Construct your own villages(and stone forts) submod

[+Marius+]

Pozdrav,

Construct your own villages(and stone forts) submod

Overview;

This mod replaces the watchtowers on the campaign map with villages to add a bit of flavor when playing Stainless Steel.
Watchtowers were never used in the way the game uses them, they were lookouts made around towns and forts to warn citizens of impending danger, not a regionwide network of scouts that have nothing else to do but sit in a tower waiting for someone to spot.
This way, there is a realistic potrayal of news and information spreading from and amongst villages and small populated towns instead of giant towers of Orthanc towering over cities.

The mod also slightly overhauls forts to more expensive stone castles(forgot to even mention that at first release).

The Villages do not create income or have any other special ability apart from increasing visibility(they are basically re skinned watchtowers).
The price of building the village is 500 instead of the 200 required for watchtowers.
Compatible with everything and all versions, including save games.

Village screenshots:

Changes in building text/images on the campaign map;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Southern culture village;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Northern culture village;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Middle eastern culture village;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Eastern culture village;

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Stone fort model:



To make your stone forts both permanent and buildable, one needs to go to;

\Medieval II Total War\mods\SS6.3\data\descr_campaign_db.xml

and change the following line;
<destroy_empty_forts bool="true"/>
to
<destroy_empty_forts bool="false"/>

Download:CYOVS.rar


Credits to:

RollingWave; for the two .tga files I took from the "The Historical Units Region Buildings Mod" and used in the ui as a final replacement for the vanilla watchtower/fort images.

Installation instructions:

Extract and replace or, manually copy and replace .

Enjoy the groove of all the medieval villages you will build
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaRNvJLKP1E

[MWY]

Really cool idea mate! Seems like it does improve immersion. I already imagine pre-implemented villages (via descr_strat), then you could get boni or trigger activities via campaign script by conquering or visiting a village.

1. You find the image in the ui folder, ui/northern_european, ui/southern_european, etc. Just look it up in the original game folder when it's not in the stainless steel folder.

2. No idea.

[Nikolaj-11]

I'd love to try this, but the attachement is invalid.

[Iforgot]

nice idea, it would be cool if there was a way to make them show up on the battle map too if two armies fight there!

[Fair Prince]

Excellent idea, +rep!

[+Marius+]

I'd love to try this, but the attachement is invalid.

My apologies,

New link is added with the addition of having stone forts on the campaign map instead of the old native wooden one.(the price of which I have considerably increased)
This will represent the fact that building one results in having a large stone fort in custom battle.

Stolen screenshot showing the campaign stone fort model used that is not mine because I have internet problems;

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/598/0004sl0.jpg

[Melooo182]

Hehe i just recreated your mod since the old link was dead, good to see you updated the link

I did however two small txt files that work with the 6.4 setup doing all the changes needed on the pertinent files, ensuring it will work with other submods that changes/replaces those files if there are any xD, oh also did german and spanish compatible versions too

Anyway I don't want to hijack your thread anymore...can i post the link here? since its basicaly the same submod done in a different way

[+Marius+]

Sure thing brah

[Melooo182]

Cool!

here: Watchtowers to Villages

[Stario]

Hey nice. I will try this out. Haven't played for over a year, but in the mood for just one more campaign

[Melooo182]

BTW I included in the pack the back ups of the would be altered files (descr_culture.txt and tooltips.txt) just in case and placed them in "campaign/late" and "campaign/early", however I think this is not necessary...but im still not quite sure how the SMM backup of original files works, someone knows?

[+Marius+]

Small notice

Apparently if one goes to;

\Medieval II Total War\mods\SS6.3\data\descr_campaign_db.xml

and changes the following line;
<destroy_empty_forts bool="true"/>
to
<destroy_empty_forts bool="false"/>

stone forts from this submod stay buildable as usual but do not get destroyed when left empty thus making them permanent buildable forts.

[Rampage]

Is it at all possible to make villages a third option alongside towers and forts?

[+Marius+]

[+Marius+]

Haha, I just realized I forgot to update the file with the additional tooltips.txt changes(replaces every single possible mention of a watchtower ingame with village) even though I thought I did that months ago
I reposted the new version


Edit; decided to do a complete update which resulted in the first time I actually put an effort into a thread I wrote...ever.

Horray for my first decent submod thread

[Melooo182]

You might be interested in these edited villages models I did, just removed the trees so they no longer look weird in winter mainly.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1m...trat_models.7z

EDIT:
just to note that these .cas have unique names so they won't override M2TW original strat map villages, editing the descr_culture.txt is required to make the game use them...or to get original villages names to rename these .cas.

I posted it mainly as a modder's resource

[Duck of Death]

Do you unzip the file into the 6.4\data folder?

Nevermind... I got it

Nice little mod +rep.

[+Marius+]

You might be interested in these edited villages models I did, just removed the trees so they no longer look weird in winter mainly.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1m...trat_models.7z

EDIT:
just to note that these .cas have unique names so they won't override M2TW original strat map villages, editing the descr_culture.txt is required to make the game use them...or to get original villages names to rename these .cas.

I posted it mainly as a modder's resource

Neat, I also saw those trees as a bug during winter turns.
However, since I use a 12 turns per year game build I only get 1 winter turn per 12 turns so by removing the trees completely the villages also loose the trees for the whole spring/summer/fall turns during which the trees really add the touch to the villages.

I'l think about it, and if people wish to use your no trees version they can just use your resource

[Night_Watchman]

Hey where am I supposed to unzip this to? I've tried multiple times and nothing happens (I've also got KER and RLC installed).

[+Marius+]

Hey where am I supposed to unzip this to? I've tried multiple times and nothing happens (I've also got KER and RLC installed).

...to your SS folder, seriously if you still can't find the proper folder placement just extract the files to another location then open up your SS folder side by side and do it manually.