descr_model_strat

[Augustus Lucifer]

Recently I popped open descr_model_strat.txt while working on adding a faction on my mod, using the tutorial written by DukeofSerbia, I came across this lovely file. What I found in the tutorial was this:

After that you will see bunch of code lines which were used in Rome Total War. Yes, weird. Somebody left them.
Firstly I ignored all those files and game crashed. :wall: So, it is obligation and has to be used.

In other words... he added lines to the area after CA had written this:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; PLACEHOLDER MTW2 MODELS BELOW ;
; REMOVE THESE AFTER ALL NEW MODELS AND TEXTURES ARE IN ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Even the lines of code themselves are downright wacky. They seem to direct to RTW models, which is kind of odd in that you have a merchant line for an RTW faction, princess, etc. And if you actually look at the .tga files for say... merchant_julii.tga, you'll see that it is a diplomat or something, you never see those in-game, and since these are strat map models, it makes absolutely no sense for me to need to pretend my factions are using those files, when it is 95% chance just junk code, because it clearly is used nowhere.

I tried to look at the two most prolific mods that I own for inspiration in the potential fallacy of needing to add faction lines to all of those areas, Broken Crescent and Stainless Steel, but neither of them deviated from what was suggested in the tutorial, there's just a bunch of lines of text linking to un-used models that CA seems to be intending to delete, but probably got lost in a transition.

In light of this, I have come up with a counter-proposal for why DukeofSerbia's mod didn't work when he wasn't entering below that line.

CA never put the admiral models above that line

Every other model is accounted for, but when you get to admirals, it has nothing. The only entries for admirals, are way down in the old junk rome code. So naturally, if a line for the faction was missing, because nothing was added to the admiral section, that means the faction would have no strat map admiral, and it would doubtlessly CTD.

It's my conjecture based on this, that all of the lines south of the remove line should be able to be commented out, so long as the admirals are included. I'm guessing, and I probably would have done the same, that when it CTDed there was checking for any reason possible, and it was seen fit to add the faction entry to all of the strat model types below the line, because CA had done it, regardless of the uselessness of the models, because CA has a tendency for useless but necessary code, and when it worked that was accepted. So, we know that the method of adding to all of those work, but it would save time and exclude junk code if it could be proven that it works if the admiral models are included.

I've taken this approach on my mod, and will report back if I can determine it working. At the same time though, any CTDs I might get could also stem from the fact I've been adding new type entries in every section since I overall dislike using the vanilla internal names, it just seems lazy and unorganized. So if anyone sees this and wants to test it, backup descr_models_strat.txt in a working mod, and either comment out or remove all of the lines south of the remove notice, except those pertaining to admirals, and see if it works. Hopefully it does.

Cheers,
Augustus

[Eothese]

I'll give it a go now...

@Edit
Ok it looks like you are in the main correct, an experimental delete of everything between ;PLACEHOLDER MTW2 MODELS BELOW and ;ADMIRALS resulted in a CTD
However, the log showed the game needed the princess info, so returning this section and another load up later resulted in success, game runs fine no error logs...
+ rep for employing logic

[Augustus Lucifer]

After commenting out the sections specified, I started getting this error:

07:07:59.562 [data.invalid] [error] Unable to find character model assassin for character type assassin.

For a little while this confused me a bit, since it seemed to indicate the lines I commented out were needed for something, but that seems an over-simplified reason. So I looked in the descr_character.txt on a whim after mulling over it for a bit and found this line:

faction aztecs
dictionary 1
strat_model assassin

All of the factions except aztecs and slave, use a strat model like northern_assassin, southern_assassin, etc. This assassin line is not pointing to a section in the top of the file however. It is pointing to this entry:

;;TEMPORARY;;

;type				assassin
;skeleton			strat_assassin
;scale				0.7
;indiv_range			40
;texture				venice, models_strat/textures/assassin_julii.tga
;texture				sicily, models_strat/textures/assassin_brutii.tga
;texture				milan, models_strat/textures/assassin_scipii.tga
;texture				papal_states, models_strat/textures/assassin_senate.tga
;texture				denmark, models_strat/textures/assassin_macedon.tga
;texture				egypt, models_strat/textures/assassin_egypt.tga
;texture				scotland, models_strat/textures/assassin_seleucid.tga
;texture				aztecs, models_strat/textures/assassin_carthage.tga
;texture				mongols, models_strat/textures/assassin_parthia.tga
;texture				turks, models_strat/textures/assassin_pontus.tga
;texture				france, models_strat/textures/assassin_gaul.tga
;texture				hre, models_strat/textures/assassin_german.tga
;texture				england, models_strat/textures/assassin_briton.tga
;texture				saxons, models_strat/textures/assassin_german.tga
;texture				normans, models_strat/textures/assassin_briton.tga
;texture				portugal, models_strat/textures/assassin_armenia.tga
;texture				poland, models_strat/textures/assassin_dacia.tga
;texture				byzantium, models_strat/textures/assassin_greek.tga
;texture				moors, models_strat/textures/assassin_numidia.tga
;texture				russia, models_strat/textures/assassin_scythia.tga
;texture				spain, models_strat/textures/assassin_spain.tga
;texture				hungary, models_strat/textures/assassin_thrace.tga
;texture				timurids, models_strat/textures/assassin_parthia.tga
;texture				slave, models_strat/textures/assassin_slave.tga
;model_flexi			models_strat/assassin.cas, max
;shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/assassin.cas, max

