Rome Total ZOR modification

[Epistolary Richard]

The Roman invaders are ambushed and destroyed by a grand union of tribes under British command

Rome: Total ZOR

A Rome: Total War modification

Download

Expansion packs:
- Rome Total ZOR - additional graphics
This optional pack provides the larger unit_info cards used in each unit's description sheet. They're not necessary for the mod to work, but they're there if you want a more complete gaming experience.

Thread index:
- Detail of how it works
- Known Issues and Solutions, see the bottom of this post
- Pictures of some hidden 'default' skins used in ZOR mod
- Example of customising your unit recruitment in ZOR mod

Other threads of interest:
- stichmaster1's bribery mod
Note: if you've already downloaded the ZOR mod, you can adapt it to play as stichmaster1's bribery mod by just using this copy of export_descr_buildings (right click and save as).


About Rome Total ZOR

Who’s it for?
This mod is intended only for users who already have experience in modifying their games. It uses a manual installation process that requires basic familiarity with the game directory.

What’s it about
This mod makes it easier to move one unit from one faction to another with the minimum of editing.
It also allows the user to to completely replace the current recruitment system with one based on Zone Of Recruitment.
From the readme:

This mod is designed to be a functional base that allows units to be recruited by other factions with the minimum of editing. It also enables the replacement the basis of recruitment of all army units from the factional basis in RTW to a Zone of Recruitment model.

This means that the units available for recruitment need no longer depend on who you are, but where you are, allowing factions to field every single army unit in the game if they control the right territories.

Please note: This mod is not intended to be a properly balanced, tested or fully realised project. It rather provides the 'bare bones' for future ZOR-based modifications and remains a work-in-progress.

Download the full readme here.
This readme contains detailed installation instructions, info on the mod’s mechanics, a description of changes, ideas for future modifications, the background of the mod and a list of known issues.

What else does it do?
In order to allow users to suit this mod to their own preferences, it has stayed as close as possible to the vanilla RTW v1.2 so all bugs and ‘features’ in the five text files that this mod uses will remain.
From the readme:

Many existing mods and others in progress incorporate ZOR concepts; but as there are so many different ways of implementing these ideas this mod has aimed to stick as closely as possible to the vanilla game so as to allow users to set their own limits in developing their games.

How big is it?
1.4 meg

Is it compatible with existing mods or fixes?
It’s unlikely, as the five text files edited are the ones most commonly changed by any other mod . As it has tried to stay as close as possible to vanilla 1.2 any fixes (eg, horse archer fix) should be easy to implement without any knock-on effects to the mod.

What’s the latest?
Updates and additional downloads will be edited into this first post. The separate readme listed above (ie, not the one in the zip file) will also be kept up-to-date.

I have a question or have discovered an ‘issue’
First check the list at the bottom of this post or the latest readme under ‘Known Issues’. If that’s no help then send me a PM or reply in this thread.

Why are you doing this?
From the readme:

I created this mod as part of developing a fully realised modification that would address my concerns about the original method of recruitment. … This mod was designed to help users doing their own ZOR tailoring by doing the grunt-work for them. I hope that it will encourage those of us who are only casual modders to start exploring the myriad possibilities for recruitment that RTW provides.

Okay, show me what you’ve got
Download.

Horsemen from all of Parthia’s client kingdoms attack the Egyptians and their Seleucid vassals

Thanks to…
As ever, I am obliged to Creative Arts for releasing the game in the first place, the Totalwar.org modding moderators (especially Myrddraal) and everyone in the Totalwar.org modding community who introduced me to the pleasures of breaking the game apart and putting it back together and providing all the guidance and solutions that helped me make this mod in the first place.


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For ease of reference I'm maintaining a copy of the Known Issues list here:

Limitations

Skins - Because of the way the game looks at the data and hard-coding limits, it's not been possible to properly split out every single unit. As a result a few units (mainly found in barbarian and eastern) have had to be left with 'generic' skins for their type. Their skins will not therefore always match the unit card.
Peasants - Peasants (and indeed strategic models like diplomats, spies, ships etc.) have been left with their old recruitment system. So you can currently only build your own faction's version of them.

