The Will of the Senate - out of character thread II

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Originally Posted by Glaucus

haha, does anyone know any latin swears?

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Would this do?

http://news.bostonherald.com/images/...re03302006.jpg

On a semi-related topic, I'm at around 250BC in a SP game I'm playing with the same mods. My current new crop of family members has massive trait bug problems with people coming of age with stuff like Former General and Military Service - 16 Years in addition to tons of random traits. We are definitely going to start encountering this, particularly with the current slew of underage males. I would like to propose that we keep track of the most unrealistic traits and remove their impact on character influence for voting purposes. If we agree to this, I'll make a note on the Bio of all members with clearly buggy traits that indicates what their influence adjustment should be.

I know one insult:

stultissimus es!

Means 'you are the stupidest!'

Note: there aren't meant to be capitals, which is what lots and lots and lots of people get wrong with latin. Only proper nouns are capitalised.

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Originally Posted by Glaucus

haha, does anyone know any latin swears?

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Hehe, you need to read The Masters Of Rome Series ~;)

Some of them are so obvious & strong that I'll probably get in trouble. But an obvious one that might not would be fellator for a man, or fellatrix for a woman.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

On a semi-related topic, I'm at around 250BC in a SP game I'm playing with the same mods. My current new crop of family members has massive trait bug problems with people coming of age with stuff like Former General and Military Service - 16 Years in addition to tons of random traits. We are definitely going to start encountering this, particularly with the current slew of underage males. I would like to propose that we keep track of the most unrealistic traits and remove their impact on character influence for voting purposes. If we agree to this, I'll make a note on the Bio of all members with clearly buggy traits that indicates what their influence adjustment should be.

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Can you not just edit stuff somewhere to remove unwanted traits?

(I have no idea about these things btw, but it seems like the kind of thing you could edit)

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Originally Posted by DDW

Good thinking, shall we call ourselves the Optimates or the Boni ?

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Thing is, I think Cato the Younger was a complete &(^%$^^&$ who was almost single-handedly responsible for the civil war that led to the downfall of the Republic, yet here I am advocating much of his policy....

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Originally Posted by Mount Suribachi

Can you not just edit stuff somewhere to remove unwanted traits?

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TinCow, I wonder if you could post your latest solo game save? Then I could download it and look at the buggy traits. I'm not a modder, but if we can identify triggers, there might be something we can do - e.g. disabling "like his father" trait or something. Marcus Camillus seems preoccupied with the next version of Platinum and may not provide a solution in time.

Latin expletives (rather ones I use on a regular basis):

ecki mama! (means: “What a tit!”)

testiculos! (…erm….I’m sure you can work this one out)

N.B. Not sure I have spellings correct, no time to check them.

That table on page 2 lists that I have 3 influence. How is that?

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Originally Posted by econ21

TinCow, I wonder if you could post your latest solo game save? Then I could download it and look at the buggy traits. I'm not a modder, but if we can identify triggers, there might be something we can do - e.g. disabling "like his father" trait or something. Marcus Camillus seems preoccupied with the next version of Platinum and may not provide a solution in time.

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Marcus has already concluded that the problem is both the "like his father" and "not like his father" traits. Is there a way to alter the traits of an existing character? If so, we could manually edit out the problems when the character comes of age.

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Originally Posted by Ignoramus

That table on page 2 lists that I have 3 influence. How is that?

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Your failed negotiations with Germany, Iberia, Illyria, Greece and Macedon removed your + influence traits. You currently get +3 from two ancilleries and have no traits at all.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

Marcus has already concluded that the problem is both the "like his father" and "not like his father" traits. Is there a way to alter the traits of an existing character? If so, we could manually edit out the problems when the character comes of age.

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And does Marcus's conclusion match your observations from your solo game? ie is it only characters with those two traits that are problematic?

I am not sure we can edit the traits of an existing character, although DDW did mention a programme for editing savegames.

