Editing in M2TW

[AlexCezar]

Hello

I want to find out if I am the only one to prefer to alter a little bit the conditions of the initial game - to add some fun here and there.

For example: I always try to play some factions that are from the area where I actual am : byzantium, hungarians - and those need unlocking.

Also I tried to give me a head start - making my starting cities very big - at least 15.000 people.

Also - I am making my leader younger - as in 35-38 years old - 'cause I like to play a lot with him as my strongest general.

For all these I am editing the file : descr_stat.txt in the imperial campagn folder.

As for the units: I always try to add some features to make them more history-like. Like the english Longbows would have to have the highest attack of all the missile units in early period

So I am editing the descr_units.txt file.

And so on and so forth...

Please share with us your unique ideas and views concerning the topic

I always think that the best things will emerge from a pool of different opinions..

AlexCezar

Wisdom and courage make the deadliest combination in the times of war !!!

[Shottie]

How do you make factions playable?

[Gray_Lensman]

Unlocking factions is very similar to the technique used in RTW, but in addition they have added a configuration file line also

see https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=72109

do a search for "unlock faction" using the Edit/Find (on This Page) function on the top Explorer Bar and it will take you right to it (about 3/4 of the way down the page)

[Rilder]

The only editing ive done is in the preferences file, opening factions, resetting the advisor that tells you were to conquer cause i started a campaign with advice off, checking to see if you can still specificly alter unit sizes,(Which sucks that you can't)

[Warluster]

Shouldnt this be in the Mod Section?
To unlock factions you dont jsut have to conquer them, you can start a campaign and finish it to unlock ALL of them,
if you are going to use the conquer campaign way I suggest you start on Short Campaign, its easier.
I have modded probaly every single file there (Unpacked) and have had to re-install M2TW a LOT of times because of forgotten Back-ups...

[Roy1991]

As for the units: I always try to add some features to make them more history-like.

This is what I changed to my export_descr_unit file, to make it more historically accurate and make battles more difficult:

All longbows:
- +3 missile attack
- +30 range
- recruitement cost increased

Crossbows:
- mounted crossbowmen +5 missile attack
- foot crossbowmen +3 or +4 missile attack
- recruitement cost of some crossbow units increased
- stat_fire_delay increased to 60 for all peasant crossbow units, 54 for all militia crossbow units, and 48 for all 'regular' crossbow units (standard is 18)

Knights (both mounted & dismounted):
- Armour increased (up to 2x for knights wearing plate armour)
- Defence skill increased
- Recruitement & upkeep cost much higher --> no more armies consisting of nearly only knights. Knights now dominate the battlefield, like they should, but they cost a lot.

Gunpowder infantry:
- Musketeers (including mounted musketeers) +3 missile attack
- Musketeers (including mounted musketeers) -30 range
- Arqubuesiers -30 range

All infantry (except peasants)
- Mass increased, to make cavalry charges a bit less effective.
A well-executed charge can still destroy a whole unit of light infantry, but usually only kills the first 2 lines of heavily armoured infantry like foot knights or JHI.



With these changes, there's much more difference between armies of all factions, and battles generally are a lot more difficult (f.e, any type of knights can completely decimate several units of light infantry, so you need to counter them with your own knights, etc)