RTW MP Campaign - The game has begun!

[Lord Winter]

The Auxillias are coded in, but it ctds at the first loading screen. Any clue what i m doing wrong?

[shifty157]

Just a quick guess but are your hidden resources implemented correctly?

[Lord Winter]

Yes they are i built it off 1.01.
Heres an example of the code i am using

building British_Auxillias
{
    levels British_Auxillia_Lv.1 British_Auxillia_Lv.2 British_Auxillia_Lv.3
    {
         British_Auxlillia_Lv.1 requires factions { britons, } and not hidden_resource British 
        {
            capability
            {
               
            }
            construction  3 
            cost  500 
            settlement_min viliage
            upgrades
            {
                 British_Auxillia_Lv.2
            }
        }
         British_Auxillia_Lv.2 requires factions { britons, } and not hidden_resource british
        {
            capability
            {
                
            }
            construction  4 
            cost  500
            settlement_min large_town
            upgrades
            {
                 British_Auxillia_Lv.3
            }
        }
        British_Auxillia_Lv.3 requires factions { britons, } and not hidden_resource british 
        {
            capability
            {
                
            }
            construction  6 
            cost  500 
            settlement_min city
            upgrades
            {
            }
        }
    }
    plugins 
    {
    }
}

and for the units

recruit "barb peasant briton"  0  requires factions { britons, } and hidden_resource british or requires factions { britons, } and building_present_min_level British_Auxillias British_Auxillia_Lv.1

[shifty157]

It looks fine to me. The only thing i can think of are periods allowed in building names? I try to avoid any sort of punctuation like that.

Also try splitting your unit recruitment into two different recruitments. While the way you have it now shouldnt cause any problems the game may interpret it incorrectly.

[Lord Winter]

I ll try removing all the periods and see if it helps

As for spliting the unit recruitment theres a hard coded limit of 500. scince there are a starting amount of around 275 units we would have to double the number.

[Mooks]

Im definately in, id take Iberia if its still open, or armenia either one is good.

Email is holybandit267@yahoo.com, maybe the game could be next saturday night? Or next week or something...Imagining this game would take a long long time.

[Mooks]

Crap, didnt realize this thread had 11 pages. The forum is not allowing me to delete my earlier post. I just read another thread saying there was 5 countrys open for the game..So i came here and posted.

[Krek]

DestroyerOfHope, is the text you use an actual copy-paste from a textfile?
In that case, you have a typo in the 7th (text)line:

building British_Auxillias
{
levels British_Auxillia_Lv.1 British_Auxillia_Lv.2 British_Auxillia_Lv.3
{
British_Auxlillia_Lv.1 requires factions { britons, } and not hidden_resource British
{
capability
{

}
construction 3
cost 500
settlement_min viliage
upgrades
{
British_Auxillia_Lv.2
}

It probably should read: "settlement_ min village"

Hope this fixes a problem for you...

edited:
BTW, is the text needed case-sensitive? Because when first refering to "hidden_resource British", you use a capital B. On the others you don't.

[Krek]

Also the latest update for the players and their playernumber (as it is known to me):


The email addresses below have 'RTW_' infront of them. Delete that for the real email address. This prevents spammers and the like to retrieve our email addresses.
Thanks Oaty for the tip!


Also notice that in same addresses below there is a 'space' in the name. This is not on purpose, I have no idea how this comes. It's not typed in the post, it just displays them like that. So delete the space (if any) if you send a mail to someone.


