A Little Help Please

[ReluctantSamurai]

Could someone direct me to a discussion of how to remove ports from a factions building tree?

My specific goals are this (if they are even possible):

Disable the SPQR ability to produce fleets. IMHO, it's more than enough that the other three Roman factions spam fleets at a prodigious rate without adding Senate fleets.......

Remove the ports in the Red Sea and Caspian Sea so the Parthians and Egyptians stop spamming useless fleets that do nothing but become a drain on their economy.

As a side note....how does one go about removing Pharaohs Bowmen & Pharaohs Guards from Eggie troop availability? They are overpowered as it is and some balance with the Selkies in the ME is in order, IMHO.......

[jcd1993]

I can help with the ports business.

What you will have to do is open up "RTW/Data/world/maps/base/map_regions.tga" in an image editor program that can handle TARGA files, such as PhotoShop or the GIMP, (which I currently use, due to it being free).

You will notice that it looks identical to the ingame map, except for the vivid colours designating different territories (the compliation of RGB that makes up each region is unique, i.e you won't find R 23 G 109 B 55 twice due to how settlements are built up in the regions, but that is relative to a more complicated aspect and unrelated to this so I will leave it for now). If you take a closer look at individual territories you will notice that that in every region there is a black pixel (which is where the settlement is located) and in most regions there is a white pixel (which represents the port). To remove the port you simply have to use a colour selector tool, then click the territory containing the port you wish to remove so that you have its colour-ID (for example we will use RGB values of R 1 G 1 B 1 for Port A). You then simply have to replace the white pixel that represents the port with the colour of its "mother-region", so you end up with an entire region of R 1 G 1 B 1 with a settlement shown by R 0 G 0 B 0 (black dot), and NO WHITE DOT (R 255 G 255 B 255) on the border between the region and the sea.
Finally after you have edited the regions (I presume at least four?) you simply have to delete the file "RTW/Data/world/maps/base/map.rwm" (This has to happen, I'm not sure entirely why, all I know is that the campaign won't run if it isn't deleted. The game creates a new map.rwm file that is based upon the file you have changed when starting a new campaign, you will notice a delay once you have selected your faction and clicked continue the first time after deleting map.rwm.)

Its a strange concept I know, especially with the pixel editing. Once you get used to it you can create entirely new regions to add a greater tactical edge to the campaign.

I'm not sure how exact this help will be as I am completely shattered at the time of writing, I'm not entirely sure I even answered the question, but if I did, good luck :)

[Aradan]

Firts of all, back up any files before you change them.

Disable the SPQR ability to produce fleets. IMHO, it's more than enough that the other three Roman factions spam fleets at a prodigious rate without adding Senate fleets.......

Go to export_descr_buildings.txt, and fine the "port_buildings" tree, and make the changes highlighted in bold (ie replace "roman", that allows recruitment for all roman factions, with the names of the 3 specific factions):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

building port_buildings
{
    levels port shipwright dockyard 
    {
        port requires factions { barbarian, carthaginian, eastern, parthia, egyptian, greek, roman, } 
        {
            capability
            {
                recruit "naval boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { greek, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, }
                trade_fleet 1 ;trade_base_income_bonus bonus 1
            }
            construction  2 
            cost  800 
            settlement_min large_town
            upgrades
            {
                shipwright
            }
        }
        shipwright requires factions { barbarian, carthage, eastern, parthia, egyptian, greek, roman, } 
        {
            capability
            {
                recruit "naval boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, } 
                recruit "naval large boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, } 
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, } 
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { greek, } 
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { greek, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, }
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, }
                trade_fleet 2 ;trade_base_income_bonus bonus 2
            }
            construction  3 
            cost  1600 
            settlement_min city
            upgrades
            {
                dockyard
            }
        }
        dockyard requires factions { carthage, eastern, parthia, greek, roman, } 
        {
            capability
            {
                recruit "naval boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, } 
                recruit "naval large boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, } 
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, } 
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, } 
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, } 
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { greek, } 
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { greek, } 
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { greek, } 
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, }
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, }
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, }
                trade_fleet 3 ;trade_base_income_bonus bonus 2
            }
            construction  5 
            cost  3200 
            settlement_min large_city
            upgrades
            {
            }
        }
    }
    plugins 
    {
    }
}

Remove the ports in the Red Sea and Caspian Sea so the Parthians and Egyptians stop spamming useless fleets that do nothing but become a drain on their economy.

