Can I get help with starting to mod

[Raidon_the_Hun]

Hey, I've been wanting to start modding for a while now and I have some questions about coding and scripting.

1. What's the difference? Coding vs. Scripting
2. Do I have to unpack the Game before editing the text documents? If so, how do I unpack it?(sorry I have no Idea what I'm doing when it comes to tinkering with files)
3. If I make a copy of the entire MII folder, does that mean that once I change data in that folder that that game shortcut will contain the changed data? If not, how do I play the game with changed data?
4. Do I need any special program to unpack or edit these files or can I just edit them in Notepad?

Any help answering these questions will be appreciated +rep to anyone who answers(it doesn't count if you just tell me go look "here") I've already looked at tutorials and they said I'd need programs that I don't have and that cost money that I don't have, so I was looking for something that I could do to mod the game without buying a program.

[Mythic_Commodore]

1. Coding is changing the information that the game reads while scripting is making a "script" that can actually do things within the game.
2. You do need to unpack the game using the unpacker provided with the 1.2 patch. Go to Medieval II Total War/tools/unpacker.
3. To run the game with changed data, go to the Medieval II Total War folder and open up your medieval2.preferences.cfg file and add this to the bottom:
[io]
file_first = true

4. Here are the programs you'll need: Click me! - you don't need all of these, just Notepad will do for basic modding.

If you need any more help don't hesitate to ask
mythic

[Raidon_the_Hun]

3. To run the game with changed data, go to the Medieval II Total War folder and open up your medieval2.preferences.cfg file and add this to the bottom:
[io]
file_first = true

After that all I need to do is click the application to start the game right?

Alright I've unpacked the game. This is a copy of the text that I want to change:

type Broken Lances
dictionary Broken_Lances ; Broken Lances
category cavalry
class heavy
voice_type Heavy
banner faction main_cavalry
banner holy crusade_cavalry
soldier Broken_Lances, 32, 0, 1
mount heavy horse
mount_effect elephant -4, camel -4
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, can_withdraw, can_formed_charge, knight
formation 2, 4.4, 3, 6, 2, square, wedge
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 10, 8, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, spear, 25, 1
;stat_pri_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_pri_attr no
stat_sec 11, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, sword, 25, 1
;stat_sec_ex 0, 0, 0
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 9, 4, 0, metal
;stat_armour_ex 9, 11, 0, 0, 4, 0, 0, metal
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 4
stat_ground 0, 0, -4, 0
stat_mental 9, low, trained
stat_charge_dist 45
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 730, 320, 120, 95, 730, 4, 180
armour_ug_levels 5, 6
armour_ug_models Broken_Lances, Broken_Lances_ug1
ownership milan, venice, papal_states
era 2 milan, venice, papal_states
;unit_info 10, 0, 13

What I want to change is the Attack Defence and Cost. I've highlighted which ones I thought those were. Now, Does the pri mean primary and the sec mean secondary? And Why are there multiple numbers for attack? How do I change this to suit my purposes?

Edit: Disregard all that was said before this. I actually read the readme and found out what to do sorry for the trouble.

[Moon]

This should help, Open your data directory (inside your MTW2 directory) and delete or rename descr_geography_new.db and descr_geography_new.txt (this is important - if you don't do it, your game won't run)

[Raidon_the_Hun]

Thanks Mythic! I think I'll focus on coding for now. Unpacking now. +rep (when I can)