You can see in the spy area of descr_character.txt, they commented out the aztecs, which is why this error reads the file down to assassin before erroring, since I commented out the reference point.

My guess is whoever was doing the file associating at CA thought this was a jim dandy way for the game to work, since I guess the aztecs can't recruit assassin's anyways, or they would show up like a rome model based on what they link to. The same is true for aztec diplomats, who if they were implemented without change would look like diplomat_carthage.tga(as well as Aztec Merchants and Priests). Furthermore, it is true for Egypt, Mongols, Turks, Moors, and Timurids(and aztec/slave) for the Princess model, because also, to my knowledge, the muslim and emergent factions don't have princesses. this is quickly confirmed by a check showing them all to have "can_have_princess no" in descr_sm_factions.txt.

So this leads to two possible solutions I'd think. The first is adding a different model, like southern_assassin et al for the aztecs, and same for the muslim princesses. Then adding a texture line to that model for the faction in the descr_model_strat.txt and in theory it shouldn't be referencing any of the files south of the line, besides admirals, any more. The other option is to comment out the lines in descr_character.txt for the agent for the faction, which CA already had done for Aztec Spies. I haven't tried either yet, wanted to post this so others could conjecture, I'll be trying the latter option of commenting out now and report back on the results.

--------------------------------------

EDIT

It works it looks like. The reason that Eothese was getting it to work by keeping the princesses, is he was probably testing it on his "Expanded Americas" mod. My guess is he did some toying previously with the Aztecs, so they wouldn't have been problematic in the descr_character.txt since according to his mod:

"-All Aztec buildings and agents from Americas mod added."

That means the only problems in descr_character.txt would have been with the Muslim princesses. So the actual solution is you can remove all of the lines south of this notice:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; PLACEHOLDER MTW2 MODELS BELOW ;
; REMOVE THESE AFTER ALL NEW MODELS AND TEXTURES ARE IN ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

EXCEPT FOR THE ADMIRALS!!!!

You need to move the Admiral section, shown here:

type				julii_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				venice, models_strat/textures/navy_galley.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_galley.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				brutii_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				sicily, models_strat/textures/navy_galley.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_galley.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				scipii_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				milan, models_strat/textures/navy_galley.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_galley.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				senate_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				papal_states, models_strat/textures/navy_galley.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_galley.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				macedon_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				denmark, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				carthage_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				aztecs, models_strat/textures/navy_carthage.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_greek.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				parthia_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				mongols, models_strat/textures/navy_dhow.tga
texture				timurids, models_strat/textures/navy_dhow.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_dhow.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				egypt_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				egypt, models_strat/textures/navy_dhow.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_dhow.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				seleucid_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				scotland, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				pontus_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				turks, models_strat/textures/navy_galley.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_galley.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				gaul_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				france, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				german_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				hre, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
texture				saxons, models_strat/textures/navy_german.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				briton_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				england, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
texture				normans, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				armenia_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				portugal, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				dacia_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				poland, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				greek_cities_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				byzantium, models_strat/textures/navy_galley.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_galley.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				numidia_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				moors, models_strat/textures/navy_galley.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_galley.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				scythia_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				russia, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				spain_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				spain, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				thrace_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				hungary, models_strat/textures/navy_cog.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

type				slave_admiral
skeleton			strat_navy
indiv_range			40
texture				slave, models_strat/textures/navy_slave.tga
model_flexi			models_strat/navy_cog.cas, max
shadow_model_flexi	models_strat/navy_roman_shadow.cas, max

Into the admiral section above the delete text left by CA. Then, you need to go into descr_character.txt and comment out the lines for Aztec in Assassin, Priest, Diplomat, and Princess(Spy is already done for you). You also have to comment out the lines for Moors, Egypt, Mongols, Turks, and Timurids in the Princesses area. So the descr_character.txt should have the three muslim and two steppe factions commented out in princesses, and aztec/slave commented out everywhere except general, captain, and admiral, which have valid entries.

If you do this, you should be able to run the game with no problems, and not have to add your new factions to all those junk lines and pretend that they are actually used for anything meaningful.

Cheers,
Augustus