adding assets to town template

[mikemike]

sometimes i can successfully add an asset to a town in the template.ini. i'm using it like this "add = pasture"

sometimes, in some of the mods, i'm allowed to build in that town. other times the build box will show what i can build but won't allow me to "click and build"... in other words, there's no link between mouse and the box.

sometimes, when i use the cheat "bsswitch" to another realm, then bsswitch back to my city, i am allowed to build. but only sometimes.

note that all of the assets i add will show up in the city if i use the "add =".

the function of this adding is to allow more historically realistic resources in the provences. it's too much, for my little brain, to see something like ile du france having no fertile soil, or salzburg without salt... for why else would these cities be so promenent in the regions, if there were no economic reason? production is prior to distribution.

thanks,

mike

[Doux]

Ha, great idea mikemike!

It's sad that it does no always work, but strange. I can't imagine what would be the problem..

So you can add buildings and assets to provinces - maybe also exotics?

[Elvain]

I'm not sure bvut I guess someone has tried this some time ago and described the same problem.

You can add province assets to the provinces to be constant (fertile soil in Egypt, pasture in south Russia etc.), but when the game doesn't put them randomly, the problem is as you described it and it doesn't work at all.

but maybe if we'd try to do something more in this way, we may find the solution finally... but to be honest I don't know which files should be the ones to be edited :sad:

[mikemike]

yes, there is some basic conflict between the game-preset and my mind-set... and i can't understand why the game would have to have random assets in the first place. why not random realms and kings... just go the lord of the rings way of Seven Kingdoms?? why not magic toads?? boring to me.

my intuition is that the assets slot and the game engine aren't in synchronization: the game engine maybe thinks it still has to add assets, or something, and isn't ready to release memory? i don't know.

one thing that does work is to add the assets to another town, not one of your realm, and then aquire that town. that town is buildable.

mike

[mikemike]

ok, yes! i figured something out. you have to repack your altered ini file into the packs, then the system doesn't conflict. the one drawback is that there will be a lost building mod cell for each asset you add. but it works.

in "town template.ini" look at the mods for Thrace and you will see how buildings are made to show up at start of game. but, you can also include assets such as "pasture", "silver deposits" and all by including the name of the asset after the "add =", just as though they were a "building". then use the packman tool to exchange your new ini file with the original packed ini. these would be in, i think ( i'm not at my game computer right now) "def economy town template.ini.

i ran through and added towns to the template and gave appropriate assets to them. it's very satisfying not have towns with no assets at all... well, ones with no more than human assets... sort of like a suburb of philadelphia... that is, it's got houses and stores, but no one knows why. :)

mike

[Doux]

Don't forget to make backups of the .pak files then. Great work, mikemike, for finding this out! 'T is all new to me. Losing a building spot isn't that bad since you can make most buildings upgrades etc.

[mikemike]

that's right! i spent some time making everything i could a simple upgrade, and now the loss of two spaces isn't that important.

next, to simply change the climate for some temparate zones mistakenly marked as desert... i'm thinking portugal and anatolia for instance. also, i have to study more to find out what the actual 9th century economic possibilities allowed... how obvious is "fertile soil" for instance? would "pasture" have needed deep plowing to become fertile soil? in that case, the pasture would remain pasture for several more centuries. i don't know about ukrania for instance... but i do know about america and how the big grasslands needed deep plowing to break through the grass (we are told that this deep plowing of ca..1890 exposed the soil to the wind... no more grass to cover it... and it started blowing away in 1930... time called the "dust bowl" because of the clouds of dust blowing across the plains).

but it's good that the game at least has the possibility of three assets... though ten assets would be more significant... and the "misc" files are tempting to look through, with hints of a more sophisticated game, one involving copper and iron and glass. maybe a system having ten assets of specific components for compounds... addressing not just the problem of the "assassins" drinking "alchohol" instead of eating "ash-ish"!!... but products like the "alum" needed for fabric making... in fact, it would be basic to have all the products of the "Black Sea", say... products which were so important to venice later on.

thanks for your reply,

mike