Quick Start Guide for New Modders

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Guide is attached

Guide also available in our shared google docs 

Team Radious Total War Modding Tutorials - Initial Setup Guide

Tutorial Overview

The goal of this project is part of a larger project which brings together a wealth of information, resources, and tools in one place so that modders and players alike can work together to create a high-quality and brand new gaming experience for free. Learn more at www.patreon.com/team_radious.

This guide will walk you through basic steps on how to setup the tools needed to create mods for Total War Games and/or to make simple edits to your currently subscribed mods

One of our missions is to make these guides as simple and accurate as possible. Always feel free to leave comments/feedback, suggest edits, copy, share, download, and/or store this file to your liking

Find our complete list of information, and links to the most up-to-date mod tools and resources here - Team Radious Mod Tools and Resources

Useful/alternative resources for beginners, research, and information

Getting Started - Caligula’s Modding for Newbies Guide

• Excellent guide that achieves the same thing as this guide and more
• Very detailed, well thought out, and in depth
• Also good place to find other various guides

Magnars Modding Tutorials - Full YouTube Video List

• Massive archive of some of the best tutorials for Total War
• Guide made in Rome 2 are still very relevant now, just small differences
• Excellent place to begin modding seriously
• Provide huge understand of how everything is connected

Step 1 - Get the Tools

There is only one tool needed to make quick and casual edits and that is the Pack File Manager (PFM). 

For more complex edits, making startpos mods, and to truly understand the relationship between tables, be able to globally search for values, and use map editor, you will need the Total War Assembly Kit. 

You will also need latest Database Schemas to ensure that any saved edits are compatible, bug free, and support latest version of the game.

Use the links below to download and save Pack File Manager and the Latest Database Schemas. I recommend creating a folder in My Documents or on your Desktop for easy access and to keep all Total War Mod Tools/Resources organized.. I use a folder named PFM where I store PFM, scripts, and other modding tools.

Here is a general over of these 3 tools.

• Latest Pack File Manager (PFM)
  • View, create, edit, and save changes to mods easily
  • Primary tool for modders
  • Best tool for new modders to make small changes
  • Shows if table schemas are out-of-date
  • Does not work for creating “startpos.esf” mods
  • ESF viewer and editor for advanced modding
• Latest Database Schemas 
  • Used by PFM
  • Defines the relationship and structure of the database tables in PFM
  • Tables with outdated schemas will be highlighted in yellow
  • Updating schemas is critical to updating mods and avoiding basic crashes
  • Updating schemas ensures best compatibility with other mods
  • Usually updated near patches or DLCs
• Total War Assembly Kit
  • Referred sometimes as TWeak, DAVE, or BOB
  • Primarily used to create startpos.esf mods
  • Excellent tool to search entire database
  • Excellent for looking at table dependencies
  • Home of new Warhammer map editor - Terry
  • Tables are official release

Step 2 - Setup - Pack File Manager (PFM)

1. Navigate to the folder where you downloaded PFM
2. Extract all files from “Pack_File_Manager.zip” to same folder
3. Extract all files from “Schema.zip” to same folder and overwrite all existing files
4. Open PackFileManager.exe
   1. The first time opening PFM you will have you point to each Total War Game Directory
   2. This folder is where game specific mod files are stored and where PFM reads files for that game
   3. PFM will ask for directories in this order - Warhammer -> Attila -> Rome 2 -> Shogun 2 -> Napoleon -> Empire
   4. Path to game folders is something like this:
      1. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\”Insert Game Name Here”
   5. Hit Cancel for games you do not have installed
   6. When finished, if successful, PFM will load without error
   7. If unsuccessful, PFM will throw error and crash
5. If unsuccessful, just delete the file called “gamedirs.txt” and reopen packfilemanager.exe
6. If PFM loads without error, you are in business :)

At this point, if you are making simple edits or wish to just browse, I recommend just installing the Total War Assembly Kit, even if you don’t plan on using it. Once installed, you don’t need to worry about it again.

If you wish to skip the Assembly Kit, proceed to step 4

Step 3 - Setup - Total War Assembly Kit

1. To install: In Steam, mouse over library
   1. Select tools from drop down menu
   2. Find Total War Assembly Kit (Beta)
   3. Right click to install 
2. I recommend creating shortcuts to your desktop
   1. Then you can copy paste each program shortcut where you want
3. Save it to favorites in Steam Tools Library so it's always at top of tools list
4. Assembly Kit will install 2 programs - TWeak.Assembly Kit and BOB.Assembly Kit
5. TWeak contains the editing tools, and BOB compiles and creates changes made using TWeak
6. This is all that is required to setup the Assembly Kit
   1. For now, I will not go into details on how to use or configure Assembly Kit
   2. Magnar’s tutorials (link above) go into great detail with the Assembly Kit and are a great resource if you want to learn more

Step 4 - Basic Usage of PFM

1. Open packfilemanager.exe
2. For basic edits or simple mods, don’t worry about menu options so much until you know more about the capabilities of PFM
3. PFM functions similar to Excel, Google Sheets, Open Office Calc, or other spreadsheet program
   1. Works well to copy/paste or to save values to another spreadsheet, especially if you update personal edits each time your favorite mod gets updated
4. Click file -> Open
   1. Should bring up current game directory, some navigation may be needed
      1. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\”Insert Game Name Here”\data
   2. You will see lots of .pack files
   3. Open up data.pack, it may take a minute to load
5. Data.pack contains most of the table values that the game uses
   1. You cannot make changes to these files by default
   2. It’s not recommended to ever make changes to these core game files
   3. Very useful for looking up all entries for a table or to copy/paste
   4. Also contains scripts, textures, and other advanced modding goodies
6. Look for the “db” section and click the + (expand) button to see all database tables
7. Browse a little, there are hundreds of tables

Step 5 - Making Your First Edit - All Non-Horde Growth

1. In PFM, Click File -> New - for brand new mod
   1. Of course, you can always open an existing mod file
2. Click File -> Save or Save As - Cannot have same name as any other pack file
3. Import campaign_difficulty_handicaps table from data.pack
   1. Click Files -> Add -> From Pack
   2. Select and open data.pack
   3. Expand data.pack then db
   4. Find campaign_difficulty_handicaps
      1. Right clicking adds all tables from that section
      2. Or expand campaign_difficulty_handicaps section and double-click data__core
      3. This will add new green table to your mod
4. Click on data__core to view table
   1. This table has buffs/nerfs for the player and AI
   2. A check under “human” column means it is for players
      1. In all cases either true (checked) or false (unchecked)
   3. Difficulty is determined by first column, 3 being easiest, -3 being legendary
   4. Effects are assigned in “effect” column
   5. Who or what it effects is the effect scope
   6. You assign a value and can even limit it to specific campaigns
5. Sort the table by effect by clicking the column name
6. Find the effect wh_main_effect_growth_all
7. Change one of the entries to look like this
   1. Difficulty = -3, Human = Yes (checked), Effect and Effect scope stay the same, Value = 100, no optional campaign key
8. Save changes to your pack, launch game, load out of date addons and check your new mod
9. Start a new campaign on Legendary (not Chaos or Beastmen) - and you should now have 100+ growth per turn!

If you got through this setup guide with ease, then you are one step closer to being consumed by the modding gods. As always, we want to improve what we have to offer and appreciate your feedback, new ideas, and support!

Congrats on setting up your mod tools, and until next time, let’s slaughter some enemies.

Team Radious

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