Referee.......Myrddraal...............RTW_mad_toad@hotmail.com


Players
1 - Numidia...........Oaty........................RTW_oaty73@earthlink.net
2 - Thrace............Shifty157................RTW_shifty@verizon.net
3 - Germania.........LittleGanon..............RTW_littlegannon@hotmail.com
4 - Scythia...........Predator.................RTW_stretchdemon@vampirefreaks.com
5 - Dacia..............Bonny....................RTW_bonny4k@gmx.de
6 - Gaul................LordRaiden.............RTW_LordRaiden@TrueGamers.us
7 - Parthia............Heinrich VI..............RTW_philipp_scholz@t-online.de
8 - Armenia...........Bleda.....................RTW_napkin65@hotmail.com
9 - Pontus............Destroyer of Hope....RTW_Gopackers13@hotmail.com
10- Macedon.........King Malcom............RTW_malcolm_sh@hotmail.co.uk
11- Greek_Cities....Hellenes..................RTW_arxidamos2003@yahoo.gr
12- Spain.............holybandit...............RTW_holybandit267@yahoo.com
13- Britannia.........Krek.......................RTW_general.krek@gmail.com
14- Carthage........Ignoramus...............RTW_daviddotnich@optusnet.com.au
15- Seleucid.........SilverRusher.............RTW_headfullofanger43@gmail.com
16- Egypt.............KingWill...................RTW_will_spence@hotmail.com
17- Rome (Julii).....The Stranger............RTW_umeu_1@hotmail.com


Reserves (playerpool)
1 - Dead_Like_Me............RTW_joel10_bl@walla.co.il
2 - Tyrac.......................RTW_Tkelly421@comcast.net
3 - =E.T=.......................RTW_davberti@hotmail.com
4 - Gaugamela................RTW_tenfootflags@yahoo.com


Oops. Made a mistake. I forgot to put Oaty on the reserveslist. He was after Bleda (posts 338 and post 346 in this thread).
Sorry!



If I've forgotten anyone or anything, please tell.


Now we wait and hope Destroyer Of Hope finds his CTD-bug soon...
(DoH, have you checked my post above?)

[Bonny]

ahem, yes, you forgot me
as far as i know im playing dacia.....who is kashmirking

[Lawnmower233]

Hey guys. I'm an enormous fan of immersive games like Half life 2 and such. I found that the RTR mod for RTW certainly improved it and made it as exciting and well crafted as other unique games on the market like Half life. But the diplomacy in RTW and subsequently RTR was severely lacking. With this modification it seems that is solved. I would love to be a beta tester for this multiplayer script.

I have RTW v1.2 with RTR but I have Jebes mod for Modification Swapping so I can play your script without a very tedious and labourious reinstallation. So if any slots free up could I perhaps have a chance of filling them in, after those who asked first of course.

My Msn Hotmail is JacobMarley233@hotmail.com

My E-mail is Jacobmarley233@eircom.net (and my yahoo is also this.)

[Krek]

ahem, yes, you forgot me
as far as i know im playing dacia.....who is kashmirking

@Bonny:
You're right, sorry. Kasmir King was playing Dacia before you and when he stepped out, you replaced him.

@Lawnmower233: you're added to the list.

I've edited the post above to reflect these changes.

[Lawnmower233]

Oh cool. Thanks. I can't believe that this Mod isn't more popular. I thought people would be cramming into this thread to get a spot. It opens up the game for real "intelligent" diplomacy, something an AI inherently can't master as it's artificial.

I think (if it isn't hardcoded that is) exchange all items in a diplomatic agreement by Gifting and not the proposal button. But as you said it's all down to gamesmanship and respect. Someone could use the proposal and counter-proposal buttons to get the AI (that represents a real human faction) to hock over 10000 denarii. So it will be down to us respecting each other and thereby helping ourselves have more fun by prolonging the game in the long run.

Just so i understand the mechanics of this mod: The script does everything except we must save just as we press END TURN and then take the save game and e-mail it manually using for example Outlook express to the next persons e-mail?

It would be cool if you could get a similar set up to what the other modder has (forgot his name, he's the rometotalmultiplayer.com guy) which automatically e-mails it to the next peron's SMTP e-mail account. I only have a POP3 eircom.net webmail account though so I'd somehow have to get a SMTP account (haven't a clue how to). But I realise Myrddrall, that your mod actually is a script for the actual campaign map while the other dudes is his own campaign map creation or something and the program just arranges the online battles. Maybe because of this a program that automatically e-mails wouldn't be feasable (or even make sense).

