Last Alliance - Download, Information and General Discussion

[Roma_Victrix]

In battles you can use mouse to rotate camera: or via move cursor to left or right of screen or via click middle (scroll) button in mouse and move cursor. If this not work then in means that's you have wrong settings of camera.

Yeah, "toggle_fow" not works in Shogun, but if you need this you can open Last_Alliance_0.3.5_data via RustedPackFileManager and turn on script which I put in files. You just need remove all "--" (be careful to not run other disabled scripts there)

Thanks! It worked like a charm. A shame, though, that I had to start a new campaign as the Kingdom of Lindon to make it work, but was only 6 turns in the first time.

[Sara Temer]

Thanks! It worked like a charm. A shame, though, that I had to start a new campaign as the Kingdom of Lindon to make it work, but was only 6 turns in the first time.

No need to start new campaign to run script. For started campaigns script will turn on in next turn

[Roma_Victrix]

No need to start new campaign to run script. For started campaigns script will turn on in next turn

Ah. Crap. Oh well. It was only six turns in, not a biggie.

Small bug/error note: there are some missing textures creating invisible body parts for the waists/midsections of Lindon garrison spearmen (or was it swordsmen?) as well as the axe men that are available to Lindon and recruited from North Mithlond. It's not a big deal unless you zoom in and look at the detail of the unit, of course, but it is somewhat jarring when you take a close look at the melee fighting. It's perhaps less distracting than the "silver surfer" unfinished or file damaged units in some M2TW mods. All the other units look good thus far, though. Great job on them! Lots of beautiful sets of armor on these units.

I just wish there was an easy way to take a screenshot for Shogun II, which is otherwise very easy for M2TW and RTW. You simply hit the Prt Scr button and it stores them all in the "tgas" folder! Just read about how Shogun II is a pain when taking screenshots, have to download additional software for it or something?

[Sara Temer]

Ah. Crap. Oh well. It was only six turns in, not a biggie.

Small bug/error note: there are some missing textures creating invisible body parts for the waists/midsections of Lindon garrison spearmen (or was it swordsmen?) as well as the axe men that are available to Lindon and recruited from North Mithlond. It's not a big deal unless you zoom in and look at the detail of the unit, of course, but it is somewhat jarring when you take a close look at the melee fighting. It's perhaps less distracting than the "silver surfer" unfinished or file damaged units in some M2TW mods. All the other units look good thus far, though. Great job on them! Lots of beautiful sets of armor on these units.

I just wish there was an easy way to take a screenshot for Shogun II, which is otherwise very easy for M2TW and RTW. You simply hit the Prt Scr button and it stores them all in the "tgas" folder! Just read about how Shogun II is a pain when taking screenshots, have to download additional software for it or something?

Huh, in this version I changed I lot of keys for elven models. Looks that I missed model keys in uniforms file for these units. I will fix this for next update. Thanks for report.

Tool to make screenshots is as part of steam (however I prefer use other stuff, like GeForce Experience), just go to Steam (button in topleft corner of steam window) -> Settings -> In Game and there you can set shortcut for screenshots and folder where you want to save screenshots. Also, select "Save an uncompressed copy" (or something like this), otherwise steam will save screenshots in quite bad quality.

[Roma_Victrix]

Huh, in this version I changed I lot of keys for elven models. Looks that I missed model keys in uniforms file for these units. I will fix this for next update. Thanks for report.

Tool to make screenshots is as part of steam (however I prefer use other stuff, like GeForce Experience), just go to Steam (button in topleft corner of steam window) -> Settings -> In Game and there you can set shortcut for screenshots and folder where you want to save screenshots. Also, select "Save an uncompressed copy" (or something like this), otherwise steam will save screenshots in quite bad quality.

Thanks! That's one problem solved.

However, I now have a crippling problem that might spell the end for me playing your mod altogether.

It seems to want to crash consistently on the latest end turn. I have previous save points, but I'm not sure if that's going to help. Every time after a defensive siege in the Misty Mountains, the game decides to crash every time once it reaches the Men of Adorn Vale faction.

