Any reviews of realism Mod ?

[Loopy]

I was considering trying it out but wanted to ask around to see if it was worth bothering at this point.

What's the story? Is it any good or should I give it more time to develope?

[Maltz]

I had a try on ver 2.2. Everything feels excellent, or on the way to become excellent, except:

(1) All buildings take one more turn to build. I already thought buildings are too slow to build, so this is really killing my patience.

(2) Cavalry runs very slowly and they can't catch up infantry routers. I find this quite weird and somehow want to kick the wall due to the frustration

But it is certainly a lot of hard work in the mod. I would recommend to try it for sure.

[ranpiz]

total realism 3.2 is VERY kickass compared to the released version.

i think what the previous poster may have experienced was that his cavalry was out of stamina. i'm pretty sure units lose stamina a lot faster than the superhuman athletes in the released version.

suposedly version 4.0 is going to extend the map all the way to india and possibly include a new faction entirely.

but the current version map is pretty simliar but with some additional provinces in places that make sense.

all the annoying stuff like overpowered bribery etc is still in the game because i guess thats not modable.

but the battles are far, far better. the units that made no sense whatsoever were removed. and the fake egypt in released version was replaced with a more realistic egypt influenced by greek culture.

many of the faction starting units were changed too, to make for a stronger carthage etc.

any total war player who is slightly disapointed with the released version I would recommend the mod to, it really solves most of the common complaints.

[Hobotus]

Agree with Ranpiz and recommend this mod a lot too. Looks like Gaius Julius, the creator of the mod is committed to keep updating it, which means it'll get better and better. Get the Mod

[warlordmb]

I would reccomend this Mod.
I've been playing this mod for a couple of weeks.

1. Some new units which look stunning. Roman auxilia in green uniforms. Gaul warband with some great new shield designs.

2. Roman factions get Funditores (slingers) instead of archers until the Marian reforms. If like me you found archers a bit uber in the vanilla version you will like this.

3. Population growth has been slowed and building build times lengthened by 1 turn.
a) Marian reforms arrive much later. I've never had this happen before 200BC using this mod and in one campaign this did not happen until 163BC.
b)Fewer problems with squalor means less micro-managing of your cities and more time spent fighting.

ZOR - Zones of recruitment and several other new inovations.

This really is a better gaming experience than the vanilla game. Try it.

[Fridge]

Is there a link to a readme or faq about the mod, which details all the changes?

[Prodigal]

I played the obligatory Rome campaign with vanilla, played Carthage, then Briton, heard about the mod. switched to it & have no intention of changing back. Head hurlers, screeching women, & burning pigs really don't do it for me, & the RTR has increased the enjoyment of the game, not to mention the number of cities

You can always make a copy of your TW games folder & install the RTR on one, while keeping your original intact & play either anytime you like.

[KyodaiSteeleye]

One question - is MP possible with the mod, or do you have to have the original installed to play MP?

[warlordmb]

Is there a link to a readme or faq about the mod, which details all the changes?

You will find all the info you want over at

www.twcenter.net/forums

once there find the Workshop forum and you should see the Rome:Total Realism Mod - a whole forum dedicated to the mod.

hope this helps.

[Loopy]

Thanks for the input. Sounds like a must have.

[Penance0405]

Great mod, although... the new unit cards that have been added look real ugly, very bad even, thats about it... I will keep playing and inform you.

[Turbo]

I had realism installed for a while then put back the vanilla version. Even with 3.2, I got sick and tired of bugs causing CTD. The Zone of recruitability causes the AI to crank out low quality units by the truckload thus making the MOD much easier than the vanilla version.

[Maltz]

i think what the previous poster (that's me) may have experienced was that his cavalry was out of stamina. i'm pretty sure units lose stamina a lot faster than the superhuman athletes in the released version.

Hello:

I experienced slow cavalry with the tutorial campaign - the first battle. The first unit that Gaul sends across the bridge are their bar. cavalry. I took it out with my triarii + general combo. They drop dead in seconds so nobody was tired. Then comes the archer, so I charged my general in, routing them.

