HowTo: Set up MTW2 for modding

[Abokasee]

In order to be able to start your game using this config, create a new text file inside your MTW2 directory called mymod.bat
Open it (right-click, edit) and write this into it:

Code:
medieval2.exe @mymod.cfg

I don't know how you make a file become .bat, I can't get it from text file to .bat, because... I dont have a clue

[mor dan]

I don't know how you make a file become .bat, I can't get it from text file to .bat, because... I dont have a clue

first off, you need to have your folder options set to show all file extensions. after that, it's as simple as renaming the file from mymod.txt to mymod.bat

[alpaca]

Most of the problems should be solved by opening Tools->Folder Options, then View and untick "Hide extensions for known file types", your text files will get the .txt extension if you use notepad with standard settings.

Mor Dan: You shouldn't be able to associate .bat files with anything at all (I think they're system-linked to the command prompt) so maybe you made some mistake (wrong file extension?)

[mor dan]

Most of the problems should be solved by opening Tools->Folder Options, then View and untick "Hide extensions for known file types", your text files will get the .txt extension if you use notepad with standard settings.

Mor Dan: You shouldn't be able to associate .bat files with anything at all (I think they're system-linked to the command prompt) so maybe you made some mistake (wrong file extension?)

only if mymod.bat is the wrong file extension = )

as i said, when i did that at first, it said there was NOTHING attached to the .bat extension (weird enough, i know).

[Abokasee]

works perfectly, now I can mod MTW:2 (YIPPPY KA YEAH!!!)

[alpaca]

only if mymod.bat is the wrong file extension = )

as i said, when i did that at first, it said there was NOTHING attached to the .bat extension (weird enough, i know).

I would suggest reinstalling windows...

[mor dan]

I would suggest reinstalling windows...

GAH!


i don't like your suggestion = (

[alpaca]

GAH!


i don't like your suggestion = (

Well you could also try going to Control Panel->System->Advanced->Environment Variables and under System Variables have a look if .bat is listed under PATHEXT. If it isn't, add it.
Not sure if that helps anyways.

[mor dan]

*sigh*

nope. it's already there so that doesn't help. i just hate reinstalling. it takes so freaking long and i always lose something i really wanted to keep and then can't find it anymore.

[Aedan2812]

hmmm u feel dumb i dont even know how to install :S
could some1 plz point me in the right direction?
also i need a little help using bin.string converter
any help would be greatly appreciated

[mor dan]

don't know how to install what?


i would actually suggest using the program that edits the strings.bin directly instead of the converter. the converter can't convert every file. the editor can edit any file. seems like a no brainer.

[alpaca]

don't know how to install what?


i would actually suggest using the program that edits the strings.bin directly instead of the converter. the converter can't convert every file. the editor can edit any file. seems like a no brainer.

Well just editing tooltips.txt.strings.bin and the others doesn't work anymore as of 1.2 because the game doesn't interpret them unless a text file for them is present in the same folder. I don't know about the tagged files but it's probably the same.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Do the two ways of setting M2TW up for modding both let me run the original game seperately and save games without me having to worry about them getting ruined?

[alpaca]

That depends. If you change the map, your changes won't be save-game compatible. That means if you use file_first you can still play the old games (because the map is stored in the save-game), new savegames however won't be compatible with vanilla anymore (that's true for using mod folders, too, though, but in effect you can't play a new vanilla campaign anymore if you use file_first).

[Rhyfelwyr]

If I use a mod folder, will any of the following change the original game, or prevent me from loading save games:

1. adding factions to the campaign map
2. adding units to factions
3. changing factions banners/symbols

[alpaca]

If I use a mod folder, will any of the following change the original game, or prevent me from loading save games:

1. adding factions to the campaign map
2. adding units to factions
3. changing factions banners/symbols

None of these should do any harm, except that you have to put the .sd files into the vanilla folder, too (but it can be the vanilla version) if you want to use them in a mod.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Sorry to be a nuisance Alpaca, but on second thoughts I might need the io.file_first system for my mod. Is it possible to switch between the game running the modified files and the original packed files? Also, if I switched between the mod and vanilla this way, would saved games be damaged? Just I'm not sure whether or not to finish my campaign before I start my mod.

