Questions.

[Aemilius Paulus]

I usually play at H/M. However, after finding the level of difficulty very much unsatisfactory (on the campaign level; I do not care as much for the quality of battles), I am thinking on starting a VH/M campaign. My main concern was that AI will hire mercenaries, and therefore deplete the pools from which I was going to hire. So my first question is how often the AI hires mercenaries and how much does it hire? I am also switching to alex.exe BTW.


My second question is on the impetuous attribute. Despite it supposedly leading a unit to "may charge without orders", I have never in my RTW/EB history had a unit actually break out in a charge without me ordering it. Is it bugged? Has anyone had units perform that unordered charge?


My third question belongs more in the Bugs section, but I do not think it would be right for me to start another thread just for that. Anyway, my issue is that whenever I let the vanilla intro video play to the end, the game crashes after finishing the vid. If I do not watch the thing to the end, then no problems. Also, this only happens on my Vista laptop, but not on my XP desktop. This is not really a true issue for me, but I am nevertheless curious.

Oh, and yes, one final question: has anyone gotten the remove/add trait command to work? Just curious. I know how to do it, but it never worked for me. Reason why I am asking is because early on in my first ever EB campaign, the Romani one, I built Auguries. Now I know they are in the Tavern building slot, which explains all the drinking traits my generals ahve received. Now that I have several drunkards, I would like to fix that.


Thanks in advance.

[Decimus]

I play Vh/M on Alex.exe and the Ai does recruit mercenaries now and then, but only recruits serious numbers of mercenaries when It cannot train the needed soldiers necessary in a city. or when about to lose a city and a lone FM is nearby

[Africanvs]

1) Yes, mercenaries are very difficult to hire in any region that the AI is active in, and I often battle full armies of mercenaries which would indicate the AI is hiring them quite a bit.

2) I want to say I have had a unit charge without orders, but if it does happen, it is rarely.

3) I couldn't say, sounds like one of many vista-related issues.

4) I've never used it but I did have problems using the move_character function until I figured out how to type the names correctly. Marcvs Jvnivs Brvtus beomes "Marcvsjvnivs Brvtus".

[vartan]

I have the Alex executable but I could never quite figure out how to shortcut to it so that EB works and only utilizes the engine ( I don't want to mod, only use the engine ).

[penguinking]

1) The AI will hire a lot more mercenaries, especially some of the richer factions like AS and Carthage.

2) I am almost positive this just didn't get put into the game. I usually play as barbarian factions, and I have never had a unit charge without orders.

[seienchin]

I have the Alex executable but I could never quite figure out how to shortcut to it so that EB works and only utilizes the engine ( I don't want to mod, only use the engine ).

You can download that in the Minimod section. The guy, who made the Alexander mod also offers a normal download to just use the Alex.exe.

Actually the Ki also hires Mercenaries at M/M. Esspecialy if you have a bigger army and wait for the Ki to atack, than it just buys all the mercenaries of.

[Raygereio]

I have the Alex executable but I could never quite figure out how to shortcut to it so that EB works and only utilizes the engine ( I don't want to mod, only use the engine ).

Use this shortcut:
RomeTW-ALX.exe" -mod:eb -show_err -nm -noalexander
Then grab the chat_filter.san file from Alexander/data and put it in EB/data.

That should enable you to start EB on alexander. Nightbattles have to be enables in the trait files and descr_strat.txt.

As for the OP's questions:
I noticed in Rome.exe, BI.exe and Alex.exe that the AI will by as much mercenaries as possible, limited only by money and the actual number of mercenaries available. (hard & very hard give the AI more money to buy mercs with).
I think the amount the AI buys is also affected by the ammount of factions the AI is at war with and how much units the AI can produce. For instance, I noticed entire armies of mercs with the Arche Seleukia (who is at war with pretty much everyone in my campaign), while the Iberians have very little (in my campaign they are at war with just 1 faction).

Edit; which is pretty much what Decius already said. I need to read more carefully.

I never saw an impetious unit charge without orders. I did read about people claiming to have seen it, so maybe it´s just really rare.

As for your intromovie problem; I had that problem once (while vanilla RomeTW, using XP; I think it had something to do with either windows media player or a videocodec), try using the -nm command in your EB shotcut that will disable all movies.

[Macilrille]

Since EB is so long in loading I often click it then go do something else, shower, play a bit with my ferret, wash up, cook, whatever, my intro movie runs to the end, no crash. I use Vista...

Edited to add, and just now it did it...

[Atilius]

Oh, and yes, one final question: has anyone gotten the remove/add trait command to work? Just curious. I know how to do it, but it never worked for me. Reason why I am asking is because early on in my first ever EB campaign, the Romani one, I built Auguries. Now I know they are in the Tavern building slot, which explains all the drinking traits my generals ahve received. Now that I have several drunkards, I would like to fix that.

I think we fixed that bug before 1.2.

...I did have problems using the move_character function until I figured out how to type the names correctly. Marcvs Jvnivs Brvtus beomes "Marcvsjvnivs Brvtus".

That absolutely will not work in EB.

On the general subject of giving Roman characters traits via give_trait: I invented the naming system that we currently use, so I know it inside and out. I can initially determine what a character's internal name is and give him traits. On a number of occasions, I've written them down so I don't forget them. And then at some later time, give_trait seems to stop working for all characters at once. I don't believe that this is caused by naming conflicts with non-FM characters, because I recall investigating that possibility. That's not a very satisfactory answer, but that's all I've got.

[athanaric]

1) IMO, with RTW. exe or BI.exe the AI on Hard or Very Hard Campaign difficulties hires too many mercenaries. Especially the AS and the Ptolies. Prepare to find your desired unit of Thraikioi Prodromoi in enemy hands before you can hire it yourself.
Perhaps the Alex.exe makes things better.

2) No idea.

3) Same problem here. And I use XP (Vista is evil).