Medieval Total War - Redux (Beta)

[Axalon]

Thanks Ciciro... Anyhow, I have compiled some info on the AI of RXB1005 that I think is interesting enough to share here...




And...




For additional reference: (in spoiler)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Info gathered on the old RXB1002, compiled back in 2011...

Any comments or thoughts on this stuff? ...?...

- A

[Ciciro]

Poor little Byzantium. Half the time the Saracens invade and wreck up. And Russia sure is stuck between a rock and a hard place most of the time.

[Axalon]

Haha, yeah I totally agree... Poor Byzantium and Constantinople... Even the RX-AI never truly managed to handle this faction properly (despite various bonuses), always screwing things up somehow. My guess, too many possible entrance points (and factions that want in) to Constantinople, add to that the common Byzantine failure to garrison the place properly – and then when the fight/invasion comes, to actually take the fight instead of retreating like crazy. The AI is sadly hardcoded to retreat eagerly, when it totally should fight and defend instead. Especially with places like Constantinople, Byzantium’s very capital... Of course the Saracens are usually a very strong faction in Redux and probably the most protected one in it. This does obviously not help the cause of continued Byzantine imperial power, now does it?

And the Russians... I think the RX-AI is usually much better at handling them in general – despite the Russian circumstance is far more harsh then it ever was for Byzantium. All the same, yeah they too have hard time, nasty and stubborn rebels in Khazar and Crimea, and damn near certain rivalry with Lithuania and Hungary – assuming the Teutonic knights have not arrived in the area from the west, or the Saracen horde from the south. Either way, it will be bad news for Russian glory anyhow...

Also, look westwards at Spain and Portugal for instance, surely two of the most manhandled and “wiped out” factions in Redux history, routinely crushed by the mighty Moorish onslaught northward to France, if enough Moorish troops can be scraped together to make it happen. At the center, I think both Poland and Burgundy have a tough time coping with the pressure from all directions. Mightier and stronger neighbors like the HRE and France, is not making life any easier for the Polish kings or the cause of Burgundian independence...

Oh, I’m babbling away here... Umm, any other comments on this stuff? ...?...

- A

[Ciciro]

The Hre sure does love to blob east. I just wish it would go after France every once and awhile. Try to restore the empire under Charlemagne. But nope, always has to go for the slavs.

[Axalon]

I basically never reflected much upon that, before you pointed it out here, it certainly is strong tendency there for sure. In my experience the HRE typically settles for Flanders in the west, once it got that, the RX-AI is essentially content in terms of expanding westward, it is rare to see the HRE go further then that (it has all the same happened at times, even found its way to the British Isles in some cases). I doubt it is just a mere coincidence however.

I mean the region around of France is typically highly contested, and therefore well garrisoned by respective holder of each province. If not, they will probably soon lose it to some stronger bordering kingdom, and this in turn makes it harder in general to advance in the area. Eastward are probably less contested grounds and thus easier to advance there for the HRE, as both Poland and Hungary often don't have not the wealth to set up such large garrisons as France, Burgundy, Lombardy and Italy frequently does - or something along those lines. That's would be my guess anyways...

Anything else fire away....

- A

[Cyprian2]

Hey, Axalon. Congrats on the release of 1005 and glad you're still at it. I've downloaded the files (would you believe that I have every build of Redux since 1001?) and intend to try it out in the next few days. Maybe I'll give France a play-through... Had a great and challenging time with them in 1003. Will get back to you with my impressions.

[lord of eras]

Hey Axalon, I have 1005 on a Windows 7 PC with Intel HD Graphics, and this is what happens in battle:

Also happened in vanilla. How can I fix this?

[Axalon]

Hi all, I have found my first bug/error in RXB1005...

The GFX for the "Sacred Stone" and its two upgrades are currently wrong. However, this stuff can be fixed on your own... Go to... "X:\?\RXB1005\campmap\review_panel\Buildings" and find the following files...

"Stone1.BIF"
"Stone2.BIF"
"Stone3.BIF"

Copy them... Now, open up to the "pagan"-folder in that directory... As in... "X:\?\RXB1005\campmap\review_panel\Buildings\Pagan"... Paste and replace all 3 files in there... Thats it... You may need to restart/re-load the game for it to take effect. The error will be gone after doing all that.


