Earlier Recruitment of Kataphraktoi (I screwed something up, help please -_-')

[williamtell0]

First off, as I don't believe I've done this yet, I would like to offer my appreciation to the brilliant team that has created Broken Crescent. I can honestly say that if it weren't for this mod I would hardly be able to play Medieval 2, it's people like you that serve an important role in the raising of the Total War series from good to spectacular (I wouldn't even consider a TW game done until the modders get through with it, they should probably start paying you guys ).

Anyways, I would like to point out that it may make more sense to make Royal Kataphraktoi recruitable earlier on. All the sources I've looked at seem to say that the golden age of cataphract-style cavalry in the Roman Empire was during the Komnenian restoration, which was actually started about a century BEFORE this mod starts. It also seems that at this point the use of Kataphraktoi was winding down (which I would guess was because the restoration was falling apart and they couldn't support them anymore...), so not having them to start with seems illogical. Especially since you start with two units of them (where did they come from?)...

Given this I would like to see some sort of cataphracts recruitable at the start of the campaign (maybe in 3.0?), so is there a way for me to mod the game's files to make them recruitable at Nicaea earlier? I'd also like to tweak the price to be a bit higher on recruitment so if anyone knows how to do that and/or has an opinion on what the new cost should be please tell me.

Thanks in advance!

[Iguanaonastick]

The current slow build-up from levies to elite units is part of Medieval II's standard game balance design and not as far as I know based on any historical considerations.

It has been said that in 3.0 the devs plan to allow factions access to many more factional units at the start of the game, but with very slow refresh rates. So you could train cataphracts and re-train your existing ones from the start, but you'd need to wait, say, 20 turns to be able to train more.

Now it's true that historically for some factions better armies were available early on than later, but I doubt this will be implemented because it'd make for weird gameplay. (Still, medieval 1 did this, so it's not entirely impossible. I just don't think BC is going to go that way.)

As for the Roman army, BC purposely based its design on the older forces (Such as used by the Macedonian dynasty, IIRC?) rather than the actual 13th century Komnenan army. This was done for the sake of varied gameplay; the actual 13th century army relied in large part on Turkish mercenaries/steppe horsemen settled in the empire's borders, and therefore fought in a very similar way to its Asian neighbours. In a mod that doesn't have contrasting Western factions they thought it more fun to have the ERE more infantry and mêlée-based.

[williamtell0]

If I told you that was all just rationalization for being able to use cataphracts before the end of time (i.e. the time when Nicaea will become a citadel), would you tell me how to do it =P

Edit: I was going to start looking around the EDU to get the lay of the land (and try my hand at fixing the varangian charge issue), but after I made backups and tweaked the varangian charge distance it told me M2TW encountered an unspecified error when I tried to start BC. I replaced the modified version with a backup but it still crashes ^_^' any ideas?

[wudang_clown]

Yes.

Check the system.log for error and post it here.

Next thing is that it's easier to give your cities and castles higher level of development - just make Nicaea a citadel and give it highest level of military structures (modify it in descr_strat.txt), delete map.rwm file and restart campaign.

[williamtell0]

18:06:01.574 [system.rpt] [always] CPU: SSE2
18:06:01.602 [system.rpt] [always] ==== system log start, build date: Apr 23 2007 version bld-medieval2-update2-84 (37970) ===
18:06:01.610 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_0.pack
18:06:01.611 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_1.pack
18:06:01.613 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_2.pack
18:06:01.616 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_3.pack
18:06:01.617 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_4.pack
18:06:01.618 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/localized.pack
18:06:01.648 [system.io] [warning] open: preferences/player.txt is missing
18:06:02.536 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.

Doesn't seem very informative. I've never seen player.txt in preferences though, not sure what thats about.

And I guess thats the best option, but I'll probably have to give all the other factions citadels to be fair

[retep219]

18:06:01.574 [system.rpt] [always] CPU: SSE2
18:06:01.602 [system.rpt] [always] ==== system log start, build date: Apr 23 2007 version bld-medieval2-update2-84 (37970) ===
18:06:01.610 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_0.pack
18:06:01.611 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_1.pack
18:06:01.613 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_2.pack
18:06:01.616 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_3.pack
18:06:01.617 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_4.pack
18:06:01.618 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/localized.pack
18:06:01.648 [system.io] [warning] open: preferences/player.txt is missing
18:06:02.536 [system.rpt] [error] Medieval 2: Total War encountered an unspecified error and will now exit.

