HowTo: Set up MTW2 for modding

[Rhyfelwyr]

Is it just the file with the name that appears in the error message, not the similar ones?

Also sorry I just PMed you BTW.

EDIT: I added all the similar looking files. Also do I actually put the file in the same folder as the unpacker is in?

[alpaca]

Is it just the file with the name that appears in the error message, not the similar ones?

Also sorry I just PMed you BTW.

EDIT: I added all the similar looking files. Also do I actually put the file in the same folder as the unpacker is in?

Yes I think so. Alternatively copy it into your WINNT/system32 folder which should definitely do the trick.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Where is that?

Thanks for all this help BTW it is really appreciated, I've been dying to mod since I finished my campaign, didnd't want to muck it up throuhg the moddding.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I tried just adding that one file to the unpacker folder, but then it told me another similar one was missing. Should I just try adding all these similar files to the WINNT/system32 folder?

EDIT: Should the unpacker folder look like this BTW:

[Rhyfelwyr]

Sorry if I am being a total idiot here, but did you mean put the unpacker into system 32 or the files it always tells me are missing?

I swear I could mod RTW, even managed to swap shields on models and everything. This is a nightmare.

EDIT: When I swithched the mc... files into system32 the unpacker just said it couldn't find them, when I switched the unpacker to system32 to run it it just flashed up for a second then dissappeared.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I just tried taking all the files with the little gear symbol out of the main M2TW folder, and putting them into the unpacker folder. It made the unpacker run for much longer, it got to over 23,000 of the 36,000 files before it gave up, but I still don't see any files in the data folder.

Also is there supposed be a text folder within the data folder?

EDIT: Sorry for quadruple posting I've been a bit frantic trying to get this sorted, I'm giving up for tonight.

EDIT 2: I've just read through this thread, and I seem to be having the same problem as oklahomasooners, my unpack_all script stops part way through. I'm using Vista just now, I managed to do all this no problem on my old XP PC. That would explain the "failed to open file" that the script gives me. oklahomasooners says he moved the unpacker to a different folder, but didn't say which one. Is there any way for me to change the permissions required to open files, whenever I move files I get messages with the admin symbol telling me to use the admin privileges to move the files. I can do it as I am the admin, but it needs to go through the message first. Could that be my problem?

FINAL EDIT: Yes, unpacked the files!!!!!!! The problem was Vista's security settings, I turned off user account controls. Perhaps you should add that to the first post here alpaca, might save some trouble for Vista users like myself. Thanks for your help BTW.:cheers:

[redline]

@alpaca

mate,i don't have a problem about making .bat files . My problem is this,when i start game from my mod all works but when i wont 2 lead battle game crushes.Then i use yours mod folder installer (good job 4 that),everything works but still i can't lead battles by my self because game crush every time.i also use line 4 log error still nothing , i don't get it whats is problem.by the way i have installed patch 1.1, i have also 1.2 and 1.3(but not installed).if they are fixing this problem tell m,if not then tell m what problem is.
i have created in my mod almost everything but game crushes when i want to lead battles.
many thx 4 hlp

[Lusted]

My guess is you haven't deleted the 2 descr_geography files after unpacking.

[redline]

@lusted
hmmm.. i must delete that files before unpacking patches or after i unpack.
thx 4 tip mate.

[Rhyfelwyr]

I've managed to get to the stage where I can run the game throught the mymod.bat file. However, I changed descr_strat in the mymod folder, in its right location, and the changes are not showing up ingame. Any ideas?

EDIT: Sorted

[Rhyfelwyr]

I've now had success in changing the faction name, colour, character names, buildings, religion, and culture.

I've also added a unit, but its going to remain invisible until I can edit the modeldb file. I've heard I need to add --io.file_first to the batch file to get this to work, so I need to know can I add the --io.file_first to my batch file and still run the game with the mod folder commands, or do I need to move all my files back into their original locations and replace the vanilla files?

EDIT: Sorted.

[quojake]

i'm using io_first option...

i followed all the instructions, but still can't get any changes to show up e.g. london to moloch.

I got rid of all the strin.bin files and edited the data\text\imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt

but nothing...

is it because i'm on ver 1.1?

[quojake]

I've sorta located the problem. The txt files in data/text are not being converted back into string.bin files after editing with notepad.

HOWEVER, if i use the tool that directly edits string.bins, then the changes appear...

anyreason why or way to correct this? cos i'd much rather edit with notepad..

[adembroski]

Okay, so does this work the same for setting up Kingdoms mods?

[alpaca]

quojake: Sorry for answering so late. I'm not very experienced with using file_first so I don't even know if the strings bin files are regenerated if you launch that way.

adembroski: I think it should in general work the same way, you just have to use kingdoms.exe to run it.

[Red Spot]

i'm using io_first option...

i followed all the instructions, but still can't get any changes to show up e.g. london to moloch.

I got rid of all the strin.bin files and edited the data\text\imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt

but nothing...

is it because i'm on ver 1.1?

I'm guessing it is cause you run v1.1, I ran M2 vanilla and than stopped playing it untill v1.2 was out, modded the game, made my shortcut look like this **"D:\Medieval II Total War\medieval2.exe" --io.file_first** (without the **) and just enjoyed the game as I modded it (do note I do not use the launcher!)


