Adding Resources In RTW

By Hussarknight

A nice feature of RTW is the resources that appear on the map and influence trade income and the training capabilities of a given province. What’s great about this is that you can give a province extra resources and make your own. This guide will show you how.

The resources in RTW can in general be divided into three groups: trade resources, mounts and hidden resources. Slaves are another group, but they should not require any editing unless you are adding an entirely new territory to the campaign map. I will now go through the process of adding resources step-by-step. Note that not all steps are required for all types of resources.

Step One: Adding It Internally

This step is required for adding and creating all types of resources.

Make a backup of RTW\\data\\world\\maps\\base\\descr_regions.txt. Now open the file. Inside it you’ll find a list of all provinces in the game and their properties. This is what a typical entry will look like:

Venetia
Patavium
gauls
Veneti
13 198 117
slaves, glass, textiles, dogs, pigs, italy
5
14

Now find the entry of the province you want to give an extra resource. The sixth line is all that needs editing. It’s easy: just add the name of the resource of your choice to the end of the line, like this:

slaves, glass, textiles, dogs, pigs, italy, marble, coastal

Now you’ve added the resource internally, it will influence the province you’ve given the resource to.

Step two: adding it graphically

This step is not required for hidden resources. It is recommended for trade resources and mounts.

Make a backup of RTW\\data\\world\\maps\\campaign\\imperial_campaign\\descr_strat.txt and open the file. When you scroll down a bit you’ll find a list of resources. This is what a typical entry will look like:

resource gold, 45, 135

Copy a random entry and paste it at the bottom of the list, so that you’ll be able to find it more easily.

The first thing to do is setting the position for the resource. You can easily find out the coordinates of a place on the campaign map. First, place your cursor on the tile you want to know the coordinates of. Then press the ` or ~ key. Type show_cursorstat and press enter. It will now give you the x and y coordinates of the tile your cursor is hovering over. Now replace the x and y values you copied with the ones you just got. Like this:

resource gold, 93, 86

Now you can easily change the type of the resource by changing it’s name. This also works for mounts. It will now look like this:

resource marble, 93, 86

Before the resource will show up, you’ll need to go to RTW\\data\\world\\maps\\base and delete the file called map.rwm. Do not worry, the game automatically recreates this file when it starts up. If you don’t do this the resource will not show up on the map.

Step Three: Hidden Resources

This step is required for adding entirely new hidden resources only.

Make a backup of RTW\\data\\export_descr_buildings.txt. Inside the file you’ll find settings for all buildings in the game. At the top of the file you’ll find a list of all hidden resources that can be used. Simply add your own to the list, like this:

hidden_resources sparta rome italy coastal

Not doing this will not cause a crash, but it will cause the hidden resource to be unusable and it will also cause an error message when exiting the game.

Step Four: Models And Skins

This step is required for adding entirely new trade resources only.

In RTW\\data you will find a file named descr_sm_resources.txt. Inside this file you will find a list of all resources and the models and skins that they use on the campaign map, as well as their trade value. Here’s what a typical entry will look like:

type				glass
trade_value			8
item				data/models_strat/resource_glass.CAS
icon				data/ui/resources/resource_glass.tga

To add an entirely new resource, you’ll have to give it an entry in here as well. It is easiest to copy an existing one and adjust it to your needs. This is what the lines in each entry mean:

type – The name of the resource, which is used in the game file as well as in-game.

trade_value – This sets how valuable the resource is for trade. The higher this value, the more it will add to trade income. A value of 0 here means the resource won’t be traded.

item – This sets the model that is used to display the resource on the campaign map.

icon – This is the icon that will be used for this resource on the trade summary scroll.

There is no line to set the texture (aka skin) of the resource. The texture files are located in RTW\\data\\models_strat\ extures and are named after the following format: resource_[name].tga.dds. Like this:

resource_salt.tga.dds

You can change this texture with an image-editing program. However, you have to remember that textures may look weird when they are wrapped around a model to which they aren’t suited.

For links to image editing and modeling software, see here.

Reference: a list of all default resources

Trade resources:

  • iron
  • wine
  • lead
  • silver
  • gold
  • marble
  • timber
  • glass
  • grain
  • amber
  • textiles
  • pottery
  • hides
  • olive_oil
  • marble
  • copper
  • purple_dye
  • incense
  • silk
  • tin
  • wild_animals

Mounts:

  • camels
  • elephants

Hidden resources:

  • rome
  • italy
  • sparta