Forts: Everything you need to know about permanent, stone and/or buildable forts

[UraniumAtom]

Use a spare faction and then freeze the AI.

That would be my reply as well; it is the most 'simple' way IMO...

[UraniumAtom]

So can something like this be done to place watchtowers on the battle map too? Or better yet replace them with besiegable forts so that maybe on the general characters' menu you could see the choice between building a small fort and a large one, rather than the fort and watchtower?

If I understand your question correctly (can watchtowers be replaced by another fort type), my response would be that I don't think this can or will work. The game only recognized one type ('fort'), which can be turned on or off. The watchtower can only be placed on the map, it has no bmm, so I do not see how you can add this feature (i.e. I can see how, but that would require coding skills beyond mine and yours )

Excellent! and exactly what i was looking for to answer one question i had - Q: I want forts to look different for each faction; is this possible?

T H A N K Y O U

Yes, this is possible. Simply alter the faction (change 'any' into a specific faction name). This will however not work on the campaign map, since the models are culture (instead of faction) bound...

[gilgalad]

Hello, was hoping someone can address my problem here. I have been adding stone forts to SS 6.4. Using Gigantus tutorial, I was able to get stone forts on the battle map. I then wanted to add them on the campaign map and using Impspy's instructions (here in closed thread: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...=315569&page=2), I did but I first had to unpack M2 to edit one of the files--I imagine that has caused the problem and I will have to reinstall SS 6.4??, and maybe M2TW also?? I hope that is wrong. Or maybe there is something I can fix easily??

If that is not it, as far as the fort edits, I set the forts as buildable and permanent (thus expensive to build as I want them to represent castles). I have not manipulated anything related to battle maps or units but I then tried a battle and got a CTD. The Custom Battles just gave "unspecified error" so I started a campaign and started a battle and got this message in the Log:

16:41:35.156 [data.invalid] [error] BATTLE_MAP_AREAS unhandled situation : See Charlie
16:42:14.328 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.

So who is Charlie? or, more important, why am I getting a CTD on battles from changes to campaign map files?? Any ideas of what might have caused this would be helpful for me to find and fix the error. But I bet someone will tell be the unpacking M2TW with SS already installed is the issue. Thanks for any help.

[irishron]

Charlie was a programmer for CA in Brisbane that dis appreared before all this.

I always unpacked before installing mods so I don't know about doing it reverse. Odds are it's in the battle map because it can't read the file for the fort.

[gilgalad]

Well that is a good clue but I undid everything since the unpacking by replacing edits with my backup files and folder and still the same CTD. I can only recon that is from the unpacking. In fact, M2TW will not run other than SS (not sure if that is normal or not)

Even if it is not, I am at a loss as to the problem. Thanks for the help regardless. If I have the same trouble in a couple days when I get back to editing campaign map forts, I will know that is the trouble, but hopefully not.

[Polycarpe]

Maybe you've forgot to delete the Descr_geography files (there's two files, just type geography). Usually, this causes CTD when you enter in battle (if I understand correctly, you've unpack the files, so it should be the cause).

Back onto my question. It is possible to make the PSF act as Castle in any way? (building and recruiting units, etc.).

[Eothese]

Back onto my question. It is possible to make the PSF act as Castle in any way? (building and recruiting units, etc.).

You can change a castle model for a stone fort, but that's as far as it goes. Each region can have only one settlement in it and you need an actual settlement for the buildings and recruitment.

[Polycarpe]

Let see if it's possible. If I succeed to add permanent villages. Can I give a globall bonus on farm_output as long the faction hold it?

[Gorrrrrn]

You can make a village into a "fort" and place on the strat map and have it in battle maps.
Just give it a different name than other forts and do all the necessary changes.
(I'm pretty certain wilddog and makanyane have done this already.)
But once you've stuck it on the map there's not much else you can do with it in terms of extra buildings etc AFAIK.
The AI will treat it as a fort, and may even defend it instead of the main region settlement.

So unless you're planning some role-play elements (which could be interesting) they're little more than eye-candy on a map - or a big obstacle on a battle map.

You can probably script all sorts of things relating to forts of any description if you have time and patience.
In terms of holding you can check if a fort has a garrison and you you check if a faction is at that location.
(And also have counters for every faction and fort to cover the times they leave a fort unoccupied.
and check if the faction has been destroyed as it then reverts to the rebel faction if it has a garrison.)
You can then script something relating to that.
But you'll need the same script for every faction and for every location you want to check.
Do-able for a few special locations, but beyond that it gets progressively tedious and I suspect will slow down the game if done to excess.

(in the past I tried doing something to allow characters to buy horses from farms (on strat map as "forts") but it got too complicated and I put to one side.)

