I LOVE MERCENARIES! No matter what TW game I play I love being able to recruit a group of grizzled veterans for hire when I don't have the time or inclination to train troops myself. Hopefully I am not alone.
I won't pretend this is lore friendly in any way but I've included a few versions to hopefully please anyone like me who was looking to add mercenaries to the already magnificent TATW experience.
What this mod does: adds mercenaries to every section of the map, some are restricted to certain factions, some are not. The cost and upkeep are exactly as outlined in the vanilla TATW file as are the unit stats. If you want to see exactly what units are where and other details - pop open one of the mercenaries.txt files attached using Notepad or another text editing program.
Versions:
Recommended - this version adds several dozen different units of mercs to the map, as logically as I could manage with my minuscule IQ. Truly "elite" units (Elephants and Olag Hai) are not included . . . yet. If this works, who knows what I might try next.
Elites - this version is identical to the recommended version but includes a dozen (+/-) "elite" units. As in the recommended version, most units will only fight for the alignment they logically should (so says me.)
Free-For-All - this version is the Elites version with no faction restrictions. Any faction can recruit any merc in true "mercenary" fashion. Purists avoid this like the plague, it's just for fun.
How it works: I took all the units categorized as "mercenary" in the TATW files and added them to the recruitable merc file as logically as I could. I added upkeep to those with zero listed to match the upkeep of the non-mercenary versions.
I put each unit into 1 of 3 categories: common, moderate and rare. If I did the math right the common units will accumulate at approx 1 unit every 10 turns. The moderate units will accumulate at approx 1 unit every 20 turns. You guessed it; elites accumulate at about 1 unit every 40 turns. Some start with 1 unit available, some start with zero, some have a max of 1,2 or 3 in a given area depending on rarity and my own taste.
Disclaimers: this is my first "mod" (all I did was rearrange some files.) I learned by trial and error so if I screwed something up let me know and I'll try to fix it. THIS MOD WILL BREAK THE FELLOWSHIP CAMPAIGN. I haven't tested it but I'm assuming that is what all these merc units with zero upkeep were created for As far as I know this will only work with TATW 2.1 installed. If you want to play around with it to fit other mods that edit the EDU; be my guest, it's simple enough to figure out - I just added Upkeep Costs to Merc units showing zero upkeep.
- Will this work on saved games? NO.
- Will the AI recruit these mercs if capable? YES.
- Does this mod make the game harder? Yes and no; yes because the AI will use these mercs against you, no because you can use them too, heck you can even send generals on recruiting missions deep into other territories just to bring back merc units you want in your army!
Installation:
1) BACKUP (copy/paste them somewhere you won't lose them ) your "export_descr_unit.txt" (found in C:/ProgramFiles/Sega/MedievalII/mods/TATW/Data folder) and your "descr_mercenaries.txt" (found in the same path above but deeper: /Data/World/Maps/Campaign/ImperialCampaign folder.)
2) Download ONE of the "export_descr_unit.txt" files attached:
-For a vanilla TATW 2.1 game: download the "export_descr_unit.txt" file
-For a FROME + TATW 2.1 game: download the "export_descr_unitFROME.txt" file and rename the file "export_descr_unit.txt"
-For a Samedi + TATW 2.1 game: download the "export_descr_unitSamedi.txt" file and rename the file "export_descr_unit.txt"
3) Then copy/paste or drag and drop this new "export_descr_unit.txt" files you just downloaded and renamed (if necessary) into C:/ProgramFiles/Sega/MedievalII/mods/TATW/Data folder. When it asks if you want to copy over the existing file click "YES"
4) Download ONE of the "descr_mercenaries.txt" files attached to anywhere you want:
-For the Recommended version: use "descr_mercenaries.txt" as it is attached.
-For the Elites version: use "descr_mercenariesELITES.txt" and rename the file "descr_mercenaries.txt"
-For the Free-For-All version: use "descr_mercenariesFREE.txt" and . . . you guessed it: rename the file "descr_mercenaries.txt"
5) Then copy/paste or drag and drop the "descr_mercenaries.txt" files you just downloaded and renamed (if necessary) into C:/ProgramFiles/Sega/MedievalII/mods/TATW/Data/World/Maps/Campaign/ImperialCampaign folder. When it asks if you want to copy over the existing file click "YES"
To Uninstall:
1)copy the BACKUP you made of your original files and paste them back over the modded files, click YES to overwrite when the box pops up.
Thanks: to the TATW team for making a mod that blows the doors off of any game I've PAID MONEY TO PLAY for the last few years!!! Keep up the good work, we all appreciate your skills and time Special thanks to Agostinos for the TATW version of AUM, a must-have sub-mod for this and other TW games.
OK let's light this candle and see how long it takes to blow up in my face!
9/30/10 - 2.0 now released! Same instructions as above, only change is that if you use Baron Samedi's Gameplay Enhancing Submods Compilation for TATW 2.1 // Version 1.0 RELEASED like I do, you will want to install my mod LAST and use the EDU.Samedi below instead of the original EDU I made (no idea what Baron Samedi changed in the EDU but his mod over-writes the original so I thought I would include an updated version with my changes to make it compatible. ) Just copy/paste it as described above but REMEMBER TO RENAME it "export_descr_unit.txt" before playing or it won't work.
10/4/10 - 2.1 now released! Minor tweaks to merc unit availability and origins based on feedback (thx again, Gotrek!) FROME version of the EDU in the works!
10/19/10 - 2.2 now released! Added an EDU for FROME users and tweaked the stanard EDU to include the 6 orc/goblin merc units added by Samedi. Remember to RENAME the export_descr_unitFROME.txt = export_descr_unit.txt or it will not work!
10/21/10 - 2.3 now release! Fixed typo in Elite/Free files and re-uploaded correctly
PS-if anyone would like to use/modify/build-upon these files for their own mod please feel free to do so, this mod required almost no creativity of my own - I only mixed up existing text file content provided by the stellar TATW team!
Cheers!