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Check out the self-proclaimed Best Guide for Rome 2! Total War: Rome 2 - Beginner's Guide by Dark Side Total War: Rome 2 - Guide to Guides by Kurkistan Total War: Shogun 2 - Dark Side's Economy Guide Total War: Shogun 2 - Guide to Guides Alea iacta est - The die is cast. The path of this bat should be Medieval II Total War mods StainlessSteel6 StainlessSteelKingdoms.bat Tools: WinMerge Notepad Dropbox JSGME Mods: Teutonic Order's Royal Family / Radar Map Alternative / Rebel Generals Enhanced / Simplified Victory Conditions / Toggle Campaign Map Hud / Text improvement project.

• 2Features
  • 2.1Stainless Steel 6.4 Features
  • 2.2Stainless Steel 4.1 Features
    • 2.2.4The New Factions
• 3Team and Credits

Overview

Stainless Steel was first started as a mod for Medieval 2: Total War (v4.1 and lower), but it switched over to Kingdoms after the expansion was released.It combines bug fixes, many small mods, changes to AI and AI armies, more provinces, graphical improvements and many other campaign and battle map changes in a package aimed at providing a much greater challenge and more enjoyable gameplay.
It is one of the most popular mods for Medieval 2, but is surpassed in popularity by Third Age: Total War.
Stainless Steel mostly keeps the same setting as the original Medieval 2 campaign, though it expands the map east and north while removing America.

Features

Stainless Steel 6.4 Features

The Campaign

• Rebalanced victory conditions.
• Rebalanced building bonuses.
• Guild's HQ's now always offer a faction wide bonus.
• Rebalanced existing missions and added more missions.
• New building, place-able in locations with long rivers.
• Removed Ireland.
• Added a new region below Kiev (Ireland is now 2 regions).
• AI factions tend to stick to their Royal Blood for many generations.
• Alberi di Famiglia Regal implemented.
• New Faction Economy scripts.
• Knight's Templar & Kingdom of Jerusalem have been combined into Crusader States (with mixed units).
• Mongols are finally pagan.
• 1TPY Early Era campaign.
• Slave faction are now a lot more active - including the ability to use merchants, spies and assassins.
• New troubadours event.

The Campaign Map

• Completely new and huge campaign map, covering most of Europe and the beginning of Persia.
• New ground types and custom climates.
• Maximum width the engine allows of 510 movement tiles.
• Mountains, hills and map outlines are based on satellite data.
• Work of art coastlines instead of the square 'vanilla' ones.
• Maximum amount of almost 200 historically medieval settlements. (A few had to sacrifice historical accuracy for better game balance)
• Every Region has its own resources, including new valuable resources in the 'outbacks' of the map
• Resources are now better balanced, a couple of new resources were also added.
• All resources were moved away from roads, to ensure merchants' peaceful life.
• AI friendly map, the AIs' armies should no longer get stuck.
• Narrow mountain passages were widened enough for agents to freely pass, while armies will still get blocked.
• Missing ports added.
• Rebels spawning on inaccessible terrain fixed and Rebel ships spawning in small lakes fixed.
• Agart's great city & castle models.

The Battle Map & Unit Balance

• Davide.cool grass mod implemented.
• Water now looks a whole lot better!
• Smoother steppes modification by wolfslayer implemented.
• New war horn sounds by wolfslayer implemented (hand picked by me).
• Ambient sound files for Muslim temples by wolfslayer implemented.
• Magus' Crimson Tide implemented (the no-dirt version).
• Award winning BAI by Germanicu5.
• Swagger's Skymod included.
• Knights Templar units from Lord_Calidor's KT mod implemented.
• BftB units by Caesar Clivus implemented.
• For God and St. George mods by AWellesley.
• Lord Condormanius's Mailed Knights.
• Polish Units by MADTAO included.
• Rusichi mod units implemented.
• Real Recruitment's AoR (Area of Recruitment) system included.
• RR's system nearly fully integrated. (please refer to RR/RC OCT 30 post for more detailed changes)

Traits & Ancilliaries

• Rebalanced merchant traits for 1TPY.
• As merchants get older, they lose movement points.
• Generals are now a lot easier to educate in settlements with schools etc.
• Faction Leaders can now acquire a set of traits affecting all settlements and generals.