Any other bugs/errors found in RXB1005? There is a dedicated thread for all that stuff over HERE.
Otherwise feel free to post here in this thread, if you prefer that instead, it makes little difference to me.
If you think you found any such stuff in RXB1005 - do us all a favor and post it. I would...

***

Hey, Axalon. Congrats on the release of 1005 and glad you're still at it. I've downloaded the files (would you believe that I have every build of Redux since 1001?) and intend to try it out in the next few days. Maybe I'll give France a play-through... Had a great and challenging time with them in 1003. Will get back to you with my impressions.

Thanks for posting Cyp (as ever)... On general terms, I'll take any experiences, thoughts and comments I can get on RXB1005. It has been public for almost 2 months now, so I would be rather interested in whatever experiences, thoughts and comments any players have on it, this far. What do people think of the expanded tech-trees for instance? Or the new deal on stability? What about the land bridge to Ireland? Is the AI performing better (or worse)? And all the other new stuff for RXB1005. Let me know folks - obviously all this applies to you too Cyprian...

PS. Would you believe it was 2011 when the "new" Redux beta was first released? If you have time someday, install both RXB1001 and RXB1005 and then compare them - see the actual journey of Redux, this far... My guess, it would be a rather striking and interesting experience (maybe I'll do that myself, just to set things into perspective)...

***

Also happened in vanilla. How can I fix this?

I have no definitive answers for you, all I can do is speculate here... This has to be hardware and driver-related. It looks like the GFX is not properly rendered, and that in the wrong order as well. The "layers" order are all screwed up. Anyhow, to fix it, I would get a separate GFX-card, and preferably one from ATI/AMD. A HD 58xx, 68xx or 78xx, should do the trick (I use HD5830 myself, for instance. Never had any problems with Redux). That integrated Intel-GFX-stuff have been claimed by others to have problems with MTW in general. Obviously, your pic seem to support the claim. If getting another GFX-card is out of the question, I guess the only alternative left would be to try some different drivers.

***


Anything else, post away...

- A

[Axalon]

As it is highly interesting stuff, I have re-posted it here at the TWC. Full credits to Tmodelsk for authoring it...

Hi. Long time passed, Redux 1005 is released and I'm now again fighting for the Glory of Christianity :-).

In this post I want to share with all of you a story of fantastic heroic battle I've fought.

Strategic background ... :

I'm playing Redux 1005 VI, Aragonese, with some my own minor modifications (I'm software developer) but units stats are unchanched.

So, situation from 740 year ...

there is peace, all my defence against Moors are concentrated in Andalusia, my defence system assumes that Castilie will remain in Spain hands. If Castillie falls to Moors
- Moors will have access to all my Iberia provinces and I can't afford to have full stack army in each province. If Castilie falls - this is strategic game over.

In year 744 from my spies I've received information that Spanish King has been killed in battle - defending Castilie against Moors !.
Somehow - thanks to bridge defence - Spanish won this battle, the Spanish prince became King.
For me it's obvious that sooner or later, maybe int next 1 - 2 - 3 year, Moors will attack Castillie again and won.
I see their full stack coming from Africa ...

So, in ... 744 I've decided to attack Cordoba - to possibly route or kill one of Moors armies - to help Spain.
Maybe it will be suicide attack, but I have nothing to loose.

I rapidly gathered all available forces and attacked Cordoba.
The forces are as shown :


as you see :
Aragonese: 825
Moors: 2000 of superb units !!

I've got two advantages over enemy :
- all my forces have armor upgrade, and most of my sword / halberd infantry has weapon upgrade.
- archers - 2 units of 100 men, basic ones but Moors have only some small 40 man archer unit.

And in general - my army is well balanced - archers, swords, spears / halbediers, heavy cavalry.

And here starts on of the most strange & exiting battle I've fought in in all Total War battles :-). (Shogun, Medieval, Rome)

Remember - I'm the attacker, Moors are defending ! Diff level is Redux Veteran (hardest).



As you can see - Moors general feels so self-confident that he attacks !!!