A different (slightly more complicated) approach, that will allow you to keep the ports, but just disable ships being trained there:

Go to world/maps/base/descr_regions.txt, and find the entries for the regions: Tribus_Alanni, Tribus_Sakae, Atropatene, Nabataea, Sinai, Middle_Egypt, Thebais. The sixth line of each entry is the resources section for the region. Add "no_ship" to the end of those regions' entries, so that they look like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Atropatene
	Phraaspa
	parthia
	Medes
	61 239 246
	slaves, no_ship
	5
	4

When you're done, save the file, exit and delete the map.rwm file you'll see in your base' folder.

Now go to export_descr_buildings. Near the top there's a line that starts with "hidden_resources". At the end of this line add the hidden resource you just introduced, no_ship, so that the line looks like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

hidden_resources sparta rome italy no_ship

Then, go to the "port_buildings" tree again, and at the end of the every line that allows ship recruitment add "and not hidden_resource no_ship", so that your recruitment lines look like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

building port_buildings
{
    levels port shipwright dockyard 
    {
        port requires factions { barbarian, carthaginian, eastern, parthia, egyptian, greek, roman, } 
        {
            capability
            {
                recruit "naval boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { greek, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, } and not hidden_resource no_ship
                trade_fleet 1 ;trade_base_income_bonus bonus 1
            }
            construction  2 
            cost  800 
            settlement_min large_town
            upgrades
            {
                shipwright
            }
        }
        shipwright requires factions { barbarian, carthage, eastern, parthia, egyptian, greek, roman, } 
        {
            capability
            {
                recruit "naval boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval large boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { greek, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { greek, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, } and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, } and not hidden_resource no_ship
                trade_fleet 2 ;trade_base_income_bonus bonus 2
            }
            construction  3 
            cost  1600 
            settlement_min city
            upgrades
            {
                dockyard
            }
        }
        dockyard requires factions { carthage, eastern, parthia, greek, roman, } 
        {
            capability
            {
                recruit "naval boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval large boats"  0  requires factions { barbarian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { carthaginian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { eastern, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { egyptian, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { greek, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { greek, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { greek, }  and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval biremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, } and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval triremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, } and not hidden_resource no_ship
                recruit "naval quinquiremes"  0  requires factions { romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii, } and not hidden_resource no_ship
                trade_fleet 3 ;trade_base_income_bonus bonus 2
            }
            construction  5 
            cost  3200 
            settlement_min large_city
            upgrades
            {
            }
        }
    }
    plugins 
    {
    }
}

As a side note....how does one go about removing Pharaohs Bowmen & Pharaohs Guards from Eggie troop availability? They are overpowered as it is and some balance with the Selkies in the ME is in order, IMHO.......

Again, export_descr_buildings.txt, go to the barracks building tree and find the recruitment lines for "egyptian elite guards" and outcomment those lines by adding a semicolon at their front, like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

                recruit "egyptian infantry"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                ;recruit "egyptian elite guards"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                recruit "greek hoplite militia"  0  requires factions { greek, }

Do that for all barracks levels where the unit is available.
Then go to the "missiles" building tree and do the same for "egyptian archer elite".

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

                recruit "egyptian archer"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                ;recruit "egyptian archer elite"  0  requires factions { egyptian, } 
                recruit "egyptian onager"  0  requires factions { egyptian, }

That's it, save, exit, and enjoy.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Thank You, gentlemen.....I will try both methods for port removal/inactivate. The build ship/inactivate might be more fair as it still allows income from port trading while disabling the ability to build ships.

The unit removal was as I suspected but I wanted to be sure before altering files.

Again, many thanx.........

[gollum]

You may also want to delete from the campaign starting positions the goldmine the Senate has in Rome. It is partly responsible for the fleet spamming. It also helps if you reduce the population of all Roman towns at the beginning of the game.

[ReluctantSamurai]

gollum...I'm just looking for a bit more realism and balance. It makes sense that the Senate might have a "Royal Guard" so to speak (whether they had one historically or not), but after watching fleet battles for a couple of campaigns with fow disabled, the SPQR fleets (which almost invariably get a Seamaster) simply strangle factions like the Greek Cities and Carthage. I can't see any reason why they should get them so I'm going to try eliminating their capacity to build and see how that goes.....

I was also considering how to make Carthage more of a factor. I've played my last two campaigns with fow off so I could see how the AI handles all the factions. I was not surprised by how badly Carthage was done. In the last camp it went something like this:

"Garrison general in Syracuse moves most of his hoplites outside the city. The Romans seige the following turn. Hanno moves to engage the hoplites (no alliance with the Scipii) and destroys them. Hanno wanders around for several more turns before embarking on a single bireme fleet which is promptly sunk by the Scipii. Romans then invade Africa seiging and capturing Thapsus in short order. The Carthage garrison general then embarks a major portion of Carthage' garrison into a single bireme fleet which is promptly sunk by the Scipii."

