Editing export_descr_units without starting new campaign

**Arcarias** · June 02, 2016, 04:34 AM

Hi TWCenter,

so far, the awesome Call of Warhammer mod runs pretty good for me.
However, everytime I try to edit something in the export_descr_units, all of my campaign savegames become unable to load.
I have done lots of export_descr_unit and other file editing before and it has worked perfectly for me in the main game, Stainless Steel and Third Age. The changes I am trying to make for the CoW units are perfectly legitimate and are applied to the Custom game mode correctly.
It's just the campaign savegames which cannot be loaded anymore after performing edits.

I assume the mod is checking whether the files used for saving the game are equal to the ones currently in use? I already tried editing the Configuration.cfg file in the mod's root folder a little, unfortunately to no avail.
After changing everything back to the original state, everything ran perfectly again.

So, is there a way to edit the export_descr_units file and have the changes applied correctly to a previous campaign savegame?

Thanks in advance!

**Alhaioth** · June 02, 2016, 08:56 PM

Most EDU changes are, or at least should be save-compatible. What are you trying to do?

**Arcarias** · June 02, 2016, 09:14 PM

Originally Posted by Alhaioth

Most EDU changes are, or at least should be save-compatible. What are you trying to do?

Yup, they definitely should be. It's just this mod which is giving me trouble..
Apparently any tweak two export_descr_units will make my campaign savegames incompatible.
For example: Changing the following line for the first unit in the file:
stat_pri 10, 9, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, spear, 0, 1
to
stat_pri 11, 9, no, 0, 0, melee, melee_blade, piercing, spear, 0, 1
and whoosh, crash while loading any of my savegames.

I have attached one of my test savegames. I installed the mod via Gigantus http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...e-Installation including all patches and quick fixes installed in the correct order.

**Alhaioth** · June 03, 2016, 07:36 AM

I don't have 1.6 installed at the moment, sorry. I'm running a modified EDU under 1.51 without issues. Maybe the update introduced something, but what could it be and why would it have such an effect I have no clue.

Try fiddling with some other file to see what happens then? I don't have any better ideas. Does the log say anything?

**Hannibal's Nephew** · June 03, 2016, 09:06 PM

I'm having the same problem. Making simple unit stat edits like I have hundreds of times over the years and almost every time it requires me to start a new campaign. I don't recall having this problem with any other MTW II mod.

**Arcarias** · June 04, 2016, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by Alhaioth

I don't have 1.6 installed at the moment, sorry. I'm running a modified EDU under 1.51 without issues. Maybe the update introduced something, but what could it be and why would it have such an effect I have no clue.

Try fiddling with some other file to see what happens then? I don't have any better ideas. Does the log say anything?

I can now confirm: The crashes on load also happen when editing the export_descr_buildings.txt file. I can try out other files soon.
I have attached my full log to the post. This is a fresh logfile which got created after trying to load a savegame. The EDU contained one number which differed from the EDU that was used to save the game.

Here's the most important part of the log (I believe):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

23:04:00.703 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_screen_151.tga
23:04:00.703 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_screen_102.tga,3145746
23:04:00.703 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_screen_102.tga (from: D:\Gaming Stuff\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
23:04:00.900 [system.io] [info] exists: found mods/RodG16/data/descr_transition_screen.txt (from: D:\Gaming Stuff\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
23:04:00.900 [system.io] [trace] file open,,0FB6C440,17143
23:04:00.900 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/RodG16/data/descr_transition_screen.txt (from: D:\Gaming Stuff\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
23:04:00.901 [system.io] [info] exists: found mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga (from: D:\Gaming Stuff\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
23:04:00.901 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga.dds
23:04:00.901 [system.io] [info] exists: found mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga (from: D:\Gaming Stuff\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
23:04:00.901 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/RodG16/mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga
23:04:00.902 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga.dds,,not found
23:04:00.902 [system.io] [warning] open: mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga.dds is missing
23:04:00.902 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga,262188
23:04:00.902 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_logo.tga (from: D:\Gaming Stuff\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
23:04:01.795 [system.io] [info] exists: found mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga (from: D:\Gaming Stuff\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
23:04:01.796 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga.dds
23:04:01.796 [system.io] [info] exists: found mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga (from: D:\Gaming Stuff\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
23:04:01.796 [system.io] [info] exists: missing mods/RodG16/mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga
23:04:01.796 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga.dds,,not found
23:04:01.796 [system.io] [warning] open: mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga.dds is missing
23:04:01.796 [system.io] [trace] file open,,mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga,262162
23:04:01.796 [system.io] [info] open: found mods/RodG16/data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga (from: D:\Gaming Stuff\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War)
23:04:01.801 [system.rpt] [error] Sigma preserve us, Chaos has taken over!

