How would u go about creating a custom map?

[Frost1977]

how would i go about creating a custom map for single player conquest.

 

something with alot of planets, but few starting planets.  kinda clustered together.

 

thanks.

Edited February 23, 2006 by Cain

[Shadowtrooper]

If you're talking about land or space maps, you'll have to wait for the map editor.  It should (hopefully) be released in about a month.  If you're talking about making a conquest campaign, it easy.  Take a look at the campaigns_singleplayer.xml file and study it.  Most of the tags are pretty self explanatory, that way you can create your own (it may be handy to have a DAT editor as well).

[Frost1977]

what is a dat editor?

 

total mod noob here. hehe

 

and yes the galactic map is what i want to do.

 

where do i look for the single player map thing?? what is the file name?

[dw333]

iat is easier to just add into te official maps section, actually looks kinda cool to see your mod in the list as as playable selection!  ;D

[Frost1977]

i still don't even know where to start.

 

i am looking in the eaw directory but have know idea what i am looking for

[Shadowtrooper]

Check the floated tools & tutorials thread for links to download the DAT editor and a MEG extractor.  You use the DAT editor to alter the in-game text (Star Wars Empire at War\GameData\Data\Text is where you should find the master text file).  Use the MEG extractor to extract all the compressed files in your MEGs (Star Wars Empire at War\GameData\Data is where I believe you'll find 'em, config.meg is the one with the xml files you need to edit).  Once you've extracted the xml files, you can then begin your modding.

[Frost1977]

something isn't working i found the singleplayer.xml file but can't seem to lkaunch it in the DATeditor it looking for a .dat file

[Shadowtrooper]

Open your xml files in something like notepad.  The DAT editor is only for editing the master text dat file.

[Frost1977]

ok i think i have my map ready how do i get it into the game??

[Shadowtrooper]

Well, if you've saved your "campaigns_singleplayer.xml", and your syntax is correct, and you've got the proper DAT edits (if you needed any) it should already be in the conquest list.  If you're still having problems getting it to work, upload a copy of your xml files and I'll take a look at it.

[Frost1977]

This is the only file i have played with.  I extracted the config.meg inside the EAW folder.

 

then copied the file here into and over wrote the file that was in the xml folder.

 

my map is at the bottom, galactic conquest 2

 

i just want to create a GC style map 40+ planets with both sides starting with only 4 or 5 planets, and surrounded by pirates to slow exspansion.  the empire half of the map is mostly untouched since i was just going to try the rebels.

 

oh i also have a victory_class star destroyer to one of the rebel planets, trying to give them a stolen one before i found out there was something else u had to do to make them playable. by the other faction.

wanted to add  some corvets and small ships to pirates as well but left them as is.

[Shadowtrooper]

I think I found the problem:

        TEXT_CAMPAIGN_SINGLE_44

        TEXT_CAMPAIGN_SINGLE_DESCRIPTION_44

These same lines are also in the original Galactic Conflict.  This line tells the game the name of the string within the master text dat file that holds the campaign's name.  With the way you have it now, you likely either have two campaigns in your list called Galactic Conflict, or one that doesn't work quite right.  My suggesstion is that you make two new strings in your dat file.  Call them whatever you like, so long as it's descriptive enough that you can remember what it's for (ie:TEXT_CAMPAIGN_SINGLE_GC2 & TEXT_CAMPAIGN_SINGLE_DESCRIPTION_GC2).

[Frost1977]

map still doesn't show up in the map list.

[Shadowtrooper]

What?  ??? ??? ??? ??? ???

 

Sorry, I dunno what else might be wrong.  I'm not nearly as technical as some of the others here, again, sorry.

[dw333]

when i get off owrk ill post how to do it in single player campaign, jsut add a new campaign, add new files for info in the campaign you add along with new text in master text file! basicaly, it is very easy!