Fall of Rome - Total War

[UglyandHasty]

Hi,
I have install version 2 then 2.1, but each time i try to play a battle i have an error. It say Hard sprites failed to load. I am pretty sure i download everything in right folders but obviously i messed up somewhere. Otherwise campaigns look good. Any advices ?

[Empedocles]

Maximus (and the people who is working in the best mod I played!)
I'm writing so you have my impressions of the lacks of the mod that I believe are important to be fixed in the future.
I believe the enemies are not as agressive as they should be. Franks attacks Flanders, southern Britain and maybe another province and they stop atacking without a good reason (my armies where decimated and of very low quality troops). Germasn only attacked me in Lorraine at the begining, Swabia few years later, and Burgundy when I have mastered a good army!
Visigoths is almost the same, and they stop attacking in Austria when they could have easily conquest venice.
I think is not a matter of starting the game (I played it in Expert and always with romans) with a bunch of really low quality units in one side and the barbarias with lots of medium quality units on the other side.
After few years (I losted Britain excetp Wessex to my regret) I could easily start a reconquest campaing that quickly put those barbarians on their knees.
In my opinion the barbarians should have a more agressive strategic and better upgrading ability (I don't think they developed new units in the whole game).

But the diloyal of the generals (that eventually erupted in civil war) was really cool and hard to manage.

Well, that was my opinion, sorry for the english and thanks again for the mod!!

Diego from Argentina

PS: I'm the only one that believe RTW demo sucked in everything but in graphics and soundS?????

[maximus decimus meridius]

Iksender.

I think that you haven't right unitgraphics in the right folders, try to reinstall the 2.0 and then the 2.1 version. if it shouldn't work try to download again the 2.0.

sorry...


Empedocles.

You can't play always with the romans after the 458ad ? i'll make some tests.
anyway in the next version i'll try to make the barbarians more aggressive, for instance in some campaigns will be easier to make barbarian invasions, there will be a small economic tree for the german kingdoms in order to give them more economical resources, some new units like:

Daylami infantry (persians)
Legiones Pseudocomitatenses (rom.)
Praetoriani (rom.)
Equites catafractarii (rom.)
Romano British warbands

i'm thinking about some new german troops ....

cheers max

[Empedocles]

Maximus.
The problem I had with Romans after 458 was when I had version 2.0. Now I have 2.1 and doesn't seem to be any issue.
I believe that in order to give the barbarians more power you should unite those nations, so they can work as one.
Examples: Goths. We all know the diferences of the west and east goths, but in the end when things got ugly, they unit and rampaged trough Trhacia without hesitation.
Also I think you should remove the Lombards because they always take a number of provinces from the Germans and Franks and they wasn't that important in history.
I'm not saying you shoul remove completely the units of this nations, but they should be in the tech tree of others nations.
Well, that was almost everything. I'm now playing a new campaing with romans (I really love them!!) in expert in 430 AD. I hope it would be fun.

Bye

PS: THanks for this mod

[UglyandHasty]

Maximus

Yesterday i re-install the mens files into the texture/mens folders and you were right it was the mens graphics in wrong folder. Thanks anyway.

I realy like your mod. My first campaign as the roman was a surprise. I had generals or prince in rebellion almost every turn. Good job ! FoR mod will be on my list of good mod with BKB's, Nap mod, Shogun mod and HTW !!!

[Empedocles]

maximus,
I have posted few posts but I really enjoy your mod and I want to thank you for that.
But in order to be more correct in the history of Rome there are some changes I believe you should make in the 430 AD campaign.
In 429 the vandals crossed from Hispania to Africa with 80000 followers who rampaged trough all Mauritania without oposition but didn't take Carthage till AD 439. So I believe you should limit the control of the vandals to mauretania and Granada and not central Hispania, which should be given to a significant number of rebels to represent the bagaudas (don't know the traduction to english) who where bandits that consumed much of Rome, Visigoths and Franks military power in those years.
Also consider that vandals created a naval empire in few years so they should start with a number of ships.
Around those years the Huns rampaged through modern Georgia and Khazzar so you might want to add Georgia to their empire.
I saw in a long time post that you asked for a name to give to the Papal Faction and you said that you couldn't change it from campaing to campaing. So if you couldn't make the Pope be relegated to Finland you should just call that faction the "Catholic Church".
One fact that should be change is that even after the 407 invasion of Gaul and the sack of Rome in 410 the Roman Empire could restore the Rhin frontier in few years and controlled all France until the invasion of Atila in 451.
The problem with those invasion was that they devastated the economy of every country from the Po river to the English Channel, so the Empire would never have enough money to raise troops of their own and hire barbarians. Also they sacked Hispania and allowed the barbarians to establish themselves inside the empire (Vandals, Suevis, Goths, etc), but it was not until the king of the huns arrived (and with him a lot of other nations) that Rome lost control of Gaul.

