Unique strat_map city models.

[AnthoniusII]

Here is our delima.
TGC has 20 factions.
We have chosen that we will use spesific Huge_City models to show spesific cities. The factions wont be able to build huge cities we will avoid having too many Constantinople's for example.
But here is the delimas.
Antioch is a unique city but we have 5 Islamic factions. So we need Antioch to become unique is some way and the rest of the Islamic factions to be able to build Huge_City that wont look like Antioch.
Rome is another example. South European factions are 3. Rome is one. The rest two factions may require a huge city as well.
Any sugestions/solutions please?

[rafmc1989]

Mhm, a thought I had in case:

considering you use 20 out of 31 slots, what if you allocate the special huge_city models to the not used factions?? (and then export them in the descr_strat)
So you can save and allow the huge_city for all, moreover you might use large_city and other tiers of the unused factions for other special models, and prevent their further development with the use of hidden_resources...

[AnthoniusII]

Can we add city buildings in Citadels (like markets etc) so that we could use Citadels as unique Huge cities from the start?

[Frunk]

Certainly. It's as simple as changing the EDB; something I've done in my own mod. The only negative is that your citadel won't have the same population/tax/unrest as a huge city, but that might not be a problem.

[makanyane]

I'm not quite sure what you're proposing with the Citadels...

but if you want 'roman' faction to build a different looking strat_map huge city to the other SE factions
you use a faction_variant

if other SE factions use
data/models_strat/residences/southern_european_huge_city.cas
then you put the rome model in
data/models_strat/residences/faction_variants/roman/southern_european_huge_city.cas
where 'roman' is whatever your faction is actually called.
NB: you need to put its textures also in
data/models_strat/residences/faction_variants/roman/textures/
or it will crash on campaign load!!!!!!

[_Tartaros_]

I'm not quite sure what you're proposing with the Citadels...

but if you want 'roman' faction to build a different looking strat_map huge city to the other SE factions
you use a faction_variant

if other SE factions use
data/models_strat/residences/southern_european_huge_city.cas
then you put the rome model in
data/models_strat/residences/faction_variants/roman/southern_european_huge_city.cas
where 'roman' is whatever your faction is actually called.
NB: you need to put its textures also in
data/models_strat/residences/faction_variants/roman/textures/
or it will crash on campaign load!!!!!!

didn´t know about the faction variants - i will try this with antiocheia...
i thought it was linked to cultures only
btw, citadel is a deadend because of the limits of handling taxation + we didn´t use castles at all and this need more work in the edb

[rafmc1989]

as mak suggested, yes you might want to use the faction variants exploiting the faction slots which you do not plan to use in the mod..

it's an option

[AnthoniusII]

I'm not quite sure what you're proposing with the Citadels...

but if you want 'roman' faction to build a different looking strat_map huge city to the other SE factions
you use a faction_variant

if other SE factions use
data/models_strat/residences/southern_european_huge_city.cas
then you put the rome model in
data/models_strat/residences/faction_variants/roman/southern_european_huge_city.cas
where 'roman' is whatever your faction is actually called.
NB: you need to put its textures also in
data/models_strat/residences/faction_variants/roman/textures/
or it will crash on campaign load!!!!!!

So far -by default- Byzantines (greek culture) use southern_european city strat_map models.
Inorder to change their watch towers I created a Byz_tower.cas and changed the entry in the greek culture in the descr_cultures.txt. It worked, But when i tried to replace the entries of the cities I had a crash.

[AnthoniusII]

Sorry to bother you again but i came across with a strange lighting issue. In few places on the strat_map all strat_map city and fort models apear perfectly (i use .tga textures and not _tga.dds ones).
But in few spesific map places the settlements and espesialy the shine!
See picture 1

See how they look in other parts of the map.


Should i convert all .tga textures to _tga.dds textures to solve this issue?

[makanyane]

Not had that issue - don't know - try it...

it looks like the same model but is it the same culture using it?
I have had an issue - which seems down to general overload of the strat map with different textures etc. - where the last listed cultures in descr_cultures, didn't get shadows appearing for their strat map models.

It looks like your problem one also doesn't cast a shadow - hence why I asked...

[AnthoniusII]

Do not bother with texture. What is annnoying is the brightness of the walls texture in spesific map positions that do not allow player to see them.
The glowing is the issue here. Other wise the walls model is the same for all cultures changing the cities inside and ofcourse their stone textures.

[makanyane]

You misunderstood my question.

Please look up the culture of the faction creator (in descr_strat) of the settlements that you are having the shining (and lack of shadow) problem with.

If the problem ones are all the same culture - and the working ones are a different culture - then you're having the same problem that we did, which seems due to a general overload of the campaign map, not actually anything to do with the specific settlement model/textures.

[AnthoniusII]

Overload of the map...
The same issue caused a CTD when a city was about to rebel against me(player).
What exactly is overload?
Less permanent forts.
Less mountain masses maybe?

[AnthoniusII]

How do I create city_texture.tga.dds without a crash? I opened tga textures, saved them as dds and then rename them and assigned them to strat_map models and saved them. I converted them to Cas files but then the game does not start.

[makanyane]

How do I create city_texture.tga.dds without a crash? I opened tga textures, saved them as dds and then rename them and assigned them to strat_map models and saved them. I converted them to Cas files but then the game does not start.

Don't change the .cas at all - it needs to stay saying ****.tga!

Convert your .tga to dds and call it ****.tga.dds

ALSO you must leave in the mod folder a .tga called ****.tga - it doesn't matter what it is - to minimise file size I just make a 1 pixel tga and give it the appropriate name.

It's a quirk of the mod-folder system - the .cas file still needs to find the appropriately named .tga or the game will crash - but the texture that actually gets loaded will be the .tga.dds

[makanyane]

The same issue caused a CTD when a city was about to rebel against me(player).

doubt that is related.

Overload of the map...

What exactly is overload?
Less permanent forts.
Less mountain masses maybe?

I think it's more to do with number of textures and unique models - so not how often they appear, but how many different ones there are - which could include the aerial terrain textures per climate, the number of different strat map models for captains and generals, the number of unique faction specific settlement models, the number of unique tree models etc. All I know is you definitely get into problems when you have too many of each, we never managed to track down the exact limit/culprit which is part of the reason PKH isn't going anywhere...

If you've got any strat stuff that uses much larger textures than vanilla (like the pretty trade wagons/boats mod) then I'd try and reduce that!

[Withwnar]

All I know is you definitely get into problems when you have too many of each, we never managed to track down the exact limit/culprit which is part of the reason PKH isn't going anywhere...

Mak, some findings here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?737176

[AnthoniusII]

Mak, some findings here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?737176

Thank you my friend. So a strat_map residences and their textures unused material will do things better.

[Withwnar]

I don't know if that thread will help with your strange lighting problem. I haven't seen that before, only missing shadows.

[AnthoniusII]

I re-loaded the .tga.dds textures of my strat_map models. The 1st ones had MIP maps enabled.
Are MIP maps on those textures nessesary ? By saving the same textures -now with MIP maps disabled option-does this mean that the old MIP maps still exist or now with the new saving those have been deleted?