How do I adjust the Timescale?

**Lorenzo_H** · 01-19-2007, 15:00

I have seen a lot about "timescales" lately. However, I have not noticed anything in the game which this could be refering to.

Can anyone explain to me what it is, what difference it makes and how to adjust it, if possible?

**JeromeBaker** · 01-19-2007, 15:39

I beleive that people are refering to timescale as how much time elapses per turn in the game. It is set to 2 years per one turn, and you can switch this to 1 year per turn or .5, whatever you want. 1 year per turn is what I use, and I like it a lot more. You have more time to complete your quest, and you can make some extra loot. I wouldnt go past 1 though, at .5 I personally think the game gets screwy, because populations get too large and it just doesnt seem very balanced at all. I forget the file that you look through to change the timescale, hopefully someone else can post that for you. Also, you must start a new campaign for your changes to the timescale to show up in the game.

**Moah** · 01-19-2007, 16:31

Doesn't that totally rule out getting Gunpowder or Mongol hordes or Aztecs though?

I won my france game on vh/vh before gunpowder or America and the mongols had only just appeared and not even made it to the middle east yet ( so I didn't ahve to face them). I know you can play on but your empire would mean you would just outproduce guns and wipe out everyone (or probably still wipe out everyone without gunpowder.

Planning on taking it slower in this campaign so I get to play with the above...

**pike master** · 01-19-2007, 18:16

it messes up the time frame of the game but then again men aging 1 year for 2 year turns isnt very good either. i think they should have put campaigns in ages like early high late blah blah blah. make each turn half a year like rome what do you guys think?

**DESTROYER!** · 01-19-2007, 18:23

it just doesnt mess up the time frame. if you think about it, it also un-balances build times and population growth rates.
basically youll be overpopulated before you even reach halfway the game AND your build times will be faster, therefore you will most likely have ALL the buildings before the halfway point.

**MohawkDaddy** · 01-19-2007, 20:06

Has anyone figured out a way to mod the build times? I'm no good at modding myself but I would think that could be done.

**dismal** · 01-19-2007, 22:32

Originally Posted by mad cat mech

it messes up the time frame of the game but then again men aging 1 year for 2 year turns isnt very good either. i think they should have put campaigns in ages like early high late blah blah blah. make each turn half a year like rome what do you guys think?

I think the game basically currently works the same a Rome. That is, it is calibrated in most ways to 1/2 year per turn on things like aging, seasons and movement points.

The game is designed to last about 220 turns, which was about the same as RTW:BI.

The 2 years per turn really just lets those 200 turns last 400 years instead of 100, so they can have certain historical events come in when they are supposed to.

Anyway, although it does result in a few odditities (like wives who outlive their husbands by 120 years) I find it doesn't impact my enjoyment of the game much at all. You can, of course, simply keep playing after the game ends as well, so I'm not sure why people are so concerned about modding for more turns.

**pike master** · 01-19-2007, 23:08

but im beating the long campaign before i even get to hardly use gunpowder or develop the top notch troops. plus i think people want a little realism to the timeframe.as i said i think it would have worked better if they had eras like they did in the original mtw.

**Zatoichi** · 01-19-2007, 23:12

This is taken from the FAQ over at TWCenter:

1. Go to the "Medieval II Total War/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign" folder.
2. Right click on the file "desc_strat.txt", select properties and uncheck the read-only box.
3. Open the desc_strat.txt file in notepad.
4. Change the value in front of timescale
It should look like this by default:

timescale 2.00

If you change this to 1.00, 1 turn will = 1 year. The lowest value that works is 0.50, any value lower and the game just treats it as 0.50. You need to start a new campaign for this to work though.

I've played a campaign as England with 1 turn = 1 year, and even playing slowly I'm up to 40 provinces by 1336, and so I don't think I'll be seeing the Americas in this game...

**JCoyote** · 01-19-2007, 23:34

Originally Posted by Zatoichi

I've played a campaign as England with 1 turn = 1 year, and even playing slowly I'm up to 40 provinces by 1336, and so I don't think I'll be seeing the Americas in this game...

LOL. You make it sound like not taking over new lands is difficult to avoid.

**pike master** · 01-20-2007, 08:28

im playing holy roman empire right now and reached my minimum requirement of 45 countries a good ways back and i havnt taken rome yet because i decided to take over the whole map and i dont want to bowl the pope over till im done.

by conquering the whole map is the only way to get worked up to the good troops and gunpowder and get to use them quite a bit. of course world domination takes up a lot of personal time. probably over twice what i have spent making the 45 provinces because now it takes forever to work through a turn.

i changed the time for the world is round to begin early. maybe ill change gunpowder too so i can get the good stuff early on.

couldnt resist it. im fighting the aztecs and they aint easy to beat. anyways i have used create unit and made elephants so im goin to use them against those jokers lol