Strat Map Advisor not Popping Up

[Alondite]

Hi,

I am on my personal submod of Bellum Crucis, and want to make a new picture for the strat map advisor.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

One of my friend said she is ugly, so not motivated enough to start a new M2TW campaign...

Anyway, after finishing my work and replacing the vanilla tga file, my new strat map advisor never pop up. She hides beyond the screen and refuses showing up.


Precisely, that is what I've tried:

1. Pressing the "show_construction_advice_button", she never pop up. However I am sure that is not because the button is broken, I made some events triggered when the button is pressed and they fire.

2. Using the command "advance_advice_thread XXX" in campaign script, like the intro script when you play as a new faction in Vanilla game or Bellum Crucis, never pop up.

3. Use the complete intro script in vanilla game, just like below, the game stuck with her never popping up.

advance_advice_thread XXX
while not I_AdvisorSpeechPlaying
    and I_AdvisorVisible
end_while

4. Change the verbosity of strat map advisor, nothing helps.

5. Tried to delete map.rwm and the "advice" file in preference data, nothing helps.

6. Tried to use io.disable_file_cache = true in cfg file, nothing helps again.



So I thought that maybe I have done something wrong with the new tga format, so I tried to use some strat map advisor's image that did pop up correctly in other mods.

1. First I tried my experiment before in Retrofit. I made Isokaze as a new strat map advisor last year, and she shows up correctly during the campaign in Retrofit as the screenshot shown below.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sorry for the Chinese interface, but I think you can get what I mean.

However Isokaze never pop up in my submod of Bellum Crucis.
Everything seems to be the same.

2. I tried to use the new unique strat map advisor image taken from With Fire and Swords 2. Same.

3. I deleted the tga file, so now the game will read the image in vanilla pack file, right? Same.

4. I re-installed Bellum Crucis in another folder, and checked that strat map advisor did pop up in that mod. Then I copy the re-installed tga files to my submod... same.

5. I copy everything in my submod folder unless the advisor image to the new re-installed Bellum Crucis folder, and launch the new one. You guess what? same.



Actually I can live well without the advisor, but I think this issue has to be solved anyway.

Did anyone experience stuff like this? Many thanks.

[Gigantus]

Start with the basics: check if BC's cfg file forces any advisor settings (some mods do, it's in the [game] section) and make sure the max help advisor setting is applied before starting a campaign.

Have you confirmed that the old advisor pops up before trying the same trigger method with the new pic?

You ruled out improper TGA format, did you make sure it was in the correct culture folder? For example putting the pic into the ME folder and playing england will obviously not show the changed picture.

Last not least it could be edits in the export_descr_advice file, like removing the vanilla triggers, a preferred method to stop advisor appearance - but then you tried a few things.

Edit:

and replacing the vanilla tga file, my new strat map advisor never pop up

Please copy the path here, starting with M2TW root. Just want to confirm that you placed it into your mod's folder, it's not clear from the phrase.

[Alondite]

Start with the basics: check if BC's cfg file forces any advisor settings (some mods do, it's in the [game] section) and make sure the max help advisor setting is applied before starting a campaign.

The game section has been like this after I install BC.

[game]
auto_save = 1
advisor_verbosity = 0
no_campaign_battle_time_limit = 0
unlimited_men_on_battlefield    = 1

disable_arrow_markers = 0
disable_events = 0
english = 0

I didn't change anything above after installation.
"advisor_verbosity = 0" seems to be suspicious, but I am pretty sure that even in this setting, the advisor can pop up correctly if "show_construction_advice_button" clicked or command script like "advance_advice_thread XXX" fired. As far as I know, this setting only means that the advisor won't show up automatically if some trigger in export_descr_advice.txt fired.

Actually what happened that night is just replacing the tga file. I didn't make any change on script, cfg setting etc.

Before replacing the tga file: work fine.
After replacing the tga file: not popping up.

That's it.

Have you confirmed that the old advisor pops up before trying the same trigger method with the new pic?

I am sure.
BC has a "welcome script", like the intro script when you first play as HRE in vanilla game that you get "Guten tag, Emperor. You are in command of the powerful Holy Roman Empire...."
I've seen this pop up correctly many times if I let the advisor talk (it is a yes/no script to make player select whether to see this).

The issue is that after I replaced the tga file, the advisor never pop up even if I choose to let her talk.
Actually, with the while loop in 3. at #1 the game stuck and I cannot even move the camera.

And I can confirm that if I re-install BC in another folder (for example, mods\re_BC), the advisor pop up correctly if I start the game with cfg:

[features]
mod = mods\re_BC

You ruled out improper TGA format, did you make sure it was in the correct culture folder? For example putting the pic into the ME folder and playing england will obviously not show the changed picture.

