Medieval II Total War - Grand Campaign Balance Fix

**Candelarius** · August 26, 2007, 09:39 AM

Medieval II Total War - Grand Campaign Balance Fix
Compiled by Candelarius aka Yakaspat

This is an unofficial balance fix for the Grand Campaign of Medieval II Total War. This fix adds the new balance improvements that Lusted and Palamedes developed for the Kingdoms expansion pack to the original Grand Campaign. This fix also makes all playable factions unlocked. No others changes are included. This fix is essentially intended to be an unofficial patch for the Grand Campaign to bring it's unit balancing in-line with the new unit balancing introduced in Kingdoms. Note to those who have the Kingdoms Expansion Pack: This mod is rather obsolete compared to Unspoken Knights' Retro Mod, as it adds much more content, was developed by a official developer, and was balanced by the Creative Assembly studio. I recommend my fix only for those who have not purchased Kingdoms.

Download the fix HERE.
To install, double click the self-installer.
To run the original game with this Balance Fix, use the desktop icon that the self-installer places on your desktop (should over-write your original icon).

Credits:
Lusted and Palamedes - Balance changes.
Me (candelarius aka yakaspat) - Compiled this mod for easy user installation.

-----------------------UPDATE DECEMBER 2007---------------------------

I have a new and much improved mod that I've released, which can be found here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=135950
The new mod, the Grand Unit Addon Mod, adds many Kingdoms units to the Grand Campaign.
The new mod requires Medieval II Kingdoms.

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Q&A
Q: Do I need Kingdoms to play with this balance fix?
A: No, this can be played with or without Kingdoms. All you need is M2TW installed.

Q: Do you intend to include other changes or fixes?
A: No, this is intended to make the vanilla game balanced against Kingdoms.

Q: Did you make these changes yourself, or did you alter these files?
A: No, the balance changes were created by Lusted and Palamedes, who work for CA. I just put the installer together.

Q: Why did you include a file to unlock all factions?
A: Sometimes it's necessary to reinstall a game, and, it's unfair to force that person to replay a campaign through again to unlock the other factions. So I unlocked them for said persons (mostly me).

Q: Is this fix compatible with X mod or Y mod?
A: This fix is intended for those who play vanilla M2TW and want the Kingdom's balancing in their Grand Campaign. If you play with other mods, do so at your own risk or learn to integrate mods manually. I will not be providing any support to those who for some reason want to play this fix and some other mod(s).

Q: What futher enhancements or new content do you intend to add to this fix?
A: None. This fix is officially "done". If you want more content, buy Kingdoms.

**Turtules** · August 26, 2007, 12:11 PM

nice +rep.

downloading now.

**Skoran** · August 28, 2007, 05:17 PM

Wow cool

Will this also affect mods?

**Admiral Piett** · August 28, 2007, 06:49 PM

Thanks, yakaspat. I tried a battle with pikemen versus Feudal knights and the pikemen actually work now.

Thank you for having a solution to some of the problems of CA's recent decision not to patch the Grand Campaign.

**Candelarius** · August 28, 2007, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by Skoran

Wow cool

Will this also affect mods?

Like any mod, it depends on how the other mod installs itself. For any mod that installs itself in it's own mod folder, with the mod switch, then yes, it will work with them. For any mod that installs itself into your Medieval II Total War data folder directly, then no, it will not work with them. This fix installs three files into your Medieval II Total War\data folder. As long as the other mod you play doesn't install any files into that folder, then your good to go.

Originally Posted by Future Filmmaker

Thanks, yakaspat. I tried a battle with pikemen versus Feudal knights and the pikemen actually work now.

Thank you for having a solution to some of the problems of CA's recent decision not to patch the Grand Campaign.

Thank Palamedes and Lusted, they made the files....I just put them into an .exe file and posted them for everyone to use as an easy to install patch.

But, you're all very welcome anyway.

**Admiral Piett** · August 28, 2007, 08:25 PM

Just a question, but can I uninstall this? It seems to create compatibility issues with other mods, such as Machiavello 4.0 and Art of War.

**Candelarius** · August 29, 2007, 07:18 AM

*sigh*

Of course it creates compatibility issues with other mods...This fix is only for those who play vanilla M2TW and want the Kingdom's balancing in their Grand Campaign. If you play other mods, why would you install this fix to begin with?

To uninstall, delete the three files the fix puts into your Medieval II Total War\data folder. If your other mods did not install into their own mod folders, you may need to reinstall them after deleting this fix.

Please note that manual integration of different mods can be an advanced skill and one should only attempt to do so if one knows what one is doing.

**Candelarius** · August 29, 2007, 07:30 AM

In light of a released announced unofficial mod created by Creative Assembly, which can be found here , I will likely no longer be supporting or working on this fix. This fix is officially "done". If you want more content, buy Kingdoms and download the Retro Mod. I'm to busy playing the expansion pack to bother with further updating this fix, in light of the fact Unspoken Knight has already done a far better job than I could have hoped to accomplish.

**Turkeys!** · August 29, 2007, 07:17 PM

I have a question

What are the names of the three files that need to be unistalled?

**Candelarius** · August 29, 2007, 07:42 PM

descr_mount.txt
descr_projectile.txt
export_descr_unit.txt

Update:
Unspoken Knight from CA has released his own version of a balancing mod that is way better than mine. I have thus stopped all plans to support or continual work on this project. Download and discuss Unspoken Knights Retrofit Mod here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=118680

Cheers,
Candelarius aka Yakaspat

**JMonroe** · September 02, 2007, 05:35 PM

Candelarius, you may want to reconsider stopping support/work on your retrofit mod as Unspoken Knight's version adds kingdoms features like hotseat, boiling oil, and multiple army control, and therefore requires a Kingdoms installation to install.

I'm fine with paying for the expansions to add new features but I do think someone should be adding the AI, Unit, and Bug fixes that I think everyone believes should have been in the 1.3 patch for the Original M2. Since it looks like CA's only working on these kinds of fixes for their expansions, someone's got to be making these small, basic patches for the people who don't want to buy the each new expansion just to be able to patch their original game.

Although I do like the new features I really bought Kingdoms so I could install the retrofit for the unit balancing, bug fixes, and AI improvements. The rest I could have lived without. It'd be nice for other people to have that option now and for any future expansion rebalances.

**Candelarius** · September 02, 2007, 07:23 PM

People are more than welcome to download this fix for their Grand Campaign only game. This mod is just "done" and will not be updated any further...I'm too busy playing Kingdoms and the RetroMod to bother with it.

But, I did re-word my first post to make that more clear. Thanks for the input.

**Giorgos** · September 03, 2007, 09:38 AM

Brilliant work Candelarius. Thanks to Jack and Jason as well.

**Marcus Camillus** · December 19, 2007, 12:14 AM

Excellent work as always, Candelarius, and many thanks for sharing this. I'm going to be giving the Retrofit Mod v1.0 a try in my next campaign. Thanks for the info!

**Candelarius** · December 19, 2007, 07:22 AM

Well, this is actually a really out of date mod. I would suggest trying out my newer project, the Grand Unit Addon Mod for Kingdoms, which can be found here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=135950