Should I go back to a save point a few turns ago? Is it worth it? Have others reported similar problems? Unfortunately I cannot find a CTD log to share on Steam, unlike with M2TW, which has a logs folder.

EDIT: Yep, I even went back a few turns and once again played until turn 40. Ended the turn and voila, the game crashes no matter what on the end turn when it reaches the Men of Adorn Vale faction. I'd love to play your mod, but it seems to be utterly broken. A shame, I was really enjoying it! I even built a tiny empire in the north as the Lindon elves and had just conquered the Orcs of Mount Gram and Orcs/Men Angmar. I was about to invade the Orcs to the east of the Misty Mountains and with a naval fleet had taken over the Forodwaith trade post at sea. I'd like to play your mod again some day, but it doesn't seem feasible until the next release.

[Sara Temer]

Thanks! That's one problem solved.

However, I now have a crippling problem that might spell the end for me playing your mod altogether.

It seems to want to crash consistently on the latest end turn. I have previous save points, but I'm not sure if that's going to help. Every time after a defensive siege in the Misty Mountains, the game decides to crash every time once it reaches the Men of Adorn Vale faction.

Should I go back to a save point a few turns ago? Is it worth it? Have others reported similar problems? Unfortunately I cannot find a CTD log to share on Steam, unlike with M2TW, which has a logs folder.

EDIT: Yep, I even went back a few turns and once again played until turn 40. Ended the turn and voila, the game crashes no matter what on the end turn when it reaches the Men of Adorn Vale faction. I'd love to play your mod, but it seems to be utterly broken. A shame, I was really enjoying it! I even built a tiny empire in the north as the Lindon elves and had just conquered the Orcs of Mount Gram and Orcs/Men Angmar. I was about to invade the Orcs to the east of the Misty Mountains and with a naval fleet had taken over the Forodwaith trade post at sea. I'd like to play your mod again some day, but it doesn't seem feasible until the next release.

In Installation Guide I put list of solutions for commons problems with crashes. Often it just Shogun 2 bug e.g. with DirectX settings or shaders settings (that's why game after every crash ask which DirectX should be run), sometimes while unpacking files get corrupted. Crash logs are in main directory of Shogun 2 if you're interested.
I played many campaigns by 100-200 turns so nope, mod isn't broken.

[Roma_Victrix]

In Installation Guide I put list of solutions for commons problems with crashes. Often it just Shogun 2 bug e.g. with DirectX settings or shaders settings (that's why game after every crash ask which DirectX should be run), sometimes while unpacking files get corrupted. Crash logs are in main directory of Shogun 2 if you're interested.
I played many campaigns by 100-200 turns so nope, mod isn't broken.

Thanks for the response.

Now that you mention it, yes, for the past several times launching the game it has asked whether or not I want to use DirectX 9 or 11. At first I would just choose the latter, but choosing 9 for some reason really screwed up textures of units like shields strapped to the back when there were shadows or shade from trees (looked like big pixelated blocks). I switched back to DirectX 11 and it seemed fine after that, until the end turn crash.

I could do the solution of declaring war on a faction via diplomacy, if it's available for the petty minor faction of Adorn Vale. However, reading the first part of your caption here, it seems like the pack files themselves might be the problem. Each pack file looks like this: "Last_Alliance_0.3.5_animations.pack", "Last_Alliance_0.3.5_campaign_map.pack", etc.

Is that correct, or no? I used 7zip as requested, NOT WinRar. If they are user script files, shouldn't they have the file extension "user.js" or something else instead?

In either case I'll try the declare war option first. If that doesn't work I'll try the other solutions like getting rid of "ui_cache" and I'll let you know if it solved the problem.

EDIT: I am apparently already at war with them and didn't even know it. The game refuses to accept a peace deal no matter what I offer the game, money, military access, you name it. Won't accept it. I tried changing the shader option from Shader Model 5 to Shader Model 3 (Low), and nope, still crashes to the desktop. I'll try some of these other solutions and let you know.
Also, how do you "verify" game files on Steam? I have almost no experience with Steam, so I have no idea how that works. Do you mean the Cloud Status? It says that it is up to date.

