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Thread: One Turn Research (Desired Faction Only) & Some Extras

  1. #1

    Default One Turn Research (Desired Faction Only) & Some Extras

    This guide is total beginner friendly and walks through things slowly, apologies for the long read.

    My motivation to create this page came from the headache I received by opening multiple tabs to read informative posts, because I couldn’t find a singular post out there that provides everything in one place (and is up to date). Plus I get to post new findings here as I edit.

    I will post how to edit unit stats at a later date.


    Now before we begin you will need the following programs: (Have to find download links)

    ESFEditor 1.4.4

    And

    PackFileManager (Only if you want to edit Ancillary and Traits and need their names)

    Before I forget, a few notes:
    Note: I am doing this under the Steam Version of Empire: Total War.
    Note: Unit Modifications can be done with PackFileManager as well.
    Note: When editing Ancillaries, I have noticed placing more than 4 on a character crashes the game. I think this may be a limit.

    Now lets begin, we will be taking this slow and broken up:
    Part 1: Creating a file to edit.
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Start by opening Steam and starting up Empire: Total War "Play".

    Select:
    • Single Player
      • Whatever game type you want (I am using Grand Campaign for this guide).
        • Faction (I am using United Provinces & Maratha throughout the guide for various reasons).
          • World Domination


    Okay once the game loads: Press Esc, then Save. Your filename should be “United Provinces Summer 1700”. I like to save this filename and then save again with the filename “United Provinces Turn 1 – Modified”. I do this in case a mistake is made, so we have an original file to go back to.

    After creating both save files: Press Esc and Exit to Windows.
    Minimize Steam for now.


    Part 2: Download, Extract, Open ESFEditor 1.4.4
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    I typically do this to create the ESFEditor 1.4.4 file, so its accessible from the Desktop. Personally I think its easier to find this way.
    Open the ESFEditor 1.4.4 file within the original file.
    Open the application.


    Part 3: Opening the Save Game
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Once ESFEditor 1.4.4 is open, in the top left click File – Open savegame and click the savefile “United Provinces Turn 1 – Modified”.
    If your savegame isn’t right there, your file can be found under “C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Empire\save_games”


    Part 4: Finding Your Faction
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Hit the “+” beside save_games\United Provinces Turn 1 – Modified.empire_save
    Again by CAMPAIGN_SAVE_GAME
    Again by CAMPAIGN_ENV
    Again by CAMPAIGN_MODEL
    Again by WORLD
    Again by FACTION_ARRAY
    Again by Netherlands (Players faction usually top of the list)
    Again by Netherlands | FACTION

    Now this has all the fun stuff (data) that relates to your faction.


    Part 5: Adjusting Technologies
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Okay from the end of part 4 we will click the plus button beside FACTION_TECHNOLOGY_MANAGER, and again by “techs”(should be grey).

    Now in your left window you should see a list starting with “Military_Army_Plug_Bayonet | Techs” and ending with “Enlightenment_Classical_Economics | Techs”.
    Click “Military_Army_Plug_Bayonet | Techs”

    In the right window there should be a table with titles Description, Value, Original Value, and Type. Value is the only one we care about here. Under Value, 2nd row down (under Military_Army_Plug_Bayonet) you should have a value of ‘2’. Change it to 0.

    Proceed to do the same for each tech until you reach “Enlightenment_Classical_Economics | Techs”. Some values are ‘2’ and others are ‘4’. Whichever one you see, change it to 0.

    After you make a change, the name in the left window will become bold and italicized.

    Once you have changed all tech values, go File – Save > United Provinces Turn 1 – Modified.empire_save

    Now you have superior intelligence to all other factions. When you open your save up in Empire: Total War, make sure you destroy your school if you have one. Otherwise those sneaky AI’s will steal valuable information from under your faction’s nose.


    *Tech Tree Modification Guide Ends HERE*
    EXTRAS:

    Part 6: Finances
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Want to increase those war chests and buy everything you could possibly dream of? Its almost like winning the lottery.
    From the end of Part 4, click “FACTION_ECONOMICS”

    In the right window, you should get a table with the titles Description, Value, Original Value, and Type.

    Again, we only care about the Value Column. Under Value in the first row you should have a value of ‘7500’ if you haven’t spent any gold in your first turn (varies by faction). Edit this value to whatever you desire. I made mine 7.5 million.

    Once you have changed your gold, go File – Save > United Provinces Turn 1 – Modified.empire_save
    Now you can buy the entire world, though it may be a steep price.


    Part 7: Editing Characters (Ministers, Rakes, Generals, etc.)

