I think you should be able to install XGM over Mundus Magnus. It does not hurt to try. At least not if you make a copy of RTW first and then install XGM to the copy. Come to think of it XGM uses the mod-switch, so it will not interfere with your regular files.

Still, to be on the safe side I can show you how to make a fresh copy of RTW to install it to (or any other mod).

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder that you want your new copy of RTW to reside within.
I keep all my installations of RTW within a larger folder I simply named Rome, so this is where I will put the new copy for this example.



Move your mouse to the right-side window pane, and click once with the right mouse button. A drop-down box will pop up.



Move your mouse down to New.



Then over to folder, and click once with the left mouse button.



A new folder will appear on the screen, with the name "new folder" in highlighted text.



Type in the name of your new RTW folder. I will call this "Rome XGM". Press Enter when you are done.



Now select your original copy of RTW with your mouse by left-clicking on it once.



Move your mouse to the right-side window pane and select the first folder listed (in my case this is Alexander).



Move your mouse over the very last file listed at the bottom of the window. Hold down the Shift key with one finger, and then select the file with a single left click. You will see it automatically selects all the files in the folder.



Now, with those files and folders still selected, move your mouse up to the menu bar on the left and click on Edit. A box of options will drop down.



Select Copy with a single left click. This will copy all the selected files and folders to memory.



Now move your mouse down to the new folder you created earlier, and select it with a single left mouse click.



Once again go up to the Menu Bar and click on Edit.



In the drop down box click on Paste. This will paste all the files and folders you selected from your original copy into this folder. This will take a while, even on a fast computer.


Now you have a second copy of Rome Total War. More to follow later.



Here is how to add a shortcut to play your new copy of RTW. If you are going to install XGM you will not have to do this. But if you just want a second copy of RTW for another mod that does not add a shortcut for you, this is how to do it yourself:

Select the file RomeTW.exe (or RomeTW-BI.exe if you want to play Barbarian Invasion).



Click on it with the right mouse button. An options box will pop up.




Move your mouse down to "Send To". Another box will pop up along side the first one.


Move your mouse over to "Desktop (Create Shortcut)", and click on it with your left mouse button.



Now go to your Desktop and you will see the new shortcut there.



To rename it something more descriptive, move your mouse over the shortcut and click once with the right mouse button. An options box will pop up.



Move your mouse down to "Rename", and click on it once with the left mouse button.



You will see the text box under the shortcut changes color, and the text within is highlighted.



Type a new name. As soon as you start doing so it will automatically clear out the previous selection. I will call this "Rome Something Or Another". When you are done press Enter.


Your shortcut is ready for you to play your new copy of RTW with.

[This message has been edited by SubRosa (edited 05-12-2007 @ 08:16 PM).]

Thanks so far!

I'm just copying all the data to a new folder now and I won't do anything else till it's completed.

Can you mabye try and include the installation of XGM aswell please.

Your a technical Genius!

Kind Regards
Willwoms

I will do the installation of XGM when I get home from work today. Then perhaps an administrator might want to sticky this, or link to it (or maybe I could link to it in my .sig perhaps?).

I'll put it up for the index

XGM is Big Ownage, thank you SubRosa xD

Okay, back for round two. First of course, download XGM to a temporary folder on your hard drive. (I see they have a newer version since the last time I installed). Since it is pretty much universal, I am going to use Windows built zip-file handling capabilities rather than any third-party software such as Winzip or WinRar. If you are using one of those programs, then you will be seeing different screens.

Open Windows Explorer and go to the location where you downloaded XGM. I have a folder on my C:\ drive named Temp that I use for all temporary files such as this. Double-click on the XGM zip file.



A new window will pop up showing the contents of the zip file. Move your mouse over to the left and click on "Extract All Files".



A new window will pop up starting the Extraction Wizard. Click on next.



It will ask where you want to extract the folder within the zip file to, giving you a default location of the same place where your zip file is. That is as good a place as any, so click on next.



It will take a little while to extract.




When you are done, you will see the Extraction Complete window. The box for "Show Extracted Files" should be checked by default. If not, check it. Then click on Finish.



A new window will open up displaying your newly extracted folder. Double-click the folder.



The window will change to show you the contents of the folder.



Double-click on the executable file within (in this case it is "XGM_5_1_1.exe". Depending on what version of XGM you have, the exact name may vary.)



A new window will appear with the XGM Setup Wizard (I wish they would have some Setup Witches once and a while...). Click on Next.



The wizard will ask you what game options you want to install with. Select the ones you want. If you are not sure, I strongly advise you read the Readme Guide first. I recommend checking at least the Land Bridge and Reduced AI bonuses options. The first makes gameplay a lot easier. If you do not check the second, expect the AI to throw a full stack at you every turn. No kidding. After you decide what you want, click on Next.


