How to fix Rome II launcher crash
Hello and welcome, this is a short tutorial on how to fix Rome II launcher crashes.
A few months ago I started up Rome II like I normally do and upon starting up the launcher, it crashed. I have dealt with some of the other more common Rome II bugs, but never this one, apparently it's one of the less common bugs. My game had been working just fine for weeks, so the crashes seemed to come out of nowhere. As usual I got to work right away trying to find a solution, but nothing seemed to work. I searched across the web for a fix but couldn't find one anywhere; and so after deactivating and deleting all mods, doing a clean re install, verifying the game cache a dozen times, and trying several fix-it-tricks with PM and Pack file editors I was ready to give up. Then one day I finally found the solution. The problem, all along, was with a single file in the Rome II data files called local_en_rome2.pack. Now while I'm not sure what exactly causes this issue I do know how to fix it, and it only takes a few seconds.
Step 1. Find your Rome II data folder
Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Total War Rome II\data
To get there you must first get to Windows (C:), it can be found under "Computer" in Windows XP/Vista/7, Windows 8 users will usually find it under "This PC".
Step 2. Find the file
Once inside the Data folder find the file called local_en_rome2.pack. If it's missing, verify your game cache through steam, and then continue.
Step 3. Rename
Now all you need to do is rename the file. I changed mine to local_en_rome2_fuck.pack. After changing the file name the launcher and your game should all work just fine. This fix changes nothing except the file name, so don't worry about it breaking your game, and you can always change it back if you feel the need to (for whatever reason).
Keep in mind that you will have to go and re-do this fix after each and every Rome II patch or update because they add a new local_en_rome2.pack file. So next time your launcher stops workng go and delete the old file you renamed and then perform this fix on the new file added by the latest patch/update.