[Lord Winter]

I have sent the auxillia files to auxillia 1.1 will be released soon

[shifty157]

awesome news.

[WhiteProphecy]

i'm sorry, i cant do the armenia campaign because i dont have AIM, MSN or any messenger, sorry everyone.

[Bonny]

Are we going to use messangers to to transfer the savegame files? imo it would make it alot easier than with email, do we need a special one?
@ WhiteProphecy
afaik it is not a problem downloading such a messenger...

cant wait to start

[Geoffrey S]

Wouldn't the saved games just be uploaded to the .org?

[Myrddraal]

why do we need messenger or anything like that?

We just need any form of file transfer. I was thinking email but if you guys want a small space at the .org I'm sure that isn't a problem.

[shifty157]

Yeah i just assumed email too. I think thatd be the easiest.

[Bleda]

Is there a way that I might be able to download the MP program and just play a LAN mp campaign game with my buddy? with no tricky servers or bunches of people to add to my confusion

[Dead_Like_Me]

guys where can i download it from ???

can anyone who played tell me how it works ??? i went other some of the pages but i got tierd after 6 i think.... more info about the mod would be great guys.

i really do want to play it and so is my friends so if anyone could tell me how it works and give me a link i would be greatfull.

lol isnt it just fun to post a first noob post :P

thanks ahead

[Duke Malcolm]

Firstly, Welcome to the both of you!

Secondly, we haven't played it yet, it isn't quite ready yet.

[Bleda]

When will it be ready? How will it work? will it work independent of some server? if not will that server be excessible like any good online gamming server should? will I ever stop asking noobish questions?-----sorry I'm really getting off on this whole Multiplayer Campaign concept. I wont be able to sleep soundly without some answers... any info that you might provide would be greatly appreciated.

[Krek]

When will it be ready? How will it work? will it work independent of some server? if not will that server be excessible like any good online gamming server should? will I ever stop asking noobish questions?-----sorry I'm really getting off on this whole Multiplayer Campaign concept. I wont be able to sleep soundly without some answers... any info that you might provide would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forums Bleda and DeadLikeMe!

First of to prevent future disappointment let me tell you that Rome Total War (or BI for that matter) is NOT build for multiplayer. So you CAN'T play a multiplayer campaign (LAN/Network/Server/Hotseat etc.) as you would have done with games like 'Civilization 2, 3, 4' or 'Command&Conquer' or 'Birth of the Federation' (for you 'trekkies' out there).

It really is quite sad because the majority of people would have liked a multiplayer campaign for Total War. So hopefully there is one in the next series. (CA/SEGA are you listening?)


Having said that, since RTW can't have a 'normal' multiplayer, perhaps we can 'cheat' a bit by letting your PC think that a faction that is controlled by the A.I. (A.I. = Artificial Intelligence = your PC which is 'calculating the programmed responses and strategies for this game', or short: 'thinking') is actually controlled by the human player.
I say THE human player and not A human player, because as far as your computer knows, there is and can be only ONE human player in the game. It is after all a single player game.
This is the same principle as the MP modification for the original Civilization under MS-DOS for anyone who rememers Civ1 or this modification (or MS-DOS for that matter )

Let me explain that a bit more.
Say you start an RTW campaign as the Julii faction. The computer knows that the Julii faction is controlled by the human player and it (the computer/AI) must control the other factions.

Now normally, you make your moves as the Julii, press 'endturn' and then it is the next faction's turn, the Brutii. The AI is now in control, because your computer knows that the human player controls the Julii, and therefor it controls all the others and therefor also the Brutii. After it (the AI) has made its moves for the Brutii faction, it ends its turn and then it is the Scipii's turn.
Once again the AI knows that it must control that faction too, since the Scipii is not a human controlled faction, because that was the Julii, and it makes it moves for the Scipii faction. After that comes the Egypt faction, the AI knows that it must control Egypt too, since the Julli is the human controlled faction, etc., etc. for all the other factions.
After the AI has made the moves for the barbarian 'faction', it is once again the Julii's turn. The computer then holds, because it knows that the Julii faction is controlled by the human player, and therefor it must do nothing.

