MedManager - A Medieval II Total War Manager

**ShellShock** · 11-25-2006, 12:25

Medieval II Total War Manager
=============================

Download
---------

See the Mods Download Database in this forum.

By ShellShock
-------------

Medieval II Total War Manager (or MedManager for short) makes it easy to
manage some of the features of Medieval II Total War.

Editing saves:

o View and change the campaign or battle difficulty of an existing game.

o View and change the unit scale of an existing game.

Managing mods:

o Create a new mod in its own directory, without changing any of the original
M2TW files, or without creating a complete copy of the M2TW installation.

o Automatically create desktop icons (shortcuts) for your mods.Switch
between any mod or the original game just by clicking the associated icon.

o Define which files in the original M2TW installation to include in any new
mod.

o All presented in a easy to use Explorer-like interface.

Installation
------------

1. If you have installed a previous version of MedManager, uninstall it
first, using Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs.

2. Unzip all files in the downloaded MedManager.zip to a temporary directory.

3. Run the setup.exe. This will prompt you with the installation directory,
which defaults to

C:\Program Files\ShellShock Enterprises\Medieval II Total War Manager.

A shortcut to MedManager is created on your Desktop, and also in Start,
All Programs, ShellShock Enterprises.

Downloaded Mods
---------------

The following describes how to use MedManager with a downloaded mod.

1. In Windows Explorer, create a new directory for the mod, below the
"Medieval II Total War" directory. Give the new directory a suitable name,
i.e., the same as the mod. For example, for an "Realism" mod,
create a "Realism" directory below the "Medieval II Total War" directory.

2. Instead of unzipping/copying the mod files into the "Medieval II Total War"
directory, unzip/copy them into the mod directory, e.g.,
"Medieval II Total War\Realism".

Important: The relative location of the mod files and directories MUST match
the location of the same files and directories below the "Medieval II Total
War" directory. For example, suppose the Realism mod we have downloaded has
a map_features.tga file. In the original "Medieval II Total War"
installation this file is in the

Medieval II Total War\data\world\maps\base

directory. Thus, for the Realism mod this file must be in the

Medieval II Total War\Realism\data\world\maps\base

directory.

3. When you run MedManager it will automatically detect the new mod and create
a mod icon and Desktop shortcut for it.

4. Play the new mod either by using the icon in MedManager, or the Desktop
shortcut MedManager creates for you.

Creating a New Mod
------------------

The following describes how to create an "All Factions" mod that unlocks all
the factions in M2TW.

1. Run MedManager.

2. In the tree view on the left, select "Mod Template". The pane on the
right displays all the files that can be included as part of a new mod.

3. In the right pane, expand "data", and then "sounds". Make sure the files
events.dat and events.idx are ticked. These two files are required for all
mods. Now under data expand the world folder, and then maps. Make sure the
base folder is ticked - all files in this folder are required for new mods.
Also under the maps folder, expand the campaign and make sure the
imperial_campaign folder is ticked - for this mod we will need all the
files in this folder.

Finally, the preferences folder is ticked by default, so any new mods
will copy your existing preferences (e.g., key bindings).

Note: if you change which files are ticked, MedManager will remember your
selections when you run it again. For example, you may want to tick the
saves folder to copy saved games to new mods (but they may not work with
the new mod depending on how different it is to the original game).

4. In the tree view on the left, select "Mods". The right pane should be
empty. Press the Insert key, or choose New from the Mod menu. This will
create a new icon in the right pane called "New mod". Change the name to
"All Factions".

5. Right click the new "All Factions" icon and choose Explore from the pop-up
menu. This will run Windows Explorer to display the new "All Factions" mod
folder. In Explorer, expand the data, world, maps, campaign and finally
imperial_campaign folders.

6. In the imperial_campaign folder double click the descr_strat.txt file
which should open it in Notepad (note there should be no other files in
this folder). Change the text:

Code:

    playable
        england
        france
        hre
        spain
        venice
    end
    unlockable
        sicily
        milan
        scotland
        byzantium
        russia
        moors
        turks
        egypt
        denmark
        portugal
        poland
        hungary
    end

so it is instead:

Code:

    playable
        england
        france
        hre
        spain
        venice
        sicily
        milan
        scotland
        byzantium
        russia
        moors
        turks
        egypt
        denmark
        portugal
        poland
        hungary
    end
    unlockable
    end

7. Save the descr_strat.txt file. You are now ready to play the
"All Factions" mod. Either double click the "All Factions" icon in
MedManager, or use the "Medieval II Total War - All Factions" icon
that MedManager created for you on your Desktop. You can use this desktop
icon to play the mod without having to run MedManager first.

Editing a Save
--------------

The following describes how to edit an existing save file.