Anyone who was just playing the game for the first time could have done better.....Africa was simply handed to the Scipii on a silver platter.

I've thought of beefing up the outpost at Caralis and giving it wooden walls so the Julii have to fight for it instead of landing and rolling it over the same turn, and making several other adjustments, but suggestions are welcome.

[gollum]

For Carthage usually i do the following:
Make Iberian infantry 60 men unit.
Replace Militia with Iberian infantry and drop all infantry units one tier down, that is:
1. Ib. Infantry
2. Libyan Spearmen
3. Poeni Infantry
4. Sacred band (taken out from Baal)

Also i (belive it or not) eliminate the Elephant units completely (as the AI favors them and does not build normal infanrty units, only that they can be defeated by the flame arrows easy peasy by the player), as well as the wardogs, camels, gladiators, arcani and warpigs, siege engines, chariots (other than british and egyptian general chariots which i leave in but nerfed considerably) and all archers/slingers other than horse archers. This makes carthage really worthwhile as they build up solid armies of infantry/cavalry. The disadvantage of the AI in handlins the archer units is also eliminated and battles are far more bloody affairs in which the AI can prove a semi-worthy opponent.

Whatever you do, reduce the speed by messing with the Terrain Movement Modifiers: all mods do so, a good average value for long/short grass is around 0.75 to 0.8 - you can give values to the others according to that, but never drop below 0.5, as the fatigue rates are just too high then.

Good luck and enjoy modding and playing your mod.

[gollum]

Forgot to mention that i also take out, late legionary cohorts, praetorian cohorts, urban cohorts and the roman cavalry - i just leave in the early legions, the auxiliaries and the legionary cavalry from circus maximus.

It makes fighting with and against the Romans way more realistic and actually better because their army composition is far more solid.

I think that historically lorica segmentata late legionary cohorts appeared after the game timeline ends.

Also forgot to mention that i reduce intial treasury for the Romans, the level and population of all Roman towns as well as their starting army. Also no Roman faction starts with a port.
These give lots of time to Phinician Sicily (lilibaum) to prepare and build up.



edit
Also forgot to mention that i reduce the ratio of infantry/cavalry sizes - typically i make cavalry 18 at normal size. This gives less ammo to horse archers and also makes infantry far more solid against cavalry - the game plays more like STW/MTW with these ratios, especially if you combine this with the movement modifiers suggestion, that reduces the impact of the cav. charge (as speeds are lower) and so makes cavalry much more balanced than in vanilla.

[Aradan]

If you want to make Carthage behave, you might want to read here. The entire thread is very useful.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I think that historically lorica segmentata late legionary cohorts appeared after the game timeline ends.

That would be interesting to know for sure. One of the reasons, but not the only one I'm sure, that all heroic land markers seem to end up going in favor of the Romans whenever they are involved. Yes, the Roman army was one of the best, but they didn't win every battle

Also forgot to mention that i reduce intial treasury for the Romans, the level and population of all Roman towns as well as their starting army. Also no Roman faction starts with a port.

I'm not sure I want to go that far, but taking a clue from your lead, I might give the Romans a port only for their capital at the start.

As to unit size changes, maybe later. A little at a time What directory is used to alter movement speeds? That's a good idea to make more realistic and eliminate those idiotic scenes during battle where infantry are running nearly as fast as horses

Regarding Carthage....what's the benefit of reducing Iberian infantry unit size from 80 to 60?

@ Aradan

I've looked thru that topic before. Those guys seem to know the game quite well. However, I do like RTW for an occasional game (when I get tired of STW!) but not enough to do such extensive modding. There is a lot of excellent material there, though......

[gollum]

wikipedia seems to agree:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorica_segmentata
use from 9BC to 3rd century AD

There is no beneft reducing Iberian Infantry, i meant increasing it from 40 men normal to 60 men normal.

Its in the main Data folder where also the unit and building files are. Do not have the game installed and cannot remember the exact name, but look for the words Modifiers, Ground, Speed, Texture. Its early on (towards the top). Its indeed imperative and you'll see that the game becomes far better then, especially if you play with thick fighting infantry blocks that allow you more melee time to manage things.

[ReluctantSamurai]

One last question (until I think of more): to remove the starting ports from Messina and Croton (not disabling but forcing the Romans to build them) I do what......?

[gollum]

The starting position file that you are after is in the world/campaigns/imperial camp. Sorry i am not more precise, i just havent the game installed and its been a while since i've done that. Iirc you just take out the port building textline and this automatically downgrades it to a fishing village.

[ReluctantSamurai]

More questions.......I know, I should just install one of many fine mods and be done with it, but then I don't learn how to do it, no?

