modding campaign map

[apg]

excellent work spartan_warrior.

Now if someone proposes a mod idea im interested in, i may be inclined to join.

[♔The Black Knight♔]

I see this project would be pretty huge, but how much time would it take to make a small square with some provinces and some mountains?

It would be a great resourse to observe.

[spartan_warrior]

Just a little update, I've been working on preparing my data to begin work on a map, while doing that I noticed the datasets I was using were far too detailed for the size map I am trying to make. I was using vector data for 1:10,000,000 scale maps, and there was just way to many vertices, I don't think the game would be able that many. So I instead switched to 1:50,000,000 vector data and that seems perfect, about the same ratio of vertices per area as the FOTS map. Heres a sample of what will hopefully one day work in game...

[daniu]

Heres a sample of what will hopefully one day work in game...

Still looks great.
I'd take less of Africa and go deeper in Russia in the North though... it's going to be needed in case anyone wants to remake Napoleon with the Shogun engine and for Rome-era stuff, some more Mongolean territory. I don't know how hard it would be to rotate.

[spartan_warrior]

Still looks great.
I'd take less of Africa and go deeper in Russia in the North though... it's going to be needed in case anyone wants to remake Napoleon with the Shogun engine and for Rome-era stuff, some more Mongolean territory. I don't know how hard it would be to rotate.

That is possible but i am hesitant to good too large, as we still don't know that that limit for map size in the Warscape engine is yet. I don't want to make something too big only to have it not work. I'll test the waters with this, as really this map is intended for a Roman or Medieval setting.

For an Napoleon or Empire setting we would ideally want the Americas as well. Really once I get this one working I may go larger including all of Eurasia or even global, but for now I want something manageable to work with, as if this map isn't ambitious enough...

[Dynamo11]

Just a little update, I've been working on preparing my data to begin work on a map, while doing that I noticed the datasets I was using were far too detailed for the size map I am trying to make. I was using vector data for 1:10,000,000 scale maps, and there was just way to many vertices, I don't think the game would be able that many. So I instead switched to 1:50,000,000 vector data and that seems perfect, about the same ratio of vertices per area as the FOTS map. Heres a sample of what will hopefully one day work in game...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Amazing

[88HaZZarD88]

Just a little update, I've been working on preparing my data to begin work on a map, while doing that I noticed the datasets I was using were far too detailed for the size map I am trying to make. I was using vector data for 1:10,000,000 scale maps, and there was just way to many vertices, I don't think the game would be able that many. So I instead switched to 1:50,000,000 vector data and that seems perfect, about the same ratio of vertices per area as the FOTS map. Heres a sample of what will hopefully one day work in game...

compliments !!

[Litany of fury]

Just a little update, I've been working on preparing my data to begin work on a map, while doing that I noticed the datasets I was using were far too detailed for the size map I am trying to make. I was using vector data for 1:10,000,000 scale maps, and there was just way to many vertices, I don't think the game would be able that many. So I instead switched to 1:50,000,000 vector data and that seems perfect, about the same ratio of vertices per area as the FOTS map. Heres a sample of what will hopefully one day work in game...

If this works out, that map could be incredibly interesting especially with the ways to access India. You could sail through the Suez canal, rendering that province vital to trade routes etc, or conquer your way through the middle east to access India. It would add a new perspective to the whole way of playing total war, EPIC.

[Sogdog]

ur a legend if you make this work!

[wangrin]

Excellent work spartan_warrior

For people interested in GIS softwares, QGIS (Quantum GIS) is free.


About bigger map, it would be interesting to know if we can use "theaters" like with ETW

[PietroMicca]

Excellent work spartan_warrior

For people interested in GIS softwares, QGIS (Quantum GIS) is free.


About bigger map, it would be interesting to know if we can use "theaters" like with ETW

it shouldn't be a great problem

we can generate each theatre as a separate campaign map, than I can work directly on esf files using taw's tools. I can manually handle transition areas between theatres.

There are 3 kind of problem.

1 - I don't know for sure if regions.esf in Shogun 2 has a format similar to Empire and Napoleon, because I haven't Shogun 2 (but taw told me that the great differences are in startpos and pathfinding)
2 - We haven't in Shogun 2 a UI to highlight transition areas
3 - Manage trade_routes between theatres is very hard and long and it needs a sort of mixed-work using both 3ds and taw's tools

[coolgit]

For people interested in GIS softwares, QGIS (Quantum GIS) is free.

Cheers.

About bigger map, it would be interesting to know if we can use "theaters" like with ETW

Agree....including South America and Africa....5 theatres....Australasia and Far East.....7 theatres

[wangrin]

Sorry - double post

[spartan_warrior]

One thing I noticed in the sample .max files is that there is an unused layer called 'transition zones' in that there are a few rectangular polygons, I'm guessing those are for the areas which link the theatres.

[PietroMicca]

yes spartan_warrior exactly
this a confirmation
theatres are still active even in Shogun 2

February 17 2011

This is a quite old explanation of transition areas

[wangrin]

Layers in .max file (FotS map) :

• Borders.cs2
• Bridges.cs2
• Groundtypes.cs2
• Land_Trade_Routes.cs2 [none]
• Land_Trade_Routes.cs2 [working]
• Moutains.cs2
• Playable_area.cs2
• Railways.cs2
• Regions.cs2 (grids)
• Rivers.cs2
• Roads.cs2
• Sea_Groundtypes.cs2 (grids)
• Settlements.cs2 [farms]
• Settlements.cs2 [ports]
• Settlements.cs2 [region specialties]
• Settlements.cs2 [settlements]
• Settlements.cs2 [stations]
• Toms_rail_pieces
• Trades_routes.cs2 [none] (sea international trade routes (usa/france/great-britain)
• Trades_routes.cs2 [working]
• _camera_for_render
• _Guide_image
• _heighmap (composed of heighmap_2D and heighmap (grayscales heighmap))
• _Port_Coast_Areas (Coastal batteries bombardment area)
• _Railway Guide
• __Borders_For_Render (composed of Moutains_Borders, Region_Borders and Land_Borders)
• __Camera_For_Render
• __GUIDE_Settlements
• __OLD_Regionsmap
• __Port_for_rendering
• __Region_Label_Highlights
• __Region_Labels
• __Region_for_Rendering
• __Rivers_for_Rendering
• __Roads_for_Rendering
• __Sea_Crossings_for_Render
• __Settlements_for_Rendering
• __Trade_Routes_for_Rendering
• rail_lod1

We can found more layers in S2TW .max map such as __GUIDE_transition_zone or Coasts.cs2

[99Androidguy777]

This thread is awesome , I look forward to seeing where this goes, as I am new to modding.

[Kruppe the Magnificent]

For Middle Earth or other fantasy type settings it may be worth looking at maps made in terragen, i know they can be converted/imported to 3dmax.
With the new tools possibly for battle maps also?
Any kind of collection of open source base maps converted into useable 3dmax that can be put together would be a treasure trove in terms of attempting a large scale mod on warscape.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Good luck guys but for s sake can people just start small. Get a smaller map working before you try to make a completely new map. At least see if you can change a region border and make it run in game.

[ScottishClansmen]

hello all map enthusiasts. i personally am not a huge fan of shogun 2 but i do won it and i also am very excited at the news of all this work especially Spartans propositions. i do have one objection though. no matter what game, ETW, NTW, S2TW, RTW2, or future titles, we have to think of what parts of the world are relevant. northern Russia, no offense, is not populated and doesn't really matter, even for the sake of napoleon, Moscow is not in the center of Russia, it is closer to Europe, anyway i have a model of what the map should include using the ETW theater system.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: