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OK, but do you create your own models/icons etc. in various programs (C, 3DSMax, whatever) or can you just edit a few text files in Notepad and hey presto get a new faction?
Edit: Oh, and two more things:
1) Why is rev-engeneering an exe any more illegal than changing a txt/xls/wav?
2) If I were to get my hands on the C code of RTW V/BI/Alex...
a) Would any of you be able to do anything with it?
b) Would editing that be illegal?
1) How much do you reckon will it cost to employ an entire company CA sized for about a year?Quote:
Originally Posted by I Am Herenow
2) You should a) contact CA b) contact Activision (those who make the money, and they employed CA to make RTW for them) c) contact SEGA which now does about the same as the things that Activision did earlier (they took over or something like it, and they are the ones who financed M2TW.)
3) You would need a compiler (you may find some of that for free), and a tool capable of editing text files and exporting to whatever extension you want. In theory, Notepad should work. Unfortunately, just about every typing error you make will cause the game not to function properly anymore - if you're running your edited version. Luckily, you're now in the single most ideal position save for CA programmers to edit out just about all bugs which RTW still might have. ~;)
4) You may wish to know that lot's and lot's of code included with RTW probably wasn't even written by CA peopel themselves - they'd have used other programs (tools) to do the rather easy/ repetitive jobs for them. So you may want to acquire a couple of those as well. (Going to cost something, but, hey, if you are going to spend such amounts of money better do it properly, right? :grin: )
5) They, from CA, (perhaps in name of Activision) might have employed a couple of other companies to do some of the work for them, at least this was the case with some .MP3 tech stuff. You may want to contact those as well, perhaps they would either object to your purchase of the RTW source code, or they would be willing to help you out with a couple of important aspects of your very own RTW version - all in exchange for some money. But again, better to do things properly don't you think? You wouldn't want to appear in court, just because some company sued you for something you didn't know of at all in the first place, would you?
Models, are as you will have noticed something completely different from factions. Just look at it this way: models they exist, pictures they do as well, but factions don't. Factions involve toying with a couple of .txt files - that's it. Faction icons means creating your own images, and you would have guessed that this is done by using a picture editing program - such as photoshop.Quote:
Originally Posted by I Am Herenow
1) Because of what's written in the user license agreement. You can edit anything you like apart from the user license agreemtent (hey... :clown:) and the ".DLL's" and ".EXE" files. Very, very officially speaking each mod has to have a couple of lines of text in the opening screen: 1) there needs to be written that it (the mod) is not supported by CA (so that they can't be held responsible for whateve goes wrong), 2) there has to written an e-mail adress you can use to contact the creator(s) of the mod to ask for help etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by I Am Herenow
2a) There are probably quite a few who would be, yes. I'm not one of them, but I guess that people like Vercingetorix, or LorDBula would. Better to let them respond for themselves, perhaps.
2b) Not really, especially not if you were to use it yourself only, and not to release it to public. But that all depends on what you would agree to with CA if you bought it. You could buy the license to have it and use it, but perhaps you could also buy the license to have it, use it, edit it (without damaging CA's interests in any way that may be possible...) , and redistribute it (sell it, give it away for free, lend it... whatever). Of course, depending on what type of license you want to have the price is going up as well.
OK, thanks for all your help
You're welcome.
I was thinking, shouldn't Colonys increase trade? After all, one of their main purpose of being made was to increase trade with the mother city.
I'd like to share a couple of "historicity" modifications that I made to my install:
1. It was remarked upon that Parthians charged knee-to-knee. I modified the unit spacing for grivpanvar & the other cataphracts to be 1.5 metres (like the Saka lancers). I haven't yet modified the default formation, but I will.
2. The purchase of 500 elephants from Chandragupta just isn't the same as conquering India and building a 4th level MIC. So I made standard Indian elephants available as (rare) mercs in Gandhara, Sattagydia, Sind, Baktria and Arachosia. It's nice, because now elephants are turning up in battles.