Also (i'm a never satisfied customer ) I'd like to post the starting years I believe that would be great to start play with. (I can only contribute with the Historical part because don't know shit about modding)
AD 400: With goths near Venice and an inestable truce between them and Rome. Franks and the Allemani would cross the Rhin in 7 years and Stilicho should be in the middle of this shit. Also consider to upgrade the Catle in West Italy to simbolyza Ravena that was the last bastion of the Imperator.
AD 445: Huns in Thracia, with Rome controlling only the west coast of Hispania and few provinces in Gaul. (Lorraine included).

Thanks

Diego, from Argentina
PS: THANKS AGAIN FOR THE MOD

[JR-]

is this mod due for an update anytime soon? new features, bugs squashed, that sort of thing....... :)

[maximus decimus meridius]

All.

it will be a 3.0 version of the mod within september 04, greater than the previous version. there will be new units (like the Pseudocomitatenses legions, Romano-british warbands, Rugian warriors, Heruli warriors, etc.), small techtree for Germans and Pagans (level 1), small economical tree for germans and 2 new campaigns; 304ad (maxentius vs. constantinus) and 470ad (the last stand of the west). besides there will be new unitgraphics for Romans and Germans. :)
Oh. i put the limit between early and high era in 475ad, now the Byzantines in the early era have the roman units and in the high era have Byzantine early medieval units such as Kataphraktoi and Stratiotai.

Empedocles.

About the Pope, i removed him from the game, so he now act as a power that excommunicates catholic factions and authorizes Crusades ... but he hasn't units or countries in the game.
about the vandal and the hun problems ..... yes you are right so i'll try to give the factions the proper start positions, also about the 400ad and 445ad i'll make some tests, and if these 2 campaigns will be funny i'll put them in the next version.

cheers

[Empedocles]

Maximus,
I'm already waiting for the release of 3.0 in September, and I encourage you to continue working in other upgrades besides RTW.
As I told you I can make a description of the historical situation in 470 and 304 to be placed in a readme or in the game so you would be more historical accurate.
For example, I was reading yesterday that Rome didn't lost control of Gaul till the first years of the 470 decade and it included the rhin frontier. Although the bandits where endemic controlling central Gaul, The kingdon of Soissons (west of flanders) was an ally of Rome and survived till 486 and the Goths have sieged Arles.
If you want I can start working in that part of the game, just tell me.

Bye


PS: Anyone knows what expansion of RTW are they working on??? (Please tell me it's the Fall of Rome)
PS: Maximus, a campaing that would be really cool (but units where different from those of 304, was one with imperator Aurelianus in 270 when Rome only controlled Italy, Africa and the Danube Frontier. Gaul was lost and in the East the Palmyra empire involved much of byzantine territory.

[Belisarivs]

Hi Max.
I don't know if I informed you, but I'm SpetzNatz, but I can't obtain new password, so I use this nick.
I have some info for you. Go to http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/n...0.exe?download , install, go to bin folder where you installed it, rin zip2exe. Pack your mod to zip (with correct structure of folders, just like in MTW) and open that zip in zip2exe. Set parameters at will and click generate (I suggest usage lzma compression).
That's all you need to do to make installer of your mod.
And pearl at the end: I managed to pack your mod v2 (in zip about 24 - 26 MB) to 14,5 MB. I kid you not!!!

[maximus decimus meridius]

Empedocles.

I'm thinking in these days that it would be a nice thing to add the romano-gauls Kingdom of Soissons to the 470ad campaign ..... mmmhh ... what do you think about this?

so if you can write the historical situation about the470, i think that i can put it in the game, so thanks for your help, every players will thank you for doing it.



