The original thread

[Javesh]

Well I tried looking for it in the Tools/GEOMOD/MODS, but I only saw the vanilla and exp packs. When I tried to point it to the MOD itself, I just got that standard Error msg "cant find files". I can of course just make a folder and copy over the files needed. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking something. Also been thinking about maybe trying to carve out those regions you wanted (Bretonia and Athel Loren) in the south west. GOEMOD seems pretty straight forward

And btw the Unit Portrait thingy. Which files does the TGA files connect to which then again makes them show up in the game?

Sorry for all the questions m8. I'm a complete newb concerning this, but I'd love to help you out

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

Odd, when I point Geomod to open the mod's folder it loads everything up and gives a single error about missing info for Peasants. It's not in tools/geomod/mods, you open the geomod program and point it right to medieval2/mods/cow_beginning_of_the_end_times

And if you could do that, that'd be cool. The only thing is the area needs some work making some trails connecting those regions to the outside world, or Athel Loren will behave too accurately to lore and just sit there. That will involve painting over some of the mountains and moving around some forests and stuff, which is a bit of work. There's tutorials for everything, though.

And the unit portraits, I actually forgot how they're loaded, hah. It's been a while since I've tried making new ones. I'll have to see.

[Javesh]

Well that died in it's infancy. I got it to work and figured i'd do a simple edit of a city name. Basically i just wanted to change the city Ertburg to Ertburg. It's called "Beatsmen Tempel" right now. I Clicked on the province and went to the "City" tab. There i changed the name to Ertburg and saved. Loaded up the game and tried to start a new campaign. Nothing happens. I just get the menu again.

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

The city names are controlled by a different file, in the text folder. All the text you see in-game is from the text folder, not the campaigns, which is why translations and english patches and stuff can be made without redoing whole campaigns. I agree about the "Beastmen Temple" thing. Personally I'd want to get rid of all of them, and make them have % chance half stack spawns in every forest, every turn, so the other factions have to routinely go clear the forests of Beastmen before the amass a credible threat, hoping they've got the last one to finally kill them once and for all. Beastmen don't have cities, or temples, they don't build farms, even less than Orcs. Orcs and Goblins actually will conquer a Dwarf Hold and base themselves there as they build up their next WAAAAGH!, cunning ones even hiring Ogre mercenaries and wrangling Giants to go to war, but Beastmen act entirely like wild animals, all about being in the deep woods and sleeping in poop. And if Beastmen DID somehow form a grove and stack 3 rocks and call it a temple, The Empire would never go and turn it into a village!

[Javesh]

Ye i agree about that hehe. So in short i just needed to change the txt file?
I had another go and tried to make the rebel skaven lair belong to the skaven. Same happened. Back to the menu. Feel like i'm missing something....i've asked Gigantus' on this Geomod thread as well. Hope he replies. I'm in deep water with this modding stuff. A complete newb :|

[Javesh]

Well Gig just more or less said that some mods can not be edited by the Geomod. Guess that solves that problem
"A return to menu is a problem in descr_strat and usually well documented in the log.

Not all mods are 'geomod compatible' - while they may be working without a problem they may have some minor errors that the game ignores but Geomod mat completely hash up a file due to it. The best way is always to work with a back up and first to check if the original mod is compliant: simply open and then save it with Geomod without editing anything.

If not then you will have to go through the time consuming method of 'verifying' all regions and factions."

At least i can do simple tasks as editing Txt files etc, so if you need help with that then let me know. At least i tried :|

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

It opens for me with Geomod, so I guess you can focus more on what you're able to do. I don't know why it works for me and not for you. That's one of those frustrating modding things. Anyway, I haven't done much the last couple days, mostly because the next thing I really need to do is edit the bm.mdb to reduce the unit count to make room for improvements, and that file is prone to crashing over a missing space. But I'll get to it, then I should pop in a couple new Wood Elves units and try fixing the Ogres up better. Another good thing is the main chaos factions will have smaller unit pools for custom battles, too, since rather than having Marauder Axe Throwers of Khorne, there will just be Marauder Axe Throwers, and Khorne's ones will look all red and Khorne-y, like Empire State Troops do for each of their factions. Should free up ~30 unit slots, plus cutting down on the overabundance of Undead Chaos units for Vampire Counts, and the too-Slavic-looking Border Princes units, there should be plenty of room for more stuff without cutting anything important.