General Changes

• Auto border-less mode - ALT+TAB in and out of the game without any loading.
• New, epic loading screens.
• New music by Kevin MacLeod, Jon Sayles & Bill Hudak, vanilla MTW2 music was also brought back. (now we have 141 music files + vanilla music, compared to 89 in 6.1 and no vanilla music, that's a hell lot!)
• New main menu background & splash screen by Y2day.
• Faction selection crash fixed.
• All factions accessible in custom battle and hotseat.
• External campaign chooser - for easy hotseat and CTD reduction.
• External launcher application - taking care of things the user would normally do.
• CBUR with most of its features implemented.
• Riczu trade carts removed.
• Parts of Awellesley's 1100AD mod integrated.
• SSTC by Chimaeira implemented.
• Real Horses by Argent Usher implemented.
• CBUR and Unit Card improvement projects by Agis Tournas implemented.
• Animations updates.
• Y2day's faction shields & banners.
• New quotes.
• Proper character aging.
• Byzantine and Kievan Rus unit cards by akvilonn.
• Tax auto-manage should now work properly.
• Added Patriarchs for Orthodox factions.
• All factions now have their one-liner pre-battle speeches activated (more speeches for existing factions, and no more mute Norway, Kwarzemian Empire, etc. generals)
• Unbelievable amount of fixes, both big and small, too many to mention them all.

Stainless Steel 4.1 Features

The Campaign

The whole game pace is slightly lowered. The default game length is about 350 turns (1.5 years per turn).However, you have also the option to play the game with the original game length of 225 turns.Population limits for settlement upgrades raised, building times and costs slightly increased.Heavy Infantry units are recruitbale later, therefore every faction gets an additional light infantry unit.

The Campaign Map

• Campaign Map completely resized and reworked
• Slight Map Extension to the north and east
• More space between settlements in order to have more field battles
• Many new details like smoother forests, new rivers, mountains, isles, trade routes
• Slightly changed borders of all regions in order to make them less noticeable
• About 50 New Provinces, well spreaded and historically correct (Exeter, Bari, Oporto, Arta, Barcelona, Belgrade, Balearic Isles, Bryansk, Lyon, Athens, Munster, Ancona, Isle of Lesvos, Warsaw, Diyarbakir, Salzburg, Kirov, Melilla, Salamanca, Groningen, Clermont, Thebes, Mecca, Basra, Astrakhan, Tortosa, El-Oued, Sinop, Norrkoeping, Benghazi, ...)
• Every Region has its own ressources, including new valuable resources in the 'outbacks' of the map.
• Some ressources deleted to make others more valuable

The Campaign AI

Stainless Steel 4.x uses GrandViz Ultimate AI, specifically Ultimate AI 1.5. The Ultimate AI Mod is a complete redesign of the vanilla campaign AI, providing a more challenging and diplomatically active AI opponent. It also includes a lot of balance tweaks to settlement mechanics, economy (tax, trade, costs), population growth, religion and public order.

The New Factions

Kievan Rus

• 8 unique units with unique descriptions
• All units, banners and models reskinned
• Historical character names
• Difficult starting position

Crown of Aragon

• 5 unique units with unique descriptions
• New historical unit names
• All units, banners and models reskinned
• Historical Character Names
• New Order of Montesa guild

Order of the Knights Templar

• 7 Unique Units with new descriptions
• All other units have specific Templar Knight designs
• Historical Characters and new Templar Knights events
• New Unique Titles which represent the Templar Hirarchy
• Very different and hard campaign
• Unit roster slightly changed from 3.2

The Mercenaries

• New mercenaries for the Early and High Medieval Period:
• New and more varied mercenary pools
• Greater mercenary variety
• Mercenaries have more experience
• Less mercenary missile units
• Regions have more of mercenary special units

Improved and challenging AI Armies

• Proper Mix of Infantry, Missiles, Cavalry and Artillery.
• AI produces more Elite and Heavy units.
• This was done without changing any unit costs

New Traits, Ancillaries, Titles and RPG elements

• Titles for all Cities and Castles and for both Islamic and Catholic/Orthodox factions and with important bonuses in various settlements.
• Army attrition and supply system demands much more tactical decisions and religion is much more important (Byg's Reality traits)
• Countless new Traits, Transferable Titles, Ancillaries (Blood, Broads, & Bastards 2.x)
• Patriarch titles for Orthodox Factions available
• Many broken Character Traits and Ancillaries fixed
• New Knights Templar Titles

Much more interesting Historical and Game Events

• Events for Orders, Inquisitions, Culture, Battles...
• Events when a princess comes of age or when a monarch dies; many different portraits of beautiful and less beautiful princesses
• Including New Era Events which affect unit & mercenary recruitment
• Events who inform about the fall of any faction's capital cities.