Video time:

• 2:00 min - Moors are splitting forces, strong cavalry-camel wing splits from main forces to attack me from my left flank or behind !
• 2:45 - Moors want to crash me from opposing directions, leaving no chance to escape ... . I'm starting to fix my battle lines ...
• 3:15 - first serious mistake by Moors. They came to close with camels wing to my battle lines ... my archers starts shooting ...
• 3:40 - My left wing is ready to encounter flanking camels, I'm setting up the right wing to met main Moorish forces ...
• 3:50 - My brilliant decision - to shorten / centralize my positions.
  Benefits : my archers could fire on both sides - very effective. I have short communication routes between two wings, my wings can quickly help each other.
• 4:10 Almost final defense setup. While having a lot less of men, I want to have big advantage in numbers and quality on left wing to quickly destroy / route Moors camels flankers. I hope my right wing will hold on for a while. It's risky but could lead to victory ... .
  My battle lines are 'Reversed V' formation. I've never seen it before !! :-)
• 4:20 - Full Moorish assault from both wings. And their biggest mistake in this battle ! If they tided a lot of my forces on my left wing and are in worse position, they should wait with the attack on my left wing !! Time is playing for them !! But they attack on both wings, allowing me to quickly destroy their camels on left wing !!
• 4:45 - Moorish camels are destroyed or routed. My left wing is free and rapidly runs to right wing - because Moors have big advantage on my right wing ! On right - Moorish starts to outflank me, but my left forces - cavalry are one the way. Light billmen will be routed by Moorish boddyguards. RIght wing cav is doing brilliant maneveour - is escaping from spear infatry, leading it far far from battle and charging at enemy lines from behind !!
• 5:00 - I'm starting to outflank enemy on top of reversed V - it's done by infantry from left wing. My king clashes with Moorish Bodyguards !!
• 5:15 - It looks likeMoors outflanking manaveur on right bottom wing is stopped. If my central battle lines - infantry - will hold little longer I will be able to use my 'liberated' units as advantage !
• 5:18 - My brave King with his companions KILLED enemy commander !!
• 5:30 - YES YES YES - FULL Royal Knights CHARGE from rear, which will initiate routing sequence !!! On top of reversed V - infantry flanking is done !!
• 5:45 Y E S !! Y E S !! Enemy is running away !!! But that is only half of success - Moors have huge reinforcements.
• 6:00 Here starts second phase of battle - killing routers and figthing with reinforcements.
  I really hate those phase of battle and do not have good fighting patterns. It's one big mess !! But slowly I'm pushing enemy to map corner

Screenshot from the begining of battle with units banners :


And final battle kills & looses :


As you can see, Aragonese killed about 1660 enemies while loosing only 480, own / enemy looses are less then 30%. But my army is dramatic conditions, only archers are operational. My King's companios
payed high blood price, and so other units .... .

Strategis situanion after battle :
In the same year 744, parallel to my attack at Cordoba, Moors has again attacked Castilie and conquered it !!
So their stack from Cordoba conqured Castilie, and their stack from Grenada moved to Cordoba and lost battle wit me.

In the next year I immediatelly attacked Castilie - it was second near-suicide battle 800 vs 1200, no anything to loose.
I've managed to conquer Castillie, but my King was forced to abandom Cordoba with his 400 army - he has no chance of fighting with next full stack.
So after a few more battles - everything on the edge of survival - situation stabilized in 749.

Casilie & Andaluzja in my hands, acting as main defence provinces, in Castilie is a river bridge defence position.

!!! I'VE DONE THIS !!!

Conslussion:

• It's effective to move war to enemy territory, even if you ca't hold conquered enemy province for a longer time.
• Enemy will loose province profit from his territorry, even for a year or two - it's worth, maybe some builiding destroyed.
• You will not loose profit from your provinces.
• You have a strategic initiative. You can try to capture some enemy army in province with no escape and after won battle destroy such army.
• Battle tactic : in my opinion and experience it's good to keep your guys together each other. So rather focus - tide up your units that scatter all around.
  Rather use Roman-style tactic (your army inside square area) than very long single battle line. But of course it depends on particular situation.

Axalon - Redux 1005 is very very good !
I like economic slow-down. Units are perfectly balanced.
In the near future I'll write my proposals to improve Redux even more.
Or propose my own little mod to Redux which fits my feelings.

!! REGARDS !!

Source... And, my apologies for the big images here...

- A

[Axalon]

Alright, some Redux news... Today the unipatch for RXB1005 is released...