As for having a spy inside a fort to name it, I should point out that if he belongs to any faction apart from the current owner, he may well get killed or kicked out on any turn he's in there.
Although I now understand the trick is to place the spy NEXT to the fort - duh.

[Polycarpe]

Got some questions

• It is possible to assign another battlemap type? (Like putting a undefended village instead of a fort).
• It is possible to make the fort to generate income? If so, how it will be displayed?
• I've spotted something in the descr_Strats about the forts.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

farming_level 0
famine_threat 0

I am not sure about it but the farming_level is as in the EDB, it gives more food/farm production.
The famine_threat is something obscure to me, does it makes the farming output negative??

• Is there any limits of PSF that a map can substain?

If all those can be done, I may reworked my own way of customize my mod.
Regards.

[markhaselb]

Custom battle plans from existing settlements can be done, it's very easy, only text editing basically. For example I have forts that look like the southern european large town:

fort    99 373 fort_s_ltown culture southern_european

In IWTE you have to change add only the .worldpkgdesc file for the new fort. The entries looks something like this:

Fort_S_LTown
settlement  settlements/south_european/settlements/large town/south_european_large_town_a.world
culture   northern_european
environment   generic
faction   any
fortificationlevel   1
type   default_fort
variant   fort_s_ltown

the file itself sits in the folder data\settlements\north_european\ambient_settlements\fort_town and I put all my other forts there. The culture in the descr_strat.txt apparently has nothing to do with the fort itself, but only with the appearance on the strat map.
You will have to set the fortificationlevel manually, I saw a guideline somewhere in the forum, possibly in this thread. Villages without fortification are possible, too, I tested that already.
In the larger settlements you will have large gaps filled with grass, however they can not be passed by units. This is usually the place where churches and town halls stand, but in a fort there is no way to recognize that.

[Gigantus]

farming_level and famine_threat are a left over from previous versions of the engine (RTW and earlier) - no effect whatsoever in M2TW but needs to be there for the coding.

[Polycarpe]

Thanks markhaselb for answering my question. +rep.

OK, that's a bad new to hear it doesn't work. Is there any way to make the forts being able to produce farming level?
Also, does anyone knows about if the PSF can generate money?

[Gigantus]

PSFs can't generate money (like a settlement through trade and tax). You might be able to get something to work via the script, but that requires some nifty footwork and will simply be a condition\command matter if you get it to work.

[markhaselb]

Concerning the money: RubiconDecision posted somewhere that he may have found a way for forts to generate money when you edit something in the battle editor.

My approach to the problem was that I wrote monitors for the campaign script that can identify which fort was captured, then spawn a general inside the fort. The general would get a trait that reduces all his movement points so that he can't move out of the fort and the campaign script would give money to the player for every general that has this trait.
Unfortunately this needs tons of triggers, so I dismissed the idea after I figured out how to identify which fort was captured.

[Gigantus]

My approach to the problem was that I wrote monitors for the campaign script that can identify which fort was captured, then spawn a general inside the fort. The general would get a trait that reduces all his movement points so that he can't move out of the fort and the campaign script would give money to the player for every general that has this trait.
Unfortunately this needs tons of triggers, so I dismissed the idea after I figured out how to identify which fort was captured.

That's what I meant with nifty footwork.
Haven't heard about RD's thing, but I think you mean the world editor, if at all.

[AJStoner]

Concerning the money: RubiconDecision posted somewhere that he may have found a way for forts to generate money when you edit something in the battle editor.

My approach to the problem was that I wrote monitors for the campaign script that can identify which fort was captured, then spawn a general inside the fort. The general would get a trait that reduces all his movement points so that he can't move out of the fort and the campaign script would give money to the player for every general that has this trait.
Unfortunately this needs tons of triggers, so I dismissed the idea after I figured out how to identify which fort was captured.

The problem here is that, from what I have seen, heard, and tried myself, you can't completely immobilize a general or agent; they will always be able to move by at least 1.

[markhaselb]

You can lock him, though it is important that the general has only 100 movement in the descr_characters.txt and that the trait gives -100 movement (other traits that increase movement have to be removed of course). He will not have any tiles left then.

[AJStoner]

You can lock him, though it is important that the general has only 100 movement in the descr_characters.txt and that the trait gives -100 movement (other traits that increase movement have to be removed of course). He will not have any tiles left then.

Ah! That could have been the problem, we were using an increased mp descr_character file...

[wolfslayer]

I missed this thread when it was first posted, very interesting for me because I'm trying to get Greek culture to load settlements including forts from it's own folders in ss64, exactly in the same structure shown here, but they still default to south_european models on the battlemap. The reason why I'm not sure of yet. But from the info here, it seems it is definitely possible...

Just curious if anyone else has created greek buildable or perm forts and has them loading properly..