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Thread: More building slots

  1. #1
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default More building slots

    So after many years of lazy trying...

    Our journey begins one day in Etruria/Velathri...this is normal picture, please note city borders (yeallowish area) and building slots in da town
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



    Now it is time to move some furniture inside the house/city..hope everybody will find the house in the night
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 





    Next try is getting more lebensraum for our empire. But we are weak cause 5AM...so one more building slot should be ok for now....
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 







    So another day/year in our empire..seems Velathri is now bigger town..Right now this is completly unique Velathri on the world. You all have only 3 slots there and i have 4! #cheater!
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 





    You probably ask why there is no 3rd secondary slot on map. It is, but It is switched off. Basically building slot without on map depiction. Yep..that is working too But you still want to see it right? Okey..
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 







    -people with eagle eye will notice a hammer icon floating above town...yep, there are other building slots set up, ready for buildings...
    -expansion cost for population is set to 1 for all new slots, dirty cheating romans...
    -yes, it is even possible to move city position around...but thatīs not my main goal.
    -yes, technically it could to adding new cities on campaign map, however that would like 1000x times ...like galaxy far far away..


    tl dr, for now 4th/6th free building slots in towns without port should be doable. Actually engine is handling even more building correctly (bonuses,recruit options, garrisons,resources, CAI being able to use them.....) yet I need to find way to show more slots in UI. Attila should works too. Technically this open ways to have multiple slots in any city in any game even WHs. (yes, WHs major cities could have any number of slots, thats already working buuut minor still limited to 4! ;-) )

    And even UI is...
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 













    In long run...this would allow much more robust building/economy system. Imagine province with 10-8/6/6/6 instead of 6/4/4/4 (which is usually like 6/4/3/3 as not every city has port building slot..)

    But this is enough for today, need to crack more numbers...it is not fully done yet. Just wanted to show some progress.... :-) And Iīm off to bed cause 6 AM..

    PS: hate startpos modding
    PS2: Dresden and his ESFtoXML guide still rocks, hat down!
    PS3: dont ask for guide now, will do it once all numbers are no longer magic..so far still some things are wild quess for me and probably will firstly work on my mod http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post14162411 (yep, last update 4 years ago )
    Last edited by Daruwind; April 02, 2018 at 12:04 AM.
    DMR: (R2) (Attila) (ToB) (Wh1/2) (3K) (Troy)

  2. #2
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: More building slots

    somewhat working UI ...next step will be fully polish it so there are no odd graphic features .....oddities going slowly away

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 





    Last edited by Daruwind; April 01, 2018 at 10:41 AM.
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  3. #3
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: More building slots

    Finally happy with settlement panel UI

    all transitions between provincies with 2-3-4 cities and back are smooth, only things that might need further cracking are buildings spionage for foreign city and agentīs building sabotage selection (both are defaulted for 4/6 slots) But for now the hardest part would be adding another hook for slot #7 and beyond and see if the engine handles it. (no additional slots this time, startpos file is default just for testing purposes)



    And combinations with previous startpost changes. Velathri again showing 4 building slots. :-) Now with new UI panel

    Last edited by Daruwind; April 02, 2018 at 12:40 AM.
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  4. #4
    Commissar Caligula_'s Avatar The Ecstasy of Potatoes
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    Default Re: More building slots


    So it actually works in-game? You can have extra building slots for settlements?



  5. #5
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: More building slots

    And asnwer to question: YES, these screens are directly from live game :-)

    It has multiple parts:

    startpos part - finally cracked slot 4/6th for cities without port. All things working, buildings,animations, CAI using it...but it requires extensive startpos editing both in PFM, then suing ESFtoXML for unpacking and back to PFM.... There are still some magic numbers but i can clearly see some kind of pattern behind them and most notably they are working! :-)
    (note - engine seems to use even more slots correctly. I managed to add like 10x slots to rome. Garrison was higher, income higher, resources correctly produced, units being recruitable due to these buildings...you see their effect but cannot interact with them, AI however can probably)

    On map visual representation - it is working just fine, require less effort but more clicking...especially if anybody ever looked at sprawl blocks -_- . In combination with startpos it allow even slots without on map representation "virtual slots" - fully working,...check pictures above, some are showing big hole in Rome...that slot is switched off in various parts, or check up Velathri at the top with missing 3rd slot but showing yellowish city border just like for another slot. Probably some rembember older mod which was adding more cities to campaign map. That mod was altering models ...thats why there were some oddities. Iīm directly drawing using ingame sprawl block and letting engine draw it for me..
    (note - so this allows even moving a city around. From port city to landlocked and back if set up correctly. There are some tutorials around already for it, but honestly I have no clue about pathfinding for AI. So thatīs why Iīm not moving things and just adding a thing here and there. :-) )

    UI part - UI is set up to show up to 6/4 slots per city. So far the result above required like 200-300ish hex changes in some files. However i learned a few things and it looks like it *might* be possible to tweak it further to show like 10/6 slots...This is biggest issue now as all other slots are not visible in UI even if correctly set up! So I cannot test these slots if they are really working.. :/
    (note - UI is able to show province with just one region/city but is not set up to show 5 region/cities..that would be way way way more hex editing and it is not set up anyway through whole DB/starpos..)

    Current conclusion: 4/6th slots for cities without ports will be doable. Rest we will see..

