Breaking the startpos file with just one line

[Turbosatan]

Hi guys, first topic here so mods please forgive me if I've put this in the wrong place... & indeed mega-apologies for the length of the post, it's turned into quite the essay; but I'm going to be quite thorough in listing what I've already done to save everyone wasting their kind attentions on suggesting stuff that I have already tried or did not do in the first place!

Basically, having played 2.1 XL & Pocket mod, I was enamoured of the way Cynwulf (that is his name these days, right?), in the Late era, allowed factions to start with a decently large army of mostly High era troops. I love XL's mass of factions & units, but I feel the starting armies for Late factions could do with a bit of beefing up (so I could "sandbox" quickly in a campaign with big armies, basically, because I'm sad & lazy & can't always be bothered to build all the things necessary to get cool cavalry) & I thought:

"Pah, this should be simplicity itself! I shall get myself a fresh install of XL, then modify the relevant startpos entry in the "Makeunits" thingy, & lo! The effect I desire!"

However, being a chump, I've managed to break something. Quite spectacularly, in fact.

My first intention was to give the French a decently-sized heavy cavalry contingent at the start of the Late era. This was going to be matched by an appopriate chunk of the continent's armies being beefed up for the aforementioned "sandboxing" campaign stuff.

So I copied & pasted the Late_XL file to a safe location, opened up the original (which I think was my first, okay, maybe second mistake) & copy-pasted just the one change: replacing the Makeunits tag "urban militia" with the phrase for "feudal knights", in just one region, then adjusting the unit size from 60 down to 40. Just to see if it would work, like. I think now that there are tab placement issues that I didn't know about, 'cos I just highlighted the urbies tag & pasted the knights' one over the top without thinking about it, but anyway...

I saved the file, open up MTWXL, & start a French campaign, Late_XL era, & the parchment tells me that the Feudals have registered in the starting troop list, so feeling smug I press the Start Campagn &.... Death. The loading bar thing goes all the way across, then the spinning of the DVD & the "scratching" of the same piece of musical refrain over & over & over... & then we're back in Desktop city.

Right, says I: restore the original file, & start again. Being naturally cautious, once I have deleted the modded file & restored the original I attempted to start MTW & load a French, Late, XL campaign.... & the same thing happened. Loading bar full, whizzing of the DVD. Music playing over & over.

Okay, I think, I've done something spectacularly wrong here. Fresh applications of the original Late_XL startpos file all result in insta-death. Everything else always works fine; I can be Burgundians, HRE, whatever, even the French in HighXL & earlyXL, but not the mode I touched. So I uninstall, delete all the leftover stuff from the XL mod (in a file-shredder, no less), & reinstall, apply the patch, reinstall XL, reinstall the XL 2.1 patch, &...

Guess what? I can't start a French Late_XL campaign. Gets all the way to the full-red loading bar, falls over.

This is obviously tedious now -- much like reading this in fact, thank you to anyone who has stuck with me so long -- so I go & install my other copy of MTW (yeah, I have two, two PCs, & it's cheap these days) back on my hack rig in the bedroom (same operating system & everything.) Then I diligently patch it, XL it, XL patch it to 2.1. Then I delete the modded XL startpos file, go back to my hack rig, copy the new Late_XL startpos file off my hack rig onto the PC with the broken one on it.

Nada. Zilch. The same thing happens. One more time, I think: I'll install the original copy on my hack rig, just to see if somehow I've damaged the disc. Y'know what: I haven't. French LateXL era plays fine on my hack rig, with both the original install & the new one (with the disc I was "testing").

What I would like to know is, has anyone ever heard of anything like this, or perhaps what I could do to remedy it? Or can maybe suggest something that I haven't tried? Please? Pretty please...?

Any help or ideas would be massively appreciated, & again thank you for reading my tedious adventures in modding land.

Best,

Turbosatan.

[naut]

Wow? It did all that and you only changed the one line. Then you restored it and it still didn't work? You can't play as the French?

I'm completely stumped. I'll try it out on mine. In which region did you change the units?

[Turbosatan]

Hey, Rythmic!

Thank you for replying. Yeah, I've made the mother of all boo-boos but I dunno how.

I honestly can't remember the region, it was one of the central ones with all the different naff units in -- Ile de France or Champagne, I think, but I can't be sure...

I'm beginning to think it's a registry thing... Because my girlfriend pointed out to me that to create my XL install I copy-pasted MTW-VI to a new folder then installed XL... ever heard of anything like that occurring?

Anyway, thanks again for the reply!

Best,

TS

PS: Just for future reference, are there a certain number of tab spaces between the columns in the makeunit section of the startpos file? (just so I don't go doing it again...)

[Turbosatan]

Hey Rythmic!

I had to reformat the hard drive, but completely reinstalled & now everything is cool.

Thanks again for the reply, dude...

[naut]

Good to hear.

(Not the reformatting part though, that sucks).

[Raz]

You reformatted your entire hard-drive just so you could play as the French in late era on XL for MTW?
. . .. I would've done the exact same thing. Wow, shows how much we all love MTW.

As for the "certain number of tabs", the format in the startpos isn't incredibly rigid. That's why you'll find tabs in some gaps and five or six spaces in others. Just as long as there is at least one tab between each bit of info is the important thing to remember.

Anyway, tell me, did you try again after this reformatting?

[Turbosatan]

You reformatted your entire hard-drive just so you could play as the French in late era on XL for MTW?
. . .. I would've done the exact same thing. Wow, shows how much we all love MTW.

Anyway, tell me, did you try again after this reformatting?

I know, I know, sad isn't it? When I think of the energy directed into playing/otherwise nafffing about with MTW... {shudders}

Anyway, I haven't as yet tried to change anything else... Though I'm sure I'll give into temptation soon enough! BTW my girlfriend (an incredibly patient person) pointed out -- after I'd reformatted -- that I'd been trying to reinstall to the same directory each time, so I probably didn't need to anyway & it was just something hanging about in the registry... Head, meet desk!

As for the "certain number of tabs", the format in the startpos isn't incredibly rigid. That's why you'll find tabs in some gaps and five or six spaces in others. Just as long as there is at least one tab between each bit of info is the important thing to remember.

Ahh... So overwriting the troop label, then pressing delete to bring the next column closer & just pressing TAB once should do it? Sorry to be a dunce, just a touch chary about wandering about in there now!