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Revision as of 18:15, 16 October 2023
All the Total War Series games are modifiable to an extent, but the ease, scope and manner of possible modifications varies between the games.
The popularity of the user-made modifications has contributed to the Total War games' ongoing success. Here you can find links to advice and tools which will enable you to make your own mods.
If you're looking for mods to play, please refer to the Total War Mods portal.
Modding on Total War Center
- On TWC each game has its own Modding Workshop section and sections where mods can be posted and discussed, additionally;
- TWC Downloads provides a categorised hosting facility for mods and tools. Files up to 100mb can be hosted directly on TWC, larger files hosted off-site can be linked to from the download pages.
- TWC's Mod Register is available to provide basic information about a mod together with useful links and a permission statement.
- Modders can apply for Hosted Forums by contacting lolIsuck & Dismounted Feudal Knight.
Modding Information on the Wiki
Most of the modding information is divided by game or engine, see the boxes below.
- Modelling, Textures and Graphics - Modding Index lists tutorials and resources that apply to all games.
Warscape Engine Modding Overview
The TW Engine 3 with the graphic engine "Warscape" has been used for Total War titles from Empire: Total War onwards, there are similar tools and principles used in modding these games. Some, but not all, of the games benefit from Assembly Kit tools released by CA.
- Official CA Warscape Modding Tips - at totalwar.com
- Where to Start Guide - at totalwar.com
Total War Saga: Troy Total War Saga: Troy Rusted Pack File Manager offers Thrones of Britannia support. Further information is needed on the game; anyone with further knowledge is free to expand this section! For further modding information see:
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Total War: Three Kingdoms Total War: Three Kingdoms benefits from an Assembly Kit released by CA, the kit includes Dave (for database editing), Terry (for battle map creation), BoB (for compilation of pack files), and the Variant Editor (for editing unit model collections), read more here. To find the kit go to the 'Tools' tab in your Steam account. For further modding information see:
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Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia has an Assembly Kit tool. Both PFM and Rusted Pack File Manager also offer Thrones of Britannia support. For further modding information see:
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Total War: Warhammer I, II & III Total War: Warhammer benefits from an Assembly Kit released by CA, view the quick start guide for Terry here. Please note that due to the Games Workshop licensing Warhammer has a more restrictive EULA for modding than the other titles, search "Modding Terms" here. For further modding information see:
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Total War: Attila Total War: Attila has an Assembly Kit released by CA which incorporates Dave (for database editing), Terry (for battle map creation), BoB (for compilation of pack files) and TeD (for creation of individual battle-map tiles for land, sea and sieges). Terrain Raw Data was also released allowing tiles created with TeD to be placed on the campaign map, read more here. For further modding information see:
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Total War: Rome II Total War: Rome II has an Assembly Kit which includes Dave (for database editing), BoB (for compilation of pack files), and a Variant Editor (for editing the look of characters, units and ships), see the Guide to Rome II Assembly Kit. This Modding Guide for Novices also provides a good starting point for new Rome II modders. For further modding information see:
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Total War: Shogun 2 Total War: Shogun 2 has an Assembly Kit which also allows for 'campaign map reprocessing', find more details about the kit here and see this guide for How to use the Official Modding Tools. For further modding information see:
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Napoleon: Total War Napoleon: Total War can be modified using user-created tools such as the Pack File Managers, there are no CA released tools for NTW. For further modding information see:
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Empire: Total War Empire: Total War can be modified using user-created tools such as the Pack File Managers. CA have not released any official tools for ETW. For further modding information see:
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TW Engine 2 Overview
The TW Engine 2 was used for Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War, there are similar tools and principles used in modding these games. Compared to the Warscape games RTW and M2TW allow much greater modding potential including the possibility of making "Total Conversion" mods including completely new campaign maps.
Once familiar with modding one of the games you will find it relatively easy to mod the other. The methods for changing the campaign maps are almost identical and many text files such as export_descr_buildings.txt and export_descr_unit.txt which control unit recruitment are also almost identical. However, some recognisable files from RTW which still exist in the base M2TW files such as descr_daytypes.txt confusingly are not actually used by the M2TW game engine!
Medieval II: Total War Medieval II: Total War allows easy modification of many elements by straightforward text editing. The campaign map for M2TW can be modified by altering .tga image files and text files. Battlemap unit models and settlement structures can be edited via user-created tools many of which export and import to Milkshape ms3d files. M2TW provides a system of mod-foldering to help avoid over-writing the base files. Bare Geomod is a recommended resource to start modding on a bare but fully functional mod-folder of your own. The M2TW game engine provides an automated system for the generation of unit sprites, but not vegetation sprites, IWTE can be used to create vegetation sprites and amend the descr_vegetation.db which does not auto-regenerate. The descr_geography_new.db file can be made to re-generate but there are drawbacks. For further modding information see:
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Total War: Rome Remastered Total War: Rome Remastered uses an updated version of the Rome: Total War engine which will accept high definition textures and various other graphics improvements. Many gameplay elements can still be modded just by altering text files, the political and battle-map can be altered by manipulating .tga files, however, the campaign map uses a modelled mesh for the visible strategic map. For further modding information see:
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Rome: Total War Rome: Total War allows easy modification by text editing for many elements such as; unit stats and recruitment, character traits and diplomacy. The campaign map for RTW can be modified by altering .tga image files and text files. Unit recruitment, character traits, diplomacy and many other aspects can be modified by changing text files. Battlemap unit models and settlement structures can be edited with the help of tools such as the CAS Importer/exporter for 3ds max (by Vercingetorix). The RTW game engine provides an automated system for the generation of unit and vegetation sprites. The engine will also regenerate a modified descr_vegetation.db file and descr_items.db (for battle-map structures), the descr_geography.db file will not regenerate. There are minor but important differences between the game engines for RTW and the BI and Alexander expansions see Features of Rome - Total War's Different Game Engines for details. For further modding information see:
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TW Engine 1 Overview
The TW Engine 1 was used for Shogun: Total War and Medieval: Total War.
Medieval: Total War Medieval: Total War was the first readily 'moddable' Total War game. For further modding information see:
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Shogun: Total WarShogun: Total War was the first-ever game in the Total War Series, it is widely regarded as being hard/impossible to mod. Some unit stats and other small matters can be altered if The Mongol Invasion expansion is used, but most modding efforts were concentrated on the more receptive next game in the series. For further information see:
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Additional Resources
| Total War Modding | |
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Indexes to Tools, Tutorials & Resources by Game: | |
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Main Categories for Other Modding Pages on the Wiki: | |
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Modding Workshops on TWC: | |
| Other Wiki Sections: Total War Center | Total War Series | Total War Mods | TWC Wiki | |