Agents and Characters

• Historically accurate Character Names (CNP 3.0)
• Reasonable limits for assassins, spies and priests
• Agents rebalanced
• Captains are less likely to rebel
• Imam's required Piety to call a Jihad raised

Settlement and Unit Recruitment Changes

• Important medieval Cities like Constantinople, Kiev, Rome and Paris more powerful
• More logical and rebalanced recruitment, for example cities can build more ships & artillery than castles.
• Early/Late Generals rarely recruitable in castles/citadels
• Income, city growth and distance to capital punishment rebalanced
• More balanced money script to support AI Factions
• Byzantium can build Highways
• Added many missing and additional units such as Dismounted Gothic Knights, English Armored Sergeants, Dismounted Broken Lances, Hussars, Greek Arquebusiers, Desert Raiders and more
• Rebalanced and fixed guild triggers
• Historically more accurate Faction Names
• Conquering the Aztecs is much harder

Battles

• 10 new Custom Battle Maps
• Darth Mod 1.4B battle AI and physics
• More balanced units stats and costs
• Longer Lasting Battles due to slightly higher morale
• More realistic battle map movement

Graphics

• Completely new Faction Symbols & Menu Designs by Alletun
• 20 new epic loading screens
• New Symbols for the battle map
• New unique Shield textures for all catholic factions
• New unique Unit Textures for all European Early & High units (Burrek)
• New unique Unit Textures for all Feudal & Mailed Knights (Knights&Knaves)
• New unique unit textures for all Order Knights armor upgrades
• High quality unit textures & banners for Byzantium (DG's One Faction At A Time)
• New unit textures and banners for Hungary (Magyar Mod + own additions and improvements)
• Historical accurate faction banners and banners for special units (Kings Banner 2.0)
• More spectacular Sky variations and little more blood (improved Horsearcher's skymod)

Team and Credits

Version 6.4

• gracul - Leader
• King Kong - SS 6.1
• Point Blank - RR/RC, lots of things
• Byg - support and BGR
• Caesar Clivus - forum handling, support and CBUR
• Rozanov - coding and ideas
• Germanicu5 - coding and ideas, BAI
• y2day - art & graphics
• Awellesley - units & support
• Bane_tw - forum handling and bug fixing
• Ishan - forum handling and bug fixing
• cedric37 - art & ui graphics

Beta testers:

Other contributors:

• (HG)LordKoal, (HG)Super, (HG)Iliturgitano, (HG)Xaviar, (HG)Carlos, (HG)Adrics, CeltiberoThormes, penyetta, garcy170 (Spanish translation)
• Fred Putz (German translation)
• warman222 (new combo&death animations)
• Baraban (textures & model fixes)
• KDK (ui graphics)
• beikon & gord69 (Steam help)
• Fair Prince (SSNOP, SSHCP, SSTAIP)
• newt (No Waiting)
• Savage - CAI
• davide.cool - better grass
• Argent Usher - real horses
• Agis Tournas - CBUR
• Anthonius II - CBUR
• Magus - Crismon Tide
• Lord Calidor - KT mod
• agart - castle & city strat models
• Agis Tournas - Unit Card improvement
• Black_Nebula - Hungary Impaler Skins
• Seether - AFR mod
• Soupdragon - EE watchtower
• Chimaeira - SSTC
• Lord Condormanius - Mailed Knights
• Akvilonn - additional unit info cards
• MADTAO - polish units
• Barser - unit models
• Csatádi - hungarian map guidelines
• gewehr36 - pagan mongols
• Cedric37 - UIs
• Kevin MacLeod - music
• Jon Sayles & Bill Hudak - music
• Swagger - sky mod
• Akvilonn - Unit info cards
• nonnob3 - Unit info cards
• Lusted - CAI
• Lord Calidor - KT mod
• Quark (wherever you are right now)

Version 4.1

Leader: King Kong

Thanks:

• Alletun for making beautiful symbols and designs for my mod
• Student for his help and research on the Knights Templar
• Disgruntled Goat for his outstanding unit textures
• Darth Vader for his battle AI and physics
• Grand Viz for his Ultimate AI
• Yuiis, shaeffer, numerosdecimus, M2_Junky for their great contributions
• Byg for his Reality traits
• Horsearcher, Ziher, Plasticfigurine, Salty, Headlock for their graphical improvements
• Burrek for his unique European textures
• Joe Dreck for his Kings Banner mod
• Dearmad and Pnutmaster for BBB
• All others who contributed in the Stainless Steel forum

for the help with the 4.1 patch:

• Lusted, Klink and DrJambo for their battle AI
• Quark and shaeffer for being a great help
• Nerazzurri for the Movies fix and the Stainless Steel icon.
• Tyre for some of his new skins
• All others for their feedback and bug reports

A full list of credits for all release versions can be found in this forum topic

History

Stainless steel 2.0 has been included on the free DVD supplied with a UK gaming magazine.

