Stainless Steel 6.3 Released!

[ARCP]

Stainless Steel 6.3
a Medieval 2: Kingdoms mod
(Standalone - does not require previous SS installations)

Download:
Part 1: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XX980K4C (596mb)
Part 2: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LGHWNQ9S (599mb)
Part 3: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J30SFYDG (599mb)
Part 4: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9SQYCWSS (599mb)
Part 5: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=O1MZI6OD (66mb)
Part 6: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1ZROF9WD (3mb, installer)

MD5's:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:  

Mirrors to follow in a couple of days.

Installation:
Download all the parts and run SS6.3.exe.
DOES NOT REQUIRE PREVIOUS SS INSTALLATIONS!


Features over 6.1 version.

1. General

*- Auto borderless mode - ALT+TAB in and out of the game without any loadings.
*- 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, thats 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 new faction shields & banners.
*- New Quotes.
*- Proper character ageing.
*- 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 active (more speeches for existing factions, and no mute norway,kwarezm,etc. generals)
*- Unbelievable amount of fixes, small and big ones, too mny to mention...

2. The Campaign Map

*- Resources are now better balanced, a couple of new resources were also added.
*- AI friendly map, no longer should the AI get stuck with its armies.
*- Work of an art coastlines, instead of the square 'vanilla' ones.
*- All resources were moved away from roads, to ensure merchants peaceful life.
*- Tight mountain passages were widened enough so agents can freely pass, while armies would still be blocked.
*- Missing ports added.
*- Inaccessible terrain in which rebels spawned fixed.
*- Rebel ship spawn in small lakes removed.
*- Agart's great city & castle models.

3. The Campaigns

*- Rebalanced victory conditions.
*- Rebalanced building bonuses.
*- Guild's HQ's always offer some kind of a faction wide bonus.
*- Rebalanced and new missions.
*- New building - placeable 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 is now Crusader States (with mixed units).
*- Mongols are finally made pagan.
*- 1TPY Early Era campaign.
*- Slave faction now a lot more active - including the ability to use merchants, spies and assassins.
*- New troubadours event.

4. The Battle Map & Unit Balance

*- Davide.cool grass mod implemented.
*- Water looks now a whole lot better!
*- Smoother steppes modification by wolfslayer implemented.
*- New war horn sounds by wolfslayer implemented (hand picked by me).
*- Ambinent sound files for Muslim temples by wolfslayer implemented.
*- Magus Crismon 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.
*- BTFB 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 system included.
*- RR's system nearly fully integrated. (please refer to RR/RC OCT 30 post for more detailed changes)

5. Traits & Ancillaries

*- 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.

And these ones are just the ones i remember/important ones.
MANY MANY MANY other changes made, which i cannot remember because of 2 years of mod development. 

THE STAINLESS STEEL 6.3 TEAM:

gracul
leader, coding, mapping, CAI, etc...

King Kong
SS 6.1

Point Blank
RR/RC, lots of things

Byg
support and BGR

Caesar Clivus
support and CBUR

Rozanov
coding and ideas

Germanicu5
coding and ideas, BAI

y2day
art & graphics

Awellesley
units & support


BETA TESTING:

Smikis
bane tw
sancco
TheColdTruth
Zanze
CamilleBonparte
adecoy95
nonnob3
Pedrol
Navajo Joe

THANKS:

Savage (CAI)
Caralampio
wolfslayer
Santiago de Pola
davide.cool (better grass)
Argent Usher (real horses)
Agis Tournas & Anthonius II (CBUR)
Magus (Crismon Tide)
Lord Calidor (KT mod)
agart (castle & city strat models)
Agis Tournas (Unit Card improvement)
Seether (AFR mod)
Soupdragon (EE watchtower)
Chimaeira (SSTC)
Lord Condormanius (Mailed Knights)
Akvilonn (additional unit info cards)
MADTAO (polish units)
Csatadi (hungarian map guidelines)
gewehr36 (pagan mongols)
Cedric37 (UI's)
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)

All the people in the SS forums
who posted bugs and fixes!

