Make all factions playable in BI

[Epistolary Richard]

Make all factions playable in BI
incorporating Professor Spatula's Unlocked Factions maps
& Rebel Commander


Version 2 released - Download
- Mirror 1

This is for 1.6 - note that it changes the mechanism by which you choose a faction. If you want to play as an emergent faction then you must start the game as the slave faction and click on specific cities to bring up the correct advisor. Full details in the readme.



Previous versions for 1.4

__________________________________________

Download


Update 13/12/05 - Version 1 Complete now uploaded including professorspatula's excellent maps and new leader pic's

What does it do?
This mod allows you to play as all of the factions within BI as they appear or emerge within the vanilla game.

What version is this for?
It is for the vanilla Barbarian Invasion.

How big is it?
Approx. 3.9 meg

How does it work?
For all factions which are present at the start of the game just select them as usual from the campaign menu.



The emergent factions are marked as 'Not Playable at Start' on the Faction Selection Screen. To play as one of these factions, you must select one of the other factions that begins the game (as specified in the emergent faction's campaign description):


At the beginning of the game, the advisor will appear and ask if you wish to swap control to the emergent faction. If so, click on the 'Show Me How' button and the game will switch to auto-pilot until the faction emerges. If not, press the dismiss button. For example:



Version 1 Download

Mod Compatibility
More advanced users may wish to make this mod compatible with their own personal mods. This mod should be compatible with most lightly modded games (eg, ones with modded skins, unit stats, unit formations, additional units etc.). It does however mod the descr_strat file which any map mod will also alter.

To make this compatible with a map mod, install it as normal but do _not_ replace the descr_strat file. Instead go into your original descr_strat file and move the emergent factions from unplayable to playable at the top of the file. This was the only change made in this file.

[Epistolary Richard]

As a special extra, here's a new descr_sm_factions file that gets rid of those ugly borders around the provinces on the minimap in the bottom left. It also makes the slave faction available for custom battles.



Download it here

[shifty157]

Youre just cranking these out.

Very nice work.

[Epistolary Richard]

It was just the obvious next step after Rebel Commander, though the scripting it slightly different to RC to make it slicker. (Any devoted Ostrogth players I would advise sticking with Rebel Commander though - after all the trouble with the vanilla emergence criteria is that sometimes the Ostrogoths never emerge!)

Hopefully, this should be the necessary solution for people who just want to play the vanilla game, but with all the other factions, without arguing over the inaccuracy of setting the Slavs or RBs up in 363AD as has previously been the case. And allow those modders making specialised campaigns for those factions the latitude to change things as they want without feeling beholden to trying to replicate vanilla.

[Epistolary Richard]

Thanks to Professor Spatula, the two of us can now proudly present the Complete version 1 of the 'Make All Factions Playable in BI'.

Inside you'll now find Professor Spatula's excellent faction selection and victory condition maps and as an added bonus leader_pics for each and every faction. Follow the download link in the top post.

Nota Bene! With the new maps, we say goodbye to the old big X maps for the emergent factions to remind you not to start the game as them. Be extra careful not to select them from now on.

[professorspatula]

Nice work Richard, it's good to see a bit of closure on the All Factions playable front. As soon as the new patch arrives and I get a chance to see what's changed, I'll be making the BI Hordes part of my mod into a separate mini-mod and having a link to this here Unlocked Factions mod for everyone who wants to play as the other factions.

To ER:
PS - It's Professor Spatula, I'm only professorspatula on here because of username restrictions upon registering and all that.

PPS - Make some room in your PM box!

[Epistolary Richard]

PS - It's Professor Spatula, I'm only professorspatula on here because of username restrictions upon registering and all that.

Amended. Strangely enough, I started off on another board as epistolaryrichard...

[Janisary]

Hi E.Richard,
first of all good job and excelent idea
but i really want to play your mod with "Expanded BI map v0.1" by Richard
(another Richard i guess) that i found in twcenter
i would like to play rebel Roman empire but with more regions
i hope you or somebody who read this post can help me

[Epistolary Richard]

Hi,

Here's how to use this with another mod -
1) Install the other mod you want to use
2) Install the Make all factions mod except the descr_strat file
3) In your descr_strat file at the top move all the factions except slave to playable.

[yolgezer]

How can we unlock the faction in Rome Total War game after installing BI 1.6.

Now I am able to play with all factions in BI however only 3 main Roman faction in RTW.

[brocks]

can u tell me the exact place to put the file into because ive tried many different ones and none of them work, could you please tell me

[Epistolary Richard]

can u tell me the exact place to put the file into because ive tried many different ones and none of them work, could you please tell me

If you extract the zip file - that is, double click on it and then click on extract - the download created contains a folder called Data, copy and paste that into your C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\ folder. It will ask you if you want to overwrite the existing files. Click yes.

How can we unlock the faction in Rome Total War game after installing BI 1.6.

Now I am able to play with all factions in BI however only 3 main Roman faction in RTW.

Go to the descr_strat file in Rome - Total War\Data\world\campaign\imperial_campaign\

At the top of that file, all the factions are listed, move them all from unlockable to playable.

[Agent Smith]

I just wanted to give a bug report real quick. But first, I love your work! You are a true hero for us gamers.

