Stainless Steel 6.3-6.4 Mod for Medieval 2 Total War

[BreadBox]

So I've seen a lot of people post about how this mod has crashed or won't start for them and they all receive little to no help on it. I want to see if maybe I can change that with a small tutorial. This mod took me 3 days to finally get working and 4 installations.

Step 1: Get the mods here and the 6.4 patch if you want it. (SS 6.4 requires 6.3 to work. 6.4 is only the patch whereas 6.3 is the actual mod base).

SS 6.3:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?377824-Stainless-Steel-6-3-Released

SS 6.4:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?417435-Stainless-Steel-6-4-Released!

Step 2: Go to your Medieval 2 Total War folder in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Medieval II Total War
And copy your medieval2 launcher file. Paste the copy to your desktop and rename it "Kingdoms". Drag it back to your Medieval 2 Total War folder.

NOTICE!!! -> DO NOT START THE SS SET-UP WIZARD UNTIL YOU DO THIS. YOU WILL HAVE TO UNINSTALL THE MOD AND REINSTALL IF YOU DO!

Step 3: Once you've renamed the launcher file, go through the 6.3 and 6.4 installation. Designate the destination as your Medieval 2 Total War mod pack and do the same for 6.4 (it should automatically designate them both but always double check. 6.4 will go into the 6.3 folder because duh...its a patch).

Step 4: After you've finished the installation of 6.3 and 6.4 and got everything where it needs to be there's one final thing to do. Well 2. Inside the SS Mod folder you should see down at the bottom SS set-up. Run that as admin and configure the settings how you like. Now, finally, before you run the game. Go to your Steam Library, find Medieval 2, right click and go to properties, click on Laucnh Options. This should bring up a box with a single type bar. Inside you want to input:

--features.mod=mods/name-of-your-mod-folder

Example:
--features.mod=mods/SS6.3

After you do all that, play Medieval 2 Total War and it should run Stainless steel. If you ever want to go back to vanilla just remove the launch options.

Pro-Tip:
The latest patch to SS6.4 made heretics extremely OP (they start with 4 piety, spawn faster, drop your religion faster, and convert your priests a lot easier). I've found that the only way to get rid of them is assassins or using your cardinal becuase your cardinal cannot be converted. Any other priest has a 8/10 chance of being converted, so if you want to play the odds then good luck. I watched my Scots succumb to religious unrest and rebel after 15 turns and thus eliminating me. And again after 50 turns, but after 50 turns, 8 factions had already been destroyed from heretics. There is one way though. The boys who made Stainless steel made submods that altered the heretics and made them weaker. However, I cannot find the mod so I had to manually go into the TXT file and script their values myself. Personally, if you want to do that then google it. It's quite complicated for me to explain.

[Dark Angel]

Additional install notes that may be helpful. Please note my subsequent comment in the string attached to this post.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/MTWGG/discussions/9/619568793899928306/

[joewagner501]

Thank you for this. Glad to see the game is still being played after all these years and supported by gamers with this type of post.

[Dark Angel]

You're very welcome. We have a Steam gaming group called MTWGG that offers a range of gaming experiences for M2TW and keeps the community alive. All participatation is welcome. I've sent you an invite.

[Corero]

Thanks! workl like a charm from the first time!

[KAMRAT JERRY]

I've found stainless steel to be a bit unstable, the bug fix pack at http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?640913-Bug-Fixes-for-SS6-4&p=13723098&viewfull=1#post13723098 has helped me to run games without crashing to desktop from time to time. It also contains the mod for weaker heretics mentioned in OP. Do note that this pack will make previous save games incompatible.

As for battling heresy without the mod, build a church and place one or two priests in the same province as the heretic, don't try to execute him as it'll only make your own priests heretics.

[super busy]

I've got 'Medieval II suffered a fatal error blabla' issue ehhhh

[Dark Angel]

Then you need to bladda, bladda blur, got it?

[Dark Angel]

Originally posted by KAMRAT JERRY:

I've found stainless steel to be a bit unstable, the bug fix pack at http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?640913-Bug-Fixes-for-SS6-4&p=13723098&viewfull=1#post13723098 has helped me to run games without crashing to desktop from time to time. It also contains the mod for weaker heretics mentioned in OP. Do note that this pack will make previous save games incompatible.

As for battling heresy without the mod, build a church and place one or two priests in the same province as the heretic, don't try to execute him as it'll only make your own priests heretics.

Learn how to train priests and develop character traits and you won't need to 'fix' a perfectly good game design.

[Gryphonheart]

Thank you very much for this guide. I was wondering why SS wouldn't launch. :D

[Kaitimar]

I did so, it worked, I am happy. Thank you!

[Sir Larry]

I realize this is an old thread, but I'm stuck:

* Disabled UAC on my Windows 10 box, check
* Downloaded MTWII + Kindoms DLC from steam, check
* Downloaded SS6.3, SS6.4, check
* Renamed medieval2.exe to kingdoms.exe, check
* Installed SS6.3 mod as administrator, check
* Ran SS_setup.exe, check. Game launched, check
* Installed SS6.4 patch as administrator, check
X Ran SS_setup.exe. Settup succeeded but game didn't launch: "Medieval II suffered a fatal error..."
* Adjusted Steam MTWII launch options as suggested, above, check
* Launched SS6.4 from steam, check

So why do I care, you ask, since SS6.4 launched? Because SS6.4 was CTD so I wanted to install the v.1.27 bugfix patch.

* Installed Bugfix_Compilation_v1.27, check.
X Ran SS_setup.exe. Game didn't launch "Medieval II suffered a fatal error..."
X Launched SS6.4 from steam. Game CTD without a message after the new campaign loads but before the map is shown.

It looks like something went wrong at the SS6.4 install, but I can't tell what. I've redone this from scratch multiple times. Any ideas? How do I get some debug output?

[Gekkibi]

@Sir Larry
Use: @mods\SS6.3\default.cfg

Oh, and rename the exe back...

Clarification: this is how I'm able to use the mod. I haven't renamed a copy of the exe (let alone renamed the original exe)

[Sir Larry]

Gekkibi, Thanks, I got that far. Renamed the 6.3 launcher to SS_launcher and got the 6.4 SS_setup program to launch. My problem with the v1.27 bugfix patch was using the wrong copy tool. I ended up screwing up the Windows file permissions in my mod directory *sigh*. Trying again CAREFULLY. :-O

[moscaflaca]

THANK YOU SO MUCH

[Spieler]

Stick this pls!!