7.04 preview

Well people, i know many of you here like this mod for his unique features and his nice picture of late antiquity.
But I will like to remember that this mod is a "work in progress". We don't even release something without thinking on how to improve it. This mod has been praised sometime for historical accuracy, but in some thing is not very accurate. We know it; but we mantained certain features for the sake of the gaming fun. To depict historical reality in this game is more or less impossible because of his very nature: is a game.
Games, not like history, have a fancy capability: they could be updated.

In few days I've made a little series of internal addon that will be the base for the 7.04 version; since Ramon is already working on major changes here and there, i think the next version could be directly a 7.1.

They mainly includes new buildings and reshaping of some actual one. Later, i hope for 7.1, hun/nomad building tree will be completely revised, as the nomad culture cannot really "build" things in steppe settlements. they would not be nomads, otherwise. On the other hand, barbarians get romanized: but when they get a roman city they could "upgrade the buildings", that become a sort of barbarian-like building in a roman town. Horrendous - graphically - and unhistorical. As they could, the so-called "barbarians" try to imitate the romans and to learn things from them, however with few results. From 5th-6th century onward until carolingian period, the arts and architecture become heavy, gross and rough, following a precedent roman process of "barbarization" of their imperial style. It was the romano-barbaric style. We hopefully will try to create this style for the next preview.


but now, some fact:

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1.
https://img524.imageshack.us/img524/...sternuigq6.jpg
2.
https://img213.imageshack.us/img213/...ternui2sk7.jpg
3.
https://img526.imageshack.us/img526/...ternui3kh1.jpg
4.
https://img505.imageshack.us/img505/...romanuiya5.jpg
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https://img65.imageshack.us/img65/97...omanui2lf6.jpg
6.
https://img329.imageshack.us/img329/...omanui3xt4.jpg

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a NEW religion added: Manichaeism

- added trait Manichaeist
- updated ALL religious trait triggers to include Manichaeists and Jews

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- ALL roman cities have at a minimum level of roads highways.
- removed a silly bug - for Imperium Constantini highways and stone walls had eastern UI, now they have a proper one.
- add a jew minority in Esfahan - they settled here by order of Yazdegerd.
- Yazdegerd I, Shahanshah of sassanid empire, is now (historically) married with Shushandokt
- changed the name of Salamis in Constantia;
- changed the name of Rome in Roma;
- changed the name of Mosul in Nineveh;
- changed the name of Ctesiphon in Seleukia-Ctesiphon;
- changed the name of Constantinople in Constantinopolis;
- changed the name of Esfahan in Spahān
- changed the name of Nishapur in Nīshāpūr
- changed the name of Kerman in Kermān
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- 9 NEW building: roman HD (historical descriptions) for: Roma, Mediolanum, Ravenna, Constantinopolis, Arelate, Alexandria, Hierosolyma, Antiochia, Carthago.
- 9 NEW building: eastern HD (historical descriptions) for: Seleukeia-Ctesiphon, Istakhr, Merv, Baktra, Nineveh, Susa, Artaxarta, Petra, Palmyra
- Eastern "despotic law" substituted with "chuwgan field". Now sassies don't kill but play polo :D.

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.... other lesser things....



------------ COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS ARE WARMLY WELCOMED --------------

Sounds nice!

Sounds fantastic, I can't wait for it to come out! :2thumbsup:

I love that you're adding Manichaeism into the game. The religious struggles are one of the most interesting parts of the late empire and should be a big part of the game. My suggestion would be to create "hidden" religious traits. For instance, a character might be openly christian, but have a hidden trait of being a pagan that might come out later in the game. I think this would create an interesting dynamic and add to the religious tension. I would also slow down the conversion rates for religious buildings to demonstrate the difficulty of converting a population

we have inserted into traits the possibility of a conversion - with all the related issues. but at the same time if a charachter is pagan, jew or manichaeist, have ain increased probability to convert to christianity.

p.s.: i agree with you about the conversion rates, in next version they will be diminished.

Mylae, this is a bit off topic but I did not want to dilute your sticky - I really like your guide to a historical Roman army! It is an excellent resource, just what is needed when playing such a rich historical mod as this. :2thumbsup:

I'm downloading 7.03 now - I had crashes as WRE with an earlier version of the mod, but I saw enough to know it looked very promising. I've played a lot of Goth's mod, which shares some unit skins but the WRE economy is rather over the top in that mod so I am hoping this one will provide more of a challenge.

thanks, but the guide is not mine, i've just posted it here.

Hope you are enjoying the game: we are currently working for the new version (7.01, that will incorporate automatically the internal 7.04).

you are invited to express ideas/suggestions and to spot eventual bugs.

