Unit Cards (modding)

Unit Cards

Location of Unit Cards

The unit cards for the Barbarian Invasion game can be found in RTW/BI/data/UI/units/faction and RTW/BI/data/UI/unit_info/faction

To view the unit cards for Rome: Total War you need to unpack the .pak files in RTW/data/packs, use this tool to unpack them:

PAK Extractor (by Vercingetorix).

Once unpacked you will find cards on path RTW/data/packs/data/UI/units etc.... To get new or amended cards read by game you need to place them on the path RTW/data/UI/units etc

To find unit cards for Medieval II: Total War you need to use the un-packer that is supplied with patch 1.1

The smaller pictures in the UI/units files are the ones displayed in the recruit queues and at bottom of screen in battles. The larger pictures in the UI/unit_info files are the ones that appear with the unit information if you right click on the smaller pictures or the recruitment line in the game.

Naming Unit Cards

To add cards for a new unit or an existing unit that you have assigned to a new faction, name the .tga's as follows.

For UI/units files: #unit_name.tga

For UI/unit_info files: unit_name_info.tga

unit_name must be exactly the same as the dictionary line for the unit in export_descr_units.txt, eg:

   type             western peasant alemanni
   dictionary       western_peasant_alemanni      ; Barbarian Peasants
   category         infantry
   class            light
   voice_type       Light_1.........

the name to use is marked in bold, remember to include the underscores.

The correctly named .tga should be placed in the folder for the faction/s that can build the unit. If you do not name or place the .tga file correctly you will see the default peasant card instead of your new card.

Making New Unit Cards

There are many different ways of making new unit cards, for RTW probably the most effective way is to use a render of the actual unit taken in 3DS Max. If you do not have access to 3DS Max, or want alternative, you can adapt existing cards in image editor, try using in battle screenshots of the unit or draw your own 2D image. This section needs more work, for time being please refer to:

General Inforation and Methods not Requiring 3DS Max

• How to edit unit cards (by Myddraal)
• Tutorial: Making Unit Cards with Gimp(by Hader)
• TUTORIAL: Making unit cards for M2TW using Milkshape and Photoshop (by Marcus Orentius)
• Quick Guide to taking Great Screenshots ( RTW only) (by Hader)

Information relating to 3DS Max

(using 3DS Max would currently require conversion of models via Milkshape for M2TW)

• How to make your own Unit Cards (by Kallikratis)
• Rendering in 3DS Max (by Goscinio)
• Rendering in 3DS Max with Pose (by Narayanese)
• How CA make their Unit Cards (by Nero666)
• Advice on Rendering in 3DS Max (by Lusted)
• More Advice on Rendering (by Professor420)
• Making Unit cards with 3ds Max (by Bladerunner900)