Closing the gates to save our souls!

**Alhaioth** · June 06, 2016, 10:26 AM

That's the kind of an error where the logs say nothing helpful, I'm afraid. And which pops up essentially at random for no apparent reason.

The best I can come up with is advancing a bit in the game, then trying to apply the changes again. It almost certainly won't work, but I have no other ideas.

**Alhaioth** · June 23, 2016, 09:53 AM

Hang on, I have an idea. I only remembered now.

Are you using Notepad to modify the files? Restore backups and try Notepad++ instead. There might be an encoding problem.

**♔atthias♔** · June 26, 2016, 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by Alhaioth

Hang on, I have an idea. I only remembered now.

Are you using Notepad to modify the files? Restore backups and try Notepad++ instead. There might be an encoding problem.

I am having the problem even whit notepad ++

**Arcarias** · June 27, 2016, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by Alhaioth

[...]
The best I can come up with is advancing a bit in the game, then trying to apply the changes again. It almost certainly won't work, but I have no other ideas.

Well, advancing in the game didn't fix it so far. As expected

Originally Posted by Alhaioth

Hang on, I have an idea. I only remembered now.
Are you using Notepad to modify the files? Restore backups and try Notepad++ instead. There might be an encoding problem.

I have always been using Notepad++ to edit them. Line break encoding is set to 'Dos\Windows' and character encoding to 'ANSI'. I'm pretty sure these are the default settings. I could try to change them around, i.e. use UNIX/OSX line breaks or something...
Thanks for mentioning that though. May be helpful for others.

**CrayonVonCaesar** · July 31, 2016, 08:20 PM

That's because of a setting in the cfg:

Go to mods configuration.cfg and delete these lines

## ensure game data files used in previous save match current campaign data files.
# validate_data = true
## prevent game to load if savegame or data validations fail
# allow_validation_failures = false

They are for hotseat games and stop save games loading once you've changed something that would normally show immediately like edu, edb etc.
As long as your not playing hotseat you don't need them.

Once you ditch them you can mod and play, play and mod.

**Arcarias** · January 30, 2017, 08:55 AM

Originally Posted by CrayonVonCaesar

That's because of a setting in the cfg:

Go to mods configuration.cfg and delete these lines

## ensure game data files used in previous save match current campaign data files.
# validate_data = true
## prevent game to load if savegame or data validations fail
# allow_validation_failures = false

They are for hotseat games and stop save games loading once you've changed something that would normally show immediately like edu, edb etc.
As long as your not playing hotseat you don't need them.

Once you ditch them you can mod and play, play and mod.

Hi, sorry for my late response. I finished a campaign playing the mod and stopped playing afterwards.
However, I haven't touched my installation since.

The [hotseat] category of my Configuration.cfg file contains the following lines which fit your description:

validate_data = 1 # ensure game data files used in previous save match current campaign data files
allow_validation_failures = 0 # prevent game to load if savegame or data validations fail

First, I tried changing the values to:validate_data = 0
allow_validation_failures = 1
This didn't work. Afterwards, I just deleted these lines from my Configuration.cfg as you recommended. I made sure the game didn't add them again automatically. Sadly, it still did not work.
I no longer play the mod, so I do not require any more help with this issue.

Thanks to everyone who responded, though!

**madmax 1** · September 14, 2021, 06:11 PM

I'm having the same issue, I've been digging around, saw similar posts and this cfg solution seemed to help some people, but like Arcarias I couldn't get it to work for me. Has there been any new finding in the last 4 years? I'd really appreciate it as playing around with unit stats mid-campaign is one of the things I loved in RTW. Also, I'm playing SS 6.4, if that's of any help.