Im a modding Newbie

**Mek Simmur al Ragaski** · 03-31-2008, 01:21

I would like to start modding, but Alpacas tutorial is very annoying as he expects us to have everything downloaded when it actually says how to set M2TW up for modding, if anybody here knows what to do first, out of everything, can you post please, i am really starting to get annoyed that i cant do anything because i cant understand one persons post.

**pevergreen** · 03-31-2008, 05:28

Have you unpacked the files? I believe thats the main thing you need to do.

**Mek Simmur al Ragaski** · 03-31-2008, 11:04

No i havent unpacked the files, alpaca says you need to edit some o these files, and i not sure how you wouuld do this because it wont let me save ti over the original file, and i cant find my modding folder, its somewhere near a folder of tgas but i cant find it

**Brave** · 03-31-2008, 22:09

Read Alpacs post again..slowly.

**dual939** · 04-01-2008, 01:12

Greetings from fellow nubee.

I had the same trouble. Since this stuff is quite old for most folks - TW and modding and the help is VAST, it is hard knowing where to start, what q's to ask, whom to ask them of and...can you trust they know what they are talking about.

So a few things that I had to figure out myself.
One (1) Modders often refer to a text editor...well I had no idea what that was...it is any simple word processor...like note pad, and such. But if you use word pad instead you are DOOMED. Note pad keeps the .txt format word pad may not.
Two (2) You cannot find a line in a text file if your word wrap is "on". And, if you cannot find a text line in a file you cannot use the system logs to see what you have done wrong in writing / changing the data in a file.
Three (3) In your file manager ( cleverly now - for the last 10 years or so - called "My computer" by the folks at MicroSoft ) there is a magnifying glass icon on the top of your My computer window. It will save you a lot of time if you learn how to use it to SEARCH and find "lost" files. Without it you are DOOMED.

I have found that it is almost impossible to get answers to my questions as they have probably all been answered before and folks get tired of reading them. THIS is NOT TO say that you will get no help. People are willing to help and are usually responsive ..you just need to be patient and try different forums. This thing is VAST.

I hope my tips helped a little. I am not trying to be insulting. But when I first tried to jump into modding, I had great enthusiasm. But my progress has been very slow. I have found that since most folks are far beyond me in knowledge, they use terms which I do not understand...but they are common terms for anyone who has been at this stuff for a while. So I will stick with it. It is very rewarding to see your changes to a game actually work.

So just stick with it. I have. And will continue to do so.

Hope some of these simple things have helped.

I have often thought that there should be a nubee guild...SO that the blind can lead the blind. But until I can find others who are interested in the idea, I will stick it out alone.

Good luck.

**Mek Simmur al Ragaski** · 04-01-2008, 13:05

Thanks, so you have to use the notepad??? Great... I was just wondering, if i unpack the files, isnt my game supposed to crash until i delete a certain file, well how do i delete this file, i cant find it and i cant edit any of CA's original files, even the descr_strat thing is difficult, i managed to do it, but i wouldnt let me save, or am i supposed to save it in a modding folder, and edit the things in my modding oflder, although im not sure how editing something in a different folder would edit the games features, or is there a way to deactivate certain files that CA put their originally???

**PBI** · 04-01-2008, 16:39

The very first thing you need to do is to run the unpacking program CA have published. I think it's included in the 1.2 patch or on the Kingdoms disk. It sounds to me like either you haven't done this yet or it hasn't worked properly. If it's worked then your "data" folder should contain two files with "geography" in the name, plus a whole bunch of other files and directories. These two geography files are the ones you need to delete, but if they aren't there to start with then the files haven't been unpacked.

You could try reading the readme that comes with the unpacker if your having trouble with the tutorial.

Most of the files are originally marked as "read only" which is probably why you can't save them. You need to uncheck the box for this in the properties dialogue.

You then need to set up a batch file to run the game from your modded files rather than the packed files, otherwise none of your changes will appear in the game. Alpaca and the readme both explain how to do this.

You don't need any other programs besides the unpacker itself and notepad to get the game set up for modding.

**Mek Simmur al Ragaski** · 04-01-2008, 20:14

So this will be in the original folder... aka /SEGA/M2TW thing, well i cant seem to alter those kinds of files, or do i have to make them non read only, but then wont i have to save it elsewhere??? Ill try to make another mod folder, I couldnt find Alpacas until midnight last night

**irishron2004** · 04-01-2008, 23:19

Originally Posted by Insane834

So this will be in the original folder... aka /SEGA/M2TW thing, well i cant seem to alter those kinds of files, or do i have to make them non read only, but then wont i have to save it elsewhere??? Ill try to make another mod folder, I couldnt find Alpacas until midnight last night

You have the wiki you can search, you have every tutorial and all the feedback in them, you have all the mods out there you can download and install to see how the other modders did theirs by comparing folders and files, so dig in and have fun. Experience is the best teacher and the worst thing you could do is have to reinstall the game. Also use my computer and notepad to your advantage to read the readme files, .txt files, .cfg files, etc. It's called learning and it involves a lot of research and reading that research.