The Medieval 2 Total War building cards are awful! Can we get new pictures instead?

[+Marius+]

For the Middle East farming picture, I propose we use this image from the Hadith of Beyad wa Riyad, which was produced in Seville in al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) in the 13th century. It shows a waterwheel being used to turn grain into flour; the main character, Beyad is sleeping by the side of the river. Al-Andalus was known for its advanced agriculture, science and technology, so this seemed ideal.

Well not really ideal, considering Spain is thousands of kilometers away from the Middle East

[bigdaddy1204]

Well not really ideal, considering Spain is thousands of kilometers away from the Middle East

For the purposes of Medieval 2 Total War, I think we can consider the Moors to be part of the Middle East, since in terms of M2TW buildings and units it is more of a cultural label than a geographic description. Plus, the Beyad wa Riyad manuscript is very rare - it was difficult sourcing anything as the internet isn't exactly groaning under the weight of medieval depictions of farming in Muslim-majority countries.

Feel free to post more pictures - is there something you have in mind?

[+Marius+]

Feel free to post more pictures - is there something you have in mind?

Italian 13th century manuscript depictions of Palestinian and Egyptian plantations;

[bigdaddy1204]

Very nice! I liked these images. I think my personal favourite is the last one - the guy is actually gathering up the food. I wonder which farm upgrade this picture should be used for - 'Land Clearance', 'Communal farming', 'Crop rotation' or 'Irrigation'? (stage 1, 2, 3 or 4?)

I am thinking it could be used for stage 1 - what do you think?

[bigdaddy1204]

I was having a look through my Medieval 2 files earlier - can anyone point me to where the default images for buildings are kept? I was thinking of doing a quick mock-up using some of these images, as a test (but couldn't find them)

Thanks!

Edit - I just tried using the unpacker, but I got the following error message 'The program cannot start because MSVCP71.dll is missing from your computer'. Does anyone know how to get past this obstacle?

I found msvcp71.dll on my computer, so I do have it, but for some reason the unpacker is not recognising it.

[Kahvipannu]

Here is info EDB and such and building pics:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?603566

(Almost all) 2D art is located in (mods name)/data/ui/... You can find buildings in there.

You don't necessary need to unpack M2 files, check the mod folder.

[bigdaddy1204]

Here is info EDB and such and building pics:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?603566

(Almost all) 2D art is located in (mods name)/data/ui/... You can find buildings in there.

You don't necessary need to unpack M2 files, check the mod folder.

Thanks for the help

I wanted to change the basic farm upgrade picture, so I followed all the steps in the guide, I also unpacked the data files for Medieval 2 Total War and I replaced the vanilla farm building with a new picture and saved it over the old one. I then launched the game, and behold! My picture did not appear - it still uses the original one. Even though I have replaced it in the Medieval2/data/ui/middle_eastern/buildings folder! So the original image doesn't even exist - it's not even there in the folder. And yet it is still appearing in the game. This is very bizarre. I can't understand how this is possible. ???

[bigdaddy1204]

The only possible answer is that Medieval 2 Total War is not getting its information from the UI file in the data folder. Which is baffling. I am really at a loss...I just don't understand it.

[Kahvipannu]

Not entirelly sure. But I would try replacing the removing/changing pics in the mod folder, if there is vanilla or any picture, it will be shown instead the one you put for M2. I don't have experience with modding vanilla M2 tought, not sure if it reads loose files same way as mods do. But modding the mods should usually be the clearest option.

If you hit the wall, asking/digging at Mod-workshop (forum where that topic is located) is always good option.