Shokh Hates Sieges! (A next level no-fortification mod)

**Serbian91** · January 13, 2014, 06:08 AM

Yeah, the two mods work together but in the end i deleted the CAI/BAI mod, and just kept Shokh Hates Sieges mod. Wana try the vanilla experience first...

**jj2009** · January 25, 2014, 04:40 PM

Is anyone else getting a broken download link? Can someone put a copy in the downloads>ETW>MODS?

**napoleon boneaparte** · January 25, 2014, 10:19 PM

Nope, I can download the mod.

**gangster19** · June 29, 2014, 05:09 AM

Is there any way to disable ALL the fortifications of every city??? I've attacked Stockholm and the damn siege was going on... and it was impossible to me because of the lag!!! I want to erase ALL the fortificatiooooons!!!

**Alwyn** · June 29, 2014, 06:07 AM

gangster19, I also find siege lag frustrating.

[Edit] Following taw's method, I made a version of the game's vanilla startpos in which no city forts appear at the start of the game. If you use this startpos together with Shokh Hates Sieges, then you should be able to play campaigns without city sieges. (Generals can still build forts in the countryside, outside region capitals.) I tested this startpos for a new turns and it worked okay; I have not tested it for a full campaign.

The 'no city forts startpos' is available to download as a zipped file in three parts. Simply download the file and follow the following instructions:

To unzip the startpos
Either use the dropbox link below (to download the startpos as one zipped file) or click on the files below (to download part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the startpos as zipped files). Move them to the same folder. Unzip part 1 in the normal way. The thee-part startpos will then (I hope) unzip automatically and combine automatically into a single startpos file. I used WinRAR to do this - I don't know whether you can unzip these files without having WinRAR. (I tried using 7zip and could split the files into two parts, but 7zip added an extra file extension which meant that the Total War Center web site would not accept it as an upload.)

Splitting the startpos was necessary because the vanilla startpos file is slightly too big to be accepted as an upload. I used poa's instructions to divide a zipped file into multiple parts. (If anyone would like to do know how to split a file into two when zipping it, you simply right-click on startpos; select add to archive; in a field where it says split to volumes bytes, type 7000000 and select okay.)

To install the startpos
Visit your [...]Steam/steamapps/common/empire total war/data/campaigns/main folder. On my computer, the Steam directory is in C:/ProgramFiles(x86); yours may vary. Rename startpos.esf to something like vanilla startpos.esf. When you start the Grand Campaign, the game uses the startpos.esf file in this folder to define the starting position. Keep a backup copy of the vanilla startpos file somewhere else.

Download the zip files and extract them. Put the startpos file of your choice in the [...]Steam/steamapps/common/empire total war/data/campaigns/main folder. Rename your chosen startpos file: startpos.esf.

To uninstall the startpos
Replace the modified startpos with the vanilla startpos file and ensure that your vanilla startpos file is called startpos.esf.

If you accidentally delete your vanilla startpos
You can get another copy of the vanilla startpos file by verifying the integrity of your game files on Steam. On Steam, right-click on Empire Total War; select Properties, then Local Files, then Verify Integrity of Game Cache. Steam should detect that you don’t have this file and will then put the vanilla startpos in the correct folder for you.

How to remove city forts

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Credits
Thanks to Erasmus777 (and others) for developing ESF Editor 1.4.5, taw for the method of removing city forts, poa for the instructions on splitting the zipped file.

Do you play as the United States?
A new version of the Early American Revolution startpos including this 'no city forts' feature is now available - if you are interested, follow the link in my signature and download either the EAR 9F startpos or the EAR 18K startpos.

Dropbox link (another way to download the startpos)
I will also attempt to make the zipped startpos file available via dropbox. If you can download it using this link, you should get one zipped 'no city forts' startpos file, which may be easier to use than downloading the file in three parts.

**gangster19** · July 03, 2014, 06:18 AM

Thank you so much Alwyn!!! I'll try it as soon as I can, now the Austrians won't be able to use the "General Lag" anymore!!! MUAHAHAHA

**Alwyn** · July 03, 2014, 06:49 AM

You're welcome - good luck with your campaign.

**gangster19** · July 03, 2014, 08:06 AM

Is it necessary to start a new campaign or can I edit my savegame and delete the city forts? It would be soooooo awesome if I could continue my campaign without fortifications, but if it's impossible I'll start a new one

**Alwyn** · July 03, 2014, 10:08 AM

If you changed the startpos and loaded a saved game (which you have been playing using a different startpos), then I think that would crash the game. I could be wrong, but I think it would be risky. I had a quick look at the regions_array of a saved game and it looks as if the saved game would include the city forts, so changing to a different startpos probably wouldn't remove forts if you loaded a saved game (from a campaign in which city forts were included at the start).

In theory, at least, another option should work - I think you may be able to delete the city forts from your saved game. If you download an ESF Editor (if you don't already have one), you can use an ESF Editor to edit a saved game. I haven't tried this, but - at least in theory - it should be possible to:-
- copy and paste your saved game to another folder; your saved games should be in C:/Users/[your user name]/AppData/Roaming/The Creative Assembly/Empire/save_games
- open your saved game using an ESF Editor
- follow the procedure that I explained above (in the spoiler under 'How to remove city forts')
- when you have finished removing city forts, copy and paste (or cut and paste) your edited saved game back into C:/Users/[your user name]/AppData/Roaming/The Creative Assembly/Empire/save_games, replacing the original saved game (or using a different file name if you want to keep the original saved game)
- start the game and load your saved game normally

I use ESF Editor 1.4.5 which is available here.