However, I am pretty sure we could be able to edit the traits file to the benefit of future generals. I'll investigate commenting out or deleting those two traits you mention. If anyone has ever played around with the traits file and wants to do that for us, that would be appreciated. If it looks too tricky for me, I may e-mail Marcus to see if he can be persuaded to do the work for us.

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Originally Posted by econ21

And does Marcus's conclusion match your observations from your solo game? ie is it only characters with those two traits that are problematic?

I am not sure we can edit the traits of an existing character, although DDW did mention a programme for editing savegames.

However, I am pretty sure we could be able to edit the traits file to the benefit of future generals. I'll investigate commenting out or deleting those two traits you mention. If anyone has ever played around with the traits file and wants to do that for us, that would be appreciated. If it looks too tricky for me, I may e-mail Marcus to see if he can be persuaded to do the work for us.

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Yes, it completely matches my observations for one main reason: only "Coming of Age" characters are bugged. Since characters created by marriages and adoptions do not have 'fathers' from which to inherit anything, they are always 100% normal, yet every single Coming of Age character demonstrates some degree of buginess. All of my CoA guys now are born with at least a Former ________ and military service. Deleting those two (Like His Father & Not Like His Father) might work and we would lose far less than we would gain, since they are currently so buggy. We have plenty of time to work on this though, since no males will come of age during the remainder of my term. We can test out changes in the meantime.

Shots of some of my screwy guys. Manius has been around for a while, but compare his rank and his military service. The other two should be obvious.

https://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b...oblemchild.jpg
https://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b...ow/screwy1.jpg
https://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b...ow/screwy2.jpg

I think removing the 'father' traits will be very disruptive to character evolution. Characters tend to evolve in a single direction. Without these traits, especially the 'not like his father' trait, in several generations all the members of a family line will have extreme values for the traits their fathers started with. We need the 'mutation' of this trait to keep the balance.
We should look for another way to solve this. Initally, removing the offending traits from 'wierd' characters seems to be a better option.

Here's a good thread on diplomacy :
http://forums.rometotalrealism.org/i...howtopic=21614
Seems like Marcus will try to improve the diplomacy settings in RTR 1.6

EDIT : The discussion considering the trait problem starts from this page :
http://forums.rometotalrealism.org/i...ic=8656&st=340

EDIT : RomeSage can be downloaded here :
http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=448

RomeSAGE currently supports the following options:
o Campaign difficulty
o Battle difficulty
o Battle time limit on or off (as per MarkP's great TiLiN tool).
o Short or long campaign
o Changing the unit scale (also known as unit size).
o Changing year and season. This does not undo any other changes that may have occurred in the game.

So unfortunately this does not allow us to edit traits on existing characters. We could downtune the campaign difficulty to make diplomacy more effective.

There is however a Traits and Ancillaries File Validator that helps to find errors in the traits file, and I know Marcus uses it, so there are no obvious errors in the 4TPY mod.
http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=670

There is also an Ancillary Editor :
http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=787

EDIT :
Couple of weeks ago I went to the trouble of finding a very good and funny thread on traits and got the moderator to pin it :
Miniguide to your Generals command trait increasing
Read it at your leisure.

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Originally Posted by TinCow

Your failed negotiations with Germany, Iberia, Illyria, Greece and Macedon removed your + influence traits. You currently get +3 from two ancilleries and have no traits at all.

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No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am not happy!

I finally found out how to remove (and add) traits to characters during the game :

For all details, see my post on the RTRPE forum

I suggest all nonsense traits to be removed from the 'warped' characters and their military service reset to a 'normal' level.

EDIT :
This gives us very interesting possibilities for role-playing in the senate.
We could for example give a character the 'disgraced' trait if he is succesfully impeached by the senate.
Augustus Verginius qualifies for 'dispises Trouser Wearers' or 'hates smelly barbarians'
The possibilities are endless : Glory Hunter, Great Orator, Spin Doctor, etc...
Note : many of these traits are no longer present in RTRPE or have other names.