    A few notes before you decide to do this: I find this is easier to do when you have an absolute monarchy that only starts in 1 theatre. This way you have less ministers to go through and they don’t have elections (i.e. your edited characters wont be elected out by a new party). Second, you will need to have a PackFileManager, for reference purposes. Use the one linked above.
    In this guide, I will be editing ministers only using Maratha Confederacy.
    Before we edit in ESFEditor:
    Start Empire: Total War and open your save up.
    Right click each of your ministers and take notes of their Position, Age, Traits, and Ancillaries (if they have one). I use F12 to screenshot each, so I don’t have to write anything down.

    Subsection 1: Finding Specific Characters and Changing Age
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Now, from Part 4 click: “CHARACTER_ARRAY” – “Minister” – “Minister|CHARACTER” – “Maratha|CHARACTER_DETAILS” – and click the first “DATE”
    The value in the first row of the table on the right is the Ministers birth year. Subtract it off of the year you saved the game in.

    For me it is: (1700-1669=31 years old). This one matches my Army Minister (I also checked their traits under “TRAIT” to double check for a match).

    Now that you know what minister you’re giving a makeover to, we will start with adjusting their age.

    I haven’t been able to make any character younger than 24 years old without the game crashing. This means I change the year to 1675 to make them 25 years old.


    Subsection 2: Traits
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Keep the ESFEditor 1.4.4 open.
    Now open up the PackFileManager. Found under “EasyDB\EasyDb_ETW\ETW\PFM” and clicking PackFileManager.

    It askes “Make pack files relative to which directory?” find your path to Empire Total War under steamapps. Mine is: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Empire Total War”. It will ask every time you start the application. This only matter when adjusting unit stats (done in a later part). You could use another PackFileManager that doesn’t allow you to edit, but I prefer to have less programs.

    Open “patch2.pack” its under “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Empire Total War\data”

    Hit the “+” button and again by “db”.

    Scroll down to “trait_info_tables”, hit plus beside it and “trait_level_effects_tables”.

    trait_info_tables is a list of all the games traits. If it starts with a “C_” you can put it on an agent. “R_” applies to regions and “U_” applies to units, so we will disregard them in this guide. I don’t really find this table helpful and tend not to look at it.

    “trait_level_effects_tables” has all the good stuff. It has the trait name and what each level does.

    Since I’m editing my Army Minister I’m going to scroll down to “C_Minister_Unjust_1” and see what it does. My Minister already has it on and I want to see its effects. Mine is level 1 that’s why I am looking at “C_Minister_Unjust_1”. The “_1” at the end indicates the level of the trait.

    The Ministers trait level is found in the ESFEditor under “CHARACTER_ARRAY” – “Minister” – “Minister|CHARACTER” – “Maratha|CHARACTER_DETAILS” – “TRAITS” – “TRAIT” – “C_Minister_Unjust|TRAIT”. It’s the second row value under the value column.

    Back in the PackFileManager we see the effect in the second column and the amount of effect in the third column. “C_Minister_Unjust_1” gives “happy_character_lower an effect of -1”, meaning lower class population’s happiness is reduced by 1. “C_Minister_Unjust_1” also gives “management_justice an effect of 1”, which means this minister is given +1 management points when selected for justice minister. I am going to change this trait, since neither of these effects really help out an Army Minister.

    Go back to your ESFEditor and under “CHARACTER_ARRAY” – “Minister” – “Minister|CHARACTER” – “Maratha|CHARACTER_DETAILS” – “TRAITS” – “TRAIT” – “C_Minister_Unjust|TRAIT” change the value in the first row under value column to “C_Minister_Army_Good” and change to value in the 2nd row to “3”.


    Subsection 3: Adding another Trait slot & Lite Ancillaries
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    There are two ways to do this:
    First, you can select “C_Minister_Army_Good|TRAIT” and right click, then click clone. It will provide another TRAIT that has the same values. You can adjust as you like.
    Second, you select “C_Minister_Army_Good|TRAIT” right click, then select “TRAIT” (header above the traits) right click, then click paste. It will provide another TRAIT that has the same values. You can adjust as you like. This is the method you use for AgentAncillaries when an agent doesn’t have any. You have to first find a character who has an ancillary that you can copy and paste. After you edit the ancillary the same way you would by editing a trait. Use PackFileManager to find one and edit the value in ESFEditor




    **MISSING LINKS AND A FEW STRUCTURAL DETAIL (Reference pictures): UNDER CONSTRUCTION***

  2. #2

    Default Re: One Turn Research (Desired Faction Only) & Some Extras

    Okay at the time of posting this, I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to edit... Replies will have to do. This one will only contain those vital links I didn't post initially.

    EsfEditor (Thanks to Erasmus777): *Important: Download 1.4.4*
    https://sourceforge.net/projects/esfeditor/files/?source=navbar



    EasyDB (Thanks to husserITW):

    http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?522159-EasyDb-for-ETW-Units


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