The beta for the Medmod IV version 4.00 is now posted at my webpage. The castle pic at the bottom of this post is a link to it, as is the website button below that.
The mod is divided into three portions. The Graphics portion must be installed before the Texts portion. The Maptex portion may be installed at anytime. Note that you do not need the large Maptex portion if you set your Strategic map resolution to 1024x768. Those of you using dail-up may appreciate this.
The mod uses an executable pointed to the "Medieval - Total War" folder using the default game installation path. Previous versions of the Medmod were pointed at the "Total War" folder, which contains the MTW folder. If you did not use the default path, you will need to manually direct it to your corresponding MTW folder.
During installation, you should get the standard message asking if you want to overwrite existing files, unless you have set your system not to ask that, of course. If you do not receive this message, it means that you have not directed the installer to the correct folder. There is a post in the old Medmod 4 thread from a player who said the beta was running correctly, so mis-directing the installer is the only thing I can think of which should cause the beta not to show up.
Depending upon its time of the month, the Apolyton server may corrupt the download, so try dl'ing it again if you get an error when you try to start the game or the campaign.
The beta only contains the MM Late campaign, and will interfere with any other campaigns or saved games that you have. The simple uninstallation method described in the intro readme will not replace the modded map files. The original maps are contained on the game CD, however, in the Data\Textures\campmap folder. The corresponding game folder is Medieval - Total War\Textures\campmap.
I hope to find a volunteer to make an exe which will place the game's existing maps in a temporary directory upon mod installation, so that uninstallation will be as simple as installation.
I had a hell of a time finding the last few fatal bugs in the mod, but while solving those I also discovered and fixed dozens of other bugs along the way, some serious and some not, so this should be a very polished mod, for a beta anyway.
Other than bug reports, general gameplay quality and economics will be the major areas to be analysed and commented upon.
Place-holder graphics, copies of either the Rebels or the Almohads, are being used for the new factions in most places. Names on the strategic map have not yet been modified for the mod, either, though changes to landmasses and sea boundaries have been made.
There are also a certain number of units whose weapons are out of alignment. Finding and correcting them will also be one purpose for beta-tesing, so please report any of those that you notice.
If your Strategic map resolution is set to 800x600, the row of faction leaders will not appear during the AI turn, due to the increased number of factions in the mod. Also, faction descriptions only appear for those factions which were originally playable, due to a hard-coded limitation, so note that this is not a bug. Finally, you cannot use Huge unit sizes with the mod, due to the increased size of some units.
These are the only glitches or limitations that I am aware of. The rest of the mod should be gold-quality, so let me know if you happen across anything else.
Finally, the Readmes. I have posted HTML versions of the four main ones on my webpage, to give you a good idea of all that is in the mod. Word versions of these four, along with the Excel charts and a few other files, are contained in the Charts and Readmes subfolder which the mod creates in the MTW folder. A significant portion of the entire time spent on the mod has gone into composing these readmes and charts, and they are invaluable to your initial understanding of the mod, and should continue to be very valuable as long as you use the mod, so please find and mark them. I think you will find them informative, accurate and, at times, extremely interesting.
I have pasted in a copy of the Intro text below to make it easier to answer any technical questions you might have, though the HTML and Word versions are much easier to read.
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Medmod_IV_v4_07_exe
Medmod_IV_v4_Maptex_exe
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