Modding Guide

Customize your AWoIaF experience beyond the in-game options. This guide covers save file editing with Warbender, basic modding with Morgh’s Editor, and advanced file editing. Always back up your files before making changes.

Some players may want to customize their AWOIAF experience beyond what can be provided in-game. This page contains some helpful information about how to make some edits to your savegame or make broader changes to the mod. It is recommended to always keep backups of all the files you edit or modify. This guide also applies to save file edits and modding in native Warband and to most other mods as well.

For more extensive modding, it is important to note that AWOIAF is a closed-source mod, which means that its module system is not publicly available. The module system is a method used to make modding easier, allowing for programming using Python and easier human-readable methods, which are then compiled into the mod files such as the text files strings.txt and troops.txt. It is possible to make changes in the mod without the module system, but for some tasks, this is very cumbersome. Unlike the module system files, the resulting compiled files like strings.txt are mostly in the form of machine code, which makes them difficult to understand and edit. Using, for example, a Large Language Model (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) may be helpful in understanding and changing these files.

Save File Editing


To edit save games, you need a save game editor. Editors include, for example, Warbender and MnB save game editor. This guide will use Warbender, but almost the same principles apply to the MnB save game editor. Warbender is available here.

The general principle of save game editing is that most relevant and editable information in the save game is numerical values stored in variables such as “slots” associated with the object in question. This could be, for example, a troop, a faction, or an item, all of which have their own “pages” in the editor. Some features, such as troop “flags” regarding whether or not they are a hero character, are not stored in slots and cannot be edited by save game editors, and instead require modding.

With save game editing, you can change most things that already change or could in theory be changed by actions during gameplay. For example, the player and some other NPCs can in theory recruit various troops, own fiefs, recruit companions, own items, and marry a lord or lady. But save editing cannot add completely new features, like brand new items, fiefs, troops, or unique quests. For example, if a troop already exists in the game, you can add it to your party, but you cannot create a completely new troop or massively change its properties just by editing the save.

Warbender


  • First, the basics of how to get started with Warbender. You can download Warbender from the GitHub of the creator, found here. Look for WarBender-1.0.4.zip. Download this file and extract it to a folder of your choice. Open the folder and run WarBender.UI.exe. The program will start and ask you to provide it with the save game to open and edit. By default, Mount and Blade Warband save games are found in the user’s Documents folder, for example “\Documents\Mount&Blade Warband WSE2\A World of Ice and Fire\Savegames” if you’re using WSE2 as recommended. The savegame files are named, for example sg00.sav. The number of the save corresponds to its location in the save game screen in-game: Top left is 00, top right is 03, bottom right is 09, and so on. Figure out which is the save you want to edit. The timestamp of the save can help, as your most recent save will be the save that has the most recent “Date modified” value.
  • After you select your save, you will be asked to provide the module.ini file of the module of the savegame. In the Steam version, by default this can be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\48700\948075218.
  • After that, you will likely see the error message shown below. Press Yes. This is just a warning that some values shown in the editor are not labelled
  • You should now see the main page of the save editor, as shown below. For example, here we have open sg04.sav. The main page lists some basic values of the savegame, like the current date. Various other variables are found, for example under global_variables, where slot 333 contains the player’s right to rule. On each page, on the left is shown the variable, and on the right is shown the current value of that variable in the savegame. On the far left is a box with folders such as “Factions”, “Parties”, and “Troops” which contain the pages of specific elements like specific parties on the map and NPCs and troops that can be found in the game.
  • Each of these elements has various slots whose values can be changed to affect the world in your save game in various ways.

Below are listed guides for a few common use cases of save file editing. These provide examples of actions available through save game editing, and similar principles can be helpful in figuring out other use cases. Note that some variables shown in the editor cannot always be changed, as they give an error if you try to change them, e.g., some changes to troop “flags”.

After the edits, remember to always save your changes into a new changed save. Select File -> Save as -> Save, for example as Sg01.sav or whatever number you want the save to have. Open it in game. If all went well, your save will open, and the changes you made are applied.

Modding (with Morgh’s)


The easiest changes are those that can be made using Morgh’s editor. You can download it, for example from Nexus, but you need a Nexus Mods account to start the download.

Morgh’s editor can be used to make, for example, the following changes: 1) Edit existing troop properties like their skills and items. 2) Add or remove new types of troops, including hero NPCs. 3) Edit item properties. 4) Change unique non-hero troops into hero companions.

Changes made using Morgh’s affect the whole mod, not just your save file, so it is recommended that you make a whole separate mod based on the existing mod, instead of simply editing the existing mod.

Note: Existing saves are usually not compatible with changes. For some changes, the initial values are applied only when starting a new game and then kept stored in the save file, and therefore saves from before the modding changes are not applied. For other changes, the change is so large that saves from before the changes no longer work properly. It is therefore recommended to always start a new game after making changes with Morgh’s editor.

Start Your Own Mod

  • To start your own mod based on AWOIAF, go to the folder of the AWOIAF module (default on Steam is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\48700\948075218) and copy it into Modules (default on Steam is C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\MountBlade Warband\Modules) and give the folder a new name like “My_Custom_AWOIAF”.
  • Extract the file “Morghs M&B WB-WFAS Editor.exe” somewhere on your computer. Easiest is to put it into the folder of your custom mod. Run it. You get an introduction screen shown below, where you need to press Accept.
  • After that, you will see the screen shown below.
  • As AWOIAF is a closed-source mod, you do not have the Module system. Therefore, choose “Text compiled files“. For the “Text compiled files configuration“, press Browse and choose your custom mod folder. Then press Save configuration.
  • You are now using Morgh’s editor to browse the .txt files of the mod. On the right, you see various options, like the troops and items editor.
  • As an example, we will make a simple edit to an existing troop. Press “Troop editor”. It will open a page where, on the left, is a long list containing all the different troops (including unique NPCs) of the mod. Choose the troop you want to edit. For example, in the image below, the troop page of Mya Stone is open.
  • You can change the listed features of the troop. For example, you could change Mya Stone’s STR value from 15 to 20. After you have changed the values, press “Update Troop #” at the top, and then press Save Changes. You will be shown the values in the new entry, and upon saving, will be asked if you want a timestamped backup. Once you have saved the changes, when you start a new game in your mod, the changes will be applied, e.g., Mya Stone will now start at 20 strength instead of 15.

Advanced Modding (without Morgh’s)


Editing without Morgh’s requires parsing through the text files of the mod, which, as noted above, are not written to be easily human-readable. While challenging, some changes can still be made. Here are given two examples of such changes:

Credits

This guide is written by Aarros and designed by lime.

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