Descr strat.txt

Location

Descr_strat.txt is one of the core files in both Rome: Total War and Medieval II: Total War. It can be found at [Install location]\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\descr_strat.txt, depending on what game it is (by default the folder name would be Rome - Total War or Medieval II - Total War) and which campaign it is.

Usage

The Descr_strat.txt contains all info about the beginning of every campaign. It controls simple things such as the starting date, end date and playable factions. Furthermore it also contains info about the different resources. Most of the file however consists of info for all of the factions, such as diplomacy relations, starting money, settlement level and buildings, armies and agents and family relations.

Modding

Descr_strat.txt is argueably one of the easiest files to edit. It can also be quite difficult for a novice modder to get into. Here are some examples of what can be done with it:

Setting all factions as playable

This is the vanilla (unmodded) version of the Medieval II: Total War descr_strat.txt. At the very beginning of the file, you should see this:

playable
	england
	france
	hre
	spain
	venice
end
unlockable
	sicily
	milan
	scotland
	byzantium
	russia
	moors
	turks
	egypt
	denmark
	portugal
	poland
	hungary
end
nonplayable
	papal_states
	aztecs
	mongols
	timurids
	slave
end

Now, if say, you want to make the Turks playable, you need to move it to the playable section. The easiest way to do this is to highlight "turks", right click it and select 'cut'. Then, after "venice" press enter (to make a new line), make a single tab (this doesn't really mean anything, it's just cleaner this way), and then paste "turks" there. Now if you load up the game the Turks should be playable. If you just want to make every faction playable, highlight all of them, cut and paste in the playable section. Same goes for Rome: Total War.

NOTES:

• You can also make nonplayable factions playable, but beware. There is a reason for not having them playable by default. Factions such as the Mongols and Timurids only appear after some turns, so you don't want to play as them (unless you make them playable from the beginning, something which isn't covered in this article). The Papal States and the Senate (SPQR) from RTW will probably generate alot of crashes, as they have some special coding attached to them that makes them issue missions to you, amongst other things. (For example when playing as SPQR in RTW and opening up the senate-scroll, you will have an immediate crash).

• In RTW alot of factions that are normal factions are nonplayable. Basically what you can do here is to make all factions except the rebels (slave) and the SPQR playable. The nonplayable factions don't have any descriptions, intro videos or faction leader portraits though.

• After the [1.3]-patch for Rome: Total War, making all factions weren't that simple anymore. You also had to add some starting maps, leader portraits etc to the faction. This is easiest by just copying another factions files, renaming them while keeping the content the same. (This will be inaccurate, but an easy way of making them playable).

• In Medieval II: Total War, there is an even easier way of making all factions (except the Papal States,Aztecs, Mongols, Timurids and Rebels) playable. This is done by adding two lines of text to the preference file:

[misc]
unlock_campaign = true

The result is the same, but some may find this method easier.

Adding Money to a Faction

Adding money to a faction is a very simple operation. Here's how to do it:

Scroll down to the factions section. It can be found easiest by pressing 'ctrl'+'F', and then type in the faction you want to add money to. (Sometimes the first hit it gives you is the faction name in the playable-/nonplayablefactions-section. To avoid this click with your mouse someplace after this.) Let's take the Gauls in RTW as an example. Once you have scrolled down you should see this:

faction	gauls, religious smith
denari	5000

After it there is a list of every settlement the Gauls has, but just ignore it. Anyway, simple change the number after denari, and when loading up the game the Gauls will have more or less money than in vanilla, depending on what you set it to!