Anyone know: successful creation of new buildng items ??

[webbird]

for the well known custom roman fort, i allways wanted to add the roman greek standalone watchtower at the four corners.

I had read the tutorials here and at the org, loaded the item into 3dmax.
then i ungrouped the model, removed lod2, edited lod1 by removing the little wall and gate around the model.
I used the the 3dmax plugin sceene root to create a scene root and saved the resulting model as:

webb greek standalone watchtower_lod1.cas
and
webb greek standalone watchtower_lod2.cas

both files i put into the folder descr_building_battle as told in the tutorial and started the game.
there was no new automatically created item , as told in the tutorial.

can anyone tell me how it must be done to get a new item?

[Thor the Bassist]

Several problems.

I believe that you cannot use spaces in your file names as games dont understand these - use underscores (_).

You must put the cas files in the models_buildings folder not descr_battle_building.

This should make an item file in the items folder.

[webbird]

Thanks for the answer Thor!
This are my typos thor, i used underscores and also had it in the model building folder. But the new file was not created.

[Thor the Bassist]

It sounds like you haven't unpacked all the files in the packs folder and are not running the game from a mod folder.

I'd advise you create a mod folder and I'll explain why here with a little detour.

Most games, as you may well know, work by loading up assets in a specific order and some take precedence over others where there are doubles. Games are also never released in open format - with assets in normal folders - they are always released with assets in some packed file (or files) as this helps keep the details of the game secret for a while and also helps with the reliable running of the game.

Rome Total War loads up assets like this (as i gather) with 1 being prefered to 2 etc for any double files.
1. Mod folders - the game must be first instructed to open things from these folders but then the game uses these files ALWAYS. These are the modders way to tell the game, undeniably, what files it should load and are used by all major mods for all games.
2. Packs - the games default setting is to use the files packed away in the original install (or later patches) and from this these files are protected from damage from prying fingers.
3. Open game files - these are the files in the data folder and are used if the game cannot find the file in the pack files.

So I would advise making a folder in the RTW folder or bi folder (depends whether you're running on bi or vanilla) with the name of your mod as its name and put all the files you have changed in this folder in the folder system they are in in the game (so with data folder and all other folders that are associated with your files). Then copy your RTW shortcut on the desktop and paste a new one. Then put -mod:[modname] in the target line.

The mod folder has many advantages including crucially that you cannot break the original game and so if worst comes to worst you can recopy the file from the original set of folders.

[webbird]

Dear Thor,
thank you very much for your explaination! This is well known to me and all my modifications like my europe270bc mod too, use the mymod parameter.
Anyway thank you for it, so someone new to modding can find a clue here too.


I HAVE DONE IT !!
Big thanks to Halie Satanus and Drak which supported me with the needed knowledge to create a new building item and add it successful to the game.

A long time ago, in 2005, i discovered the former marching camp and the roman camp plan with stake walls in Rtw1.3
Later in 2006, Lt build a working wooden wall around it.
I had found also the roman greek standalone watchtower item and allways wanted to add it to the plan for decoration but it had to be edited.........

Three major facts were the clues for the "break-through"
I.
Allways i was thinking i need to save 1 cas for every lod level of the building and from that the game creates a new item, wrong!
you must save it three times, for example if you need high and low cas,
save from 3dmax as:
xxxxxbuilding_new.cas
and
xxxxxbuilding_new_high.cas
and
xxxxxbuilding_new_low.cas
and with that THREE files the game will create a new item file.

II.
My version of vercingetorix casplugin does not save multiple textures to one model but the tower used four textures and for the tower ladder even with transparency.
I created one new texture and remapped every mesh of the model........
But to let the game know that it has to use transparency on that buildings texture you need to add ## in front of the textures name!!
like: ##mynew_tower.tga.dds, that way it works!

III.
the creation of the new desr_items.db and the addition of a new building in
dbb_nicks_roman_buildings.txt and other files.

In matter of collision, i used: physical_info none
because i dont know how to make a new info file for it. so it has no collision which is good, it does not stand in the way of pathfinding

Results:
the new item is now part of my custom plan for the former marching camp (no real enclosing wooden wall but a cool working battlefield decoration)
and for my custom roman fort plan which includes full working surrounding wooden wall with gate, in front of the ditch (thanks to Lt )
if you look from the outside, the wooden walls will only cover the earthworks but not the stakes on top of it and that looks good and acceptable ( let it be a further developed camp for winter ;O)

pics:

[webbird]

Thor in another thread i could read about your work on walls for fortress of lord of the rings, maybe you can help me to add the stake walls as new realy working walls ???
they dont need to be destructable only that i can add a wooden gate section at the gateway points and then the game accepts it as full wall loop then and the gates work ( the gate section should be destructable of course)

the result will be a camp with ditch, stakes on top of the earthworks and a working wooden gate. That would be perfect, much more then wooden walls all around for a short time camp, from my point of view ;O)

[Ramashan]

I think you just answered the same problem I ran into Webbird. I was under the impression that I could get away with using one CAS model and it would load. I will try using the three as you have done and see what the results are.

