The Will of the Senate - out of character thread II

[econ21]

This thread is for out of character comments, questions and general interactions about the Will of the Senate PBM.

Please only post in the other more specialised threads if you are sure it belongs there. If in doubt, post here.

Thanks!

[Death the destroyer of worlds]

Good on ya, econ21 :)

[Dutch_guy]

lol well at least my character has a pretty distinct personality

I guess this character picked up some traits in opposition to those of his father.

Judging by the fact I have a trait called Not Like His Father, I'd say you're right!

A restrained, tedious, political animal?

I find the combination of young, student, former legate and Military service - 8 years - even better !

PS: I tried posting this at the exact same time that Simon closed the other thread, so if you're wondering what I'm talking about, check the last page of the first out of character thread !

[shifty157]

X-danger's post in the last thread:
The reason we play with battle difficulty on Medium is because there is some kind of glitch or other in the AI causing the Hard and Very Hard settings to be easier than Medium.

Also realise that you were controlling a very veteran high quality roman legion in that battle that was guarding a very defensible position against lesser quality troops.

That said. Its still pretty easy.

I only took 8 casualties in that battle.

[Death the destroyer of worlds]

The reason we play with battle difficulty on Medium is because there is some kind of glitch or other in the AI causing the Hard and Very Hard settings to be easier than Medium.

I've heard that a billion times, but it's a myth in my opinon.

[x-dANGEr]

Well. On my carthage campaign on VH/VH, I think it is harder than VH/M. Because at the first, the enemy greek general could beat my 6 Iberian Infantry units easily in a charge head on. While on VH/M, I doubt that would happen.

Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you assign me a character now, econ21.

[shifty157]

I've heard that a billion times, but it's a myth in my opinon.

Well dont ask me. This is just what ive heard from people and I dont have the time or desire to test it out myself.

[econ21]

I've heard that a billion times, but it's a myth in my opinon.

I think there was a well documented bug with the battle difficulty levels, but IIRC, it only affected custom battles, not ones in campaigns, and I think it was fixed with a patch.

The reason I like medium battles is that the game stats are balanced to be historical on that difficulty level. Raise the difficulty level and you get weird outcomes from unit match ups. Also a higher difficulty level, by affecting the AI's attack and not defence also can change the balance of arms to favour offensive arms like cavalry and missiles rather than solid infantry.
I guess its a realism vs gameplay thing.

In vanilla, it was often argued that a high battle difficulty level was good because the player tended to have more command stars. That is less obvious with this mod, as the AI generals get significant boosts to their command and Quintus with his 10 stars in attack has typically fought generals just as formiddable.

We also tend to go with M battles in PBMs to encourage less experienced players to take part.

[econ21]

Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you assign me a character now, econ21.

OK, it's done - check the FAQ for the name. You can download saves as they are posted to keep track of his progress.

BTW, TinCow, please keep an eye out for the upper/lower house distinction. For example, TrickyLady's avatar looks like a good general with all the command stars, but as she is in the Upper House, any battles under his command would have to be autoresolved. So a Lower House member with much less stars would probably do better in a battle.

Generally speaking, Upper House members should be students (in Academies), tribunes (ie second generals in a stack) or governors. Only Lower House members should given command of any troops likely to have to fight, probably including ferrying reinforcements to the front (troops with generals move faster in this mod than alone).

[Death the destroyer of worlds]

I agree with the settings and your motivations econ21. But perhaps H/M would have been even better. The 10K bonus for the AI can get tiresome as so have to defeat stack after stack and diplomacy works a little bit better (i.e. you are not treated like you were Hitler of something by everyone you encounter). I did a VH/VH RTR campaign once and Macedon became a superpower. I must have killed 60000 of them and slaughtered 30000 civilians before they finally lost. The only way to crush them was to use a scorched earth policy on them. I was rather embarressed about my general having the exterminator trait.
By the way, in RTR it is much harder to gain command stars than in vanilla.

[econ21]

But perhaps H/M would have been even better. The 10K bonus for the AI can get tiresome as so have to defeat stack after stack and diplomacy works a little bit better (i.e. you are not treated like you were Hitler of something by everyone you encounter).

Maybe, but to be honest I have given up on diplomacy in TW games and I do like battling big stacks. When I found out I was on Sardinia with half a stack, facing 3 stacks of Carthaginians, it sure got the adrenaline going!

By the way, in RTR it is much harder to gain command stars than in vanilla.

Thanks to Marcus Camillus we have the consolation of +3 command for being a legate though; that's a big help.

