Dagor Silmarillion [UPDATED]~ First Age Campaigns '...slain ye may be, and slain ye shall be: by weapon (bonuses) and by (coded) torment and by (scripted) grief...'

[Gallus]

Has anyone managed to install this correctly? No matter what I do I always get the "can't find kingdoms.exe" error. It's never happened to me before when installing submods.

[ElvenKind]

Has anyone managed to install this correctly? No matter what I do I always get the "can't find kingdoms.exe" error. It's never happened to me before when installing submods.

Well. I did.

Where is your main M2TW installed (the correct folder would be nice)?

What Windows do you have?

Did you install TATW 3.0+3.2 prior to installing Dagor S., and tested can you start a campaign?

[Gallus]

Well. I did.

Where is your main M2TW installed (the correct folder would be nice)?

What Windows do you have?

Did you install TATW 3.0+3.2 prior to installing Dagor S., and tested can you start a campaign?

Windows 7, fresh (and working) TATW 3.2, M2TW (retail version) is in a custom "Games" folder on the D drive. This is not the first time I'm installing submods, PCP has always worked for me but this version just won't work. And yeah, I've tried reinstalling.

[ElvenKind]

Windows 7, fresh (and working) TATW 3.2, M2TW (retail version) is in a custom "Games" folder on the D drive. This is not the first time I'm installing submods, PCP has always worked for me but this version just won't work. And yeah, I've tried reinstalling.

OK. First, be sure to place/install Cleaner.batch file in your Third_Age_3 / data folder, then go to Third_Age_3/ data folder and run that same Cleaner.batch file so it can do its job.

Then, just point the PCP Installers to your Third_Age_3 folder (destination folder must have Third_Age_3 at the end ), and, when you are done, download free version of Notepad++ if you don`t have it already, and, right mouse click on your Third Age.bat file, press Edit with Notepad++, and, check what is the name of the folder which should be used to start the mod from. For example, my folder name is Third_Age_PCP, so I have made a change in my Third_Age.bat file:

cd ..\..
start kingdoms.exe @mods\Third_Age_PCP\TATW.cfg

Do the same with 1st_Age_Dagor_Silmarillion.bat file (right mouse click on it, Edit with Notepad++, and scroll down to the bottom of the text to make your changes). Save and Exit.

Do the same with TATW.cfg file.

Now, run 1st_Age_Dagor_Silmarillion.bat file to play Dagor Silmarillion.

Good luck!

[Gallus]

OK. First, be sure to place/install Cleaner.batch file in your Third_Age_3 / data folder, then go to Third_Age_3/ data folder and run that same Cleaner.batch file so it can do its job.

Then, just point the PCP Installers to your Third_Age_3 folder (destination folder must have Third_Age_3 at the end ), and, when you are done, download free version of Notepad++ if you don`t have it already, and, right mouse click on your Third Age.bat file, press Edit with Notepad++, and, check what is the name of the folder which should be used to start the mod from. For example, my folder name is Third_Age_PCP, so I have made a change in my Third_Age.bat file:

cd ..\..
start kingdoms.exe @mods\Third_Age_PCP\TATW.cfg

Do the same with 1st_Age_Dagor_Silmarillion.bat file (right mouse click on it, Edit with Notepad++, and scroll down to the bottom of the text to make your changes). Save and Exit.

Do the same with TATW.cfg file.

Now, run 1st_Age_Dagor_Silmarillion.bat file to play Dagor Silmarillion.

Good luck!

I did all that already. In fact that was the advice I gave to a guy who had a similar problem back on page 6. It's crazy. This error suggests that the .bat is pointing to the wrong folder, but it's not.

[ElvenKind]

Well, is the name of your folder same as the one in .cfg and .bat files? Also, be sure not to set your Third Age.bat to be run as an Administrator (or the .bat file which is used to run your mod). Only your kingdoms.exe should be run as an Administrator.

[Gallus]

Yeah it is. I know how to do this, at one point I had 4 versions of TATW installed, all with custom folder names.

Unbelievable. I guess the only thing I can do is reinstall. For the 3rd time.

[ElvenKind]

Sometimes just a small change in one of the files screws everything (wrong letter or missing a letter). Name your folder as PCP, and make appropriate changes in all.bat and .cfg files.

