Can someone add Kingdoms units into Grand Campaign?

[Kiki52]

I was wondering if it is ok for CA if we do this, someone could make a small mod probably even during the course of making another mod or just by itself, if they can make a quick mod to add some of the Kingdoms units into the Grand Campaign.

Can you put the new Kingdoms units into the 'slave' faction? So I and others can just use 'create_unit' if we play rebels or something to mess around? It is quick, no balancing required and no need to add them to any building or whatever.

Just put the unit cards, and some of the sounds etc for those who have Kingdoms and do a quick port to the Grand Campaign, and include everything so anyone can play as 'slave' and summon up new Kingdoms units or a modder can easily mod the new units into their own version of a Grand Campaign with the added Kingdoms units and that modder will do unit balancing/tweaking himself. No need to balance or put the units into buildings though.

Can somone add these units, or provide everything to have these units in grand campaign quickly ported to the 'slave' faction then other modders can balance/incorporate it themselves?

-Apache units (their new sounds too if possible?)
-Chichimeca units
-Byzantine Flamethrower
-Mayan beehive throwers
-the new Egyptian units
-the new Turkish units
-Lithuanian units (awesome pagan units)
-Maybe Ireland or Scotland, if they have any interesting units otherwise no need to

Thanks you, but please ask CA if this is ok first. I believe Jack Lusted or Caliban said it is ok to add Kingdoms content to the Grand Campaign in the Kingdoms info thread on the MTW2 General Discussion area.

[Prof]

I don't believe that this is ok, since many of the units are a reason to buy the addon and thus releasing them in a mod for free wouldn't really help selling the product ^^

[Kiki52]

I was wondering if it is possible for someone to create a grand campaign with new Kingdoms units that can only be played if you already have Kingdoms installed.

[NagatsukaShumi]

It's not "illegal" in anyway, as long as you don't sell it for profit.

Most will buy Kingdoms for the other features it allows to use for mods.

[Bwian]

The legality depends on what exactly you did.

ILLEGAL:
Taking the models and textures in Kingdoms, and releasing a mod that made these units available to an owner of M2TW in his campaign.

LEGAL:
Making a mod that made units only available in the expansion to the core campaign. This would only be playable by someone owning Kingdoms, and would basically be a text-only type of mod that linked the new content to the core game.

If such a mod included copyright material, it would be illegal, since you are blatantly releasing copyight material to players who have not bought the game. If it is simply providoing a link between the core game and the expansion...then I think it's a damn fine idea

[NagatsukaShumi]

The legality depends on what exactly you did.

ILLEGAL:
Taking the models and textures in Kingdoms, and releasing a mod that made these units available to an owner of M2TW in his campaign.

LEGAL:
Making a mod that made units only available in the expansion to the core campaign. This would only be playable by someone owning Kingdoms, and would basically be a text-only type of mod that linked the new content to the core game.

If such a mod included copyright material, it would be illegal, since you are blatantly releasing copyight material to players who have not bought the game. If it is simply providoing a link between the core game and the expansion...then I think it's a damn fine idea

I have a qualification in Law and you put it better than me Bwain, damn you

[AlfonsoVIII]

I looked at the EDU for the Crusader campaign, it has all the Grand Campaign units plus the Crusader campaign, so it would be soooooo easy to make a Kingdom mod using the Grand campaign units and even the map.

[Caesar Clivus]

I was wondering if it is possible for someone to create a grand campaign with new Kingdoms units that can only be played if you already have Kingdoms installed.

It could be possible if the mod is set to use kingdoms.exe rather than Medieval2.exe...maybe. Someone with more knowledge than me could tell you for sure

[choooo1105]

Yeah, its the generals units that crash the game

[BrandonM]

It's not too difficult - I got the byzantine flamethrowers and gunner's working. Remember to get the new animations, sounds and the attachment db stuff, and merge in all the new effects (there's 3 or 4 txt & xml files that it's spread across) as well or it will crash.