EDIT 2: I removed the "ui_cache" folder as noted, but the game still crashes. I also changed between DirectX 9 and 11, and used different shaders in the graphics option menu, but still the game crashes. I haven't tried it yet, but I don't think the show AI moves is an option after starting a campaign, only when you are about to start it, right?

EDIT 3: Wow. I was about to go check on that issue, but now the game won't even launch, just crashes right away, with a message at one point saying that Steam could no longer sync my game with its cloud. What's going on here?

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

How to verify Steam files :

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faq...FCBD-DA71-93EB

[Sara Temer]

Thanks for the response.

Now that you mention it, yes, for the past several times launching the game it has asked whether or not I want to use DirectX 9 or 11. At first I would just choose the latter, but choosing 9 for some reason really screwed up textures of units like shields strapped to the back when there were shadows or shade from trees (looked like big pixelated blocks). I switched back to DirectX 11 and it seemed fine after that, until the end turn crash.

I could do the solution of declaring war on a faction via diplomacy, if it's available for the petty minor faction of Adorn Vale. However, reading the first part of your caption here, it seems like the pack files themselves might be the problem. Each pack file looks like this: "Last_Alliance_0.3.5_animations.pack", "Last_Alliance_0.3.5_campaign_map.pack", etc.

Is that correct, or no? I used 7zip as requested, NOT WinRar. If they are user script files, shouldn't they have the file extension "user.js" or something else instead?

In either case I'll try the declare war option first. If that doesn't work I'll try the other solutions like getting rid of "ui_cache" and I'll let you know if it solved the problem.

EDIT: I am apparently already at war with them and didn't even know it. The game refuses to accept a peace deal no matter what I offer the game, money, military access, you name it. Won't accept it. I tried changing the shader option from Shader Model 5 to Shader Model 3 (Low), and nope, still crashes to the desktop. I'll try some of these other solutions and let you know.
Also, how do you "verify" game files on Steam? I have almost no experience with Steam, so I have no idea how that works. Do you mean the Cloud Status? It says that it is up to date.

EDIT 2: I removed the "ui_cache" folder as noted, but the game still crashes. I also changed between DirectX 9 and 11, and used different shaders in the graphics option menu, but still the game crashes. I haven't tried it yet, but I don't think the show AI moves is an option after starting a campaign, only when you are about to start it, right?

EDIT 3: Wow. I was about to go check on that issue, but now the game won't even launch, just crashes right away, with a message at one point saying that Steam could no longer sync my game with its cloud. What's going on here?

.pack extension is extension for packed files of Shogun 2. No matter whether it vanilla files or mod files. user_script.txt it just information for game which additional .pack files should run except main game.

Anyway, after read this tbh I have no idea what you did with game and mod .-.

[Roma_Victrix]

How to verify Steam files :

https://help.steampowered.com/en/faq...FCBD-DA71-93EB

Cool, thanks!

I did that, followed the instructions, and it says that "All 4450 files successfully validated" after hitting the "Verify integrity of game files" button. So I guess we can check off another thing on the list of reasons why the game is crashing.

.pack extension is extension for packed files of Shogun 2. No matter whether it vanilla files or mod files. user_script.txt it just information for game which additional .pack files should run except main game.

Anyway, after read this tbh I have no idea what you did with game and mod .-.

You sure it's something I did and not a bug on my computer corrupting files? Where exactly is the "user_script.txt" file supposed to be located, because I do not see it in the data folder for Shogun II. It's supposed to be in the data folder, right? If so then I certainly have a strange problem due to it not being there. Also, if that's the case, would you mind quickly sharing just the "user_script.txt" file here on TWC if it is that essential?

