There is a no cd mod for medieval you know. The FPS limiter also works with Medieval too. These two might make things easier for you.
I know FPS limiter works, because I have been using it since I started playing the game. I've only been having this problem since I installed the latest patch. Besides, I fail to see a difference between an older, but modified to suit medieval .bat, and one generated by the limiter, if the .bat is modified properly, and placed in the FPS limiter's folder.
You imply that I should use a mod instead of a crack. Yes, I would do that, but, since, as I have said, using the original exe results in an error, I have little choice. To be more specific, using the original exe only results in an error after I uninstall the new securom version, otherwise the game launches just fine. Point is, I DNW securom, thanks, so that's out of the question.
Is my only option not patching?
ETA: This is what the P&N EULA has to say about Sony's Securom incarnations:
By installing this Software, any Sony SecuROM content protection technology that protected your base game software will be removed and replaced by Content Activation content protection technology by Sony DADC Austria AG. The Content Activation software will ensure that any of your five remaining SecuROM machine licenses associated with your base game software are available for use on other machines and your rights to use and authenticate your base game software should otherwise be unaffected. You can still manage your authorizations yourself by following the de-authorization instructions found at
http://activate.ea.com/deauthorize/.
I don't trust them. Can anyone hazard an opinion on whether this can be allowed to exist on my/any PC?
ETA2:
http://www.reclaimyourgame.com/threads/4978-Warning-EA-has-introduced-SecuROM-to-TSM-in-a-patch-%28apparently%29So, no, it's not safe and should be killed with fire.
About the game, with crack installed, TSM P&N loads just fine. FPS limited too, since I managed to fix that. You have to make sure the .jar file is not associated by default with an application other than Java. Open with will not do, eet wants default association.
Now, when I tried to remove securom last time, it broke my game, as mentioned above, so I'm not looking forward to retrying that method... On the other hand, I can't really play the game as it is, either.
ETA3: After registry and hard drive searching, I can say this: Using a crack prevents securom from installing. Never use the original exe and you should be fine. Create firewall rule too, you never know. Installing P&N fixed whatever was wrong with the game originally. I must have wanted to check if the game ran after patching without a crack originally, and could do that because I had a miniimage in daemon tools, and that's how securom got there in the first place.
It seems to work now (without securom), and it's not going online in any case, but TSM is probably not the only game to get securom-adding patches, so check whatever other EA (and not only, probably) games you play too.
TL;DR: Always use a crack with TSM, at least from version 2.0.13 onwards. If securom was evil enough to warrant suing EA, you don't want it on your PC.