In some ways I'm glad to see that someone else is working on the same problem and finding the answer that I may follow in their foot steps.

Keep up the good work Webbird. The fort looks great!

Thor: Thanks for your help

[Solo1906]

Nice Work Webbird and to All! I love projects like this - there is so much still to be improved upon in this game that can only make it better and better.

[dvk901]

Great stuff, Webbird. It really looks GOOD!!

[Ramashan]

This discussion helped me finally get a building to load into the battle map.

However, I was able to get it to load with only one CAS model and edited the desc_items.txt file to to have one lod entry for 4000 range.

It created a new Item and resolved the problem of the building disappearing when I zoomed out.

Now I don't know if this method is going to give me a problem in the future after I replace all my buildings with high rez CAS files. But it definitely makes it more efficient to have one CAS rather than 3.

Another thing I was doing wrong, just as an FYI for other people trying to add buildings, is that since I was 'simply' trying to replace a pre-existing building, I didn't think that I had to move the buildings entry in desc_items.txt. I was wrong.

Something Thor the Bassist mentioned in a PM tipped me off, he said to 'quit out of the error when you are rebuilding the items.db or it will re-create all the items'. This made me think that the program creates the Item as it gives the error. So, I moved the entry to the top of the list and walla! the new Item was created. (although I accidently deleted some walls somehow because I clicked through many of the errors during one load)

Although Alpaca's tutorial says to place your new entry at the top, it didn't say anything about old entries, so I did understand the importance. Well, I hope that helps or perhaps I was the only one confused on this.

[pacco]

Excellent! That fort looks great!

[Thor the Bassist]

Nice work the fort is looking good.

By add the walls as 'real' walls do you mean that currently they are simple buildings.

The main thing you need to do is change the descr_walls.txt so that whichever wall you want to be replaced by your walls has your walls as the model. The only problem is the lengths of the wall sections must correspond with the length of the original wall sections so import the previous wall.

I hope this helps but if not feel free to ask questions.

PS you asked about the tokien work?

[webbird]

I am happy about all your interrested responses, thank you much !!!
Nice to be "at home" again...
For many, Rome total war is maybe outdated but i still love it !

Ramashan,
i edited the roman greek standalone watchtower item and used the lines for that building in the descr_items as guide. Therefore i added two lod levels like the original had.
Also i made the whole creation process from my mod folder with _mymod parameter. in the mod folder i created the items folder and the others,
there i moved all of the ‘vanilla’ buildings .item files after extracting them from the packs, there i created the new items db etc.

Thor the Bassist,
i visited your middelearth thread , great work !!! i guess its a kind of "live-time" project :O)
With your expierience it must be possible to recreate a realistic alesia scene with all the roman fortifications around the settlement hill of alesia......one of my old dreams.

Related to the walls, i realy dont know but if it is possible to give a set of stake wall pieces the same values or partly the same, as common wooden wall pieces have, then it is maybe possible to just add one of the short wooden wall gateways to the set and get a working, by the game accepted in the battle editor, wall loop and therefore working gates for the camp. maybe you have expierience with the matter through your own projects.
my english is not the best , sorry if i am a little humble with the description of my thoughts.

And if possible, when you have time for it, it would be nice to learn from you, how to make a proper info file bpi for the new created tower version.

[Taelok]

Wow great stuff webbird, good to see you back here.

[webbird]

Taelok, thank you!! :O)


here you see, how the fort looks, if your general builds a fort in the game. when my plan is used. Its bigger then vanilla and fully working.

[Ramashan]

That looks amazing, great job Webbird. Are you going to be offering this as a mini-mod?

[Thor the Bassist]

I'm not sure but I think just adding a gateway will mess with the AI and cause really bad errors (this is something I need to work on with my current work). I would advise modding it so that the wall sections for a certain faction use your wall sections. I know this is a bit of work but its the best way to do it. This also will mean that you can use the bpi files from the original walls. For walls, custom bpi files dont seem to work so there must be something that the community hasn't been told about by CA. This means that if you want your walls to be assaultable and gateways to be assaultable you need to use original vanilla bpi files.

[Salvor Hardin]

Wow, Webbird, this looks really impressive!

By the way, check your PM

[MasterOfNone]

Nice work.

I have an interest in having my settlements' walls raised on earthworks with an outer ditch surrounding the settlement (i.e. outside the walls)...

Has any mod done this or is it possible/easy to do? (I do not have 3d modelling software)

[Thor the Bassist]

(I do not have 3d modelling software)

Unfortunately not without 3d modelling software. For those interested this involves modding the underlay file to include the ditch and hill and then modding the settlement plan to put the walls higher (the last number after all the border buildings).

*Note that the gate doesn't have to be at the same level as the ground which the ram stands on to ram it. The ram effectively must be at the right x and y co-ordinates but the z co-ordinate doesn't matter so creating the ditch doesn't mess up any AI*