I made this a long text on purpose to make absolutely clear how the computer 'thinks' during the different turns in a normal RTW campaign.


So what is this about MultiPlayer then?
As I said before, it may be possible to perhaps 'cheat' the A.I. by letting your PC think that a faction that is originally controlled by the A.I. is now actually controlled by the human player. It goes like this:

As before, you start an RTW Single Player Campaign, playing as the Julii.
Once again you make all your moves till you're done.
BUT: when you end your turn and the next faction (the Brutii) is about to become 'active' to make its moves, we 'cheat' the A.I. into thinking that it was not the Julii faction that is controlled by the human player, but in fact it is the Brutii that is controlled by the human player. So in fact we are changing the 'Single player campaign with the Julii' into a ''Single player campaign with the Brutii'.
And since it is the Brutii's turn, the controls for it are given back by the AI to the human player. It is after all under the impression that it controls the Julli and all the others, and you as human player are controlling the Brutii.

You can then make all the moves for the Brutii faction, and after doing that, the same process goes, changing the 'human controlled faction' from Brutii to Scipii. You now control all the Scipii's moves. This process goes on for all the factions until you're back controlling the Julii, and then the circle starts all over.

The AI therefor thinks it controlls all other factions, but it actually controls none during the 'active' turns. The human player is actually playing them at that moment.


But how do you make the computer do all that?
For this, we use so-called 'scripts'. Those scripts are at the moment being developped by Myrddraal and are not ready for use yet.
I stand corrected: they are ready, we're just waiting for the RTR light mod being completed (see below)

And what must I do?
Well, at this point, the MultiPlayer Game is very much like a 'Chess by Mail' sort of game. It probably will have the same speed and length as well (i.e. a turn a week is fast).
When you play this MP game, you will recieve a 'savegame-file' (by e-mail). This is the savegame from the player that made his moves before you. You start RTW, load the campaign game with the savegame-file and make your moves for your faction. You then save the game, and exit RTW. You now send your savegame-file to the next human player (by e-mail), which in turn loads it into his computer, ... and so on.

One thing: at one point during your turn, you have to start the 'MP-scipt'. This script will tell your computer what the actual current human controlled faction is (e.g. changing the current human controlled faction from Julii to Brutii). How and when to start this script (before you start, after you load, or before you save) I'm not sure yet. This will be explained by the designer of the scipts, Myrddraal, who will explain it to all of us who are in this playtesting MP game.


Diplomacy and "aggresive negotiations"
What we haven't got/figured out yet (well, maybe Myrddraal has ) is how to deal with diplomacy and battles.
Since it still is a single player game, then for example when it is your turn and you play as the Brutii, then at that moment a human player (you!) controls the Brutii and the AI (your PC!) controls all the others.
So if you as the Brutii want to negotiate with the Julii faction, you are talking to the A.I., not to another human player. This is because as far as the computer knows, you are simply playing a 'regular' single player game with the Brutii. Therefor it is the A.I. witch responds, as at the current moment it controls all factions except the Brutii (witch is the human controlled faction).
So the responses you get from the Julii are the responses from the A.I., NOT from the human player who is playing the Julii faction in this MP game and who made the moves for the Julii on his turn before you and send you the 'savegame-file' witch you loaded.

The same things go for battles. When you are playing, all your opponents are in fact AI controlled. Hence it is easy to 'cheat' and wipe another players' army from the map (since it is controlled by the AI), when in 'real' multiplayer you would have lost against that army controlled by the human player.