Releases

Version 6.4 released in this thread on the 10th of January 2011.

Version 6.3 released in this thread on the 3rd of August 2010

Version 6.0/6.1 released in this thread in April 2008

Version 5.0/5.1 released in this thread in October 2007.

Version 4.0/4.1 released in this thread in July 2007.

Version 3.2 was released for the M2TW official patch 1.2 in this thread in May 2007.

Version 2.2 was released in this thread in January 2007.

External Links

Medieval 2 is a favorite among Total War fans.

For players who prefer medieval warfare with sword-yielding knights, peasants, and crossbows, Medieval 2 would be your go-to in the vast selection of TW games.

Whether you’ve completed multiple playthroughs or are looking to re-explore what it has to offer, here’s some of the coolest mods you can try out to make the game even more fun.

15. MapMod: Trees, Textures, Sea

Medieval 2 Total War Stainless Steel Mod

A good visual upgrade is always a great way to enjoy older titles.

Not bad for a first time modder, Charge has received mostly positive feedback from the community for his texture pack.

Upgrading mostly the environment textures – trees, land, and especially water now look much better than in vanilla.

Now I’m completely aware that most of you don’t play M2TW for the graphics.

But you’d be surprised at how much of an impact this has. Fire up the game with this on and you’ll end up thinking to yourself “I don’t remember it looking this good”.

14. The Character Names Project

Total War has always been known for realism and historical accuracy.

A huge part of why the game has such an active community is the ability to create mods that further improve on the realism of these games.

The Character Names Project does exactly that, but by focusing on a less common aspect of the game.

Medieval 2 Total War Stainless Steel Install Guide Kit

Names of characters have been updated based on research to reflect historical accuracy.

Playing as Egypt for example, you might notice that characters now have names like “Tahir al-Rida” or “Dawud al-Sarraj”.

Based on tons of research to make sure names are accurate and relevant to the time period, just under 500 names have been added to each of the factions in the game.

A seemingly unnoticeable change. But this one adds a sense of realism and level of detail that few would think of.

13. HaHawk’s Native Voices Mod

To improve on the game’s realism even further, modder HaHawk took it upon himself to replace audio samples with new dialogue.

The mod currently contains voice samples in English, French, German, and Russian (among a few other languages, or so it’s claimed). Just the fact it goes beyond English is impressive!

Like the Character Names Project, this is another mod you didn’t know you needed.

Once you get this installed, there’s just no other way to play the game.

Dialogue won’t be overbearing as you probably won’t understand everything that’s being said. But the localized languages just make immersion much better.

12. Mr.Crow’s Warwagon

Another great way to make the game more interesting is by adding new units.

If you’ve completed multiple playthroughs of M2TW, you’re probably already familiar with the different units. So adding new ones can make a big difference.

Mr. Crow’s Warwagon adds a particularly fun unit to the game. Now what’s a war wagon?

It’s actually a medieval siege weapon: a wooden wagon that held riflemen.

You can now use these in-game as each wagon holds 3 soldiers. These soldiers are protected by the wagon and shoot through holes in the wood.

What’s even more fun is that the AI actually makes use of war wagons as well.

They even place war wagons in the front of formations, recreating the famous “wagon wall” or “wagon forts” of the time. Neat!

11. DarthMod

A staple for any Total War mod list, Medieval 2 being no exception.

Vader’s entry for M2TW includes tons of updates such as unit balances, map changes, and gameplay tweaks.

But as with all DarthMods, the improved AI is really what stands out here.

Just as DarthMods are known for, enemy AI will be much smarter making for a more challenging experience.

They have improved field battle, flanking, and aggressiveness, keeping you on your toes.

This will definitely make the game more interesting as you’ll probably be outsmarted by the AI here and there.

10. Santa Invasion

I always like to throw in something silly, and here we are!

This immediately caught my attention because it’s the only mod on twcenter.net that was classified as a “Humour Mod”. Just what I’m going for.

Almost all games with mod capabilities have sillier ones. And if you’re just looking to have some stupid fun, here’s Santa Invasion.

As you can guess, Santa Invasion allows you to play an additional faction. Led by Santa Claus himself, lead your reindeer cavalry, snowmen, and elves into battle!

Enemies are on the naughty list and aren’t getting any presents this year.

9. Hispania in the Middle Ages

Now the remaining entries on my list are the larger mods that add tons of content from scenarios and campaigns, units, balances, and much more… starting here.

With Hispania in the Middle Ages, we’re taken to the Iberian Peninsula where Christians and Muslims war over the land.

