Wizard and installation path problem

Hi guys,

So recently I discovered that EB II wasn't putting my saved games in the "saves" folder. I thought this was odd, so I went poking around the Internet and found advice for the previous EB I that Windows 7 (I'm Windows 8) users should run the game as an administrator for their saved games to appear in the "saves" folder. I tried running the game manually as an administrator (from the drop-down right click menu) instead of simply opening it automatically from the launcher. However, the game wouldn't work when I tried this! It gave me a console error message saying "cannot find the M2TW executable. You probably installed EB2 into the wrong folder." I really wanted to back these saved games up, but since I wanted to reinstall the game anyway (as was suggested to make an RTW music sub-mod work), I decided that I should have a normal working copy of EB II. I hadn't gotten too far with my Koinon Hellenon campaign, so it was okay.

Long story short, I was just about to reinstall the game, until I noticed something in the install wizard. Your instructions for installing version 2.01 explicitly says: "In the wizard, the default installation path is where your copy of M2TW is installed. Unless you know what you're doing, leave this unchanged." There's just one problem with that: there is no default installation path presented! Just like the last time when I installed the game, it left this empty and forced me to choose a path, directing it to C:/programfiles (x86)/SEGA/Medieval II Total War. The game was then placed automatically in the "mods" folder along with the other Kingdoms campaigns, like Britannia, Americas, etc.

So how did this happen? Isn't the wizard supposed to detect right away where the game is installed on my computer? If not, what can I do about this problem? I want to be able to play this game and back up my saved game files, which for some odd reason I was unable to locate even with my search option on my laptop (Pavilion Notebook 15). I was also experiencing issues with modding the music (using b0Gia's sound sub-mod), so I wonder if this has anything to do with hindering that too.

You are using steam and windows 8?

Nope, not Steam, a DVD-ROM copy of M2TW. However, you are correct that my HP Pavilion has Windows 8, actually, edition 8.1 to be precise.

Is that a problem? I can tell you more about my laptop and my copy of the game if you need to know more.

And just to be absolutely clear, I am able to open the game up and play it. However, as I've said above, my saved games do not go in the "saves" folder and I am unable to open up the game and play it as an administrator. That's when I get the error message about EB II being located in a folder other than M2TW, which is false because that's exactly where I put it.

Windows 8 isn't a problem.

Which 'saves' directory have you checked? There are two, one is in the main 'M2TW' directory (as in 'C:/programfiles (x86)/SEGA/Medieval II Total War'), and the other is in 'mods/EBII' directory - and that's where your saves from EBII campaigns go.

Also, installing any games into Program Files is like asking for trouble later. Program Files directory is treated by MS Windows with special care, so any unauthorised changes, like adding mods, is treated with suspicion by the operating system.

Originally Posted by wudang_clown

Windows 8 isn't a problem.

Which 'saves' directory have you checked? There are two, one is in the main 'M2TW' directory (as in 'C:/programfiles (x86)/SEGA/Medieval II Total War'), and the other is in 'mods/EBII' directory - and that's where your saves from EBII campaigns go.

Also, installing any games into Program Files is like asking for trouble later. Program Files directory is treated by MS Windows with special care, so any unauthorised changes, like adding mods, is treated with suspicion by the operating system.

It's the EB folder that had no saves, trust me.

Crap! I knew I shouldn't have put it in program files. I have RTW installed outside of program files for playing the Invasio Barbarorum: SAI mod for that very reason. Should I reinstall the entire game outside of it now? Can I just copy and paste the whole game outside of Program files, or do I need to reinstall the entire game again?

Try to cut&paste is somewhere else. It should work.

Safer to do an uninstall and clean re-install, than moving the files.

Originally Posted by QuintusSertorius

Safer to do an uninstall and clean re-install, than moving the files.

For that I have bad news and good news. The good news is that, despite still not allowing me to run the game as an administrator, the saved games are now finally appearing in EB's "saves" folder. You guys were right about program files (x86); I just put my SEGA folder directly in the C drive. The bad news is that b0Gia's sound sub-mod with original RTW music still refuses to work after I've reinstalled it. Would uninstalling Medieval II and reinstalling it, along with EB II, do anything to fix his sound mod problem, instead of copying and pasting Medieval II from program files to the C Drive like I've just done? I'm really starting to get a headache from all this, after all the time I've wasted today doing this.

Originally Posted by Roma_Victrix

For that I have bad news and good news. The good news is that, despite still not allowing me to run the game as an administrator, the saved games are now finally appearing in EB's "saves" folder. You guys were right about program files (x86); I just put my SEGA folder directly in the C drive. The bad news is that b0Gia's sound sub-mod with original RTW music still refuses to work after I've reinstalled it. Would uninstalling Medieval II and reinstalling it, along with EB II, do anything to fix his sound mod problem, instead of copying and pasting Medieval II from program files to the C Drive like I've just done? I'm really starting to get a headache from all this, after all the time I've wasted today doing this.

Why are you trying to run the game as administrator? You don't need to do that now, when the game is outside Program Files. Also, what do you mean by saying that you've reinstalled it? You mean the submod? Anyway, try this: go into 'mods/EBII/sounds', delete all .dat and .idx files and run the game. Let me know if that works.