[alpaca]

Sorry to be a nuisance Alpaca, but on second thoughts I might need the io.file_first system for my mod. Is it possible to switch between the game running the modified files and the original packed files? Also, if I switched between the mod and vanilla this way, would saved games be damaged? Just I'm not sure whether or not to finish my campaign before I start my mod.

As I said the changes you do to vanilla will only show up after you start a new game as far as I know.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Ah OK now I understand, thanks for the help.

[Stupid_Boy]

hi there, i did as the tutorial said but when i test mymod, the changes doesnt show up. y is that?? im so frustrated!!!!!!!!! i have spent the whole morning till now juz to set up this mymod and yet it not working!!!!!
what wrong have i did???? what wrong???

I notice that there are a few changes after i run the test. At the main menu there, the "continue games" have been grey out so i guess mymod is running. Then at Mymod folder, there are 3 additional folder created which are preference, saves and packs folder.

So, im quite sure mymod is running. but still there are no changes. y?? i changes :
{London} London to
{London} Indiana

at the mymod/text/imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement.txt. I even changed the files to read only after i changed but is still not working!!!! i also changed the files at mymod/data/world/campaign/imperial_campaign/ settlement_lookup.txt : i replaced London With Indiana and still it not working!!!!! Please Help!!! Please Help!!!!! i need to do this as soon as possible!!As i wan to try the regions modificiation later tonite!!!

[alpaca]

hi there, i did as the tutorial said but when i test mymod, the changes doesnt show up. y is that?? im so frustrated!!!!!!!!! i have spent the whole morning till now juz to set up this mymod and yet it not working!!!!!
what wrong have i did???? what wrong???

I notice that there are a few changes after i run the test. At the main menu there, the "continue games" have been grey out so i guess mymod is running. Then at Mymod folder, there are 3 additional folder created which are preference, saves and packs folder.

So, im quite sure mymod is running. but still there are no changes. y?? i changes :
{London} London to
{London} Indiana

at the mymod/text/imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement.txt. I even changed the files to read only after i changed but is still not working!!!! i also changed the files at mymod/data/world/campaign/imperial_campaign/ settlement_lookup.txt : i replaced London With Indiana and still it not working!!!!! Please Help!!! Please Help!!!!! i need to do this as soon as possible!!As i wan to try the regions modificiation later tonite!!!

I hope you mean mymod/data/text?

[Stupid_Boy]

arrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!NOW I KNOW WHY!!!! im so stupid!!!! I didnt put text folder in mymod/data...WTF!!!! No wonder no changed observed!!!! THANKS ALPACA. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

ok im really wanna to make damn sure this time :
(1) mymod/data/text/imperial_campaign_regions_and settlements.txt
(2) mymod/data/world/maps/base
(3) mymod/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign
(4) mymod/data/fmv
(5) mymod/data/loading_screen
(6) mymod/data/sounds/events.dat & events.idx
(7) create mymod.cfg
(8) create mymod.bat
(9) run mymod.bat
ok....i try tonight as im reinstalling MTW2+Kingdom now...it take so long to installed the patched!!! However, i do have a question :

my question is : i noticed that some of u here have a different imperial_Campaign_regions_and_settlement.txt from mine. The differences is :
yours : {London_Province} London Regions

and mine : {London_Province} London_Provinces
I got the files from the link somwhere in this tread!!! so which one is the right one? thanks in advanced!!!!!!

[Cid]

Hi

Been trying to figure this out for a couple of days now. All I want to do is change the catapult/artillery settings in the export_description_units file so they won't be mass produced by the AI, and have the damn change show up in the game! The closest I've come so far is Alpaca's mod folder creater utility. I just changed the regular file in "Mymod/Data" and the change showed up...but the game runs so SLOW under "mymod". I have no problems with the vanilla Med2/Kingdoms, so I'm wondering what happened? It's as though I downgraded my video card and lost 2/3rds of my memory when I run the game under "mymod".

If someone could give me a simple (I'm a newb) fix to this I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

[alpaca]

Hi

Been trying to figure this out for a couple of days now. All I want to do is change the catapult/artillery settings in the export_description_units file so they won't be mass produced by the AI, and have the damn change show up in the game! The closest I've come so far is Alpaca's mod folder creater utility. I just changed the regular file in "Mymod/Data" and the change showed up...but the game runs so SLOW under "mymod". I have no problems with the vanilla Med2/Kingdoms, so I'm wondering what happened? It's as though I downgraded my video card and lost 2/3rds of my memory when I run the game under "mymod".

