In this tutorial we'll create a new accent for a faction of a modfoldered mod step by step.
The total conversion Third Age:Total War will be used as an example of how to create the accent, but if you follow this tutorial you should be capable of doing it for every other mod as well.
As for a possible hardcoded limit of accents, till now I've reached none, therefore it seems to be possible to create an unique accent for every faction of a mod up to the hardcoded limit of 31 factions and furthermore for every character in the game, if one has enough patience to do so.
Sidenotes:
If you're not using WinXP but vista x32/x64 or Win7 x32/x64 the first step before you start to mod is to follow this great tutorial by SigniferOne to ensure that you circumvent the UAC (user account control) and thus avoid any interference of it.
Always do a backup of whatever file you might change or replace.
Never delete anything that does no harm!
multilanguage compatibility:
If you want to have the voices of your mod compatible to every MIIK localization, do not include the extracted Medieval II or Medieval II Kingdoms vanilla .idx files into your modname\data\sounds\Voice folder!
The game will automatically play the vanilla files according to every localization!
That is, of course, only if they are used at all in your mod.
Now we're going to add newly recorded voices to our accent.
Of course, you have to record your voices first.
I recommend to always record in .mp3 format first regardless whether you might want to add strat map or battle map voices.
Take note that CA most of the times, but not always, uses a simple "x" to distinguish .wav (battle map) from .mp3 (strat map) voices (x_name.mp3 vs. name.wav) as a starter for the filename.
The final format of the voices in order that they are heared ingame must be:
strat map voices MUST be .mp3 format!
battle map voices MUST be .wav format 352kbit/s and MUST be recorded or converted in 16bit mono 22.050 Hz!
I suggest to use a mp3 to wav converter, which are freeware and can be found in the net, to convert your original recording to wav and to level your voices on the one hand, to get rid of possible background noises on the other hand.
When you've finished your recording, you have to place the files in the right directory. The directory it needs to be placed in can be found in the code of the sound files (see above).
Now that you've recorded your voices, made sure they are in the correct format and palced them in the corresponding directories, it's about time to code them into the corresponding files.
If all the coding and recording is done, you should backup your Voice.idx and Voice.dat as well as your events.idx and events.dat.
Delete the Voice.idx, Voice.dat, events.idx and events.dat and start your game.
The game will now recreate those files. While the spalsh screen is up, hit the escape button twice.
When your loading screen pops up you should here a short sound, if you can here it, that's an idicator that the files have been successfully recreated and that no further problems should arise.
Basically, we're done now
Enjoy modding
Last edited by Aikanár; July 23, 2012 at 01:49 PM.
Reason: Updated - added diplomacy section