EDIT: I just remembered that you helped me with an installation problem earlier where I chose the "data" folder as a pathway target for installation, but you said that was wrong. So I moved the pack files and "read me" text file from the "Last_Alliance_0_3_5" folder (also located in the data folder) directly into the data folder. Considering all of this, perhaps I should just cleanly reinstall the game entirely? I preserved some of my save game points in the "cloud saves" option for Steam, so hopefully I'll be able to restore my campaign after doing that. To be clear, the targeted pathway is not directly to the "data" folder; you aim it at the "Total War SHOGUN 2" folder then, right? It's very confusing to me, because the "Last_Alliance_0_3_5" folder that I extracted per installation instructions doesn't have a "data" folder within it for putting those files in the right pathway for Shogun II's data folder (where they are actually needed or else they don't work).

[Sara Temer]

You sure it's something I did and not a bug on my computer corrupting files? Where exactly is the "user_script.txt" file supposed to be located, because I do not see it in the data folder for Shogun II. It's supposed to be in the data folder, right? If so then I certainly have a strange problem due to it not being there. Also, if that's the case, would you mind quickly sharing just the "user_script.txt" file here on TWC if it is that essential?

EDIT: I just remembered that you helped me with an installation problem earlier where I chose the "data" folder as a pathway target for installation, but you said that was wrong. So I moved the pack files and "read me" text file from the "Last_Alliance_0_3_5" folder (also located in the data folder) directly into the data folder. Considering all of this, perhaps I should just cleanly reinstall the game entirely? I preserved some of my save game points in the "cloud saves" option for Steam, so hopefully I'll be able to restore my campaign after doing that. To be clear, the targeted pathway is not directly to the "data" folder; you aim it at the "Total War SHOGUN 2" folder then, right? It's very confusing to me, because the "Last_Alliance_0_3_5" folder that I extracted per installation instructions doesn't have a "data" folder within it for putting those files in the right pathway for Shogun II's data folder (where they are actually needed or else they don't work).

......
Mod .pack files should be directly in "data" folder. You should easily figure this out because there are all vanilla .pack files and .pack files of mods downloaded from workshop .-.

user_script.txt isn't in Shogun 2 directory. This file is in AppData, around place where game keep saves. I explained this in Installation Guide (really, why people don't read this document firstly? It would save time for them and for me...). This file is automatically created by mod manager, without this files you wouldn't be able to even run mod.

[Roma_Victrix]

......
Mod .pack files should be directly in "data" folder. You should easily figure this out because there are all vanilla .pack files and .pack files of mods downloaded from workshop .-.

user_script.txt isn't in Shogun 2 directory. This file is in AppData, around place where game keep saves. I explained this in Installation Guide (really, why people don't read this document firstly? It would save time for them and for me...). This file is automatically created by mod manager, without this files you wouldn't be able to even run mod.

Even after reading your guide, it's hard to keep track of all this stuff to be honest, largely because I have no experience using Steam before this week. Sorry for not being as smart as you and giving you a headache. Maybe don't bite newbies so hard for just asking questions in frustration when things don't work after trying nearly every solution?

It's the very last solution that I didn't try, and it seems to be the problem because the user.script.txt file is missing in C:\Users\[Your user name]\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2\scripts! The only thing that's there is a file called "preferences.script" text file, which contains nothing about the Last Alliance mod in it.

The bizarre thing is that the Shogun II Mod Manager seems to work without it, as I've played the game plenty until turn 40. My issue is not with the game failing to launch altogether, it's with an end turn crash for a specific faction, the wild men of Adorn Vale.

Would you mind helping me in creating a new user_script.txt file? Should it just be a new empty file with only the following in it? Or, in other words, it doesn't need any other text aside from this per your installation guide?

mod last_alliance_0.3.5_animations.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_campaign_map.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_data.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_models1.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_models2.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_rigidmodels.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_sound.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_terrain.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_ui.pack;

Excuse me if it's a dumb question, but again I have no idea what I'm doing since I'm entirely new to this. I'm not trying to be passive aggressive, I'm literally just lost for words here since I don't know what to do and you clearly know a lot more about it than I do.

