Modding building times for siege equipment

**Epistolary Richard** · 03-01-2005, 18:34

Anyone know if it is possible to mod the build times for siege equipment? Kind of like a presto mod but for battering rams instead of units.

Many thanks for any help.

**Pode** · 03-01-2005, 18:58

Ditto. This and modding city seige times are the two suggested workarounds so far for the seige breaking bug, so please if anyone has ideas about implementing either of them chime in in the appropriate thread.

**afrit** · 03-02-2005, 01:52

Hmm, just out of curiosity: anyone tried a mod with *no walls*. In other words, no starting walls, no faction able to build walls. Will the AI assault immediately? would they still "siege"?

I am thinking about modding the game so that only a few cities have walls. May make the AI expand faster.

**shifty157** · 03-02-2005, 03:27

thats a cool idea. keep us posted on how that goes.

and for siege equipment you need to change the build points required. Either lower that or give an army near infinite build points so that anything they want to build can be built in a single turn.

**Pode** · 03-02-2005, 05:00

Afrit, you beat me to the idea, although I hadn't read your post. I did exactly that tonight, and was most pleased with the results. After only 10 turns, every faction but Seleucid and Scythia took at least one rebel province, and several had taken multiples. In those ten turns there was only 1 siege, of a fort. Cities were assaulted every time, and the AI wasn't shy about doing it either. I don't think Seleucid will last another 10 turns. I think I'll be playing this way unitl a patch comes

**Epistolary Richard** · 03-02-2005, 11:48

Originally Posted by shifty157

and for siege equipment you need to change the build points required. Either lower that or give an army near infinite build points so that anything they want to build can be built in a single turn.

Unfortunately, to avoid the siege-lifting issue they need to be built instantly rather than in a single turn.

**Pode** · 03-02-2005, 16:38

True Richard, but the odds of finding a save point with no AI sieges go way up if the sieges last only one turn instead of 3 or 4 while the equipment gets built.

**Epistolary Richard** · 03-03-2005, 10:51

Well, that's right. Each one of the current posited work-arounds have their pros & cons:

1) no walls mod - instant assaults, but we lose assaults vs walls
2) presto-siege equipment - instant assaults vs walls, but we don't know how to do it at the moment
3) lower-cost siege equipment - min. 1 turn sieges, reduces the chances of the issue occurring but it's still there, and we don't know how to do this at the moment either

They're all equally valid, just depends on your preferences. 1) has the enormous benefit that we can already do it, but we might as well explore both 2) and 3) as well in case no other options occur from 'on high'.

**afrit** · 03-03-2005, 19:01

Originally Posted by Pode

Afrit, you beat me to the idea, although I hadn't read your post. I did exactly that tonight, and was most pleased with the results. After only 10 turns, every faction but Seleucid and Scythia took at least one rebel province, and several had taken multiples. In those ten turns there was only 1 siege, of a fort. Cities were assaulted every time, and the AI wasn't shy about doing it either. I don't think Seleucid will last another 10 turns. I think I'll be playing this way unitl a patch comes

I finally got the chance to try a no walls mod. I played as SPQR and did nothing other than watch the other factions. They do expand faster and provinces change hands quicker.Egypt, Spain, Britannia, Greek Cities and Scipii did the best after 50 years of play.

The limit on the AI expansion at that point seemed to be rebellions: Egypt could not hold onto Armenia well, and Spain had trouble keeping its German provinces. I will re-test with law/happiness bonuses.

Problem is that without walls the human player will expand even faster. By the time the better AI factions reach a good size (around 240 BC), a good human player will have about 30+ provinces.

@Pode,
you seem to be tinkering with the game on similar lines to what I am interested in doing (i.e gameplay mod geared towards making the AI more challenging by tinkering with certain values). Maybe we should dedicate a thread to all the experiments/ideas done in that regard, and collaborate on a "Rome: Total Gameplay" mod.

**Pode** · 03-04-2005, 06:05

I'm not sure that the absence of walls really makes things dramatically faster for the human. This human, at least, is a bloodthirsty sort who doesn't believe his army is earning their salt unless they are killing someone, so I almost always build only as much siege equipment as I can the first turn and assault as soon as I'm able.
My restrictions on recruiting may help slow the human also. The AI tends to garrison with locally built units, so the large cities often have quality troops present, which makes assaults bloodier. Since the player's expendable units have to come from his least populated cities also, he's less able to afford the losses. I'll see how that plays out in my new Parthian campaign.
Afrit, I'm flattered by your offer, but honestly I'm reaching my burnout point with trying to hammer this game into the shape it should have been in when I opened the box. It's been an education, I couldn't spell mod before RTW, but there are other things I should be learning (blasted grad school cutting into my free time again). I'm hooked enough by the game and enough of a perfectionist / tinkerer that I'll probably end up doing 70% of the things I would do if I formally committed to helping on a mod anyway. It's just not what I SHOULD be doing, so I don't need to legitimize it to myself with a promise. Make any sense?

Cheers, and good luck with that mod.

**afrit** · 03-04-2005, 06:49

Pode,
totally understand. I have a big problem with time management as well (my typical work week is about 65 hours). So I really should not be modding RTW either.

In any case, keep us posted on any progress with your mod.

cheers

,
Afrit