To eleviate this problem a bit, we use autocalc for ALL battles and for diplomacy we will try to use a system witch is discussed somewhere in this thread (read all 11 pages in this thread, and you'll come across it). It involves using this forum (or email) for 'real-life' negotiations witch you then try to implement using diplomats in the game.

BTW, when I write "the computer knows...", it of course means something like "it performs" or something, because, naturally, a computer doesn't know a thing.



But then what about that Multiplayer Mod I'm reading about?
Well we actually can play this 'multi-player' thingy without it, but since the game is originally intended as a single player game, not all factions are equally strong. To make it more enjoyable for all of us involved, the RTR light mod is being designed (by Hellenes & DestroyerOfHope ) so all the factions are 'balanced out' and so all of them are equally hard/easy/strong/weak.
This makes for much better gameplay for all of us!


But all my life I wanted to play a real Total War MultiPlayer game!
So do we all.

Bleda, as to your remark for playing a LAN RTW campaign with your friend: as I said, unfortunately it's not a multiplayer game as you may be used to. A LAN game for RTW or BI is not an option, and I strongly doubt if it ever will be. The game just isn't designed for it.

Since the MP-Play be Email-game we try to create (well, 'we', it's actually Myrddraal isn't it? And DoH&Hellenes for the playbalance & enjoyable mod ) hasn't even been playtested yet, I suggest however that in the mean time you look at an earlier version of MP campaign, which is a 'hotseat script' by Myrddraal. This can be used to play a 'hotseat' (= on 1 computer) RTW campaign for 2 players.
Here is the link: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=45563


And finally, remember everyone:
we haven't even begun testing this 'Multiplayer Play_By_E-mail campaign'.
So don't expect to much to soon from it!

Q: "When will it (RTW Multiplayer) be ready?"
A: Never! RTW simply just isn't a Multiplayer game...! (unfortunately)

... but we sure can try to make it less single player!



Hope this helps for all you enthusiasts out there!



Edited for some spelling-errors and clarifications:(

[Myrddraal]

The scripts are ready for testing, I'm just waiting for you players to download this mod you want to play with

As for battles and diplomacy, I'm working on it...

[hellenes]

I got the Auxcilia buildings from Destroyer but the problem is that I get a ctd and an unexpected error at loading the game.
Ive sent a PM to Destroyer and await his reply as to why the game doesnt recognise the Auxcilia buildings.

Hellenes

[Krek]

The scripts are ready for testing, I'm just waiting for you players to download this mod you want to play with

Yes, I see you already told us, sorry. I've edited the above post.

I hope DestroyerOfHope was able to find the reason for his CTD. If not, then I hope he has read the post I made about the spelling-errors in his textfile (I also send him a private message to be sure, but I don't know whether he has read that or not).

As for battles and diplomacy, I'm working on it...

Just: WOW!

I got the Auxcilia buildings from Destroyer but the problem is that I get a ctd and an unexpected error at loading the game.
Ive sent a PM to Destroyer and await his reply as to why the game doesnt recognise the Auxcilia buildings.

Are the spelling-errors still in it? (two typo's, one for witch I presume will cause a CTD and one for the building not working properly).

[hellenes]

Yes, I see you already told us, sorry. I've edited the above post.

I hope DestroyerOfHope was able to find the reason for his CTD. If not, then I hope he has read the post I made about the spelling-errors in his textfile (I also send him a private message to be sure, but I don't know whether he has read that or not).


Just: WOW!



Are the spelling-errors still in it? (two typo's, one for witch I presume will cause a CTD and one for the building not working properly).

I dont know its just the game doesnt recognise the auxilia at the first line...

hellenes

[Krek]

I dont know its just the game doesnt recognise the auxilia at the first line...

Well I don't know what you mean by "doesn't recognise at the first line", but can you post the text out of the file send to you by DestroyerOfHope (export_descr_buildings?) where the auxilia is being described? I'll help looking for any typo's or structures witch may cause errors.

Also I'll be glad to help look at your (text)files for any inconsistencies, if any.

(no guarantees though, just trying to help...)