With 5 playable campaigns, updates to factions, map, textures, and gameplay, there is much to explore here.

Most interesting are the added scripts that make gameplay more dynamic. There are now possibilities of protection by payment, kingdom unions through marriage, and help from allied kingdoms.

Definitely one to consider for a unique M2TW playthrough.

8. Rusichi Total War

This time we’re taken to a war-torn medieval Russia.

With 3 playable factions based on historic Russian kingdoms, each the Kyiv, Novgorod, and Ryazan have unique features, and even updated texture skins.

The mod also introduces a settlement system wherein most of a cities’ income is provided by nearby villages.

This makes it more likely that nearby villagers will fight invaders rather than hide in fear.

An exciting story of the 3 kingdoms fighting for a united Russia while faced with external opposition and internal conflict at the same time.

7. Rise of Three Kingdoms

Moving over to Asian, our next stop is China.

Following the fall of the Han Dynasty was a 100-year civil war known as the Three Kingdoms period.

Fought between 3 Chinese states Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu, the Three Kingdoms period was one of the bloodiest war eras in Chinese history.

This mod takes you right to the action with custom textures, accurately depicting the armor and weapons of the time and place.

There’s tons of content to explore here from balance changes, additional units, and gameplay mechanics.

6. Call of Warhammer

If you’re looking to take a break from the realism of M2TW, this is the mod for you.

Taking a more fantasy-based approach, Call of Warhammer completely changes the game.

You can now battle with mages, elves, orcs, and even vampires in a world similar to that of Total War: Warhammer.

Each faction comes with unique combat units including matching skins.

Upgraded AI, unit cards, and exciting new quests make for a unique experience of Medieval 2. If fantasy is more your speed, this is the one you’re looking for.

5. The Third Age: Total War

Continuing on with fantasy-themed mods we have Third Age which takes us to Middle-earth.

That’s right, this transforms your M2TW experience into a playable Lord of the Rings game.

You can play as 14 different factions from the world of LOTR, including Dwarves, Gondor, Mordor, and High Elves, among others.

Some units were also taken from the film and novel series and added to the game. Ents, trolls, and wargs are now usable in battles.

With improved AI and updated movies, sounds, and artwork, this is the most immersive Lord of the Rings experience you’ll be able to get within M2TW.

4. Europa Barbarorum II

If you’re ready to jump back towards historically accurate mods, Europa Barbarorum II is one of the best out there.

Another overhaul mod based on the initial mod created for Rome: Total War, EBII gives us a glimpse into the expansion of the Roman Empire.

The mod comes with 28 playable factions including, Pontos, Getai, Saka Rauka, and more.

Gameplay mechanics have also been updated focusing more on making the experience much more realistic.

The overall pace of the game is slower, as the map is twice the size of the original. But more than exploring the map there are hundreds of new units, systems, and gameplay mechanics to discover.

If you’re into historical accuracy this is the one for you.

You’ll learn a lot about the history as well as there are very detailed descriptions provided for locations and units.

3. Broken Crescent

This time we’re taken to the Middle East. Play as one of 18 new factions (which is huge), engage in battle with over 300 new units, all in a brand-new campaign map spanning from Anatolia to India.

New units include the Rostov Retainers, Alani Swordsmen, and Volga Pikemen.

Playthrough prominent battles of Middle Eastern history, including The Battle of Didgori, Second Battle of Tarain, and the Battle of the Meander River to name just a few.

2. 1648 – Thirty Years of War

1648: Thirty Years of War.

A rather specific name for a mod, yeah?

It tells the story of a war fought in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648.

Known as one of the most destructive wars in human history, the mod recreates the events of the Holy Roman Empire, where some of the most advanced weaponry was made much more complicated by political and religious motives.

There are 22 playable factions, an updated map including 198 provinces, and a great campaign story to be discovered in this mod. Highly recommend giving this one a shot.

1. Stainless Steel

Easily the most popular mod for M2TW, Stainless Steel is like a New Game+ for Total War fans.

It takes most of what the game did great, improved on it even further, and even took some of the best ideas from other mods.

Medieval 2 Total War Stainless Steel Install Guide Pdf

All of this combined into Stainless Steel, which for most is the ultimate M2TW experience.

Tons of new content including new factions, units, and an expanded map are typical of these mods by now.

Stainless Steel takes it a step further with loads of new systems, balances, and gameplay updates too. The modders also made changes to sounds, interface elements, buildings, and textures, making this easily the biggest mod for the game.

If you’re looking to retain most of what you know from M2TW, but make it better, Stainless Steel should be right up your alley.