dumb questions

[kesa82]

I can't live without my mods --

BUT I'm a computer ignorant, and there is no one in the room with me to hold my hand and explain things to me in laborious, step-by-step detail.
And some of the language used here is Greek to me. the instructions are mystifying.

SOMEHOW I HAVE managed to successfully download some mods in the past, but don't ask me how I did it !

Here are my particular concerns;

I run into this direction ;

5b - Add one line below ( ?) to the end of your user.empire_script.txt

What ?

The location of the user.empire_script.txt ;
Vista/Win7 C:\users\USER NAME\ AppData\ roaming\The Creative Assembly\ Empire \ scripts

Ok, I know that I have windows Vista, and I figured out how to follow the trail of \ ( blank ) \ 's.
I arrive at a box filled with words, dashes, dots, numbers and letters.

Now what? What do I do here exactly ?
" Add one line below to the end... " What does that mean exactly ?

Can anyone explain this to the dummy ?

also, I hear a lot of " use the startpos " , " startpos this" and "Startpos that" .

WHAT IS startpos ?

It appears that many of the How-to manuals and tutorials are written assuming that the reader possesses various a priori knowledge which you do not possess, or that you have someone in the room with you who can manually show you how.
No such luck here. I'm an old bachelor, I live alone, I'm retired, so basically the only people I "know" are a few odd cashiers and waitresses.

[Hrobatos]

in data/campaign/main in etw game you have stratpos file open it with ESFeditor and change the way u like...U can add new nations change existing yu cam move Turkey in America if u want to...options are infinite...

[husserlTW]

I can't live without my mods --

BUT I'm a computer ignorant, and there is no one in the room with me to hold my hand and explain things to me in laborious, step-by-step detail.
And some of the language used here is Greek to me. the instructions are mystifying.

SOMEHOW I HAVE managed to successfully download some mods in the past, but don't ask me how I did it !

Here are my particular concerns;

I run into this direction ;

5b - Add one line below ( ?) to the end of your user.empire_script.txt

What ?

The location of the user.empire_script.txt ;
Vista/Win7 C:\users\USER NAME\ AppData\ roaming\The Creative Assembly\ Empire \ scripts

Ok, I know that I have windows Vista, and I figured out how to follow the trail of \ ( blank ) \ 's.
I arrive at a box filled with words, dashes, dots, numbers and letters.

Now what? What do I do here exactly ?
" Add one line below to the end... " What does that mean exactly ?

Can anyone explain this to the dummy ?

In C:\users\USER NAME\ AppData\ roaming\The Creative Assembly\ Empire \ scripts open the user.empire_script.txt and enter the line that is provided by every mod. It is in type:

mod "my_mod.pack";

where my_mod is the name of the mod. There is a simpler way to activate a mod, using Mod Manager and starting the game after ticking the box by the name of the mod you have installed following the instructions of the modder.

also, I hear a lot of " use the startpos " , " startpos this" and "Startpos that" .

WHAT IS startpos ?

It appears that many of the How-to manuals and tutorials are written assuming that the reader possesses various a priori knowledge which you do not possess, or that you have someone in the room with you who can manually show you how.
No such luck here. I'm an old bachelor, I live alone, I'm retired, so basically the only people I "know" are a few odd cashiers and waitresses.

Startpos is the file that determines the starting position of the campaign game. Read my tutorial about it. However has nothing to do with the above activating of a mod.

Happy new year!

[Hrobatos]

for activating of mods use Modmanager just write in google "download modmanager empire total war" choose mod/mods and then click "Launch" its very simple, useful tool

[Demokritos]

Here are my particular concerns;

I run into this direction ;

5b - Add one line below ( ?) to the end of your user.empire_script.txt

What ?

The location of the user.empire_script.txt ;
Vista/Win7 C:\users\USER NAME\ AppData\ roaming\The Creative Assembly\ Empire \ scripts

Ok, I know that I have windows Vista, and I figured out how to follow the trail of \ ( blank ) \ 's.
I arrive at a box filled with words, dashes, dots, numbers and letters.

Now what? What do I do here exactly ?
" Add one line below to the end... " What does that mean exactly ?

The file they are talking about here, the "user.empire_script", is a text dokument. When you write text in such a document, as you're well aware of, you start on the left side at the top of it and continues on the same line until you reach the end on the right side, where the text is moved down to the next line under it at left, continuing like that until you have nothing more to write. The "lines" in the user.empire_script mean the same thing. So when you have a mod named, say, Best_mod_ever.pack, you have to write that name on a clean line of the user.empire_script in a very special way. Like in the following manner...

mod "Best_mod_ever.pack";

...on the first free line of the script, which normally becomes the (bottom) end of the script (the end of the written part, not the bottom of the whole document when including the blank space). If the mod had been named, say, Lots_of_unit_retextures.pack, then you would have had to write...

mod "Lots_of_unit_retextures.pack";

...on the line in question instead. You must follow this pattern to the letter (not skipping or changing any sign) if the game engine is to understand it as a command to heed. If your user.empire_script file is empty when you're about to insert the name of a mod there, then writing the name of that mod in the above pattern becomes the first and last line in the script. If the name of a mod is already written on a line there, then you must write the name of the new mod on a new (free) line, which is usually done on the next line under the first, which in that case becomes the end of the script.

It's not necessary to place the name of a new mod on the last free line of the script, you can move the name of a mod written earlier down one step and write the name of the new mod on the line above that became free that way, but you must always find a free line to write the name of your mod. So if you have nine different mods you want to use, then you'll have to write the names of them all in the above pattern on nine different lines.

The order in which you list the mods in the script in this way affects the order in which the game engine loads them. If two or more mods on the list edit the same game files, then the last mod to load overrides the ones before it, cancelling out the changes those mods make. Or, if the conflict is really bad, then trying to start ETW will cause a CTD (Crash To Desktop). In that case, you'll have to remove the name of the mod which interferes with the mod you prefer to use from the list in the script, and try again.

Hope things have clarified for you now, Kesa.

[kesa82]

Thanks everyone !