All captained armies have a silver officer in battles.

**Byg** · January 09, 2015, 04:30 AM

Does anyone know the simplest reason for this problem, mentioned by one user of my mod here :http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-Grim-Reality-

I think it is only happening for him as no one has reported it over the years since release.

**Lord Caim** · January 09, 2015, 11:55 AM

replied in your forum its a lot, and probably unnecessary to a degree, but it is thorough. this:
The troubleshooting is fairly universal to all mods and you can use this for any 'silver' units
Go into a custom match and pick every unit from Lithuania(not the mercs, just the local faction units.) take note to the particular name of each and every unit which has a silver surfer. then go into the export_descr_unit.txt file under the mods data folder(for a file path not unlike this: SEGA>M2TW>mods>ss6.3>data) and press ctrl+f and type lithuania, and go find every unit that had a silver. from there take note of each DIFFERENT "officer' model (will look kind of like this)
soldier EE_Peasant_Archers, 48, 0, 0.7
officer northern_captain
From there, you can verify that each of these officer units has a file in the battle models DB (standard filepath:SEGA\Medieval II Total War\mods\SS6.3\data\unit_models)(on a side note, open the battle_models.modeldb file with NOTEPAD. do NOT NOT NOT CHANGE ANYTHING here as you will cause CTD's and more silver surfers if you have no clue. simply verify, by hand that each file is linked and exists.)
To verify each officer unit press ctrl+f and type the officer name, exactly as it appeared in the EDU ( "northern_captain" for example will take you to "16 northern_captain") and it should take you to that entry the first time. from here(and this is a hard file to navigate, I know) scroll down under the officer name and find the entry on lithuania. (looks like this)
9 lithuania
103 unit_models/_Generals_and_Captains/northern_captain_early/textures/late_northern_captain_russia.texture
103 unit_models/_Generals_and_Captains/northern_captain_early/textures/late_northern_captain_normal.texture 0 {<< ignore this zero, but be aware that its there}

Then, without typing anything into the Model DB, go into the folder of each entries filepath and ensure that the file actually exists at the end of the path and is named the exact same thing... exactly. if the file is missing you will need to redownload at least that file(easier just to reinstall) and place it there exactly. if all the files and filepaths and linkages are correct, then you likely have a corrupt texture file(happens occasionally) and should be able to identify which one is corrupt by the common officer name from the EDU.

Seeing as you are encountering something wrong, i.e. the silver dudes, at least one of these entries or filepaths should be jacked up. if it is a simple spelling error in a file try to correct it. the numbers I've highlighted green from the modelDB are a 'line count' and you need exactly that many characters on that line or the game will crash. if you need to adjust this, be very careful. If you experience trouble opening M2TW after this, you messed something up here. if you see more silver dudes, you messed something up here. if you experience CTD's... again, you messed something up here. but you wrote everything down, and went step by step, and didn't save anything you didnt purposefully try to fix so it should be easy to fix/ undo, right?

**Gigantus** · January 09, 2015, 12:09 PM

Yup, silver surfers (also known as T-1000) are caused by missing faction texture, be it through absence or lack of entry in the modeldb.

The battle model for default captains (and generals) are defined in descr_characters, custom officers are defined in the EDU - see line entries headed by 'officer'

Nice detailed stuff LC, by the way.

**Lord Caim** · January 09, 2015, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by Gigantus

The battle model for default captains (and generals) are defined in descr_characters

forgot about that one. but i was bored so i was manually doing it myself anyway. thank you, by the way.

It would appear that ducal cavalry is the only unit affected(for me, at least) and his second officer, EE_Bodyguard is the cause.
Upon inspection of the model.db low and behold, the lithuania entry is missing outright. i will walk you through putting it in, i could just as easily give you the answer, but it would be easier for you to mess up putting it in.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

**Dauntless07** · January 09, 2015, 07:01 PM

I was the guy to notice this. I should have probably just made this thread, but I thought Byg might know what causes silver texture; I suppose he doesn't really do that kind of modding though. I mistook the silver as the captain, because I always am using Lithuanian Ducal Cav as my captain unit on campaigns. It is actually the guy that rides between the captain and the standard bearer; I should have done more testing before claiming the missing officer was the captain, so this thread is improperly titled.

Thanks for the walkthrough Lord Caim. Only one question left; if I do this, will this create incompatibility for multiplayer battles with users who do not? "This player is using a different version of M2TW" error pop-up when mods are incompatible?

**Gigantus** · January 09, 2015, 11:20 PM

Byg does scripting (amazing stuff I might add), not coding - easily understood as being the same.

Multiplayer - I am not familiar with the mechanics of it, but I would assume all players are required to have the exact same version of the game\mod as the hosting player. Unless the test is only done on 'core' files. But even then I guess the modeldb file would be considered 'core'.

**Lord Caim** · January 10, 2015, 09:41 AM

I dont do multiplayer. however. Make a copy of your model db(and store it somewhere besides the same data file), and if you encounter problems just switch it back to silver captain modeldb. seeing as models(specifically the textures of the models) dont affect game play at all, i dont see why this should even be an issue.

EDIT:And yes, i noticed that the silver guy wasnt the primary captain of the unit, but the ducal cavalry actually has 2 officer units listed, and it is the second one you are fixing here. still technically the captain though, i guess.

**Byg** · January 10, 2015, 12:32 PM

The title is actually correct. I'm assuming the extra guy standing apart from the sword fodder is some other officer.

**Gigantus** · January 10, 2015, 10:46 PM

The line up of non standard soldiers on the right of the unit is up to three officers (EDU entry, any unit) and one captain\general in the back ('body guard' unit only - descr_characters\descr_strat or campaign_script entry)

**Taiji** · January 11, 2015, 04:17 AM

Originally Posted by Byg

The title is actually correct. I'm assuming the extra guy standing apart from the sword fodder is some other officer.

Just an FYI to help you clarify if needs be, the link in the OP doesn't take us to the post as you may have intended, instead it links the mod-thread's OP.

The number with the preceding # in the top right of the post is the link address of the post.

And to clarify the previous respondents answers: Check descr_character for the battle_model entry name, and then check the battle_model entry for any discrepancy like missing factions.

But:

Originally Posted by Byg

I think it is only happening for him as no one has reported it over the years since release.

If your guess is correct then a reinstall ought to fix it.

**Gigantus** · January 11, 2015, 04:37 AM

Maybe a patch or update for the mod that wasn't applied?

**Byg** · January 11, 2015, 11:18 AM

I think lord Caim has the answer here.
I am surprised though as I did play an intense campaign against Lithuania (and I was defeated I believe), but never noticed a silver soldier in the enemy army.

So there we are and thanks for the replies.

**Gigantus** · January 11, 2015, 06:51 PM

A single soldier in a large army doesn't stand out much - even if he has no skin. It's not exactly silver anyhow, more a greenish, greyish hue and not sparkling\reflecting.

**stevietheconquer** · January 13, 2015, 11:57 AM

it is strange that in the unit code from post 4,their is 2 times faction hungary,i don't know if this can mix some things there.

**Lord Caim** · January 13, 2015, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by stevietheconquer

it is strange that in the unit code from post 4,their is 2 times faction hungary,i don't know if this can mix some things there.

I had not noticed this, but it must be what they meant to turn into Lithuania when they were originally creating SS, but forgot. thus leading to this very error. And other than adding more than necessary physical text to sort through, it shouldn't and hasn't caused me any issues.