Creating a World - 29 Factions on selection display

[Gigantus]

Campaign Selection Screen



Custom Battle Selection Screen

ReadMe Stuff

Download Content:

• menu\mtw2.lnt
• text\menu_english.txt
• text\menu_english.txt.strings.bin

Installation: extract the download into your mod's data folder

Remarks:

• The LNT file is from the kingdoms campaigns, which means it requires the correct ...\data\menu\textures\fe_texture1.tga file to avoid weird graphic issues
• Faction symbols will fill up from left to right (no alternating in campaign screen)
• The edited entries in menu_english.txt are {UI_FACTION_SELECT_TITLE} (campaign) and {UI_HOTSEAT_FACTION_SELECT_TITLE} (hotseat)

This resource is now included in my Bare Geomod installation.

[Ego123]

This is very great .

[paleologos]

How many playable factions can there be?
I know, a totally noob question () but really how many?

[Gigantus]

You need the slave faction which is unplayable (all kind of weird stuff happens if you try) which leaves 30 factions. One of those is usually the pope, another unplayable faction.

[Aneirin]

Hey Gigantus,

do you might recall which entries you have edited inside the mtw.int?
Would help me a lot to fix my menu and assign all the ui pieces to their correct position again.
I had to overwrite my already customized file, because the game kept on crashing as soon as I started a new campaign..
Now everything works just fine again, though the menu is a quite a mess..

Regards,
Aneirin

[Gigantus]

There were several sections, best to get a default kingdoms file and compare it with mine.

[Orthodox Alliance]

I have extract the file into mods/ss6.3/data and now what i have to do so to change and add factions???
sorry but i didnt understand what we are doing after this?

[Gigantus]

This will only enable the display of up to 29 factions - it does not create factions. Stainless Steel has a total of 29 factions but a number of them are not playable and will not display.

If you wish to add\change a faction then check here which files are involved.

[alreadyded]

"which means it requires the correct ...\data\menu\textures\fe_texture1.tga file to avoid weird graphic issues"

Is this in the main data folder if you have kingdoms, or in one of the mod foldered campaigns? I am just doing some bug hunting for a rare in game UI glitch where everything wigs out and want to rule this out as an issue.

Also I don't think multiplayer battles shows all the icons with this file, I had to add it but maybe I didn't use this file, was so long ago. I have the file with 30 factions showing in all menus if anyone wants it.

[Gigantus]

The weird graphic issue is like showing a symbol instead of the cross\tickmark on the exit screen and a few UI elements. You need to use the TGA file from the kingdoms campaign, if you are not sure then use the one from my Bare Geomod set up.

If you have weird\wonky UI graphics after a time of playing and not before then there is nothing you can really do other then saving and restart - it's a memory leak issue.

[alreadyded]

I don't personally have the issue, I have just seen others report it and this made me think of it. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Gigantus]

One is glad to be of service

[alreadyded]

Made this menu real quick (for 30 factions), if anyone wants the files/code I will post it. You will have to make your own map_fe of course.

[Frunk]

Made this menu real quick (for 30 factions), if anyone wants the files/code I will post it. You will have to make your own map_fe of course.

I'd be very interested in checking that out! Does it suffer from the faction selection crash? +rep

[alreadyded]

No it doesn't crash, they all use the same map image as a background, the selection crash is caused by having too many map images.

I will post it sometime this week.

[Frunk]

Cool! Looking forward to it.

[alreadyded]

HERE it is, directions included. Allows interactive display of 30 factions on a map in Main/Custom/Hotseat Campaigns menu and 30 symbols in Custom/LAN/Online Battles menu. Any questions I can answer in a paragraph or less I don't mind.

Credit to Gigantus for his LNT file if you release it, I don't care if you credit me. You can rep Gig too, not me.

[Gigantus]

Could you upload here at TWC? Mega is banned where I am residing, and I really would like to have a look at it. Apart from that the download will not get lost.

What are the dimensions for the map_FE file?

[alreadyded]

The few times I tried this site my files got deleted, but I'll do it just for you baby.

My map_fe is 768x768, it can be smaller though.


Edit; Directions in file updated, and here they are:

Allows interactive display of 30 factions on a map in Main/Custom/Hotseat Campaigns menu and 30 symbols in Custom/LAN/Online Battles menu. All menus should work, please report otherwise and I will fix it.


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Coordinates can be obtained by opening a 1024x768 image (or the included For_Coordinates.tga) in GIMP or whatever and dragging a selection box from the top left corner (x = 0, y = 0) to the top left corner of where you want your symbol to start (being displayed down and to the right of your coordinates, menu part starts at x 769, the symbols are 59x59). For the text edit data\text\menu_english.txt and search (crtl+f) for the text you want to change, and change it to what I have in the example or whatever you like.


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A 768 x768 map_fe is not required, any size works. Using multiple map_fe images also works but adding too many will cause a crash after clicking too many symbols. 10-20 map_fe images may be fine (11 sounds right) to let you click 30+ times without crashing, it has been a very long time since I fixed this so I don't recall. All factions having their own map_fe if you have 30 factions will cause a M2TW bug/crash that is for sure.


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'CFP_symbol48_1' at line 8847 to 'CFP_symbol48_30' need to be changed for the main campaign. CFP_symbol48_1 is the first faction in data\descr_sm_factions.txt and the order continues, only factions that are already coded in your mod to be displayed will be displayed. For example 'Slave' faction is not displayed, it does not count even if it is listed number one in descr_sm_factions, the faction below it is number one in the menu.


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For custom campaigns and hotseat; copy the code for CFP_symbol48_1-30 you changed and replace code at line 18,904 for custom campaigns, and line 24,807 for Hotseat. Note; there is code for two more menus I didn't touch and I don't know what they are for (one for demo maybe?), it also has symbols code, don't bother with it.


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*Use Notepad++ for text edits.

[Gigantus]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot for my current project. Files in the TWC download section don't get deleted, it did happen with some in-thread attachments though.

Just a quick one without any changes in text, only a custom map_FE: