Vanilla Grand Campaign Merchants Wharf not making a new trade fleet bug. Can it be fixed?

[Scurv]

This hopefully is a really simple question.

In the vanilla game the Merchants Wharf is supposed to create a new trade fleet and its corresponding trade lane on the map. Due to trade fleets being hard coded to the ports in the Vanilla game this did not work as it was supposed to. The port upgrades added a new trade fleet instead like in RTW. Modding the files could not fix this as it was apparently hard coded in. It was later fixed in the Kingdoms expansion games to work correctly though for those 4 games.

What I would like to know is, Was a solution ever found or is there some modding tool where I can play the vanilla campaign running on the kingdoms build so the merchants wharves and trade fleets work correctly?

I know there are builds where people have done their version of the vanilla game with new provinces and troops etc. I dont want that. I want the original game with just this wharf/trade thing fixed up and if there are other game breaking bugs I dont know about yet, those are fixed too.

I have modded the pike and gunpowder and naptha throwers to work correctly for the vanilla game and did the diplomacy fix too. If I can just get the trade to function as it was meant to then I will have the vanilla experience I am looking for.

I know there are fantastic mods that make the game so much better etc too. I dont want that. I just want the game as the devs envisioned it. After more than 20 years of TW modded games I just want to experience the original thing as it was supposed to be.

If you can help me achieve this you will have my eternal gratitude but not the soul of my firstborn child. There are hard limits!

[Gigantus]

It's actually an issue of Steam versus disk version (executable based) if the latest discussion somewhere in the text workshop is to be believed, eg in one version only the port level changes the number of fleets available, regardless of the relevant entry in the EDB file.

Short of switching your game version the answer is no.

[Scurv]

I Have the old disk version of the game and IIRC the merchant wharves didn't work right on the old disk version. (old enough to have copy protection)

I must say that exe file stuff has really ruined my day.

I had a go of modding for the first time and fixed everything that bugged me about the units. I then tried to do the same thing for the americas european units and I have spent the last 10 hours in endless frustration.

I used this guys guides - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQRK...ndex=27&t=321s

I suspect the new franken launcher is the issue. The vanilla modding works but the americas doesnt. It must be in the .cfg file not picking up the [io] file_first = true and associating it with the Americas launcher thus reverting it back to the base game. Also if I put the command line at the end of the file like the youtube recommends then I lost the UI on the turn based map and battle screen and the units still didnt work.

I have downloaded the mini mod thing you made that creates a separate start icon and cfg file for each of the kingdoms titles. I will mod the americas cfg file and and will try again with a clean install just to make sure it is idiot proof as possible. Hopefully that will fix the issues and my muskets will just do the skirmish animation of shooting no matter what setting I have them on

[Scurv]

one more thing. If I understand things correctly, Didnt you make a bare bones mod for your geomod tool that is essentially the vanilla game ported over to the kingdoms engine with some major bug fixes already put in place. By just running this mod as is, would it not fix the issue of the trade fleets as the vanilla game is now running on the kingdoms build as it has been turned into a mod like any other mod running on the kingdoms engine. They had fixed the trade fleets in the kingdoms expansions.

[Gigantus]

The mod setup does run on the kingdoms executable ** and includes kingdoms features like boiling oil but does not necessarily include fixes from within the campaigns which means it comes back down to which version of the file you have. If you want to check if the Steam version works for you then here is a simple way on how to do so. To run regular kingdoms mods on Steam you will need to apply this guide once.

** There is a no longer supported, relatively old medieval2 version on the same page

[Scurv]

in other news using your launcher desktop icon generator has enabled me to mod the files I wanted to in Americas without ANY hassle. I noticed lots of the tools I have DL'ed the last couple of days you have made. Well done! I appreciate your efforts because you make my effort so much easier.

I am just going to play some Americas DLC for a while with musketmen that dont dance the nutbush and pike guys that dont throw away their long pikes to grab a tiny little sword. After I have had fun I am going to return to the vanilla game and see if I can sort out this port thing.

[Gigantus]

Correct, the set up of the desktop icons had the side effect of making the DLCs mod ready (even the default game, although circuitous) through the 'file_first' entry in the individual CFG files. It was required for my shameless self promotion on the splash screens

Let me close as usual: One is glad to be of service

[Scurv]

Ok after extensive testing here is the straight dope on the trade bug and how to fix it.

Disk and Steam version of grand campaign has an unfixable bug that assigns trade routes to ports like in RTW. Merchant Wharves just add to the value of trade.

Overall this is not a game breaker as it means you get a boost early as everyone has ports generating a trade route and less money later on as the routes cap out at 2 not 3 . Swings and roundabouts really.

On bare geomod kingdoms 2 it is the same story as above if you use the steam version and it works perfectly if you have the disk version. This means with bare geomod and a disk version of kingdoms you get the vanilla game as it was actually meant to be. By this I mean the following. - Port of any size = 0 trade routes, Merchant Wharves 1 trade route per level of building built.

As stated above the difference is the .exe file. If you have the disk Kingdoms.exe then everything works perfectly. Of course this means you have to put the precious disk in to play the vanilla game as it was meant to be, but I dont think anyone ever offered the exe without the copy protection once that stuff went the way of the dinosaurs and we all had a legit copy..... so it is the only option...... Just as well I have the disk version but I might grab another copy seeing as steam has screwed the pooch on this one.

[Gigantus]

Yup, that was pretty much the conclusion of an earlier discussion in this matter (executable and pooch)

[Scurv]

One more thing. In order to get trade to work you also have to go in and mod your files. As you have just copied the EDB over from the vanilla you have to add the line trade_fleet 1 under the line showing the trade bonus multiplier in the port chain of buildings for both cities and castles. The original vanilla didnt have that as trade was hard coded into the exe as discussed. Not to detract from your amazing work, but you might want to just fix that for the next version of the mod as that way everything will work as it was intended right from the get go.

I was wondering why when playing venice I didn't start with any sea trade at all. Modded it up and now it works fine. Now we have some spendoolies from sea trade, Time to spread the serene republic across the face of europe.

[Gigantus]

Yup, those lines are only in the sea_trade building tree as that was how it was supposed to originally work, eg no trade from port or c_port, only from sea_trade which I am not sure if it ever worked.

When I run BG on Steam then the castle port in Caen has got one sea export line, which means the trade fleet is hard coded as there is nothing in the EDB. It actually shouldn't have that as fleets should only come from the sea trade building. It's because of the executable mess that I haven't bothered to change it, pretty much every mod adjusts this issue to the way they prefer.

[Scurv]

Ports should give one sea trade route. The rest from the merchant wharf tree. If you turn advice on to 'tell me everything' your adviser tells you ports give you trade and you get more trade through the merchant wharf tree. You can see this if you look at the kingdoms DLC EDB files as well.

[Gigantus]

Yup, that was the original idea.

[Artorath]

It sort of works in the kingdoms campaigns, and any mod if you name its file folder after a kingdoms campaign.
I say "sort of" because the hard cap seems to be 4 exports (others get drawn but only give the recipient settlement import income, the exporting settlement gets nothing), and you run some risks if you need to reinstall (unlikely, get BG if you want to edit vanilla instead of editing directly) or the game updates (it's been 3 years).
Remember to edit the bat and mod path in Configuration.txt if you don't want to use the Steam drop down menu to run things.