New Patrons, you can post your questions here

[Harold Godwinson]

Greetings. I have a couple mod questions.

First, how do I raise the cap on the number of troops a general can command from 960 to 2,000?

Second, how can I change the age at which princes and princess are available? I would like to extend the availability of princess. They become seamstresses too quickly for my taste. And I'd like to reduce the age at which princes "come of age" to become king to 15, instead of 16.

I only have the original game. I don't have VI. Thanks for your time. :)

[BlackHat]

Greetings. I have a couple mod questions.

First, how do I raise the cap on the number of troops a general can command from 960 to 2,000?:)

On the Main Screen go to Options->Performance and change the unit size from default to huge. (This doubles the number of men in a standard unit. (ie Archers will have 120 men instead of 60, Infantry will have 200 instead of 100, Calvary will have 80 instead of 40, etc.)

This will also raise the max number of men in a stack to 1920. You can still only have 16 units max in a stack though.

(It also doubles the build times of most units. ie, it will take 2 years to build a unit of 200 spearmen instead of 1 year)

Second, how can I change the age at which princes and princess are available? I would like to extend the availability of princess. They become seamstresses too quickly for my taste. And I'd like to reduce the age at which princes "come of age" to become king to 15, instead of 16.

Hmm, I am pretty sure this is hard coded in the game, and can not be changed.

Later,
Blackhat

P.S. I don't think you can change the unit size of a game in progress, but I might be wrong.

[Harold Godwinson]

On the Main Screen go to Options->Performance and change the unit size from default to huge. (This doubles the number of men in a standard unit. (ie Archers will have 120 men instead of 60, Infantry will have 200 instead of 100, Calvary will have 80 instead of 40, etc.)

This will also raise the max number of men in a stack to 1920. You can still only have 16 units max in a stack though.

(It also doubles the build times of most units. ie, it will take 2 years to build a unit of 200 spearmen instead of 1 year).

Thanks. I always believed changing the unit size to huge would make the units themselves appear huge. I thought, who would want to fight battles with huge soldiers?

Hmm, I am pretty sure this is hard coded in the game, and can not be changed.

Later,
Blackhat

I think so too. Thanks again.

[naut]

Thanks. I always believed changing the unit size to huge would make the units themselves appear huge. I thought, who would want to fight battles with huge soldiers?

I thought that too when I first got the game.

[thefirstoneill]

Hi there
I am a new member and have just completed a new campaign mod for Medieval viking invasion. Ive managed to everything I set out to do, converting Danish to a Pagan society, the only thing Im stuck with is pagan king portraits, I cannot find where they are stored, I have found all the other cultures king portraints and have managed to import Viking general portraits into the pagan folder so I know have viking gernerals but cannot find where the pagan kings are located. Can anyone please help

Kind Regards
Semper Proesto Patrice Servive

[naut]

Just add:

PortraitsOverride:: FN_IRISH	"vikings"

To the bottom of the startpos file and it will use the Viking style portraits

[thefirstoneill]

Hi thanks for the quick reply, I tried
PortraitsOverride:: FN_DANISH "vikings"

but I got an error message
NO PORTRAITS FOR THIS OVERIDE TYPE

Do I need to make to make a pagna file within the viking folder.?

This is my first big mod, and most of it has seemed fairly straight forward but ive been trying allsorts to fix this one prob. THink the prob is caused by me declaring te culture of the danish as pagan culture, and there isnt any Pagan Kings folders, but it is getting a pagan (golden horde) portrait from somewhere, I was hoping just to cut an paste a selection of viking portraitis into that folder, but I cant locate the folder.

Sorry to be dim

many thanks

[naut]

Woops sorry I thought I edited that line. My bad, should be:

PortraitsOverride:: DANISH	"vikings"

[thefirstoneill]

Greetings again

should it be
PortraitsOverride:: DANISH "vikings"
or
PortraitsOverride:: FN_DANISH "vikings"

Im still curious as too where the program is locating pictures for Pagan Kings from though

Big thanks for your ongiong assistance. This is the first time I've joined a forum and I must admit Im find it very exciting. I feel I can be a little more daring with te mods Im trying as I know there is such a wealth of support available.

Thanks again

[naut]

PortraitsOverride:: DANISH "vikings"

The portraits are in campmap/portraits, they are arranged by culture.

[thefirstoneill]

Hello agaiin.

