Rome: Total Gameplay (RTG), compatible with vanilla RTW v1.5

[The Spartan (Returns)]

yea chariots are perfect now. much for fun to use as i am experincing in my Briton campaign.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

new names for Roman General Bodyguards:
Legate's Bodyguard(PM)
Legate's Praetorian Bodyguard(AM)
a legate is a commander of legion. when the Praetorians were formed they also protected legates.
Greek Bodyguards:
Strategos' Bodyguard(PM)
Strategos' Royal Bodyguard.(AM)
I'm not sure if Strategos' were generals or officers. Maybe Dukezer0 can correct me on that.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

I've had a very brief look at the Night Raiders used in BI, represented by the Alemanni, Burgundii and Lombardi factions. I'll probably create a poll in the near future to hear public opinion regarding the most popular skin from the 3. This will be in the RTG subforums over @ TWC (link).

Thanks for those proposed unit names The Spartan, I think a unit naming overhaul is on the cards...

[The Spartan (Returns)]

Egyptians:
Nile Cavalry: Cleruchs
Im not sure whatare Cleruchs but thats the correct name and it also says it in the export model battle.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

Libiyan Spearmen need a new sprite they look like the old Libiyan Spearmen. BTW what do you think of the idea of giving Triarii a gladius they could be a multi-purpose type of troop. (the gladius would be stronger than the spear)

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Libiyan Spearmen need a new sprite they look like the old Libiyan Spearmen. BTW what do you think of the idea of giving Triarii a gladius they could be a multi-purpose type of troop. (the gladius would be stronger than the spear)

Thanks, I'll make a note to create some new sprites for the Libyan Spearmen next time round. Btw, are the Libyan Spearmen sprites wrong for Carthage, Numidia or both?

I've had a quick test of Triarii in hand-to-hand combat. I'd always thought that they had secondaries since most of the other spearman models did. Since I can't model, I can't add secondary swords to the Triarii model. I think they're capable defensive spearmen, and because of the absence of the secondary sword, at least they won't automatically switch to their secondaries (like hoplites etc do) when they're in melee.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Night Battles & Archer's Skymod

Night Battles & Archer's Skymod are now included within RTG. I'd like to thank DimeBagHo for his excellent tutorial on how to include night battles in RTW using the BI code. I'd also like to thank Archer for the superb work he has done in his Skymod.

Here are a few screenshots:

[Dukezer0]

There are a couple of things i wish to bring to your attention SA if i may.

First, i like the new skin for the sarmatian mercs but sometimes when you pan the camera back, you can only see the rider and not the horse. I have only noticed this on desert maps.

Secondly, if generals have traits to increase their hit points, it is not shown on the statistics though its still apparent when you fight them AFAIK ;).

Apart from that, i'm getting toward the end with my selucid campaign :).
Gaul is nearly gone (surprise surprise), carthage have all of africa (apart from egypt, i have that :D) and nearly all of iberia. Dacians have suffered the brunt of the brutii, leaving macedon to become a super power but they aren't attacking anyone! (not that thats the problem of your mod though ;))

Sarmatians wiped out armenia, i wiped out egypt, parthia and pontus (like the change from pontic heavy to eastern heavy BTW :)).
Alls good!

BTW SA, have you changed the rebel occurences at all?
IIRC, when you control a province for a long time, it decreases the chances of rebels appearing... am i right?
If so, rebels still appear quite frequently (some quite nasty too :O). Not that i mind though, just curiosity :).

One last thing, during the early stages of your mod, it reminds me of one of my fav mods for medeival called MOYA (medeival on ya).
It was simple, each faction started with one city with no buildings and a wod of cash. The rest were rebel controled... and i mean controlled :D.
Just reminds me of it... if you leave the rebels to grow, they can really hinder your progress in RTG.

Cheers

Laters

Duke0

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

There are a couple of things i wish to bring to your attention SA if i may.

First, i like the new skin for the sarmatian mercs but sometimes when you pan the camera back, you can only see the rider and not the horse. I have only noticed this on desert maps.

The Sarmatian mercs make use of cataphract mounts, I may need to create new sprites for this by the sounds of things.

Secondly, if generals have traits to increase their hit points, it is not shown on the statistics though its still apparent when you fight them AFAIK ;).