Another issue I've been looking at is the Outriders textures, since the attachment texture is double wide, so that stuff comes out looking wrong in-game. I dunno if the solution will be rescaling the coordinates of those textures in Milkshape, like you have to do with mounts, or if there's another thing to do. Hopefully it's simple, and then I can maybe look at their projectile, along with the Engineers with Repeater Handguns, and even the Dark Elves repeaters. I know Gigantus made a Zhuge Liang cho-ku-no projectile for his Rise Of Three Kingdoms mod, which simulated a multi shot crossbow without making them elephants like I did for the Ratling Gunners. I'd prefer to use elephant tricks for the least amount of units, if possible, as I think there's also a hardcoded limit to the number of mounts, and it screws up their melee animations. That's fine for the Ratlings, since they get slaughtered quickly in hand to hand, but not so much with units intended as combat skirmishers.

For Ogre Kingdoms I'll definitely need to make Leadbelchers and Firebellies elephants, since there's no shooting animation at that large scale, but that's a bonus, since it'll also make the Leadbelchers able to attack walls, which adds to the scariness of an Ogre Kingdoms stack acting like a vanilla Timurids horde invasion. My idea is to set them to be the same culture and religion as Orcs, so that they can potentially settle in any Orc or Night Goblin settlement and recruit stuff, if they do, and join Waaagh! invasions, and not eat up a new culture or religion slot.

For Wood Elves, I've been considering just leaving them as part of the High Elves. It makes sense from a lore perspective, that any business the High Elves had in The Old World, they'd make contact with the Wood Elves and join forces. It'll also help High Elves have more of a roster to draw from, as they have only about a dozen units. Moving the High Elves starting location to that rebel settlement controlling the Laurelorn Forest in the Wasteland fits better, as there's no Elven settlements or ruins in Norsca as far as I'm aware, but they do have lots of contact with Marienburg. Changing Border Princes to Dogs of War and giving them Marienburg as well could be interesting, having them trade with The Empire and Elves off the bat and stopping Reikland and Middenland from easily taking over Marienburg, when that never successfully happened. Marienburg has some unique units already that are currently rebels only, which would be cool adding to the Dogs of War playable faction. Then perhaps giving the Dogs of War some units closer to their old Armybook, with a Paymaster and more mercenary type units. I have a few more ideas for unique things.

For Vampire Counts, less chaos stuff, more Vampire-y stuff. Some Ghoul models, perhaps a Corpse Cart and Black Coach, other creepy crawlies. Might keep one of the Chaos Skeletons as a full armor upgrade version of the Skeleton Warriors, but I dunno. And I'll keep Krell's guard for Krell, just not all the different marauders and chaos warriors and all that.

But to do any of this I need to free up the unit slots, and to do that I need to give the base Marauders and Warriors their faction variants in bm.mdb without crashing the game. A simple task, but I hate that file, hahahaha.

[Javesh]

Well all of this sounds pretty awesome m8, but i see you have a lot of work to do. Had any luck getting any1 else to join you in the modding?

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

Well all of this sounds pretty awesome m8, but i see you have a lot of work to do. Had any luck getting any1 else to join you in the modding?

Not yet, but I haven't been asking. I'd like more people to join in and help, I just don't know how to go about getting a team together, lol. We'll see how it goes.