    EDIT: but actual rebuilding whole startpos...that would be a lot of work... A LOT, that is one reason why Iīm showing changes on Velathri so far.Pictures above show even version with Rome 6th slot but that is now in obsolete different branch of my tests. tl dr; will rebuild it in new one. :-) ...Iīm like at very beginning. And thatīs not taking into account building overhaul project at all
    Last edited by Daruwind; April 02, 2018 at 02:20 AM.
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  6. #6
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: More building slots

    I most likely cracked UI or the game is making 1st april fool of me I can force UI to draw any number building slots per city and if correctly pair up with startpos file it will run!
    (Bad news is, Attila and WH1/2 are using different way of coding of this particular UI piece...and even more complex way so these game wonīt be so easy to crack..)

    You guys ready for most historically blatant picture in Rome 2 modding history?
    Velathri red circle - well if you guys looked at previous pictures...thatīs the 4th building slot for that town without port! Already functional.
    Neapolis red circles - thatīs UI drawing empty building slots number 5th and 6th for 4th city in province and thatīs empty in engine sense not empty like ingame where you can build something. Basically starpos has port slot for every city yet you donīt see it in any landlocked city right? ;-)
    Okey, i promise I will spend some time and rebuild whole italia province to show you properly all slots and because probably nobody believe me i will try video...because it sounds almost as 1st april prank now
    Last edited by Daruwind; April 03, 2018 at 09:09 AM.
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  7. #7
    Commissar Caligula_'s Avatar The Ecstasy of Potatoes
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    Default Re: More building slots

    Good luck, looking forward to it =)



  8. #8
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: More building slots

    And good question for now would be, how many slots is best option. Original is up to 6/4/4/4, my idea is now full 10/6/6/6. My screen resolution is 1920/1080 and not sure how well UI scales in different resolutions. How many would be good for possible building/economy overhaul projects...

    Problem is, UI needs to be hex edited and each slot represent around 350 additional hexes with 0 possible mistakes (adding one slot per city = 4x 350..getting 10/6/6/6 = 10x 350 hexes), plus around 100ish changes at various places so everything looks and works well together. And Startpos file must be edited in particular way to work together. Else everything goes crashing...
    Last edited by Daruwind; April 03, 2018 at 09:31 AM.
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  9. #9
    Commissar Caligula_'s Avatar The Ecstasy of Potatoes
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    Default Re: More building slots

    Is it easier if you just wanted to swap what cities had 6 slots and which had 4? Eg 4/4/6/4?
    Adding as many slots as possible is awesome though.



  10. #10
    Daruwind's Avatar Citizen
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    Default Re: More building slots

    Nope wonīt help for now. UI is depicting cities in province in strange way...yours, ally, enemy. So position for particular city is not fixed. Compare the latest 2-3 screenshots up..Ariminium is second or fourth in province depending if player owns it or enemy AI.. I admin I managed to crack just 4th city in province in UI for now. :-) So I have to finish the whole UI part, them finish whole Italia province in starpos and any other province opened in UI will anyway be crash until all regions are altered. Yup thatīs the level of trouble Iīm working with...

    Technically can change province capitol with secondary city but Iīm already doing such weird stuff with starpos that I would prefer to limit number of mistakes :-)
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  11. #11
    Litharion's Avatar Artifex
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    Default Re: More building slots

    This is an amazing effort, I can not imagine how many hours you have put into figuring this out.

  12. #12
    Morticia Iunia Bruti's Avatar Praeses
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    Default Re: More building slots

    Quote Originally Posted by Daruwind View Post
    And good question for now would be, how many slots is best option. Original is up to 6/4/4/4, my idea is now full 10/6/6/6. My screen resolution is 1920/1080 and not sure how well UI scales in different resolutions. How many would be good for possible building/economy overhaul projects...

    Problem is, UI needs to be hex edited and each slot represent around 350 additional hexes with 0 possible mistakes (adding one slot per city = 4x 350..getting 10/6/6/6 = 10x 350 hexes), plus around 100ish changes at various places so everything looks and works well together. And Startpos file must be edited in particular way to work together. Else everything goes crashing...
    Very cool idea. I would say 10/6/6/6 is a good middleground.
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  13. #13

    Default Re: More building slots

    Awesome... So, it would be possible to make it 6/6/6/6 as well - all cities equal like in Rome Total War? I think I would prefer something like that instead of overdoing it

  14. #14
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    Default Re: More building slots

    A new milestone in Rome 2/Attila modding

  15. #15
    ♔Greek Strategos♔'s Avatar THE BEARDED MACE
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    Default Re: More building slots

    Excellent work. My compliments.

  16. #16
    Benjin's Avatar Artifex
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    Default Re: More building slots

    God damn, I always thought that it wasn't possible to add more than six building slots in the game - amazing work!
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  17. #17

    Default Re: More building slots

    Congrats on the discovery !
    Sounds as promising as exiciting

  18. #18

    Default Re: More building slots

    Well, apparently it is a crazy amount of work to add slots for an entire campaign, but I think this is awesome to make some corrections. Maybe a good test project?

    For Attila:
    https://forums.totalwar.com/discussi...d-argentoratum
    https://forums.totalwar.com/discussi...-building-slot
    Last edited by Viking1978; April 06, 2018 at 06:07 AM.

  19. #19

    Default Re: More building slots

    The numbers you must have worked with in the depths of the startpos scare me! This is really great.

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  20. #20
    fightermedic's Avatar Ordinarius
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    Default Re: More building slots

    This is outstanding work!

    8/8/8/8 sounds right for me, it always had been silly that some settlements had more slots than others
    Check out my AOR and balancing Mod for Third Age Total War


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