ummm what's the update for?

[LestaT]

This was a complaint when ETW was released and started to be patched. Steam with its lockout, then being something like two weeks and you had to log back in to play, and the kicker, download all the updates, wanted or not.

Anything steam "sees" as not part of the "original or updated" version will be deleted and redownloaded. It's built into their Terms of Service some way.

Don't like it, and have the old discs, play LAN with your buddies.

The Witcher has done to me like this a few times. What I did was click cancel, restart Steam and the need to download again is gone. Not sure if it works with Total War games, but then my guess it's Steam issue so it should work.

If you find Steam want to redownload gigabytes of data again, just cancel and restart Steam (or better restart pc). At least on my previous experience (with The Witcher) it solves the issue.

[irishron]

I had only Kingdoms installed, then started the 6GB update. Now, the folder is on the Steam directory with 13 GB, but i can't start the game from my library because it only shows the M2TW base game uninstalled, the exp is on the DLC tab, i know, but i can't do anything about it and i can't verify the cache integrity. What i must do? Delete everything from the folder and reinstall the base game from my library?

Removed your special color and font so these old eyes could read it.
Short version, the old way, yes.

[irishron]

Has anyone trying using this tool for mods? http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ication/page11

In the last post Gigantus mentions with a link to another post/thread about renaming kingdoms.exe.

[KingDazza]

Whilst I empathize with those now having issues with mods. Personally I think its great that CA actually bothered finally attempting to fix the launcher issue for Kingdoms. I had put in place a work around which managed to by pass the launcher, but this has now finally been fixed officially at least. Only issue I've noticed though is that I haven't discovered a new way of launching Kingdoms directly via shortcut. Any ideas?

[Strengelicher]

Thank God I do not have Steam, and after reading this thread, I am sure I will never get it. Sorry to say I am kind of old school when it comes to computers and games. I fail to understand how people can tolerate software on their PC that meddles with data without explicit authorization. I bought a wonderful copy of MII on DVD a long time ago. It runs when I want it to run, and it stops when I tell it to stop. I know where my mods are and nobody changes anything but me. There are good games out there which are DRM-free and run without things such as steam. Everybody has a choice.

[irishron]

Instead of renaming folders, try this. http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...=1#post1161346

[Nico CA]

Hi there,

Thanks for your reports regarding difficulties you have experienced running MED II/Kingdom with mods.
In order to better investigate this matter and find permanent solutions, could you please list the mods you experienced this issue with.

Thanks

- N

[irishron]

Hi Nico,

Any Kingdoms mod that does not use the launcher and registry keys. Third Age total War seems to be the biggest one right now without renaming an existing Kingdoms campaign (another can of worms when Steam decides to do a DRM check) or edit each .bat and .cfg for every mod. I have tenon my computer and if I had the Steam version of Medieval2 and Kingdoms, it would be one time consuming thing I would like to avoid if possible.

Any way to streamline the launcher/medieval2.exe with another patch to find and use all these .bat and .cfg and still recognize the kingdoms.exe in them since kingdoms.exe seems to have bitten the dust Steam version?

[RubiconDecision]

I am very reticent to get involved in trying to get to the root of this until I do a lot of saving of mods on my hard drive. However, theoretically, why not just do it the old fashioned way, and do a regedit, and point the mods to the correct exe? This is the old way that Steam users had to do it before Squid's TWCenter launch editor.

It should be merely a matter of doing a search of your registry using Regedit (you type that in the run command promp). In Vista 64 it's in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder, then in the SOFTWARE folder, then WOW6432NODE, then in the SEGA folder, then under Medieval Total War, then under the MODS folder. You should just have to edit the GameExe attribute such that points to the Medieval.exe instead of the Kingdoms.exe, right?

Or with the update, is the folder hierarchy all changed around now?

This is the old school method for putting a mod folder in the launcher. Surely that still works, right?

[irishron]

I am very reticent to get involved in trying to get to the root of this until I do a lot of saving of mods on my hard drive. However, theoretically, why not just do it the old fashioned way, and do a regedit, and point the mods to the correct exe? This is the old way that Steam users had to do it before Squid's TWCenter launch editor.

It should be merely a matter of doing a search of your registry using Regedit (you type that in the run command promp). In Vista 64 it's in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder, then in the SOFTWARE folder, then WOW6432NODE, then in the SEGA folder, then under Medieval Total War, then under the MODS folder. You should just have to edit the GameExe attribute such that points to the Medieval.exe instead of the Kingdoms.exe, right?

Or with the update, is the folder hierarchy all changed around now?

This is the old school method for putting a mod folder in the launcher. Surely that still works, right?

One small problem with this that becomes a major headache for those not as technically inclined as you and I. Many will not fool with the registry and for good reason. I cannot blame them.

If I was some younger teenager, just a got a laptop, my own internet connection, see the game in a Steam sale, and con mom/dad to dig out the credit card for it. Then he gets wind of a cool mod called Third Age total War. He downloads it, it installs and plays like a champ. With is last Steam game update his Third Age playing days are over until he figures out all these hoops to jump through. My guess as intuitive as all this turned out not to be, his harddrive just got some more room and CA/Segs/Steam just lost a customer.

[Earl Dibbles Jr]

None of my saves work for any of my mods, the game crashes when I try to load them.

[Doge Almighty]

Breaking news:

CA now announced they ported the multiplayer of Rome 1 and Medival 2 towards Steam!

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...lable-on-Steam!
http://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...lable-on-Steam!

Given from their postings you can add your retail CD Keys to Steam now, so you do not have to rebuy a licence if you have a non Steam Version.
If you have problems, please use the links to leave your reports there, please.