**gangster19** · July 03, 2014, 11:05 AM

Well... if I do it on a saved game it crashes at the end of the battle... I think that it's because I'm playing in a overhaul mod that changes the vanilla startpos and everything! I'll start a new campaign and I'll see if it works properly, I hope that at least I can do it this way! Thanks a lot!!!

**Alwyn** · July 03, 2014, 11:24 AM

Sorry to hear that, gangster19. I tried a quick experiment, removing the city fort from the region capital of Florida in a saved game. I was able to reload the saved game and end the turn without a crash, but I didn't do a proper test.

As you said, the problem may be the combination of the edited saved game with the mod that you're using. Having said that, obviously you're enjoying this campaign and you'd like to continue it (without forts, preferably). Would it be worth going back to the unedited saved game and trying one more time? Some of my early experiments with this technique caused crashes; when I started again with a copy of the vanilla startpos, the edited startpos files worked.

I think that if I get anything slightly wrong, e.g. putting Fallse rather than False in the Boolean entry, then it will crash - I often make small mistakes like that. In the case of this procedure, I have not been able to spot and correct a typo in a startpos which did not work - instead, I needed to go back to an earlier version of the startpos and start again. In my first attempt, I tried to edit all of the regions in one go - the game crashed. I only succeeded after I started saving the edited startpos after removing city forts from 5 regions (or so), and loading each version to check that it works. It's slow, but it worked.

**gangster19** · July 03, 2014, 11:35 AM

Well now I think I will continue my campaign

After been trying all combinations of startpos and saved games I've realized of a very strange thing. When I finish the battle and appears the summary of your units and the battle stats if I click on the V just after the load screen ends then it crashes the game, but if I wait 5 or 10 secons more or less, then it works fine!!! I'll carry on doing it this way and I hope I can keep fighting! Thank you very much!!!

**Alwyn** · July 03, 2014, 11:37 AM

Great - you're welcome and good luck with your campaign!

**ubernubz** · September 01, 2014, 06:38 AM

Alwyn, could you make a startpos.esf that works with The Rights of Man mod? I tried using the one in this thread and it works when you start a fresh campaign, but then when you end turn the game crashes.

**Alwyn** · September 01, 2014, 12:08 PM

ubernubz, I'm sorry that it crashed. I guess there would be two ways of achieving 'no forts' startpos which is compatible with The Rights of Man (TROM).

One way would be to take the 'no forts' startpos above and make it TROM-compatible. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do that; looking at the description of TROM, it refers to "extensive" changes to the startpos, so it doesn't sound like this would be easy.

The other way would be to take an existing TROM startpos and use taw's method with an ESF Editor to remove the forts. I aimed to explain taw's method (as I understand it) here. Presumably you have TROM - I wonder how you'd feel about editing the TROM startpos to remove forts? If you do that, then (obviously) you would need to keep a backup copy of the unedited TROM startpos.

I'm afraid that there's no guarantee that this would work - I don't know whether taw's method would conflict with any of the "extensive" startpos changes in TROM. The problem may even be unrelated to TROM - perhaps there is a problem either with taw's method, or my understanding/implementation of it, which would cause crashes whether you use TROM or not. I am sorry for not being more helpful.

**ubernubz** · September 01, 2014, 05:10 PM

Appreciate the help, but I started a campaign anyway. Shokh's mod still works so at least only citys that have fortifications when the game begins will have them and honestly, im ok with it.

**Serbian91** · February 20, 2015, 05:22 AM

Download link doesn't work anymore, at least for me.

**eL_MoJo** · February 20, 2015, 08:41 AM

Indeed it doesn't work. Can someone please make a new one.

**Alwyn** · February 20, 2015, 11:50 AM

I have this mod and can re-upload it, but would that be allowed (since it is not my mod and distributing a modder's work without permission is against the rules) - please can a moderator advise on this?

[Edited] Thank you to Tango12345, a moderator who got in touch with Shokh - and thanks to Shokh who gave permission (via a private message, passed on by Tango12345) to re-upload this mod. It is available to download below.

Please note that all of the credit for making this mod belongs to Shokh. I had no involvement in making it, so (if you rep anyone) please rep Shokh, not me.

To use this mod, you would need to:-

- Download the attachment below
- Unzip it (I use the free software 7zip)
- Copy it to your C:/ProgramFiles(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Empire Total War/data directory (that is the path for this Windows 7 PC - if your computer is different then the path may vary)

If you want to uninstall it, simply remove the file from your Empire Total War/data directory

This mod stops all factions including the player from fortifying cities. Unless you use a startpos file which has been modified to remove forts at the start, some cities will still start with fortifications. This mod does not stop your generals from building forts outside cities, if you want them to do that.

Just in case the link in this post stops working in future, I have also made this mod available to download here - thanks to Tango12345 for suggesting that.