Modding Coat Of Arms for medieval 2. geomod-Gigantus

[bayguy]

Can someone help me understand how to modify coat of arms? I am trying to clone and add factions to medieval 2 and I can not understand for the life of me how to modify the coat of arms file. If someone has a video that shows how to do it that would be even better. I have read gigantus instructions from creating a world and dont understand and keep messing it up.

I am just adding factions to the geomod medieval 2 game. I got tired of playing all of these other modifications as they crash or my computer cant run it. I figured the vanilla game has not had crash issues when I played it so might as well modify that.

I am doing the following.

cloning scotland to make ireland

cloning byzantium to make serbia, georgia, and bulgaria.

cloning spain to make aragon

cloning egypt to make abbasid

cloning turks to make kwarzem.

cloning poland to make lithuania

cloning denmak to make norway.

I am taking the symbols from various other modifications such as sship, stainless steel 6.0, 6.4, and mtw2 tsardoms and using them for my vanilla modification.

I will also attempt to take the map from either sship and another modification and putting it into the game. Want to get rid of the Americas area and expand east towards Iran and central Asia.

[Gigantus]

The simplest way is to take symbols from other mods and then adjust the naming of it to match your new faction (menu\symbol files).
Creating the new stratpage symbols is a bit more difficult and requires some handiness with a graphic editor.

If you are interested in mapping then have a look at my 'Creating a World' collection - it ranges from basic map creation to some really esoteric stuff:

https://www.twcenter.net/forums/tags.php?tag=creating+a+world

[bayguy]

First off I am surprised you're still doing this and helping the community. I didnt expect to find you on steam when I made this post. I frequent total war center every once in a while but those forums seem to be dead. You helped me with my more complicated and failed mod back in 2018. I appreciate the assistance.

This one should be a copy and paste from various mods such as sship, stainless steel, and others. So to get the factions symobls to show up on the main menu and for flags in the game I would just need to copy and paste them and not worry about the coat of arms sections in your creating a world instructions?

Also in your geomod game there wasnt a banners folder. Can I just put banners folder from the other mods in the area instead?

I remember last time this was a part I failed at. Captains from other factions would walk around with silver flags with an x on them.

Also, can I put a map from another modification into the geomod modification you made and edit from there? I would like to find a map that takes away the americas, but expands in the east. I will also make more settlements in the Balkans and Ireland.

[Gigantus]

You can copy the files from the 'new_faction' directory into bare_geomod and then take it from there. That should make your life easier where the symbols are concerned.
There is also my guide on how to create custom settlement symbols: https://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?539149

Putting another map into the bare geomod setup is a long winded affair as pretty much all the supporting files are different. Rather work with the tool on existing mods with their maps.

The Stainless Steel map would fit into your criteria. Or you could could try your hand on creating your own one: https://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?346783

[bayguy]

Thanks for the info. I read this post after putting another map into the modification. I kept getting a freeze at 47% and gave up, dont have the energy after dealing with the kids.

You're saying that If i modify the map in stainless steel and bring the whole data-world- maps folder into my mod it shouldent have a problem? I wont need to modify other data for it to implement correctly?

[Gigantus]

Importing a working map is a pain in the butt because of all the descr_strat entries. There is however a way: Delete all faction\settlements\armies\characters in the file and then set up a basic faction entry with one settlement and one named character. all the other settlements will get allocated to the slave faction as minimalist villages.
Which means you need all the files in the 'base' directory plus the text\settlement name file.
You may have an issue with the rebel factions in descr_regions if they are custom entries, that needs changing then as well.

[bayguy]

It keeps freezing at 47%. is there a file that shows freeze errors and what that can mean? I brought over the base map from the other file and deleted all the regions and names from the descr.strat file. I also brought in the text and imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names from the other folder into my mod. Is there something else I can be missing. after I brought it over I tried to edit the map in my modification rather then the mod I got the map from.

[Gigantus]

My manual has a list of freeze ranges and indications were the error could be: https://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?360228

[bayguy]

it keeps not loading at 47%. I figured I tried everything but I don't think I can be patient with it for much longer. Will have to give this up here shortly if I don't see results. I have to prepare for my sons birthday this weekend. I appreciate the help you have given so far though.

[Gigantus]

47% - I doubt it's got to do with character names as the manual suggests, rather the next level: victory conditions. I am assuming you deleted regions that were included in some faction's win condition.
Open descr_win_conditions manually (imperial_campaign directory) and have a look. For a quick test simply make a copy\backup of the file and then delete the content of the original.

[bayguy]

I still cant get it to work and I think I have done all I can to fix the files on my end. I really do appreciate your consistent help over the years. I will send you the folder of the mod I am working on to your direct message on total war center. I dont want to send something like that on here as its to public. If you want to look at it personally to see what I can do to get it fixed that would be great! if not I understand. I will try my best on my end but for the life of me I cant figure it out. It will be a google drive link.

[bayguy]

so I modified another mod and put it into geomod. I was able to upload it into geomod and do some work. When I saved it crashed and it keeps crashing around 79%. I replaced the descr strat file with the old file and it keeps crashing at 79% even though its the old descr strat file. What could be the issue?

[Gigantus]

Often it's formatting of the resource section, eg missing commas. Never start working on a mod right away with the tool - try saving it first without any changes. That way you will know if there is something already faulty or whether you introduced it.

[bayguy]

any idea on why the factions I created wont show up in geomod? for instance you can click England, France, hre, etc on the list, But my factions will remain blank. although you can click them and they will show the colors and other information about them.

[Gigantus]

You are referring to the display of faction names within the tool? I am guessing you added the name in text\expanded? Have you started your mod to generate the related string.bin file?
Like the game, the tool reads from the string.bin files
Tip: you can use the BinEditor that comes with the tool to generate the string.bin file: 'import' the txt file and then 'save' as string.bin

[bayguy]

OK I tried starting the game and it gave me an error log but it did bring the faction names into geomod, thanks!

Are you saying I can copy and paste a bunch of names into the names file and then open the string bin on geomod, and it will recognize all the names and implement them into a new file? or would I have to open it up in geomod and put all the names in individually on the string bin converter?