He had the original idea, what i did is to adapt it to work on Medieval II and i modified it in order to work in a more effective way with no issues. Now it works for Rome 1 and Medieval II, easy to install.
*** Motivation: i understand some limits on TW games (for computational reasons), but many other limits like limiting the zoom of the battle camera are pointless! and it gives a bad user experience! this mod will fix it and set your camera totally free.
*** Mod issues: No issues at all if you follow in detail the steps below. Don't skip reading a single word. The mod is already working perfectly in all mods i have (38 mods for Rome1 and 32 mods in Medieval II. Most famous mods included). (No, I didn't have time to play so many mods, i just installed them, reviewed them and tested my submods are working).
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Now the mod!
I'm going to explain it in a way that any modder, or even final player, can install it in any mod they want (or original game), easily!
Follow the exact same steps for Rome I and for Medieval II. The files and steps are the same!
I'm going to explain it step by step in spoiler, to keep a clean format easy to follow:
Step 1:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Go to "show_me" folder of the mod/main game. Usually this path "D:\pcGAMES\Medieval II - Total War\data\scripts\show_me". Your file path may vary at the beginning depending on where did you installed your game.
If that folder doesn't exist in your mod, create it.
Make a new .txt file, name it this way "camhack.txt" and inside that file introduce this code:
script
declare_show_me
declare_counter have_units_formed_up ;PLAYER LET INTRO FINISH
declare_counter go_to_end_phase ;PLAYER HAS HIT ESCAPE KEY
declare_counter is_script_ready_to_end ;ITS ALL DONE NOW
declare_counter ROMAN_UNITS_TELEPORTED
declare_counter PYRRHUS_UNITS_TELEPORTED
declare_timer Esc_Key_Pressed_Timer ;This is the timer that makes sure you dont get jumping between stuff after esc key is pressed
Step 3 (Do this step only if in the previous step your mod didn't have the code to modify (you must have copy-pasted the whole code i provided in Step 2). If you had everything right in Step 2, you can happily skip this Step 3 and jump to Step 4):
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Go to this file of your mod and delete it, because we need the game to re-generate it again automatically after we played the game:
D:\pcGAMES\Medieval II - Total War\mods\YourMod\data\text\export_advice.txt.strings.bin
Go to this file of your mod:
D:\pcGAMES\Medieval II - Total War\mods\YourMod\data\text\export_advice.txt
(Explanation: you will have a CTD if the text in the previous steps doesn't exist! so you have to make it exist).
Add this code if {Help_Game_Options_Scroll_Battle_Text_01_Text1} and {Help_Game_Options_Scroll_Battle_Text_01_Title} doesn't exist already. If it exist, you can modify the text after that. I suggest to write the instructions to activate the mod, here below:
{Help_Game_Options_Scroll_Battle_Text_01_Title} UNLIMITED ZOOM CAMERA MOD.
{Help_Game_Options_Scroll_Battle_Text_01_Text1} Click Show me how button. Select any unit you want. Press backspace key (or any key you have configured for stopping a unit), your camera will go nuts for a second. Don't worry, press End button to go to the unit you selected and that's it. Your camera is freeeee!!
Step 4:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Go to the .cfg file of the mod (all mods have one .cfg file).
D:\pcGAMES\Medieval II - Total War\mods\YourMod\YourModName.cfg
Make sure in the .cfg file of the mod you have this:
[io]
disable_file_cache = 1
If you don't have it, write it! for gods sake
If you don't do it, the "Show me how" button will be greyed out and can't be clicked. I don't know why it happens, i only know i had that issue and i fixed it this way. Don't worry, this doesn't affect your mod in anything.
HOW TO ACTIVATE THE MOD IN THE GAME:
When you are in a battle, in the deployment phase, press ESC key (you can also do everything later in the battle phase, but you can already free the camera in deployment phase). Then click on the question mark. Then the annoying advisor appears (don't worry, this time the advisor will be helpful for first time in his whole life).
Click "Show me how" button (If the button is greyed out, click on the advisor and the show me how button will go green and will be clickable).
Select any unit you want.
Press backspace key (or any key you have configured for stopping a unit), your camera will go nuts for a second. Don't worry, press End button to go automatically to the unit you selected and that's it. Your camera is freeeee!!
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Hey! Give me credits in your mod!
If you use this submod in any of your mods and publish it, make my name p8q appear somewhere in the credits. Also the name Larmir who had the original idea.
He had the original idea, and i spent a lot of time and sweat learning to script, testing, insulting my computer whenever something didn't work, dreaming about being able to bring unlimited camera for Medieval II, improving the code and the way it works on the game, fixing its issues and downsides, writing this tutorial, etc.
Re: Unlimited zoom for battle camera. For Rome 1, Medieval II and any of their mods. Finished and working! :)
VERY IMPORTANT:
I forgot to mention one thing for this mod to work: your camera in the game has to be set to "TotalWar Camera".
You can change it this way: if you are already in the battlefield, press Escape key, then you just have to click in "Game options" and set "Camera Mode" to "TotalWar Camera". If you are not in the battlefield, and you are in the main menu of the game/mod, you can also set it from the options menu.
Re: Unlimited zoom for battle camera. For Rome 1, Medieval II and any of their mods. Finished and working! :)
UPDATE:
I simplified the code a bit, since i'm declaring counters that the mod doesn't use, heheheh newbie here.
Now the code to insert in "camhack.txt" file is the following:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
script
declare_show_me
declare_counter is_script_ready_to_end
;monitor_event ShortcutTriggered ShortcutTriggered order_halt order_halt order_halt --> use this one for "backspace" key.
;monitor_event ShortcutTriggered ShortcutTriggered object_manager hide_gui --> use this one for "SCROLL_LOCK" key.
while I_CompareCounter is_script_ready_to_end = 0
end_while
end_script
Now in the code you can see two options under comments:
you can use the "backspace" key, or you can use "SCROLL_LOCK" key, whatever you choose. Now i'm using "SCROLL_LOCK" key because this way backspace is used for the units in battle, since scroll_lock we don't use for anything else. But i leave the option "backspace" because not everybody has scroll_lock key in their keyboards.
I hope this little improvement is better this way for you
Re: Unlimited zoom for battle camera. For Rome 1, Medieval II and any of their mods. Finished and working! :)
Little update:
You don't need to repeat order_halt 3 times. Just two times. However, "ShortcutTriggered" and "order_halt "has to be used twice. I don't know why it works that way, i only know it works that way.
Unlimited zoom for battle camera. For Rome 1, Medieval II and any of their mods. Finished and working! :)
Hey! Give me credits in your mod!
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newbie here.