Now the wizard will ask where you want to install XGM. By default it should display your main RTW path. In this case I do not want to use that (since XGM uses mod-switch it would be safe to do so, but for those mods that do not, I will show how to install it to the fresh copy of RTW we created earlier). Click on Browse.



A new window will pop up. Your regular RTW folder should be selected by default. Find the folder you want to install to and select it. In this case it is Rome XGM. Click on Ok.



It will take you back to the previous window, only now the path you selected will be displayed as the Destination Folder. Make sure it is correct, and click on Install.



Away she goes! This will take a while, especially just before the very end.




When it is done, you will see this window. Uncheck the Show Readme box unless you want the Readme.txt file to pop up next. Click on Finish.



Close all the windows left open and go to your desktop. You will see an XGM icon there. You are good to go! Make your offerings to Hekate at the crossroads and go crush the Seleucids...



Not all major mods will have an installer as XGM does. The others are simply zip files where you usually just extract the files within to (typically) your RTW folder, overwriting your pre-existing files. In the case of unit mods you instead open each file within the mod, copy the contents, and add that to your own existing file by the same name.


P.S. If I have time in the next few days I will go back and change the pics from my first post to reflect Rome XGM as the new folder to be created, rather than Rome Mundus Magnus.

P.P.S. Done!

[This message has been edited by SubRosa (edited 05-10-2007 @ 07:59 PM).]

Thanks so much it's working now!

Your a computer genius.

Kind Regards
Willwoms

P.S I've see you made a link to a guide in your sig

You are welcome Will. Computers are my job, so this sort of thing is really not hard for me. It is just very time-consuming is all. Enough people keep asking the same thing though, so I think it was probably worth it. I will probably go ahead and include how to make a shortcut and how to install a regular mod like Mundus Magnus, that does not use an executable but rather is just a bunch of files in a zip.

How do you get the Bows of Artemis mod to work? I haven't been able to make it "click."

I saw your other post about the BOA, and I am at a loss as to what is wrong. I know that I and other people sometime (okay, a lot of times) have a crash to desktop when the game loads battles that involve the bowwomen. I suspect that it is something with the skin or model causing it, since it only happens when the game is really using those. But I am not a skinner or modeler so I am just making a guess.

But even that does not quite sound like what your problem is, because it only happens to me intermittently, and I never received an error message. Rather it would get about a third of the way into loading the battle and it would crash.

My only thought would be to double-check sure that you are placing all the files in their proper folders. But usually if those things are wrong, the game will not start up at all. It could be the the .cas file and texture files are in the wrong places however.

Just to be sure, does your Data\descr_model_battle.txt file have this for the Bows:

typeamazon_archer
skeletonfs_fast_archer, fs_fast_swordsman
indiv_range40
texturedata/models_unit/textures/amazon_archer00.TGA.tga
model_flexidata/models_unit/amazon_archer.cas.cas, 15
model_flexidata/models_unit/amazon_archer.cas.cas, 30
model_flexidata/models_unit/amazon_archer.cas.cas, 40
model_flexidata/models_unit/amazon_archer.cas.cas, max
model_sprite60.0, data/sprites/greek_heavy_archer_sprite.spr
model_tri400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

and Data\export_descr_unit.txt file start out with this for them:

type amazon archer
dictionary amazon_archer ; Bows of Artemis
category infantry
class missile
voice_type Medium_1
soldier amazon_archer, 20, 0, 0.8

So far as I know those are the only text files that determine the model, skeletons, and textures. But it is past 3am so I might be forgetting something

Unless maybe your .cas file or one of the texture files are somehow corrupted. You could try downloading again and re-copying those over.

[This message has been edited by SubRosa (edited 08-16-2007 @ 10:34 PM).]

I installed the mod today and it said something about that the version of BI i have isnt right but i installed anyway. I went into the game. the campaign wouldnt work for me. I went into custom battles but when i chose my army and pressed start battle it took me back to the main menu. I bought gold edition about 2 months ago which included RTW and BI. I did everything the guide said and its a great guide by the way but i had to delete my second copy of the game with the mod. Can someone guide me through the steps on how i can solve this problem? Help is appreciated.

Hmmm, if you have RTW Gold, then you should have RTW 1.5 and BI 1.6, which are the correct versions for XGM.

Check your version numbers to be sure. Start each game and from the main menu go to Options. It will display your version number in the upper right hand corner.

I checked and I have 1.4 BI and 1.3 RTW. Thats weird because I bought Gold Edition about two months ago. Hmm what can I do to make XGM work?

You should download the latest patches as given on www.totalwar.com
I have 1.5 and the latest for BI, I don't which one that is. But Gold has probably been published a number of times again as patches came out.

Thanks for the help everyone. I got the latest patches and will try to get XGM again later.