BI -mod: switch problems and custom battles

[lt1956]

Hello,

Myself and others are experiencing an interesting BUg or so it seems to be a bug of when using the -mod: switch that our custom battles do not work, it drops you back to menu. But if you copy the information in the Root directory it will play custom battles fine.

I dont know if Jerome wants to comment on this but any help will make life easier for the modding teams. This is an issue that keeps coming up, after we started to get things to boot.

Also if anyone from CA reads this and IF there is a planned patch in the future, please keep in mind to make the 1st cohort to be tracked by the game no matter what province they come from, so IF you recruit 10 2st cohorts in 10 provinces they have different numerals 1-10 but different titles from there home provinces.

As it stand now you have to recruits ALL the cohorts from teh one province to have different numbers, and then they would all have the same titles. just another thing that would be great if it can be changed ever so slightly.

Lt1956

[lt1956]

Anyone else besides me think this is important?

I mean without the switch working we cannot use the feature, Petmonkey also had the same issue where IF he copied the contents into the RTW1.3 directory the custom battles worked, but if through the -mod: it doesnt, same if you copy directly into the BI folder while removing all that was in it prior.

This is on Both RTW.exe and BI.exe

Lt

[Encaitar]

Gah. I had been hoping they would finally fix this in BI, but apparently not. Custom battles don't work with the -mod:my_mod switch in v1.2 either. It does kinda make it a useless feature doesn't it.

[GodsPetMonkey]

Yes, it does...

But interestingly (I don't think lt explained this clearly enough ) if you empty out the BI data directory, then copy your own mod in there, then run the BI executable, the effect is exactly the same as using the -mod: switch. That is, the data is loaded fine, you get your custom back ground and UI elements in the menu (like unit pics) no errors, but still no custom battle. That makes me think there is a file which 'enables' (though probably by coincidence rather then it being deliberate) custom battles.

[lt1956]

Well I am sure if we can convince a few other modders to start talking about this Jerome will help us out, he has so far. This was actually the Biggest feature I was looking forward to in 1.3/BI because that switch allows us to do so much then.

[Lord Adherbal]

I'll talk about it :P sounds like a big problem, but I don't have BI yet so I can't test.

[lt1956]

Adherbal, Well there are some major useful features for your mod, religion and rebellions come to mind.

So its worth it to get the Xpack, my problem is if the switch doesnt work that means a patch, patch means no mod BI unless you wish to do all the work over again. lol

1.3 patch wrecked havock on our 1.2 mods, Most likely most will have to restart from scratch. I may just do a Late republic on BI as I cant see using RTW unless its to port an existing mod over, and then again I can see the need to redo a mod that is perfectly fine as is.

But without this switch it makes BI useless to us for the itme being. I do hope someone lets us know if its just a missing file or if a Patch will be needed. as I am afraid to mess with BI until I know for sure.

Lt

[lt1956]

bump

[Sundjata Keita]

I haven't got BI yet so I can't test but why doesn't someone create a mod that's just a copy of the original and then use the -mod: switch to use it. If GodsPetMonkey is correct and there is a file we are missing then custom battles will work but if there is just a problem with the -mod: switch function then it will still not work.

[lt1956]

I didnt copy the whole thing over but I believe it did work, not sure though, its a process copying over 2gb to test, It would be more nice if someone at CA would let use know any issues with the switch, even if its a file, we shouldnt have to play hide and seek to find it. Several other modders seemed to be turned off of BI and yes there are several TCs that will use BI but those type of mods take atleast 1 year to release and by then the community moves on. Look what happened for MTW, the napoleonic mod and roman mod never finished in time before RTW, nobody plays them now and think of HOW much work went into them.

If modders get fustrated by all of these things they will just leave the game and mod something else. Slytherine is making there Legion2 and while it doesnt have as many men on the field as RTW, it does have alot of nice features, including excellent kills sheet statistics and legions with easy naming. and talk of sea battles possibly. They also have excellent customer support, and there games are usually VERY moddable.

LT

[Sundjata Keita]

I'm already looking at a couple more modding projects down the line (for other games) but seen as we will have to wait a long while for any more total war games I think most mod teams can get their mods out and people will play them.

[Lord Adherbal]

I got BI today and can confirm this problem now...

[lt1956]

Sucks doesnt it?

[player1]

In 1.2 I solved the problem with custom battles, by making sure that the new mod folder has descr_start.txt file (in campaign folder).

[player1]

Custom battles problem SOLVED!

In order to work you need to have copy of data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\descr_strat.txt file in your mod folder.

Also you need to have copy of whole data\world\maps\base folder in you mod folder.

[Lord Adherbal]

well that didn't do it for me. Can you tell me the exact content of your mod folder ? And are you running RTW or BI exe ?

[player1]

All in v1.3

First test: Empty mod folder
Custom battles don't work (they just don't start)

Second test: added descr_strat.txt file from imperial_campaign folder (to apropriate subfolder in mod folder)
Game crasher after it tries to start.

Third test: added whole content of world\maps\base folder
Custom battles worked


Note that these test had no single moded file in mod folder yet.

[Lord Adherbal]

oh right, rtw 1.3. That works indeed, but still doesn't help me converting my mod to BI

[player1]

Well, I guess you should hunt for something similar in 1.4 too.

There must be some files that need to be present in mod folder for things to work properly I guess.

[DimeBagHo]

Was this problem ever definitively solved? I'm trying to get XGM going with the BI exe. So far...

RomeTW.exe -mod:xgm works fine (has done for a while)
RomeTW-BI.exe -mod:xgm works fine for campaigns

But I've had no luck with custom battles. Does anyone know exactly what files are required to get them working?

[player1]

You should try move all unmoded thingies to you mod folder first.

Then remove one by one until crashes stop.

Yes, painful slow process bug I don't know how else to help.

I only know that descr_strat.txt is required to prevent crashes (but still not enough to start custom batlle).