More questions on MTW2

I'm still learning the game, having finally gotten it this past Thanksgiving - I did not play RTW, but spent hundreds of hours on the original MTW.

I figured out some basic modding to change the year counter to 1 instead of 2, and I gave each faction a bit more starting money. I did that by editing the descr_strat.txt file, since I hated the 2 year turns.

However, what I found to be very easy on the old MTW, I can't seem to find anything regarding mods that are a bit more complex for MTW2 - the modding forums seem byzantine in complexity to me.

Is it possible to change actual unit stats - like costs/upkeep? How far they can move in a turn, etc? The old MTW had 3-4 .txt files that were easy to mod - unit stats, projectile stats and the startpos (sp) one. Is there an actual file that I can edit?

One thing I don't like is that it takes forever to sail on a ship from Sicily to Jerusalem - 5-6 turns, which translates into 10-12 years in game if I didn't mod the year counter... shouldn't it more realistically be 5-6 months to sail that distance? In the old MTW, as long as you had a line of ships connecting Sicily to Jerusalem in your "sea" provinces, you could move an army from Sicily to Jerusalem in 1 turn, or 1 year. (heck, you could do that from Sweden to Jerusalem if you had enough ships)

Thanks

Try this mod (Pro Deo et Rege):

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=437

It is much better than the vanilla game in every respect (recruitment, map, diplomacy, strategic AI, etc.), also ships have quite a range and can refill in friendly ports (though ferrying troops will slow them down).

Originally Posted by Cheetah

Try this mod (Pro Deo et Rege):

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=437

It is much better than the vanilla game in every respect (recruitment, map, diplomacy, strategic AI, etc.), also ships have quite a range and can refill in friendly ports (though ferrying troops will slow them down).

I'd rather do my own modding - if I can. And, I get apprehensive when I see a thread that is about modding and there are 100+ replies to it, and the first several are reporting bugs/errors. That was the same in this forum, too.
Which is partly why I posted the thread. The basics of modding thread had 170+ replies and I don't really have the time to scroll through each & every response.

If you want to mod the game yourself then run the unpacker. It is in the tools folder together with a readme file. You should read the readme file first. Once you have used the unpacker, delete the two geography files in the data folder. Now you can do all the modding you want.

Originally Posted by Monsieur Alphonse

If you want to mod the game yourself then run the unpacker. It is in the tools folder together with a readme file. You should read the readme file first. Once you have used the unpacker, delete the two geography files in the data folder. Now yau can all the modding you want.

Thanks - that was a nice help. I would not have known to look for that specific readme file.

Originally Posted by Monsieur Alphonse

If you want to mod the game yourself then run the unpacker. It is in the tools folder together with a readme file. You should read the readme file first. Once you have used the unpacker, delete the two geography files in the data folder. Now you can do all the modding you want.

ok, how does one go about creating a batch file? I would have no idea where to begin.

I was going by this from the readme.txt file.


- To use the modified files create a batch file in your
Medieval II: Total War folder

- In the batch file add the following line

medieval2.exe --io.file_first

Originally Posted by NewJeffCT

ok, how does one go about creating a batch file? I would have no idea where to begin.

Try this:

Open notepad,
type: medieval2.exe --io.file_first
save file as type .txt
then, in windows explorer change the name of the file to *.bat
(the * is for the name you give the file)

This file is now an executable file. Double click it to run.

You can save the file as a .bat file right away. There is no need to change the name. Simply save as any-name.bat and you have a batch file.