3. Paved roads for the Persian royal road. I'm considering even putting highways in.
I'm also considering giving the Parthians horse-archers some extra ammo, since they (at least sometimes) used camels in battle to replenish their stocks. This might be better as a later version of the shivatir.
Also, I think I should have posted this here (sorry): https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=84046
Sounds like a bunch of sensible changes to me. I'd like to see this stuff looked at for inclusion, since I think a lot of people don't like to include too many different mods; well, they are generally incompatible anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by temenid
Cheers,
Hunter
We won't be providing the highest possible upgrade for every road in those provinces (a lot of them) that the Persian Royal Road runs through. If we could make one road in them paved, we would do it probably, but since all roads in the province are upgraded, we felt the other bonuses were more appropriate.
I know the formation of those cataphracts was looked at but I don't know what the result was.
Indian Elephants will be available for the Seleukids in Syria in next build. In fact new elephant models should be available in next build too.Quote:
Originally Posted by temenid
:birthday2:Quote:
Originally Posted by Krusader
Will the skys change ?
different types of clouds ? redskys darkclouds ect.? :idea2:
Also, after seing the Celtic-Epirote aliance, isn't it possible (via script) to emulate Roman, AS, etc civil wars? what I mean is, take Spartacus, when we had certain conditions met, huge rebel armies could spawn or some towns rebel to the rebels (redundant? o0)... It'd just give more realism to an already great mod.
Cheers...
Hmm, sounds good to me :)Quote:
Originally Posted by mAIOR
Also, as you're talking about rebels, don't you mean Eleutheroi? Epirote=Greece (1 of them).
As for my suggestion: add all the buildings to the building browser (e.g. barracks, for Romani at least, aren't on there and it doesn't list the govt. types: generally confusing to see where your town can head :dizzy2:)
Unfortunatly, there is no way to do that. The building browser creates a building tree by looking at the EDB file, but it gets confused by the "not" command. The EB team have extensively used this command for their governement system.Quote:
Originally Posted by I Am Herenow
I'm afraid I don't follow :SQuote:
Originally Posted by Ludens
What do you mean by NOT? Why not just list all possible non-unique buildings and have the ones that aren't available greyed out? I suppose you could expand some of the descriptions (e.g. for ports they EITHER cost 3500 OR 35,000 Mnai, depending on location [for Romani on Hard, which is what I'm playing]).
Also, a few more things:
Pirate blockades and blockading rebels (Eleutheroi) currently doesn't make sense. I understand that pirates would want to sink ships to grab some loot for themselves, hence they (unlike land-based rebel armies) are aggressive. However, why they would want to blockade a port remains a mystery to me, as reducing some random faction's naval trade doesn't help them in any way. Also, there is currently no point blockading rebel docks as they don't do anything anyway (i.e. are non-aggressive) and money doesn't seem to help them; they'll only train a few ships and kill you eventually, and it ties up your ships and wastes money for you.
Therefore, I propose that blockades should not only choke a rival's economy, but be beneficial to your own. I.e. the blockading ships will stop trading ships by coming in and out by looting and sinking any ships that try to enter/exit the city (like merchants who didn't know about the blockade or something). This will mean a steady drip of money into your economy (just list it as Other if you can't make a new income category) as well as hurting an enemy's.
Therefore:
If a fleet blockades a port large enough, it can pay for itself.
Blockading Eleutheroi will make sense, as you get income from it and don't anger any nations.
Pirate ships can be assigned to Eleutheroi cities which exist on land (preferably ones with naval ports ;)) and bring income to those cities/that city (meaning more troops, maybe?).
Also, I think that you shouldn't be able to build warships whilst blockaded (as you can't recruit/build/repair/retrain whilst besegied), but the enemy fleet will gradually lose units as merchant ships manage to overcome one of their fleet every once in a while.
Um...any good?
