== Cherry Vanilla Pack (CVP) Project 1.22 (EoL) ==

**Spartan** · February 09, 2005, 11:05 PM

Download here

This is the post 1.2 patch thread for the CVP. In recap, I have stated in several other threads, my tests with the current version of the CVP have been 100% rock solid and I have not had any issues at all. I have tested on all difficulty levels and from all factions.

The testing took some time and I'm sorry I have not really kept the community nearly as informed on the details as I did prior for the CVP. I have no excuse other then that real life, and many, many organizational as well as general community issues got in the way. In addition I have been waiting for Zrave to finish his comparison work regarding the code aspects for the VnV & TnT systems. We looked at the RTW 1.1 to 1.2 changes as well as the RTW 1.2 to CVP 1.02 differences.

In short, we made some interesting discoveries but I'll let Zrave provide the details as it is his job.

Overview
This modification pack was designed to be used with the generic or standard installation of Rome Total War. It makes changes Vices and virtues as well as triggers and traits systems. The changes that constitute this pack are nearly all corrective in nature to a plethora of errors that are part of the Rome Total War standard global release. In addition, there are several augmentations to what we believe were some oversights.

This pack is fully compatible with the standard 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 versions of Rome Total War. If you have other mods installed it will be 100% compatible with them as long as they do not include modified character trait files.

This pack addresses numerous bugs, broad-spectrum play issues, oversights, and typos that have beleaguered the Rome Total War experience since its release. Furthermore, it has quite a few tweaks incorporated as well. They are however principally related to play equilibrium issues. The scope and focus of the pack is limited to only the vice & virtue dimensions as well as the trait and trigger aspects.

The pack is the accumulative result of over 475 man-hours of devoted effort and has been in development for a month. It is arguably a labour of love in many regards. We hope this pack and our effort does credit to the Total War franchise and specifically to CA for all their hard work and effort over the years to bring us this fine, and perhaps best strategy series ever produced.

As far as a quick list of numbers the following are reflected in the CVP 1.02 edition: there are 20 bug fixes, 55 new triggers, 103 trigger and 214 vice & virtue adjustments made to the default files. As well as 98 typo corrections, 37 rewrites of descriptions and a total rework of the file data structure to boot!!

The list of numbers for the CVP 1.1 edition are: 5 bug fixes, 35 new triggers, and 6 new traits.

The CVP 1.2 version fixes the two major patch introduced bugs in the VnV & TnT systems and has a plethora of other adjustments to account for supplementary patch modifications to the basic game system. For instance:

1) Doubled combat triggers under manual battle(s)

2) Scarface has numerous bugs:

a) battle1 and battle1r give battlescarred to Romans twice

b) the GeneralHPLostRatioinBattle works in one way for manual battles, and differently for autocalc.

c) With default 1.2 settings, manual battles without engagement always trigger battle1 and battle1r.

3) Senate offices: if you get elected twice to the same office, at the end of your mandate you do not have the ex-office trait. This is due to a bug in (office)again triggers giving twice as needed.

4) GeneralFoughtinCombat always returns true, regardless if the general did or did not fight. This causes trigger battle4 never to go off. Might I add this trigger needs revision? If it worked properly and your enemy retreated, you could get the coward trait.

There are numerous other issues of lesser magnitude that have also been addressed.

1.2.1 Update

A bug that caused periodic CTDs has been identified and neutralized. The bug was caused by a commented out line being forcibly read by the application due to its position. Unfortunately we are at a complete loss as to explain why the program would want to read a commented out line at that particular point in the file. Regardless, it is no longer an issue as it has been corrected.

Additionally we enhanced the anti-trait relationships of the religious traits.

Update:

2/10 {19:40hrs.} - We have finished the RTW 1.2 Patch update for the CVP 1.02. The new version of the CVP to be published will be: 1.1

2/11 {00:05hrs} - CVP 1.1 is now posted to the Downloads thread and it is also in the downloads section :w00t

2/12 {01:40hrs} - Start to establish the EoL DT for the CVP.