1> unpack the crusader pack & the base pack
2> use the retrofit mod as a base
3> get modeldb entries for greek_firethrower & greek_firethrower_ug1 from crusader & merge into retrofit
4> get primary & secondary flamethrower entries from final greek.attsetdb & merge with retrofit (or original if retrofit doesn't have final greek.attsetdb)
5> copy unit_models\attachmentsets\final greek_byzantium_diff.texture & final greek_byzantium_norm.texture from crusader to retrofit
6> copy crusader animations
7> copy crusader sounds
8> do a search in files in the crusader directory for greek_fire - copy anything referencing it into the retrofit file, or copy the vanilla game file to the retrofit directory and merge the crusader entries into it
9> copy greek_firethrower from crusader EDU into retrofit EDU
10> remove mercenary_unit from attributes line in EDU of greek_firethrower
11> copy ui/unit_info & ui/units from crusader to retrofit
12> copy unit_models\weapons_library\flamethrower from crusader to retrofit
13> un-bin the text\ files in crusader & retrofit
14> copy from crusader\data\text\export_unit.txt all 3 firethrower entries into retrofit\data\text\export_unit.txt - delete export_unit.txt.strings.bin to allow it to rebuild


That should be enough to get the greek_flamethrower going in custom battles. Add an entry to export_descr_buildings.txt to the 3rd & 4th archery building to have them recruitable in the campaign.

[CharlesMarkley]

It's not too difficult - I got the byzantine flamethrowers and gunner's working. Remember to get the new animations, sounds and the attachment db stuff, and merge in all the new effects (there's 3 or 4 txt & xml files that it's spread across) as well or it will crash.

1> unpack the crusader pack & the base pack
2> use the retrofit mod as a base
3> get modeldb entries for greek_firethrower & greek_firethrower_ug1 from crusader & merge into retrofit
4> get primary & secondary flamethrower entries from final greek.attsetdb & merge with retrofit (or original if retrofit doesn't have final greek.attsetdb)
5> copy unit_models\attachmentsets\final greek_byzantium_diff.texture & final greek_byzantium_norm.texture from crusader to retrofit
6> copy crusader animations
7> copy crusader sounds
8> do a search in files in the crusader directory for greek_fire - copy anything referencing it into the retrofit file, or copy the vanilla game file to the retrofit directory and merge the crusader entries into it
9> copy greek_firethrower from crusader EDU into retrofit EDU
10> remove mercenary_unit from attributes line in EDU of greek_firethrower
11> copy ui/unit_info & ui/units from crusader to retrofit
12> copy unit_models\weapons_library\flamethrower from crusader to retrofit
13> un-bin the text\ files in crusader & retrofit
14> copy from crusader\data\text\export_unit.txt all 3 firethrower entries into retrofit\data\text\export_unit.txt - delete export_unit.txt.strings.bin to allow it to rebuild


That should be enough to get the greek_flamethrower going in custom battles. Add an entry to export_descr_buildings.txt to the 3rd & 4th archery building to have them recruitable in the campaign.

Hi Brandon, I will have to go through your checklist tonight (sneaking this in at work). I spent a lot of the weekend trying to get these Crusades units to work in the retrofit mod:

Byzantine Gunners
Byzantine Firethrower
Pronoia Infantry
Byz Archos
Turkish Crossbowmen

I could them to show in the recruitment window, and show properly in my army and I can recruit them, but every time I tried a battle with the Firethrowers in the Retrofit Grand Campaign my system log said that I was missed a couple of descr_ .txt files...FILES that were not on my unpacked Crusades folders nor in my MTW2 root directory.

Like I said, I'm at work at the moment, and I did only install Crusades & Brittania from Kingdom after seeing how much additional space Teutonic and Americas took up.

However, I did unpack Crusades, but the two files it says that I am missing aren't there...not even .bin files. Plus when I unpack Crusades & try to play it, I get crazy colored blips instead of controls in the campaign (no mods there).

I managed to get the export_unit.txt from another poster on this forum:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...=111360&page=4

and I was able to get LaCA's Heavy Spearman to work both recruitable-wise and in battle.

TIA,

Mark

P.S. I'll subscribe to the thread and check the exact details tonight.

[choooo1105]

Hey, I am trying to get the new Byzantine units for the retrofit mod too. Can you be so nice as to just upload your working model for us? Thanks.

[DrJambo]

Yep, this is definitely a desirable request! Byz, Turk and Egyptian Kingdoms units in the Grand Camapign. Although it may not look too difficult to Brandon, his instructions look fairly complicated to me!

