M2TW Gold Edition, Third Age and you; How to install

[Khales]

This is a WIP installation guide if you have the M2TW Gold Edition. It´s WIP because i didn´t get a lot of needed feedback. I only know that i was able to help most of those who had problems with the Gold Edition. So please leave some feedback!

1. Don´t use autorun from the disc, instead open the disc folder, go to mtw/disk1/ rightclick setup.exe and run as admin

2. After that open the main folder of the disc and rightclick the setup.exe and run as admin

3. download gold edition patch ; rightclick the tw gold kingdoms patch and run as admin

4. a) rightclick the kingdoms.exe and check the box compability to run it as admin
b) If you have the german version: replace the kingdoms.exe (from here) and repeat a)

5. Turn off UAC. How to do it you can see here http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...59#post8287059 (i recommend #3)

6. install Third Age (again rightclick and run as admin)

Done

[ZuluKingOfTheDwarfPeople]

Hey, Khales! Thanks for posting this guide. I'm having problems installing this mod on my gold edition. I tried your method and I still can't get it to work, but maybe I'm doing something wrong.

1. So when I put the disc 1 in, I run setup.exe as admin. Ok.

2. Isn't this the same step as above?

3. Ok.

4. Do you mean the Kingdom expansions? Shouldn't this be done before I put the patch?

5. Ok.

6. Ok.

I'm confused regarding steps 2, 3, 4. If you could clarify I'd appreciate it a lot!

[Khales]

Oh someone shows some interest!

Point 1 and 2 require that you have both discfolders on one dvd. Didn´t know yet that there´s a gold edition with two seperate discs. I´ve learned something new! But nevertheless don´t use autorun. Open the disc and rightclick the .exe and run it as admin. Just because Securom and the Gold Edition aren´t good friends

Point 3: there´s a downloadlink for whatever gold edition patch you need. And you will need it

Point 4: just the kingdoms.exe. The expansion should be installed prior ofc. Disc 2 in your case i would guess. That would be point 2 for you ^^

It could also help if you copy the kingdoms.exe and make a backup of it before you apply the gold edition patch. After you´ve patched it replace the kingdoms.exe with that one from which you have made a backup.

And tell me: What doesn´t work? What happens exactly?

[ZuluKingOfTheDwarfPeople]

The problem seems occur right after I install the gold patch. Before I install the patch, MTW and all the Kingdom expansions work. After the Gold (US) patch, only MTW vanilla works. When I try playing any other expansion, I get this message:

Wrong disc inserted.
Please insert the original "Kingdoms" CD/DVD.
Please have a look at http://www.securom.com/message.asp?m=wrongdisc for further, more detailed information.

When I install TATW, I also get the same message. The problem is therefore not in the mod, but MTW and the patch, or my computer. Hmm...

[Khales]

If nothing what i have written worked (backup the exe and replace it after patching) then there´s only one way left: http://segauk.epticahosting.com/self...late.do?id=424

[ZuluKingOfTheDwarfPeople]

Yeah, I'm going to try this one more time and if it doesn't work I'll contact the company. Ok, so I uninstalled every little thing again and I reinstalled MTW2 and the Kingdom expansions (running as administrator). Everything works fine; MTW and all the Kingdom expansions. Now, I've been reading around and one possible explanation is that I'm installing the wrong patch to the game. I live in the US and bought my game over amazon, so I've been installing the US Gold patch. However, I went to program files and to the MTW folder and looked at properties>details, and it says language English UK. So, maybe I have the european version. The Euro patch doesn't have "(Gold)" next to it, so I'd have to install the UK Gold patch, but it's the exact same size as the US Gold patch, so it looks the same.

Can TATW work with just the 1.3 patch MTW gold comes with?

(backup the exe and replace it after patching)

The kingdoms.exe in program files? There's also a mtw2.exe and launcher.exe.

[billygoat]

Ok how do I do all of the above? I literally am only capable of putting a disk in for installing and clicking download for updates and mods. So idk what all that means.

[Stylix]

@billygoat

I can help with a couple of Khales suggestions.
To find out what version of M2TW you have, start a game (with or without mods) and select 'options' from the main menu. In the options menu it should have the version in the top right corner.

To disable UAC for the M2TW folder see this post and follow (if you can) fix #3.
How To Fix UAC and VirtualStore Problems

Edit: I see that Khales already posted this link in his OP.

[Khales]

You don´t know what that means?

Securom is a copy protection. If you doubleclick the dvd icon to install then it installs automatically. But this can cause problems, especially when you have vista/win7. So it´s better to right click the dvd icon and open the disc folder to install it the way i´ve explained in the first post.

Turning off UAC is mandatory because it prevents some files from being altered when you install mods. You turn off UAC for a folder to allow changing files in that folder.

But after all i´m not sure how to help you if you don´t give me more details.

[billygoat]

Ok so I just learned my kingdoms are also not working but they do show up as installed as far as I know. I didn't turn of or disable UAC but I went to the security bit and allowed mtw2. Do I need to uninstall anything? I have version 1.03 on vanilla mtw2. Um do you need any info on my laptop? Win7 and such? I am going to remove everything thirdage related at the moment.

[billygoat]

nevermind because of avast I cant seem to uninstall it...

I can't unistall anything it get 4/5th of the way there and just says error 1 and stops

ok trying to install from folder. Cant find setup.exe. I can find _setup.ddl and setup.inx and setup.isn and 3 plain setups each with different pictures

[Khales]

Ok, that´s the main folder of the disc. There you should find a folder named m2tw. Open that folder, open Disk 1 folder and run the setup.exe there as admin to install. After that go back to the main folder where you have seen those different setup files. Run the setup.exe there also as admin and install.

Pictures!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[billygoat]

i got tatw to kinda work now. I started playing as isengard and when i received my 1st mission to take fangorn of course i accepted. Why not right? Well I tried to fight the battle and the game crashed....any other thoughts?

[Bigjack6ft5]

Ok so I bought the download version of M2TW Gold Edition from Gamestop.com I downloaded TATW parts 1 & 2 downloaded patches 3.1 &3.2. after I installed both parts to the M2TW folder and installed both patches. I followed all instructions that I could find but still getting the kingdoms.exe not found blah blah blah error. Can anyone help me?

[StealthFox]

I'm not familiar with the gamestop version. A few people here have gotten it to work, so I know it's possible. I think you may have to follow the Steam instructions. Try installing it into the mod folder (I assume you've already done this) and rename one of the Kingdoms campaigns, (e.g. change "americas" to "americas1") then rename the third age folder to americas.

[Just A Fanboy]

Like Bigjack6ft5, I also bought the Gold Edition from Gamestop, I saved 3.0 part 1 and part 2, 3.1, and 3.2 to my Computers Downloads file, but when I try to install it from there, my Computer just freezes, can someone please help.

[StealthFox]

I've moved the relevant posts over to your thread.

[Daleee3]

Heyy Khales, I am from australia and wanting to install TATW using my medieval 2 total war gold edition, I was just wondering which patch I would download?

[StealthFox]

Try the 1.5 UK Gold patch.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=96588

[Chewbacca]

so i've followed every step you have said and everything worked fine. I then copied kingdoms.exe to descop and patched the 1.05 and installed it. then i tried starting up the game with the patched kingdoms.exe and it asked for CD. So i swapped it out with the one i had as backup before the patch and it worked. but when i start for example americas and i go to options it still says it's patch 1.04. is that just because i have the old kingdoms.exe or did the patch not install correctly?

i'm trying to install third age as we speak and i would really like it to work, been trying to fix this for almost 14 hours lol