The Papal States

[HMS England]

I've recently started playing a campaign as the Papal States. Now, to do this I had to alter the 'playable factions' and 'non-playable factions' section of the dsc_strat file. It worked pretty well except for a few glitches I've noticed that are pretty annoying.

1. Under 'faction description' it just says "DO NOT PLAY - THE PAPAL STATES IS UN-PLAYABLE" or something to that effect.

2. The map showing where the Papacy is located looks like a completely different map (same with the Mongols, Timurids, Aztecs, and Slaves, also known as Rebels.

3. When you first get on the campaign map a message shows up saying "Faction Eliminated - Aztecs" And, though I haven't gotten that far yet, this leads me to believe that when the Mongols and Timurids come there will be something wrong with them too.

4. Biggest of all... all rebel settlements start out as villages with a population around 500 and completely undefended. So even if you send 1 guy to a settlement, he'll capture it. But this also means the enemy can do this. And for the majority of settlements that would've been higher, this means more money needed to upgrade them to castles or large towns.

5. Under 'Victory Conditions' the short term version says "capture 80 regions" ... and the long term you ask? 100 regions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there isn't even 80 regions on the map including the new world.

Does anyone know of a fix, perhaps a mod, for these problems? Also, do you know of any mods that make the Mongols, Aztecs, and Timurids ACTUALLY playable? All suggestions would be most appreciated.

[Silverheart]

A lot of weird stuff there. I don´t know about all of them. However:
1 - That one´s normal, it says that on my too.
2 - did you make all of them playable in one go? Not just one, for starters?
5 - I believe there are exactly 100 regions on the map totally (americas included), so the victory condition for the Papal states is complete world domination (though they don´t seem to be aware of that in the game )

All in all, I would like to hear more details about the file tinkering you did - maybe you made a slight mess somewhere.
It might be advisable to uninstall and reinstall, and do the unlocking thing over again - more carefully this time.
Or you can wait until someone more experienced with modding the files replies, of course - I can´t say very much with certainty.

[HMS England]

A lot of weird stuff there. I don´t know about all of them. However:
1 - That one´s normal, it says that on my too.
2 - did you make all of them playable in one go? Not just one, for starters?
5 - I believe there are exactly 100 regions on the map totally (americas included), so the victory condition for the Papal states is complete world domination (though they don´t seem to be aware of that in the game )

All in all, I would like to hear more details about the file tinkering you did - maybe you made a slight mess somewhere.
It might be advisable to uninstall and reinstall, and do the unlocking thing over again - more carefully this time.
Or you can wait until someone more experienced with modding the files replies, of course - I can´t say very much with certainty.

Yes, I unlocked them all in one go. And I don't think it's that odd. It happened last time I did this on my last computer.

As for the exact "tinkering" I did... I went to start/computer/Local Disk(C/Program Files(x86)/SEGA/Medieval II Total war/Data/World/Maps/Campaign/Imperial Campaign/descr_strat and cut and pasted all contents under "Unlockable" and "Unplayable" below "playable"

Oddly enough though, this time the faction rebels isn't playable like it was when I did this on my last computer. It was...interesting I was at war with everyone, I was LOADED, my unit roster sucked (I looked it up under the building browser), I owned every settlement that starts out rebel (Including the units), even the ones in the new world, and if I recall correctly.. I couldn't recruit any units at all. I had to get units through the rebellion of armies from other factions. I can't for the life of me though remember whether their building style was Norhern European, Southern, Middle Eastern, or all of the above based on the region. As you can imagine it was a very productive observation experiment.

I'm currently running on a homemade computer with Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit. I have 500GB of Disk space, 4GB of RAM, and an okay graphics card. In case this has anything to do with it.

And I'm a complete noob when it comes to modding. I know absolutely nothing about editing (I remember all these steps from a video I watched on youtube... a photographic memory comes in handy sometimes), and I've never used a mod before though I've seen quite a few for the total war series that are quite intricate.

[In3x]

I don't know about anything else but I believe that there are 106 regions not including the new world.

[King William the Conqueror]

you can't just move the aztecs, timurids and mongols into the playable without some more modding.
e.g. you need to give the mongols and timurids settlements and the aztecs need some modding in campaign_script.txt

[Drustan]

Many of the scripts revolve around the Papal States, so playing as it is bound to screw them up. In Rome playing as the Senate causes a few problems.

[King William the Conqueror]

no papacy should be fine if you haven't done other things.

[HMS England]

Hmm, That makes sense. But I have no idea how to add these additions. Perhaps they're somewhere online already written out so I can copy & paste them in place.

[ccgr1121]

I've recently started playing a campaign as the Papal States. Now, to do this I had to alter the 'playable factions' and 'non-playable factions' section of the dsc_strat file. It worked pretty well except for a few glitches I've noticed that are pretty annoying.

1. Under 'faction description' it just says "DO NOT PLAY - THE PAPAL STATES IS UN-PLAYABLE" or something to that effect.

2. The map showing where the Papacy is located looks like a completely different map (same with the Mongols, Timurids, Aztecs, and Slaves, also known as Rebels.

3. When you first get on the campaign map a message shows up saying "Faction Eliminated - Aztecs" And, though I haven't gotten that far yet, this leads me to believe that when the Mongols and Timurids come there will be something wrong with them too.

