[QUESTION] How do I stop city expansion animations?

[Hazbones]

One of the things that I really cannot stand looking at in Rome 2 is the "Game-of-Thrones" style city expansion that occurs when you upgrade your city structures. I guess it really wouldn't be so bad if the map was about 3x bigger so that Rome does not cover the entire central part of Italy but, right now it just looks silly.

My question is: can anyone assist me with modding the city upgrades in order to STOP the GOT style expansions and just keep the city at the initial starting city size no matter what buildings are there or their level?

In theory, this should be as easy as replacing the animations with the same ones along the whole building upgrade chain but I am not sure which tables I should work on to do this.
Can anyone lend some expertise or reveal the outcomes of their own testing?

[crzyrndm]

So you want to keep the city at as small a size as possible? I'm not actually sure you can properly.

Campaign_settlement_display_... tables, delete everything except the entries which reference the central structures. You'll lose the walls, but you cant control those to my knowledge.

EDIT

Might be enough just to clean out campaign_settlement_display_building_ids

[Errabundi]

You'll lose the walls, but you cant control those to my knowledge.

Do you loose 'em on battle map too?

[Hazbones]

I was just so giddy that someone actually replied with a lead to solving my issue I decided to +rep you.

I will try this out and see what happens. Will report back when I get a screenie.

EDIT: tried it and of course, it wasn't that simple. No effect deleting the display_building_ids

[crzyrndm]

Try this. Thats what Rome should always look like (bar changes from upgrading the central structure). Applies to everything else too ofcourse.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Errabundi]

Try this. Thats what Rome should always look like (bar changes from upgrading the central structure). Applies to everything else too ofcourse.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Could you please explain how did you achieve that? I'd like to play with it a little trying to leave the walls and ports. If it's possible of course.

[Hazbones]

What do I need to change in your file to give Rome a low level walled city permanently? I'd like to make all the minor towns have the level 1 unwalled model and the major cities have walls.

I will test your test file right now.

Thanks!

EDIT: I tested your file and it works great! Now, if you can tell me how to bump the major cities to a permanent size walled city then I will be a happy camper!

[Errabundi]

I'm in! SInce I hate the looks of megalopolis blocking all the map, I' d love to also add walls to every city on the map. Is it possible?

[crzyrndm]

Problem is that all that pack does is hide the walls/structures that make up the rest of the city (hover over the city and the yellow highlight is still the size of the vanilla city). Unless you create a new building model that includes the walls, I can't do anything there.

@Errabundi
Battlemaps are not affected in any way. Tried that already, and it's a buggy mess.

[Errabundi]

That's actually good for me. I want to leave zone of control as it is, just to get rid of those ridiculous metropolis on quite nice map. It annoys me to extreme levels. Other thing I want to add are the wall to every city; it's another feature I'm missing. Can't find right file/string though...

[Hazbones]

I haven't had the chance to play or mod much over the past week so can't answer that but it is the same thing I was wondering.
What crzyrndm posted in his attachment is great and works for most cities but I too would like to give walls to the major cities just to make them stand out on the map (but without the grow animation).

crzyrndm, you don't have to do the work for us, just tell me which tables and columns to change and I can do my own modding.

Thanks!

EDIT: Well, just checking the original data2 file with the modded tables crzyrndm gave us in the attachment, it looks like he just deleted everything in the first two tables (obviously) and then the remaining tables deleted any record that did not have "city" in the key name. I would assume this means that putting the "wall" entries back in there will give a city back its visual wall on the map. I will have to play with this theory but right now I gotta hit the rack. Got work in a few hours.

[Errabundi]

I'll play around a little with these files. But since I haven't modded anything since Medieval 2, I cannot say I 'd discover something extraordinary. I need some explanation what certain files do and I'm digging trough the Shogun 2 modding forums to find the answers.

Anyway I'll update the thread once I find something.

Thanks!

PS. It might be it has something to do with sprawl pieces.

[Errabundi]

OK, first remark. Campaign map is definitely connected with battle map (good!). I removed all the cities from CM and after I attacked what should be enemy settlement the battle started in the field. Now I'll try to put walls to a minor settlement

[Errabundi]

The picture speaks better than words so I will show you, what I want to accomplish. All the cities should look like Tarsus all the time, even after expansion. Ports should be presented like strait crossing.



Of course it would be great to add some fields (like in Shogun 2), but I really don't need anything else and growing cities make me mad. While I can accept such solution in Civilization V (where you can see all the wonders and palace in your cities), in TW series it's too much.

[crzyrndm]

Docks can be done, it's just a matter of making all levels reference the model for the first. Keeping the city like that requires a single model unless someone can actually change how expansion happens. If you just unhide the walls, it'll expand and leave a bunch of grassy space insde the walls.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Nice work.

[Petroniu]

Sweet stuff you guys are doing! Keep it up! This would make Rome 2's map certainly more interesting!

[crzyrndm]

I'm confused as to where you think this is going...

[Mirni]

yes nice

[cherryfunk]

Very cool gentlemen!