As for why turn off HDR in WSE2, this is where running it once without starting wse2_loader proves something: I have HDR turned off at module.ini to avoid an issue with a grass in Polished Landscapes kit from crashing when HDR is turned on. WSE2 however skips looking in module.ini for the command to override HDR while the mod runs, and gives freedom (and responsibility) to override mod settings. That sounds great unless it crashes something.

If I had more time, I may yet dig out "Polished Landscapes" amd replace it with something less twitchy. But right now I am focused on THIS year's mod, not LAST year's mod, so I am not putting in more time on 2024. I can look at it for Spetember; I will be busy all summer on other more important tasks than saving you 5 seconds in WSE2 settings. I agree HDR looks prettier, but disagree with anyone setting my priorities for what time I have.

3) After each update to WSE2, some users (anyone running Kaspersky free anti-virus for sure) will have the WSE2 file lua51.dll missing. The rest of WSE2 updates but the update deletes this one file and anti-virus blocks it from putting it back changed. This makes an "error creating LuaBuffers" message and the mod exits. Other mods simply never make a Lua folder or run WSE2 lua code, else you would see this more often. The fix is to copy lua51.dll from the WSE2 you downloaded, even from a year ago, to the path shown in the message, which is Warband's executable folder. Just that one file. Now it runs.

I do not use any lua calls or syntax that was not supported by the earliest version of lua51.dll, so I don't need a lua update. Anything the original file could not do I performed using Warband script operands and sent the result via a list, which lua can find and access. Anything lua made was returned in the same list, which Warband can access.

Now for step 3, try running without starting WSE2 if it is installed, to see if the issue is from WSE2.
At Steam Library, click Mount&Blade Warband and run once to see it work. If you have WSE2 installed, 3 more things to check:
1) Options: Load Textures on Demand as for Warband, but in WSE2 your warband settings are no longer used so you need to also set WSE2 to match.

2) Select Native mod, or any other mod that works, and once running Options: Graphics: scroll down and HDRmode = Off I'll explain why later. You can leave Native and go back to Phantasy Calradia 2024 now.

As for Moddb, they won't let me delete the old versions either. If I had my choice it would be Steam or nothing, rather than have an old version at Moddb that people come all the way to steam to complain about. Moddb made me wait 13 days on each approval so I stopped updating there. Steam makes me wait a maximum of 6 minutes, plus I know it got updated correctly at your PC, while Moddb I pretty much need to nuke all the patches and force a full download if I want to be sure it was patched correctly. Steam does incremental patches, meaning it only updates files with a changed CRC+datestamp. This makes for the best possible update experience, and at one time I updated every 4 days on steam.

Other than this, there was an issue with the Moddb version back in December that is mainly / mostly fixed for Steam Workshop version, where after some time your beached player ship could contribute to a crash when the mod is saving its backup savegame. This would be seen more often if the savegame policy was set to "realistic saves" meaning the Warband took away your ability to choose when to save and saved perhaps 20 times more often. I don't see that issue now.

Don't complain on Steam if you are instead running a 6 months old version. Steam has the latest/most correct image. But there is no way you can load 2.3 GB of assets without toggling on "Load Textures on Demand", so that is the first thing I want you to look at.

Turn ON Load Textures on Demand. This is done at configure: video BEFORE loading the mod. Start Warband, DO NOT click "Play Mount & Blade", click Configure: Video: Load Textures on Demand is halfway down the page. That MUST have a check in it to be enabled. Then click OK and you can start the mod via "Play Mount & Blade".

mod always crash

There are many added resource and texture files for weapons and armors that were not present in Native. This is where most (96%) of the mod storage is coming from.

why is this bigger in storage than the game itself dawg

Make sure you aren't reporting something from Moddb download on Steam workshop; mount animations were adjusted last month. Possibly lance is still using the animation you mentioned, my next time for looking at that will be in July. This month I am laser focused on a remake for Paradigm Worlds and I won't multi-task.

Hang tight a few weeks or don't but I won't change my schedule. The source is already on your computer though, if you don't want to wait. Look at the workshop and under it is a source folder. I left nothing out. Unlike big mods I don't have even 1 assistant; but I won't complain if you are faster than I am...

love the mod, especially the undeads lol Although the bugs with horses is kinda annoying, character glitch inside them whenever you try to swing or the horse gliding with no animation.

