Strategies Abound
Home
Empire Earth II
About Us

Guide To Creating and Editing Star Wars:Empire at War Galactic Conquest maps.

By Brent Zondi~ For all the EaW Community
 
Well, quite a bit of poeple were upset, when Petroglyph released the map tools, and didn't include a galactic conquest editor. I was dissappointed but I knew that their had to be a way to do it. So I start going throu....... Well, as much as i would like to tell you guys the epic story of how i figured out how to do this, I'll save you the trouble by not.
 
Ok, this is what will be required to start editing what you want,
1) The map editor, (with the Sample Ewok Mod-will explain later-)
2)1.04 patch
3)The game Star Wars:Empire at War
4)An .xml veiwing program
(I used Cooktop ) (You MAY use note pad, if you wish, but it does help to have an actual program for it-will notice in pics--)
LAST BUT MOST IMPORTANT---
5) You need to have PatiencE, emphaasizing on the E!
 
 

Ok, now lets get started, assuming you have done all of that above, you will need to find the xml folder containg all your important documents.
Here is what the directory should be
Mycomputer/local disc ******the disk that contains EaW****/ Program Files/ Lucas Arts / SW:EaW/ Game data / mods/ source/Data/ Xml  
ok now that you in their find the file
Campaigns_Singleplayer.xml
 
Now, open the file using your program for xml's or notepad, and it should look like this
1.jpg
 
OKAY, it may look like a lot but, its not.... wait ...yes, yes it is, Anyway, this .xml file contains all the galactic conquest maps, and it is one of the biggest files
 
First I suggest that you make a back up of all the .xml files so you can mess around with these and just incase you need the original values, you will have the back ups.
 

OK , Now onto creating or editing you own maps
(All examples will be of my created galactic conquest map)
 
Basics
Firstly, some of you may want to name your own GC maps, but I haven't really tried to do that, but you can.
2.jpg
           The stuff that you might want to pay attention to are the code  lines  Locations, Trade routes, Home location. As you can see you can change quite a bit of thing, even give the pirates on the map an AI script.
             Ok locations are the planets, that will be on your map, the Galaxy core art model should be their, I never removed it so I dont know what happens. Home locations you will need to change, depending on your planets , where you want the hero units to spawn.
       
Trade Routes
      Now onto the Trade routes, these are a little different.
First save your work if you want, and minimize that window. Go into the xml folder again and look for the file called Traderoutes.xml, note that their are two other files with those words as a part of the name, but you dont need those. Open it up, now copy one of the trade route code lines their, and find a place to paste it.
3.jpg
       Change the names to whatever routes you want them from and to, their dosen't need to be any order to it either.  They shoud look something like the above.(NOTE: that their maybe a route already made for the planets you need, you should check if you want, I am not sure what happens for duplicates of the same lines.)
        Then once your done their, go back to your GC's xml and type in the title of the route you just created(Compare both pictures, if not sure what the title is.
        Before we go to the next step of placing your forces, you must note that their must be two sets of the same code almost, one code set for each side, will show example later.
  
Starting Information    
    Now onto the starting information, but first here is an example of win, conditions, what they are are self stated.
4.jpg
        Anyways now, onto the starting forces, it should be pretty obvious what you need to change, such as the team, planet and unit, make sure your tags are spelled and capitalized accordingly.
5.jpg
(*Note*)- THAT calimari code does not work, so do not use.And if you want pirate forces, replace faction name: IE: Rebels with Pirates, and then their units names, it also may be possible to give different factions foriegn units, but i have not tried this)
           Also above is the money distrubuting and techlevels, you really don't need to change the tech codes, but you may want to change the credits amount. Check other code lines for the different units and structures. You can place any number of units as starting units, and another note is that each planet by themsleves can only hold 40,000 credits. So in my mod, even though you start with 50,000, as soon as you buy something it will jump down to what your reserve would be if it was 40,000.
            Now, here is an example of what it should look like, when you get to the end of placing all the units.
6.jpg
              Ok, and when your done placing units, the ending should look like this,
7.jpg
               Now when you do the other side all you really have to do is copy the codes you just made and paste it againg below, just change the code lines for the AI and active players. and thats it. Thats pretty much all the basics you need to know on how to creat simple or complex maps in Star Wars:Empire at War.

Finishing up!
             Now, hopefully, you are still reading, this and didnt try out to see if your code lines worked. Becuase the xml folder that your are using is not used by the game. Now, you might be saying then why did i just do all that if the game dosen't use them? Well, I'm not going to answer that, but I'll tell you HOW to get the game to use them.
            Their may be other ways of implementing the files you just did,  but I found the most simplist way is go back to your game data folder, and click on mods again, this time click the folder StevesEwokMod( which is pretty funny buy the way) and all you need to do is put the edited xml files into the last folder(you may remove the xml file thats already their(it makes Ewoks gigantic) and place you xml's in their. YOU only NEED the ones that you edited.
              Then once you've done this go back to Gamedata folder and click the MS-DOS File, and get that running, and the game should  start running itself.(NOTE) This method of implementing changes is not permanent, and should not actually change anything, that will permanently damage your real game. And the effects will only work if you start up the game using this method.
8.jpg
                    And PRESTO CHANGO, everything should be working the way you want it. BUT if you encounter an exception error, all it means is that one of your code lines are broken! Also you may want to modify other things to suit your new GC map, such as ships cost, or how much a planet produces, all you simply have to do is look for the file, lets say Spaceunit_capitals(edit capital ship information here) might be one, here you just look for the codes of the lines you want to change and place it into your other edited  .xmls and you should be good to go. Now go have fun, and unlock your coder inside of you!
(wow what a stupid line)                               Hope this helped you!
                                                                                            ~Brent Zondi
P.S. This was a webstie for something else but im to lazy to change it :P

All work is here for you, the veiwer, to use and keep for presonal reference and use.