EDIT: interesting! After restoring original files and deleting the ones I originally moved into the data folder, using mod manager to select all the Last Alliance files, I played the game again and let it crash once more on turn 40. After going back to the AppData folder where scripts are located, it did indeed generate the file "user.script", but that ultimately doesn't help me with my end turn crash problem for the Adorn Vale faction. At this point I have tried everything in the list of suggestions and nothing seems to fix my unique problem. Therefore I'm just going to redownload and reinstall the mod altogether. Hopefully that works, and I'll let you know if it does.

Also, if a new campaign still crashes with my old saves, I will start an entirely new campaign with the "show CPU moves" box clicked on in the "More Options" button in the new campaign interface. I believe that's the one and only thing that I haven't tried, only because it's impossible once you start a new campaign. It will make end turns a lot longer, unfortunately, but if that's what it takes to avoid a CTD, I will gladly do it.

Finally, please don't take any of this personally. I love your mod and you've done a lot of great work. It's probably just a bug on my computer or something that corrupted the files during the download. Hopefully redownloading it will solve the problem.

EDIT: previously saved campaign still crashes right at the end turn between 40-41, but the game seems remarkably smoother to play after downloading it a second time. That's a good sign! I am now playing a new campaign as the Lindon elves. I will let you know how things go after I hit the end turn button after turn 40.

[izzi]

Even after reading your guide, it's hard to keep track of all this stuff to be honest, largely because I have no experience using Steam before this week. Sorry for not being as smart as you and giving you a headache. Maybe don't bite newbies so hard for just asking questions in frustration when things don't work after trying nearly every solution?

It's the very last solution that I didn't try, and it seems to be the problem because the user.script.txt file is missing in C:\Users\[Your user name]\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Shogun2\scripts! The only thing that's there is a file called "preferences.script" text file, which contains nothing about the Last Alliance mod in it.

The bizarre thing is that the Shogun II Mod Manager seems to work without it, as I've played the game plenty until turn 40. My issue is not with the game failing to launch altogether, it's with an end turn crash for a specific faction, the wild men of Adorn Vale.

Would you mind helping me in creating a new user_script.txt file? Should it just be a new empty file with only the following in it? Or, in other words, it doesn't need any other text aside from this per your installation guide?

mod last_alliance_0.3.5_animations.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_campaign_map.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_data.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_models1.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_models2.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_rigidmodels.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_sound.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_terrain.pack;
mod last_alliance_0.3.5_ui.pack;

Excuse me if it's a dumb question, but again I have no idea what I'm doing since I'm entirely new to this. I'm not trying to be passive aggressive, I'm literally just lost for words here since I don't know what to do and you clearly know a lot more about it than I do.

EDIT: interesting! After restoring original files and deleting the ones I originally moved into the data folder, using mod manager to select all the Last Alliance files, I played the game again and let it crash once more on turn 40. After going back to the AppData folder where scripts are located, it did indeed generate the file "user.script", but that ultimately doesn't help me with my end turn crash problem for the Adorn Vale faction. At this point I have tried everything in the list of suggestions and nothing seems to fix my unique problem. Therefore I'm just going to redownload and reinstall the mod altogether. Hopefully that works, and I'll let you know if it does.

Also, if a new campaign still crashes with my old saves, I will start an entirely new campaign with the "show CPU moves" box clicked on in the "More Options" button in the new campaign interface. I believe that's the one and only thing that I haven't tried, only because it's impossible once you start a new campaign. It will make end turns a lot longer, unfortunately, but if that's what it takes to avoid a CTD, I will gladly do it.

Finally, please don't take any of this personally. I love your mod and you've done a lot of great work. It's probably just a bug on my computer or something that corrupted the files during the download. Hopefully redownloading it will solve the problem.

EDIT: previously saved campaign still crashes right at the end turn between 40-41, but the game seems remarkably smoother to play after downloading it a second time. That's a good sign! I am now playing a new campaign as the Lindon elves. I will let you know how things go after I hit the end turn button after turn 40.