That looks somewhat confusing, but I think we can figure it out. I particularly like the idea of adding traits to a character. Stuff like 'disgraced' could be added through motions like anything else. For example:

Motion 0.0: This Motion impeaches Senator Bob Smith and gives him the 'disgraced' trait.

TinCow,

I like THAT idea alot!! Obviously the unfortunate could win his honour back and be accepted by the Senate to have that trait removed again....

....capital idea.

TinCow: your mail box is full, please can you clean up some space so I can PM you? (although the short reply to your last PM is "fine").

Could someone please post something like :

That's amazing research work, DDW. You rule ! Keep it up !

It would do wonders for my ego. :trytofly:

(Having a bad day at the office and have to do taxes tonight :wall:)

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That's amazing research work, DDW. You rule ! Keep it up !

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That's amazing research work, DDW. You rule ! Keep it up !

That's amazing research work, DDW. You rule ! Keep it up !

That's amazing research work, DDW. You rule ! Keep it up !

Thanks a lot :2thumbsup:
I feel better already :balloon2:

I mean it-- ----(0-0)
------ - - -----( ^ )

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Originally Posted by econ21

TinCow: your mail box is full, please can you clean up some space so I can PM you? (although the short reply to your last PM is "fine").

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Sorry, even with a 75 limit it gets filled up fast in this PBM. Emptied out a ton.

I will give the trait editing a try tonight. If successful I will edit remove "Military Service - 8 Years" and "Former Legate" from our first problem child, Marcus Laevinus. He has a ton of other traits that I think should be removed or reduced, but I don't want to do that unilaterally. Opinions on what else should be altered, if anything, are welcome.

https://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b...evinus_271.jpg

Also, it seems I won't be AWOL this weekend. My wife and I were going to go backpacking, but the weather report shows severe rain all three days, so we're going to postpone.

Bummer about the backpacking, TinCow. I think I will still go sailing sunday, but it will also be miserable weather here then. Still looking for volunteers to man the boat ~:)

I say leave him all those other traits, none of them are 'earned' traits. I might be a trial for Marcus Laevinus to deliver an agitated, restrained, yet tedious speech that does credit to his being a political animal tough ~:)
If you have trouble let me know, and tell me which save game and I'll have a look myself.

Thanks again, x-dANGEr, some days it is wiser just to stay in bed :coffeenews:
At least I've finally got the bloody taxes done. Do you believe the Dutch tax service has 'We can't make it any more fun' as their credo ??? The gall of these people !

It works. For future reference, here are the commands to use for the two I have done so far:

Removes any "Former _____" trait:
give_trait "CHARACTER NAME" "Former_Military_Service" 0

Removes all Military Service if the starting amount is 9 years or less:
give_trait "CHARACTER NAME" "Military_Service_Years_1to9" 0

I'm glad DDW and TinCow have made such good progress with the traits. You could ask Dutch_guy what he thinks about his traits, but I agree with DDW what's left seem ok - quite an interesting personality, in fact!

TinCow, I've edited the Senate Library to reflect the transfer of Vibius Pleminius from Zomby_woof to x-DANGEr.

I'm wondering about a "statute of limitations" on Senate motions. Say after 20 years, they are void unless put to a new vote? That - together with the rule that earlier motions trump later ones unless expressly invalidated - might avoid some of the complications with contradictory legislation.

So far I've been deleting them from the Library (essentially removing them from law) once I've seen that they've been fulfilled or made redundant. Let's say that from now on, all motions apply only to the current Consulship, unless the motion states otherwise.

I think Motion 3.13 should remain permanent, but the rest of the remaining motions from sessions 1-4 should be pretty much obsolete after my term (1.5 expires anyway, 1.9 is obsolete, I frankly don't care about 1.10 and neither have occurred yet anywya, 4.7 has been tried I think)

Well done, Tincow.
I agree with motions lasting only the consul's term, except if they are really permanent.

