Telling the game to load a pack file.

[Sorkenlol]

Well, I'm having trouble doing this. I've googled around, and I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I used the "add a custom unit" guide to create a unit, I followed it and did exactly what it told me. Then I created the user.empire_script.txt file (saved it with Unicode encoding like google told me) and put "mod testmod.pack;" in it, without the quotation marks. Yet, it doesn't load. Spelling is correct, no errors in the .pack file as far as I know, I've triple-checked the guide and there's nothing.. Is there something else I must do for the game to understand I want to load the .pack file?

Alright I just realized I forgot to change the pack type to mod, so I went back in the PFM and changed it to mod, saved it and started the game, but while on the loading screen I got the "Has encountered a problem" error.

Tried creating a completely new .pack and setting it to "mod" at once and then importing the old files, same error.

The problem appears to be the text file I think. I tried creating a new .pack file with the default files in it, but I got the same error when starting.

[ToonTotalWar]

Well, I'm having trouble doing this. I've googled around, and I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I used the "add a custom unit" guide to create a unit, I followed it and did exactly what it told me. Then I created the user.empire_script.txt file (saved it with Unicode encoding like google told me) and put "mod testmod.pack;" in it, without the quotation marks. Yet, it doesn't load. Spelling is correct, no errors in the .pack file as far as I know, I've triple-checked the guide and there's nothing.. Is there something else I must do for the game to understand I want to load the .pack file?

Alright I just realized I forgot to change the pack type to mod, so I went back in the PFM and changed it to mod, saved it and started the game, but while on the loading screen I got the "Has encountered a problem" error.

Tried creating a completely new .pack and setting it to "mod" at once and then importing the old files, same error.

The problem appears to be the text file I think. I tried creating a new .pack file with the default files in it, but I got the same error when starting.

Try the mod again using mod manager, this worked for me as i was having the same problems.

You need to also make sure that all the amended tables have been loaded into the pack file as well

[MrThib]

The problems with this method is that's almost impossible to debug, and that sort of pack are not structured as a proper mod.
Still nice for trying to mess with the game through.
The crash at start of the game come from an unproper mod.
You don't need to go to google for this since this part of the forum is already full of informations about this.
I highly recommand you to go to the sticky thread and to read all tutorials there since most of same can bring light on some points the other doesn't.
People are still experimenting there.
And if there're some points you don't understand, don't skip them, ask and people will help you.

[juniroxors]

I endorse what MrThib has said - there isn't a quick way to adding custom units with stability without knowing all that others have learned so far and there isn't a fully known way of adding custom unit with proper custom names and text at the time of this post.

Startup crashes will occur if your pack wipes out part(s) of the main db the game needs to run.

eg1. Sometimes If you have a db fragment which overwrites the default fragment because it has the default name. Say, if you have added your custom unit using the default "units" fragment name but remove all the other units from your pack then the game can't load all the other units and the game crashes. Solution - export the fragment, rename to "yourname_units" and re-import. It's not cut and dried - some fragments can't be added renamed. It's trial and error at the moment but the basic ones needed for a custom unit can be.

eg2. localisation.loc - messing with this file to do anything other than change existing text (carefully) or add your own to the existing text (again carefully) will cause a crash. At this time it's not known how to add smaller amounts of custom text to the game without editing this file but I'm sure a solution will be forthcoming at some stage. Custom naming a fragment for this file does not work at the time of this post.

[MrThib]

What juniroxors said is right, exept that the different naming with deleted rows actually works for all db files an that this is seriously the way you should take in mod making as it save you from the trouble of scrolling through massive files and is defenetly not hard to do.
Try downloading my ottoman_officer example in "how to make mods" and open it with the PFM if you need to see how it works.

[joedreck]

You try to make a to big step. At first try to change small thing and if it's work, the next one.

And if you have problems with one step look in this threads. Someone knows how to handle your problem.

I started with the demo and changed the number of units. Later flags. Now I change uniform textures and work on the next step to change unit possibilities. Thanks MrThib on this way . I will add units, if I can say: "I understand the basic of modding Empire".

[Sorkenlol]

I managed to add my unit after hours of crashes and bugs. Thanks for all of the replies though. The problem was that I didn't make new DB files that I renamed. I used the old ones with another .pack file. Here's my new unit:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[MrThib]

Grats, I'm happy it works for you.
You'll see, now that you've been through all the trial and error stuff, that it will be really easy to mod for you by now.

[Sorkenlol]

Grats, I'm happy it works for you.
You'll see, now that you've been through all the trial and error stuff, that it will be really easy to mod for you by now.

Thanks. Yeah, I almost gave up half-way, but I've been through this same thing dozens of times in MTW2, so I know it's totally worth it to keep going.