Weird texture/model flickering with certain units

[Vercingetorix_Defeated]

In the latest release of XGM, I've noticed that the models and textures of certain units flicker and disappear crazily. The Spartan Royal Guard and other Spartan Periokoi units all do this, as well as Levy Pikemen. (their torso, knees, and other parts of the model disappear when the camera is zoomed in, as well as flickering back and forth).

It's never done this before with any unit, and it has never happened once with a unit other than these Spartan ones, but it ALWAYS happens with the Spartan models. Leads me to believe it's some kind of bug related to those models, given that it never has happened to another unit.

[Vercingetorix_Defeated]

Rather than start a new thread about another question, I thought I'd just ask it here:

How do I disable the wall towers from firing entirely? I increased the reload tick times of all of the towers to 500 for archer and ballista, but they still fire several times a second and chip away at opposing troops.

It just means that defending in sieges is never fun, because the boiling oil and arrows from the empty towers devastate the enemy army before I can fight them.

If anyone knows how to deactivate the tower defenses, I'd really appreciate it.

[Roman Warlord]

Im not sure how to remove towers fire but would definetly like to.

I know its possible as other mods have done so.

[RedFox]

xgm\data\descr_walls.txt

    tower_internal_corner_link
    {
        roman_town_internal_corner_watchtower
        reload_ticks_arrow 5
        reload_ticks_ballista 10
    }

Increasing reload ticks can help balance the towers. This is the only way to make them obsolete in custom battles also, because the arrow markers are in the BPI INFO files. Campaign arrow towers can be removed in export_descr_buildings.txt by setting tower_level 0 or just removing the line. By setting gate_defences 0, or again, removing the line, you can remove boiling oil.
Just set reload ticks to ridiculously high amounts (99999999), AFAIK in most files 30 ticks = 1 second, not sure if it applies to this file. But in your case, to remove them entirely, you have to mod export_descr_buildings.txt. The final option of course is to replace the tower BPI files but that's a bit over your league.

[Sabazios]

In the latest release of XGM, I've noticed that the models and textures of certain units flicker and disappear crazily. The Spartan Royal Guard and other Spartan Periokoi units all do this, as well as Levy Pikemen. (their torso, knees, and other parts of the model disappear when the camera is zoomed in, as well as flickering back and forth).

It's never done this before with any unit, and it has never happened once with a unit other than these Spartan ones, but it ALWAYS happens with the Spartan models. Leads me to believe it's some kind of bug related to those models, given that it never has happened to another unit.

I have the same modelproblem with some units when totally zoomed in. I dont think its a XGM problem though, because in the vanilla RTW i also had this problem with some units (hestati/principes etc just showing their head, shield and sword). I never found a solution for this. But now in XGM its the first time i have the flickering models (just nubian archers, but only when zoomed out).

I'm playing on a Vista system with an integrated ATI videocard.

[Vercingetorix_Defeated]

Thanks for the help everyone, RedFox, I will try those modifications in the export_descr_building.txt file.

Sabazios, I am also playing on Vista with an ATI 3470 card (which is not usually integrated, but probably integrated because this is a laptop).

As with your case, it's only when completely zoomed in, and only with certain units, it never happens with other units.

[Vercingetorix_Defeated]

I tried both of the things you recommended RedFox, unfortunately they don't make a difference in either the campaign or custom battle sieges, the towers still have their laughably overpowered sniper rifle ballistas and arrows going twice a second. (changing reload times to 99999999 and tower level to 0 on everything apparently didnt do it)

I hate to badger you guys with these questions, but does anybody know where I can modify the offensive and defensive traits of siege towers? I want to remove their offensive abilities entirely and also make them susceptible to flame arrows (since my campaign cities will no longer have sniper rifle super ballistas protecting them )

Basically I want siege towers and city towers to no longer be these uber powered ultra kill units of death. Unfortunately it seems quite difficult to do this for either of them.

[Roman Warlord]

I'm reporting the same, your changes did nothing Redfox.

Its unplayable at the moment, synthia lost 1000 horses (58%) to the boiling oil from one gate after it had been rammed down (no opposition all my forces were in the town center) this was with a basic stone wall.

How anyone can see this to be balanced is beyond me.

[Vercingetorix_Defeated]

I'm reporting the same, your changes did nothing Redfox.

Its unplayable at the moment, synthia lost 1000 horses (58%) to the boiling oil from one gate after it had been rammed down (no opposition all my forces were in the town center) this was with a basic stone wall.

How anyone can see this to be balanced is beyond me.

I found a fix for wall tower defenses: it was discovered by Wlesmana, who made LOTR TW.

Gatehouse/Tower Defences Modding/Negation - by Wlesmana, lotr:tw

- Go to desc_projectile_new.txt (or whatever file is controlling projectiles since BI has a different one)
- Make a copy of the entry "arrow", call it something else like "arrow2"
- Change arrow_fiery entry's flaming with "arrow2" instead of "arrow". This makes flaming arrows secondary to units with arrow2.
- Back in "arrow", change the min_angle and max_angle both with a value of 100. This will prevent arrows being shot at all because the angle is impossible
- Do the same to the entry tower_ballista and tower_flaming_ballista
- Do the same to scorpion entry to remove missiles from siege towers. Copy the entry first if you have scorpions in your game and rename to scorpion2
- Go to EDU.txt and change all "arrow" entry in missile type into "arrow2"
- Do the same to scorpion if you have it

That gets rid of all projectiles that walls fire, I've tested it myself and the walls just sit there, the magical sniper rifles are gone.

For siege towers, just go into descr_engines.txt and remove all of the "arrow generator" lines. That stops them from firing their overpowered ammunition as well.

As for boiling oil.. not sure what might fix that.

Perhaps reducing gate strength to 1 rather than 2 or 3 or whatever it is for higher numbers might get rid of it. I haven't tested that though.

[RedFox]

I'm pretty sure that gatehouses in DTW don't have any boiling oil. I removed the 'gate_defences' line long ago. Note that this only applies to walls in campaign. The walls in custom battles have default hard-coded values.

        stone_wall 
        {
            capability
            {
                wall_level 2
                tower_level 1
                gate_strength 2
                happiness_bonus bonus 1
                law_bonus bonus 1
                }

[Roman Warlord]

Thanks for the find Vercingetorix, disabled the boiling oil and i think ive got the arrow towers.

Note the boiling oil file was in the main RTW file not the xgm mod.

[Vercingetorix_Defeated]

I'm pretty sure that gatehouses in DTW don't have any boiling oil. I removed the 'gate_defences' line long ago. Note that this only applies to walls in campaign. The walls in custom battles have default hard-coded values.

I tested Wlesmana's method in both custom and campaign sieges and ALL wall defenses, including boiling oil, are gone from both.

Unfortunately I had tried removing the gate and wall defenses in those other files, but it didn't do anything. Wlesmana's method is the only one that works.