Just so you know, when playing as the Slavs, the game freezes when the Family Tree icon is pressed. Also, the Slavs don't have a faction heir, only a faction leader and family members. A new faction leader seems to be picked automatically when the old one dies.

[Epistolary Richard]

Thanks for the info. Not quite sure what I can do to fix those, but I'll have a look at it anyway.

[Agent Smith]

Thanks for looking!

A few more things too. The GUI is still Sassanid when play changes to the Slavs, but I found out that it changes back to a barbarian GUI when you save the game and reload it.

Also, I just lost my faction leader, and a new one was elected. But, now, I have a faction heir. So, you don't have one initially, but you get one when the first faction leader dies. The family tree still freezes though.

Thanks for the help, and keep up the good work!

[Cid]

I'm trying to play this mod but when I hit "Main Campaign" I get a "Please select item from menu" message. Just did a clean install of both RTW & BI too. What am I missing??

[Epistolary Richard]

I've not seen that message - can you post a screenshot?

[Cid]

I...uh...don't know how to take (or post) screenshots and I can't find my manual .

The message appears after I click Main Campaign. It shows up as a transparent box with yellow lettering that says "Please select an item from the list". There's a check mark that gets rid of the message but I can't get beyond that.

Custom Battles aren't working either. I can select army units but when I try to play it brings me back to the main Custom Battle screen.

No one else seems to be having this problem so it must be me!

Thanks

[Cid]

My fault (what a surprise). I forgot to patch to 1.06.

Great mod!

[Epistolary Richard]

Have you managed to get it to work? I'm surprised because this mod is for 1.4.

There's a 1.6 version of the mod here.

[Cid]

Works fine! Lol

PLaying as RB about 12 turns in. Rolled over Gauls with the RB's starting uberunits but I'm about 12,000 florins in debt. Now I'm disbanding units and hoping the Saxons don't show up until I begin to turn a profit (about 10 turns from now). Can't do a thing until then as remaining troops are being used to keep the Pagans from revolting...they won't listen to reason!

No problems with the mod yet!

[MEanBOb]

Well im having a problem with the mod. After i extract and then go to the main campaign all it keeps saying is please select an item from this list. I cannot acess the faction selection menu. A bit of help would be nice since this mod looks awsome.

Thanks

[Epistolary Richard]

I'm afraid I don't know what kind of problem would cause that, but it could be that you've installed it to the wrong place. Can you go into you Rome Total War\Data\scripts\show_me folder and tell me all the names of the files inside?

[TheZejiEmpire]

i am getting that same error. Screenshots awlays turn up small on my computer but here's the file names.
Note, i moved the zip into my Rome-Total War folder then extracted all, so it did it automatically, if its wrong, its your fault! :p

Advanced_Stats
Build_Siege_Equipment
Decrease_Taxation
Increase_Taxation
Rtw_Settlement_Help_Working
Settlement_Help_Working
Standard_Battle_Point_At_Egg_Timer
Standard_Battle_Point_At_Formation
Standard_Battle_Point_At_Guard_Mode
Standard_Battle_Point_At_Skirmish Mode
standard_battle_point_at_special_ability_&formation
auto_settlement_help_working
cantabrian_circle
deploy_siege_equipment
rtw_auto_settlement_help_working
senate_missions_log
standard_Battle
standard_battle_point_at_ffwd
standard_battle_point_at_grouped_formations
standard_battle_point_at_radar_zoom
standard_battle_point_at_special_ability

[Epistolary Richard]

Thank you. Yes, you installed it incorrectly by extracting the file into the wrong folder. If it had been installed correctly you would find files in that folder with names for each of the emergent factions. If you look around you'll probably find another data folder where it shouldn't be.

Use the JGSME Mod Enabler - it makes life a lot simpler (link in sig).

[loony]

I guess it proves I am a moron, but I seem to have the same "Please select an item from the list" problem as noted above.
I also have the same files in the Total War\Data\scripts\show_me folder; the problem is, all that the extracted BI/data in the download (from the All.zip) replaces only the files in the BI folder, not in the RTW folder.

So... what do I do?

P.S. I have tried the following:
1) Extract the BI folder from the .zip and paste it into the RTW folder, replacing all files upon request
2) Extract the BI folder directly into the RTW folder also replacing files
3) use JSGME
a) MODS\ALLFactions\BI\Data; putting the BI\Data from the zip
b) MODS\ALLFactions\Data; putting the data file from the zip\BI
c) MODS\ALLFactions\BI\Data and put all the original BI data there, then paste the BI folder from the zip

[Epistolary Richard]

When extracted the mod file contains a high level folder called BI - this should be dragged into the same folder as contained the RTW.exe in it. It should say you already have a folder called BI and do you want to replace the contents and you should click yes.

Make a back-up of all files to be changed first, so you can recover your game if need be.

[Harmageddon]

Where do I get this vanilla pack?

[NorthernMonkey]

Seriously...Why put the files on TWCenter? It doesn't link you to the mod, just to the downloads section, which is absolute chaos. Impossible to find anything. Big tip: Host it on FileFront or something instead.

[Squid]

One this thread hasn't been posted in for over 2 years. Two learn to do a search, and you can find it, as well as other versions of similar mods as well. Try searching for 'playable'.