"Hope you are enjoying the game: we are currently working for the new version (7.01, that will incorporate automatically the internal 7.04).

you are invited to express ideas/suggestions and to spot eventual bugs."

Glad to here that there will be a 7.04! I am currently loving7.03--with no CTD (yet). :2thumbsup: If you are looking for beta testers for 7.04 sign me up! Great mod!

very nice, I really like the new icons youve turned out

Some feedback on 7.03, playing as WRE on VH/M battles.

Some good points I noticed:

(1) Build seems stable, thank goodness. No CTDs yet. (They killed my earlier trials of this mod). :2thumbsup:

(2) It is an extremely impressive product - a complete reworking of BI. Some of the armies were a joy to inspect and it was great playing with Aetius and other historical figures.

(3) No loyalty stat for Romans - yay! In vanilla, it was too annoying to cultivate a leader and then have to get rid of him. [I suppose it might be considered realistic, but from a gameplay angle it was not fun.]

(4) The ERE/WRE ceasefire script is a brilliant idea - very clever. In BI and related mods, ERE/WRE start fighting far too early and it dominates the game.

A few negatives/suggestions: basically, I am actually finding it very easy compared to Goth mod. I confess, I have retrenched the army - I tried playing without retrenchment but was losing about 30k or so each turn, which was too depressing. However, it was possible to cut back to get into the black but still retain at the start of the game about 3 armies in Italy, 2 in Illyria, 1 in Spain and 1 in Africa. I suggest:

(1) Reduce WRE's starting armies - perhaps lose equivalent of at least one full stack in Italy/Gaul and one in Illyria? Also tighten the economy correspondingly so they can afford two less full stacks.

(2) Weaken WRE's unit stats. I found a full stack of WRE could effortlessly defeat full Goth stacks. It reminded me of RTRs Romans vs Gauls. Getting closer to the EB balance might be better, so good Romans are better than most barbarians but not that much better. (Raising Goth stats might be another alternative if other factions are balanced right).

(3) Get rid of the border forts. These may be very historical, but the AI can't seem to cope with forts - the forts protect Africa and Illyria too much. If you get rid of the forts, players who want them could easily build them (I know that argument applies in reverse, but still...). Without the forts, Rome would be more exposed to the Huns and other hordes.

(4) For some reason, the Goths take Rome but then leave it ungarrisoned, so WRE can easily take it back. I wonder if there is some way to avoid that?Augment the "sack Rome" script to spawn a Goth army in Rome?

(5) Perhaps change those big rebel stacks in Africa to be Berber/Numidian, whatever the faction is called? For some reason, the rebels don't do anything. If they were Berbers, I think they might. No sure what would happen without the forts though.

(6) Perhaps reduce the availability of high level troop training buildings in WRE starting settlements. In Goth mod, you can only recruit legions in about 2 starting settlements. This, as much as anything else, makes the early game challenging.

I've one question... the buildings on the battle map are changed or modified ?

Econ21,
It doesn't quite hold the allure of saving the WRE, but you might want to give the usurper Constantine III's faction a try. Gaul doesn't make nearly as much money as North Africa and Italy(I've only been able to afford one really good stack after stabilizing my economy, although that's slowly changing), none of their starting settlements can produce high level troops right away, and with the WRE's giant stacks around, the Burgundian horde, and constant Frankish invasions, you really have to make those troops stretch. :beam:

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Originally Posted by Alexandre le Grrrand

I've one question... the buildings on the battle map are changed or modified ?

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Originally Posted by Warmaster Horus

As far as I know, there's no relation to EB. Consider the different timelines, as well as a slightly different in-game system.

As for the version to download, I presume your talking about whether getting IBFD 7.03 or Rio's Dark Ages? I play IBFD 7.03, and I'm having loads of fun. I don't think I'll try Rio's anytime soon.

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buildings in battlemap are still the same. however, there has been a couple of retexturing for walls.

Is 7.04 a full build? Because it sure does take a long time to download. Great work though :2thumbsup:

7.04 contains the submod Imperium Julianorum, located in the folder "\...path of your installation...\ibfd\imperium julianorum" that you could install if you want - and you can easily revert to IB by a second installer.
Is in the times of julian the Apostate

so...after version 7 comes this(v7.04?!) sorry im a huuuuge computer noob, i thought that 7.01,02 or 03 would come before it! and by the way, some reason after i installed the 7.03 version (which i decided to have a crack at) some reason it kept CTD before it had even loaded, saying 'cannot find unit descr: celtic slingers, line 7, column 21.' and now im worried that if i DO download an upgrade ill kill the game again and have to download and install it again! any solutions/similar experiences? anybody?