2/25 {21:00hrs} - Practical solution developed and testing started.

3/07 {01:20hrs} - Final testing nearing completion.

3/08 {00:40hrs} - Testing done. Currently building the new pack and updating the readme file.

3/08 {01:00hrs} - CVP 1.2 (EoL) published.

3/14 {16:15hrs} - CVP 1.2.1 (EoL) published.

End of Life (EoL) Development Team
Zrave
DrJambo
Spartan

On a personal note, many thanks to Zrave (raven) for all his excellent code work on this project from the beginning and Drj for all his sound advice and help over the past few months during the life cycle of this mod and the other team members at various times.

In addition thanks to all of the nameless masses who have supported this "patch" project in one way or another throughout the past six months. It was all done for you and your buddies!

peace

-Spartan

**Zrave** · February 09, 2005, 11:17 PM

There are actually very few changes. There are 6 new triggers and some other minor changes.

Detailed List:

1) New triggers for AssassinCatcher and CounterSpy traits, which were previously disabled. The CVP project spent a number of hours trying to guess how they would be phrased.

2) Battlescarred ratio bug fixed. This bug was reproduced in the CVP since we assumed that the ratio was in percentage form. However, CA did not fix a related bug with battlescarred - that roman generals are twice as likely to get this trait, an issue fixed by the CVP but that has laid dormant until now.

3) Admiral traits bug fixed, now available for admirals instead of family members, as fixed by the CVP.

4) New triggers (assassinit4 and assassinit5) that give NaturalAssassinSkill bonuses to assassins trained from a curia or great forum. There is also a small change to trigger assassinit3, which as far as I can tell would produce no effect due to it preceding the new triggers.

5) New triggers (games and races) that give GamesFan and RacesFan vices to governors that throw games/races.

6) BattleOdds restrictions to the admiral traits, which mean that if your navy is too much stronger/weaker that the enemies, your admiral won't gain/lose stars. This is actually somewhat disturbing to me, since in very hard your only hope of winning a naval engagement was overwhelming numbers.

7) Fixed issue with roman generals being twice as likely to get the Bloodthirsty trait, while nonromans were not able to get the Brave traut through prowess in battle. This issue had been fixed by the CVP.

8) Removed BadSiegeDefender effect from the temple of hunting trigger. This was troublesome due to the original file not having siege triggers like CVP does. Still, the CVP had also elected to remove this effect.

9) GoodRiskyAttacker problem fixed - you were getting a bonus to GoodRiskyAttacker whether you won or lost the battle. This issue had been fixed by the Vanilla version of the Trivium traits package, but faded out to a complete removal of the RiskyAttacker traits.

10) HighPersonalSecurity and LaxPersonalSecuity [sic] traits now available to all characters instead of just generals.

11) There is a weird change to the Coward trigger; they have made it so the triggers only goes off when there are no enemy casualties, which means that the "bug" of getting the Coward trait when your enemy retreated without fighting is still present. The CVP fix was to split this trigger into two, one for when you (and only you) retreat, and another for when there is combat but the general never engages.

12) The Coward trait also has had its NoGoingBackLevel increased to 3 (code that "locks" a trait at a certain level or higher, preventing it from being reduced.)

13) IndecisiveAttacker trigger still applies to retreating before combat, but now has the "WasAttacker" condition. This would imply that you can now withdraw on the defense, but I have not had the time to test this.

Important things that were not fixed in 1.2:

1) Still no ambush/siege triggers, like those provided in CVP

2) Senate Offices should still present the problem of losing the "Ex-Office" trait if you get elected twice to the same office

3) Brave trait still gives popular standing (a roman only mechanic) even though it is only available for non-romans

4) The birth trigger is still trying to give ForeignTastesRomanVice to family members even though its marked for diplomats only. It is entirely dormant in 1.2, while in CVP it was removed due to implementation difficulty.

5) Still no triggers for Noctophobia and Noctophilia, two dormant traits.

6) Numerous other traits are still extremely rare, being available only through birth. In CVP we tried to make these available by creating new triggers and tying them in to existing events.

