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Thread: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

  1. #1
    Nebuchadnezzar's Avatar Centenarius
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    Default Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    Vanilla Essentials V1.02 by Nebuchadnezzar

    For vetenary Rome Total War players who prefer a Vanilla style empire building pace.

    Download: Vanilla Essentials

    Vanilla Essentials is an add-on for the vanilla (unmodded) version of the Rome Total War game. It combines several important mini-mods that eliminate serious bugs and balance issues in the original game as well as significantly improve campaign battles and gameplay. The result is a game that RTW should have been providing a richer, deeper and slower paced campaign that Empire builders will find most rewarding. Play on Hard or Very Hard for best challenge.

    WHAT IT DOES

    COMBINES 3 VANILLA MODS
    • Bug-fixer: (Player 1) Corrects many problems that existed in the original game and is regarded by many veteran players as "The Essential Patch".

    • Sinuhets formations: (Sinuhet) Greatly improves battles and in my opinion the best formation mod for vanilla RTW.

    • Mercenary XPak: (Nebuchadnezzar) A feature packed mercenary add-on that greatly improves on gameplay.

    CORRECTS BALANCING ISSUES
    • Britons will no longer conquer all of Europe so easily. Britons loose Eburacum to Rebels but this is easily taken by human player on the first move. Attack has been slightly lowered for British Heavy chariots.

    • Macedonia looses Corinth but gains Athens. Greek Cities loose Thermon but gain Corinth. This gives a much better survivability to the Greek Cities. A moderate Thermon garrison (Rebels) provide a temporary buffer from the Brutii juggernaut.

    • Egypt loose Salamis & Sidon to Rebels. This gives a temporary buffer to the Seleucids while they build up. Unfortunately this does not guarantee their survivability due to their vulnerable position.

    • A lowered growth rate (-45%) for all cities. You will no longer be able to blitz + exterminate across the map. Enslavement will become king and farming upgrades essential.

    IMPROVEMENTS IN GAMEPLAY
    • Fewer Rebels popping up.

    • Corruption triggers raised from 50k, 100k & 150k to 100k, 200k & 300k respectively.

    • Reduced chances of gaining gambling trait from taverns (Barbarians).

    • Lower chance of gaining Embezzler trait from Mercury temple (Brutii).

    • Screeching women available at 2nd & 3rd level Freyja temple (Germania) to avoid AI spamming.


    Get on with the task of building your Empire not popping endless Rebel peasants or dealing with absurd levels of squalor and corruption.

    REQUIREMENTS

    • Rome Total War V1.5 or V1.6 Barbarian Invasion. This mod will not work with any major mods.

    • This mod is not save game compatable with any previous saves of any version. You must start a new campaign.

    • Play on hard or very hard for best challenge.


    No special installation instructions are required as it is self installing.

    SUPPORT
    • This mod has been fully tested over several extended campaigns and to my knowledge is bug free, however it may still be possible for something to show up.
      NOTE: The first requirement is a clean install of RTW patched to V1.5. If you don't have this or you tend to hand modify files on the fly then please re-install RTW, the required patches and then the mod and try again.

    • No uninstall is provided however original files are provided with this package should you wish to revert at any time.


    FEEDBACK & SUPPORT
    Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

    CONDITIONS OF USE
    This is a compilation of several mods. You will need to contact the makers of the specific mods if you wish to include these changes (whether in part or in whole) in other public modifications.

    No other restrictions apply. Vanilla players are free to edit files to suit their style of play.

    Special thanks to Player 1 & Sinuhet for permission to incorporate their great work.

    Nebuchadnezzar
    Last edited by Nebuchadnezzar; November 12, 2006 at 10:34 PM.
    -------------------------
    Enough is enough.

  2. #2
    Nebuchadnezzar's Avatar Centenarius
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    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    Updated to version 1.01

    Updated Sinuhet Formations to version 7
    Fixed alpha channel for Woad Warriors image when veiwing detailed description.
    -------------------------
    Enough is enough.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    I love this mod! Great Job to you and your Mod Team!

  4. #4
    Nebuchadnezzar's Avatar Centenarius
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    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    I'm glad you enjoy it.
    -------------------------
    Enough is enough.

  5. #5
    Nebuchadnezzar's Avatar Centenarius
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    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    Minor Update

    NEW IN VERSION 1.02

    Removed law & happiness bonuses for large and epic stone walls as civilized factions were sluggish to construct pantheon level temples.
    -------------------------
    Enough is enough.

  6. #6
    Libertus
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    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    Hi All,

    Has there been any revision since? I just downloaded and played two campaigns 1) Armenia and 2) Germania.

    I noticed a couple of things.

    The mercenary xpak is SUPER AWESOME! Perhaps the best thing about this bundle. I can recruit Cataphracts and Berserkers!

    The things I noticed is that ...
    1) Every settlement now has lower growth rate, so it's good strategy to take settlement with higher growth so I can tech faster
    2) Due to issue #1, the AI will constantly build stacks with low level units. I would see stacks with Town Watch.
    3) Med/Hard is the best difficulty for me so far because the two factions that I'm playing suffer from weak economy and slow growth.
    4) During battle w/ the Romans so far, I noticed that the Hastati doesn't throw their pila. Is that done purposely?

    Thanks

  7. #7
    Queen Annes Revenge's Avatar Ordinarius
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    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    I agree with sentinel37.

    A lowered growth rate (-45%) for all cities.
    How do you undo this?

  8. #8
    Nebuchadnezzar's Avatar Centenarius
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    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    To restore normal growth just replace /data/world/maps/base/desc_regions with the one in the Original Data folder which should be with with the download.

    The purpose for this is to turtle the game. Some towns are just to small and have a too low growth rate so you must choose carefully which to capture and use for recruitment. I think it makes for a harder game overall. At the start of the game I usually take only rebel areas and give the AI 20 or so turns before attacking even if they have already attacked me. I see good armies and in my recent game as Dacia they send wave after wave of principe. If on the other hand you have taken all their settlements and they are left with a couple of small ones then town watch is probably all they can recruit.

    As for hastati not using pila, never seen this although one of the official patches did change it. They need to be at precise distance.

    The vanilla essentials balances a few units, nerfs egypt a bit at the start and gets Macedon & Greek cities allied at the start. It also changes the growth rate
    If you don't like the growth decrease you can use only the merc pack in my signature but I also strongly recommend the bugfixer 3.36 and Sinuhet's AI Battle Formations Mod.

    http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=60105
    -------------------------
    Enough is enough.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    very good job you have done for this! +rep

    Macedonia was,is and will always be Hellenic.
    it is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice.

  10. #10
    Legio's Avatar EMPRESS OF ALL THINGS
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    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    Absolutely I was in the mood for an enhanced simple vanilla mod.

  11. #11
    Indefinitely Banned
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    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    wow this is great i recommend this to every vanilla player like me

  12. #12

    Default Re: Vanilla Essentials for Vanilla Players!

    Hi, there were no extra original files provided with the download. I only got the VE.exe and the 4 readmes. Should I instead make a backup of my data folder, before installing, and then, if I want to uninstall, replace the new data folder with the backup?

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