TUTORIAL: Adding a Provincial Campaign into Kingdoms

[AlfonsoVIII]

I have finally been able to create a provincial campaign using Kindgoms, specifically the Crusades Campaign. My goal was to copy the Crusades campaign and then make my own personal modification to it. I will share with you what I have so far so that you can create your own mods based on the Kingdoms campaigns. Please note that this is the only way I can get a mod that uses the kingdoms.exe, so if there is a better way, please let me know. I would like to thank alpaca's post here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=93141. I also used nerazzurri's string.bin editor found here. http://nerazzurri.net/ss/Strings.Bin_Editor.zip. You will need Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 found at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en. Now to create the provincal campaign.

Step 1: Unpacking

Go to C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\tools\unpacker and copy the unpack_crusades.bat file and paste it in the same directory.

Next right click the copy and select Properties, uncheck the Read Only attribute and click Apply, then OK.

Finally edit the file by right clicking on the file, select edit, then change:

unpacker.exe --source=..\..\mods\crusades\packs\*.pack --destination=..\..\ --verbosity=1 --base_pack_path=mods/crusades/data/

to

unpacker.exe --source=..\..\mods\crusades\packs\*.pack --destination=..\..\test --verbosity=1 --base_pack_path=mods/crusades/data/

This will create a folder called test in C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War so you can easily grab the necessary files to create the provincial campaign without causing problems with your regular install. Save the .bat file and run it.

Step 2: Copying Files

You will need to download alpacas kit: http://files.filefront.com/provincia.../fileinfo.html and copy the data/menu folder to the crusades data menu folder.

Next copy from the unpacked Crusades folder:

data/text/campaign_descriptions.txt.strings.bin
data/text/imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt.strings.bin
data/text/menu_english.txt.strings.bin

and paste into the data/text folder for the Crusades campaign

Step 3: Editting More Files

Next we will use the String Bin Editor we downloaded earlier and edit these files.

For the data/text/campaign_descriptions.txt.strings.bin file:

Change all Enty items from Crusades_ to <Modname>_. I chose Crusader_
*Please note that the Editor is not saving my changes, I figure it would be best to add all new entries to the file for it to work.

For the data/text/menu_english.txt.strings.bin file add:

Entry: UI_NEW_GAME_PROVINCIAL_CAMPAIGN
Display Value: Custom Campaign
Entry: UI_NEW_GAME_PROVINCIAL_CAMPAIGN_INFO
Display Value: Play a custom campaign

For the data/text/imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt.strings.bin file rename the imperial_campaign part to your mod name. I chose crusader_regions_and_settlement_names.txt.strings.bin

Step 4: Creating Directories

In the Crusades directory add:

\data\world\maps\campaign\custom
\data\world\maps\campaign\custom\crusader

Crusader is the name of my mod, so it may be different.

Step 5: More File Copying

Now copy from the Crusades folder:
C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\mods\crusades\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign

and put it all in

\data\world\maps\campaign\custom\crusader

then copy the base folder from:

C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\mods\crusades\data\world\maps

to

C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\mods\crusades\data\world\maps\campaign\custom\crusader

Remove the Read Only attribute to the descr_strat file and change:

; Custom campaign script generated by Romans Campaign Map Editor

campaign Crusades

to

; Custom campaign script generated by Romans Campaign Map Editor

campaign Crusader


Step 6: Creating shortcut

Copy the shortcut from the desktop, right click on Properties and change the target from:

"C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\kingdoms.exe" --features.mod=mods/crusades

to

"C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\kingdoms.exe" --features.mod=mods/crusades --io.file_first

Now hopefully if I did a good enough job, you will be able to start the Crusades Campaign, select Single Player and on the bottom choose Custom Campaign and see you Provincal Campaign working. It is bedtime for me now, so I will revisit this tutorial, clean it up, and have images to make it more clear. Please post any comments or if does not work for you.

[Gigantus]

Unfortunately this doesn't work anymore with version 1.5, Alpaca's kit is for 1.3 - the mt2w.lnt file has radically changed.

[dknight237]

so what would be the new way to do it for 1.5?

[Gigantus]

Try the attached mtw2.lnt file and add the graphic files from the data\menu folder (and subfolder) of my Bare Kingdoms set up. Compare the graphic files to yours, they might already be the correct version.