The building browser is created automatically from the text file export_descr_buildings. We have no control how the game turns the edb code into the building browser. The building browser does not understand the "not" logic function in the edb code and so those buildings with it in (which are a lot) do not appear in the building browser.Quote:
Originally Posted by I Am Herenow
The part about getting the money might be possible, but I doubt it would work very well. The rest is impossible. Eleutheroi are all one big faction, it doesn't make any sense to give a particular city a bonus as it all goes into a big pot anyway (not that it would be possible of course). We cannot change the recruitment if a port is beseiged, nor can we make the beseiging ships lose ships occasionally.Quote:
Also, a few more things:
Pirate blockades and blockading rebels (Eleutheroi) currently doesn't make sense. I understand that pirates would want to sink ships to grab some loot for themselves, hence they (unlike land-based rebel armies) are aggressive. However, why they would want to blockade a port remains a mystery to me, as reducing some random faction's naval trade doesn't help them in any way. Also, there is currently no point blockading rebel docks as they don't do anything anyway (i.e. are non-aggressive) and money doesn't seem to help them; they'll only train a few ships and kill you eventually, and it ties up your ships and wastes money for you.
Therefore, I propose that blockades should not only choke a rival's economy, but be beneficial to your own. I.e. the blockading ships will stop trading ships by coming in and out by looting and sinking any ships that try to enter/exit the city (like merchants who didn't know about the blockade or something). This will mean a steady drip of money into your economy (just list it as Other if you can't make a new income category) as well as hurting an enemy's.
Therefore:
If a fleet blockades a port large enough, it can pay for itself.
Blockading Eleutheroi will make sense, as you get income from it and don't anger any nations.
Pirate ships can be assigned to Eleutheroi cities which exist on land (preferably ones with naval ports ;)) and bring income to those cities/that city (meaning more troops, maybe?).
Also, I think that you shouldn't be able to build warships whilst blockaded (as you can't recruit/build/repair/retrain whilst besegied), but the enemy fleet will gradually lose units as merchant ships manage to overcome one of their fleet every once in a while.
Um...any good?
Basically you have so many ideas, but no technical know-how whatsoever. Perhaps you might want to invest a little time in looking into RTW modding, it would help you a lot with coming up with ideas.
Foot
Pirate Spawning, Pirate behaviour (blockading or not etc.) -> Hardcoded stuff. Probably meant to increase game difficulty, and to circumvent more complex ways of simulating the effects of piracy. Eg. the loss of tax income.Quote:
Originally Posted by I Am Herenow
Testing for the Condition: "Port blockaded" -> I'm no coder, but it appears to me that there's no such condition, or set of conditions which can be turned into RTW script. Neither did/ does the engine care for it anyway.
Therefore: extracting money from blockades -> Impossible as well.
It's a pity, because out of gameplay perspective your suggestions cleary had some real merit - but unfortunately, they are all impossible to realise.
OK, fine, everything's impossible. Do what you want - I give up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foot
You make it sound like I'm to blame. I'm not.Quote:
Originally Posted by I Am Herenow
Foot
Alright I have a couple of things.
1) Can you make the reforms for the Romans a little less complicated. It tends to ruin the fun of a game when you're trying to get new units and you have a list of things you have to do before.
2) Since you have Augustus Reforms historically corect you must include Lorica Segmentata. When Augustus reformed the army he had about 60 legions he disbanded about half and the others he retained and gave the Lorica Segmentata.
3)And something really has to be done about AI expansion by like 240 b.c. The Seleucid empire almost controls everything in the east.
1) We won't be making the reforms less complicated, though if we could we would like to add even more conditions. I would recommend to stop playing EB like a game and roleplay a bit more. When it becomes fustrating waiting for new units, you've stopped playing EB and started playing a run-of-the-mill RTS.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ceasar14
2) We have consistently said that we will not be adding lorica segmentata, as it only came into full use at the very end of our timeframe. It is possible that it may appear in small quantities in EB2, but who knows!