Known Issues

Unit_Info cards - For space reasons, rtz.zip only includes the graphics for the smaller unit cards used mostly commonly throughout the game. It does not include the larger unit_info cards used for the unit detailed description.
Solution - Fixed, you can find them at Rome Total ZOR - additional graphics

Missing skins or sprites - Many of the changes in descr_model_battle involved telling the game which texture and sprite to look at for each model for each faction. This has not had to be done for every model (thankfully) but from my experience it's sometimes a little fickle.
Solution - If textures or sprites fail to appear (the model is white or suddenly disappears at a certain distance) some success has been achieved by defining the texture/sprite for every faction. Be wary of knock-on effects though as many models are used across different factions.

Standard Bearers - For similar reasons to the above, the standard bearer models are used across several different factions and so they will often not appear as the correct faction.

Custom Battles - As all the units are now available for each faction you will notice the custom battle army selection screen is rather fuller than usual. It will only ever display a maximum of 100 units, the other units are there (the computer can auto-pick them) but you can't manually select them.
Solution - To avoid this, just swap in your retained copy of export_descr_unit before you play.

Warcry - the warcry attribute is hardcoded to the barbarian factions. This means that non-barbarian infantry recruited by a barbarian faction (eg, if the Gauls recruited a Triarii) will sometimes have the warcry special ability.
Solution - You can remove this feature if you don't want it by giving the infantry unit in question the Cantabrian Circle special ability. This special ability cannot be used by infantry but it overlays the Warcry icon, thus preventing the player from activating it. It is not currently known whether the AI will be able to circumvent this and make use of Warcry with non-barbarian troops under its command.

Widespread Spanish Infantry - the following line was left in the export_descr_buildings.txt level 1 barracks by mistake:

recruit "carthaginian city militia"  0  requires factions { spain, }

Solution - Fixed, the mod has been updated and this line has been removed.

Bribery - now every unit can be owned by every faction it makes bribery far more powerful as any units you bribe join your army and do not disperse. However this is tempered by the fact that you won't be able to retrain the units unless you have holdings in their initial 'cultural' lands.
Solution - Gentleman's rules, I'm afraid, disband any units you would not normally be able to bribe. The AI will still get the benefits, but you may consider that makes it a more challenging opponent. Plus, if any of your own troops are bribed you now have the opportunity to bribe them back (or alternatively punish their treachery on the field of battle )

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Update 30/03/05
- Rome Total ZOR is now hosted by Total War Center
- Mod updated to fix widespread Spanish Infantry bug
- Added link to ZOR graphics expansion pack
- Added link to stichmaster1's bribery mod

Update 28/03/05
Added thread index and additional issues and solutions for Bribery.

[Sundjata Keita]

Wow! If this works I'm sure it will be very useful to many mods. How did you get this to work and what did you have to edit in order to do this? I'm making a Zulu mod and I was thinking of making Zulu units available by region but that would only be for the Zulu factions.

[Epistolary Richard]

I'm making a Zulu mod and I was thinking of making Zulu units available by region but that would only be for the Zulu factions.

I've been watching, it's looking really good.

Something like that would be straightforward entry in ebd:

recruit "impi"  0  requires factions { zulu, } requires hidden_resource zulu

This would allow impi only to be recruited by the Zulus wherever there was a zulu hidden_resource.

This isn't strictly relevant, but IMO one of the cool things about the ZOR mod is that it's compatible with the vanilla edb. So if you just want to play around with a few of the hidden resources and swapping factions then you can work from the vanilla edb forwards, rather than from the full ZOR edb back.

For example, one of my bugbears is that the egyptians can recuit nubians wherever they conquer in the world, even from northern germany.

So, just using the vanilla edb I can change the nubian spearman entry to read:

                recruit "egyptian nubian spearmen"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } and hidden_resource egyptian

and it will confine the recruitment and retraining of nubians to the initial egyptian cultural lands.

Even further, if I think that they would be prepared to fight for the numidians as easily as the egyptians I can just change it to read:

                recruit "egyptian nubian spearmen"  0  requires factions { egyptian, numidia, } and hidden_resource egyptian

so both numidia can recruit them too, but only in the initial egyptian cultural lands. And with the ZOR files in place, it means you don't have to also update the edu or the unit card because it's already done for you. There's nothing new about anything in the ZOR mod, everything here was discovered long ago and has been used far more artfully in other mods. it's just something to make life a little easier if you don't want to get in too deep.