Do you mean traits such as "Cruelly Scarred" etc? I think CA must've adjusted the threshold levels so that this trait series is more difficult to achieve. I can remember back in vanilla versions this trait was originally far too easy to acheive, think you used to gain a trait improvement after each battle that was fought

Apart from that, i'm getting toward the end with my selucid campaign :).
Gaul is nearly gone (surprise surprise), carthage have all of africa (apart from egypt, i have that :D) and nearly all of iberia. Dacians have suffered the brunt of the brutii, leaving macedon to become a super power but they aren't attacking anyone! (not that thats the problem of your mod though ;))

Sarmatians wiped out armenia, i wiped out egypt, parthia and pontus (like the change from pontic heavy to eastern heavy BTW :)).
Alls good!

BTW SA, have you changed the rebel occurences at all?
IIRC, when you control a province for a long time, it decreases the chances of rebels appearing... am i right?
If so, rebels still appear quite frequently (some quite nasty too :O). Not that i mind though, just curiosity :).

One last thing, during the early stages of your mod, it reminds me of one of my fav mods for medeival called MOYA (medeival on ya).
It was simple, each faction started with one city with no buildings and a wod of cash. The rest were rebel controled... and i mean controlled :D.
Just reminds me of it... if you leave the rebels to grow, they can really hinder your progress in RTG.

Cheers

Laters

Duke0

Yeah, I've tweaked rebel occurences quite considerably. Regarding region-based rebellions (IE the stacks that appear at random in a given region), I only made slight adjustments. However, this appears to have increased the frequency of rebels appearing at random across many provinces, I'm not entirely sure why when only small changes were made. Perhaps other factors come into play that I'm unaware of

I know about the strength and type of the rebel units contained in armies, these were changed deliberately to ensure a player is kept on their toes, and prevents worthless battles against say peasants and weak infantry.

Thanks.

[Dukezer0]

Do you mean traits such as "Cruelly Scarred" etc? I think CA must've adjusted the threshold levels so that this trait series is more difficult to achieve. I can remember back in vanilla versions this trait was originally far too easy to acheive, think you used to gain a trait improvement after each battle that was fought

I didn't explain myself well :D.
What i mean is, when a general with as you say a trait like cruelly scarred, his hit points are increased, but when i look at the unit card, it still says 2, when it should be like 5 or whatever ;). But in battle i'm sure its still 5 (i have no way of knowing for sure though).

I know about the strength and type of the rebel units contained in armies, these were changed deliberately to ensure a player is kept on their toes, and prevents worthless battles against say peasants and weak infantry.

Tell me about it :D.
And yes, i agree its a good thing. I used to just bribe them if my stacks were too far away..... no chance doing that with RTG :D.

Cheers

[professorspatula]

I think the extra hitpoints applies to your general only - not his entire bodyguard, therefore the hitpoints on the General's Bodyguard card doesn't change.

[Dukezer0]

I think the extra hitpoints applies to your general only - not his entire bodyguard, therefore the hitpoints on the General's Bodyguard card doesn't change.

Ah, i see ;).
I'm sure it used to, but i'm probably wrong :).

Cheers prof S.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

Spearmen sprites wrong for Carthage, Numidia or both?

Only Carthage. (Sorry took so long to reply playin campagin!)

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Mercenary Recruitment Pools / AOR

I've thought about spicing up the mercenary recruitment pools / AOR by increasing the number of available mercenaries to hire, and also the number of pools. What this should hopefully do is to add a bit of differentiation from how mercenaries were available for recruitment in vanilla RTW.

I've also thought about making use of some of BI's units as mercenaries in RTG. Here are a few examples (more are welcomed for consideration ):

• Kurdish Javelinmen
• Sarmatian Auxilia
• Eastern Archers
• Dromedarii
• Goth Noble Warriors
• Gallowglasses
• Wolfhounds
• Bosphoran Infantry
• Alan Noble Cavalry
• Sarmatian Noble Cavalry
• Alan Horse Archers
• Sarmatian Armoured Archers
• Steppe Raiders
• Berber Axemen
• Desert Archers
• Moorish Raiders

Obviously units can be renamed as appropriate, and also if slave skins are available for units such as the ones listed above, then perhaps the slave skins can be used instead of the vanilla BI ones.