3) There are some fans looking at ways to control the runaway empires such as the Seleucids, and there was a problem with the eleutheroi in 0.81a where they were not getting enough money from the script. Don't worry, we don't spend all day sipping pina coladas in the tropics, some of us do work sometimes! :beam:
Foot
You might want to be more reasonable about this. There are very clear limits as to what it is possible to mod in Rome, even to a non-modder like myself. While your ideas have merit of their own they unfortunately must also be condemned to the same category as unreasonable suggestions as to adding dozens more factions and including Asia, albeit to a lesser degree; propositions ultimately impossible to achieve due to limitations in the engine.Quote:
Originally Posted by I Am Herenow
It's not a matter of being awkward, simply a matter of knowing what can be achieved and what can't. A basic knowledge of those matters makes it easier for EB members to find good ideas, and prevents you from writing up good ideas that are impossible to implement and can't really receive anything more than a curt "that isn't possible/is hardcoded".
He might have taken this as an insult. It works both ways, you know...Quote:
Originally Posted by Foot
Yeh I guess he could have, though from his posts I see it simply as a statement of fact; he has lots of ideas and he doesn't know much about RTW modding.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thaatu
Herenow, it wasn't meant as an insult, but rather a suggestion that your creative mind (and it truly is creative!) would be put to good use if you picked up a few tid-bits of knowledge on RTW modding.
Foot
Agreed. IAH, you should see all the wacky proposals I came up with prior to digging in to modding the RTW engine. There are some very specific boundaries imposed by the game and we have a tiny amount of leeway, so suggestions outside of those boundaries we have to reject outright as impossible. Please do not get discouraged and take it personally!
whats the faction limit in EB2 cuz i would want to see the Yeuzhi back into it cuz i didnt play the origanal EB so i dont know what they were like and on all my games baktria always conquers all of India the steppes and selucia never does anythin about it cuz there to busy with the Ptolemaioi that Baktria goes unchecked cuz Saka is always bankrupt and pahlava/sauromatae slaughter each other leaving them with no armies so Baktria needs some extra help being checked also Saba needs a nation to compete against cuz ussaly selucia ignores them 2 and they sit back doing nothing with no one to fight.. also i saw them take the Sahara one time o.o so they deffinitly had free time lol
A small question: Will you add new formations in the next version? And maybe you should limit certain formations for certain factions, because it's possible now (1.3 patch added such option).
Has EB here tried to make:
Counter faction (or Secondary faction)
This is THE main feature of 7.0 (after the map, the new scripts and BI). I'd think most people here haven't heard of the "unlimited faction" concept. It's rather simple. You have 19 base factions (18 in our case), and batch files, that change the text files, and turn the empty slot in whatever faction we please. Due to our campaign system in 7.0 (which is explained below), we will change this slot to a faction that had a significant impact in the base faction.
Some rebel city's have there own banner, can i make the same it the faction
more faction more fun
About RTR, eh? ~;) The idea of "unlimitted" factions certainly is appealing. It has a couple of consequences, though. One, you'd need to run batch files. Relatively minor thing, you'd say at first, but the next thing is: one batch file only changes so much. And most of RTR 7.0 counterfactions are either already covered by EB (Arverni, Saka) or just 'a bunch of rebels' (Seleukid nobles, Egyptian uprisings, Carthage rebels etc.) which is just not historically accurate. Granted, there were persian nobles who revolted etc. etc. But they did not operate as a faction, not even as an alliance. (With perhaps a few exceptions.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Kepper
And another thing: playing as Romans your counterfaction will be the Senate & Roman rebels -> means no Arveni. And that's not a matter of "choosing the right faction as a counterfaction" - it's simply inevitable: you can only do so much by batch files without significant effects to the over all covering of factions & area's. And this means that the idea of "unlimitted" factions is somewhate misleading: RTR aims for 19 times 19 and some of them won't be playable at all.
Back to your original question: no, EB is not currently actively working on adding such a system, but some members are eagerly awaiting the RTR 7.0 release to see how it all works out.