Vanilla Balance Mod v3 Released

[Barbarossa82]

That's cool. I haven't tried to stop the Romans ultimately winning, although it is known for at least one of the families to be knocked out in VBM - usually the Scipii but sometimes the Julii. I'm very pleased to see the variety in campaign outcomes. I just played a test where the Egyptians slaughtered the Seleucids and absorbed most of their lands, with the Parthians taking the rest.

[Byzantine Emperor]

Playtest 3; 270BC to 200BC:



The Julii have again done well (more so than I would like ) and Carthage is having trouble with the Brutii who have taken Sicily again. Greece is between Macedon and the Brutii. Briton has actually landed an army, but I don't know how well it will fare. The Thracians are very powerful, and they have started to push back the Germans, who were a superpower in the early game. The wast is very interesting. Old Seleucid lands have been distributed between Parthia, Egypt and Pontus. Armenia has the Pontic homelands, and has expanded into the steppes.

200BC to 130BC



The Julii and Brutii have expanded quickly on a grand scale, and I think the Julii have had a 'chance for power' (the first time i've ever seen this happen for the AI!) because they have taken Rome. Pontus has overrun the east and now is advancing on Egypt. Carthage and the Egyptians share Africa. Not much came of the Briton 'invasion' and the Thracian Empire has collapsed.

The end of the campaign, if you're interested:



The Julii stopped where they were and seemed scared to make any naval invasion. The Brutii however just kept on the onslaught.

[Barbarossa82]

OK one little bonus for those of you who like VBM:

========================================================
=====VANILLA BALANCE MOD B.I. EXTENSION V1.0 README=====
========================================================
by Barbarossa82


CONTENTS
=========================
1 - Introduction
2 - List of Changes
3 - Requirements/Compatibility
4 - Installation Instructions
5 - Uninstallation Instructions
6 - Credits


1. INTRODUCTION
=========================
Vanilla Balance Mod BI Extension v1.0 is a micro-mod which extends certain features of Vanilla Balance Mod v3 to Barbarian Invasion, the expansion pack for Sega/Creative Assembly's Rome: Total War.
Because BI in general is a much better balanced game than the Imperial Campaign in RTW, the changes required are much smaller. The dynamics of the period (large but fragile Roman empires, small but powerful Barbarian states) are well reflected already in BI and are not altered by VBM-BIX. What VBM-BIX does is to add certain aesthetic/completion/atmosphere elements from VBM v3 into BI. See below for a full list.



2. LIST OF CHANGES
=========================
FACTION CAMPAIGNS
* All non-emergent factions except the Rebels are now playable
* All factions have a campaign description, a leader pic, a faction selection screen map and an in-game victory conditions map. Apologies for my poor Paint Shop Pro skills.
* The Sassanid faction is now known as "the Persians", in accordance with usual historical practice in describing the Sassanid state. The term "Sassanid" is still to be found in a few places, like the faction selection screen and unit info scrolls. This is personal preference really, but I prefer to refer to the faction by the name of the nation, not its ruling dynasty.

EXTERMINATION
* Carried over the changes to extermination descriptions/graphics from VBM v3. The huns still use the old "pile-o-skulls" graphic though, as they really did get up to that kind of thing.
* Carried over the government building law bonuses from VBM v3 to make extermination less necessary. This replaces the Eastern Empire's happiness bonus from government buildings, and the barbarians' pre-existing law bonuses.
* Because of the potential confusion between sacking a settlement in the way that used to be called Extermination, and sacking it as a horde, the button to sack a settlement when you have taken it over as a horde now says "sack settlement and move on".

TOOLTIPS
* Carried over the traits tooltips descriptions changes from VBM v3 to BI.

PERFECT SPY
* Added the "perfect spy" cheat/feature, as found in VBM v3. However in VBM-BIX, this is activated using the advisor at the Game Options screen (where you can choose save/load etc) rather than the Keyboard Shortcuts screen, as that doesn't appear to work.


3. REQUIREMENTS/COMPATIBILITY
=========================

VBM-BIX v1.0 requires the following:
* Original RTW patched to 1.5, with Vanilla Balance Mod v3 installed
* Barbarian Invasion expansion pack, patched to 1.6.
Basically if you have RTW, BI, the 1.6 patch and VBM 3 installed, you're good to go.

Like VBM v3, VBM-BIX is compatible with player1's BugFixer. This means if you install VBM-BIX, it will go straight over the top of BugFixer without damaging any of its changes and fixes, they will still be present in the campaign. However, uninstalling VBM-BIX will restore pure vanilla files so you will have to reinstall BugFixer Part 2 over BI again if you want to keep its changes and fixes.
BugFixer is highly recommended for the best experience from VBM-BIX, but is not required. VBM-BIX will install fine over non-BugFixed BI and will restore non-BugFixed BI.
VBM-BIX v1.0 has been tested with BugFixer 3.36. Earlier versions should work too but have not been tested.



4. INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
=========================

Simply run the downloaded file and follow the onscreen instructions. Make sure to tell the installer the correct directory - it'll probably be different to the default if you have RTW Gold.


5. UNINSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
=========================
a) Navigate to your Rome - Total War\BI directory and locate the folder named "VBM-BIX Uninstall RENAME ME". Rename this folder. Deleting the "rename me" part will be sufficient.
b) Run the "Uninstall VBM-BIX" program located in your Rome - Total War\BI directory.
c) Open the folder that you renamed in part (a), select the "data" folder inside, copy it and then paste it into your "Rome - Total War\BI directory. Select to overwrite any files with the same names. VBM is now uninstalled.

NB: Because BI and RTW are interlinked and rely on some of the same data, uninstalling one can affect the other. For this reason, uninstalling VBM v3 from the Imperial Campaign while leaving VBM-BIX installed over BI will lead to the reversion of the extermination pics in BI to their original versions. To avoid any unforeseen weirdness, players with RTW Gold or BI should either have both VBM v3 and VBM-BIX installed, or have them both uninstalled.


6. CREDITS
=========================
Mod creator and programmer: Barbarossa82 of the totalwar.org forums
Creators of the original Rome - Total War and Barbarian Invasion: Creative Assembly
Source of info for faction descriptions: Wikipedia
BugFixer content incorporated by kind permission of player1

Download

Download VBM BI Extension Here (2.68 MB)