Color squares appear in the screen

[Eco]

Hi. When I modify the unit stats nothing happens. When I add
[io]
file_first = true
and I enter the game there is a red and yellow square at the center of the screen and a white square at the bottom. Therefore the game is unplayable. Any ideas of how to solve this?
Thanks in advance.

[Ishan]

A screenshot would help.
And have you deleted the geography files after unpacking(See Read me.txt file)?

[The Bruce]

If you have a packed main data folder and an unpacked mod folder it can cause UI problems.

The geography file issue only causes crashes when you enter battle.

[Gigantus]

@bruce
That sounds like the issue you guys had with KotS. Something regarding the UI folder where some copying had to be done?

[The Bruce]

A few mods suffered from this back in the day.

Our quick fix was to put a copy of the vanilla UI folder and text folder into an otherwise packed MTW2/data folder. The problem was that us modders usually have everthing unpacked but some users did not. This made it difficult to diagnose until we realised this was the case.

The proper solution is to have the sd.xml files in your mod's UI folder and I think, certain text files in the mod's text folder (although can't remember exactly which were needed - it was a long time ago, I seem to recall you helped solve the issue).

[Gigantus]

it was a long time ago, I seem to recall you helped solve the issue

Shows you how long a go it was, I only remembered the issue.


The text files were shared, strat and tooltips if I remember correctly.

[The Bruce]

Sounds right. I just removed the sd.xml files from one of my mod folders (and reverted to a packed main data folder) and the problem came back.

Almost made me feel nostalgic! It was a real headache at the time.

[Gigantus]

I have put together this Bare Geomod mod folder set up which is essential the vanilla game playable with the kingdoms exe. SD files there and the text files. No problems.

Should have remembered that. I think that's when I started to use that set up in all my mods after the KotS episode. Bare Kingdoms was the first set up.

[Eco]

Thanks for answering. Yes, I delete the geography files. I just went to tools and put unpack all, but there was no option to unpack medieval, just the expansions.
The read me says:
- To use the modified files create a batch file in your
Medieval II: Total War folder
- In the batch file add the following line
medieval2.exe --io.file_first
But I dont have a clue what this means so I went to total war center and they said to add to medieval2.preference.cfg.
[io]
file_first = true
Here is the screenshot:
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/9145/americas.png

[Ishan]

Oh those things yeah go in to your americas folder
data\ui folder.
Here you will find three .sd files
1)battle.sd
2)shared.sd
3)strategy.sd
Delete them and that should fix it.

[Eco]

Thanks Ishan! Now it is playable. But there is a new problem, lol.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8057/americas2.png
Any ideas?

[Gigantus]

Thanks Ishan! Now it is playable. But there is a new problem, lol.
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/8057/americas2.png
Any ideas?

It's the threesome text files: strat, shared, tooltips from the data\text folder. Ishan's download should fix that.

[Eco]

Excelent, thanks for the help guys.

[The Bruce]

I've never installed the americas campaign but if the SD files are different from vanilla this could cause you problems (as it would with the new faction symbols in Britannia).

The other alternative would be to unpack the main MTW2 data folder and restore the americas SD files.

You would still need to add the io.file_first in the config file. Add the following to your medieval2.preference.cfg using notepad:

[io]
file_first = true

The problems you are seeing now is possibly due to files in the text folder not being read. Unpacking your main game would solve this too.

Are there xml versions of the americas SD files anywhere? I think that the presence of xml files is enough to make the mod foldered SD files take priority over the packed ones. You could probably use the wrong xml files provided that the correct SD files are present.

[Ishan]

First go here. There is a attachment in my post tagged americas download it and put it inside the main americas folder.
Then always use the americas.bat file to launch your game it will read all your modding changes.

After that put these in your unpacked americas folder and see if it solves it.
You have to put it in:-
americas\data\text folder

[Gigantus]

One is glad to be of service