Holy crap, please help me with mods...

I've been a TW player since Shogun, but I haven't really modded the game in the last 4 or 5 years. Honestly, looking at the mod list for Napoleon, I'm a little overwhelmed and hesitant to mod the game because I'm afraid I'll screw it up and force a reinstall (which is not good when you have the steam version and have to redownload it).

Can someone help me out here? I'm not uncomfortable moving files around, editing configs, etc, I just need help starting. Hopefully someone has a program made that does all of that for you and makes it simple.

What is the easiest way to mod your game and keep track of which mods you're using?

I like to play online so I do not want any permanent changes made to the game that would prohibit me from playing online. Options?

As I said, I have he steam version. Is it possible to mod it? Should I turn off automatic updates so new patches don't make the mods unstable?

Which mods are the best with regard to historical accuracy? Particularly uniforms, music, etc?

If someone could walk me through it, it would be greatly appreciated. Modding newb here.

As far as I know you can use all the mods with the Steam version without problems.

As to screwing up the game...thats hard to do because most of these mods just consist of you placing a PACK file in the Data directory, and thats it. If you want to remove the mod, you simply delete the file.

There is a mod manager at the moment, but I don't find it necessary to use, because its very simple to just glance at your data directory and remember what you loaded. Also, it's a good idea to keep the mods to a minimum to avoid conflicts

You need to first pick what mod you want and figure out if it's compatible with other mods you might want to use. Graphics mods and sound mods tend to be useable with multiple mods, but its a good idea to check first.

The bigger mods that alter core gameplay and the battle ai, campaign ai, etc., are to be used alone, although like i said, sound/music/graphics mods can usually be used with them.

Some of the most popular are the Order of War Mod, the Total Combat Mod, the WW I mod, and Napoleon Empire Realism mod. You will have to read up on them yourself to decide which best suits you. Some of them are multiplayer functional, others are not, while stile others have a seperate file for multiplayer. If thats the case, you have to switch the multiplayer and single player file out of your data directory.

As I said, it sounds a little overwhelming at first, but really, for most of these mods all you are doing is shifting files in and out of the napoleon total war/data directory, and that's about it. Very simple!

Thank you for your reply.

I assume even small changes such as music, sounds, and skins will still render the game uncompatible with vanilla MP?

Do these changes overwrite the original files? Or do they place files somewhere else and use their own data file to tell the game to look to a different location?

In other words, can skin mods be changed in an out from vanilla easily?

Most of the mods will not be compatible with multiplayer, so you either have to take the files out every time you play MP, or use the multiplayer version of the mod. (Napoleon Realism mod has a multiplayer version, and there is a group of online players that use the mod for their battles)

As to your other question, no these mods do not overwrite anything. 90% of them, all it involves is placing their .pack file in the data folder. Again using Napoleon Empire Realism as an example, to install the mod all you do is drop the files into the data folder, and you're done. Likewise, to remove it, all you do is take the files out of the data folder and the game is back to normal. Very hassle free. I've looked at most of the graphics mods and they are the same concept.

A FEW of the mods require you to add a line into your user.script, but again, this is really painless to swap in and out. If you are gonna use a mod that requires that, just keep two copies of the user script and change them up when you do Multiplayer.

Again, I don't use it , but you may find the mod manager a help. (Click)

It looks like you can just click the mods off and on when you're doing different things. Whatever is easier for you.

thankyou st.cyr i was also a bit lost with useing them in steam i presume you mean you drop the pack file into the data of the steam files?

Blackstar, I think I'm getting my head around it.

You put the .pak file here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\napoleon total war\data

Then, depending on the mod, you put the user.text file that comes with it where they tell you to.

That's it. It's actually the easiest modding I've ever seen, lol. I'm used to overwriting hundreds of files, creating backup directories for half the game and such. This is really easy. The .pak file seems passive until activated, so it doesn't matter if it's still in your directory if you're not telling it to be used.

I would highly suggest the mod manager as well. Simply click the boxes of the mods you wish to run, and there you have it.

Thanks for the help St. Cyr.

oh i see lol your right easy once you know how . just a pain gettin that info to start you off thx guys

Yeah no problem, like you said, almost all the mods are extremely easy, you just drop the file in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\napoleon total war\data

and thats it, take it out if you want to remove it.

The only thing I would advise is, if you install a new gameplay mod, its best to start a new campaign. And if you delete a mod, and go back to vanilla, same thing, it's a good idea to start a new campaign.

Mods that change sounds/music/graphics, those should usually be okay to use in an ongoing game.

im haveing problems finding wereto put the script
C:\LocalDisk/AppData/Roaming/TheCreativeAssembly/Napoleon/Scripts
i have no clue how to get to this can anyone help me out . god im such a noob with this stuff

Make sure you view hidden files

Originally Posted by Blackstar

im haveing problems finding wereto put the script
C:\LocalDisk/AppData/Roaming/TheCreativeAssembly/Napoleon/Scripts
i have no clue how to get to this can anyone help me out . god im such a noob with this stuff

What do you mean by this? You have the directory right. All you have to do is go to My Computer, and follow the chain down to the scripts folder and paste the user script in.

yeah sorry loyalist open my eyes there with the hidden files . all sorted now running toons mod . and loveing it
thx loyalist

In regards to the possiblility of having to reinstall, you can backup you games files to another location so you don't need to re-download and even burn them to disc so you have a clean vanilla copy. I do this for most of my steam games just in case.