Unlocking unplayable factions - Question

[LedZeppelin87]

I read the below in the thread for the guide of the macedonians in RTW. I followed it and edited the text ok but I can't actually save the changes. How do I?

Thanks

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Originally Posted by Accounting Troll
The Macedonians are one of the minor factions, so they are not unlocked when you win the game as one of the Roman factions. However, they are perfectly playable and it is simple to edit the game to unlock them.

Go to the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign

Open up the text file entitled descr_strat

At the beginning of the file, it lists which factions are unlocked, which factions can be unlocked and which factions cannot be unlocked. Change this section so it looks like the following:

campaign imperial_campaign
playable
romans_julii
romans_brutii
romans_scipii
egypt
seleucid
carthage
parthia
gauls
germans
greek_cities
romans_senate
macedon
pontus
armenia
dacia
scythia
spain
thrace
numidia
britons
end
unlockable

end
nonplayable

slave
end

It is a good idea to back up this text file before you edit it in case you make a mistake. When you have edited and saved it, load up the game and start a new campaign. All 16 factions will be playable, but you might experience some peculiar side effects if you lead the senate. I owe a beer to the person who figured the above out.

[Thor the Bassist]

What program are you using to edit it? If it is notepad you should simply click file then save.

[HouseOfHam]

If you're running Windows Vista, it's probably the damn UAT feature, again. More info about it here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=106639

[Thor the Bassist]

Solution: Burn Vista in righteous fire!

Here's an idea Microsoft -write an OS that doesn't have huge firewall holes in it and then you wont need UAC.

[Tzar469]

Save it to your desktop. Then overwrite your old descr_strat with your new descr_strat

[Spartan198]

To disable the UAT or whatever it's called that's blocking it, just left click the file, click on properties, go to security, click edit, then check all the permissions for administrators boxes.

[Thor the Bassist]

That seems logical but I heard somewhere that microsoft put in a feature that meant only the administrator could put in administrator priviledges thus creating a chicken and egg scenario?

[Spartan198]

That seems logical but I heard somewhere that microsoft put in a feature that meant only the administrator could put in administrator priviledges thus creating a chicken and egg scenario?
Don't know about any "chicken and egg" scenarios (but then again, my machine is set to ask my permission before even starting RTW after I put it in the disc tray), but I do it all the time to unlock files I want to monkey around with.


Alternatively, sometimes just renaming the Total War program file itself (e. g. renaming it from "C:\Program Files\The Creative Assembly\Rome - Total War" to something like "C:\Program Files\Monkey Peaches\Rome - Total War" upon installation makes them easily editable. That's what I did before I figured out how to bypass the lock in the method I described above.

[Thor the Bassist]

Basically I hate Bill Gates's software.

[Spartan198]

Everybody claims Vista is too complicated, but it's freaking XP that I can never figure out! :wall:

[HouseOfHam]

IMHO, Vista makes things look simplier on the surface, for people who don't know/care how things work "under the hood". But, for someone who knew their way around XP pretty well, there is more to re-learn and get used to.

About UAT: I'm a software engineer myself and I work with a lot of others. There was not a single one of them who didn't turn it off immediately after installing Vista.

[Thor the Bassist]

Personally going for Linux in a few weeks when I get my new computer.

[Squid]

IMHO, Vista makes things look simplier on the surface, for people who don't know/care how things work "under the hood". But, for someone who knew their way around XP pretty well, there is more to re-learn and get used to.

About UAT: I'm a software engineer myself and I work with a lot of others. There was not a single one of them who didn't turn it off immediately after installing Vista.

The only thing I can say is never met a software engineer, IT person, programmer etc, who actually wanted to install Vista in the first place. No one wants a bloated piece of c**p for an OS. I find it inexcusable that any OS should require more RAM then the recommended amount for a high end graphics products (Photoshop CS3).

[Thor the Bassist]

I have better uses for my RAM.

In millions of years time people will excavate into landfill sites and then find the "Vista band" which is a full band in the sediment of old computers dumped by the new requirements made by Vista. Thankfully Linux and Mac have done much better since the release of Vista and this environmental disaster has been partly diverted.

[HouseOfHam]

The only thing I can say is never met a software engineer, IT person, programmer etc, who actually wanted to install Vista in the first place. No one wants a bloated piece of c**p for an OS. I find it inexcusable that any OS should require more RAM then the recommended amount for a high end graphics products (Photoshop CS3).

Vista was aimed to be installed on home pcs and used by people with little or no previous computer experience. There is no argument that it wouldn't be the OS of choice for a professional developer. But, sometimes it's not a question of wanting or not wanting to install it. In many companies, you're not given a choice and have to use what they give you, or what they have licenses for. Sometimes, you have it so you can develop a product specifically for it - most of the newer games are written and optimized for DirectX 10, which only exists on Vista, and sometimes people install it just to check it out or have dual boot.

I'm not going to advocate picking Vista over XP or the other way around. The simple truth is that the vast majority of new computers are sold with Vista pre-installed, and most non-experts will not bother with re-installing the OS, so Vista will remain the de-facto "most popular" OS and we all just have to deal with it.

[Thor the Bassist]

Surely the better approach for Microsoft would be to develop a "Vista Core" which could then have many different front-ends stuck ontop. So you get the compatibility from the core and then different users of different abilities and needs could adopt a Vista that mothers you more or less depending. Instead we have a piece of rather c**ppy software that we almost have to run.

[Spartan198]

About UAT: I'm a software engineer myself and I work with a lot of others. There was not a single one of them who didn't turn it off immediately after installing Vista.
Is there a way to turn off permissions for all files at the same time?
That would really beat having to do it for each individual file.

[Tzar469]

Change the permissions for your data folder. If I remember correctly, it will change the permissions of all files inside it as well.

[HouseOfHam]

Is there a way to turn off permissions for all files at the same time?
That would really beat having to do it for each individual file.

If you don't want to turn off UAC altogether, you can turn it off for individual users in the User Accounts control panel.