[Avicenna]

DG: haven't I got some of the same traits as you, but a 'like his father' trait? I am confused.

[YAKOBU]

Hi everyone

I (Valerius Paullus) have been sent to govern Tarentum. If I install the mod may I fight any battles I get into?

[econ21]

I (Valerius Paullus) have been sent to govern Tarentum. If I install the mod may I fight any battles I get into?

Absolutely - just post here to say you have the mod working and I'll transfer you to the lower Senate. Rebels may crop up near Tarentum so it is always good to have Lower House members available to squash them. And when I was First Consul, one of my nightmares was of a potential Greek landing near Tarentum. But AFAIK, the settlement does have a wall, so it is not a bad place for a general to hang out.

As governor, you should try to persuade TinCow to work towards being able to build armoured Corvus Quinquiremes at Tarentum. AFAIK, it's the only place other than Syracuse suitable for that. Sanitation may be an issue there - I think I had a plague outbreak there in one experiment I did fast forwarding time to investigate the naval aspect of the mod. It would make a heck of a letter to the Senate, writing Camus-style from a quarantined plague-ridden city. But plagues can kill characters, so you might want to avoid it.

[x-dANGEr]

I'm wondering.. It says in the rules that members of the Lower level must be at least 30 years old to be able to deliberate with the other Senators.. So that means currently I can't?

[econ21]

No, don't worry about it. We've overlooked those age related rules. I'll take them out of the FAQ.

The mod we are playing has some nice age related Roman leadership traits, so it will be natural that the over-30s (the potential legates) are more likely to be given command but we've had tribunes become First Consuls, I think.

[x-dANGEr]

Okay, so it is ok for me to deliberate with the other senators. Thanks.

[GeneralHankerchief]

I'm thinking of installing all the mods and becoming a Lower House-er at some point in the game. First I want to make my machine run faster, the framerate for RTW is pretty slow.

Since I'm pretty much a n00b when it comes to hardware, what do I need to do? Should I get a better graphics card or update my drivers?

Thanks for any help, and please try to refrain from mocking my ignorance. It'll be worth it if I can win a huge battle against our greatest foe thirty years down the line.

[econ21]

I'm not up on the hardware side of things, but you might want to see how well your computer currently runs RTW by going to:

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/

Click the "can you run it?" link and then select RTW from the drop down menu to see how well your computer meets the minimum and recommended system requirements. This might point out particular bottlenecks.

Often the graphics card is the key constraint but it really depends on your rig. The site also has a facility to upgrade the drivers for your graphics and sound card.

You could try playing with some of the settings in preferences.txt to see if that helps your framerate. For example, setting grass to 20 has been recommended.

[TinCow]

Yikes! I don't envy Dutch_guy having to roleplay that one!

What is the trait bug? Is it specific to this mod or more general?

I guess this character picked up some traits in opposition to those of his father.

It's a problem with the 4TPY combo-mod. There's discussion about it in Marcus' thread on the RTR forums. He thinks he knows what is causing it and can fix it, but afaik a patched version isn't out yet. Of course a patch won't help Dutch_guy since his character is already generated, but I imagine it should be save game compatible and work with all future characters.

BTW, TinCow, please keep an eye out for the upper/lower house distinction. For example, TrickyLady's avatar looks like a good general with all the command stars, but as she is in the Upper House, any battles under his command would have to be autoresolved. So a Lower House member with much less stars would probably do better in a battle.

Generally speaking, Upper House members should be students (in Academies), tribunes (ie second generals in a stack) or governors. Only Lower House members should given command of any troops likely to have to fight, probably including ferrying reinforcements to the front (troops with generals move faster in this mod than alone).

I'm well aware of that. I left her there because there wasn't any room left on the ships. I will take her off along with the second half of the army once the fleet gets back down there in a turn or two. I highly doubt that Carthage will land there any time soon. They are ridiculously heavily occupied with Numidia at the moment and their navy is all off the coast of their one remaining Iberian province. I suspect that the only reason you had to fight landings there was because they still owned a city. Now that both are gone, I doubt they will try to get them back. At least, not when they have hostile cities they can reach via land. I don't think the place is worth transferring a Lower House senator to at the moment either. I've made promises to several of them that I need to keep and two are too young to fight and one is gone for the weekend. Simply put, not enough Lower House to spare for that backwater town. Of course, if you want Quintus to sit out there and bake in the sun, tell him he is free to request it.

Enough typing though. Finally home from work and ready for a good play session.