I am sure that I put the pic into the right folder.
In fact I replaced all the "advisor stratmap.tga" in every culture folder.

The issue is not that the advisor use wrong picture in game. It is I cannot see her in game even with script, like this.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Last not least it could be edits in the export_descr_advice file, like removing the vanilla triggers, a preferred method to stop advisor appearance - but then you tried a few things.

I didn't edit the export_descr_advice file after I installed BC. The last date it was edited is in 2011.

Just like what I explained above, everything works fine before replacing the image, but not after it.

Edit:

Please copy the path here, starting with M2TW root. Just want to confirm that you placed it into your mod's folder, it's not clear from the phrase.

Sorry for not clear, but I think I didn't do wrong.

...\Medieval II Total War\mods\BellumCrucis7\data\ui\eastern_european\advisor stratmap.tga
...\Medieval II Total War\mods\BellumCrucis7\data\ui\greek\advisor stratmap.tga
...\Medieval II Total War\mods\BellumCrucis7\data\ui\mesoamerican\advisor stratmap.tga
...\Medieval II Total War\mods\BellumCrucis7\data\ui\middle_eastern\advisor stratmap.tga
...\Medieval II Total War\mods\BellumCrucis7\data\ui\nativeindian\advisor stratmap.tga
...\Medieval II Total War\mods\BellumCrucis7\data\ui\northern_european\advisor stratmap.tga
...\Medieval II Total War\mods\BellumCrucis7\data\ui\southern_european\advisor stratmap.tga

I said "vanilla tga file" because the original tga files in BC folder look same as the vanilla one. What I replaced is the tga file in BC folder, not vanilla folder. Actually, I didn't unpack the game to the game folder so I even not have a "advisor stratmap.tga" in vanilla folder, I unpack the files I need to D:\M2TWUnpack folder following the tutorial here written by you.

Anyway, thanks for your help, Gigantus.

[Gigantus]

The following comments make me think you may have a virtual store issue.

"And I can confirm that if I re-install BC in another folder (for example, mods\re_BC), the advisor pop up correctly if I start the game with cfg:"
"I deleted the tga file, so now the game will read the image in vanilla pack file, right? Same."

Do run this tutorial from step 3 and delete any M2TW directory in the virtual store you may come across.

[Alondite]

I tried to change the security setting from the root folder to the mod folder, but it seems not to work.

I cannot find any M2TW directory in the virtual store folder. Maybe conditions below can be considered?
1. My OS is Win10
2. I installed M2TW from steam to D:\SteamLibrary

The virtual store folder is in C:\... , so I wonder if my installation in D:\... will make its virtual store directory set in another path.

[Gigantus]

If you moved the game library out of the 'program files' directory (were Steam is usually installed) then M2TW should not be effected, regardless of OS version. For the same reason I always recommend to install the disk version into a custom directory outside it as the VS only covers those (2) particular directories afaik.

That still leaves the puzzlement about the two quotes I referred to as that is usually a clear indication of virtual store interference. I am out of idea how fix the issue now but still believe that it is system and not game related as a simple renaming of the mod's folder appears to solve the issue (the second quote).

Hence simply rename the mod's directory, adjust the mod's CFG and BAT references accordingly and do the same with the desktop shortcut.

[Alondite]

I change the name of my mod folder, from BellumCrucis7 to BellumCrucis8, and seems not to work... again

It has now became a very strange issue that, as my observation,
What happened: After the installation of BC, the stratmap advisor pic in that mod folder cannot be replaced or deleted, even if you replace it with an identical file from another BC installation.
Why it is caused: Something in the mod folder has memorized the pic, maybe something like cache, so changing folder name won't work as long as it still in the mod folder.

Maybe reinstall the whole M2TW and my mod with new pic at the same time can solve this issue, I don't know...
It is very troublesome to reinstall the whole M2TW game since I have it over 100G after installing tons of mods. But I will give it a try if I bought a new PC, maybe next month.

By the way, I hadn't moved the game directory after installing M2TW. I installed it in D:\SteamLibrary from the very beginning due to lack of space in C disk.

[Gigantus]

If you want to go the re-install route then simply move the complete mods folder somewhere else first. Then move the kingdom campaigns back into a freshly created mods sub directory - else the uninstaller may object.

After re-installing simply move the old mods folder back.

[Alondite]

Finally it turned out that, even if I reinstall the game, or run it on my new PC, the situation remains the same.

Anyway thank you Gigantus, you are the lighthouse of TWC.