new comer question

[thepipe]

first off sorry if this is the wrong place to post this.

Basically I have recently bought RTW and it is the first TW game. I noticed some thing that disappointed me and after coming to this form I see that I'm not the only one.

It is very frustrating b/c in rome total war I feel like there is the frame work of one of the best games I've ever played, but to some degree the bugs and to a much higher degree the totally crap AI really limit it. I'm not suggesting that they should have got the the pentagon and the top universities in the world to help them develop a software napoliene, but the AI should, at the very least, it should follow some of the very basic military principles someone like me has picked up from reading history and shouldn't do things that are totally Illogical

this brings me to my questions:
I've read that by installing mods and/or bug fixes you can correct some of this.
How much does this help with the crappy AI?
What mod/fixes are recommended? I've read alot and am a little overwhelmed by all the info. I'm not really looking to totally change the game just have improvement to especially to the AI.
Do the mods have uninstall apps provided so that if they don't work for me or I don't like them I can undone what was done relatively painfree?
thanks

[AntiochusIII]

The ability to change the AI is limited - it is a hardcoded issue. In other words, the modders cannot reach and break the codes out unless they want to break a copyright issue.

However, though I play RTR myself (a Brilliant mod!), I see that you don't want to change the game too much.

So, I suggest two choices:

1. Darthmod - it's the first mod, in my knowledge, that the modder (Darth Vader at twcenter.com) tries to change AI formations, and, according to many (I didn't play myself), he greatly improved the AI's ability to fight by altering the AI formations. It seems he managed to greatly improve the AI's ability to fight against a human player and solve some of the issues you have - I presume you got the problem with the battles?

2. SPQR - I played this myself, and trust me, it's brilliant. SPQR changes more of the game than Darthmod, but is much less than, say, RTR. The modder greatly improves the challenges of both the battles and the campaign. It's much harder and better AI now, but, of course, with such limited ways of changing AI behavior, nothing can be totally solved.

The mods sometimes are provided with an uninstall utility. Unfortunately, they may not be perfect or some (especially the smaller ones) won't have it. The easy way is to copy the clean install+patched 1.2 data folder to somewhere else, and install the mod into your RTW folder. If you happens to don't like it, just delete the data folder with the mod and copy the original one back to your RTW folder. No mods will alter the files outside the data folder within your RTW folder.

[Wishazu]

I'm not suggesting that they should have got the the pentagon and the top universities in the world to help them develop a software napoliene

lol, im thinking they did get the pentagon to help out, those guys are a bunch of muppets who dont know how to fight a proper war and so just obliterate anything(allies included) that happens to be anywhere near their intended target.

btw, welcome to the forums pipe, and even though Antiochus has made 2 good suggestions, i would personally reccomend Rome Total Realism for all your modding needs, its a fantastic piece of work and massively improves every aspect of the game. I have actually been wiped out by the AI in one campaign recently

[pezhetairoi]

....now THAT is something amazing. The AI, wiping a player out? hoowee.

[Dutch_guy]

well Wishazu was that an Armenia campaign ? if so I understand ... RTR really makes Armenia a hard fasction.


PS : Pipe , I would recommend RTR been playin it recentley and it is great, complete new skins for most units , and It's far more realistic than Vanilla RTW.

As for the SPQR mod , I haven't played that yet, so I wouldn't know how good that is

[IliaDN]

I pity that I have pirate version.

[Dutch_guy]

and why is that IliaDN ?

[Peppe]

As "the pipe" im also quite new to this game. I have just started to look at all mods, an there is a lot of them. So if iam gonna choose on, is RTR the best? I want the game to be as realistic as possible. And where can i find this mod?

[Rapidly]

I pity that I have pirate version.

Then, why are you not banned instantly???? Go away, thief.

[IliaDN]

Just thought membership here is not matter of money!
Look I am a STUDENT and I have girlfriend and lot's of interests on which I spend money , so I can just afford to buy RTW ... for now.

[Old Celt]

@Iliadn:
You're quite right that membership here is not a matter of money. However, software piracy is a serious crime that undermines the ability of game devs to stay in business. I don't feel sorry enough for you to want to take that legitimately earned money out of CA's (or any dev for that matter) pocket. You should buy a legitimate copy.

[Azi Tohak]

RTR v 5.4 on:

www.rometotalrealism.com

Just go to downloads, and I hope you can download the "RTR 5.4 full", because I confused myself trying to do it piece by piece, and then get 5.4.1 too!

And enjoy!