[Death the destroyer of worlds]

GeneralHankerchief,

I you list you rig's specs, I'm sure we can come up with some suggestions.
Here's some already :
1. Memory is quite cheap and an easy way to upgrade performance. There is no such thing as enough RAM.
2. Also check to see if your machine has enough virtual memory, i.e. free harddisk space.
3. Disable all irrelevant programs that lauch on startup. You can use any amount of free registry cleaners to check your startup profile and remove 'hidden' programs that also launch on startup but are irrelevant. While you're at it, clean your registry.
4. Defragment your harddisk after you've finished installing everything.
5. Updating your drivers to the latest setting is always good. I'm not familiar with econ21's site, I get my updates from the manhufacturer's sites, but it looks very userfriendly and handy.
6. You could overclock your CPU and perhaps your videocard (NOT recommended ! Don't try this at home !)
7. A very good video card is the best performace improver, but also one of the most expensive options. Even so, always check with the RTW tech forums if the video card does not have problems with RTW. I know there are some, but I can't recall which.

shifty157, concerning difficulty, I do not know for sure either, but I've played several campaigns on several difficulty levels and that is what gives me the impression this bug has probably been patched in RTW 1.2 or 1.3. Excellent battle by the way, with just 8 (!) casualties !

[GeneralHankerchief]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll definitely try it out tomorrow.

In the meantime I already did some cleaning as well as updated my drivers, with instant results. Finally I don't need to get up and make myself a snack while waiting for the fire arrows to finish up.

[TinCow]

Well, Gergovia and Comata were so utterly devoid of population that the only way to milk any money out of them at all was to pillage everything. DDW was right though, there isn't much point in leaving anything behind for them to 'rebuild' with. Gaul is finished, whether we do it or not. Germany and Iberia are both expanding and Gaul will be taken over by them quickly anyway. I suspect most of the Gallic forces are being recruited via mercenaries. As such, enslaving them all and knocking down everything won't even change their armies due to the 10k bonus. Fortunately the northern cities seem to have a much larger population, so I expect I will be able to fully populate all of Cisalpine Gaul as we had hoped. Alesia in particular might yeild a nice amount of loot.

Oh, and the other two Legions now have banners, so they have been named.

Legio IV Gallica is stationed near Tarentum.
Levio V Alaudae is stationed in Sicily.

[Glaucus]

So you did knock down every building, not just religous ones? And we aren't occupying them are we?

PS: Ignoramus, you gotta delete some PMs I can't reach you.

[TinCow]

Knocked everything flat (which was only 2 buildings in the case of Comata) and I'm not occupying them. Well, I ended a turn in Comata due to lack of movement, but I'm gone now. It is my plan to permanently occupy Gergovia on my return trip though. It's a good walled city and close enough to Massilia to be of use to us.

There are other enemies and other provinces that should be considered at the moment, but that will have to wait for the mid-term session.

[YAKOBU]

Hi everyone

I have downloaded RTR Platinum but am struggling with the Naval mod. It downloads as M.Nmod[1].14 and my PC cannot handle the extension.

Any ideas?

[Death the destroyer of worlds]

Can't you just rename the file ?

EDIT : Just rename the file to: M_Nmod.exe and it will work

[YAKOBU]

Cheers DDW

I have got the mod to work now but it doesn't work on the save game file. When I try and load the save game it CTD's immediately. Point 6 on installation says delete 3 map files but I only found 1.

[Death the destroyer of worlds]

Try to search for the file map.rwm in the Rome-Total war directory and all its subdirectories (advanced search) and delete any you find.
Can you start a new campaign without problems ?
Are you running BI ? If so, did you install the BI 1.6 update ?
Did you try to see if you could start a new campaign after each part of the installion process ?
I see that econ21 said :
Then rename the coped folder "RTR-Platinum" or something and mod this folder, leaving your vanilla RTW in tact.
That might be the problem as I suspect the M&N mod installs to the default RTW directory. I usually make a backup of my vanilla RTW to 'RTW-vanilla-backup' or something and then continue the patching process using the normal RTW directory. Do you understand what I am saying here ?

On another note, I suspect a possible place where the 'counting of years' has gone wrong is the fighting of battles during the AI's turn. I suspect that if you save a battle where you are attacked by the AI and you load it, then the 4TPY mod is not active, untill after your turn starts and you get the popup. I think the years get added during the turn start, and if the 4TPY mod is not active then, then the years get counted wrong.

[shifty157]

I use the JSGME for switching mods in and out and i am really pleased with how simple and effective it is. You really dont even need a backup when youre working with it though I keep one anyway. It also makes updating to a new mod version much simpler.