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Originally Posted by Long lost Caesar

so...after version 7 comes this(v7.04?!) sorry im a huuuuge computer noob, i thought that 7.01,02 or 03 would come before it! and by the way, some reason after i installed the 7.03 version (which i decided to have a crack at) some reason it kept CTD before it had even loaded, saying 'cannot find unit descr: celtic slingers, line 7, column 21.' and now im worried that if i DO download an upgrade ill kill the game again and have to download and install it again! any solutions/similar experiences? anybody?

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huh, please don't run!

first, ver 7.04 comes after v 7.03; i guess is a normal numerical sequence.:grin:

you had the ver 7 (base) in your pc; i assume it worked fine.
then you downloaded and installed ver 7.03 and the game crashed before loading.
this is happened because you have installed version 7.03 in a wrong path.

what you have to do is run the vanilla game to see if everything is ok - otherwise, you have to delete the content of rtw folder, reinstall rtw + barbarian invasion + patch 1.6, and then install IBFD 7 in the same directory. The same directory must be the installation path for 7.03 and 7.04 that you can download from the "download 7.04" thread.

please, be sure of installing it in your rtw root directory, and launch the game from the desktop shortcut. It's a piece of cake, trust me. your default installation path for rtw should be "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War" or maybe "C:\Program Files\Creative Assembly\Rome - Total War".

...vanilla? :inquisitive:

Vanilla

No it is not an ice-cream flavour!!! ~ (At least not in this context.)

Vanilla is the term modders use to refer to a completely unaltered original installation of the game, or to a completely unaltered original file.

Before modding anything always make sure you have made a back-up copy of the 'vanilla' files you are about to alter.

Before installing a modification it is best to make sure you have made a complete back up copy of the original 'vanilla' installation. Mods that are installed to their own mod folder should not damage your original installation. However it is always sensible to keep a back-up copy of the game to avoid having to un-install and re-install if anything goes wrong.
Retrieved from "http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Vanilla"

Category: Terms and Acronyms

Something of an idea, is the lack of attention Pagans get very simple things can make the game representitive-pagan ancillery conversion values are easy to do have created them myself. I'd reccomend against 'hidden' Pagan trait since Paganism whilst increasingly weak within the Empire it's not yet driven underground during the period...ish.

If you're feeling adverturous Introducing additional temple Tiers may be an idea as well as seperating Greco-Roman paganism from Germanic, Celtic and Steppe Paganism. If you're really crazy you could try tackling the elaborate and complex mithratic religion

about religion, a "pagan" conversion could be a bit odd; I know that until 600 AD paganism was relatively widespread in some part of the empire. however, we should not over-represent it. the case of julian was quite rare, in fact; and the same julian conceived paganism with a "christian" eye. he dreamed of a reborn paganism, in which a sort of church would perform the contact with the people with christianity and other eastern religions had. undoubtly mithraism, as i guess you know well :D, played a major role in shaping the military traditions/uses in the late empire. however, christianity was propaganded in military too. we should not forget that the christian god is often referred as deus sabaoth - the god of the armies - and the old-testamental view of mighty, wrath, and outstanding victories had his good reference to appeal military.

for version 7.1 is already in a workprocess the shaping of several new traits - so religions could be better implemented. there will be more or less 25 religions (or sects) a character could be. christian heresies are treated in fact as proper religions, since they pretended to be so, and only accidents prevent them to became the mainstream. for example, before the defeat at adrianople, the arianism was the "official" christian religion.

A fair point but notheless who would have anticipated Christianization prior to the 3rd century (or Islam prior to the 7th for that matter)? I think although Julian was 'unanticipated' he's still the product of a perspective in slow decline but still common. It's still fairly common in the period for some form of Roman Paganism to be found in intellectual circles and especially in rural areas so it's not out of the question for prominant Pagans to emerge within the Empire/s such as general Marcellinus as late as 454 and proConsul Flavius Messius Phoebus Severus in the 460's-the fact that the Emperors are still throwing there weight around over it as late as 472 to squash Paganism implies problems with it until a suprisingly late period.


Two good online soarces for this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecu...Roman_religion
(although personally I find the article bias against Christianity)

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/demise.html


At the very least Paganism is alive and well up north with the Heathens so tinkering with the traits up north is viable.

Personally It's questionable weither Mithraism is a Pagan religion at all, bearing a stronger resemblence to Christianity or Manichaeism with a 'Roman' edge.

Is it possible when the barbarians settled to have the possibility to begin develop as a settled nation. To have the possibility to develop their own culture or adopt roman religion - christianity orthodox or catholic and their culture. That has happened in reality with many peoples like bulgars, magyars etc. They may have the possibility to build buildings as the developed empires and this will be more historical accurate.