[Gallus]

So I reinstalled everything and renamed everything to PCP instead of Third_Age_PCP, and it works! Insanity. And thanks!

[alreadyded]

It is a conflict with the names, renaming the .cfg to something other than TATW.cfg should be the fix (though certain PCs may need to be restarted after so your OS knows to look elsewhere). Future releases will have a different named cfg file to prevent this rather strange problem that doesn't always happen. It has something to do with virtual files created by the OS I suppose, it keeps looking for a virtual file that no longer exists instead of the real file in the right place. Probably a result of file swapping.

Simply restarting your PC after installing may even fix it for all I know, it is a random file conflict thing not a problem with M2TW.

[Gallus]

So Glaurung is literary breathing fire! He can kill entire units in a couple of seconds. I guess I need catapults.

edit: I've started adding some ancillaries to the game to add some immersion. Any suggestions for lore inspired ancillaries are welcome!

[Elite KryPtik]

Hey there, I know its been a few months since my last post in the main PCP thread, but I started playing a new Gondolin campaign and I have some feedback for you. Firstly, the game still crashes a LOT. There are several causes, it seems to just randomly crash sometimes from something as mundane as opening the building/recruitment tab on a settlement, it also occurs when going through your completed construction popups scroll at turn start, as well as from looking at building information scrolls, it seems the UI patch hasn't helped the elves much. (Only tested with Gondolin, but I assume that any faction with Eldar religion will have the same issue). It also sometimes will just crash with no apparent cause, though that might be related to my PC. Secondly, I thought you might like to know that the Orcs inhabiting the area that encompasses Gondor/Rohan in the Third Age(forgot their faction name, sorry ) are absolutely dominating everyone else, they're even worse than any of the Melkor factions! I think this is because no other faction has been able to successfully expand to take some territory and prevent them from gaining so many regions. I could upload the save if you like, I'm 190 turns in. I'm giving up on this campaign though, it just crashes too frequently, sometimes as often as twice a turn, and reliably at least once every 3 turns. I'll probably get back to my other campaigns and see how things go there.

[Gallus]

Hey there, I know its been a few months since my last post in the main PCP thread, but I started playing a new Gondolin campaign and I have some feedback for you. Firstly, the game still crashes a LOT. There are several causes, it seems to just randomly crash sometimes from something as mundane as opening the building/recruitment tab on a settlement, it also occurs when going through your completed construction popups scroll at turn start, as well as from looking at building information scrolls, it seems the UI patch hasn't helped the elves much. (Only tested with Gondolin, but I assume that any faction with Eldar religion will have the same issue). It also sometimes will just crash with no apparent cause, though that might be related to my PC. Secondly, I thought you might like to know that the Orcs inhabiting the area that encompasses Gondor/Rohan in the Third Age(forgot their faction name, sorry ) are absolutely dominating everyone else, they're even worse than any of the Melkor factions! I think this is because no other faction has been able to successfully expand to take some territory and prevent them from gaining so many regions. I could upload the save if you like, I'm 190 turns in. I'm giving up on this campaign though, it just crashes too frequently, sometimes as often as twice a turn, and reliably at least once every 3 turns. I'll probably get back to my other campaigns and see how things go there.

It doesn't crash that often for me (once every 20 turns maybe), but I can confirm that the UI crash is still present.

I have a more serious problem to report however - the area around Angband is too steep. Battles maps that generate there are so full of impassable terrain that you sometimes cannot even reach the enemy army, which makes the whole area unplayable. You have to either auto resolve and lose, or enter a console command to win.

[Ulidian]

I can't get it working either. Using Windows 10 for a Steam install. I too can't seem to follow the instructions clearly. I ran the batch file and that's fine. Where I am stuck is, I can't get it (pcp core files) to extract to desktop, it was doing something automatically before...and then quit half way telling me it had insufficient privileges to complete the install. Sorry if I am missing anything obvious.

[alreadyded]

I just uploaded the rest of the UI files to hopefully fix that UI issue people are having.


I will fix the other stuff in the next release, thanks for reporting it.

[Elite KryPtik]

Sounds good, I'll install those and see if it helps any with the crashes.