The Redux universal patch is valid for all 1005-versions, and what does is to update RXB1005 to RXB1005c. As such it updates and corrects a number of minor errors of previous 1005-releases, regardless the kind. The "unipatch" is fully save-game compatible and does not change the game-experience in any way, other then correcting detected errors, bugs and typos. It is important that you select/use/apply ONLY the stuff from the folder that corresponds to the MTW-version you are using. If you do that, there will be no problems with this patch and Redux will update just fine upon install (using standard method of copy, paste and replace in game-directory). Enjoy...


Patch Name: RXB-Unipatch 1005c
Patch Version: 1005c
Language: English
Terms of Use: P.U.O, Personal Use Only (restricted material).
Size: Zipped 0.5MB/Uncompressed 1.4MB
Compatibility: RXB1005 versions only (all versions).
Operating System: -
Hardware: -
Description: see above...
Credits: Axalon all over...
Download Links:

Download zip-version: (primary)
http://www.atomicgamer.com/files/108...-unipatch1005c

Download rar-version: (reserve)
Pending...


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BUGS & ERRORS FIXED:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Building completed string, “shipyard 4” is now included...
• University colorpic for Catholic factions is now the right one...
• Errata on the rebel-kill description for “grim justice” corrected.
• 8th star promotion for generals will no longer stack up with the 9th star promotion description.
• Townwatch, Orthodox factions, Level1 has now the proper GFX assigned, as was always intended...
• Name on “large Warehouse” is wrong. Changed to “Large Warehouse”, as it should be...
• "Daimyo"/ruler promoted string/blurb is no longer missing...
• All pagan sacred stones will now use the correct GFX, as always intended...


- A

[Axalon]

More Redux-news.... "Some new bugs/errors was spotted hopping around in Redux-land today.... Sharpen yer swords and spears as the green goddess (She-Hulk) says its (bug)hunting-season again.... The bugs/errors are as follows...."


1. "NorseAxemen" (Norse Infantry) wrongly listed...
===================================

Error... Listed as “CAVALRY” unit-type... It should be “INFANTRY” like its neighbouring entries...
Effect... The Norse Infantry unit wont show in Solo-battles as infantry but as cavalry...
Fix... Change "CAVALRY" to "INFANTRY" in the unit-type entry (using the GnomeEditor or some other such tool)...


2. “Grand Pagan Idol” missing a file...
===================================

Error...The “Grand Pagan Idol” is missing a building-completed-sign (the colored one) for all non-pagan factions – this in the event they are ordered by player to build it (in former, conquered pagan territory) – despite it being overtly pagan tech. Only a human/player-factions can and will do this, as the AI won’t (by design).
Effect... A small black box appears instead of the proper image/GFX for it... No other (actual) effects on game otherwise...
Fix.... Open “X:\?\?\?\RXB1005\campmap\Info_Pics\Buildings\Pagan\Coloured”... Locate the file “Pagan Idol.BIF”... Make a copy of it... Now go back to “X:\?\?\?\RXB1005\campmap\Info_Pics\Buildings\Coloured” and paste the file “Pagan Idol.BIF”... The error should be fixed... Done!

3. “Dismounted Nobles”-error message
===================================

Error... The “Plurals” name-distinguisher is missing in “names.txt”-file (located at “X:\?\?\?\RXB1005\Loc\Eng”). Exclusive for Gold/VI/2.01-versions only....
Effect... Constant error message whenever these particular units are used or examined...
Fix... Make an entry manually in the “Generic INF”-section, below “Heavy Halberdiers” (by copying that entry) and replace/fill in the relevant data... As in first “NoblesOnFoot” – the internal name-distinguisher, and then “Dismounted Nobles” the in-game-appearing name... Like this...

...
["HeavyHalberdiers_Plural"]				{"Heavy Halberdiers"}
["NoblesOnFoot_Plural"]					{"Dismounted Nobles"}
["Pikemen_Plural"]					{"Pikemen"}
...

***

Ummm, 2 & 3 was first spotted courtesy of Stazi.... Anything else spotted (of such
and similar stuff) in RXB1005/1005c? Or maybe some other news on Redux? ...?...

- A

[Aikanár]

Nice! I haven't played MTW in years, need to get the disc out of the shelf and see if it runs on win7 or vista.

[Axalon]

Hi man, I basically got good and good news for you... ...!...

It totally does run on W7! Especially with Redux installed! On Vista it supposedly
does too! I don't have any Vista, so I can't tell for sure. Feel free to try out some
yummy Redux-action whenever ready and able...

Anything else, fire away folks...