However, there is a hardcoded limit to the number of units contained in EDU. I'll have to see how many I can make room for, but hopefully some of these may be added to the mercenary recruitment pools / AOR.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

nice. btw how is the misile thing doing? and your putting religion in this mod right? how is it all going?

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

I've ran into a few problems with adding the religions, there's more info in this topic. Unless I've stepped over some sort of threshold that started creating problems for the rebel faction and its starting armies.

However, I'd rather focus on individual requests / suggestions because they're numerous and allows me to expand the mod in more directions from what its like at present.

Btw, I'm currently overhauling the default unit names, every single unit will be renamed if possible (some overlap in EDU so its a bit tricky). How does Strategos' Royal Guard (PM) and Strategos' Armoured Royal Guard (AM) sound for the Greek, Macedonian and Seleucid general's bodyguards? I like the sound of Legate, is this what was used at the time for Roman commanders?

[The Spartan (Returns)]

Btw, I'm currently overhauling the default unit names, every single unit will be renamed if possible (some overlap in EDU so its a bit tricky). How does Strategos' Royal Guard (PM) and Strategos' Armoured Royal Guard (AM) sound for the Greek, Macedonian and Seleucid general's bodyguards? I like the sound of Legate, is this what was used at the time for Roman commanders?

the greek culture bodyguard names sound good. yes legate is a commander of a legion. btw for am roman bodyguards please put Legate's Praetorian Bodyguard as praetorians also guarded Legates when the praetorians were formed. also can you replace a signifer (standard bearer) in a legionary first cohort with a aquilifer (eagle-standard bearer)

[The Spartan (Returns)]

[QUOTE=I'm not sure if Strategos' were generals or officers. Maybe Dukezer0 can correct me on that.[/QUOTE]
i have confirmed that Strategos' were the highest rank in the army. (the commander) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategos

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

the greek culture bodyguard names sound good. yes legate is a commander of a legion. btw for am roman bodyguards please put Legate's Praetorian Bodyguard as praetorians also guarded Legates when the praetorians were formed. also can you replace a signifer (standard bearer) in a legionary first cohort with a aquilifer (eagle-standard bearer)

i have confirmed that Strategos' were the highest rank in the army. (the commander) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategos

Thanks for the research! I need to update the credit section of the mod soon, so I'll make sure to add your name to the historical references credit.

Yeah, the PM Roman bodyguard use the praetorian model, so it would make sense to use that name for them. I've seen the eagle standard bearer used in screenshots of other modifications, the problem would be getting permission to use something like this in the mod. If the new faction banners are completed, would you settle for the original eagle standard on top of the new battlefield banners?

[The Spartan (Returns)]

Yeah, the PM Roman bodyguard use the praetorian model, so it would make sense to use that name for them. I've seen the eagle standard bearer used in screenshots of other modifications, the problem would be getting permission to use something like this in the mod. If the new faction banners are completed, would you settle for the original eagle standard on top of the new battlefield banners?

you mean AM. (after-marius) ok why not?

[The Spartan (Returns)]

Here's an alternative Roman bodyguard name:
Legatus Bodyguard(PM)
Legatus Praetorian Bodyguard (AM)
choose any one. i dont care their both good:
Legete's Bodyguard (PM)
Legate's Praetorian Bodyguard (AM)
also please give ireland more settlements!

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

you mean AM. (after-marius) ok why not?

Yeah, all this coding is burning me out

[The Spartan (Returns)]

since you gave normal spears back to german spear warband, i think you should give them long spears from BI you dont have to change skins but just give them those long spears. see Alemani spearwarband. since RTW vanila gave german spear warband very long spears i think because Germania has lots of forests and large trees, why not give them the long spears from BI. (dont worry not as long as a phalanx spear)

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

I've had a look at the spear levies from BI and how they work a while ago, they use the short_pike ability. This has a good advantage in that they can run when carrying the spears (would be good for units such as hoplites and this is what they could historically do). However, a major disadvantage is that when the unit charges (IE runs) into combat carrying the short_pike, the unit tends to fragment and disperse everywhere.