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Originally Posted by naydenivanov

Is it possible when the barbarians settled to have the possibility to begin develop as a settled nation. To have the possibility to develop their own culture or adopt roman religion - christianity orthodox or catholic and their culture. That has happened in reality with many peoples like bulgars, magyars etc. They may have the possibility to build buildings as the developed empires and this will be more historical accurate.

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no worries. in the next version there will be a very complex building tree :D
and will work basically as you say.

Hi! Realy looking forward! Are you talking realease date within the month?

a 7.05 version has been released in twcenter.net -- unfortunately is not a stable version, so we recommend to use the 7.03 version and wait few weeks. :D

Thanx mate!

Impressive 2D art to say the least.

Started playing this mod as "The folks living north of the Sassanids [I cannot remember the name...starts with a P :shame: ]. Nice work...very different to EB, which is a adding flavour to the TW world again...Bravo! I look frwrd. to getting into it better.

Respect 2 Ramon and all others!

I would add back the Celts, but only in Ireland, and I would drastically lower the income of the WRE. The Angles could also be added as a allied faction of the Saxons (based in Norway). I would also expand the campaign so it ends in 632 A.D (the beginnings of the Arab conquests).

Also, fewer Cominitenses units. Just two would be fine (elite cohort and regular cohort)

Sounds good!
A suggestion for later down the road: represent Echmiadzin as a building.
If you are unfamiliar with it, it is the seat of the Holy See of All Armenians, built originally by Krikor Lusavorich in the III century (highly condensed).

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Originally Posted by IrishArmenian

Sounds good!
A suggestion for later down the road: represent Echmiadzin as a building.
If you are unfamiliar with it, it is the seat of the Holy See of All Armenians, built originally by Krikor Lusavorich in the III century (highly condensed).

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very good info, will see what Mylae can do with this:2thumbsup:

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I would add back the Celts, but only in Ireland,

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did this in 7.1 (more specifically replaced the Picts with the Gaels, the Celts are too general as the Picts are also Celtic) we cannot 'add' any more factions as faction slots are full.

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and I would drastically lower the income of the WRE.

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most people are clamoring for the exact opposite:confused:

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The Angles could also be added as a allied faction of the Saxons (based in Norway).

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as mentioned we cannot 'add' new factions

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I would also expand the campaign so it ends in 632 A.D (the beginnings of the Arab conquests).

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that can easily be done just needs a few more lines of script

I think it would be most realistic if you completely change all cavalry unit to charge & retreat strategy technique like in EB (witch means rise their charge and lower their attak.
you should also make elephant like the way they are in EB.

looking forward to 7.1:drummer:

I want to play this mod if it is a stable mod:book:

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Originally Posted by Commilitone

I want to play this mod if it is a stable mod:book:

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some ppl have had no problems (except the occasional Hunnic horde or Germans at their doorsteps) while others have had loads of problems. I believe it is a hardware issue (we have noticed a lot of reports from ppl runnin ATI cards). I suggest u try 7.03 w/out scripts, and everything as installed.

if u want to check out how the game is, feel free to browse the ff AARs in TWC

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=114950

Why is Imperium Juliarorum part of this, then it has it's own sticky on this same page?

looking forward to the 7.1/ 7.04 (whichever comes first):birthday2:
when might it come out? and is it save game compatible?

hope they don't forget what I said about the Lakhmids:balloon2: :balloon2: :balloon2:

oh one other thing: do I have to install 7.03 before 7.04? or are they seperate?

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Originally Posted by Ibrahim

oh one other thing: do I have to install 7.03 before 7.04? or are they seperate?

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I think 7.04 full might even be out by now (somewhere).

Haven't seen it...:no:

looks great guys

this thread is outdated (well all this forum is :laugh4:)
IBFD 7.04 WAS out long time ago, then there was 7.05, but both were declared unstable and "retired". The last stable and supported version is 7.03. You can add some of the 7.04/7.05 features with an "official" addon (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=128534).

Next version of the IBFD series would probably be Imperium Julianorum 3, to which I'm currently working on (of course julianus heraclius is still the head of IJ development). Then sometimes IBFD 7.1 or 8.0 (I don't know how it will be named) will be out.

You're going to merge IB with IJ? I just found out word that they have two distinctively important start dates, seperated by distinctively important years.

I want to try all three in this forum and it's subforums! This is an outrage! (But since I can't mod worth a crap for the TW series, my temper has now simmered down to low boil :embarassed: )

Will there at least be two seperate campaigns when there are merged?


Well great work on free ware, we can't "complain" about anything, just voice our low, unheard word...

no IJ, IBFD and RIO will remain separated and stand-alone as they are now

ahh, perfect.