Permanent motions in my view :
3.13
4.7 (just keep trying I say. They'll give in eventually, in 100 years or so.)
6.11

I must say I found 1.10 a nice touch, but I don't particulary care also. With only six ancilliaries there are so many other ones I want ~:)

About motion 1.10, is there a way to give an ancillary to a character like traits? If not could we perhaps decide upon a trait that is close to the same thing, and give that using what DDW found out.

P.S. That's amazing research work, DDW. You rule ! Keep it up !

Good thinking Glaucus,

I'll look into that soon. There are several traits that would qualify and I'd have to make a list. There is also the Ancillary Editor, but I have not tested that yet.

Off to bed,
Cheerio,
Lodewijk (DDW)

EDIT : p.s. and thanks ~:)

I would prefer a trait to an ancillary, since I need all the military ones I can get at the moment.

Simon, nice touch at the end of your write up with the seasons/men left. Reminded me of the episode of Battlestar Gallictica I was watching last night, were after every Cylon attack they would re-calculate the number of human souls left...

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Originally Posted by Mount Suribachi

Simon, nice touch at the end of your write up with the seasons/men left. Reminded me of the episode of Battlestar Gallictica I was watching last night, were after every Cylon attack they would re-calculate the number of human souls left...

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Subconsciously, that could be where I got the idea from[1]. I love that show. I've seen up to the end of the latest series and it just keeps getting better. Some of the characters are quite mesmerising.

[1]Although the most memorable countdown I ever saw was on the blackboard of a Kenyan primary school classroom "278 days to the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education" (ie an exam). Poor kids. :no:

Here is a list of traits that could replace the Librarian or Scribe. This is most likely not a complete list and some of these traits may not exists in RTRPE.

Sane is a very powerful (hidden) trait as it makes you immune to all kinds of nasty traits.

Lively is one of the best traits you can have.

I am inclined to suggest giving the Office of Aedile to Lucius and the Office of Censor to Augustus, but I am open to all views.

Bureaucrat
Engineer
Epic Poet
Even-Handed
Excellent Builder
Expert
Firm Personal Morality
Fond of Ribald Rhymes
Genius
Good Honest Roman
Great Architect
Great Builder
Honest
Intelligent
Jobs-worth
Just
Lively
Logistician
Logistics Expert
Master Trader
Mathematician
Natural Philosopher
No Enemies
Office of Aedile
Office of Censor
Philosopher
Philosophically Inclined
Philosophy Expert
Poet
Sane
Sharp
Skilled Bureaucrat
Strategic Expert
Strategist
Superb Bureaucrat
Superior Builder
Superior Engineer
Superior Trader
Tactical Expert
Tactician
Tax Assessor
Trader
True Roman
Understanding of Logistic
Understanding of Mathematics
Understanding of Philosophy
Understanding of Strategy
Understanding of Tactics
Upright
Very Lively
Virtus

For the menaing of the traits I refer you to Spartan's Trait guide

On Battlestar Galactica, except for the gorgeous Cylon girl, I can't say I found it as good as the old series. 'Face' just made that series :laugh4:

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Originally Posted by Death the destroyer of worlds

I am inclined to suggest giving the Office of Aedile to Lucius and the Office of Censor to Augustus

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I agree - the Censor is responsible for the census, which is close to what TinCow is doing in the Senate Library. AFAIK, it gives +3 influence +2 management, so it is quite a nice reward but then the job is quite onerous too.

The Aedile is responsible for maintenance and public order, which is close to what DDW is doing keeping up with the software issues. It gives +1 law +1 management, so it is no big deal but if DDW is happy with it, so I am.