The black is simply no mask placed to pretty up the presentation; I don't make custom graphics and if you do you're welcome to donate a mask for its pretty picture. Other than that the presentation happens to work for me. It is dark inside the womb anyway.

As for descriptive text on the right, I'm not sure what you mean. Perhaps paste a screen shot at discord. I test at full HD 1920x1090. Perhaps you have clipping from a smaller screen resolution??

Heyo, I'm probably just dumb af, but when I'm on the first part of character creation everything is black. I can still see some texts and the options are still usable. Though I cannot see the descriptive texts on the right. I appreciate you taking the time to help with this mod <3

WSE2 is optional. The mod will run with or without it.
When WSE2 is running, the added function to export your campaign and re-import it to another character is available, and otherwise WSE2 mainly loads much faster. There is not much visible difference. That said, I personally run WSE2 most of the time because of the huge speed up in loading the mod. But I respect the concerns for security and difficulty to set up WSE2, so make it optional.

As for adding new items, it would break savegame to add a new item. I also need to have the artwork.

hello, firstly do i need WSE2 for this? 2nd, I want a big FUCKING WARHAMMER, but it doesn't seem to exist... can you put one in the next patch? (smth like Robert Baratheon's giant hammer form awoiaf)

for people that can't use Steam Workshop, this link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1apNNth6O_peebCwhPW7OY4sQRFvacTDO/view?usp=sharing

has the current patch, in terms of what changed since the last Moddb patch on Feb 2025.

notice the new discord link, this link should not kick new arrivals.

https://discord.gg/uksGG9HVP7

except if you lazily click the "link" steam shows, Steam has changed the link to add its own info and Discord won't accept it. You need to actually type it yourself, character by character, in your favorite internet browser, because Steam in their haste to mention it is an external link changes the link from what is shown to something they made up!

A more detailed explanation with pictures is at book #4 in the discussion "Guides, notes, and FAQs".

Necromancy you need to choose Necromancer as your primary class at character creation.

This will turn you into a lich, and give you access to necromancy.

Next you go to camp menu and select "use Necromancy skill" to make your first undead minions.

You can either go for numbers in which case choose "specialized skeletons" or take less but have better upgrades in which case I would suggest "Shadows".

How to use necromancy? And how to learn it's spells playing necromancer?

I assume the complete download, but that would be the intention in my eyes. This would give you a clean renewal and - as I said, assuming a fast internet connection - wouldn't be much slower than a complete Steam restart.

Not sure if that forces a full download instead of just the changed files.

Quick question regarding the update of the mod - would it not also be possible with good internet (and correspondingly fast downloads) to simply unsubscribe here and then subscribe again ? This should re-download it in the current version without having to restart Steam.

Or am I making a mistake in my thinking? O.o

Glad to see this mod is still alive, thanks for the update!

update v160 c18 "d" is live.

As always, reboot your computer to force steam to fully exit and reload, as it only checks for Steam workshop changes when it first loads.

That works, thanks mate everything is smooth as butter now!

make sure you have Load textures on demand ENABLED (on).
This is set before you load the mod, when you first start Warband.

When i start game and first time went to a tavern game crashes!

next update moved to Monday

Animations are a little flat for mounts; I have them moving a bit more but there is much gliding still.
I think I have a better idea how to move them but progress is slow. Mainly I have to keep mixing up timings, in milliseconds, and Warband randomly chooses between 5 riding animations when moving and 3 when "pacing" where the mount is not moving but standing still. There are also 3 lancer animations that are different.

The 5 riding animations had 3 variations for the animation for the rider; one gave riders sinking into the mount (anim_human) while (anim_huma_02) seems to respect the mount better.

what you are doing is awesome, when phantasy first came out alot of the stuff in it made it one of my favourite mods of warband alongside mods like star wars and heroes 3 conversion. All three of them were lacking alot of depth that some of the other mods had (like enterprises, banking systems (outside of star wars) and some other stuff

being able to revisit this mod with all the improvements you have added has been a really awesome experience and im really thankful you are putting in the effort to revive this old mod :)

Hey gsstar I understand how much of a pain it is working with models and animations, I have made some small animation mods for minecraft, applying those animations to every mob as a base was a complete pain in the ass. To hear you are working on multiple projects and actively supporting them is really awesome to hear, and you are doing an awesome job, Sorry havent checked in a couple days but I will test those animation fixes you implemented and let you know how its gone :)

I found a mistake in yesterday's reinforcements check while testing for v162 (Chiaroscuro), will resolve that and update later today.