---------

Here's the section on the mod mechanics from the readme:

Mod Mechanics
This mod functions by changing the conditionals for recruitment from a faction-basis to a territory basis.

- It achieves this by changing the recruitment conditional in export_descr_buildings to a hidden resource. A hidden resource has been placed in every province as detailed in descr_regions corresponding (normally) to the default culture of the province.

- descr_model_battle has been changed to help the computer know which graphic files to reference when representing the unit on the battlefield.

- export_descr_unit has been changed to allow all the factions ownership of the units and to tie through to a couple of new entries in descr_model_battle.

So the progression would be as follows:

I (say, Carthage) control a province with the briton hidden_resource in which I have a level 1 barracks.

The level 1 barracks listing in edb includes:

recruit "barb infantry briton" 0 requires hidden_resource britons

This allows any faction which controls a territory with a Briton hidden_resource and has a level 1 barracks to build the unit barb infantry briton.

In edu, barb infantry briton is owned by all factions (this is why all the units appear for every faction on the custom battle screen) and ties through to the model barb_infantry_longshield_briton in dmb.

In dmb, barb_infantry_longshield_briton looks like this:

type				barb_infantry_longshield_briton
skeleton			fs_spearman,			; combat spear
indiv_range			40
texture				britons, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_briton.tga
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_barb_warband_longshield_briton_high.CAS, 8
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_barb_warband_longshield_briton_med.cas, 15
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_barb_warband_longshield_briton_low.cas, 30
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_barb_warband_longshield_briton_lowest.cas, max
model_sprite		britons, 60.0, data/sprites/britons_barb_infantry_longshield_briton_sprite.spr
model_tri			400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

Unchanged from vanilla. The texture line tells the game when it comes to generate the unit in battle which skin to use. In this case there is no Carthage line, so strictly the game shouldn't retrieve a skin at all (and the unit would appear white). However, in the vast majority of cases, where no texture line is defined for the faction the game retrieves the default skin for the type. In this case, unsurprisingly, the default skin is briton. Therefore even though I am Carthaginian I get a Briton unit with a Briton skin (which is what I'm aiming for).

barb_infantry_longshield_briton also ties through to the barb_infantry_longshield_briton description in export_units so no problems there. However, when the game goes to find the unit card it only looks inside the Carthaginian folder, so the barb_infantry_longshield_briton unit card needs to be placed there, otherwise you get the dark peasant default unit card.

It gets more complicated where the default skin is inappropriate or missing:

This is barb_infantry_longshield from dmb:

type				barb_infantry_longshield
skeleton			fs_spearman,			; combat spear
indiv_range			40
texture				gauls, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_gaul.tga
texture				dacia, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				romans_julii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				armenia, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				britons, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				romans_brutii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				carthage, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				egypt, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				germans, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				greek_cities, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				macedon, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				numidia, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				parthia, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				pontus, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				romans_scipii, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				scythia, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				seleucid, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				romans_senate, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				spain, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				thrace, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
texture				slave, data/models_unit/textures/unit_barb_warband_longshield_dacia.tga
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_barb_warband_longshield_high.CAS, 8
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_barb_warband_longshield_med.cas, 15
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_barb_warband_longshield_low.cas, 30
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_barb_warband_longshield_lowest.cas, max
model_sprite		dacia, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		gauls, 60.0, data/sprites/gauls_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		slave, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		thrace, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		spain, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		scythia, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		numidia, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		greek_cities, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		armenia, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		britons, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		germans, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		pontus, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		parthia, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		carthage, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		seleucid, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		egypt, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		macedon, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		romans_senate, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		romans_scipii, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		romans_brutii, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_sprite		romans_julii, 60.0, data/sprites/dacia_barb_infantry_longshield_sprite.spr
model_tri			400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

Now this model references two units in edu, a Dacian warband and a Gaul warband. The default skin is Gaullish, this means that whether you're in Gaul or in Dacia if you're neither faction then the unit skin will appear as Gaul. The defaults vary over lots of different barbarian (and other) units, so for the sake of conformity I picked a cultural 'generic' so if a model had various different skins I'd always go with one of them.

For barbarians I picked the Dacians as their brown was the most non-descript. But this leads to the above where I had to define every single faction to point at the Dacian skin.

