Patch Available

http://www.sega.com/support/support....port_romepatch

Spear bonuses against cavalry have been increased (they were previously hard coded and are now moddable, in addition to mount_effect)


Braced spearmen (standing ready) now reflect part of any attacking cavalry’s charge bonus back on the horse


Adjusted most units’ charge bonuses to improve play balance (especially for cavalry) in response to charge code changes (which fixed an issue for higher bonus values)

Reduced archery attack for some elite units

Reduced secondary non-phalanx attack for stronger phalanx units

Adjusted incorrect shield attribute for several units (to reflect models)

Fixed Egyptian desert axemen armour

Fixed bug for early and late Thracian and Scythian generals

Reduced archer attack from chariots and elephants, and reduced dog attack

The Load Save bug has been addressed

The speed on the campaign map has been improved

Improvements to the Campaign map AI

Better mix of rebelling units, including mercenary units and fewer peasants
Fewer brigands, more pirates and the ability to mod the rate that these
appear
Fixed issues with the faction graphs where a dead faction was still receiving income

Improvements to the battle AI
Pre-battle speeches for the Roman factions now include sections on previous meetings with that facti

*goes to update the Useful RTW Links thread*

Quote:

---

Spear bonuses against cavalry have been increased (they were previously hard coded and are now moddable, in addition to mount_effect)

---

This is good news for modders. :happyg:

Do 1.2 saves work?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gelatinous Cube

Thank god for good publishers.

---

Indeed :happyg:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zawath

Fewer brigands, more pirates and the ability to mod the rate that these appear

---

I don't usually mod my games, but this is just too tempting. ~:cheers:

Very nice, but 104 MB ~:eek:

104MB is big for a patch but compared to downloading a demo it's nothing.

Eee - when I were a lad David Braben used to fit an 'ole galaxy ont' a floppy...

Well patch v1.2 was around 55MB, I'm not suprised since v1.3 is supposed to include previous patches too.


P.S.
For dial-up users I suggest using some download acclerator and downloading during night. It should be done in one or two nights in worst case.

Or just buy expansion.

I'm guessing it won't be long before it appears on some magazine cover discs too.

It's good to see a few of the changes BI made officially named, so I can stop suspecting and start knowing. There are some very nice ones on that list.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zawath

Fewer brigands, more pirates and the ability to mod the rate that these appear

---

:smitten: Where? How?

Look at the descr_strat.txt file.

Near the start of the respective descr_strat files there's a value for brigand_spawn and pirate_spawn. In BI they are 10 and 12 respectively and in RTW they are 10 and 28.

Essentially these numerical values are divisors and therefore, the lower the number the more rebels/pirates will spawn, the higher the number the less likely they'll spawn. For example, a value of 20 for brigand_spawn will reduce the likelihood of rebels spawning by a half.

Do I understand this correctly that if you have BI this is not for you, right?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kraxis

Do I understand this correctly that if you have BI this is not for you, right?

---

Yes, if you have BI you don't need this patch.

Thanks :bow:

This is great! It shows that CA's new publishers have a deal that gives good support for products. Looks like the change to Sega as publisher will have a good effect in the long run. And the new modding abilities and bug fixes are great. I haven't opened the R:TW campaign since getting BI, but as this patch is included in BI, and I didn't see the list of changes until reading this thread, I've changed my opinion and might decide to do so ~:).

Not to criticise, just to clarify - this doesn't fix the 1.3 broken Brutii and Scipii campaign map AI does it?

If not I still hope CA will come out with a patch for it.
Good that they've released this one promptly though.

Does this patch do exactly what installing BI does? In other words, do I need to download this if I already have BI?

Well I installed the v1.3 patch over RTW/BI and RTW still indicates it is v1.3. At least I think it installed over it because the patch didn't indicate where it was going to install to. I was able to start the game and load my previous RTW v1.3 campaign.

1.3 Patch for Rome: Total War

There has been a little confusion over the 1.3 patch. This is a patch for the original version of Rome: Total War ONLY. You do not have to download this patch if you have already bought and installed the Barbarian Invasion expansion pack. The expansion pack automatically brought the original RTW up to version 1.3 as part of the install process.

Version 1.3 addresses bugs and issues that came to light after RTW version 1.2 was released. It does not - indeed cannot - take into account any new issues that people have found while playing BI. It's to keep RTW and BI in step, and allow multiplayer compatibility.

Now, I would like to write this next bit in letters of fire 3 metres high: we are currently looking into a further patch for RTW/BI. This does *not* mean that there definitely will be another patch; that's what we're trying to sort out. We want to make sure that any unexpected and difficult-to-identify issues are spotted before a patch is prepared. *When we know for sure about a patch, you'll know for sure.* How reasonable is that? ~:)

MikeB

Thanks, Captain Fishpants. I think CA have built up a lot of goodwill here by patching vanilla up to BI standards for those who have not bought the expansion. Promising to look in to a further patch only amplifies that. ~:cheers:

This does sound to me that there will be up to one full patch (like 1.2 was).

So that developers need to indetify all crucal bugs first (so that things like save/load won't get missed), and also analyze are there enough crucal bugs to warrant another patch.

Of course, the biggest danger of such approach is making something that works bugged in the process (aka battle difficulty levels with 1.2).



P.S.
Personnaly I think that fire at all for pillums and naval invasion issues are crucal enough to warrant a hotfix on their own.

Good news from CA on this. Personally I don't mind waiting if the end result is a thoroughly researched and tested patch which leaves RTW as the first-class classic game it's so close to being.

Sounds good Mike. Now we just have to hope the 'fix'-lobby will win the debate at CA HQ.:balloon2:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by player1

Personnaly I think that fire at all for pillums and naval invasion issues are crucal enough to warrant a hotfix on their own.

---

Agreed. Those alone are important, the rest is basically things we can either ignore or fix ourselves. So please... Fix the two of them.

.
Thanks Captain Fishpants, CA and Sega. :bow:
.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by player1

Personnaly I think that fire at all for pillums and naval invasion issues are crucal enough to warrant a hotfix on their own.

---

Can't you fix the pilum issue in the formations text file? Haven't tried yet, but I know Darth's formation mod somehow turns that on and off.

He tried and failed.

Personnaly I think, when money is tight, but patch quality is needed, that best method is two patch release.

First patch should be big one and include all major code fixes needed.

The second one should be smaller, fixing only in code things that first patch broke (or missed). It should also include data-file changes, like unit balance and things similar to my bugfixer.

That way, there is much lower risk that last patch would leave some big bug around. Bug code fixes are done in first patch, and second is only used for cleaning up, and doing changes, like data-fixes, that can't endanger the code.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Captain Fishpants

1.3 Patch for Rome: Total War

We want to make sure that any unexpected and difficult-to-identify issues are spotted before a patch is prepared. *When we know for sure about a patch, you'll know for sure.* How reasonable is that? ~:)

MikeB

---

Nothing the matter with that. Wait and see what problems arise (hopefully only small ones), then fix em.

It sounds like a plan.