I tried PortraitsOverride:: DANISH "vikings" in the startpos file, but then the game wont load. so I tried PortraitsOverride:: FN_DANISH "vikings" but then I get the orginal error

I m confused about the location of the portraits. As the pagan folder has no sub folder for kings, so I assumed it was defaulting to the general file, so I took out the tga's and replaced them with viking ones but the game still found a golden horde pagan portrait from some where. I tried adding a sub folder for kings within the pagan folder and populated it with viking king portaits but with the same result, ie a golden horde.

Tis most strange, but I sure there is something really simple I am missing (possibly a brain LOL )

Thanks Again

[naut]

Try this:

PortraitsOverride:: DANISH   "vikings\\vikings"

EDIT: I'm not sure how the Golden Horde portraits work either.

[thefirstoneill]

ok I've made some real progress. Ive inserted folders within the portraits/pagan folder for spys, princess,,emissary,assassin. Which are correctly populating during the game. But kings are still fed from the general folder, I know this for sure, as I tested it by populating the general folder with renamed princess tga's and theyturned up as both king and general pics, I then did the same using muslin generals and the ingame pics changed to them.

I think there must be a command somewhere that instructs that Pagan kings are fed from general rather than king folder, so Im now hunting for this command line.

The pemise of the campaign Im working on is that with the conversion of Scandinavia, devout viking pagans set up a new kingdom of Valhalla and Jomsborg (corsica and sardinia) this kingdom then attracts other exiled pagan people, celts rus, golden horde . The campaign will be a raiding game, so the choice of lands is ideal as allows easy access to muslim, orthodox and catholic lands. Ive given the faction (modified danes) access to a wide range of troops, from pagan lands such as the steppe, wales, russia.

The spies, emissaries, and assassin, portraits are 50%,25%,25% Viking, Orthodox, muslim, so they can be set on missions where they would blend with the population. Generals are 50% Viking, 25% Pagan (golden horde), 25% Catholic (from viking invasion , so really celtic)

I really wanted to restrict King portraits to Helmeted viking portraits, which is why this prob has been such a bug bear,

If you come up with any ideas please let me know

Thanks for all your help so far, I am really enjoying this modding

[thefirstoneill]

Ive managed to complete a couple of new campaign mods, mainly due to the great information Ive found on this site. I have moded start pos files, unit and building files, names, and finally managed to make an entirley new uniy (Knights of Avalon), one thing I cant seem to do is find the source for the information parchments (such as the ones which show the birth or maturity of an heir, or the notification that u have reached a technological advantage. Could anyone help me with where these are located, I believe they are subdivided by religion, but I cant find them anywhere , can anyone help , Many thanks




BETTER TO DIE LIKE A LION, THAN LIVE LIKE A LAMB

[thefirstoneill]

Hi there
can you tell me if it is possible to add a new projectile type. Im using te gnome editor, but it refers to values being linked to the worksheet, what worksheet does it mean. I need to be able to define a projectile shortname, so I can allocate it to units, but there is no entry point on the projectile to but this shortname (eg Long for longbow) in on the projectile txt file

thanks again
Jason

[DrIstvaan]

Hi everyone, I've just bought Total War Eras, and thus acquired Medieval TW. So, I don't know a bit about modding it, but I'd like to do something simple: alter the ending date of 1453. Is there some way to do so? (Yes, I know, that would make the game non-historica, but I value long games much more than that.) I think there should be, as I know there are mods to it located in completely other time periods, but how?
Also, can I do something about .bif files? AFAIK, these are packed data files, but how can I unpack them?
Thanks in advance for any answers!

[DrIstvaan]

Nevermind, I've probably found the date thing.

[naut]

.bif files are image files, viewable with, readbif_v23c.

End-date:

SetGameEndDate::		"Number"

In the relevant Startpos file.

[DrIstvaan]

Thanks for the info! I didn't know .bif files were images... Anyway, then I won't be trying to unpack them .

[EatYerGreens]

one thing I cant seem to do is find the source for the information parchments

...MTW\Loc\Eng\EVENTS.TXT


I've only browsed this file so far. I'm rather wary of making changes to it though.

For instance, in the diplomatic messages section and others, the responses seem to be 'graded' in severity. In the "alliance rejected" section, the first entry is a polite let-down, then progresses through increasing degrees of sternness, all the way up to "I was lucky to keep my head attached to my neck".

In cases like that, I can't help feeling that there's something hard-coded controlling this, so attempting to add extra lines might cause a CTD. A random number generator is of no use without setting a limit to stop it exceeding the number of available messages in this file.

