Strat map banner changing on its own

**kanteljic** · August 09, 2018, 12:10 AM

Greetings!

I am the mapper, coder, and bug-fixer in general of the Tsardoms mod. Last year there were a few CTDs nobody could explain or know how to fix, so I rebuilt the entire mod from scratch around November-February. Now everything appears to be working as inteded and we haven't stumbled upon any CTDs since.

However, a new non-fatal bug appeared. This one really intrigues me and I have no idea what causes this. Some turns into the campaign (variable, between 2 and 20), the Ragusa faction banners in the strat map gets changed from its original one to the crossed swords from rebels. This happens regardless if Ragusa is controlled by AI or the player. Ragusa is the only faction affected by this. As you can see in the screenshot, the faction is not extinct, it is just the icon (standard_index from descr_sm_factions) that gets changed.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Has anyone ever seen this or have any idea what causes this, how to fix this thing??? Even pointing me in the right direction would be valuable.

Appreciate any suggestion. Thank you.

**Gigantus** · August 13, 2018, 07:14 AM

Truly weird, check your script for the banner changing command.

**kanteljic** · August 15, 2018, 11:13 PM

The script couldn't possibly be the problem, it contains only "restrict_strat_radar false" and nothing else.

Funny thing, though: the banner gets changed to the rebel one. If I save after the change, then load the game again, the loaded game displays the original, unchanged banner

This is just insane.

Any thoughts?

**Gigantus** · August 22, 2018, 10:22 PM

I just noticed that it's not only the banner but the regional border color as well. Any chance you may have more then 31 faction entries in descr_sm_factions? some hidden formatting in that file perhaps? Please upload that file and descr_standards as well.

**kanteljic** · August 27, 2018, 11:13 PM

Oh, sorry. Haven't checked here in a while. I still have no clue what could be the cause, but managed to find a workaround. I just had to change the standard_index number (20) to a new one (8) and the problem did not happen ever again. Would still be interesting to find out what caused this. Could also be useful for anyone who eventually faces this kind of problem and come here searching the answer.

Some other info:
- No, we have (and had, changes were made since) exactly 31 factions in descr_sm_factions. I don't believe there is any formatting problem neither...
- I see why you'd think that, but the faction colors did not change. Ragusa colors are 220, 220, 220 and 155, 155, 155.
- About what I said that when you loaded the game the banner reverted back to the original, that always worked in some saved games, and always did not work in other saved games.

Here are the files you requested.
factions&standards.rar

**Gigantus** · August 27, 2018, 11:46 PM

I think your descr_standards is the culprit, underneath the vanilla one:

Code:

factions
symbols                banners/symbols1.tga
symbols                banners/symbols2.tga
symbols                banners/symbols3.tga
symbols                banners/symbols4.tga
symbols                banners/symbols5.tga
symbols                banners/symbols6.tga
rebels_factions
symbols                banners/symbols7.tga
symbols                banners/symbols8.tga

This is yours:

Code:

factions
symbols                banners/symbols1.tga
symbols                banners/symbols2.tga
symbols                banners/symbols3.tga
symbols                banners/symbols4.tga
symbols                banners/symbols5.tga
symbols                banners/symbols6.tga
symbols                banners/symbols7.tga
symbols                banners/symbols8.tga
rebels_factions
symbols                banners/symbols9.tga
symbols                banners/symbols10.tga

This is how it should have been if #7 and #8 still have the slave symbols:

Code:

factions
symbols                banners/symbols1.tga
symbols                banners/symbols2.tga
symbols                banners/symbols3.tga
symbols                banners/symbols4.tga
symbols                banners/symbols5.tga
symbols                banners/symbols6.tga
symbols                banners/symbols9.tga
symbols                banners/symbols10.tga
rebels_factions
symbols                banners/symbols7.tga
symbols                banners/symbols8.tga

My theory: it doesn't really matter which standard index number you give the slave faction (20 is the top left of the two timurid red dots) as their banner is determined by descr_culture via the rebel_standard_index number (each culture can have a different symbol). For that to work the slave symbols have to be in the rebel_factions section in descr_standards.
If 7 and 8 still contained the slave symbols then it's unsurprising that you get the symbol at higher (regular) index numbers.

Edit: it does however not explain why you had problems with #22 as that would be a default symbol TGA file, see underneath. On the other hand the (to be spawned) timurids are entered as index #22, maybe something here?