Azi

[vale]

Yes indeed it was disappointing to see that the AI couldn't even hold out for a minute before they are broken. To make them more challenge you can try and edit the stat_mental in the export_descr_unit, by increase their stat_mental to like 10 from 4 is really challenging. The most I think it is sixteen you can increase to, anyway my first legion were decimated by the AI after a long battle. Edit the stat_mental really make them challenging and fight longer.

[Siena]

Just thought membership here is not matter of money!
Look I am a STUDENT and I have girlfriend and lot's of interests on which I spend money , so I can just afford to buy RTW ... for now.

interesting view.

You are bragging that you stole the game, yet you justify that because you do not want to spend money on it - because you have more important interests.
Yet you are accusing others of valuing money too much?

[Count Belisarius]

Haven't played SPQR yet, though I do plan on doing so just to see how it measures up. However, I am a devoted player of RTR (the wife hates it because I'd much rather play on the computer than sit around and have her ignore me - I don't think I'll ever understand women) It's so much more realistic than RTW, and the folks who donate their time to develop it are just brilliant.

[BDC]

SPQR is good, RTR just doesn't feel right to me.

EB looks good though.

[IliaDN]

You didn't catch the main point I said I will buy license , but a bit later when I have enough money.

[Productivity]

You didn't catch the main point I said I will buy license , but a bit later when I have enough money.

That is still not a justification to pirate it now.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

A Pirate Version = A Stolen Version

Get the point ?

[Bartix]

Money is not growing on trees to evry one!
In principle, one should buy.
Maybe RTW not worth it
Give him break, he has girlfriend. That is very very much expenciv!

[IliaDN]

Money is not growing on trees to evry one!
In principle, one should buy.
Maybe RTW not worth it
Give him break, he has girlfriend. That is very very much expenciv!

At least one person here understood - thanks!
I think those who can't are just a bit out of topic.

[IliaDN]

Topic moved to the backroom!

[Rapidly]

Piracy is theft. If you use a pirated version you are a thief, plain and simple. No excuses (you wanna talk expenses, I have a wife and child and a mortgage, try that for expensive!) Forum rules specifically ban pirates and helping anyone on anything related to piracy, therefore I can't understand why you're still here. Mods, please ban him.

[IliaDN]

Ok I am tired enough of this :
if mods of the site want to do banning for this they are welcome!

[Productivity]

Money is not growing on trees to evry one!
In principle, one should buy.
Maybe RTW not worth it
Give him break, he has girlfriend. That is very very much expenciv!

So because he can't afford it he should steal it.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

You could always save up a bit. Besides pirating is hurting CA's business and could force them to try to make _: TW more mainstream and likely worse in the process.

[pezhetairoi]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to say my piece on the whole pirated issue. Money is really a problem to some of us. I admit I am using a pirated version like Ilia too, but that's just because I want to play the game, and I'm only about 20 bucks away from saving up enough to get the real one. We want the original, but we are not rich enough to buy it when we want it. Some of us actually have to work part time to get barely enough money to tide us through the month, it's just unfortunate that we are also Rome fans. Pirating = stealing, that is true, but doesn't government taxation do the same with the poor? And besides, it's almost like stealing a loaf of bread because we are starving but can't afford to buy one to eat, not because we don't want to buy one. We wouldn't go around finding trouble for ourselves by stealing for the sake of it. Not if we were true Rome fans, which we are.

But anyway. This is off topic. We were speaking of mods and patches. Let us return to that.

[Kekvit Irae]

We were speaking of mods and patches. Let us return to that.

If not, I will be more than happy to close this thread or move it where it belongs.

Discussions of illegal activities, no matter how just they may seem at the time, are still not allowed on this forum. 'What do you think of...?' is fine for more appropriate subforums (Backroom comes to mind), but this is the Colisseum, a subforum dedicated to the Single Player aspects of Vanilla (that word needs to be added into the subforum description) RTW. Saying 'What do you think of ... because I have an illegal copy?' will earn you a nice official warning, if not a long, hard ban. I'm feeling nice, and pezhetairoi (how the heck to you pronounce that?) made the effort to request the original topic be discussed again, so I will only give the thread participants an notice. Sorry if I may be blunt, but please get back on topic, people.

EDIT: Lucky number 777 on the post count.

[vale]

Yep, off topic there guys. Anyway I still recommend that you learn how to mod some of the basic stuff yourselves, it really help a lot when you want to make something and needed quick.

[Slug For A Butt]

Just a word on the piracy issue. It is theft and deprives CA of the money they need to develop patches to fix the game that I paid money for.
And lets be honest, if you have access to a computer that is capable of running RTW, you have access to £10 to buy the original from ebay.
And no... I dont watch copied DVD's either for the same reason.

p.s. I have a partner and a mortgage too, and I can afford it. Why dont you spend just 1 night in, it will pay for it.