Rules, FAQ, Installation, and Guides

[TinCow]

Installation Instructions:

To play Last of the Romans, you will need to patch your game to version 1.3, install Stainless Steel 4.1, and install a custom mod made for LotR.

1) Install a clean copy of M2TW.
2) Install the M2TW 1.2 Patch.
3) Install the M2TW 1.3 Patch.
4) Install Stainless Steel 4.0.
5) Install the Stainless Steel 4.1 Patch.
6) Download LotR Mod 1.3. There are two methods to do this. The easiest is using the self-extracting installer created by Rowan. Simply download it, run it, and direct it to your base M2TW directory. The installer will put everything in the proper place and create a LotR shortcut for you. If you prefer to do the installation by hand, you can download the .zip version. Extract this file into your base M2TW folder and let it overwrite anything that it asks about. The .zip includes a LotR icon for you to use, but you'll have to create a new shortcut yourself.
7) Launch the game using the Stainless Steel or LotR shortcut.

Q: What's in LotR Mod 1.3?
A: Several things. (1) Relatively new versions of Lusted's Campaign and Battle AI mods, to make the AI better (2) Modification to make recruitable generals available from every Byzantine settlement in the game and to reduce their cost and upkeep to 1 florin each (3) A LotR icon for you to use (4) Fixed text description for the traits Overconfident and Blatantly Overconfident (5) Removal of the triggers for the entire SS 4.1 Civil War trait system (6) Removal of the triggers for the Near Loyalty and Far Loyalty trait lines (7) Removal of the triggers for the Stripped trait line.

Q: Will LotR Mod impact my other saved games?
A: LotR Mod will not impact any vanilla M2TW games or any games run under mods other than SS 4.1. Lotr Mod WILL impact all SS 4.1 games played in this installation. All of the above listed changes will exist in any SS 4.1 game you play. They won't make any games unplayable (the new AIs might actually improve them) but you might see the Byzantines spawning recruitable generals more than usual and the Civil War system will be completely absent for all factions. If you want to play SS 4.1 without these changes, it would probably be best to make a second installation of M2TW.

Q: How do I install multiple copies of M2TW on my computer at the same time?
A: Read these threads. If for some reason you need to remove your original copy of M2TW from the registry and Windows Installer, without deleting the actual game itself, use the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.

Q: Will this mod prevent me from playing the vanilla game?
A: No. The mods install in a separate "Stainless Steel" folder within your M2TW folder. They do not overwrite the original files. The shortcut provided for SS 4.1 will launch the game in the proper configuration for LotR. If you want to play the vanilla version of the game, just use the vanilla shortcut.

Q: I am already using a mod and I do not want to install a second version of M2TW. Will this installation work for me?
A: That depends on the mod you are using. Many M2TW mods install in separate directories and do not overwrite any of the original game files. Mods that work in this way are completely compatible with this installation method and will not cause you any problems. However, if you are using a mod that overwrites the original game files, you may encounter problems.