1. Run MedManager.

2. In the tree view on the left, select "Saves". The pane on the right
displays all the save game files for the main Medieval II Total War
installation. If you have any mod directories, then the save games for
each mod will displayed under separate nodes in the tree view.

3. Right click on a save file and choose Edit from the pop-up menu.

4. The "Edit Save File" dialog shows the current settings in the save file.

5. To change the campaign difficulty, tick the "Set campaign difficulty"
box, and then select the new difficulty.

6. It is recommended that you leave "Save changes to a new file" ticked.
When you click OK, your changes will be saved to the file name
displayed below the box.

7. If you untick "Save changes to a new file", then your changes will be
saved to the original save file. THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED IN CASE YOUR
SAVE FILE IS CORRUPTED BY MEDMANAGER.

8. When you play Medieval II Total War, load the new save file.

The Mod Template
----------------

The "Mod Template" view allows you to select which files from the original
M2TW installation to use in your mods. Tick the individual files or whole
directories to include in mods.

When you create a new mod, the ticked files and directories will be copied
from your original M2TW installation.

You can also apply the Mod Template to your existing mods. Right click an
existing mod icon, and choose "Apply Mod Template" from the pop-up menu. This
will apply the ticked files and directories in the Mod Template to the selected
mod. If a file or directory is ticked in the Mod Template and it is not present
in the mod, then it will be copied from the original M2TW file/directory to the
mod.

If a file in the mod is not ticked in the Mod Template, and the file is a
copy of an original M2TW file (with the same date), then the file will be
deleted from the mod. This will not delete any files you have edited or added
to the mod.

Future Enhancements
-------------------

None planned.

Credits
-------

Thanks to:

o Epistolary Richard for documenting the mod switch used by M2TW.
o CA for providing such a great game.
o Microsoft for giving us .Net.

Condition of Use
----------------

Incorporation - This material in this modification may be included in other public
modifications in a complete and unaltered state. Adaptation may only be made to the
extent necessary for the material to be used as intended by the creator. These
conditions can be waived with the creator's express permission. It also may not be
used for any commercial purpose. The creator of the modification must be identified
within the credits included in any release.

Permission for sub mods - The material in this modification can be used for public
sub-modifications (derivative modifications which will not function without the original
modification installed). The sub mod should not be bundled with the original modification
in a single download without the express permission of the creator.

Version History
---------------

1.0.0.4
3rd December 2006.
Renamed "New Mod Template" node to "Mod Template".
Added "Apply Mod Template" menu option. This will apply the ticked files and
directories in the Mod Template to the selected mod. If a file or directory is
ticked in the Mod Template and it is not present in the mod, then it will be copied
from the original M2TW file/directory to the mod. If a file in the mod is not ticked in
the Mod Template, and the file is a copy of an original M2TW file (with the same date),
then the file will be deleted from the mod.
Fixed main form loading with 0 width and height after an abort.
Changed the main icon so it is easier to tell it apart from M2TW.

1.0.0.3
25th November 2006. Some minor bug fixes. Improved Saves view.

1.0.0.2
19th November 2006. Added support for editing save files.

1.0.0.1
15th November 2006. Changed the default New Mod Template to include the whole
imperial_campaign folder.

1.0.0.0
13th November 2006. First Version.

**Myrddraal** · 11-25-2006, 17:52

nifty

**alpaca** · 11-25-2006, 23:15

Editing saves:

o View and change the campaign or battle difficulty of an existing game.

o View and change the unit scale of an existing game.

So you cracked some part of the savegame? Want to know more about it

**ShellShock** · 11-25-2006, 23:32

Originally Posted by alpaca

So you cracked some part of the savegame? Want to know more about it

Quite simple really - it is a brute force method of manually comparing bytes in different save files; the structure of the save file is similar to RTW, which I used for my RomeSage mod, so I was able to reuse some of the ideas in that for MedManager.

To really crack the save file would mean deserializing all the structures (objects) it contains, which is way way beyond what I've done.

**Myrddraal** · 11-26-2006, 20:28

So ShellShock, is there a way you could read out the units associated to a character from the Save file?

**ShellShock** · 11-26-2006, 23:02

In theory this may be possible but I have not done it.

**Aenlic** · 11-26-2006, 23:18

Shellshock, you are the man of the year!

This is an absolutely wonderful tool.

**Alexander the Pretty Good** · 11-27-2006, 03:45

This looks very, very promising.

**ShellShock** · 12-03-2006, 17:52

I have just uploaded a new version of MedManager (1.0.0.4) to the mod database. See the first post in this thread for details, and download it from the mod database.

The aim of the new version is to make it a bit easier to work with downloaded mods.