editing unit stats

[яise]

could someone walk me through editing some unit stats? theres few changes i'd really like to make but when i tried this before i'd always break something somewhere. mind you that was the non steam edition,so i think it was a tad harder. specifically one of the stats i want to change most are to the cassock musketeers and change them to organized.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Go to your Steam directory (just search it up):

then to
\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War

To be able to edit the Grand Campaign / Kingdoms Campaigns you will need to find some way of extracting the files (note that changing anything will bork multiplayer). I'd guess the unpackers work but haven't tried them myself.


However, export_descr_unit.txt is the file that has all the unit stats. At the beginning of the file there should be something saying what every line does, so you don't need to Google it.

[яise]

yeah ive gotten that far , but it the issue is im not seeing the changes in game. ive edited the files and removed the "no_custom" tag from many units and edited stats for others, but as far as i can see in game no changes were applied

[яise]

solution adding
[io]
file_first = true
to the bottom of the preferences CFG file in the main directory worked

[яise]

Originally posted by Maxe:

Hello @Rise and @aidenpons


I have the same problem in my Steam version of Med2.


I changed the stats of a HRE unit, the Forlorn Hope, but when I saved and closed the export_units_descr file and started a campaign the stats were the vanilla/default stats.
I then saw your solution (@Rise) and added the following to the bottom of the CFG wordpad document in the Medieval2 folder:
"[io]
file_first = true"


The PROBLEM is that now nearly all of the detail on the unit cards and the user interface has disappeared/become white.... Can anyone help me with this?
Also, why do I have to keep adding "[io] file_first = true" everytime I exit the game?


Thanks

hmmmmmm... actually i started up my campaign again (yesterday), and to my suprise found most text had been deleted from a game that was 100% when i left it.maybe we are encountering the same issue?

did you test this in campaign or in a skirmish?

also you shouldnt have to do that every time you touch the game

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by яise:

yeah ive gotten that far , but it the issue is im not seeing the changes in game. ive edited the files and removed the "no_custom" tag from many units and edited stats for others, but as far as i can see in game no changes were applied

Have you started a new campaign?

And make sure Steam doesn't overwrite your files with the games own files.

[Damavikoff]

no differences between new/not_new campaign for this file.
1. Double quotas?

"[io]
file_first = true"

it is not correct.
2. You shouldn't extract whole packs. Is export_descr_unit.txt located under /data folder?
3. The only way to cure missed interface, etc is to delete unnecessary unpacked files.
You can delete whole content of /data folder except of required (modded) files and start validation integrity check to recover necessary files.

[Kalomax]

@Rise

Yes, I think we are encountering the same problem: text missing from tabs,diplomacy screen, unit card info, etc.

I tested this multiple times in both the grand campaign and custom battles.

According to a few Total War forums, the medieval2.preference.cfg apparently resets every time you exit the game. The solution was to put the following in the launch options of the properties of medieval 2 in your Steam game library: --io.file_first


@Damavikoff

1. I put the double quotes just to show what I had added to the medieval2.preference.cfg document.
2. When I opened the unpacker in the Medieval2 folder called packs, I don't think I had a choice in what folders and files were extracted. Yes, the export_descr_unit.txt is under the /data folder.
3. If I verify the integirty of the game i.e. recover all the files except the ones I have modified, will it not simply overwrite the modified export_descr_unit.txt and export_descr_buildings.txt?


Thanks to both of you for replying because I really want to edit the stats of the vanilla units in the grand campaign.

[Damavikoff]

1. It can't be. Did you set medieval2.preference.cfg as 'read only'? The game always tries to overwrite this file. What exactly did you changed?
Try to launch the game with io.file_first launch option.
2. You always have a choice. By --filter=export_descr_buildings.txt for example.
3. export_descr_buildings.txt and export_descr_unit.txt are packed, they cannot be overwritten by Steam.

to resolve missed text you can just delete /data/text folder.

[Damavikoff]

i have told about 'read only' of medieval2.preference.cfg file. there is no reason to set 'read only' to any of data files.
Since you use launch option, cfg file is not required for this parameter. You can unset launch option and the game will use default values (from packs).

[Ashur_Arbaces]

http://medieval2.heavengames.com/m2tw/mod_portal/tutorials/export_descr_units_file_guide/index.shtml

Detailed guide on unit stats.

[яise]

Originally posted by Ashur_Arbaces:

http://medieval2.heavengames.com/m2tw/mod_portal/tutorials/export_descr_units_file_guide/index.shtml

Detailed guide on unit stats.

ive actually since already done this.
for whatever reason though one day my campaign just died on me.
just restarted it.
but yeah ive edited almost every unit in the game now....mainly to differentiate between some units more and bring unit numbers to more rounded numbers