About the Aurelian campaign, probably it's a good idea but i think that i can't put it in the game without change deeply some essential files of the game, so i would prefer to make this in a next version (4.0 ??)

Belisarivs

Hi mate! Glad to see you! thanks for the infos i'll test what you said me. The 3.0 version actually run smootly i have to make some graphic work in order to finish it, but it is almost done (i'm making some tests with new units now, yesterday i've made 2 Gepid units ...), so ehm... what about your uniitgraphic work? can you upload some screenshots?

see you in the next days!

[Consul Flaminius]

So is the mod nearly ready for release?

[maximus decimus meridius]

Yes, i hope within september, now i'm making a independent roman faction in order to represent probably the Kingdom of Soissons (in gaul - 470ad campaign) and the african army of Bonifacius (the Aetius' rival) in africa during the 430 ad campaign.

max

[dimitrios the samian]

Excellent work Maximus ,
Ive been silently following the progress of your mod as well .
I haven't played any of your earlier versions as yet , just been busy with VI .
Even if V.3 is released in early October Im sure most wouldn't mind .
Im definately looking forward to playing it and don't forget that self installer either .
cheers pal

[manu7777]

hello,
congratulations for this excellent mod. just a little problem... roman shields aren't correct :
the most needed correction is for all roman infantry and for all period:
all legions must have scutum :
http://www.varmouries.com/vpics/anc_50a.jpg
auxiliary infantry haven't any shield
triarii infantry have special ovoid shield like hastatii : http://romandomain.120host.net/Units.htm
and after :
all equites have ovoid shield like that :
http://www.oakengates.com/history/images/Cavalry_5.jpg

i think that it would great to have praetorians guards unit with pilum and scutum, slow unit, excellent attack, excellent defence, excellent defence vs cavalry, excellent morale, very expensive unit, elite unit, unit in only dark blue color. plz add all these corrections maximus.

if you could add an earlier period it could be FANTASTIC!!!!!!

[manu7777]

shield corrections and praetorians unit are the most importants.

[oldnfaded]

hello,
congratulations for this excellent mod. just a little problem... roman shields aren't correct :
the most needed correction is for all roman infantry and for all period:
all legions must have scutum :
http://www.varmouries.com/vpics/anc_50a.jpg
auxiliary infantry haven't any shield
triarii infantry have special ovoid shield like hastatii : http://romandomain.120host.net/Units.htm
and after :
all equites have ovoid shield like that :
http://www.oakengates.com/history/images/Cavalry_5.jpg

i think that it would great to have praetorians guards unit with pilum and scutum, slow unit, excellent attack, excellent defence, excellent defence vs cavalry, excellent morale, very expensive unit, elite unit, unit in only dark blue color. plz add all these corrections maximus.

if you could add an earlier period it could be FANTASTIC!!!!!!

Err Manu7777, you are talking different eras completely.. This mod is late roman ie 3rd century and later. The shields you discuss are 1st and 2nd century whilst triarii and hastati are pre christian era roman and disappear with the republic. As to auxiliariues being shieldless, where do you get that from. By the time of the mod, auxiliaries are the fighting core of the roman warmachine with the legions performing 2nd line duties and auxiliaries in particular are both heavily armed and well trained as front line formed troops. My critisiscm of an otherwise excellent mod is that its 3D Roman images are 1st and 2nd century rather than the troop types depicted in the Doura wallpaintings relative to this period. By the third century ad Lorica segmentata was giving way to lighter armoured mail and leather armour once more. May i refer you to the excelllent reference books by P. Barker published by Wargames research group which are a cheap and excellent grounding to this period in particular "the Armies and enemies of Imperial Rome"
BTW My criticism of the mod is meant to be constructive. I enjoyed it a lot and indeed used some of its artwork as base for my Arthurian mod.