If someone could give me a simple (I'm a newb) fix to this I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

That sounds a bit weird, the game doesn't run much more slowly in a mod folder than normally for me.
Try removing all files you don't need and just keeping those that you changed (but don't delete data/text/imperial_campaign... and data/world)

[pdoan8]

I use mod folder installer, but game crashed.

Part of the gamelog:

00:58:08.609 [script.err] [error] Script Error in engmod/data/world/maps/base/descr_regions.txt, at line 972, column 5
couldn't find rebel faction(Fatimid_Rebels), going to set it to (gladiator_uprising)
00:58:08.609 [script.err] [error] Script Error in engmod/data/world/maps/base/descr_regions.txt, at line 981, column 5
couldn't find rebel faction(Saharan_Rebels), going to set it to (gladiator_uprising)
00:58:08.609 [script.err] [error] Script Error in engmod/data/world/maps/base/descr_regions.txt, at line 990, column 5
couldn't find rebel faction(Saharan_Rebels), going to set it to (gladiator_uprising)
00:58:08.609 [script.err] [error] Script Error in engmod/data/world/maps/base/descr_regions.txt, at line 999, column 5
couldn't find rebel faction(Fatimid_Rebels), going to set it to (gladiator_uprising)
00:58:08.609 [script.err] [error] Script Error in engmod/data/world/maps/base/descr_regions.txt, at line 1008, column 5
couldn't find rebel faction(Saharan_Rebels), going to set it to (gladiator_uprising)
00:58:24.546 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.

All reffer to rebel factions.

What wrong?

I use M2TW 1.2 with xpack.
No modding yet (all file are original from the installer).

It's late at night so may be I didn't think straight and missed something . I'm giving up for tonight. I will redo the whole process tomorrow.

Edit: nevermind. I fixed it. I delete "slave" from one of the unit but forgot to remove the unit from rebel unit list.

Edit 2: game crashing again after 10 turns into the game.

Log:

09:56:17.359 [system.rpt] [always] CPU: SSE2
09:56:17.359 [system.rpt] [always] ==== system log start, build date: Jun 25 2007 version bld-medieval2-update2.1-30 (43169) ===
09:56:17.375 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_0.pack
09:56:17.375 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_1.pack
09:56:17.375 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_2.pack
09:56:17.375 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_3.pack
09:56:17.375 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_4.pack
09:56:17.375 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/localized.pack
09:57:28.625 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.

In mymod\data, which file(s) I need to keep from the unpacked data if I only modify export_descr_buildings.txt and export_descr_unit.txt.

[alpaca]

You only have to keep the data/world and data/text folders, the other files that you don't want to change can go

[Eldgrim]

I'm trying to run the unpacker but i am getting this:

This application has failed to start because MSVCP71.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem) so, i copied the unpack_all into my main m2tw install folder in which this MSVCP71.dll file is and run the unpacker...

Now i already had a less than entertaining time re-installing M2 twice i don't feel like doing it again, is there another way around this problem?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Eldgrim]

Heh, nevermind. I worked around it.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Great start to my planned mod! I went to use the unpacker, but I got this error message when I ran it.



EDIT: I've read some of this thread now, and I think I've sorted the problem. Basically, I took any file that looked like MCdl11.... from the main M2TW directory and copied them all into the unpacker folder. I then ran the unpacker, and I seemed to do its thing. I notice though when the unpacker said "Failed to open file" just before it finished, but it had been running for quite a while. I'll go check things out now...

EDIT 2: I can't seem to find any many files in the data folder. I don't see the EDU, or anything like that. I just also ran the list_contents thing, it asked a few Y/N questions and then it seemed to run a script thing for a couple of seconds. Still no joy with finding the files though.

EDIT 3: Just noticed on the Python tool readme it says that the CA's unpacker should have been unpacked in the data/text directory, but I do not even see such as folder. My data folder only links to the world folders, etc.

[alpaca]

You need to copy the file with that exact name from your M2TW directory to your unpacker directory.