Faction unlock problem

[Avatar]

I'm posting this as someone who knows the usual method of unlocking factions through gameplay, however having recently had to install the game on a fresh PC, I've encountered an issue where the other factions are not becoming selectable after being destroyed in-game. Is this an issue anyone else has encountered before?

This has happened using HRE to destroy Milan and Denmark, and then using England to destroy Scotland.

(I'm aware that you can just edit the game files, but thats slightly besides the point)

[Silent Assassin]

Taken from this Guide

How To Unlock All Factions

To unlock all factions for M2TW is really simple.
There are two ways.

(Please note that you must have started the game at least once in order for the preferences file to have information in it.)

The first is:
1. Go to your "Medieval II Total War" folder.
2. Right click on the preferences.cfg file, select the properties tab and uncheck the read only box, then open it with notepad.
3. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the file.
4. Add the following lines:
[misc]

unlock_campaign = true

5. Save and exit the file.

The Second way is:
1. Go to the "Medieval II Total War/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign" folder.
2. Right click on the file "desc_strat.txt", select properties and uncheck the read-only box.
3. Open the desc_strat.txt file in notepad.
4. Move all the factions from the unlockable section into the playable section. Make sure no faction is mentioned twice.
The file should look like this:


Code:
playable England, France, HRE, Spain, Venice, Sicily, Milan, Scotland, Byzantium, Russia, moors, Turks, Egypt, Denmark, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, end unlockable end non-playable Papal_states Aztecs, Mongols, Timurids slave end
All the factions that were meant to be playable are now unlocked.

What about the Papel States?

If you wish to play as the papacy you can also simply move it from the non-playable section to the playable section but there are no guarantees on how the game will play, crusades will be disabled if you do this.

And the Mongols? Timurids? Aztecs?

This is not recommended as they have special conditions, such as reaching a ceratin date etc. Doing this may result in an error.

As requested by my good friend Viking Prince Here is the" OLD FASHION WAY to unlock factions. You need to either play a short or long campaign you need to destroy factions, to enable them as playable afterwards.

[MeMongo]

I'm posting this as someone who knows the usual method of unlocking factions through gameplay, however having recently had to install the game on a fresh PC, I've encountered an issue where the other factions are not becoming selectable after being destroyed in-game. Is this an issue anyone else has encountered before?

This has happened using HRE to destroy Milan and Denmark, and then using England to destroy Scotland.

(I'm aware that you can just edit the game files, but thats slightly besides the point)

I had this problem too. I had unlocked all the factions previously, but then had to do a new install. For some reason the factions were not unlocking after being destroyed. I got around it by just speeding through a short campaign with England until I reached the victory conditions, eliminate Scotland and France, hold 15 provinces I think.

Takes about 5-10 minutes on the easy setting if you auto resolve all battles, its a pain though.

[Silverheart]

As has been mentioned, you should try modding the game files or completing a campaign.
If that doesn´t work... well, THAT`S when you have a problem, In which case you should try reinstalling the game or post a thread about the problem in the "Technical Help"-section.

[Avatar]

Its strange, I reloaded the game some hours later and now the unlock system is working as expected, with Scotland showing as unlocked and other factions appearing as they get destroyed during the campaign. Must have just been a temporary glitch.

[tudor93]

also, if you really want to unlock the playable factions using the usual method (playing a campaign with one of the factions that are available from the start) you shouldn't bother destroying every playable faction so that you can play it(because for example it will take you a long time to destroy Egypt as England), just complete a short campaign (England and France were my choices when I got the game) and you'll have all the factions unlocked even if you don't destroy them (as France (short campaign) you don't even have to destroy any faction, just grab the rebel territories and create modern day France, I think it's enough (you need 15 regions for victory))