- A

[Aikanár]

^Cheers for that info, Axalon! I will find out in short, I'm actually more concerned that both systems are 64bit, but I'll see how it might turn out.

[Axalon]

Aikanar have probably left the building, but for general reference see post: 208, this thread... There is also a dedicated thread on that specific topic - Redux & W7 - and it can be found it over here...

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showth...38715-Redux-W7


- A

[Leonardo]

Nice! I haven't played MTW in years, need to get the disc out of the shelf and see if it runs on win7 or vista.

I too haven't play it for years when I suddenly started 1-2 years ago and I agree it's an awesome game. It will work in Windows7 64-bit as Axalon said.

However, you must install this MTW-Gold CTD Fix, if you have a Nvidia card otherwise you'll constantly get CTD's once you started a new campaign. Just follow the instructions and I did that which works for me.

[Axalon]

However, you must install this MTW-Gold CTD Fix, if you have a Nvidia card otherwise you'll constantly get CTD's once you started a new campaign. Just follow the instructions and I did that which works for me.

Short version:

Belay that! Redux does not need any button-fix - ever...


Long version:

Hi Leonardo... I totally get that you posted that recommendation with the best of intentions and the goal to help out here is a good one - but - Redux does not need any button-fix at all. ...To prove my point, I double-dare any "doubters" to seek out the RX-counterparts to the button-fix-files - and then put them to the test - as in only apply the RX-files on a new, raw game, and see what happens (if camp-map will crash any time soon or fail to load at all - as is the typical symptoms of the absence of the button-fix on a raw game, on newer hardware). I can guarantee that the result will be the same, every time.

If it had not, we would know all about it, long time ago. The difference in results are the looks - the relevant RX-file-set appear as golden in-game, while the original button-fix-files appear as black (originally taken out of the NTW-mod file-set - without proper permissions actually). At this point, the custom-made files included in Redux have been tried and tested for many years, by thousands of players on a global scale, and have so far successfully fixed the exact same problems. The RXB1005 and the files specifically used there, are dated from Jan2009 for instance, so obviously these files been tried and tested to the extreme in terms of functionality and performance. The first such file-set I ever made was in the summer of 2008 - the 2009-files are based on that stuff. Actually, all standard Redux-releases have such special file-sets included - intentionally making any use of the button-fix utterly pointless by default design.

Most people that play(ed) Redux, never used the button-fix, as they clearly never had too... Due to the RX-default file-set. In reality, there is no special magic attached to the original button-fix and I proved that in 2008 as I released my own custom made file-set (as a part of Redux) for the first time, and there was never any fuss about their performance or functionality. They worked on release... Ergo, Redux does not need any button-fix - at all, ever - to function just fine and that circumstance have been tried, tested and proven over and over again, by thousands of players, for more then 5 years. The reality is that button-fix is only relevant to the crowd that do not play Redux (and/or the NTW-mod, for whatever reason), as Redux always had its own special files by default designs...

- A

[Cuong Vu]

I actually prefer the old map and old portraits, they are the hightlight of this game, but the improvemet of unit skins on the battlefield is my opinion the best of this mod.

[Axalon]

I actually prefer the old map and old portraits, they are the hightlight of this game, ...

Well... Its not entirely unheard of - but usually - it seems to be the other way around, as I understand it (that is, most folks who have seen both alternatives or post as if they have). I always strived for making these things better in general - as I saw it - and I still do. Anyhow, we are all entitled to an opinion/preference - and obviously I disagree with you on this note... I would have never bothered making alternative full sets of portraits for the game or create a completely new map and style to it otherwise. The concept of doing such things are probably still unique for Redux to this day in the world of MTW. I do not recall having ever seen any other (public) work/project for MTW that does this. Some limited and edited versions on 3rd party materials perhaps, but not full sets and original materials as Redux have. In that light it should be quite obvious that I really wanted to change and get rid of the things you seem to like the most. As none of that will ever be achieved on a whim since it does take tons of work and determination to get there. That has been my experience so far with that stuff. That said, I don't know if there is much else I can or should supposedly say about your preference? ...?...

Anything else fire away folks...

- A

[Narn]

hi trying this mod for the first time and wondering if something went wrong. playing as poland i noticed on 2 separate occasions i offered an alliance to someone and it says they politely decline but when i look at the alliance screen it says they are my allies.