Special thanks to all the people on the TWC forums
providing tools for easier mod editing!

Sorry you had to wait so long for this folks! 

F.A.Q
(Frequently Asked Questions)

Q:Which MTW2 patches do I need?
A: SS6.3 runs on any version of kingdoms expansion. So a kingdoms install out-of-the-box is as good as the 1.5 patch.

Q: Which kingdoms campaign do I have to install?
A: Actually, you don't need any. In the kingdoms setup, you can just uncheck all the campaigns and the 1.4 patch will install automatically. You will have to manually move kingdoms.exe from the CD through. (for example from CD:\teutonic\main)

Q: How come i can now alt+tab out of the game and no loading bar pops-up?
A: Blessings of auto-borderless mode, which is handled by the launcher.exe. Now you don't have to waste time waiting for the turns to change or battlemap to load - you can just alt+tab and do other stuff on the computer!

Q: How come this borderless window mode doesn't work for me?
A: Your desktop resolution must be the same as the in-game resolution, otherwise the launcher will force disable it.

Q: I don't like borderless window mode, what now?
A: Inside your SS folder, there is a file default.cfg. Open it with notepad, and change "autoBorderlessMode=true" to "autoBorderlessMode=false". You can also modify other launcher features there, like the ability to swap battle AI's, auto redirect system.log.txt to SS folder, and menu music swapping.

Q: My SS have crashed, what to do?
A: First, you can try replaying that part - random crashed do occur even in vanilla. Second, if the crash is repeating, create a post at the bug-forums, and describe your bug as well as attach the last 100 lines of your log file (you can access it from the start menu group). Third, you can post the savegame file, which will greatly increase the chance of the problem getting fixed. Even if the cause of the crash does not appear in the log, it can be traced by memory. SS should be as stable and even a little bit more stable then vanilla 

Q: How do I speed up the time between turns?
A: Unfortunately, there is not much to do. The code used in SS is huge, and MTW2 does not really offer any code optimization when it comes to script handling. Be aware that playing with BGR can increase your turn time by 100%!

Q: Wow! Battle map is very laggy!
A: If you have an older computer, you may want to your SS directory, and inside default.ini change "unit_detail=highest", to "unit_detail=low". Why is this by default set to highest? because when using the highest option MTW2 is forced to use models at any distance, instead of using spirites. What were the spirites you might ask? The little funny-looking images of soldiers when you zoom out a little.

Q: Why do i have to use SS_setup.exe and launcher.exe?
A: Because you don't want to manually mess with SS insides. 

Q: That's all? 2 years for just a couple of features?
A: SS was turned inside-out, what’s left of 6.1 in its original state is only some textures and models...

Q: I like the music, how can i extract it from SS?
A: All the new music files SS uses are located in data\sounds\music.

Q: I've spotted a bug! Now what?
A: If what you found is a graphical glitch, typo, inaccessible resource or anything like that, just make a reply post in the official 6.3 bug thread, you can find it as a sticky in the bug report forums.

Q: Is submod X compatible with SS 6.3?
A: The answer is no. If it wasn't designed strictly for 6.3, there is about 1% chance its compatible.

Q: Hey! You said max faction limit is reached, and i can still see 2 faction slots free!
A: Yep, there is one slot free, but there is not much to do with it, since the EDU is out of units. What's fun in a faction with no unique units? If ever proper room is made, Point Blank will be the one to make it. Increasing the number of playable factions will also have an impact on the turn time, which is already too long.

Q: I have a suggestion to add XYZ to ZYX, how about that?
A: Good suggestions are always welcome, but sometimes implementing them can be pretty much impossible. Any suggestions you might have should be directed at the suggestions thread.

Q: Where can i read more about Byg's Grim Reality mod?
A: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=106060 , first post. It's worth to read.

Q: Where can i read more about Real Recruitment?
A: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=300716 , first post. Also worth to read 

Q: How can i express my gratitude for the mod?
A: Well, a good way to do that would be some nice flowers for your girlfriend, or a beer for your boyfriend. We don't really accept any other form of gratitude then actually playing the mod.