[maximus decimus meridius]

manu7777.

oldnfaded is right, the mod represents the situation at the end of the empire, 4th to 6th century ad, at that time the standard roman soldier was very different from the earlier republican legionary.
you can see "later roman infantryman" and "later roman cavalryman" osprey books for the correct look.

oldnfaded.

you are right about the type of armors and weapons, the next version infact will have a totally revised roman unitgraphics (infantry and cavalry) with mail armor and oval shields, i've alredy done it. i'll upload some screenshots inthe next days.

bye

max

[manu7777]

ok, but for the moment we"ve no mods about 1st and 2nd Century and this is a real lack cuz rtw will not have good roman units. manu_du_77@hotmail.com this is my e-mail address if u want to explain to me how to add these shield add units or if you know where i can find a mod which talk about this period.
I know that there's a mod called patrician but I've downloaded it and I have an application created by WinPatch, but the problem is that this patch will not be applied in my Medieval total war installation and this is for me a real problem. That could be great if I can extract all datas from this patch.
But for the moment if we consider fall of Rome and Hellenic total war, we can create a nice mod with all the Roman units, Athenians, Macedonians, Persians, and all Barbarians factions with some of viking invasion units. If you are interested, I can mod for the fall of Rome earlier period.

Please contact me.

[oldnfaded]

oldnfaded.

you are right about the type of armors and weapons, the next version infact will have a totally revised roman unitgraphics (infantry and cavalry) with mail armor and oval shields, i've alredy done it. i'll upload some screenshots inthe next days.

bye

max

OH MY!!!
Sorry but my impatience is getting the better of me.



Any chance of an early sighting of the unit Bifs and action files. They are all that is missing from my Arthurian mod. If you are prepared to let me have them early then my e mail is thoughtpolice@terra.es

many thanks

oldnfaded

PS if not , I will wait for the next version "sigh"

?=0)

PPS tried to pm you but your box is full

[Consul Flaminius]

any chance of some screenies

[maximus decimus meridius]

Ok , some old screens .. new screens will be uploaded in the next days.


the Equites Catafractarii.
http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mt...AFRACTARII.JPG

a Pseudocomitatenses Legion

http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mt...EWAUXILIA2.JPG

and the Praetoriani

http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mt...RAETORIANI.JPG

[Empedocles]

maximus, what are the names of the factions you plan to include in the 470 campaing?

Diego

[Consul Flaminius]

nice...........

[maximus decimus meridius]

Oldnfaded.

i'm changing something in my unitgraphics files they aren't finished yet. sorry.

anyway i've clean my box, so please contact me.

[maximus decimus meridius]

These are 2 new units, the Milites Equites and the Milites pedites.


http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mt...TESEQUITES.JPG

[oldnfaded]

latest screen shots are nice. When will the animations be available

oldnfaded

[Dux Syagrius]

Max, I had no idea this thread existed. Sorry for taking all of your time with those long emails. There isnt much info on the Kingdom of Soisson. I do know it was ruled from 466-486 by Dux Syagrius (he stole my name). I tried to represent his lands in my mod of your mod and there is no way to make it match with what is on any map I saw. He was defeated by Clovis and was murdered in 487 by the Visigoths. He was the last Magister Militum per Gaullia. Rumor has it he wrote a letter and promised to save the Romano-Brits during the early barbarian invasions of the island and some historians said he was the basis for the Aurthurian legends. I'm assuming he ruled over a gallo roman aristocracy and used the same troops (foederati, buccelari etc etc) as anyone else in that era.

PS I'm really pissed that I wasted 2 weeks of my life trying to change your mod to suit my needs. Then you come up with this 3.0 jazz and now I am totally dissatisfied with my product.........

I'm leaving this whole mod stuff to the pros.

[maximus decimus meridius]

Hi here is another new unit, the Cuneus Equitum, these units are frontier cavalry units and acted together with the milites limitanei ....


http://www.totalwar.org/Downloads/Mt...EUSEQUITUM.JPG



Dux Syagrius.

where are you read the informations about Syagrus, last magister militum of gaul? i think they are very interesting.
thanks in advance!

[Empedocles]

He was the last Magister Militum in Gaul and when he saw that no help would come from Rome to the province he decided to take the title of Rex Romanun (or something like that) that meant King of the Romans.
I believe we can say that he was the last prescence of the Roman Empire in the West along with another General (one who commanded Julius Nepos forces) that fought a battle in Croatia against Odoacer in 486.
I believe that the Kingdom of Soissons lasted till 484 when Clovis (the second or the first?) conquered his land.
And I know that Soissons was the land that in the game is shown as normandy and flanders.

Bye

Diego