4. Biggest of all... all rebel settlements start out as villages with a population around 500 and completely undefended. So even if you send 1 guy to a settlement, he'll capture it. But this also means the enemy can do this. And for the majority of settlements that would've been higher, this means more money needed to upgrade them to castles or large towns.

5. Under 'Victory Conditions' the short term version says "capture 80 regions" ... and the long term you ask? 100 regions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there isn't even 80 regions on the map including the new world.

Does anyone know of a fix, perhaps a mod, for these problems? Also, do you know of any mods that make the Mongols, Aztecs, and Timurids ACTUALLY playable? All suggestions would be most appreciated.

Hi. I've done a full campaign as the Papal States and they are absolutely fine, apart from the few instances you have mentioned.

1) That is just placeholder text.

2) Again, a placeholder (if I remember correctly, an RTW map)

3) This is somewhat annoying, but not gamebreaking. At worst, you just wont have to fight the Aztecs.

4) This leads to very fast expansion of the AI (check out the "Who am I" thread, a few months back I uploaded a map where this happened). Just let the AI pay for it all

5) Just conquer the world! (Another placeholder)

As a side note, remember that you can excommunicate factions at will, you control the inquisitors, and have very powerful armies.

On the other hand, you cannot call a crusade yourself; you have to wait for one to be called. Also, you must keep recruiting Catholic Priests, or else your faction will die out. Furthermore, you will have no family tree, and therefore no princesses. However, you still get adoptions and 'Man of the Hour' events.

[Adamat]

3. this is because they do not have any regions because the Americas do not yet exist according to the map. if you put the Aztecs and Salves under "Non-playable" everything is normal i guess/think.

4. this is because you have put the slaves in as "Playable". happened to me too.

[HMS England]

Hi. I've done a full campaign as the Papal States and they are absolutely fine, apart from the few instances you have mentioned.

1) That is just placeholder text.

2) Again, a placeholder (if I remember correctly, an RTW map)

3) This is somewhat annoying, but not gamebreaking. At worst, you just wont have to fight the Aztecs.

4) This leads to very fast expansion of the AI (check out the "Who am I" thread, a few months back I uploaded a map where this happened). Just let the AI pay for it all

5) Just conquer the world! (Another placeholder)

As a side note, remember that you can excommunicate factions at will, you control the inquisitors, and have very powerful armies.

On the other hand, you cannot call a crusade yourself; you have to wait for one to be called. Also, you must keep recruiting Catholic Priests, or else your faction will die out. Furthermore, you will have no family tree, and therefore no princesses. However, you still get adoptions and 'Man of the Hour' events.

I suppose I'll just have to deal with it Good to know all of these problems are common though. Thanks for your input.

3. this is because they do not have any regions because the Americas do not yet exist according to the map. if you put the Aztecs and Salves under "Non-playable" everything is normal i guess/think.

4. this is because you have put the slaves in as "Playable". happened to me too.

Makes sense, I put all the factions back in place and the game is normal again. Again, thank you for your input

[King William the Conqueror]

Like I said, adding aztecs, mongols and timurids in the descr_strat without some other text editing will cause your game to not function correctly but Papacy should be fine.

[Dominick]

I remember playing as the Papal States. I moved JUST the Papal States into playable and everything was working fine. (Well, it was playable, just not optimized for the player)

[HMS England]

Now that I think about it... why would the Papal States work for the player with just some simple editing... unless CA intended it to be a playable and perhaps changed their minds at the last second?

[Silverheart]

Now that I think about it... why would the Papal States work for the player with just some simple editing... unless CA intended it to be a playable and perhaps changed their minds at the last second?

umm...

Like I said, adding aztecs, mongols and timurids in the descr_strat without some other text editing will cause your game to not function correctly but Papacy should be fine.

None of the other unplayable factions technically exist from the beginning, which is why extra modding is required.
The Papal states is a living, breathing and active faction right from the start, and doesn´t spawn due to some event, making them basically a completely normal faction which has just been placed in the "unplayable" list.

[King William the Conqueror]

very good explanation Silverheart
+ rep

[PrestigeX]

there are a few things with PApal States -- their campaign objectives are .. like 80 regions for short campaign, and 100 for long campaign - its just standard somehow (its easy to change that tho).

They do have a display picture tho, it shows "Swiss Guards" as their special unit - which is a nice touch lol, but their map display its an entirely different looking map than normal.

In their building browser, there are some things that you will most likely want to change...

um "Papal Guards" - I believe they are only available at the Militia_Barrack level, either 3rd or 4th militia building in a city -- but then, NOT after that -- like if you advance the buildings more, they will not appear.

same with their Castles, and Walls, and castle buildings -- their recruitments would use some editting in the EDB - just to make it like other factions, all units progress and and are still avail.

I mean thats the whole point of being Papal States -- those awesome Papal Guards n Swiss Guards -- as an AI faction, they wanted papal guard early, then it switches to using Swiss Guard -- but if u play as PApal States, you'll want BOTH for sure -

just check over the EDB (buildings file) to make sure its balanced / enjoyable...

[Jacobim Mugatu]

If you want to play as the Papal States try the Expanded Americas mod. Worked great for me and they also added a pope model for battles, it's quite eerie.
You can also play as the Aztecs and Mongols.

[King William the Conqueror]

descr_win_conditions in the data/world/maps/campaigns/imperial_campaign folder
change the Papal States win conditions.

[Timur_the_Lame]

Custom Campaign Mod 2 allows you to play as all of those factions btw. without glitches