So, altering the content of the text inside the { } brackets is probably safe but attempting to add new messages might not be.

The tricky part is that you (or anyone using your mod) could be playing for, literally, months before a particular variant of a message gets picked by the randomizer and it won't be until then that any CTD-causing problem reveals itself.

I don't know if EVENTS.txt can be 'aliased' in the same way that the era and hero files can and, if your mod has overwritten this file, the user's vanilla campaigns will be also be affected.


Lastly, some lines in this file have an '@' at the left-hand end but the majority of them do not. I have no idea what these are for, at the moment.

[TGYKnow]

So I'm sure this has already been answered before, but I haven't been able to find it.

I've already created four additional factions for my mod, but upon finishing the fourth, I've come to notice an error. I've created the Norse faction (making them pagan), and since the only pagan faction in the MTW game is the Golden Horde, the game automatically assigns Mongol portraits to the Norse leaders. I was wondering if there is a way to import the .tgas used for the VI campaign and use those for my norse kings without replacing the Golden Horde portraits?

[TGYKnow]

Wow this is mildly embarassing. After looking a few posts above mine, I've answered my own questions.

For anyone else wondering; I simply added this line to the end of my startpos file:

PortraitsOverride:: FN_Norse "vikings\\vikings"

It worked like a charm

[Lance510]

Adding Faction To MTW 2.01 (with Viking Invasion addon)Early Period ?


I've gotten a little help from reading through some of the threads here but have mostly just parsed stuff myself.

what I have done is gone through CAMPMAP/Startpos/Early and added my faction every where that i see factions by name. Same with LOC/ENG for all faction specific and defaults. I copied and renamed the Byzantine Files in Game end so I could make the faction playable.


Here is what I get
1] My faction (Armenians) appears in the Early Period as playable and can be selected and the Game will start. Though the faction description header says "This Label Does not exist" followed by assorted letters and punctuation marks.

2]I had given them only Horse archers for units. However my leader is always a Highland clansman (and I made the Arnenians Orthodox!). If using the Gnome editor I add Kataphractoi (or any other unit) as the leader Default and buildable by the Armenians, Then as soon as I click the .exe to start the game I get an error pop up "Collumn_Unit_Faction_Leader Unknown Faction Specification Column 28 row 85. Which of course corresponds to the leader entry in the Gnome editor for Crusaders_unit_Production11.

I'm Guessing that given the "Label Does not exist" in 1] above and the Unknown faction message in 2. That there is yet another placw I need to add my faction name. Before Crusader Production will recognize it. Any Ideas?

A list of all .txt files that need to be modified and where they are would be real cool if y'all could point me at that. BTW a lot of links that various threads here point to for more info are dead or wrong.

Thanks for your Time

[Aenarion]

Hi Lance510. First of all, welcome to the forum!

Now, for your questions:

1] My faction (Armenians) appears in the Early Period as playable and can be selected and the Game will start. Though the faction description header says "This Label Does not exist" followed by assorted letters and punctuation marks.

Well I think you've modified the right text files. What I would suggest is to check whether you've missed a line in a file or else, check whether you've written the exact same name for each and every reference to your new faction. Sometimes, the game gets mixed up when a faction is mispelled in another file - and so it doesn't recognize it fully.

2]I had given them only Horse archers for units. However my leader is always a Highland clansman (and I made the Arnenians Orthodox!). If using the Gnome editor I add Kataphractoi (or any other unit) as the leader Default and buildable by the Armenians, Then as soon as I click the .exe to start the game I get an error pop up "Collumn_Unit_Faction_Leader Unknown Faction Specification Column 28 row 85. Which of course corresponds to the leader entry in the Gnome editor for Crusaders_unit_Production11.

As for this next question, I'm really not sure. It always happened to me aswell, but I never gave any notice to it. I'm really not certain which files to modificate when it comes to determining the actual units for your factions.

A list of all .txt files that need to be modified and where they are would be real cool if y'all could point me at that.

Well as far as I'm concerned, you did all what was intended to. But still, here is the list of text files I used to modify to get a faction working in game.

Folder Loc/Eng:-
EARLY_FACTION_SPECIFIC.txt (depends on which era you are putting your faction in)
NAMES.txt
STARTPOS.txt
GLORYGOALS.txt
DESCRIPTIONS.txt (for unit descriptions as specified in the Unit_Prod11.txt file)
DEFREGSPEC.txt
DEFAULT_REGION_SPECIFIC.txt
DEFAULT_FACTION_SPECIFIC.txt
CHANGES.txt

Folder Campmap/startpos/
Early.txt

BTW a lot of links that various threads here point to for more info are dead or wrong.