[toorop13009]

hi everybody , i follow your advancement , whiff i use your patch and when i use High Elfe in campaing everything is ok but since yesterday when i try to use my load campaing ( i was in 2518 and i just take marienburg ), this is my log:
10:21:49.633 [system.io] [trace] pack close,,data/banners/navy_julii.tga.dds,,,-16512
10:21:49.633 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/strat_flag.tga
10:21:49.633 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/strat_flag.tga.dds,87536
10:21:49.633 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/strat_flag.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.633 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols1.tga
10:21:49.634 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols1.tga.dds,22000
10:21:49.634 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols1.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.634 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols2.tga
10:21:49.634 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols2.tga.dds,22000
10:21:49.634 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols2.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.635 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols3.tga
10:21:49.635 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols3.tga.dds,22000
10:21:49.635 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols3.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.635 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols4.tga
10:21:49.635 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols4.tga.dds,22000
10:21:49.635 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols4.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.635 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols5.tga
10:21:49.636 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols5.tga.dds,22000
10:21:49.636 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols5.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.636 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols6.tga
10:21:49.636 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols6.tga.dds,22000
10:21:49.636 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols6.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.636 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols7.tga
10:21:49.637 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols7.tga.dds,22000
10:21:49.637 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols7.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.637 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols9.tga
10:21:49.637 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols9.tga.dds,22000
10:21:49.637 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols9.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.637 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols8.tga
10:21:49.638 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols8.tga.dds,22000
10:21:49.638 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/banners/symbols8.tga.dds (from: C:\Program Files (x86)\SEGA\Medieval II Total War)
10:21:49.792 [game.script.exec] [trace] exec <if> at line 62747 in mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt
10:21:49.792 [game.script.exec] [trace] exec <siege_settlement> at line 62747 in mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt
10:21:49.806 [bink] [debug] [mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/fmv/faction/minor_lose.bik]Pause on
10:21:49.806 [bink] [debug] [mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data/fmv/faction/minor_lose.bik]Pause on
10:21:49.980 [system.rpt] [error] We've failed to prevent The End Times!

Chaos has doomed the world!

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

That line corresponds to the following, specifically the slaangenerdiet2 part:

    monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType teutonic_order
        and I_CompareCounter dieter = 3
        and not I_SettlementOwner Dietershafen = teutonic_order
        and not I_SettlementUnderSiege Dietershafen
        if I_CharacterExists slaangenerdiet
            and not I_SettlementOwner Dietershafen = teutonic_order
            siege_settlement slaangenerdiet, Dietershafen, maintain
        end_if
        if I_CharacterExists slaangenerdiet2
            and not I_SettlementOwner Dietershafen = teutonic_order
            siege_settlement slaangenerdiet2, Dietershafen, maintain
        end_if
        set_counter dieter 4
        terminate_monitor
    end_monitor

What seems to be happening is they take the city and you lose the game. I dunno what that is about, I haven't touched that part of the campaign_script, or edited any generals or spawns or settlements there, so it theoretically should be a bug in the main beta, too. Have you tried reloading it? Does it happen when ending a turn? Personally I want to get rid of like 98% of the spawn scripts at some point, but right now the only thing I've changed in the campaign_script is the turn 1 massive war. Maybe someone like Gigantus could figure out what's going wrong. Try reloading your save and seeing if it crashes again, and if so, try turning the fog of war off with the toggle_fow command and taking a look at Dieterschafen and who owns it, and if Chaos is united under Slaanesh or some other oddity.

[toorop13009]

hi everybody , thanks for your help , Unfortunetly nothing works (reload/ off toggle_fow) , doesn't matter i restart with the son of the Phéonix king !
so what's news ?!!!!
I sugest for the elf noble bodyguard to use Dragon Princes ! and if it's possible to change the General's model , maybe use Pheonix Guard skin what do you think?
Have a nice day

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

hi everybody , thanks for your help , Unfortunetly nothing works (reload/ off toggle_fow) , doesn't matter i restart with the son of the Phéonix king !
so what's news ?!!!!
I sugest for the elf noble bodyguard to use Dragon Princes ! and if it's possible to change the General's model , maybe use Pheonix Guard skin what do you think?
Have a nice day

High Elves could definitely use some work, since they have such a tiny roster. It's possible to change general models, yeah. It all depends on the characters they're bringing, really. It'd be cool to bring in Tyrion, Eltharion, maybe Teclis, Korhil, maybe Alith Anar, and some other named characters for them. DE have an unused Malekith model, and a Malus Darkblade model wouldn't be too hard to cobble together from both versions of Cold One Knight.