Q: Why mongols say 'my sultan' when they are pagans and are lead by a khan? Same goes for cumans!
A: Mongol voices were never properly in the game. They have some voices in vanilla, but these are just battle map voices and voices 'when you play any other faction but them'. So if you happen to play them in vanilla(by modding the game) they are mute. That's why we don't have a proper voice pack for them - would have to make one. If you have a Mongolian accent and speak English, be sure to pm me. 

Q: I've got steam, what to do?
A: First, i always hoped making a custom .exe file would fix using mods with steam, but no one ever using steam would reply to me asking if they can check if a custom exe does the job. So it's like a blind man walking in a desert searching for water. Yep, he can still fall into an oasis and drown, but what the chance? You can visit http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=329561 if the current solutions are not working.

Q: My MTW2 is installed on a different drive then SS, do i have to reinstall.
A: Due to SS's nature, you can just move its folder around/change its name as you wish, so just move SS to the right disk. You'll have to manually take care of the start menu and desktop icons though.

Q: Faction ZXC is too strong!
A: No! ZXC is weak, look at ZXCASD, that's what we call hammer time! There are no overpowered nations in this game, its just that some factions have a harder time battling other factions. For example, Poland has very good cavalry, that can just roll over many of the western knights, but they would be nearly useless against Scottish pikes.
If what you meant was the political situation in the game, then if your using Gracul's or Savage's AI then everything should be well balanced. Lusted's AI is favouring large factions.

Q: Where are my SS screenshots?
A: Inside your MTW2 dir, tgas folder.

Q: Can I use feature ZXC in my own mod?
A: An appropriate PM to the feature creator is a good way to start.

Q: Faction ZXC isn't not represented historically correct, you should change a lot of stuff!
A: Some thing had to be sacrificed for gameplay. Yes, we could represent the HRE with a huge amount of knights and a lot of cities to represent their population, but we are unable to represent their internal conflicts which made them not steamroll over poland for example. Same goes with a lot of other factions.

SS 6.3이 나왔습니다.

다른 버전은 필요없이 이 버전만 받아서 설치하면 됩니다.

[Charging]

.........어? 깔자깔자!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tt안뇽.
스탠드얼론이 너무 맘에드는군요 ㅋ_ㅋ

[코르]

ㅡㅡㅋ tt를 관둬야 하나........

[Charging]

전작에 비해 유닛추가는 제로에 가까움 아 발틱모드의 폴란드팩션은 추가.[스킨변화니 유닛 추가는 실질적으로 3미만?]
스팀에 모드가 추가가되는것같음[ㄷㄷ]
각각ai를 내입맞에 맞게 인스톨하고 시작할수있음[이게 제일 큰변화]
여하간 주말에 좀 해봐야것내여..일단 간단하게 요정도..

[듀라셀]

반지의 제왕도 그렇고, 스탠드얼론 버젼 넘 좋군요!

[최하늘]

6.2에서 6.3으로의 변화면 엄청 큰 업데이트인데 BC모드 유닛 추가를 왜 안 한거지….

[최하늘]

가만히 보고 있자하니 미니모드들을 흡수한 것 같군요. 이왕 하는 김에 캠페인 맵의 아프리카 쪽도 좀 수정을 하징-.-;

[안세]

아....다시 시작인가..ㅋ

[변명은죄악이다]

오류뜨면서 압축풀기 실패로 뜨는데 어떻게 해야되죠?

[kojjam]

하루종일받아야할듯 ㅠㅠ

[신윤영]

기존 6.2 rr rc 파이널 버젼에 울티메이트non byg랑 G5BAISwitcher 3.1 RR-RC 이렇게 깔았었는데 삭제하고 클린상태에서6.3만 깔아야되나요??

[비두우카★]

헐... 어떡하지 ㅠㅠ

[사슴너구리]

이거 다운로드 어떻게하나요? 다운로드 파트 눌러봐도 반응이없네요;;