BI exe - Any Disadvantages?

[CaesarAugustus]

Well, my Roman empire finally "collapsed" at 203 BC, due to my negligent auto-resolving, poor economy management, Sweboz with an empire the size of the Third Reich, and (too much) aggressive expansion. I decided that it was the perfect time to re-install EB with the 0.81a hotfix.

Now to the point.... once i get around to re-installing I am also considering using EB with the BI exe, since everybody else seems to be doing so. Before I do however, I was wondering if there were any disadvantages to EB running on the BI exe, (IIRC no custom battles is one). If there are too many then I might just stick with 1.5. And what else other than improved naval attacks does BI exe give EB?

Also, I would greatly appreciate someone giving or linking to foolproof, clear instructions on how to make v.0.81a run on the BI exe, because from what I read on the technical support forums it seems complicated. Thanks in advance.

[CountArach]

I think Custom and Historic Battles are out. I can't think of anything else, but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

[Intranetusa]

1. You can't play custom battle
2. If you minimize the screen to paste a screenshot, your game exits by itself
3. Some factions are do-nothing factions, maybe even more so than RTW. Britons & Germany in my campaign hasn't moved at all in 40 years.
4. AI amphibious assaults are so-so. So far, I'm facing Carthage and they keep sending puny transport boats loaded with 4-5 units to attack me

[CaesarAugustus]

1. . Britons & Germany in my campaign hasn't moved at all in 40 years.

Good! I've had so many bad experiences at the hands of the Sweboz that I'll probably make a special army to wipe them out at the beginning of the game anyway. Too bad about the alt+Tab shutdown, though, that's the only way I know how to take screenshots.

[Megas Pyrrhos]

Well I'm by far no expert, but what I did to make EB work with BI was to simply do this:

1.) copy your EB v.81 shortcut to some folder, say "My Documents".

2.) right click the shortcut and click "properties"

3.) a box should pop up with some text highlighted already. in this box, change the part where it says "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" to "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe". the only thing changed here is from RomeTW.exe to RomeTW-BI.exe. for me personally, i then renamed the shortcut, then sent it back to my desktop and EB with Bi works fine for me.

This will make EB run with BI...however I cant help with the custom battles or whatnot. :)

[skuzzy]

Intranet, if you be patient and just let them idle for a while they'll send until it's a full stack or two, just concentrate your forces in areas far from Rome because that's where they keep sending troops against me. Neglect defense for a while to give yourself a perk of fun.

[Intranetusa]

Intranet, if you be patient and just let them idle for a while they'll send until it's a full stack or two, just concentrate your forces in areas far from Rome because that's where they keep sending troops against me. Neglect defense for a while to give yourself a perk of fun.

yeh, I've funneled about 500,000 to Sweboz and they've finally started moving...conquered about 3 provinces, 220 BCE

[CaesarAugustus]

Bad idea, Intranetusa. Watch that the Sweboz dont start expanding into the steppes, Gaul and the Balkans like they did in my campaign. Seriously, having them control a 40-province empire with multiple 20-stack spam armies is no fun.

Thank you for the replies so far I wil reinstall tomorrow when I'm not half asleep to make sure I do not make any mistakes. So far i think that the advantages of BI outweigh the disadvantages, I see why most people play with the Bi exe.

Oh yes, another question. I have the Total War eras RTW/BI CD. When I make a copy of my RTW root folder to install EB over, do I have to also copy the BI subfolder if I want to use the BI exe?

[Intranetusa]

^ really? That'd be AWESOME


considering in my current Romani campaign, I make about 300,000-400,000- with 50,000-90,000 in profit per turn. All my cities are Huge and my armies are rampaging across North Africa and Asia Minor unopposed - I don't even bothering conquering enemy cities anymore - so they can build up...I just send around my armies to attack enemy armies in the open.

considering the AI sucks so bad I can defeat elite Seleucid phalangites with crappy mercs, I will welcome 20 stacked Sweboz armies :)


seriously, I've used codes to give Carthage about 1 million, yet they only send crappy libby-phoencian infantry and half stacked assault iberians after me...easily defeated by weak local MIC native units

[Cataphract_Of_The_City]

You can use the create_unit command to give troops instead of money. More control. And you can keep them in check by building lines of fully garrisoned settlements with high level troops using the create_unit command again. I made a line the went from Kallatis, Tylis, Naissos, up NW to the eastern Alps, across the north Alps settlements. Another point was the Belgae lands, to prevent Germans expanding there too soon and the last one was a line south of the Baltics to stop German expansion to the stepps. Worked very nice in my Roman campaign.