So if you're Gaul you recruit Gaullish warbands in both Gaul and Dacia (fair enough) and if you're any other faction you recruit Dacian-'looking' warbands in Dacia and Gaul.

Again the unit cards add a discrepancy. They'll hold true to the edu entry you're recruiting, so it will show a Gaullish or a Dacian depending on where you recruited them from (which, while inconsistent, I think is kind of cool as it reminds you where your troops came from).

The solution to this would be to define a new entry in dmb and so split out the Gaullish and Dacian models. Which is perfectly do-able, but there's very little headroom in dmb (only about 45 entries) so I didn't want to reduce it on something that users may not consider important.

The factions that fare the best are those like the Britons who (because of their spikey hair) are largely separate within dmb.

Unit cards become more of an issue when a single entry in edu caters for several different factions, for example the Eastern Infantry. There you have to start looking for a default unit card as well, otherwise it may appear as though you're recruiting Parthian infantry while you're in Pontus. Again you can split out new entries in edu and dmb if that was what was important to you.

There are some interesting default skins in the game that aren't used, some of which I've referred to in the mod. I'll see if I can post some pictures.

[Sundjata Keita]

Yes I read about the default texture and the unit card in the bribery mod thread. So could I make this work for only say 5 factions?

[Epistolary Richard]

Yep, so for example your entry in edb might look like:

recruit "warrior"  0  requires factions { zulu, swazis, ndebele, pedi, tswana, } requires hidden_resource natal

your edu entry something like this:

type             warrior
dictionary       warrior_warband      ; Warrior Warband
category         infantry
class            missile
voice_type       Light_1
soldier          zulu_warrior, 40, 0, 0.9
mount_effect     elephant +6, chariot +6
attributes       sea_faring, hide_improved_forest, hide_long_grass
formation        1.6, 2, 3.2, 4, 3, square
stat_health      1, 0
stat_pri         9, 4, javelin, 50, 6, thrown, archery, piercing, spear, 25 ,1
stat_pri_attr    thrown
stat_sec         6, 4, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, knife, 25 ,1
stat_sec_attr    no
stat_pri_armour  0, 1, 2, flesh
stat_sec_armour  0, 0, flesh
stat_heat        2
stat_ground      2, -2, 3, 2
stat_mental      4, low, untrained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay  0
stat_food        60, 300
stat_cost        1, 220, 130, 30, 40, 220
ownership        zulu, swazis, ndebele, pedi, tswana

your dmb entry:

type				zulu_warrior
skeleton			fs_fast_javelinman, fs_fast_swordsman
indiv_range			40
texture				zulu, data/models_unit/textures/unit_warrior_zulu.tga
texture				swazis, data/models_unit/textures/unit_warrior_swazis.tga
texture				ndebele, data/models_unit/textures/unit_warrior_ndebele.tga
texture				pedi, data/models_unit/textures/unit_warrior_pedi.tga
texture				tswana, data/models_unit/textures/unit_warrior_tswana.tga
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_warband_peltast_german_high.cas, 8
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_warband_peltast_german_med.cas, 15
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_warband_peltast_german_low.cas, 30
model_flexi			data/models_unit/unit_warband_peltast_german_lowest.cas, max
model_sprite		60.0, data/sprites/unit_warrior_zulu_sprite.spr
model_tri			400, 0.5f, 0.5f, 0.5f

[Epistolary Richard]

These skins exist in the same files as all the others but aren't used in the vanilla game. Some are used in the ZOR mod as a cultural 'generic'.

Eastern Infantry

Eastern Horse Archers

Cataphracts

Numidian Cavalry

There are also ones for Parthian Slingers, Eastern Archers, and interesting ones for Naked Fanatics and Night Raiders.

[Sundjata Keita]

Great, thanks a lot Epistolary Richard, this will be very useful for the mod I'm sure. Now we can have a unit set for the natives, the british, the zulus, the portuguese and the boers and that will be about it. This basically cancels out the hardcoded culture types apart from the limitations and allows us to set specific regional units.

[miak]

Could some one please put up the packs that have all the unit cards for each because when I try to repack things it always says failure reading then the file and every file I try to repack. Well if you can thanks a lot.

[LestaT]

Are there any updates so it is compatible with 1.3 ?

[Epistolary Richard]

I'm afraid until I get 1.3 myself none of my mods will be upgraded. Apologies.