The best engine and swapping...

**♔DARTH LEGO♔** · January 03, 2011, 02:21 AM

As the title suggests (and without starting a flame war

), what is the best engine to use??? not in the RTW sense but what works best for RS??

Further to this is it possible or probable for the engine to be switched mid game??

All opinions would be welcomed on this one.

**Dramatic Cat** · January 03, 2011, 02:43 AM

Personally I like BI rather than RTW or ALEX

Why?

Cus in BI theres naval invasions and I feels that the AI is way moar active and agressive.

In ALEX I never, and i meen, NEVER had a naval invasion in any of the three campaigns I played with it, tho they say somethin about the AI retraining stacks and stuff.

O and in BI theres SHIELDWALL, wich is relly useful.

Edit, I dont kno about switching engines mid-game, but i highly doubt its possible.

**drecie14** · January 03, 2011, 04:40 AM

I use BI...
AI aggression = Hell in your PC

I never tried ALEX though...

It's not possible to switch engines mid-game

**tone** · January 03, 2011, 04:54 AM

There was a little application that someone created a long time ago that allowed some aspects of campaigns to be changed mid way through...can't remember its name though and not sure whether it allowed changing of the engine.

**drecie14** · January 03, 2011, 05:22 AM

Originally Posted by tone

There was a little application that someone created a long time ago that allowed some aspects of campaigns to be changed mid way through...can't remember its name though and not sure whether it allowed changing of the engine.

I heard something about that...

You could change factions mid-game
It didn't mention anything about the engine though

**General Brittanicus** · January 03, 2011, 05:30 AM

Well most people would suggest Alex i think, but i prefer BI, as i dont think ambushes work properly on Alex.

**NightEye** · January 03, 2011, 10:41 AM

I use BI because of shieldwall, though the naval invasions are also nice, keeps playing the Ptolemies from getting to boring.

**The Doubtful Guest** · January 03, 2011, 01:00 PM

BI is cool because you get the rather useful shieldwall formation, swimming is possible, AI tad more aggressive, naval invasions more likely .
But in all honesty the plain old RTW engine seems perfectly sufficient to me. I found it a little more stable too, maybe it was just a coincidence but I had several CTD's during siege battles while using the BI engine. Compared to only one CTD ever during my 1st Roman campaign using Rome.exe

As for Alex I've never used it but it seems a lot of players see it as the "hard-core" engine to use. The AI is a little craftier, I believe they can retrain units as well and I'm not sure about naval invasions.

**Drtad** · January 03, 2011, 01:55 PM

I say Alex, if only because one battle I actually had an army that was about even with the AI and it seemed like I'd win for sure but the AI actually outmaneuvered and flanked me... and I lost pretty bad. Probably could've prevented that if I realized the AI could do that...

That's the only time I've lost a battle like that. It's still scarring. >.<

**Blatta Optima Maxima** · January 03, 2011, 02:02 PM

I use BI. I mostly play BI mods, so am used to it.

**Brusilov** · January 03, 2011, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by tone

There was a little application that someone created a long time ago that allowed some aspects of campaigns to be changed mid way through...can't remember its name though and not sure whether it allowed changing of the engine.

I think the routine was called 'RomeSage'.

I used it for RTW 1.2. I believe there is a version that can be used with RTW 1.5. However, I was told a long timne ago that it messed up game - that may have been the version that worked with RTW 1.2 being used on RTW 1.5 but I'm not sure.

The only reason I used RomeSage was to get around the regulkar CTDs that happened after the 'civil war' should have been triggered in RTW - which has been avoided by the UAC dates.

I think I saw a version of this Utility in the TWC downloads.

Check this out: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...light=Romesage

**military tribune** · January 04, 2011, 04:51 AM

I am playing with Alex. Although I haven't seen naval invasion yet, but I saw naval reinforcements by greek_cities from Nicomedia to Athenai.

I think AI in alex is as aggressive as in BI coz factions sharing border with me always attacks when they run out of border with rebel provinces.

**Jaujon** · January 04, 2011, 06:35 AM

To me BI is the best. I've started a campaign with another mod (RTRPE), and I've been invaded from sea with full stacks by Carthage and Greek cities. So many times, that I had to settle coastal patrols in order to sink ships carrying stacks of ennemies (which is pretty enjoyable).

**Brusilov** · January 05, 2011, 12:39 PM

I think you will find that in one of the files is an attribute 'prefers_naval_invasions' and this is set for some factions but not others. I presume that does have an impact on the behaviour of the faction.

**Imperator_OfRome** · January 05, 2011, 03:17 PM

I use BI Because i always get many more naval invasions, the ai seems to be smarter and its more stable all round.

I heard something about that...

You could change factions mid-game
It didn't mention anything about the engine though

I believe this is called a Hotseat (or something like that) and can be implemented into the M2TW game engine. Not sure if its possible with the RTW engine though.

**♔DARTH LEGO♔** · January 06, 2011, 12:12 AM

sweet for all the replies gents...very helpful thank you.
after loads of hours playing i have to say that i am finding the RTW with alot of the awesome submods available is so far working sweet.

Roman Events and Pics
Map change mod(really helps with the lack of naval invasions from some factions)
Shiledwall mod
and a few tweaks here and there.

Im having far less crashes and the Ai seems to be very balanced on diffuclty H/M and 0-turn, the battles are nicely balanced with alot fo stacks admittedly but at least the AI has balanced the forces and not spamming single units so conflict is large; epic and an insane eye candy fest.
I have only just started churning out professional Legionaires and the time is 684 AUC with only the Dacian empire being irradicated, so far the rest have held up their own so its still a free for all.

I seemed to have disabled my picture taking abilities though

the launcher.
so quick question if i re-add -Movie on the end of the command string will that sort it...?

Again cheers for all the responses and after this epic campaign i am going to give some of those suggestions a go......

Well back to bringing light to the world.....

**Brusilov** · January 06, 2011, 05:30 AM

How do you usually take screen shots?

The -movie_cam switch only affects the game when you reeplay a custom battle. You get more control over the camera movement than the standard one. There are some useful guides elsewhere in the forum to explain it's use.

**Ballacraine** · January 06, 2011, 05:49 PM

Well, I have played with all three & find Alex the toughest by some margin.

BI has some nice touches though, that are not supported by Alex.
It has swimming, shieldwall & horde, which Alex does not.

On balance I stick with Alex for the stiffest challenge.

Balla.