Maybe this can help: https://youtu.be/FkyKbeIH2iI

[Roma_Victrix]

Maybe this can help: https://youtu.be/FkyKbeIH2iI

Yep, I saw that one before! However, I had only minor misunderstandings and difficulties with installation; my major problem was a recurring crash on the end turn between turns 40 and 41. I no longer have that problem now! I have been playing a new campaign as the Kingdom of Lindon for 45 turns now. No hiccups! Not even a single crash. It must have simply been a corrupted download. Everything is good now and I'm happy with the mod.

[Roma_Victrix]

Hi Sara, would you by any chance be able to prematurely share the texture/model fix for several Lindon Elven light infantry units missing their waistline parts, which appear invisible or transparent on the battle map? I know you said you plan on including it in the next release, but would it be save-game compatible for presently played campaigns in Shogun II? I'm still very unsure how the mod works, since I only have experience in modding M2TW and RTW. It would be great if I could include the fix in my present campaign. If not, that's okay too! I'll just pretend that they are spooky Halloween ghost units with missing body parts, like the cursed dead Dunharrow Men of the White Mountains.

[Sara Temer]

Hi Sara, would you by any chance be able to prematurely share the texture/model fix for several Lindon Elven light infantry units missing their waistline parts, which appear invisible or transparent on the battle map? I know you said you plan on including it in the next release, but would it be save-game compatible for presently played campaigns in Shogun II? I'm still very unsure how the mod works, since I only have experience in modding M2TW and RTW. It would be great if I could include the fix in my present campaign. If not, that's okay too! I'll just pretend that they are spooky Halloween ghost units with missing body parts, like the cursed dead Dunharrow Men of the White Mountains.

No, I don't see reason to publish hotfix if there's no problems which are game breaking. Especially with current rate of updates.

Good to hear that now game works good for you.

[Roma_Victrix]

No, I don't see reason to publish hotfix if there's no problems which are game breaking. Especially with current rate of updates.

Good to hear that now game works good for you.

Fair enough. It's impressive how fast you put out new releases, judging by recent release dates of previous versions that I've seen on ModDB. I look forward to the next one with the hotfix for those aforementioned Lindon units.

Another question: is the Shogun II battle map for the Kyoto capital city level settlement in the game at all? If not, do you plan on incorporating it? I've seen the Level 5 citadel a few times now, very awesome and challenging for sieges. However, I've only played vanilla Shogun II a tiny bit and certainly never got to see Kyoto in the game. Would it be something that could be used as a unique settlement for Barad-dur? Or even Imladris as well? Or is that not possible given the Level 5 Citadel is the highest possible building tree slot for settlement upgrades?

In either case, the Japanese castles have grown on me. Aside from the giant Buddha statue, one can easily mistake or loosely associate Japanese architecture with Elven buildings. From the screenshots I've seen online, Kyoto looks more like a proper city than a castle, though, which in the traditional Japanese style (stemming from the Tang Chinese urban planning model) would probably be a bit inappropriate. Would still be cool to see it, though!

[Sara Temer]

Fair enough. It's impressive how fast you put out new releases, judging by recent release dates of previous versions that I've seen on ModDB. I look forward to the next one with the hotfix for those aforementioned Lindon units.

Another question: is the Shogun II battle map for the Kyoto capital city level settlement in the game at all? If not, do you plan on incorporating it? I've seen the Level 5 citadel a few times now, very awesome and challenging for sieges. However, I've only played vanilla Shogun II a tiny bit and certainly never got to see Kyoto in the game. Would it be something that could be used as a unique settlement for Barad-dur? Or even Imladris as well? Or is that not possible given the Level 5 Citadel is the highest possible building tree slot for settlement upgrades?

In either case, the Japanese castles have grown on me. Aside from the giant Buddha statue, one can easily mistake or loosely associate Japanese architecture with Elven buildings. From the screenshots I've seen online, Kyoto looks more like a proper city than a castle, though, which in the traditional Japanese style (stemming from the Tang Chinese urban planning model) would probably be a bit inappropriate. Would still be cool to see it, though!