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On Battlestar Galactica, except for the gorgeous Cylon girl, I can't say I found it as good as the old series. 'Face' just made that series :laugh4:

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You mean the old Starbuck? True, he was fun although I am quite captivated by his female replacement. But there really was no one else interesting in the older show. The good thing about the current series is the acting ensemble - just compare Baltar this time round (a sort of Dr Bashir from DS9 gone bad on crack) with the insipid chap last time or, even more tellingly, compare the Boomers. The lead Cylon girl does not do much for me (aside from when she played the vulnerable Pegasus prisoner), but Boomer is pretty interesting.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

For example, there is a scene towards the end of the first series where she is a crying emotional wreck with the Chief one second, then leaves the room and strides confidently across the deck like a jackbooted Nazi the next. That split second transformation was just awesome, given the accompanying plot revelation.

Sorry for getting off-topic.

Good to see a few BSG fans. It's the absolute favorite show in my house.

I agree with the Censor and Aedile traits as well. The +3 influence isn't that big a deal for Verginius because he's at 9 influence at the moment anyway, and I believe 10 is the max.

I'm prefectly happy with the office of Aedile. Considering countdowns, the most ghastly one I've seen is the Death clock (google), which is probably the most depressing thing ever coded.

Sorry ive been sidetracked for a bit. Whats the latest with the campaign?

Read the First Consul Reports. It's up to date. Though perhaps the last couple pages of the Deliberations are worth reviewing as well. (Everything since the interim session finished.)

the FCRs mostly deal with our landing in Greece. Has anything happened on our northern border? Where is Legio III at the moment?

why don't you update your save folder with the latest save, and check it out?

Just to say, I've posted the latest of Quintus's Apollonia diary.

I the Greeks keep this up you can hold out for 582/6 = 97 battles.
I think your reinforcements will have arrived by then :laugh4:

Killing a Greek army with six men might be a tiny bit challenging. ~;)

But then of course, that's just me.

Just for role-play reasons, has Vibius Pleminius (My avatar) yet reached the city?

Tiberius, he lost just six men in his first battle. If the Greeks keep sending tiny armies, he should be able to keep it up for 97 battles ~:)

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Originally Posted by econ21

Just to say, I've posted the latest of Quintus's Apollonia diary.

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Simon, in future could you add a post each time you do a report, rather than editing your current one? I nearly missed your update as it wasn't down as an unread thread.



Regarding the editing of traits - I was wondering if we could take this a bit further and actually asign the Consul trait to the current holder, and when their 5 years is up, give them the Former Consul trait?

Also related to Consuls, in the RP-ing sense, now that we're getting something of an Empire together, shouldn't we give former Consuls a nice cushy (and profitable for them ~;) ) Governorship after they leave the Ivory Chair? We will soon have 3 former Consuls (assuming Quintus lives that long), so how about the 3 largest cities all get a former Consul as governor?

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Originally Posted by Mount Suribachi

Regarding the editing of traits - I was wondering if we could take this a bit further and actually asign the Consul trait to the current holder, and when their 5 years is up, give them the Former Consul trait?

Also related to Consuls, in the RP-ing sense, now that we're getting something of an Empire together, shouldn't we give former Consuls a nice cushy (and profitable for them ~;) ) Governorship after they leave the Ivory Chair? We will soon have 3 former Consuls (assuming Quintus lives that long), so how about the 3 largest cities all get a former Consul as governor?

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I recommend against adding the consul trait to the 'acting consul'. This might cause a nasty bug as it will mean the character has 'inconsistent' traits as he will not have enough military service to atually qualify for having that trait. It seems the engine is pretty forgiving about characters having impossible traits, like a trait and its antitrait for example, but why push it ?

My recommendation is that consuls can serve as active consuls for five years and then take up a governship as former consuls. I will do that with my character if he lives that long. I would make this entirely voluntary on the part of the players.

On this issue I will also recommend giving econ21 the office of Pontifex Maximus.

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

Just for role-play reasons, has Vibius Pleminius (My avatar) yet reached the city?

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Yes, I mentioned that briefly in the First Consul report (it doesn't show new post because I edit the old one). He was involved in the most recent battle w/ the stack with the Spartans.

