helpful.


Changing Region Ownership:
Exit start_pos_settlements and search start_pos_regions.
Sort owning_faction so that Rome is at the top
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Scroll down to 11, 12 and 13 and change main_rome:rom_iceni to main_rome:rom_brigantes as well as both main_rome:rom_macedon to main_rome:rom_brigantes
Change faction_capital for all three settlements to false
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Sort owning_faction again and scroll down to the Brigantes (53-56).
Scroll to the right to cultural_originator, rebel_faction, rebel_faction_name and alternative_rebel_faction.
Change them to match the Brigantes ones.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You are done here, now you can click Apply at the top of the screen


Changing Settlement Names & Buildings:
Go back to start_pos_settlements
Look at your Word Doc of regions and settlement names and find Camulodunon (rom_britannia_britannia)
Find rom_britannia_britannia in the Assembly Kit (199)
Scroll to the right to onscreen_name
Change it to whatever you want, I shall change it to "Emperor Caligula"
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Find Pella next (rom_macedonia_makedonia) (256)
Change onscreen_name to whatever, I'll do "Gladiator"

Now we will change the buildings, only Pella and Pulpudeva need to have their buildings changed because Camulodunon has the same building tree as Brigantes.
Scroll back to rom_macedonia_makedonia and change building1 from rom_HELLENIC_military_main_1 to the closest Barbarian equivalent, in this case there is no equivalent so set it to blank
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Scroll across to the right to primary_building and port_building and edit those (rom_BARBARIAN_city_major_1 and rom_BARBARIAN_port_major_food_2)
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Repeat for Pulpudeva (rom_thracia_thracia)
Click Apply


Changing Faction Names & Making It Playable:
Go back to Table Launcher - factions
Scroll down to the Brigantes (136) and change their screen_name (I will change it to Scotland), change their screen_name_when_rebels, screen_adjective. You can also change their primary_colour and card_colour here.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Click Apply

Now go to start_pos_factions
Scroll down to rom_brigantes (29) and change the column playable to true and column is_major to true. You can also edit their description.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Scroll up to rom_iceni and rom_macedon (3 and 4) and change their playable to false and is_major to false. (This is not necessary but it can make your mod look more professional as factions that aren't playable won't clutter the "Choose A Faction" screen.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Click Apply

Go back to the Table Launcher and search political_parties, click on political_parties.
Click Add Record twice (2x)
Make the key of the 1st one be rom_politics_brigantes_ruler and the 2nd one be rom_politics_brigantes_council.
Now change their name_localised, I will change ruler toScottish National Party and council to Scottish Conservative Party
Change rom_politics_brigantes_ruler "playable" statue be true and council "playable" status be false.
Make both their ui_icon's be x
Give ruler a custom effect_bundle and council the rom_dummy_effect_bundle thingy
Change their initial_power on the far right to whatever (ruler = 75, council= 15) and you can add a description to both (not needed)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Now search politic_parties in the Table Launcher again and click
faction_political_parties_junctions
Click Add Record twice (2x)
Change their faction_key to rom_brigantes
Change their political_party_key to rom_politics_brigantes_ruler and rom_politics_brigantes_council
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Click Apply

I will put Brigantes/Scotland into a group all by themselves called "The United Kingdom"
The vanilla group are Britannic, Eastern, Successors, Gallic and Germanic.
Other groups you can put factions in are African, Arabian, Celtiberian, Celtic, Daco-Thracian, Etruscan, Greek, Nomadic, Punic and Rome.

Search faction_groups in the Table Launcher.
Scroll down to rom_faction_group_etruscan and change the name_localised to The United Kingdom
You can fancy it up and give them a description and effect bundle.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Click Apply

Now search faction_to_faction_groups_junctions
Scroll down to rom_brigantes (119) and change the faction_group_key to
rom_faction_group_etruscan
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Click Apply


Deleting and Adding Armies:
Refer to Dresden's Opening Post on this, but you need to delete the iceni and macedon armies, characters, settlements, the whole thing in there.
Feel free to add armies of your own. You may also wish to delete diplomatic relationships with other factions


Exporting & Finishing Touches:
To export click Export - Export Changes to Binary at the top (see Dresden's OP)
Close TWeak and click Yes when it says "Are You Sure?"

Open BOB (see OP)
In the Working Data column (middle) expand campaigns, main_rome and click the little square next to startpos.esf
Tick both Campaign/Process start pos and Pack/Create pack file and click Start
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Do not worry if there are two error messages such as below, that simply means you need to add more info with PFM. If there are 3 error messages you have majorly stuffed something up.
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Now go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Total War Rome II\assembly_kit\retail\data and rename your mod.pack.

Open PFM and click File - Open CA Pack - data_rome2.pack
Expand ui - flags
Right click on allobroges and click Extract - Extract Selected
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Also scroll down to rom_faction_group_celtiberian and extract that with the above method

You may be asked to choose where to extract it to, mine automatically goes to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Total War Rome II\my_mod
Go to wherever it is extracted to and edit the pictures, you must not edit the file names though.
You need 2 of each, mon_256, mon_64, mon_24 and mon_banner. One must be a .dds file (paint.net) and one must be a .png file.
mon_256 and mon_banner must be 256x256 pixels, mon_64 = 64x64 pixels, mon_24 = 24x24
pixels
I'd recommend making the mon_256.dds first and then simply saving over the mon_banner.dds, mon_banner.png and mon_256.png, resizing it to 64x64 and saving over mon_64.dds and .png and finally resizing to 24x24 and doing the same.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Now rename the file "brigantes" not "allobroges"

Open rom_faction_group_celtiberian and change the mon_64 .dds and .png to whatever you want (must be identical), this will be the button you click on the "Choose A Faction" screen
Rename this file rom_faction_group_etruscan
Copy and paste the directory for both of these flag paths somewhere
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Total War Rome II\my_mod\ui\flags\brigantes
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Total War Rome II\my_mod\ui\flags\rom_faction_group_etruscan

You are nearly done!
We must do some fairly weird stuff though.
Open your mod in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Total War Rome II\assembly_kit\retail\data with PFM, right click under text and click Add - From Pack - data_rome2.pack - ui - flags - allobroges - double left click on mon_24.dds

Now right click on flags - Add - Directory and paste the two directory links in there one after the other.
Now you can delete the allobroges mon_24.dds and you are nearly DONE!!!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


You just need to copy and paste the mod into C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Total War Rome II\data, upload it to Steam Workshop (if you are using Steam) and ta-da.