Installation guide Steam version

[Malinche]

Decided to play this mod again after quite a while an realized that the installation is not straight forward anymore (if it ever was). After some time I managed, but had problems with the 2H-Axe crash and it took some effort until I found the solution somewhere on page 3xx in the BB thread ( man, such huge threads me off). Actually I was so pissed that I almost gave up at several points... Eventually, the web knows a solution for almost anything, but finding it is the problem (Godamn abbreviations make it so much harder, especially in this forum by the way). Guess DLV players are more the mature sort of kind and will not spend hours to search for something that might not work out eventually. That's the dilemma: some people dedicated a lot to create this wonderful, unique mod and I bet not too few potential players are simply repelled by problems they encounter or may encounter. If you wanna give it another try, this is how it worked for me:

Preperations:
1. Get Medieval II+Kingdoms on Steam (Some 5 Euros during summer sale)
2. Download DLVBBv4.35.exe from this forum
3. Download DLVBBv4.36.exe_Update from this forum
4. Download western_units_overhaul_v4.0_full.exe from this forum
5. Download battle_models.rar from this forum

Carry out the following steps:
1. Download+Install Medieval 2 on Steam. It will be installed in your SteamLibrary somewhere on your hard disk. Will have to find this yourself.

2. Double-Klick DLVBBv4.35.exe and unpack under SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/
--> A new file will be created here: SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/mods/DLV_ext
--> The folder SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/mods will also contain the folders of the 4 kingdom extensions (teutonic, americas, etc)

3. Double-Klick DLVBBv4.36.exe_Update and extract it to SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/mods/DLV_ext and overwrite old files if necessary

4. Double-Klick western_units_overhaul_v4.0_full.exe and extract here SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/mods/DLV_ext

5. Extract battle_models.rar here: SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/mods/DLV_ext/data/unit_models and overwrite the old file. This avoids the crash due to some 2H-Axeman-Animation during battles

6. Search your SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War for geography.db and delete any files you find (I'm not really sure if this is necessary, but it doesn't do harm either)

7. Rename one of the folders of the official kingdom expansions under SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/mods
--> For example, let's rename "teutonic" to "teutonic_original"

8. Give the folder SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/mods/DLV_ext the name of the expansion you have previously renamed
--> Following our example from point 7, rename "DLV_ext" to "teutonic"

9. Start Steam and Start Medieval II
--> A Menu will pop up to ask you which expansion (i.e. teutonic, americas etc) you would like to start

10. Start the expansion that now contains the DLV data
--> Following our example from point 7 and 8, start teutonic

11. Play DLV+BB (hopefully) and give yourself some time to be re-infected by the DLV-virus. Took an hour or two in my case

Credits go to Taji, Sandy, Tokus, teenspeedy1 and all the rest.

[LaMuerte]

Nice guide. Came in handy when re-installing DLV on my new rig. Kept crashing until I read that bit about the 2H-crash in your post.

As for your case of DLV-virus: I can relate. It's the mod I always come back to. Tried most of the mods for MTW2 on this forum, but this one is 'Ze Van' for me.

[teenspeedy1]

Thanks for this. I just bought a new laptop without an optical drive. I was worried I won’t be able to play this mod without constant CTDs due to the unfamiliarity with a steam installation.

To add, I highly recommend a “Large Address Aware” patch to the main medieval exe file. I kept getting fatal graphics error CTD on a powerful laptop. This alone solved the problem, and it has been running my old 112 turn campaign effortlessly on Windows 10. I believe I’m not allowed to link this, but a quick google search will easily lead you the file.

Also for anyone new, I highly recommend adding the DLVSM sound mod. It provides DLV/BB with immersion and uniqueness.

[Gigantus]

6. Search your SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War for geography.db and delete any files you find (I'm not really sure if this is necessary, but it doesn't do harm either)

Only needed if you ever unpacked the game

7. Rename one of the folders of the official kingdom expansions under SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/mods
--> For example, let's rename "teutonic" to "teutonic_original"

8. Give the folder SteamLibrary/SteamApps/common/Medieval II Total War/mods/DLV_ext the name of the expansion you have previously renamed
--> Following our example from point 7, rename "DLV_ext" to "teutonic"

9. Start Steam and Start Medieval II
--> A Menu will pop up to ask you which expansion (i.e. teutonic, americas etc) you would like to start

10. Start the expansion that now contains the DLV data
--> Following our example from point 7 and 8, start teutonic

Totally convoluted and unnecessary. Simply run this installer to create a renamed copy of the medieval2.exe and then run the mod with it's desktop short cut.

[teenspeedy1]

Thanks for the suggestion. I did try it, but the on-screen display with MSI Afterburner does not show up in the mod unless I launch full screen through Steam via renaming the folder. Even borderless windowed mode does not work with the on-screen display.

[Gigantus]

I sincerely doubt that a graphic over clocker will do anything noticeable for this game if you can set all the options to maximum already without it

Haven't installed DLV for ages either but for a straight installation as per points 1-5 in the OP a simple copy\rename action of the executable will work.

I'll download and install MSI Afterburner to have a look what the issue could be, I mean there has to be a way to use it for non steam games, right? At least that's what I infer from your remark that a direct start from desktop shortcut does not activate the MSI application.

Edit: The following is done with the Steam version of the game: installed MSI, started it, selected several OSD items for display, clicked 'apply' and then ran my Bare Geomod mod set up (in mods\bare_geomod directory) via desktop shortcut and a simplified bat file (see code). OSD got displayed.

@echo off
cd ..\..
start kingdoms.exe @%0\..\Configuration.cfg

I did run a couple of tests and it appears that setting the game to windowed mode in the CFG file disables the OSD. Certainly happened so with my BG, as soon as I disabled the setting that forces windowed mode the display was back again.
Tried a number of other mods and the effect was the same.
If you use the folder rename method then the medieval2.preference.cfg gets used, not the mod's CFG file. The default CFG file does not have a windowed mode setting, hence the setting is disabled. That's why the folder rename method always works for MSI.

So don't make your life unnecessarily difficult by doing folder renaming every time you want to play another mod, simply make sure that the mod's CFG file doesn't enable windowed mode and then use the desktop shortcut of the mod. And play as many mods as your hard drive space allows without ever bothering to rename anything again.

[teenspeedy1]

Ahh silly me, I should have made the connection that windowed mode was the problem and not launching from the shortcuts themselves. Thank you, OSD works fine now with the provided DLV batch file. Now I can still baby monitor the temperatures of my new laptop without the hassle of launching through steam.

[Gigantus]

One is glad to be of service

[Marku]

i missed playing this mod, thanks for all the instructions/feedback to the instructions here