No, no plans to implement Kyoto map to LA campaign or any other special map from vanilla game. Implementing placeholders also takes time (It second time when I have to say this today btw xD)

Max level of castle it problably 10 or 11. Above this were problems with loading siege maps which caused crash (of course, is possible that I did mistake in files and is possible more than 10-11 levels of castle, but I didn't figure out where was problem). Actually, now castles in LA uses levels 2-6, not 1-5. It's because I added additional building slot, and hardcoded (probably) mechanic of Shogun unlock only one slot per level of castle. So I needed set max level of castle on 6 not 5, to give access to this additional building slot.

Seems that in Shogun 2 is several ways to set unique battle map for settlement in campaign. However, I don't have plans to test it until Under Siege update.

[Roma_Victrix]

No, no plans to implement Kyoto map to LA campaign or any other special map from vanilla game. Implementing placeholders also takes time (It second time when I have to say this today btw xD)

Max level of castle it problably 10 or 11. Above this were problems with loading siege maps which caused crash (of course, is possible that I did mistake in files and is possible more than 10-11 levels of castle, but I didn't figure out where was problem). Actually, now castles in LA uses levels 2-6, not 1-5. It's because I added additional building slot, and hardcoded (probably) mechanic of Shogun unlock only one slot per level of castle. So I needed set max level of castle on 6 not 5, to give access to this additional building slot.

Seems that in Shogun 2 is several ways to set unique battle map for settlement in campaign. However, I don't have plans to test it until Under Siege update.

Cool, thanks for the response. Good to know these details! An extra building tree slot sounds like a welcome boon to improving settlements with a wider variety of infrastructure.

I noticed at least one battle map that was wildly divergent from the others: the Numenorean coastal town of Nan Romen, which is located on a giant cliffside overlooking a bay long the sea, in our case the Great Sea of Belegaer between Numenor and Middle Earth. This settlement and its environs is really awesome looking! Was its inclusion a mistake or part of an abandoned effort to make all coastal settlements look like this? In either case it was a refreshing change from the norm when fighting on the battle map. The enormous cliffside waterfall in front of the fort is gorgeous and the overall scenery is breathtaking!

Edit: any plans on maybe improving Mordor campaign map settlement models? On the campaign map they all just look similar; would be cool to see a Mordor type fortress for the level 5 Citadel (if not Barad-dur looking, perhaps something like the later Third Age fortresses of Cirith Ungol or Dol Guldur in appearance). It's odd when Mordor takes a level 4 settlement and then "upgrades" it to look like they just built a tiny camp. Even Harad has proper city/castle models for levels 3 to 5.

[Sara Temer]

Cool, thanks for the response. Good to know these details! An extra building tree slot sounds like a welcome boon to improving settlements with a wider variety of infrastructure.

I noticed at least one battle map that was wildly divergent from the others: the Numenorean coastal town of Nan Romen, which is located on a giant cliffside overlooking a bay long the sea, in our case the Great Sea of Belegaer between Numenor and Middle Earth. This settlement and its environs is really awesome looking! Was its inclusion a mistake or part of an abandoned effort to make all coastal settlements look like this? In either case it was a refreshing change from the norm when fighting on the battle map. The enormous cliffside waterfall in front of the fort is gorgeous and the overall scenery is breathtaking!

Edit: any plans on maybe improving Mordor campaign map settlement models? On the campaign map they all just look similar; would be cool to see a Mordor type fortress for the level 5 Citadel (if not Barad-dur looking, perhaps something like the later Third Age fortresses of Cirith Ungol or Dol Guldur in appearance). It's odd when Mordor takes a level 4 settlement and then "upgrades" it to look like they just built a tiny camp. Even Harad has proper city/castle models for levels 3 to 5.

As I said - I didn't modding campaign siege maps in any way yet. So this settlement model was there for you or because game randomly decided to load it, or accidentally I put this settlement in place where in vanilla is coastal castle

Mordor use in campaign map placeholders models of middlemen settlements (2 or 3 models, not remember). Only Numenor and Harad have settlement models in campaign, for other I didn't have free time yet.