[antisocialmunky]

I have custom battles and no crashes alt-tabbing... Huh.

Beware. If you play as the Romanii, the Greeks have a Taras Fetish and the Punics have a hard-on for Sardinia.

[Sheep]

1. You can't play custom battle

Not true.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...3&postcount=85

2. If you minimize the screen to paste a screenshot, your game exits by itself

I don't have this problem at all. Look at my AAR, it is full of screenshots.

3. Some factions are do-nothing factions, maybe even more so than RTW. Britons & Germany in my campaign hasn't moved at all in 40 years.

Briton barely ever moves in the RTW version either. There will always be some do-nothing factions, but it's never the same ones. In some games the Germans do nothing, in others they seem out to conquer the entire Northern Hemisphere. Some games the Arverni slaughter the Aedui, in others the tables are turned. Seems completely random. Oh well, there were do-nothing factions in real life also.

4. AI amphibious assaults are so-so. So far, I'm facing Carthage and they keep sending puny transport boats loaded with 4-5 units to attack me

I'm just psyched that they do them at all. I also see the AI combining stacks all the time and most of their large armies are led by generals, so I like the AI a lot better (it still sucks though... that's just RTW).


In my opinion the single worst thing about using BI is that it's not supported officially by the EB team, but there are enough people using it that someone can almost always help you.

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

I recently went to BI, and it's awesome. I do miss the custom battles, but all it takes is switching out the disks and 3 taps of the backspace button, and I can do it all I want (but I'll try Sheep's link in a minute). I think shieldwall and warcry are two awesome benefits, and the naval invasions aren't overpowering (I usually see halfstacks landing in various places, like Carthage to Sardinia and Maks to Krete).

The conversion is simple. After installing EB, go to the EB shortcut. Right click and go to properties. Where the target says "RomeTW.exe", add "-BI" to it, so it looks like this "RomeTW-BI.exe". That's it. Then you just double click n' go.

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

Sorry for the double post, but Sheep's link worked perfectly. I just had a custom battle as Epeiros against the Getai, with shieldwalled hoplites and elephants and all that good stuff.

So basically, there's no longer any excuse not to go over to BI if you have it.

[Morte66]

The only real issue I can see is that switching to BI for naval invasion doesn't remove the landbriges, that would need an actual mod to the map. So if the AI wants to send troops from Spain to Sicily, it may send them around through France and Italy then across the Straits of Messina landbridge instead of putting them on a boat. Still, this isn't a drawback so much as a lack of improvement.

[Enguerrand de Sarnéac]

Well, my Roman empire finally "collapsed" at 203 BC, due to my negligent auto-resolving, poor economy management, Sweboz with an empire the size of the Third Reich, and (too much) aggressive expansion. I decided that it was the perfect time to re-install EB with the 0.81a hotfix.

Someone who actually stops the campaign because he loses. How realistic!

Anyway, I take screenshots with the appropriate button, and it saves in a folder of the R:TW main folder. It's a bit of a strange format (.tga) but I can open them and Save As .jpg or something.
I play custom battles with the original copy of EB's .exe; so no BI for custom battles (no shield wall) The other copy uses BI (for campaigning)

[Sheep]

I just had a custom battle as Epeiros against the Getai, with shieldwalled hoplites and elephants and all that good stuff.

Shieldwalled elephants???

I... can't think of anything more frightening.


(edit) I take it back... the aftermath of the enema we had to give to a black rhino last month was a bit scarier.

[Wolfman]

Too bad about the alt+Tab shutdown, though, that's the only way I know how to take screenshots.