Since using the short_pike removes the phalanx attribute (replaced by the schiltrom), there is nothing to hold the units together as a solid block of men. However, when using the phalanx attribute, units may sometimes scatter from the formation and become uncontrollable. This 'unit scattering' bug is really frustrating, because the whole unit struggles to form phalanx properly when there are several of its units scattered all over the battlefield. Also, mopping-up scattered units is a nightmare because you have to move your own units over the top of each scattered unit, and hope they can pick them off one at a time. In other words, you can't target the scattered units individually - this bug crept in with vanilla RTW v1.5 btw.

Hibernia (Ireland) could be given another settlement, perhaps in exchange for a region on the Briton mainland (Tribus Iceni?). This would follow the exisiting pattern for the other islands in that there is more than one settlement to conquer, and keeps things interesting.

Most of the default units have now been renamed, the Roman bodyguards use Roman Legatus' Bodyguard (PM) and Roman Legatus' Armoured Bodyguard (AM), how does this sound? A few units have kept their original names because these fit well in describing the unit.

I've also had a look at the cheat_oliphants issue. Apparently, the RTW EXE requires entries to be present for this oliphant unit. These oliphants usually spawn when the gladiator uprising event occurs, as well as some other gold-chevroned uber units. I can't prevent this from happening, but what I can prevent is the oliphants from making use of the over-scaled fs_indian_giant_elephant skeletons.

What I've done is to redirect the game to look an alternate skeleton for these oliphants, namely fs_indian_elephant, but with the characteristics of the african war elephants (IE mount and model). A quick test run has been undertaken in custom battles, and the Yubtseb (Bestbuy) oliphants should now be spawned as african war elephant mercenaries, instead of the 10-storey high rubbish that appeared in vanilla versions of RTW.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Egyptians:
Nile Cavalry: Cleruchs
Im not sure whatare Cleruchs but thats the correct name and it also says it in the export model battle.

How does Ptolemaic Nobility sound instead?

[The Spartan (Returns)]

[QUOTE=Seasoned Alcoholic]Most of the default units have now been renamed, the Roman bodyguards use Roman Legatus' Bodyguard (PM) and Roman Legatus' Armoured Bodyguard (AM), how does this sound? A few units have kept their original names because these fit well in describing the unit.[QUOTE]
Why not use Roman Legatus Praetorian Bodyguard(am)?

[The Spartan (Returns)]

How does Ptolemaic Nobility sound instead?

thats good.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

if you're not gonna reskin Praetorian cohort, why not give them the old Urban Cohort? (whith full armor no chainmail) since they are praetorians they should have better armor. also since you made them stronger the armor can prove that evident.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Why not use Roman Legatus Praetorian Bodyguard(am)?

You know, I've actually named them Roman Legatus' Praetorian Bodyguard in export_units, but for some reason I'd typed in Roman Legatus' Armoured Bodyguard here at the forums. Must've been looking at another entry and used that instead

if you're not gonna reskin Praetorian cohort, why not give them the old Urban Cohort? (whith full armor no chainmail) since they are praetorians they should have better armor. also since you made them stronger the armor can prove that evident.

That's another good point, I'll run a few tests with both models and varying stats. Were the Praetorians as heavily armoured as the Urbans are made out to be in RTW? I'm wondering because the Urban model carries some serious armour protection

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

I've recently finished renaming many of the other default faction names, here is a summary of the changes:

Already changed with RTG open beta v0.2

• Egypt has been renamed as The Ptolemaic Dynasty
• Spain has been renamed as Iberia

Changes to be included in future versions of RTG

• Carthage has been renamed as The Carthaginian Empire
• Parthia has been renamed as The Parthian Empire
• Pontus has been renamed as The Pontic Kingdom
• Gauls have been renamed as The Gallic Tribes
• Germans have been renamed as The Germanic Tribes
• Britons have been renamed as The Britannic Tribes
• Armenia has been renamed as The Armenian Kingdom
• Dacia has been renamed as The Dacian-Getae Tribes
• Numidia has been renamed as The Numidian Kingdom
• Scythia has been renamed as The Scythian Tribes
• Iberia has been renamed as The Iberian Tribes
• Thrace has been renamed as The Thracian Tribes
• Macedon has been renamed as The Macedonians (slight tweak)