I wrote an Unofficial Troop Editor for Mount & Blade which allows direct editing of the troops.txt, parties.txt and party_templates.txt files and should be compatible with M&B versions 0.9 - 1.x as well as M&B Warband. This allows viewing and modifying the following information:

+ troop names
+ troop attributes
+ troop proficiencies
+ troop skills
+ troop items
+ troop upgrade paths
+ troop flags
+ troop factions
+ troop faces
+ troop skins
+ parties
+ party templates

This could be useful to better balance individual troops and factions for your own personal use or possibly to create a new mod for Mount & Blade. Even if this is not used to directly edit the files this may be useful as a modding tool since it allows the ability to easily review troop information which may be helpful in balancing the game when making mods. I've done testing with this on several versions of M&B and everything seems to work fine but please let me know if there are any problems. A screenshot is below and please post on the forum if there are any questions. thanks

Screenshot:

Forum:


Notes:

Morgh's Text Editor - Morgh is working on a text editor that is similar or most likely better then mine. I recommend checking out the thread below if you are interested in trying this on as well:
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,105928.msg2606968.html

k0nr@d Excel Editor - k0nr@d also has an excel based text file editor that you can download in the thread below:
http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,117997.0.html

Changes and Saved Games - A lot of information in these text files are also saved within your saved game file so any changes made with the troop editor may not take effect immediately in your saved game. When testing saved games some changes seem to take effect immediately, some after waiting several days of game time for a new troop or party to spawn on the map, and some never update. This behavior may have also switched between version 0.9x and 1.x and the M&B developers would be the only ones that could tell us exactly what changes would and would not work. Therefore, if you are modifying these text files and want to guarantee that your changes are working you should start a new game.

NOTE: It is possible to refresh the module data so some changes can be visible in saved games.
1) You need to enable edit & cheat mode in the M&B configuration menu
2) Then press CTRL+M on the world map in-game
3) You should see a message that it was refreshed.

I do not know exactly what this functionality does but it has been helpful when doing some testing and not having to always start a new game each time. However, if you want to guarantee your changes work then you need to start a new game.


Adding new Troops - Troops are referenced in other files by a troop number, therefore it is not possible to add new troops to the middle of the text file without messing up the rest of the game. It is possible to add new troops to the bottom of the file and then add them into the party_templates or as an upgrade path.
- Balrog wrote a text summary of this process:
- skiddledou wrote a summary with pictures:

Changing Gender and Skins - This editor allows you to switch the gender and also to choose order skins (ie. races) in the game. There is an undead troop in the Native game which is Skin 2 and other mods may have added additonal skins. Switching between Male & Female should not cause a problem, but using other skins may cause problems. If you want to use Skin 2 or higher then you need to make sure you have limit_hair_colors = 0 in your module.ini and also that that Skin # exists in the skins.txt file.

Backup your files - This editor does not create backup copies of any files it modifies so I suggest at the minimum backing up the troops.txt, parties.txt and party_templates.txt files before modifying them. if you are going to try this editor out for the first time you can make a copy of the Native module and then try and edit that.

Converting text files to the module system - The troop editor directly updates troops.txt, so if you were to re-build your mod using the module system your changes to this file will be overwritten. However, kt0 has written a script to convert the troops.txt and parties.txt into python code which would then be usable in the module system. So if you want to use this editor to make changes and then re-compile your mod you now can.
troops.txt - http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,69313.0.html
parties.txt - http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,61873.0.html
item_kinds1.txt - http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,59985.0.html (if you used the unofficial item editor)
party_templates.txt - these changes cannot be converted to module system code

Windows Vista - Several users have had issues trying to use the unofficial editors (and mods in general) with the Windows Vista operating system. I do not have Vista but most likely you will need to start this editor with Admin rights or it will prevent you from modifying text files. I believe this functionality is a security feature called VirtualStore that primarily protects the C:Program Files folder so I think problems installing mods or using editors in Vista is most common for people who have the game installed into that directory. Apparently you can find the files under the "C:UsersYOURUSERNAMEAppDataLocalVirtualStoreProgram Files" folder or some people have re-installed M&B into a different directory and found that this worked as well.

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Troop Editor Installation Package:
This is a full installation package for the Troop Editor that contains all the required files. You should download and try running this version if you get any errors when trying to use the editor. For example, one user reported an ActiveX error in Windows Vista and this resolved his issue.


Troop Editor Source Code:
The Troop Editor should currently be compatible with M&B 1.x. However, I do not have time to update or maintain this in the future so have published my source code in case anybody is interested in reviewing it.


Credits:
thanks to Jordan and his great item editor for assistance with understanding the troops file


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FILE HISTORY:

March 21, 2008 - version 1.0
Initial release with the ability to edit troop names, attributes, proficiencies, skills, and items.

April 4, 2008 - version 1.1
Editor now includes the ability to edit troop upgrade paths and flags. Also included some minor bug fixes.

April 10, 2008 - version 1.2
Editor now includes the ability to edit troop factions and faces. Also included some data validation and minor bug fixes.

May 5, 2008 - version 1.3
Editor now has the ability to modify some of the data in the party_templates.txt file. Made the editor compatible with M&B version 0.950 (version 0.90x still works). Removed COMDLG32 from the code so Windows Vista users will not get an error. Minor changes to the interface and some bug fixes.

June 3, 2008 - version 1.4
Editor now has the ability to modify some of the data in the parties.txt file. Minor changes were made to the Browse button functionality and the interface.

March 12, 2009 - version 1.5
Very minor update to fix the parties.txt option to work with M&B 1.x, enabled changes to the looting skill, fixed a crash when trying to remove items, and removed the Face Codes section since it doesn't currently work in 1.x.

January 8, 2010 - version 1.6
Updated to allow changing face codes and skins for troops in M&B 1.x, also some minor bug fixes.

February 1, 2010 - version 1.7
Minor update so if the editor cannot determine what version the mod is it will default to M&B 1.010/1.011.

February 3, 2010 - version 1.8
Another minor update to try and fix a bug that was causing the invalid line #8 error for some users.

April 8, 2010 - version 1.9
Update to also allow modification of M&B Warband files.