Quintus is now an ex-Consul because he is governor of Apollonia. Spend two seasons in a settlement and you lose the Roman command traits, becoming ex-whatever.

I agree as a general guideline that a more passive posting is suitable for the first 5 years after being a First Consul, to simulate them stepping down. I would not want to make it permanent though.

Don't worry about giving Quintus an office - he is not long for this world. But TinCow can feel free to assign the other to offices to himself and DDW in lieu of the ancillaries we voted for them.

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Originally Posted by econ21

Don't worry about giving Quintus an office - he is not long for this world. But TinCow can feel free to assign the other to offices to himself and DDW in lieu of the ancillaries we voted for them.

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I disagree. You have done more for this PBeM than TinCow or me and it would feel wrong for me if you were not awarded with something also. If not Quintus, then your next character. Besides, I think it would be pretty neat to have an official Pontifex Maximus ~:)

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Originally Posted by Death the destroyer of worlds

If not Quintus, then your next character.

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Ok, you've persuaded me. :2thumbsup: I think these offices are for the player, not the character, so they should be passed on to our next characters as well, so long as we keep working for the PBM.

The Office of Pontifex Maximus is a Senate position responsible for religion and morals; AFAIK the trait gives +4 influence. Quintus is already his influence cap of 10, but it would be a big deal for a youngster.

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Originally Posted by econ21

Quintus is already his influence cap of 10, but it would be a big deal for a youngster.

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Which you may have soon. I played the battle through once and lost. I managed to kill a bit over 50% of them, including the general, but they simply overwhelmed me. I probably could have done a bit better, but you're really going to have to pull off something spectacular to win this battle. No matter what you do, heavy use of both bodyguards is required, and since 90% of the Greek army is hoplites, that poses high risks. I think the Senate Memorial will be opening soon.

Why is it so hard is because of the bug about the 'spear butt'.. As when you charge a phalanx in the rear, you lose a 'lot' of your men to it, just because of that bug that gives 'braced' bonus not only against charges from front, but from behind too.. Oh, and it was introduced in 1.3 and continued in 1.5, and it is really annoying, more and specially in MP battles.

No, it's the RTR changes. In RTR cavalry is designed for one thing and one thing only: charging. Once they charge, they have to be withdrawn quickly or they will be slaughtered... they don't have the stats for melee with infantry. Top it off with the fact that it's difficult for a cavalry unit to get up enough speed for a charge in a city and the anti-cavalry bonus that spear units get, and you're asking for a dead general. Not that it makes a difference in this battle as far as I can see. I've played it three times now and never gotten close to a victory. econ21 is a very good player and if anyone can pull it off, he can... but this one has me beat.

I do understand the RTR changes.. But upon charging in the normal in MP, my men get slaughtered, whatever they were and whatever they're charging (As long as it is phalanx), so nowadays cav is like a 1 blow unit.. Just my last battle, I waited till I found the right spot to charge Seleucids with my Sacred Bands, I charged and routed their whole army, but yet lost my 3 Sacred band units..

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Originally Posted by Death the destroyer of worlds

Tiberius, he lost just six men in his first battle. If the Greeks keep sending tiny armies, he should be able to keep it up for 97 battles ~:)

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DDW, by the time he's at the 97th battle, he'll have nought but 6 men remaining. I seriously doubt his ability to win at that stage ~;)

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Originally Posted by Tiberius

DDW, by the time he's at the 97th battle, he'll have nought but 6 men remaining. I seriously doubt his ability to win at that stage ~;)

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True enough :~)

Ahhh, now thats what I'm talking about! Good ole epic battles, just like we used to have in MTW ~;) I'm guessing the timer ran out, right?