What about using FRAPS? All you have to do is download it, start up EB, and hit the F10 button when you want to take a screen shot, then upload to somebody like imageshack. I've seen alot of AARs that use FRAPS. As for changing over to the BI.exe it has alot of improvements in my opinion like better AI.

[Rilder]

2. If you minimize the screen to paste a screenshot, your game exits by itself

Eh? I don't crash when I alt tab...

Not like you need to just my anti-virus likes to interupt me to scan my computer >.>

[CaesarAugustus]

Thank you for all of the replies. It loos like BI is the way to go when playing EB. I didn't know that units got shield wall, that's just icing on the cake (I hope shieldwall elephants was a joke though!)

Someone who actually stops the campaign because he loses. How realistic!

Well, technically I didn't lose ( I still owned 38 provinces), but my empire was decaying due to my poor management and economy and the turns got too long and boring having to fight stack after stack of Sweboz. Next time, I'm not expanding into Gaul before the Marians.

EDIT: Everything seems to work, including custom battles with the link that Sheep provided. Try it out if you cannot play custom battles with your BI exe., the directions are very easy to follow.

[Watchman]

I didn't know that units got shield wall, that's just icing on the cake

Not without actually giving them the ability in the EDU though.

[Enguerrand de Sarnéac]

Well, technically I didn't lose ( I still owned 38 provinces), but my empire was decaying due to my poor management and economy and the turns got too long and boring having to fight stack after stack of Sweboz. Next time, I'm not expanding into Gaul before the Marians.

Yes...emperors do tend to get bored...We all know what would happen next... Annoying Swêbōz at the borders...You were doomed, Caesar Augustus!

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

Shieldwalled elephants???

I... can't think of anything more frightening.


(edit) I take it back... the aftermath of the enema we had to give to a black rhino last month was a bit scarier.

Haha, I wasn't implying the elephants were shieldwalled as well, silly.

And, eh...XD at the rhinema...I bet that was pleasant.

Why does everybody do the screenshot thing to a folder and all that business? I just press printscreen, and alt-tab to paint, paste, save to desktop and upload, then alt-tab back to the game.

[Rilder]

Haha, I wasn't implying the elephants were shieldwalled as well, silly.

And, eh...XD at the rhinema...I bet that was pleasant.

Why does everybody do the screenshot thing to a folder and all that business? I just press printscreen, and alt-tab to paint, paste, save to desktop and upload, then alt-tab back to the game.

Eh? I just hit print-screen whenever I see a good photo oportunity, keep on playing, no alt-tabbing, after i'm done playing I go to my Creative-assembly/Europa Barbarorum/tgas folder and theres my screenshots.

[Orb]

Keep an RTW shortcut as well as your BI one, that way you can still do custom and historic battles on the RTW shortcut.

[CaesarAugustus]

^Follow the easy instructions in this link and that's not necessary. Plus, you can load up the campaign right from the "EB Main Campaign" option as was intended. And in any case you can't ever play historical battles.

[Dyabedes of Aphrodisias]

Thank you for all of the replies. It loos like BI is the way to go when playing EB. I didn't know that units got shield wall, that's just icing on the cake (I hope shieldwall elephants was a joke though!)



Well, technically I didn't lose ( I still owned 38 provinces), but my empire was decaying due to my poor management and economy and the turns got too long and boring having to fight stack after stack of Sweboz. Next time, I'm not expanding into Gaul before the Marians.

EDIT: Everything seems to work, including custom battles with the link that Sheep provided. Try it out if you cannot play custom battles with your BI exe., the directions are very easy to follow.

They don't just end up with shield wall, you have to either put it in the EDU yourself or download files by somebody that's already done it. I use "Watchman's take on units..." mod; it gives BI features to a buttload of units that he felt should have them, like shield wall, warcry and swim.

[Watchman]

Thorlof's "TBS" mod is another. 'Course, if you feel up to it you can also do it yourself, it's simple enough - just a wee bit time-consuming and tedious.

[Wolfshart]

I did notice one thing while playing EB with BI. Maybe due to the high upkeep/recruit price of ships the AI has yet to launch a sea born invasion. /shrug dunno what else it could be.