This modding tutorial will show you how to transfer cities or other settlements across the map, so they are in a different location at the start of each game.

Introduction

Is there a wrong city? Do you want to rearrange your cities? Do you want to relocate to cities in a new state? Look no further

Vocabulary:

– Hub/anchor / Anchor hub: Invisible in the game, this point is where roads and other types are connected to. It is associated with settlements. The map editor, it has a purple globe around it.

A locator is an object with visible graphics that look like a city or farm, mine, camp, wood camp, or port. When) is enabled, it will have a yellow sphere surrounding it in the map editor. It is normally located near the hub.

– Splines / Strips Roads and other items that connect hubs

But what does that mean for the map, you ask?

Together, locators and hubs help to define what I call the title settlements or in thumbnail cities. Each state has four settlements. The coast provinces have an additional. These are:

• City
• Farm
• mine
• port
• Wood

The roads are often visible, but the settlements themselves won’t be visible unless there is a building for that settlement. For example, a navy base for a port or a chemical facility for a city. Create a building if you need to verify that a settlement is correct.

The Map Editor

You have several options if you don’t know how to open the editor map.

• You can open the console by pressing Tab and the key to the left side of 1 on the top left corner of your keyboard. Debug mode may be required. You can enable it by either having it in your command line using the argument “-debug_mode (” and adding -file watcher to that command.) – make sure the – is at the front. OR, in the launcher, go into Gameplay Settings in the menu at left and launch the game with Open game in debug mode. After you’ve done that, you will open the console, and you can type map_editor.
• Add a command line argument reading -map_editor. This will automatically launch a map editor once the game is loaded. You will need it removed before you can properly use the game again.

The map editor uses a lot of resources, so if it crashes, likely, you don’t have enough (-free) computer resources. Try closing other programs when the editor launches.

You will see the following:

Click on the Mask Painter Tool in left menu. It’s the second one from bottom.

Next, in the menu that opens on the right, click on the box to the left and then ticks the boxes marked in red: Autorefresh & Draw City Spheres.

NOTE: Autorefresh is an extensive program that requires lots of resources. I have had problems with the editor when I didn’t give it enough resources.

Moving the Settlement

I’ve decided that I want to slightly adjust Tampere’s location in Finland for this guide. I’ll click the Spline Network S*rip tool to see hubs with their splines (and roads and other connections.)

We must move both the yellow and pink spheres, the hub and the locator. It doesn’t matter in which order they are moved in. However, if the locator is to be on top of ((which I do normally because I don’t like how the ends look when they stop abruptly)), then I recommend starting at the hub. That’s what I will do. I’ll move the thing a bit to the southeast.

I drag the hub southeast. Once it’s in a good spot, I release it. The game will recalculate where the splines (roads should go. These can be adjusted with the Spline Adjustment Tool, which is just below my currently-selected tool.

Now let’s move our locator. Select the Map Objects Editor tool, and click the Tampere sphere once.

Next, choose the Move tool in the top menu (shortcut keys W). Then drag the sphere toward the desired location. If you are doing more than one, it is a good idea to immediately switch to the selection tools by pressing Q and clicking away at the currently selected locator. This will prevent you from accidentally dragging locators around.

SAVE BIG

It has happened before. I accidentally crashed the map editor after making many edits on hubs. It’s annoying to save so often, but it’s better than losing 10+ minutes of work!

Hit the Save As… button to ensure that files that have been modified (have their) box ticked are saved to your mod.

I strongly advise against ever pressing the Save All button. It should be rejected. It happened to me once. It took a while for the base game files to be saved and overwritten, so I had to verify my cache. It really affected my modding mood.

Save often and save.

Advanced Hub IDs & Types

You should be aware of many other important points that were not covered in this example.

Each hub has an ID that is associated with it. This ID can be seen in the top right corner of the map editor when you select a Hub. The ID is always in [State ID#][settlement type]. The easiest place to find state IDs is in the map_data/state_regions folder. These are the settlement types:

• 00 – city
• 01 – farm
• 02 – mine
• 03 – port
• 04 – wood

Thus, the ID for the city of Lombardy (is 76. It is 7600. The mine for Hedjaz, id 402, is 40202. The port of Guangdong (id 402 – is 40202).

It might surprise you to learn that the port has TWO hubs. This second hub always has the ID (State ID#00)00. It is different from the city because its Type 1 hub (which tells it that it’s an) sea hub). Guangdong’s Type 1 hub is 49700. The game doesn’t confuse it with Guangdong’s 49700 Type 0 city.

Currently, I don’t know what to do to create Type 1 hubs. Please let me know if you find a solution in the comments.

Other advanced information

Hubs are designed to connect splines/strips. Sometimes locators are not located in the same location as their hubs. One example is in North America’s Yukon Territory. The decision to place the locator at a different location than the hub is a choice in visual design. Maybe you want the railroad/road to go elsewhere than the settlement. You might want to depict a settlement that is extremely difficult to reach. You might want to make it easier for roads and trucks to reach difficult-to-reach areas.

Splines/strips can’t pass through third states to connect hubs within different states. Sometimes it may be easier to connect states far from the hub.

Spline types

• Roads are always there
• Railroads will not appear unless you have researched relevant technology
• Coastal naval routes connect ports with sea hubs
• The thick dashed lines that connect sea hubs with other sea hubs are called naval routes.

Each one comes with its colour in the editor. This can be seen when you play around a bit.

(I may write more here if) comes to mind.

 

This is all for Victoria 3 Map Editor + Types of Settlements on the Map hope you enjoy the post. If you believe we forget or we should update the post please let us know via comment, we will try our best to fix how fast is possible! Have a great day!