Personally what I'd like to do is move the High Elves starting position out of Norsca and into The Wasteland, West of The Empire, giving them Aarnau, which would start them off in a more lore friendly place, since there are Elven ruins there, they do have strong ties to Marienburg, AND it'd allow them to recruit Wood Elves from Laurelorn Forest.

I'd also like to bring back the Tiranoc Chariot if it can be made to work properly, and possibly have High Elves and Wood Elves combined, with the lore explanation of High Elves seeking out Wood Elf aid for the big war to save the world. It'd give the Wood Elves something to do other than sit in Athel Loren and fight the odd Beastman incursion the whole game.

I wouldn't want to go full End Times and make it the Host Of The Phoenix King vs. The Aestyrion to decide the Host Of The Eternity King, but both HE and WE have fairly small rosters which could potentially complement each other, and it really does make sense that the first thing HE would do when landing in the Old World is make contact with the WE. This would also leave the faction slot currently reserved for Wood Elves open for Bretonnia, which needs to be its own faction more than WE does, and already has pretty much its full roster in the game already, just sort of in a beta version.


But I've been lazy the last few days and haven't done anything new. The 2 other Wood Elf units I put together are ready to be coded into the game, but that'll fill up the unit capacity until some stuff is merged or removed. I suppose cutting some of the VC Chaos stuff would free enough slots to be comfortable.

[Ajpav]

And btw the Unit Portrait thingy. Which files does the TGA files connect to which then again makes them show up in the game?

@Javesh: the Unit Portraits are located in: data/ui/unit_info/merc (seems like they tossed all the portraits for all factions in the merc file.)
Unit Cards are located in: data/ui/units and then under whatever faction you choose's folder
General Cards are located in: data/ui/custom_portraits
-Pm me if you'd like some assistance, I'm pretty decent with editing those TGA files.

Hello!
I'm new to this mod, but not new to modding M2TW, and love what y'all are doing. I am currently playing the Rage of Dark Gods mod, and am making some new ancs that I'll post when I'm done if you'd like to add them in. Specifically, I'm creating a "fief system" for important cities (Marienburg, Altdorf, Nuln, etc...).

Since the last time I played the Warhammer table-top game was about 10 years ago, (and it was 40k) if anyone would like to PM me info/ideas/links to lore for some Ancs, I'd be most appreciative

(Please don't post replies to me here, as I'm not trying to hijack this thread lol.)

But if you guys would like some lore-specific ancs, pm me - I'd be happy to assist. And that's one thing I know how to do quite well.

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

That's awesome, more immersive ancillaries are great. I've been thinking about possibly including some lore based ones that can give various bonuses, like Life Wizard and Sister of Shallya ancillaries that give battle surgery (healing units after combat) bonuses, morale increases, etc. Maybe an Amber Wizard giving an increase to cavalry usage and strength of general's bodyguard. I'm sure the Skaven and Tomb Kings could use a lot of help, if you know much about their ancs.

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

Wood Elves Waywatchers in-game:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Kahvipannu]

Looking great Whiff

[tomdoof2236]

wiffofgrapeshot Ill help you out with what ever you need. I am not the best modder but I know my way around the medieval 2 data folder. Messing with iwte a bit and starting to get a handle on that. anyway let me know if you need anything.

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

Looking great Whiff

Thanks!

wiffofgrapeshot Ill help you out with what ever you need. I am not the best modder but I know my way around the medieval 2 data folder. Messing with iwte a bit and starting to get a handle on that. anyway let me know if you need anything.

Sent you a PM, always great to have help.

[kazm]

Any ETA?