Code:

factions                                    descr_sm_factions index #
symbols                banners/symbols1.tga        0 - 3
symbols                banners/symbols2.tga        4 - 7
symbols                banners/symbols3.tga        8 - 11
symbols                banners/symbols4.tga        12 - 15
symbols                banners/symbols5.tga        16 - 19
symbols                banners/symbols6.tga        20 - 23
symbols                banners/symbols7.tga        24 - 27
symbols                banners/symbols8.tga        28 - 31
rebels_factions                                descr_cultures index #
symbols                banners/symbols9.tga        0 - 3
symbols                banners/symbols10.tga        4 - 7

**kanteljic** · August 28, 2018, 12:19 AM

Wow. That’s a lot of information I did not know about. I recreated the entire mod folder from scratch to get rid of a decade of leftovers of god knows how many former members’ unfinished work. The bulk and most essential stuff are already in, but some other still need to be done. Descr_standards I just copied from the old version because it used more files than vanilla, which made the higher standard index value factions to (obviously) not display their banner symbols. I’ll take this new information into account and try to make some tests tomorrow (its 2 am here). Will post my findings.

Thanks for your once again highly valuable assitance

**Gigantus** · August 28, 2018, 12:29 AM

Check my edit as well.

An example of slave symbols (from my 1648 mod):

Here a tut that comes handy if you want to give the factions individual slave settlement symbols.

**Mr_Nygren** · December 26, 2018, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Gigantus

I think your descr_standards is the culprit, underneath the vanilla one:

Code:

factions
symbols                banners/symbols1.tga
symbols                banners/symbols2.tga
symbols                banners/symbols3.tga
symbols                banners/symbols4.tga
symbols                banners/symbols5.tga
symbols                banners/symbols6.tga
rebels_factions
symbols                banners/symbols7.tga
symbols                banners/symbols8.tga

This is yours:

Code:

factions
symbols                banners/symbols1.tga
symbols                banners/symbols2.tga
symbols                banners/symbols3.tga
symbols                banners/symbols4.tga
symbols                banners/symbols5.tga
symbols                banners/symbols6.tga
symbols                banners/symbols7.tga
symbols                banners/symbols8.tga
rebels_factions
symbols                banners/symbols9.tga
symbols                banners/symbols10.tga

This is how it should have been if #7 and #8 still have the slave symbols:

Code:

factions
symbols                banners/symbols1.tga
symbols                banners/symbols2.tga
symbols                banners/symbols3.tga
symbols                banners/symbols4.tga
symbols                banners/symbols5.tga
symbols                banners/symbols6.tga
symbols                banners/symbols9.tga
symbols                banners/symbols10.tga
rebels_factions
symbols                banners/symbols7.tga
symbols                banners/symbols8.tga

My theory: it doesn't really matter which standard index number you give the slave faction (20 is the top left of the two timurid red dots) as their banner is determined by descr_culture via the rebel_standard_index number (each culture can have a different symbol). For that to work the slave symbols have to be in the rebel_factions section in descr_standards.
If 7 and 8 still contained the slave symbols then it's unsurprising that you get the symbol at higher (regular) index numbers.

Edit: it does however not explain why you had problems with #22 as that would be a default symbol TGA file, see underneath. On the other hand the (to be spawned) timurids are entered as index #22, maybe something here?

Code:

factions                                    descr_sm_factions index #
symbols                banners/symbols1.tga        0 - 3
symbols                banners/symbols2.tga        4 - 7
symbols                banners/symbols3.tga        8 - 11
symbols                banners/symbols4.tga        12 - 15
symbols                banners/symbols5.tga        16 - 19
symbols                banners/symbols6.tga        20 - 23
symbols                banners/symbols7.tga        24 - 27
symbols                banners/symbols8.tga        28 - 31
rebels_factions                                descr_cultures index #
symbols                banners/symbols9.tga        0 - 3
symbols                banners/symbols10.tga        4 - 7

I do have a similar issue where the Majora faction of Hyrule Total War (which i added as it had unfinished coding in the expanded file making it crash when holding the mouse over it before) has the correct symbol for awhile - but then it decides to disappear and instead it would get a greyed-out area where the symbol used to be.

Could this be the same issue?

**Gigantus** · December 26, 2018, 07:47 PM

I feel reminded of the banner change command from the kalmar script. Can't think of any other reason why in the middle of the game the faction symbol should change\disappear from the flags. Check your campaign script file for the set_faction_banner command.