Campigns become bored

[Caius]

Hi,

I want to know how can I do for change the results of the Campaign?
If you dont understand, read this quote of Roy1991 in other topic:
But if you look to the campaign as a whole, you know nearly exactly what's going to happen.

-The Julii & Britannia conquer all of Western Europe, and both can't pull off a decisive victory over eachother.
-Either Pontus or the Greeks stake all of Asia Minor, just to be driven out by the Egyptians within several decades.
-Macedon takes out Thrace and often also Dacia.
-The Brutii take Greece & Macedonia.
-Carthage and Numidia fall to the Scipii.
etc.
Always happens this, and this becomes the campaigns bored.This can be changed?

Caius

[Quillan]

Are you asking if there is any way YOU can change this, or are you asking if there are any mods out there that change this? The answer is yes, in both cases. However, to do it yourself will take quite a bit of work. There are several files buried down in the data tree structure that control these things. Among them are the details on the resources, cities, armies, characters, and buildings at the start in every province of the game world. This can all be changed, but it has to be manually done. Screwing up anything probably will cause a game crash, too. There is also a file which "controls" AI behavior. I use the quotes because it does not precisely do that. Each AI has a descriptor phrase (two words, IIRC, like "fortified caesar", that determine how it acts in the game world. It controls what its priorities are, what it's likely to build, how aggressive it is, and such. All these can be changed.

If you don't want to go through all that, I'd recommend trying one of the good total conversion mods, like Rome: Total Realism, or Europa Barbarorum.

[Caius]

Now i know how change this, but This cannot be randomized?

[Roy1991]

There's one very simple thing that you can do, though it doesn't make a very big difference.

Go to descr_sm_factions.txt, and set prefers_naval_invasions to yes for all factions.

Sometimes you don't notice any difference, other times quite strange things can happen.
(For example, I've had a campaign where the Greeks captured all of North Africa, and in my Scythia campaign the Scipii captured Corinth.


There is also a file which "controls" AI behavior. I use the quotes because it does not precisely do that. Each AI has a descriptor phrase (two words, IIRC, like "fortified caesar", that determine how it acts in the game world. It controls what its priorities are, what it's likely to build, how aggressive it is, and such. All these can be changed.


Does anyone happen to know which file it is, and what all the description phrases are?

[Quillan]

There is no switch in the game for "Random AI behavior" like there is in Civilization IV, but I imagine someone with programming skills could do a separate application that scrambled those descriptors.

Edit - Oh, Roy, I got home and took a look. It's the descr_strat.txt file, located in (at least on my computer) C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign

Here's the opening line of the Julii entry:

faction romans_julii, comfortable caesar

I don't know the complete list of all those descriptors.

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

Mods are the best solutions when you start to became bored.
Especially radical modifications ~:)

But even there, if you play for a long time, you will start to see certain patterns happening... its inevitable. When it becomes boring, simply change the mod.

[Caius]

I don't know the complete list of all those descriptors.
A research in the Ludus Magna yes.Here is the link:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=45212

Caius

[Roy1991]

Thanks Quillan :)
If I have some time tomorrow I'll try modding those things, and see if it makes much difference.