Yes, unfortunately, most guides have been written some 3 years ago and have long since been abandoned, mainly due to the introduction of Rome Total War and now Medieval II Total War.

I hope that helps abit. I know it's not alot but that's how far my knowledge goes when it comes to MTW modding.

Thanks,
Aenarion

[Lance510]

Hi Aenarion
And thanks for your reply. Thanks very much for the synopsis list of files that need to be modified. I found this tutorial
http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic...nd-MTW-VI.html
and it is a huge help. In fact I'm kind of stunned that I even got as far as I did without knowing that you have to use predefined open slots for new factions. The up shot is that my game Locks at the beginning of turn 2 the way I did things.
I solved most of my Issues my making the Germans the Armenians (replaced the Germans on the map with Swiss and Burgundians) I Followed the Tutorial but some how missed the part on how to get them to show up as the "Armenians" on the selection screen. I will go through again using your file list. And stick to using the Paste function for enters so that all will be the same. Once I am sure that I have the techniques down for modding existing factions I will try recreating the Armenians as a new faction and make Germany into a huge mess of warring prince states as it should be;^) The HRE can be there but should probably have only Austria as nobody really paid much attention to the Emperor most of the time!!

I am getting the hang of the Gnome editor and now have Kataphractoi Generals.

[Lance510]

Does anybody know what happens with the Golden Horde appearance event if you do one of the following

1] Make the horde a playable faction at the start of the Early Period.

2] Remove the Golden horde From the Faction list in the early period

The deal is I really hate these guys they make life real miserable, (as in life they did) for anybody in the East when they show up. So I would rather have them as a playable faction right from the start with substantially truncated power or just not have them show up at all.

[Aenarion]

Glad you found it useful.

without knowing that you have to use predefined open slots for new factions.

Ah yes of course. I didn't mention it since I thought you had already done it if your faction appeared in the game ... always discovering new things hehe ...

As regards to the Golden Horde, as far as I'm concerned, it is a hard-coded faction just like the Papacy, which means that it's literally impossible to edit or modify in anyway. I'm not sure about the Golden Horde, but the Papacy definately. Maybe someone else on the forum can confirm this.

Thanks,
Aenarion

[Lance510]

Well I did some messing with the Horde. And what I got was crashes when I try to delete them. If any one cares I can repost what I posted on another forrum about my experiance and the conclusions I came to. So I'm thinking the best simple way to defang them is to change their behaivor from "rampaging Barbarians" or what ever it is to "desperate defense" this might at least just pin them down in the places that they start.

Sad the lack of interest currently in MTW, I went through a lot of work getting RTW to run on my machine and it was a huge disapoitnment. I don't think I will bother with MTWII until it is in the bargain bins. My Favortite of the Games is still STW, too bad it is not very moddable. But you can have some fun moving the start positions around.

[caravel]

I'm pretty sure, though not 100% sure that you can avoid the Papacy and Horde by simply basing your mod on VI instead of MTW. I'm not 100% sure how this works but the Samurai Wars mod doesn't have the Papacy faction. It may avoid the GH by simply not covering the year 1231, but I think it also avoids the Horde by being based on the VI campaign. I think some other mods take the same approach. If you try to remove the Horde from the MTW campaign then I'm pretty sure it will crash the game when 1231 arrives - even if you do it thoroughly. I can't be certain though as I've never tried this myself.

[Lance510]

Caravel,
Basing a Mod on VI would do the trick! And evidenced from the other mods that have been done there must be a way around the start and end years. I'm guessing though that this is a TREMENDOUS amount of work. Now I really could be wrong about this but a have one small piece of evidence that suggest that VI actually looks for some info in a different way than MTW. I tried Using shields from VI for a faction in MTW. Cut pasting a shield declaration line from VI to a does not work. neither does using a faction color line from VI in a MTW faction. in the case of the Shields VI uses the faction name for all the declarations but MTW uses number strings for the last two entrees. I,m guessing (Just guessing at the Moment) that there are other cases like this.

Now just changing the start year to 1233 for an MTW build is a lot less work. but does cut down on scenario length substantially and still requires some (though a lot less work) to get some of the early unit types to show up.

Thanks for the good ideas.

Now I'm going to check see whats different about the VI Startpos.txt header from MTW it might still be worth a try sometimes things are more simple than one expects.