RTW: Patch comparison

**OldSchool** · 07-01-2006, 02:58

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum. My junior status seems to limit where I can post. (It's actually kind of funny at my age to think of myself as a junior anything.)

I'm playing RTW unpatched and am looking for a comparison of what bugs and\or fixes were introduced in each patch. From what I can tell browsing through the threads, I might be better off leaving it alone. Since I am quite late getting to the RTW party, I would assume that the different patches have been well documented by the community, but I haven't quite found all the info. If someone could point me to the right thread or faq, I would much appreciate it. Especially about the earlier patches.

Thanks in advance,
-OldSchool

**Severous** · 07-01-2006, 09:16

Hello Oldschool. Welcome to the forum and the RTW world. Hope you will enjoy the game.

Try this link:
http://www.totalwar.com/index.html?p...l&nav=/en/8/1/

Its the official site.

It might sound a bit suspect me criticsizing the official site, but you might want to look for alternative advice before you act. The Official site has undergone change as expansion packs have come out and it looks as it the clear and accurate advice for RTW V1.0 patching has got lost as the new versions have come along.

The long recommended path of patching for RTW V1.0 is to patch to V1.3 then to V1.5. The respected moderator on that official forum always recommends that. Its the path I followed. Ive had no problems except that the saved prologue campaign started on V1.0 would not load up after patching to V1.5 so I had to restart the prologue campaign.

If you like mods then I believe some mods only work on certain patches.

When i downloaded the patches they came with readme files. Alternatively Google search might find 'RTW patch read me notes' ?

Good luck and enjoy.

**Ludens** · 07-01-2006, 13:36

I also recommend to use the latests patch. Patches 1.2 and 1.3 both had a few issues, but they fixed a lot more than they broke. The problems with the current 1.5 patch are IIRC all present in 1.3. They include a slight memory leak on the campaign map, some problems with siege towers, and a few graphical glitches. The worst bug is a problem with the A.I. occasionally using it's archers as melee troop or not using them at all, but I haven't heard about it recently. The rest can be fixed with Player1's Bugfixer. I also recommend Darth Formations: it will give the A.I. a performance boost on the battlefield.

Welcome to the Org, BTW

.

**OldSchool** · 07-01-2006, 17:34

Thanks for the info, guys.

The problem with official readme's, of course, is that they aren't likely to tell you about new bugs introduced. I hadn't thought to check the 1.5 to see if the loadgame bug had been fixed. Thanks for the reminder.

I haven't decided about using mods,yet, as I'm having quite a bit of fun tweaking the text files myself at this point. Both of those mentioned look like good ones.

The game is quite playable and enjoyable unpatched, but if the patches help the AI, I would like to use them. My main concern is the loadgame bug where the strategy map AI breaks of seiges and such. That would kill it for me. I'm not quite clear about which patch introduced it and which, if any, fixes it. I hadn't heard of the archer bug and will research it before deciding.

Thanks alot for the info and quick responses. This is one of the best game sites going and I wish others were more like it.

Does sucking up help one upgrade from junior status?

**Ludens** · 07-01-2006, 23:53

The load-game bug was either introduced by 1.2 or already present in the original game (I incline to the latter hypothesis, but the evidence is not conclusive) and is fixed by 1.3. There seemed to have been a residu of it in 1.3 though, as the A.I. seemed unable to commence naval invasions unles you reloaded the game (a sort of reverse load-game bug), but 1.5 fixed this too. Both 1.2 and 1.3 improved tactical and strategic A.I. Don't forget to download the additional campaign fix from the site: it is not crucial but restores the Roman's ability to build Temples of Epona (provided a sacred circle is already present).

**OldSchool** · 07-02-2006, 10:44

Thanks Luden. I know in my unpatched version, the AI is still seiging when I load a saved game and I didn't want to break that aspect of the game. Although, come to think of it, I just got backstabbed by the Germans and I wasn't prepared for it, so I may be wishing they would break off between turns.

Speaking of Epona. I was quite looking forward to building some of those temples as I like cavalry (who doesn't). I took all of Gaul and just finished taking Spain and they had built sacred circles to other gods in all of their cities. Not one single Epona. I don't regret enslaving them the least little bit, now.

Thanks a lot!

stalin · 07-06-2006, 01:20

Originally Posted by Ludens

I also recommend Darth Formations: it will give the A.I. a performance boost on the battlefield.

If by "boost" you mean the AI running back and forth untill exhausted then yes.

**Keba** · 07-06-2006, 10:13

Originally Posted by stalin

If by "boost" you mean the AI running back and forth untill exhausted then yes.

The AI does that anyway, no need for mods for that.

Darth Formations only affects the intial formations, from what I remember. If (and it's a big IF) the AI maintains consitency, you will get a bit of a challenge. Mainly, it will offer a challenge now and then (which is now and then more than RTW AI, which, as we know is about as smart as mold).

**Puzz3D** · 07-19-2006, 15:52

Originally Posted by stalin

If by "boost" you mean the AI running back and forth untill exhausted then yes.

Turning off fatigue will give you a better challenge from the AI. If you patch to v1.5, you can use XGM (Extended Greek Mod) for a more challenging game especially if you take a faction such as Carthage. XGM uses Darth Formations and turns off fatigue. In addition, it uses a trick to give AI generals more command stars which furthere increases the challenge. XGM even works with BI v1.6 to provide, night battles, swimming and shield wall features.

The v1.2 fixed over 100 problems in RTW. They are not all mentioned in the readme. However, it broke the Parthian shot. The v1.3 patch fixed that and a serious bug in the cavalry charge vs phalanx (The cav charge is now turned back on the cav by a phalanx.), and made modifications to the suicide general and jumping horses and may have fixed some cav speeds. However, it broke pila. The v1.5 fixes pila, but now units also throw their pila when engaged in melee. On the strategic side, save/load problem seems fixed, naval invasions work and the AI consolidates it's armies better.

The "butt-spike" problem is probably being caused by the phalanx reflecting the cav's charge. I think you can work around this to a large extent by using cav to charge into the side of the phalanx, and timing that charge when it has a good chance of causing the phalanx to rout. In anycase, phalanx being strong vs cav is a good thing for the gameplay. The type of thing you can do with cav vs phalanx in RTW 1.0 and v1.2 defies belief.

**orangat** · 07-19-2006, 18:04

Originally Posted by Puzz3D

.........
The "butt-spike" problem is probably being caused by the phalanx reflecting the cav's charge. I think you can work around this to a large extent by using cav to charge into the side of the phalanx, and timing that charge when it has a good chance of causing the phalanx to rout. In anycase, phalanx being strong vs cav is a good thing for the gameplay. The type of thing you can do with cav vs phalanx in RTW 1.0 and v1.2 defies belief.

Why is the side less likely not to produce butt spike deaths?
Is it because the side of the phalanx is coded differently from the rear? Or is it because the frontage is much smaller in the sides (less horses contact on charge there less deaths from buttspike charge reflection).?