Bad weather allowed me to get the update I wanted out today instead of later.
I even had time to test it a bit. version v160 C18 "c" is live.

As always, reboot your computer to force steam to re-scan workshops for changes.

belay that, next update is Sunday/Monday.
Changing the reinforcement algorithm then need to test.

Today's update adds better granularity to Phantasy Settings: Battle size scale to allow more control over battle size, and corrects an error in maximum size.

Also a small tweak for Start as King faction ID error when checking village culture for recruits at villages assigned at start to Player supporter faction.

These will be later this afternoon.

I still see some culture ID issues with villages handed off to my vassals when starting as a king.
I'll see if I can make a fix for that tomorrow. I might also load the same mount animations as at Chiaroscuro (Phantasy 2025), to see if that makes any change. Most of my tests are with 2025, as to me 2024 is legacy mode and 2025 has more future in it.

Frankly I won't waste more time on animations. Like the village scenes in Chiaroscuro, it is wasting my time right now when I am 6 weeks behind schedule.

As for putting Chiaroscuro on Moddb, thats a next year problem. Please don't send bug reports here if you did not run the Steam workshop version, as Moddb is many months out of date.

If no huge issues overnight I'll add a patch to Moddb. If they still need 13 days to approve like last time, don't call me stubborn for preferring Steam Workshop. Steam approves in about 30 seconds.

Phantasy Calradia 2024 patch C18 b is now live at Steam Workshop (and only at Steam Workshop).

testing start as king rework now, and otherwise ready to update the workshop.
As always, reboot your computer to FORCE Steam to reload, as it only scans for workshop updates once (when it first runs).

The start as King rework took longer than expected.

I think I can be ready for a test in 1 hour.
Thanks for your support by the way, I know I am usually grumpy but you have good feedback.

I got up early so to be ready earlier, as Thursday is normally "see my family after lunch" day, as is Saturday all day and Sunday for half day. I think I'll have both mods synchronized quickly.

I just re-did the animations, so only the cultures id issue is left; v162 is already synched up.

Sorry, I didn't mean to belittle your efforts. I use translation software and it turned a general phrase in German into a ‘they’ phrase in English.

If you're still online in 2 hours I can let you test the patch for animations, since I don't really see well anyway. Everyone assumes I can do "everything", but noone gives me credit for being handicapped in the slightest. I am not a comic book superhero.

"They" is one dude only. There are 0 helpers involved. Haven't had help since 2017.
I'll adjust the horse rider to use only one form; right now there are 3 different models, so one of them must have the issue you mention but not all 3.

Otherwise I've so far finished:
a re-tweak to list cleanup during the reinforcements check to clean up even if no more reinforcements are expected.

a better fix for "flying ships" coming from any party crossing a bridge and not clearing the ship icon. This includes land caravans; earlier I had assumed only sea traders were crossing land but they were land caravans after crossing a bridge. Patrols, foragers, recruits, and scouts are corrected as well.

Still to do, besides the mounts since you mention, is cleanup of campaign import && start as king for wrong culture ID in setting kingdom cultures. This is fairly simple but I should make a hot patch to clean anything from yesterday for invalid culture at any dwelling (center).

Yup, I had already noticed that and from what I've heard, they were working on fixing that in this patch.

Hey Im sure you are aware but there are some seriously strange animations that horse riders hav, not only are the horses frozen, but there there seem to be some really strange swing animations (sinking into your horse)

One more update probably tomorrow:

1) more robust garbage collection during battles
2) a better handler for flying ships at st_60 (which probably came from item 1 above)
3) correction for Start as King kingdom culture, Chiaroscuro has more factions so need to correct the culture id value
4) remove the culture override at campaign restore, and the associated setting at Phantasy Settings.

Phantasy Calradia 2024 C18 is uploaded and available at Steam Workshop.
It is not perfect but it does have many fixes and quality of life tweaks from Chiaroscuro workshop back-ported to 2024 data model.

As always, close steam completely and restart it, or reboot your PC (which does the same thing) to force Steam to update a changed workshop, as it only scans for changes when it first loads.

The change log was too long so it cut at "5", and I had until "8". The important changes were listed first though. I think it is better than what you had yesterday, warts and all.

Yeah, the horses don't longer be silent or floating around ? ^^

Finally it isn't longer awkward to play a horse archer. ^^