Doesn't seem very informative. I've never seen player.txt in preferences though, not sure what thats about.

And I guess thats the best option, but I'll probably have to give all the other factions citadels to be fair

All of those errors are generic; none would cause a CTD. Not that that means very much... Are you sure you didn't modify any files besides the EDU? No tiny tweaks anywhere else? If not, maybe something's wrong with the backup; the attached file is the original BC 2.02 EDU.

[williamtell0]

No dice

The only other thing I opened at all (and for absolutely no reason) was export_descr_sounds_units_battle_events.txt

I didn't touch anything there either though

[retep219]

No dice

The only other thing I opened at all (and for absolutely no reason) was export_descr_sounds_units_battle_events.txt

I didn't touch anything there either though

Well, if you're sure that all you changed is the EDU and you restored it, then I really have no idea. If the game was working before you changed the EDU, didn't work after the mods, and refused to work after the backup with reinstated, then something else must have been changed--probably by accident. Either that, or M2TW is a lot more screwed up than I've realized. Try deleting the map.rwm and see what happens; it might have nothing at all to do with the problem but, on the other hand, it might be significant if some file was accidently tweaked. If all else fails and there's no sign of what's wrong, you might just have to reinstall. Double check your system log, though. Make sure it's actually BC 2.0. Oh, and what exactly are you logging in the .cfg?

[Iguanaonastick]

*grin* I very much understand wanting the cool troops earlier. I did the same thing in my second Roman game.

If you don't want to mess about with the mod files, you can just use cheats to add population to Nicaea. That way you'll be able to start building the proper infrastructure straight away. Or, you can use more cheats to add the buildings instantly.

If you feel bad about the cheats, you can always just add money and population for your neighbouring factions too.

Googling should reveal the console-cheat commands easily enough if you need more info.

[Sulfurion Blackfyre]

If you want late stuff earlier you just have to mess around with the export_descr_buildings.txt

Search for the buildings that build the kataphracts, copy the line where they appear, and paste it in an earlier building.

[williamtell0]

Well, interestingly enough after I restarted my computer BC worked again... I tried the modding a second time but I got the same result. thank you Sulphuristical for the way to do whatI want to do, I just wish I could right now =P

Good news:
-I don't have to reinstall BC to play it again

Bad news:
-I don't know how I can mod BC without insta-ctd
-The might not be fixed if I do reinstall
-Nicaea had an earthquake and lost three thousand civilians (the fortress was already under construction fortunately but now the cataphracts are even farther away...)

And after the game threw that horrifically devastating earthquake at me I'm not so sure I'd feel bad about cheating...

[wudang_clown]

If you want late stuff earlier you just have to mess around with the export_descr_buildings.txt

Search for the buildings that build the kataphracts, copy the line where they appear, and paste it in an earlier building.

This isn't good advice for a novice modder. BC has two recruitment sets, one for Ai and one for human player. This means at least few dozen of lines, and it's very easy to overwatch something and mess up the game.

As I said it's better to change starting conditions in the descr_strat.txt.

-I don't know how I can mod BC without insta-ctd

Well, you can't mod the game right away. It would be good to read some guides first and learn about connections between files. In most cases a change in one file demands corresponding change in other file...

[williamtell0]

Well I have a decent understanding of the edu and the mounts file, I used to tweak vanilla M2TW to make the knights capable of beating levy spearmen. I also made my archers fire monster bombard ammunition and made my peasants weigh 10000 times more than normal humans but that was just screwing around...

I think I'll do the population relocation, that seems to be a good compromise Anyways +rep to everyone who came here to help, more to come if anyone figures out the ctd

[Iguanaonastick]

Or, by imperial decree force a bunch of people to move from the outlying towns to Nicaea in the interest of the Empire's defences.

i.e. still cheat but correspondingly reduce the population in other settlements as you increase that in Nicaea to explain where they're all coming from.

I'd just do it. It's more fun.