7) Some traits still have very unusual values for certain levels, such as a having a description that emphasizes increased importance but their values reflecting a decrease instead. In CVP we adjusted these to what we deemed plausible.

cavansam · February 10, 2005, 04:43 AM

Thanks Guys for the comparison work.

Just to be clear do you recommend I reinstall CVP over my 1.2 patched RTW? or will you be releasing a new version which I should wait for?

I thought the previous CVP completely changed the gaming experience for me, making the game more challengeing and more fun.

**Spartan** · February 10, 2005, 04:52 AM

We will most likely release the updated version (CVP v1.1) within the day.

However until that happens, you are still better off with the current CVP (1.02) installed over the RTW 1.2 patch.

-Spartan

**fallingstar** · February 10, 2005, 05:29 AM

So spartan my friend is telling me that CVP will also fix the bugs that the patch 1.2 hasn't fixed, is my viewing corrected? :w00t

**shmuck** · February 10, 2005, 05:36 AM

I does one know if the pack has been installed (I never new with the first one).

**Spartan** · February 10, 2005, 05:40 AM

@fallingstar - you are correct apparently the VnV & TnT systems were not a very high priority for them. Sadly however, all they had to do was integrate the CVP into the patch - oh well.

@Shmuck - If you click on the "Install Cherry Vanilla.bat" file the pack will be installed. We also include a backup and restore .bat files. If you really must check just open one of the named files in the "CherryVanilla" directory that are located in your "data" and "text" directories. At the top of the files you will see the word "Trivium" the only file not to have this will be the "enums file.

-Spartan

**fallingstar** · February 10, 2005, 05:49 AM

CVP is very popular, because its more than a mod, it fixes numerous bugs and can be implemented or integrated into mods, which is a very excellent add on for all types.

**ktheogr** · February 10, 2005, 05:59 AM

Great job guys

**Hector** · February 10, 2005, 06:13 AM

First of all thanks to The Trivium team for this simple yet effective enhancement of RTW; secondly, a quick question :grin

When the 1.2 version is released will it be compatible with 1.02 save games? Dying to get a Seleucid campaign started

**Spartan** · February 10, 2005, 06:19 AM

The version to be released will be "CVP 1.1" and yes it is 100% compatible with the CVP 1.02 release.

-Spartan

**Hector** · February 10, 2005, 06:23 AM

oops sorry 1.1, but that's great... thanks for the quick response

**Ldvs** · February 10, 2005, 06:23 AM

This is a good news, I didn't want to play until your patch was released. Thanks for the work.

**DrJambo** · February 10, 2005, 06:37 AM

I have to say I think this is one of my favourite things to come out of the Trivium.

Did you add in ancillaries and /or traits that were omitted for whatever reason, e.g. the doctor, etc?

What I would say is since this is a project affecting SP only and coupled with the fact that it can be suitably modded in entirety by the community (as ably demonstrated here), it really doesn't matter whether it's officially included in a patch not.

**Spartan** · February 10, 2005, 06:49 AM

@DrJ - I agree with you 100%. It's just that I will always have issues with something that is "patched" and yet there are still known bugs. Worse yet, I get infuriated when there are known bugs with known fixes and they get omitted for what ever reason. In addition, we did not add any ancillary stuff as this is meant to be a "cherry" set of files for all mod and people to use without any play bias so to speak.
-Spartan

**DrJambo** · February 10, 2005, 07:09 AM

Great! Thanks for the info, and by the way I do agree with you. When fixes are so obvious and easy, it's a shame not to see them officially included just to tie it all up nicely. What I really meant is that at least it's not a major problem for those lucky enough to access to files like the CVP and therefore the bugs and mistakes still present in 1.2 aren't critical.

Cheers

**Spartan** · February 10, 2005, 07:26 AM

Correct there aren’t are critical bugs left after the 1.2 patch. Certainly nothing that cant wait until the expansion pack or CVP!!

You know if you are interested we can start a different thread on a variation if you like. I think that would keep Zrave's attention and bring him back into the community fold a little more.

-Spartan