Then I can never catch these running archers. Gaius Julius trail behind them a little bit and never catch up. That was only the 2nd unit that the 8-experience cavalry faced ever, and their stamina was just "warmed up". That unit of archer ran a longer distance across the bridge, no rest in between, so there is no reason that they are any bit less tired than the cavalry. Also, the tutorial campaign shouldn't be a hard difficulty so I rule out that difficulty influence.

I understand it is a good thing to let people run very slowly when they are tired. In the vanilla game, when units are "exhausted", they run very slowly, too. I find it satisfying enough.

Apart from that I have to mention that the "one extra turn for all building" really kills my intention to continue using this mod. It is by no means a bad mod - it has all the best intentions and most elegant efforts. It really depends on play styles - if you think you like to expand fast and used to play AOE series where you always need to rush, then longer building time is a huge disaster. I could never see the fancy units, either on me and on the opponents. (as barbarians this might be OK since you reach the top earlier.)

Many feedbacks I heard are that "this mod makes the game a lot harder; the original version is too easy". I think this is mainly because you can no longer rout the AI that easily, so you really have to wait longer to bring a strong army on and not rely on a small "penetrate force". That might be a good thing, or a reduction of signature "small wins big" battles. I am not sure whether you call that realistic or not, but right certainlly it is harder.

Yet since sometimes people tend to brag about how hard they can win (hense your achievement is nothing to me), I am not sure how can you find a standard when the mod keeps improving and changing... that adds another kind of frustration maybe?

[Lord Ovaat]

I've been reading about this Mod since it first came out, and have not installed it. If I can figure out a way to return the mobility and combat speed back to normal--which I believe to be far more realistic--then I'll use it. I particularly like the concept of only being able to recruit troops in certain "home" areas. Now, that IS far more realistic. And makes the game much harder. But again, I would hesitate even on this because of the horrendously slow campaign map movement. So, has anyone ever seen a mod that makes everyone happy?

[frogbeastegg]

I tried this mod and I've lost interest about half way through my first game, a Julii short on normal/normal. The game has dragged on for several weeks because I could barely motivate myself to play it. At least I managed to finish my handful of vanilla short campaigns in a timely manner.

For every change I like there is one I do not like. The main killers for me are the reduced move and kill speeds in battle; I play MP as well now and I am finding it incredibly hard to switch between the two different speeds all the time. I also find it profoundly tedious; I keep playing my battles on full speed acceleration while I wait for the melee to *end* already.

The second killer blow comes from some design decisions I don't like; fair enough, there are plenty in the vanilla game I don't like either. I find having to work through three (count them 3) different versions of the pre-Marian units is every bit as annoying as not being able to use all three units at the same time from the start. Every time you upgrade your barracks your existing armies become obsolete, for what real bonus I can't tell. Maybe a couple of extra points on attack/defence.

I don't like the smaller archer units; I liked the vanilla game’s archers.

I don't like the slowed down building speeds; I now find myself skipping turn after turn while I wait for buildings to finish. I never did that in the vanilla. For the record I don't expand quickly so it's not that I am a rusher wanting new toys *now*. In fact after about 35 turns I had only gained 4 cities because I was playing slowly.

I have also encountered some bugs, nothing bad and I know it's a work in progress, but they are enough to harm my already wavering interest. I hate hearing my slingers with the archer sound effect, for example. I also get CTDs, something I have never, ever met in the full game. The already irritating pathfinding bugs in large cities are worse in this mod.

I do like the larger map, I like the increased movement ranges on the camp map, I like a few of the new unit skins, and other things too. I know I could mod many of the things I don't like but I just do not have time.

I am not entirely happy with either version of the game at the moment. Roll on 1.2 and RTR 4.0 so I can try again.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Have had a realism mod going since 2.0; I find it more enjoyable than vanilla.