When altering the descr_strat directory, is there any other directory that needs changing at the same time?

For instance, when adding a wooden pallisade to Caralis, and beefing up the garrison there slightly, the game won't even load. I make changes one at a time so I can pinpoint any problems I might have, but still no-go. I also dbl check that I've "dotted my i's and crossed my t's", but I still might have overlooked a spelling error or something, hence the question.

[gollum]

i am pretty sure that last time i did it, i only needed to change things there. I aslo changed the garissons and added/taken out buildings, and the game worked. One thing i did was using copy paste, from existing lines to ensure minimu faults, for both buildings and units. perhaps this is worth a try?

Sorry i can't be more useful, maybe someone with things more frsh on his mind can als give a hand.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Found my problem....never ask me to join a spelling bee

It's 'pallisade' not 'palliside'..........

After many of the above mentioned changes, I still can't believe the utter stupidity of the AI concerning Carthage

I know this is all probably old hat for most here, so please bear with....

Reducing Roman starting populations and money has helped quite a bit. They aren't nearly as aggressive and it's taken them 10 years to capture their first two cities. Not having SPQR fleets around has made the GC into a naval power, and Carthage is not far behind. Speaking of Carthage.......

The AI absolutely insists on removing Hanno and his army from Sicily. After 10 years, his army (minus Hanno, by now, I presume) is sitting on a fleet parked offshore from Numidia's port at Cirta and it hasn't even moved in three years. Another fleet with a dozen units sits offshore from Carthage, and every new unit produced in the city goes there. So....

I figured if I remove all starting Carthaginian fleets, then Hanno will have to stay on Sicily at least until a bireme can be built and sent. If that doesn't work then I will remove all Carthaginian ports to start the game. Problem is, every time I alter the starting unit roster, the game won't progress past the faction choice screen. And there definitely is no spelling problem this time.

So, for example, how do I remove the peasant garrison in Caralis and replace it with another militia unit? and how do I remove all starting Carthaginian fleets?

BTW.....Aradan

The port disabling feature works like a charm. Ports on the Red & Caspian Seas are built, but no useless fleets are being spammed

[Aradan]

Speaking of Carthage.......

...The most retarded faction in the hands of the AI...

So, for example, how do I remove the peasant garrison in Caralis and replace it with another militia unit? and how do I remove all starting Carthaginian fleets?

world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/descr_strat.txt. Find the entry below and change it:

character	Milkpilles, general, age 20, , x 79, y 57 
traits GoodAdministrator 1 , Intelligent 1 , PublicFaith 1 
ancillaries merchant
army
unit		carthaginian city militia				exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
unit		carthaginian city militia				exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0 ; <=== add this line
;unit		carthaginian peasant				exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0 ; <=== add a semicolon in front of this line (or delete it altogether)

And:

;character	Thero, admiral, age 25, , x 83, y 47 

;army
;unit		naval biremes				exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0
;unit		naval biremes				exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

;character	Timasion, admiral, age 28, , x 92, y 49 

;army
;unit		naval biremes				exp 0 armour 0 weapon_lvl 0

Semi-colons in front of all these lines.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Thank you for your time. I must need to use the semicolon method because I added another militia unit and deleted the peasants....no go.

Not allowing Parthia to spam useless fleets in the Caspian has made a very big positive impact on how they are handled....at least in this first test campaign. They now use the money to create armies. 50 moves in and they have captured Selucia, Dumatha, Petra, Bostra, and have Palmyra under seige. In all the dozens of camps I've played, I've never seen them do that before. It'll be interesting to see them fight it out with Egypt........

...The most retarded faction in the hands of the AI...

Apparently so! I read through the entire topic you posted a link to concerning Carthage and thought I'd try something that was pointed out in that discussion. Pathfinding. If I were to move Hanno and his army to a place where he can "see" Messina instead of hanging out in the wilderness, it might prompt him to move towards it. So the question is: how do I move his starting position?

It was also pointed out that the Seleucids don't do much because the garrison in Sardis is too small to assault Halicarnassas at the start of a campaign, and later is, well....too late. They get so tied up with fending off the Eggies that they never get around to it. They also never go for Palmyra at the start because they can't "see" it from Damascus due to the mountains.

So if I add more troops to Sardis (or reduce the garrison at Halicarnassas and place a Seleucid stack close enough to consider an assault) and perhaps place a large enough stack close enough to Palmyra for the AI to consider it as a target, how is that done?

My apologies for these rather n00b questions that everyone probably dealt with years ago. The small changes I've already made have affected gameplay quite a bit, so far. So after I get all the basics of file-altering down, I might get to what I really love to do.........maps.