[Elite KryPtik]

The second UI fix batch has MASSIVELY improved the stability of my Gondolin campaign. I went from around a crash a turn to not crashing hardly at all, and when I do its from unit scrolls(which need the same treatment you gave the buildings I think). Great job there!

Regarding feedback, a couple of general things. Firstly, in the description of archer units, could you add their range and ammo count, like what has been done in DAC? Its very helpful in battles to know who you want at the back.
Secondly, any plans to make generals bodyguard units free upkeep? I think its rather strange that every other unit can be free upkeep except a general, since its generally a wise thing to keep generals in cities.
In my Gondlin campaign, the entirety of Middle Earth and most of Beleriand has fallen to forces of evil. I have a ceasefire with Morgoth, and am holding him from killing the few allies I have remaining, but Nogrod has absolutely wiped out the Laegrim and is now pressing on Nargothrond and Doriath, and killing them with little effort. In the Northwest, the Houses of Beor and Marach are working with the Falathrim to hold those territories against Dor Daedoloth as well, fortunately Melkor seems more concerned with my border-town stacks and is therefore not pressing them, so they're holding on for now. I was wondering if the War of Wrath has been scripted in, and I could maybe expect some Valar stacks to spawn for me and my allies anytime soon? I don't think I can salvage this otherwise. I'm about 250 turns in so far.

[Gallus]

The second UI fix batch has MASSIVELY improved the stability of my Gondolin campaign. I went from around a crash a turn to not crashing hardly at all, and when I do its from unit scrolls(which need the same treatment you gave the buildings I think). Great job there!

Regarding feedback, a couple of general things. Firstly, in the description of archer units, could you add their range and ammo count, like what has been done in DAC? Its very helpful in battles to know who you want at the back.
Secondly, any plans to make generals bodyguard units free upkeep? I think its rather strange that every other unit can be free upkeep except a general, since its generally a wise thing to keep generals in cities.
In my Gondlin campaign, the entirety of Middle Earth and most of Beleriand has fallen to forces of evil. I have a ceasefire with Morgoth, and am holding him from killing the few allies I have remaining, but Nogrod has absolutely wiped out the Laegrim and is now pressing on Nargothrond and Doriath, and killing them with little effort. In the Northwest, the Houses of Beor and Marach are working with the Falathrim to hold those territories against Dor Daedoloth as well, fortunately Melkor seems more concerned with my border-town stacks and is therefore not pressing them, so they're holding on for now. I was wondering if the War of Wrath has been scripted in, and I could maybe expect some Valar stacks to spawn for me and my allies anytime soon? I don't think I can salvage this otherwise. I'm about 250 turns in so far.

I don't think the Valar are in the game yet, but after turn 300ish Morgoth no longer gets free stacks. So maybe you can do something then.

I'm actually working on re-balance project that greatly reduces Morgoth's stack spam. So far I'm on turn 70 Morgoth has taken Ard-galen, wiped out Fingolfin, and is about to wipe out Beor. Feanor and Gondolin are expanding though so I might need to buff Morgoth just a little bit more.

[Elite KryPtik]

I would be careful with that, I think alreadyded knows his balance fairly well. I can tell you that every single game has been different in terms of how well Melkor and evil in general does. My Gondolin campaign has been the worst outcome for good I've had, but I have an Eotheod campaign where good is holding off evil very well, essentially a tie, and I just(this morning) started a House of Marach campaign where good is steamrolling through evil, because Dor Daedoloth expanded really far east and took regions Dor Gorgoroth is supposed to take, thereby stretching them thin and giving Good a fighting chance.

[Gallus]

I'm changing the entire concept of the campaign. I got rid of most of the scripted stacks, but increased Morgoth's overall strength. This kind of gameplay suits me much better. The next step will be to add a garrison script for the two Angband settlements, because they should be really, really hard to capture. Balrog and troll garrison kind of hard. So defending against Morgoth will be a bit easier, but attacking him will be harder. Which makes sense, after all Nirnaeth would've been won if wasn't for Ulfang's betrayal. There will be no help from the Valar for now, although I have an idea for how it might work.

I'm also thinking about starting the campaign in 470 instead of 453, for both lore and gameplay reasons, but that will require more work.