Is it possible to unpack

[Liandro]

While having SS 6.4 installed or will it mess up some stuff? I'd like to get rid of some ugly portraits and the only way I can imagine getting to them is by unpacking, I can't see any other way. Thanks for any help.

[Caesar Clivus]

You can unpack M2TW, just DONT unpack it to your M2TW folder or it will break things. Set the unpacker to put the unpacked files into a separate folder (the readme with the unpacker tells you how). Then just copy the files you want into the SS folders.

[Liandro]

So for future reference, after I install M2 then Kingdoms, I should unpack, then install SS 6.3 and then SS 6.4? That way nothing gets broke, or will unpacking into the M2TW folder at any time at all break some things? Thanks for your help.

[Caesar Clivus]

Unpacking into the M2TW can break things at any time, no matter when you do it. Always unpack to a separate, non-M2TW folder.

[Liandro]

Getting cold feet here, after the 2nd question, do I get to direct where to unpack it, or will it just throw it where I opened it? I don't want to hit enter screw up my whole M2 folder and spend the rest of the night installing all of this stuff again.

[Caesar Clivus]

Yes you can by using the --destination switch in the unpacker batch file. For example

unpacker.exe --source=..\..\packs\*.pack --destination=c:\packs\ --verbosity=1

The above line will unpack all the packed files into the C:\packs folder. It will create the destination folder if it doesn't exist.

Of course the greater question is how many packs can an unpacker unpack, if an unpacker could unpack packs?

[k/t]

Oh snap, we got a wise-cracking mod.

[Ishan]

Read this tutorial and download the attachment below in it and run the .tga bat file and you will get what you want without hampering your original installed version.

[Liandro]

I don't mean to bring an old topic back up for nothing, but Caesar Clivius is it for sure that it Will break things? or is just a possibility? I really can't stand these ugly generals anymore, I have to get rid of them.

[Caesar Clivus]

Unpacking into the m2tw folder has been known to break things. It's not a certainty, but given that if it does it will require a complete reinstall of M2TW (as you wont know what files to delete), I dont think it's worth the risk. Are you just wanting to get rid of some portraits?

[Liandro]

Yes, most of all the bald ones and a few that I see entirely too much in my family tree and never ever any of the others.

[Caesar Clivus]

I've done the same thing, except I got rid of all the western european looking portraits (i.e. the ones in plate armour) for the eastern european culture. Its quite simple. If you unpack using the code I posted above, you wont break anything as it directs the unpacked files into a non-m2tw folder

[Liandro]

And once they're in a non-m2tw folder how do i get them to affect (effect, never get that right) the files in the main folder? Thanks for your help

[Caesar Clivus]

Oh whoops sorry forgot that part. Just copy the ones you want to use into their proper folder in the SS folder structure. For portraits, you may have to create the folder they go in under the culture's folder as SS doesn't include them by default.

[Liandro]

that was it? Oh man, I was there last time, ... my god, this is frustrating, it all feels so delicate, just like when i tried to mod in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, it all felt so fragile, yet people did it all the time with no problems...

[Ishan]

@Liandro
How to get Rid of Bald generals in Medieval II

[Liandro]

Tried that, but I was missing all the first part, I thought I sent you a PM asking this stuff, I felt horrible asking you, but I felt crushed, alone... dumb... and desperate, I hate most of those faces, and I'm sick of those always being the majority that I get everytime I play, I swear I've had an entire game with just those faces in my family tree, and the worst of them as the new Heir and then current ruler and so on, I just can't take it anymore.

Also, how do you change something to a .bat file?

I've tried F2 and then adding New Text Document.bat didn't work, tried saving it as such and it's still a text document.

[Ishan]

Download this. Then run .tga one bat file, it will extract all your portraits (.tga files) in the C: drive.
After that replace those portraits (numbers 100.tga etc) in your SS mod with the ones you like (non-bald ones).

And if that doesn't helps then i will provide you with the files, just copy paste it.

[Liandro]

I get an error reading "the program can't start because MSVCP71.dll is missing from our computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem...

I have no idea what this is.

Nevermind, I needed the missing Gold files, got em, running it now, see you in 45 minutes or so, I forgot how long this can take. Thank you very much for this.

for some reason it unpacked everything in the Pack folder, though I only used the .tga batch file. Regardless, it took about 45 seconds, I thought it would take much longer, thanks again. Now to follow your Portrait guide...

[Ishan]

Yeah the bat file extracts all the .tga files in the game, it based on the extension of the file not the type we want unfortunately but it is still very fast compared to extracting the whole game.