To Mod or Not to Mod...

**son_pacho** · 01-13-2006, 17:45

...that is the question.

My situation is:

-I am computer-illiterate (instructions to improve my velites were baffling)

-Rome: Total War is my first real PC game (well I played Age of Empires also, on a free PC that I was surprised could even run the game)

-I've read how prior to downloading Rome: Total Realism one should download a specific patch for Rome: Total War; unload Rome: Total War and reload it inserting Rome: Total Realism in some type of 'file-a-ma-thingy'...it does "seem" easy enough, just click and download, but is still makes me

So, would going down this path cause me more frustration than it's worth? I've been playing Rome: Total War for about two weeks now, the farthest I've gotten is to @250BC...I haven't noticed anything too wrong with it...except maybe:

-cavalry stopping (but that might've been my fault having them chase people ALL over the map)

-archers killing my own people (but i read how to fix that, dont put people in front of archers...lol)

-velites being very un-skirmishing like (I think this is addressed in Rome: Total Realism, right?)

-and the (bleep) camera, that (bleep) (bleep) camera makes me pull out my hair, and Im bald...

The concept of Rome: Total Realism is appealing. So, is it worth it? I'm just afraid, since I read how even the 'mods' need patches, that I'll be forced into tinkering with stuff Im just not comfortable with tinkering with.

P.S.
Is there a thread that gives the meanings to all the acronyms used in this forum? i.e. what is "EB"...better yet is this even the best forum for "noobs"? This forum seems more for advance Total War players and not particularly welcoming, based on some of the replies I've read, to people who really are "new" to Total War?

**alpaca** · 01-13-2006, 19:24

Well, if you only played two weeks yet I guess you can take a couple more before you get bored ;)
Then you can start playing with mods. If it's worth it, you have to decide; the only way to answer this question is to try it.
And I think that most forums are well-suited for beginners, but even more they exist to satisfy advanced players because not all noobs tend to stay long, so they are a more or less unrewarding audience.

**Lusted** · 01-13-2006, 22:59

And EB means Europa Barbarorum, its one of the biggest mods out there for Rome.

**Dol Guldur** · 01-14-2006, 00:05

Unless of course the acronym is referring to the abbreviation of the export_buildings.txt file ;)

Modding = hard work, long hours. Think before you get involved. I didn't and look what happened to me.

**alpaca** · 01-14-2006, 00:13

Originally Posted by Dol Guldur

Unless of course the acronym is referring to the abbreviation of the export_buildings.txt file ;)

Modding = hard work, long hours. Think before you get involved. I didn't and look what happened to me.

I don't think he means modding but playing with mods installed

**Dol Guldur** · 01-14-2006, 00:52

You may well be right, alpaca. Mod is a terribly diverse word: does it mean to mod (ify) a game or does it refer to a mod (ified) game or does it refer to a modder or even to a moderator?

To top it all it also refers in my country to a past fashion and a current department of Government.

Argh.....

**Epistolary Richard** · 01-14-2006, 12:09

Originally Posted by son_pacho

better yet is this even the best forum for "noobs"?

The best forum for new RTW players is either the Entrance Hall or the Colosseum.

If you want to get a brief feel for modding then either have a poke around your Activision\Rome Total War\Data folder at the text files in there or read through some of the tutorials in the Scriptorium.

**Lentonius** · 01-14-2006, 18:37

i only started to mod a couple of months ago and i was pretty pc-illeterate then, but now i can model skin script and am even learning c++ code....

surprising what a couple of months of modding can do for you...

even if you dont want to mod Rome total realism is a very good mod and at the moment is the only mod I will play

good luck

**LestaT** · 01-20-2006, 10:38

To be exact I'm not that illiterate though I haven't had any formal IT educations. Anyway , prior to Rome: Total War , I read about mods about other PC games and I am not interested at all.

I don't know , maybe because I've finished many campaigns with RTW and decides I play again. Then I found about mods (that time it wss RTR 5.41) and I got hooked. In time when they release 6.0 I began to mod myself.

It wasn't that hard. Just trial an error and sometimes when I feel bored I just mod something. (I have an unuse copy of RTW patched to 1.2 for my moddings experiments.)

Currently the only games installed in my PC are Rome : Total War which I make several copies and I play them alternatively. Now I have my main copy of RTW/BI patched to 1.5/1.6, main copy of RTW 1.2 , modded RTW/BI, RTR 6.0 Gold, EB, my own modded RTR 6.0 Gold, copy of RTW/BI & copy of RTW 1.2 .

:-)