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.

Meaning

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:

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 (