Stronghold Crusader Modding Utilities

STRONGHOLD CRUSADER AIV, TEXT COMPILER & TGX CONVERTER

*****************************DISCLAIMER*****************************
The Stronghold Crusader Modding tools are provided “as is” and are unsupported by either Firefly Studios or Gamecock Media.  The editor is for your own personal use and may not be used for any commercial purposes.
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The three programs included in this package are the actual tools, we at Firefly Studios used in the creation of Stronghold Crusader.

INDEX

1. AIV Editor - Before you start	1
2. AIV Editor - The Basics	2
3. AIV Editor - Game Ticks	2
4. AIV Editor - Categories	2
5. AIV Editor - Loading your castle into Stronghold Crusader	5
6. Text Compiler.................................................................................................................5
7. BMP to TGX Converter................................................................................................6

1. AIV Editor - Before you start

The AI village editor is used to create a castle template for the AI player in skirmish mode.  Once the castle has been loaded into Stronghold Crusader the castle will appear as if the AI player is creating the castle themselves.

 Some things you should consider before you start.

 Think about what would affect the castle as your castle will be used on various maps.  Building an enormous castle will not always fit into a small section of land or if the land contains hills, trees, especially if that land has areas which cannot be built on; this will stop areas of your castle being built.

 Ensure essential buildings are placed in the initial game ticks, allowing the AI player to use the market and granary quickly.

 You can delete the keep and place it elsewhere; the starting hall is a good marker for the centre point of the castle.

 Ensure buildings and towers have access from a set of stairs.  

 Economic buildings (Farms, etc) are placed by the AI and not by the user.
2. AIV Editor - The Basics

 Ensure you save your AIV castle every so often by pressing the F1 key.

ZOOM

 If you wish to zoom in or out of the screen you can click on Zoom x1, Zoom x2, Zoom x3.  

 SCROLL SPEED
 The screen scrolling speed can be set by clicking on scroll x2 and scroll x4.  Scroll x4 being the fastest speed.
3. AIV Editor - Game Ticks

 AI opponents will use game ticks to build up their castles when playing Stronghold Crusader, each game tick represents one tick in the AI builder.  Game ticks are listed in the top right corner of the screen, under zoom and scroll.  
 An example of how game ticks work is using by placing the wall. If you place sections of wall separately the wall would be placed slowly by the AI player within Stronghold Crusader.  If you wanted them to place a whole section of wall at once, you would drag out a section of wall for one game tick.  Providing the AI player have stone available to them, the wall will be built all at once.

 Troop types are not counted in the in-game ticks and can be placed at any time.
4. Categories

De (Delete)
 Point
 Flood Fill

 De stands for delete and allows you to delete one building or piece of wall at a time by using Point or a whole section of connected wall by using Flood Fill. Deleting one building will move you back by once game tick.  This means if you want to replace the original building, you would have to manually move back through the game ticks and place it.

Wa (Wall)
 High Wall
 Low wall
 High Crenel
 Low Crenel
 Stairs
 

Ca (Castles)
 Tower 1		(Lookout Tower)
 Tower 2		(Perimeter Turret)
 Tower 3		(Defence Turret)
 Tower 4		(Square Tower)
 Tower 5		(Round Tower)
 Oil Smelter
 Dog Cage
 Killing Pit
 Keep
 Killing Pit

Ga (Gatehouses)
 Small EW
 Small NS		
 Large EW 
 Large NS
 Stairs

We (Weapons and Troops)
 Poleturner
 Fletcher
 Blacksmith
 Tanner
 Armourer
 Barracks
 Armoury
 Engineers Guild
 Tunnelers Guild
 Stables

In (Industry)
 Stockpile 
 Woodcutter
 Quarry
 Ox Tether
 Iron Mine
 Pitch Rig
 Trading Post		(Market)	
 
Mi (Misc)			(Mainly troops and siege equipment)
 Delete				(This delete tool will only delete units)
 Mgl				(Mangonel)
 Tre				(Trebuchet)
 Bow				(Archer)
 Spr				(Spearman)
 Mac				(Maceman)
 Kgt				(Knight)
 Slr				(Slinger)
 Sbw				(Arabian Archer)
 Scm				(Arabian Swordsman)
 Brz				(Brazier)
 Oil				(Oil pourer)
 Bal				(Tower mounted Ballista)
 Fbal				(Fire Ballista)
 Xbow				(Crossbowman)
 Pik				(Pikeman)
 Swd				(Swordsman)
 Slv				(Slave)
 Ass				(Assassin)
 HBw				(Horse Archer)
 Gre				(Fire Thrower)
 Flg				(Flag)

Mo (Moats and Pitch)
 Moat x 1
 Moat x 2
 Moat x 3
 Moat x 4
 Pitch	
 
Fo (Food)
 Granary
 Apple Farm
 Dairy Farm
 Wheat Farm
 Hunter
 Hops Farm
 Windmill
 Bakery
 Brewery
 Inn

To (Town)
 House
 Chapel
 Church
 Cathedral
 Healers
 Well
 Water Pot

Go (Good Stuff)
 Maypole
 Dancing Bear
 Statue
 Shrine
 Town Garden
 Communal Garden
 Small Pond
 Large Pond

Ba (Bad Stuff)
 Gallows
 Cess Pit
 Stocks
 Burning Stake
 Dungeon
 Rack
 Gibbet
 Chopping Block
 Dunking Stool
5. AIV Editor - Loading your castle into Stronghold Crusader

 Save you castle and exit.  Copy the .aiv castle file from the villages folder into the Stronghold Crusader/aiv folder.

 To use a custom AI castle you must replace an existing AI castle.  E.g. to replace Richard the Lionheart’s castle with a Custom AI castle,  backup the existing richard1.aiv file and replace it with your one using the same file name.  Load Stronghold Crusader and start a Skirmish game with Richard the Lionheart and you will see your castle getting built in the game.

6. AIV Editor - Text Compiler Tool

 This tool can be used to edit any text that appears in Stronghold Crusader. The Crusader.txt file contains all the text that appears in the game. If you edit any of this text it will appear in the game in the place of where the text you replaced would appear. 
  Please note that you cannot simply keep adding lines to this file, you can only replace existing lines.
 Once you’ve done this, click on the ff_tex_cru.exe and you will hear your computer beep. This will create a file called cr.tex. Copy this file and replace the file of the same name that is in (default installation path) Program Files\FireFly Studios\Stronghold Crusader. You will now see your text appear in the game.

7. AIV Editor - BMP to TGX Converter

 This tool ff_tgfx.exe will convert any BMP files you have in this folder to the TGX file format, which can be used with Stronghold Crusader.

 To help you along with we have included quite a few bmp files, which are used in the game previously.

 Once you’ve made your BMP files, click on the ff_tgfx.exe, this will convert all the available bmp files into tgx files. Copy this file and replace the file of the same name that is in (default installation path) Program Files\FireFly Studios\Stronghold Crusader\gfx.

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