[CharlesMarkley]

Well, aside from missing files that I can't seem to find, it did take a long time, and took a lot of copying files from Crusades into Retrofit, and then editing the database file was a pain in the butt...and I could still only auto-calc...and I still have never used a .bin to .txt converter or understand why they used the damned .bin files anyway.

I'm hoping it gets better tonight. And this is only for 5 Byz units and 1 Turk unit!!!

[choooo1105]

Dude, hook me up, all I want are the Byzantine Units. If you can get me hooked up with these units, you rock.

[BrandonM]

Dude, hook me up, all I want are the Byzantine Units. If you can get me hooked up with these units, you rock.

Ok, Here is a file of all (I think, I may have missed something) the text files needed to get byzantine gunners and flamerthrowers into the retrofit mod.

It's VERY important that you copy the crusader animations (from the mods/crusader directory AND from the unpacked directory) and sounds to the retrofit folder.
Also copy the crusader\data\unit_models\attachmentsets\(anything with greek or byzantine in the name)
Copy the weapon_library\flamethrower folder.
Copy the UI\units & unit_info like I mentioned before.

Additionally, my included modeldb is using the WW skins so you'll need that or you'll need to change the texture entries back to vanilla. It's formatted for those who care. Additionally, I included a formatted crusader modeldb if you want to incorporate other units.

Also, you'll need to manually include the export_descr_unit & building entries (just copy & paste and remove the mercenary line in EDU) as mine has additional custom units so I didn't want to overcomplicate things.

Add this to the regrofit.cfg file:
[io]
file_first = true


If it still crashes let me know and I'll try and see what's missing. I'd offer to zip up my whole folder but it's over 1gig and probably not legal to distribute anyway.

Good luck

BrandonM

[CharlesMarkley]

Ok, Here is a file of all (I think, I may have missed something) the text files needed to get byzantine gunners and flamerthrowers into the retrofit mod.

It's VERY important that you copy the crusader animations (from the mods/crusader directory AND from the unpacked directory) and sounds to the retrofit folder.
Also copy the crusader\data\unit_models\attachmentsets\(anything with greek or byzantine in the name)
Copy the weapon_library\flamethrower folder.
Copy the UI\units & unit_info like I mentioned before.

Additionally, my included modeldb is using the WW skins so you'll need that or you'll need to change the texture entries back to vanilla. It's formatted for those who care. Additionally, I included a formatted crusader modeldb if you want to incorporate other units.

Also, you'll need to manually include the export_descr_unit & building entries (just copy & paste and remove the mercenary line in EDU) as mine has additional custom units so I didn't want to overcomplicate things.

Add this to the regrofit.cfg file:
[io]
file_first = true


If it still crashes let me know and I'll try and see what's missing. I'd offer to zip up my whole folder but it's over 1gig and probably not legal to distribute anyway.

Good luck

BrandonM

Hi Brandon,

By copying over the sound files, would this cause some weird diplomatic stuff with the AI? Like I get the Spanish calling their leader the Sultan, and some weird text with the French, etc.

Mark

[OTZ]

you may also need to include some of the files that include the greek_fire attribute...I got them working in the stainless steel mod (along with a few dozen other units as well) without any difficulty.

[CharlesMarkley]

you may also need to include some of the files that include the greek_fire attribute...I got them working in the stainless steel mod (along with a few dozen other units as well) without any difficulty.

I did the search for all files containing greek_fire and put them in before I got the problem.

I will try the .txt files from BrandonM's .zip file tomorrow, and double check everything (I swear that I already tried it with and without the the retrofit.cfg change, but I'll try again in more detail).

If I do get it working, he is right, there are so many files that it would be very hard to post or anything without making an installer...and verifying that Kingdoms was installed as well (to legally protect oneself).

I only had a chance to download tonight...danged real life got in the way.

This is what my system.log.txt showed as the errors by the way:

23:14:21.937 [system.io] [warning] open: data/descr_oil_effect.txt is missing
23:14:21.937 [system.io] [warning] open: data/descr_fire_texture_list.txt is missing

and I scanned my hard drive and I do not have those .txt files.

Mark

[CharlesMarkley]

Thanks Brandon,

Whew, finally got a chance to go over this today and it seems to be working. I torched some Venetians in battle! Thanks a lot. I think the steps that I missed were the sounds and animation files.

Mark