[RubiconDecision]

One small problem with this that becomes a major headache for those not as technically inclined as you and I. Many will not fool with the registry and for good reason. I cannot blame them.

If I was some younger teenager, just a got a laptop, my own internet connection, see the game in a Steam sale, and con mom/dad to dig out the credit card for it. Then he gets wind of a cool mod called Third Age total War. He downloads it, it installs and plays like a champ. With is last Steam game update his Third Age playing days are over until he figures out all these hoops to jump through. My guess as intuitive as all this turned out not to be, his harddrive just got some more room and CA/Segs/Steam just lost a customer.

Yep. I get that. Sure, one can mess up the registry, just like one can mess up anything. Squid's tool is actually pretty great because it fixes the registry in seconds versus issuing several commands.

But.....that's why I learned how to edit the registry,all because I wanted to properly install mods like Kingdoms Grand Campaign mod and I had Steam. What I'm saying is it's not that difficult, so for 90% of the people who regularly comment on the forum, they probably can handle it. It should be a matter of the patch getting worked out for the sound issues, and then maybe Squid will edit his launcher editor so that it points correctly to the medieval.exe .

It actually isn't that technical.

[Melooo182]

So from what i gather, switching mods to use the Medieval2.exe instead of Kingdoms.exe would fix things for batch+config method?
and doing this still retains all the extra stuff kingdoms.exe injected?

[irishron]

Yep. I get that. Sure, one can mess up the registry, just like one can mess up anything. Squid's tool is actually pretty great because it fixes the registry in seconds versus issuing several commands.

But.....that's why I learned how to edit the registry,all because I wanted to properly install mods like Kingdoms Grand Campaign mod and I had Steam. What I'm saying is it's not that difficult, so for 90% of the people who regularly comment on the forum, they probably can handle it. It should be a matter of the patch getting worked out for the sound issues, and then maybe Squid will edit his launcher editor so that it points correctly to the medieval.exe .

It actually isn't that technical.

DOS 4, Before or after windows 1.0 was released, don't remember, was released with HIMEM.SYS to access memory above 512kb. It took me two weeks playing with autoexec.bat to get my mouse and sound Blaster drivers loaded up there so the kids could have their "Interactive Games" to work. Those were the days.

My first baseball game for Win 3.1 was a hassle because the installer was anything but user friendly. I already had the DOS version working so, Hell yeah, now for Windows version.

Those that are the "hardcore fans" will stick around, make it work, and share how. This is the backbone of this community. The "casual gamers" will depend on each. some will stick around. Many will move on.

I for one will go looking for trouble in the registry. I have reinstalled Windows because of it. I will be the first one to disable the UAC without batting an eye. Many in these will not do either. Technology today scare the devil out of them right or wrong. In other cases, it's the family computer, "you fool with its guts, I fool with your butt". Too many things you and I take for granted that I get reminded about in the Tech forum.

It's down to a decision for each, using Squid's tool, doing it manually, walking away, etc. I hope CA comes up with a better user friendly solution.

[HaHawk]

I don't know if this will help anyone or what, but I have M2TW set to "not auto update" but something was downloaded over steam earlier today anyway (ughhh) which caused me to be unable to launch the game through the launcher. When I clicked "Stainless Steel" it led to a Windows system error, something about "Just-in-Time". HOWEVER, I traced the problem to my Kingdoms.exe being deleted! I have no idea why Steam arbitrarily deleted my Kingdoms.exe, but thankfully I had a backup saved in another folder and after copying it over I was able to start up SS same as usual without any of the extra steps mentioned in this thread. I am unsure what was downloaded from Steam, however. I don't think I downloaded 10GB. I'm pretty sure Steam just deleted the Kingdoms.exe somehow.

Hope this helps someone... Cheers!

[Emperor Hantscher]

Yes, essentially if you loaded you mods the old way without the launcher, they are corrupted and gone. To get them to work, reinstall or apply a backup you may have.

Now that we have no choice but to load our mods the old way, alot are worried next update will corrupt your mods. I can't imagine it will because this update was pretty major and was basically a complete reinstall of kingdoms.

I personally lost a mod i was making, it was defunct anyways but now it is totally screwed, I also lost all progress on another project I was working on.


I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH TO MODDERS THAT AT THIS POINT, SINCE WE HAVE LITTLE CHOICE BYT TO USE THE OLD WAY, DO NOT LEAVE YOUR MOD NAMED AS A VANILLA MOD. AFTER YOU PLAY TEST, CHANGE THE NAME.

[Melooo182]

So from what i gather, switching mods to use the Medieval2.exe instead of Kingdoms.exe would fix things for batch+config method?
and doing this still retains all the extra stuff kingdoms.exe injected?

To answer myself this maxwulf guy from Totalwar.com seems to say so

-Mod support broken (any mod that uses a bat and config file to run is broken, (but there is a workaround))

I can run TATW etc fine after I fixed the batch files .. Kingdoms.exe is not there anymore, but changing the batch file to use Medieval2.exe instead and things run no problem.

can anyone confirm?

[Emperor of The Great Unknown]

Guys important update, which is literately game changing!

I got this message from Nico this morning.

Morning

Thanks for your message.
We have reported these issues to the relevant department and it's under investigation.

Regarding the use of mods, we have released another update last night, it should work better now.
Please let me know if you still experience problems using them.

Thanks

What they have done is basically combine the kingdoms.exe into the medieval2.exe. and updated medieval2.exe to 1.50 basically vanilla now runs on kingdoms (test it with experience upgrades you will notice defense won't be upgraded.) ALSO! any mods that used the kingdoms.exe just need to point their batch file to the medieval2.exe. No need to configure steam or rename mods, just edit the bat and create a shortcut.

[UndrState]

Seems like that would suck if you just wanted to play good ol' Vanilla...