Good:
1) The Eqyptians are Greek! (Mostly) Rejoice!
2) New unit/unit skins! Looks better, and slightly more variety!
3) Less wacko units! No more screaming women!
4) [Somewhat] less hectic battles (I found vanilla battles to go too quickly, though not everyone might find this as a plus)
5) All factions playable! A must for any serious mod, but still worth mentioning
6) Good patching; CA or Activision should watch and learn

Bad:
1) Still haven't fixed Macedon's and Selucia's flags.
2) Three levels of pre-Marian units; need more like two
3) Chariots are dumb and still there
4) Infantry still seems to quick, mostly when routing
5) Ships are still dumb
6) AI still dumb (though there isn't much they can do about it, so its not their fault)

Mixed Bags:
1) Zones of recrutability - good concept; bugs in implementation
2) Kill rate/Movement rate mods have been incorporated; I generally like it, but it can slow things too much at times
3) Campaign is less hectic: building times, ship building times, and population growth have been slowed; can make the campaign too long, and there is no short campagin

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I can't wait for version 4, though, it should be even better!

[hoom]

I experienced slow cavalry with the tutorial campaign

The RTR readme does suggest that you get yourself past the tutorial before installing the mod...

RTR saved Rome for me.
Vanilla was just too wrong on so many points.

I love being able to have time to watch the combat :)
Spears & particularly phalanx capable units are actually able to hold off cavalry in frontal attacks!
And yet, a flanking attack rightfully can annihilate the phalanx in short order.

RTR as previously stated is suffering from some bugs/design decisions that only CA can fix hopefully in the coming patch :) & a bunch of others that I expect/hope to be fixed for RTR 4.0, like the unit cards...

I particularly like the sound of the ZoR replacement, which is quite simple & bypasses some of the downsides of ZoR.
Basically it goes something like:
When you take over a city, if they are of a different culture, then you can't make use of their unit building facilities, meaning you have to spend some time 'Romanising' the province by building your own barracks etc. from scratch

[dedmoroz]

The main killers for me are the reduced move and kill speeds in battle; I play MP as well now and I am finding it incredibly hard to switch between the two different speeds all the time. I also find it profoundly tedious; I keep playing my battles on full speed acceleration while I wait for the melee to *end* already.

OMG you get it all wrond mate. kill and move speeds are the BEST part of RTR - finally it became a real strategy game and not some action-strategy arcade clickfest.
You actually have enough time to flank and to maneuver with your units much like in previous TW games.

To Loopy - if you like to play strategic TW kind of game do yourself a favour and get RTR now.
but if you like playing action games - well there are plenty out there. why not trying DOOM or HL2?

[frogbeastegg]

I flank and manoeuvre just fine with the defaults; just ask Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe about my cav control in some of our MP games. I found the demo too fast but the vanilla normal game feels about the same as the old games unless the units start running. I can now handle 16 units without pause and I'm working my way up to 20.

I hate spending five minutes or more waiting for the melee in the central square to end; my victory is a foregone conclusion and watching hastati swat at a single warband unit for that length of time is dull in the extreme. Nothing is happening, there is nothing left to do and no strategy left to plan, just simple a slugfest as the warband slowly drop dead. I would rather get on with something that requires player input and tactics than stay and watch.

I also find units look stupid walking with their legs cycling at a different speed to their movement; it makes them look like they are on ice-skates. Even worse are the times when my units have difficulty trying to get up the sloped edge of the central square in a siege. I had a unit of merc hoplites which found it impossible to get into the square because they kept sliding back down the slope. That is not a problem I ever had in the vanilla game.

[Slyspy]

Just a quick bit of praise for the loading screens in RTR which are far more professional and superior to the original versions. Sadly my enthusiasm for the tactical battles is so low after one and a half vanilla campaigns that I cannot bring myself to play again.

[The Hun]

Loopy this Mod is a must to anyone who wants their battles to resemble real battles.
Facts that I have witnessed..
My cav can catch routing infantry
No CTD and played a 7 hour non stop stretch just yesterday
Better melee and movement. No ancient battle moved at the pace of normal game.

I see contradiction in many posts at these forums. People say game is ok and not too fast, then say they use pause button. I have fought some huge battles and not paused once, this mod is very good and will only get better. Some things I do not like such as horde formation for HA and battle timer is still there. I thought it was gone but maybe 4.0 will get rid of it. Rebels are a pain also but mostly good things to say rather than bad