How to place War Dogs to RTR 6.0?

[Deutschordensritter]

I somehow cannot register to Total Realism forums, so I ask this here:

How to replace the Roman Funditor slingers with Roman War Dogs from the vanilla 1.2 game? I have both version installed, but I'm totally new to RTR and uncertain of which files need to be modified.

As far as I understand I cannot just add those dogs because of the unit limit, so I decided to give up those early Roman Funditor slingers. Historically RTR is correct to include slingers instead of war dogs, but since it is a fact that dogs were used(in much smaller scale, though) in the war by the Romans and they are so unique and cool I just can't play this game without them!

I think there could be many others who don't care that much of Roman slingers and whant to release the dogs of war instead, so please someone tell how it is done. ~:)

[Epistolary Richard]

Have you considered reading the tutorial called Tutorial: Adding new units for beginners (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=51750)?
.

[Deutschordensritter]

I tried couple of times replacing those Roman slingers with original war dogs. Basically just deleting referrences to Funtidore slingers and copypasting roman wardog entries from original files. Only those files mentioned in the tutorial above were altered, but it crashes to desktop after the load screen.

Someone in RTR forums(in which I still cannot register, that's why I'm bitching here :) had also similar problem with adding onagers back to the game. Could this be Total Realism specific problem? I know from MTW experience that CA files are very picky and have zero tolerance for errors(no extra spaces etc.), but no matter how carefully I try to replace those unit entries, it's always CTD.

Has anyone managed to change any RTR units back to original? (wardogs, pigs, onagers..anything)

[wlesmana]

1. Have you included the wardog model entry in desc_model_battle.txt?
2. Is wardog specified in desc_mount.txt?
3. Have you included wardogs to be recruitable in export_desc_building.txt?
4. Have you made certain the soldier name in export_desc_units.txt to be correct? (for the crew)
5. Did you use show_err?

[Deutschordensritter]

1. yes
2. no, 'cause there is no wardogs mentioned in vanilla desc_mount.txt either
3. yes
4. I think so, since all the wardogs lines are copypasted from the original file
5. what is "show_err"? (forum search function don't work for me either) ~:confused:

[wlesmana]

Sorry, my error, NOT desc_mount.txt but desc_animals.txt
Also, you will have to make sure that the soldier in EDU.txt exist in DMB.txt Otherwise just use any existing soldier like siege crew. They're usually fine.

Ok, at your desktop shortcut to RTW, right click and get Properties. Add this code at the end of the line in Target:

show_err


Basically this will give you an error message most of the time when you CTD.

[Deutschordensritter]

I finally got it working! Thanks for your time, wlesmana ~:cheers:


In case someone is interested the problem was that RTR mod deletes also the handlers and is already in max unit limit, so I had to delete both Funtidore slingers and Italian Spearmen (I never used either of them anyway) and replacing them with Roman wardogs and Roman handlers. And as some early Italian rebel provinces includes a lot of Italy Spearmen, I just replaced them with Italy Skimirhsers(who are surprisingly effective in defence) and Greek Spearmen.

This show_err command is invaluable, since it revealed that I had to delete all (except sound) references to Funditores and Italy Spearman, otherwise it CTDs when starting a new campaign.

Total Realism is much better now. I decreased dog pack size (to quarter of vanilla numbers) increased their morale and use them in realistic manner to kill the routers or, in emergency situtation only, to distract and shock the enemy.

Also don't anyone forgot install the Darth Formations 6.6 mod - it is a must have, since it greatly improves the combat AI and decreases the kamikaze rage of AI generals.

[Deutschordensritter]

I bit more about making realistic wardogs for Total Realism 6.0: In vanilla game dogs can hide in forest, but I think this is not realistic since it is nearly impossible to keep pack of overly aggressive dogs silent(no matter how well trained) while ambushing an enemy. So I removed the hide ability and gave them causing fear ability(against foot soldiers) and combat bonus in forest instead. These changes, along with greatly reduced unit size, should produce real dogs of war for Total Realism. (at least for human players)