Back to the basics

**RolledTight** · September 18, 2006, 04:53 AM

Hello fellow R:TW players.

I was an avid R:TW fan upon the games release and played for some time. Although the game was overall one of my all-time favorites, the lack of AI diversity eventually made the game become somewhat boring. I also eventually had an issue with my game saves becoming corrupted at some specific year that I remember others having the same problem. Sorry I do not remember the specific year at the moment.

Anyways, I would really like to start enjoying this game again and was looking for any information on a good modification that could maybe add a little something extra to the game. I am more interested in a change to the AI or game play of the original game rather than a lot of unit changes or anything that moves too far away from the original timeframe that the game was supposed to take place in. I do not own the barbarian invasion expansion pack. The newest readme I can find is patch 1.3 ... is there an easier way to see what version I have installed?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Edit. I apoplogize if this is in the wrong forum.

**rawghi** · September 18, 2006, 05:09 AM

Personally I like Terrae Expungnandae by Lusted, but if you want improvement mainly in AI look for Darth Mod by Dath Vader:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=71

**boofhead** · September 18, 2006, 05:13 AM

For campaign map AI improvements you really need BI.exe. Other than that you can do very little.

**rawghi** · September 18, 2006, 05:27 AM

Apart from "horde" features, all the others (recruitable generals, named legions, renaming settlements) can be added via mods

**RolledTight** · September 18, 2006, 05:55 AM

Thank you very much for the info. I have been reading up on both of these mods and both sound very interesting. However, I really am a fan of the original game and would like to change only the basics namely better AI, and possibly other playable factions. These mods sound great, but seem to offer even more change than I was really looking for. Would there be perhaps a mini mod that you know of to better the AI without changing the original game?

And if not…..

Will either of these mods you mentioned be compatible with my current installation? (I believe its 1.3 original R:TW, with no BI expansion ATM)

Edit: On second thought I’ve decided to DL the Terrae mod. Sounds very interesting and much more in-depth than the vanilla version I’m used to (providing I can run it smoothly with my current setup).

**Trajan** · September 18, 2006, 07:42 AM

Moved to the Mod Threads.

**Zarax** · September 18, 2006, 12:16 PM

XGM (Extended Greek Mod) can be a good choice if you want some challenge without changing too much into the game, we have a few nice tricks to improve campaign AI and we use a slightly modified version of Darth formations for the battlefield, resulting in something different than the usual front clash... Look for it in rome modifications, it also uses the mod system so it won't touch your vanilla RTW in case you want to go back...

**RolledTight** · September 18, 2006, 04:31 PM

Excellent. Thank you very much for the advice. I am looking forward to getting back into this game. Sorry for originally posting this in the wrong thread

**dvk901** · September 18, 2006, 09:30 PM

If your really just looking for better game-play, and some better graphics, Darths' formations pack 16 for vanilla, or Sinuhet's 6.5 formations will greatly enhance the AI, and make it a lot smarter. However, you should get Patch 1.5. Install 1.3 first, then 1.5..it makes the game a lot better, and corrects some issues it had 'out-of-box'. Also, Archer's 'skymod', makes the battles look a lot nicer. There are a number of these 'just copy the files into the data folder' type mods that will improve the game and leave the rest alone. Just be sure to always backup first....good policy in case you don't like what happened!

**RolledTight** · September 18, 2006, 11:55 PM

Good advice indeed. I knew I should not have changed too much. I always seem to have CTD problems with mods. So I DL’ed the Terrae mod got to my third battle and CTD’ed while loading. I will instead try the AI mods you mentioned. I also like the skymod, I may be wrong but I believe I read that the Terrae included the skymod and I thought the sky’s looked great.

Are there any known CTD issues with the mods metioned above? I'm re-installing and would rather play R:TW out-of-the-box than deal with even one crash.

**rawghi** · September 19, 2006, 03:18 AM

Very strange, with TE I noticed very few CTD's, and they are only random, try to add " -show_err " in the target field of the RTW shortcut on you desktop, in this way we can see if it is only a random bug or it is caused by something. I quicksave everytime I have to face a battle anyway.