Alpaca, the game generates the string.bin files when running the "io"-flag just as it would in a mod folder, at least under v1.2, at least the .. er .. commen ones (just cant recall wich ones, I never used a mod-folder though, so it must work with the io-method)


G

[Eothese]

Dose this still apply to 1.3 which is what you get when you install kingdoms? I managed to get it to run without convertimg the string.bin files but the UI and settlements were just large blank white squares, also the loading_screens and the text/imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt files were already in the mymod folder?? If I need to use the sting.bin converter how do I use it?

[alpaca]

I don't really know if it works with kingdoms. The mod folder installer probably won't work because the layout for some files has changed, as well as some other things, but the general process should be pretty much the same.

[Gibb The Great]

Well i suck, i followed the instructions and when i try to open my game through mymod.dat it crashes, it crashes when i try and open it through the original way.

i guess modding isn't my thing

[alpaca]

It's possible that you inadvertently deleted an important file. You should always make backups before you change anything - this is a lesson that every new modder has to learn the hard way

[Gibb The Great]

It's possible that you inadvertently deleted an important file. You should always make backups before you change anything - this is a lesson that every new modder has to learn the hard way

They should call me Forest Gibb

"I'm not a smart man!"

[Gibb The Great]

OK i think i found the problem, when i installed the 1.2 patch it asked if i wanna reboot and since i was downloading the mod folder creater i said i'll reboot later. Well i forgot once the DL was finished and tried to mod and dabble around abit. I never realised i for got to reboot until after i unistalled Medieval 2 though.

Long story short it is now working, did the London Test and renamed it to Gibbs Place. Works fine.

However when i load the game through mymod.bat it loads it in a screen about 3/4 of the size of my original game, now normally i wouldn't mind too much since i prefer to do other things while playing games but its harder to navigate the map screen and battle screen. Is that the norm while modding? A smaller screen or is it once again user error?



p.s Alpaca congrats on being a top bloke, 1 year after this thread was created and you are still answering questions

[alpaca]

OK i think i found the problem, when i installed the 1.2 patch it asked if i wanna reboot and since i was downloading the mod folder creater i said i'll reboot later. Well i forgot once the DL was finished and tried to mod and dabble around abit. I never realised i for got to reboot until after i unistalled Medieval 2 though.

Long story short it is now working, did the London Test and renamed it to Gibbs Place. Works fine.

However when i load the game through mymod.bat it loads it in a screen about 3/4 of the size of my original game, now normally i wouldn't mind too much since i prefer to do other things while playing games but its harder to navigate the map screen and battle screen. Is that the norm while modding? A smaller screen or is it once again user error?



p.s Alpaca congrats on being a top bloke, 1 year after this thread was created and you are still answering questions

Thanks, answering sometimes takes a few days though

The game runs in windowed mode which is intentional. Open mymod.cfg and adjust the settings to your liking if you want to change something, there's a "windowed" flag, and a flag where you can set your resolution. Videos are also disabled.
Note that you should probably copy some settings from your medieval2.preferences.cfg or whatever it's called as the mod config is not written by the game when you change settings.

To navigate while in windowed mode I usually use the arrow keys.

[HistoryGuy]

A very long post...

OK - Before I make myself sound like a complete idiot, I am a newb to unpacking and extracting files in games etc (that part of modding). I am not however a newb / idiot in terms of the graphical part of it.

Now that that is over with... I began the tutorial as alpaca had stated.

===

I ran the unpacker, but forgot to direct it to a subfolder. So it copied or unpacked onto my vanilla (1.3) version of M2TW. Just a note, the unpacker closed itself. I went into my directories, and started to try and find files as was mentioned in the tutorial. After failing in finding the files, I started up the game, and tried a quick battle. It gave me this error:

Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will close.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling it. Didn't work. I uninstalled it again, and than reinstalled patch 1.2 and 1.3. I tried it after 1.2 and it didn't work. When 1.3 was finished I tried it, and it work. When I closed M2TW, and brought it back up again (just to make sure it worked multiple times); well it didn't work. So I downloaded the Mod Installer folder, and than created a new sub folder (etc, etc) launched that, and even that crashed.

I was gonna go through the unpacker again (this time with a sub directory) just for hoping that maybe that would fix it, but I have my doubts.

I was wondering if there was any possible way of getting around this by somehow restoring my M2TW files (which doesn't seem to work even when I uninstall / reinstall it) which doesn't make sense considering the fact that I didn't have the CD in the drive when I unpacked it.

Any help here would be EXTREMELY appreciated.

[alpaca]

Unpacking shouldn't in fact cause your game to crash as long as you don't run it with a different shortcut (using file_first) or make some changes to your configuration. Are you sure the game works without unpacking?

[HistoryGuy]

The game only crashes when I try a battle. The campaign map works fine, but when I do a battle, it crashes. Same goes with historical, custom, or quick battles. Any other ideas?

I can post some Log info if you wish, though don't know how that would help.

[HistoryGuy]

Is unpacking possible under Vista operating systems?

[Roman_Man#3]

It is entirely possible. I just had to copy one of the .dll files from the M2TW directory into the unpacker folder.

[HistoryGuy]

Hmmm. I'm still having problems despite the fact when I uninstall and reinstall. Would a new copy of M2TW fix this problem, or should I unpack it again, and maybe that will help the "unspecified error" problem. My PC meets the required specs.

Thanks!

[Mek Simmur al Ragaski]

Where would you put a modding folder in your medieval directory, would you put it in with the descr_strat files (not actually in them, but like a new folder in the same area as they are) Im not sure where to find mod 1.1 (im hopeless at navigating through websites), so if you could give me a link i would appreciate it lots.