Outstanding write-up Simon, one of your best :bow:

Man.. You made me wish I was Pleminius for real.. ~:)

Excellent write up, Simon. Keep up the good work :~)

I wonder if DDW will take an anti-Iberian stance in this campaign after today, specifically with the objective of making the region of Lusitania uninhabitable. ~;)

Ah, this is why I joined the campaign- epic battles, beautiful write-ups. I'm definitely going to move to the Lower House once my character dies.

...of course, this would first require me to get better at battles so I don't completely panic when faced with a situation like Appollonia... :juggle2:

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Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

I'm definitely going to move to the Lower House once my character dies.

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That could be quite a wait - you don't have to wait that long. Just post here the moment you want to join the Lower House and I'll put you in the fast tracked Lower House queue for new generals (x-DANGEr is the only one in that queue at the moment). I think TinCow said we have some kids who will be maturing quite soon and more settlements should lead to more generals too.

Glad to know that there will be a character waiting for me when I join, but I'll wait a bit anyway. I want to make sure there is a lot of time available when I download everything required, and after that I'm going to need some time to practice battling in RTR.

Well, I have really enjoyed this PBeM. But I have to leave this great Senate this wednesday to go work at a sleep away camp. Should be good fun, though it does mean no total war for two whole months! I might suffer from withdrawl. Anyway, come wednesday, Publius Pansa I guess is up for grabs. I hope this is still going in August when I return, so I can pick up a new guy and continue. Until then though, Strength and Honor to you all!

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Originally Posted by GeneralHankerchief

...of course, this would first require me to get better at battles so I don't completely panic when faced with a situation like Appollonia... :juggle2:

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I wouldn't worry about that, the Romans had plenty of generals who did panic in battle ~;) Seriously though, I'm sure you're not that bad, Roman armies in the game do tend to pwn everything and the less said about the AI the better. And I don't mind losing battles in PBEMs, they make it MUCH more interesting than just blitzing the map. You get stuck into that Lower House!

Glaucus have fun mate :wave:

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Originally Posted by FLYdude

I wonder if DDW will take an anti-Iberian stance in this campaign after today, specifically with the objective of making the region of Lusitania uninhabitable. ~;)

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Good idea, I'll see what can be done :~)

Glaucus, lots of fun ! We will surely miss your input on the senate floor.

For your amusement and historical value :
Centurion
Walls of Rome

Finally, I went to the trouble to find out if there really is a bug in VH combat in RTW that makes it very easy. It turns out there actually is such a bug, but only in the custom battles. So VH battles in the the campaign are really VH. It have not been able to determine if this bug in custom battles was patched out.

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Originally Posted by Death the destroyer of worlds

It have not been able to determine if this bug in custom battles was patched out.

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I'm pretty sure it was.

Yes, because a Sughidian Warriors unit can beat a Plumbtarii unit easily on medium, but also lose easily against it on VH.

EDIT: Oh adn give me an avatar come on, so I can discuss you in the 'in-character' thread..

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

EDIT: Oh adn give me an avatar come on, so I can discuss you in the 'in-character' thread..

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You can post as an anon Senator in the in-character thread - some of the Upper House still have to do that.

I will give you an avatar just as soon as TinCow updates the bios in the Senate library. I think a young new general has been spawned, although apparently he has virtually no vices or virtues yet.

There's also the possibility of taking over Publius Pansa from Glaucus, although you'd have to wait until after Wednesday for him.

BTW, if anyone else wants to make a bid for an avatar (e.g. someone with an agent who wants a general or an Upper House member without one), now is the time. I normally assign them by "seniority" but where players have not voted or participated much, I don't feel obliged to follow that too strictly. I suspect, everyone should have avatars over the next 5-10 years anyway.

EDIT: Ok, I've looked at the 265 savegame and you can take Gnaeus Hordeonius, aged 21, a tribune and "in the pink".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

EDIT: Oh adn give me an avatar come on, so I can discuss you in the 'in-character' thread..

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You can have Publius Pansa on wednesday. I want to debate one more time though ;)

I'll PM with some stuff about him.

