Welcome to the new Total War launcher!

Behind the Scenes

Tom Phillips
February 26 2019

We’re happy to announce that we’ve just rolled out a new launcher for Total War: ATTILA, Total War: ROME II, Total War Saga: THRONES OF BRITANNIA, Total War: WARHAMMER, and Total War: WARHAMMER II.

The new Total War launcher BETA

The Total War launcher is an important hub for all our Total War games and we’re committed to improving it to ensure that it provides the best experience for all fans of our games. This release is the next step in an ongoing cycle of support and development to help shape our launcher into the perfect window into the world of Total War.

If you have any feedback on the new launcher, please let us know in this thread on the official forums.

What features does it have?

The launcher has three key features: the Game menu, the Store, and the Mod Manager. These will change the information they show depending on whether you own a specific game or not.

Game, Store and Mod manager menus for Total War: WARHAMMER II

Game

This is the primary menu for each Total War title, and a great place to find all the latest news and information about them. This menu knows if you own a game or not and whether it is currently installed, and will update itself to match. In addition, you can also access certain launch options if the game in question has them.

Store

This section of the launcher shows you all the content related to a specific Total War game including all available DLC and FLC. Clicking on a specific piece of content will link you straight to the Steam store, with the launcher reacting to your current ownership status of each game. The 'Store' menu shows the DLC/ FLC for Total War: ROME II

Mod Manager

Finally we come to the new Mod Manager menu, which gives you much more launcher space to view your mod lists in.

The 'Mod Manager' for Total War: WARHAMMER II

This new version supports all the features of the previous version with a couple of new additions:

  • It has a number of options to filter and sort the mods you have downloaded
  • You can choose to (de)activate mods one by one or en masse
  • View many more details of the mods you have installed, calling up the entire Steam Workshop page within the mod manager
  • You can see the status of the mod, whether it’s up to date, or one of your own mod projects. You can also delete mods within the Mod Manager

Viewing the status of your mods.

  • You can also change the load order of mods if you need to. Most modders build their mods with default load orders in mind, so you’ll get presented an error message before you change any load orders just in case. If you’re worried you’ve messed up the load order, you can also set it back to default
  • Finally, we’ve updated the mod warning message, which when dismissed will take you back to the launcher to allow you to further tweak your active mod list

A notice to let you know which mods you are using before you launch.

We hope you like the new Total War launcher!

Once again, if you have any feedback, please let us know in this thread on the official forums.

Notes on our Beta Launcher

Here are a few things we’re aware of and will address in subsequent patches as we continue to improve the overall experience:

Mods

  • The drag-and-drop UI to reorder mods needs some improvement
  • Mods that change startpos data for ROME II can’t be processed
  • “Coming soon” tooltip for THREE KINGDOMS Mod Manager is not localised
  • The Mod Manager is greyed out for most games. The Mod Manager will only be active for the game you’ve launched from. A tooltip will be added to make this clearer after release

A few things to note that are intentional in the design but may be perceived as issues by some users:

Localization

  • The launcher matches the Steam UI language as opposed to the preferred in-game language (this is a change from the previous launcher)
  • Promotional or game-related content within the launcher is not localised (English only). Only the UI in the launcher (buttons, notice messages, options) has been localised

FAQ

My launcher will not load

  • If your launcher is not loading, please navigate to the Launcher folder by taking the following steps:
    1. Open a file browser window
    2. In the address bar, type %appdata% and hit enter
    3. Double-click on the folder called The Creative Assembly
    4. Delete the Launcher folder if it is present. This will remove any corrupted or old launcher data
  • If you have an antivirus program installed, it may have erroneously quarantined or deleted the launcher application. To verify your installation and redownload any missing files, do the following:
    1. Open your Steam client’s Library tab
    2. Right-click on the game title in your library list
    3. Click Properties, then go to the Local Files tab
    4. Click Verify Integrity of Game Files
  • To prevent your antivirus software from quarantining or deleting the launcher again:
    • Create permissions for the launcher by making an exception in your antivirus program
    • Disable your antivirus program while redownloading game files and re-launching the game

My game crashes upon clicking the “Play” button

Please submit a ticket to the Sega Customer Support team at https://support.sega.co.uk/ – we may need you to provide some game files so we can troubleshoot the problem. Create a new folder on your PC’s desktop to store them in, then follow these steps to make copies of the following files from the following locations:  

    1. Open a file browser window
    2. In the address bar, type %appdata% and hit enter
    3. Navigate to The Creative Assembly then ThreeKingdoms
    4. Copy the following files from the following locations:
      • Open the crash_report folder and copy the latest .mdmp and stack.txt files
      • Open the Logs folder and copy the modified.log file
      • Open the save_games folder and copy your latest .save file
      • Open the scripts folder and copy the preferences.script file
    5. Navigate up one level to the folder titled The Creative Assembly and copy the following file from the following location:
      • Open the Launcher folder and copy the moddata.dat file
    6. Finally, generate a DXDIAG report for us so we can examine your hardware and driver configuration. Here’s how:
      • Hold WIN+R on your keyboard, type dxdiag in the box and hit enter
      • Click save all information to the same location where you’re storing all above files.

The continue campaign option sends me to the main menu of the game

  • Please submit a ticket to the Sega Customer Support team at https://support.sega.co.uk/with details about the issue and the attached save game file, located using the instructions above
  • If you have recently purchased or activated DLC content, please ensure any content present in the save game is enabled on Steam

My mod is not working in game or not appearing in the Mod Manager

  • Make sure your mod is enabled in the new Mod Manager and when loading the game please ensure you click “Play” when a warning notice appears about using mods
  • Please close the launcher and delete the Launcher folder present
  • Open a file browser window by following these instructions:
    • In the address bar, type %appdata% and hit enter
    • Double-click on the folder called The Creative Assembly
    • Delete the Launcher folder if it is present. This will remove any corrupted or old launcher data.
  • A new Launcher folder will be generated upon opening the Launcher again
  • If the issue still persists, please submit a customer support ticket via https://support.sega.co.uk/ and provide us with the following:
    • Mod data file, located in the The Creative Assembly -> Launcher folder
    • The modified.Log file, located in the The Creative Assembly -> ThreeKingdoms -> Logs folder
  • If you feel it is a specific mod causing this issue, please provide the Steam Workshop URL of this mod
    • If a mod you are creating is not showing in the Mod Manager, please make sure it is located in the correct game data folder (e.g. The Creative Assembly -> Rome2 -> Data)

The mod list in the notice for mods enabled shows random strings of characters instead of my mod name

  • Please close the launcher and delete the Launcher folder present in: Drive:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly
  • A new Launcher folder will be generated upon opening the launcher again

My mod is still not working

Please close the launcher and delete the Launcher folder located here:

  • Open a file browser window
    • In the address bar, type %appdata% and hit enter
    • Double-click on the folder called The Creative Assembly
    • Delete the Launcher folder if it is present. This will remove any corrupted or old launcher data.

A new Launcher folder will be generated upon opening the launcher again.

  • Please try re-exporting your mod using the Assembly Kit tools, and make sure it’s in the relevant data folder (e.g. The Creative Assembly -> Rome2 -> Data)
  • If the issue still persists, please submit a customer support ticket via https://support.sega.co.uk/

I’m getting a message that says “Launcher is taking longer than expected to start” – what do I do?

  • This message will appear if the launcher takes 30 seconds or more to load. This allows users experiencing delays in the launcher to play the game
  • If you’re seeing this message, you have the option to wait (“Wait another 30 seconds”) or launch the game (“Play now”)
  • If the issue still persists, please submit a customer support ticket via https://support.sega.co.uk/