EB 2 and STEAM

[I_damian]

If I bought M2TW + Kingdoms on STEAM would I be able to mod it with EB2? Or will I have to buy boxed versions so that I'm not forced to use STEAM to play the game?

[Blxz]

Look around in some of the EB1 forums or subfora. There is quite a bit of help on using EB with steam Rome:TW.

Short answer: you should be able to use steam version with no hassles.

[bobbin]

If I bought M2TW + Kingdoms on STEAM would I be able to mod it with EB2? Or will I have to buy boxed versions so that I'm not forced to use STEAM to play the game?

Yes, it will work with steam.

[I_damian]

Ah good, because I can get the game and the expansion for a tenner on STEAM.

[Cyclops]

Yes, it will work with steam.

...and I will now get steam. I installed steam once on an old PC to get Empire TW to work: double failure. Glad to here EB 2 will work.

[I_damian]

...and I will now get steam. I installed steam once on an old PC to get Empire TW to work: double failure. Glad to here EB 2 will work.

STEAM gets a lot of hate but I've never had any problems with it.

[moonburn]

considering that having the cd and the game manual in mint conditions might be worth twice what you payed for in 10 years makes steam suck hard i still have my 2 darkomen cd´s and today they´re worth around 150 euros each games are becoming collectables just like baseball cards or other stuff where in the past

[jabarto]

Yes, it will work with steam.

Normally I'd just take your word for it, but when we're talking about Medieval 2, I really have to ask; are you sure of this?

I ask because modding TW games on Steam is a complete nightmare. You literally cannot run Barbarian Invasion mods on Steam because the BI.exe is accessed through Steam and isn't given an ID. And if you're running Kingdoms, the launcher won't recognize any mods except for the ones that came with the game, so you have to overwrite the stock ones (which of course limits you to 4 mods).

Then again, the Medieval 2 launcher is complete and utter garbage even on the retail version, so it may not be fair to chalk that one up to Steam.

[XSamatan]

It will work because it works right now.
I use a Steam version of MTW2K for playing EB2.

XSamatan

[Tellos Athenaios]

the launcher won't recognize any mods except for the ones that came with the game, so you have to overwrite the stock ones (which of course limits you to 4 mods).

That's where you're wrong, and why EB 2 will (modulo any errors on my part, because I wrote the installer code) work with Steam in a nutshell.

[jabarto]

That's where you're wrong, and why EB 2 will (modulo any errors on my part, because I wrote the installer code) work with Steam in a nutshell.

I'm glad to hear that you guys have it figured out, but plenty of other mods include what I described in their readmes and Google has little to say on the matter either way. It's not as I'm making these claims out of whole cloth.

[NikosMaximilian]

It will work because it works right now.
I use a Steam version of MTW2K for playing EB2.

XSamatan

You're implying that EB2 already is in a playable state?

Sorry, I'll be back. I need to change my underwear.

[Ludens]

You're implying that EB2 already is in a playable state?

I assume XSamatan is referring to a working build that allows them to test their modifications, and see how this affects campaign balance, the A.I., etc. It won't be anywhere near complete. More likely it is a strange mixture of new EB2 features with unchanged M2:TW stuff.

[XSamatan]

Like Ludens said.
Where do you think all the screenshots and movies come from if we can't access units and map ingame?
Sorry, I made that not clear in my previous post.

XSamatan

[Tellos Athenaios]

I'm glad to hear that you guys have it figured out,

So are we, btw. It's pretty neat to be able to install EB2 without UAC prompts on Vista/7 in your home directory and have the mod just work t/m with the system wide installation of M2TW/Kingdoms (1.5), or more generally to be able to install EB2 anywhere on your PC and have it work with the M2TW/Kingdoms (1.5) installation which is located in an entirely different spot, launcher integration and all. That's the goal, and it's possible.

It's not as I'm making these claims out of whole cloth.

Nah, I didn't think you made it up or something. However I think it is worthwhile to stress that these claims are misinformed. Squid, as he's known on the TWC, has written a tool to help you make misbehaving mods work with Steam (well, the M2TW launcher application you dislike so much).

but plenty of other mods include what I described in their readmes

Then it is time to burn those readmes? Frankly, many mods simply don't seem to have been given much thought to installing them. With EB 1 we got burned often enough that for EB 2 we/I decided to have no more of that nonsense and figure it out properly. Or as they say in the Zen of Python:

There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.

[Populus Romanus]

I remeber a post from bobbin a while ago implying that he had finished a Sweboz campaign.

[jabarto]

Nah, I didn't think you made it up or something. However I think it is worthwhile to stress that these claims are misinformed. Squid, as he's known on the TWC, has written a tool to help you make misbehaving mods work with Steam (well, the M2TW launcher application you dislike so much).

An interesting tool, and it does seem to work. Also, just for the record, the reason I hate the launcher so much is that it keeps playing sounds even after it closes, meaning I have to alt+tab out of the game to kill it with the Task Manager each time I start up the game (it did this even with the retail versions), and there doesn't seem to be any way to bypass it.

Then it is time to burn those readmes? Frankly, many mods simply don't seem to have been given much thought to installing them.

Tell me about it.

I was in a rather bad mood when I wrote all that last night, though. I got the impression that you thought I was deliberately spreading misinformation, but if that's not the case, I'm quite willing to drop the point and apologize for any misunderstanding.