Hiya, anyone who wants to run for consul but currently without an avatar can always take mine. I believe Titus Vatinius has quite good leadership and command traits, and it looks like I won't be running for the lower house in this campaign so... :juggle2: Should anyone be interested, I'm always willing to swap my character for a less military-like one.

Oh, and sorry for not being more active in the senate deliberations; I'm currently in the middle of a move and I'm trying to sell my appartment so I'm quite busy the last weeks. Still related to the move: seems like I forgot to make sure I have internet in the new house (how could I forget this :furious3: !!!) so there's a big chance I will be offline for a couple of weeks starting from the beginning of July.

NEWS UPDATE :
Some [expletive deleted][expletive deleted] hacker has wrecked the RTR site. That's soooooooo immature.

I just saw the updated library.

Excellent work, TinCow, it is much appreciated.

However, I do believe we are missing the memorial section, seeing as how young Pleminius is no longer with us.

Yes, I'm not quite done but the Mrs. requires help with dinner. I'll finish the rest off in a couple hours once I've got some food and a nice bottle of wine in me.

For those who didn't like the last expedition (Not only in RP), I must tell you that we should do more like it. Playing against the odds makes for really great exciting battles like that one.

In view of the absence of any declared candidates for First Consul, I am going to allow x-DANGEr to use Publius Pansa now if he wishes to run for First Consul. Publius Pansa has stood in the past and is one of the most suitable in-character generals for the post in terms of age etc. I don't want us to recycle past First Consuls just yet. I've sent PMs to shifty157 and FLYdude to see if they want to stand again. But competition is always good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

For those who didn't like the last expedition (Not only in RP), I must tell you that we should do more like it. Playing against the odds makes for really great exciting battles like that one.

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Yes, I've go to agree. The way to make RTR (or any RTW game) fun is to handicap yourself with houserules etc. Fighting with mainly Praetorian armies (half stacks) is one way to do it. I suggest we follow a guideline that the only full stack army should be the Consular Army (we may get a second at some point). This is only a guideline - if the barbarians got to Roma, for example, then the gloves would be off. Of course, if we do this, we will have to be careful - as the last battle of Apollonia[1] showed, in RTR morale is so high, numbers can ultimately be decisive.

Of course, it is quite reasonable for people to role-play disapproving of such high-risk ventures as the Apollonia expedition.

[1]Not sure why people refer to it as the 3rd battle of Apollonia, BTW - in some ways, it was the fifth.

On a different note, I would suggest a bit of moving around of governors, as some (my avatar in particular) has started to develop drinking vices, and that is never good. I also imagine there must be more like him...

Alternatively, we could change the campaign settings.

If we set campaign difficulty to HARD, we will not be faced with endless stacks by the AI (as it lacks the 10K denarii bonus each turn), but the diplomacy will be a bit better. We can compensate for this by setting the combat difficulty to VERY HARD, which will make the battles more challenging.

I'm currently running a H/VH campaign and managed to make some alliances and other deals and the campaign seems to be slightly slower paced, but more realistic.

On the matter of governors, bad traits will start to appear if :
A) more as 10K in treasury and nothing is build in settlement
B) more as 50K in treasury
C) Spends time in settlement with taxes set to anything else but 'high'. So 'very high' will also lead to bad traits (wildly extravagant and so on). Lower as 'high' will give useless assessor and so on.

Swordsmaster - that's a good point. Senators should keep an eye on their avatars and lobby to make sure their interests are protected. Offering your vote as an inducement, as you have done, seems a very effective way of lobbying! First Consuls shoult try to nurture their generals, but it is easy to overlook things sometimes.

DDW, I want to keep with this difficulty level. The two 1:2 odds battles I've fought - in Sardinia and Appollonia - were definitely challenging. Maybe the Gauls crumble more easily, although even then I've been crushed by them in some battles in other games. I think the quality of the AI general matters a lot. With 10 stars, as they can often have in this mod, the troops are very reluctant to rout.