Some ideas to help performance in EB

[Hound of Ulster]

hi,

after playing EB pretty extensively the two weeks or so in several differant campaigns, and also reading over the bug reports threads, here are some ideas I've come up with to help performance and avoid nasty CTD issues...

turning your comp's internet connection off when playing EB...as EB takes up quite a bit of processing power, i've found that loading especially is lot less time consuming with internet turned off

NOT using the 'fog of War' cheat...almost every issue seems to crop up when players have the 'fog of war' cheated off

sacking/enslaving settlements after capture, then moving your capitol closer, espescially if the settlement has caused trouble in the past...the best way to avoid revolts is to kill everybody

not activating the script after running into CTD-causing bugs...this is a no -brainer, but most people don't think of it.

playing shorter sessions...RTW can be very finicky, especially on computers not optimized for gaming, and this double true for EB because of its complexity. Instead of going for four or five hours at a time, limit you campaign play to about 2 to 3 hours at a time.

save frequently, but not just with auto save...every four to five turns, save your main campaign save and then delete the auto-save file. The auto-save in RTW, while very useful, can be very dicey at times, so use it wisely when running EB.

delete and re-save your main campaign save from time to time...for the same reasons as the auto-save. Simply open the campaign save (I usually name my campaign saves after the faction I'm running in them i.e 'Saka') delete it, then create a new one.

let me know if any of these tricks work

[sinner]

great idea and very usefull, but I would add a couple of tips....

-wait 30 seconds after the battle ends, and then always exit from the battle results screen.

-always wait a few minutes between battles, especially on the AI turn when he is attacking you, thus giving it time to process the changes.

-Don't save directly before a battle.

-the game can a be a bit of a strain on some computers, especially when playing for long hours; so when faced with consecutive CTD's, rest your computer a while, the 10 minute shutdown will aid performance, as well as decrease your frustration.

[Hound of Ulster]

A rest is also good for the player's health as well Take a break, have some food, read a book etc. You'll come back to the campaign trenches ready for anything, including those treacherous [insert your least favorite faction here].

[serve11]

A rest is also good for the player's health as well Take a break, have some food, read a book etc. You'll come back to the campaign trenches ready for anything, including those treacherous [insert your least favorite faction here].

lol, I think if people wanted to pace themselves with Rome: Total War, they wouldn't have downloaded EB, or even registered for a twcenter account for that matter...

[Hound of Ulster]

very true

[CelticPagan]

hi,

after playing EB pretty extensively the two weeks or so in several differant campaigns, and also reading over the bug reports threads, here are some ideas I've come up with to help performance and avoid nasty CTD issues...

turning your comp's internet connection off when playing EB...as EB takes up quite a bit of processing power, i've found that loading especially is lot less time consuming with internet turned off

NOT using the 'fog of War' cheat...almost every issue seems to crop up when players have the 'fog of war' cheated off

sacking/enslaving settlements after capture, then moving your capitol closer, espescially if the settlement has caused trouble in the past...the best way to avoid revolts is to kill everybody

not activating the script after running into CTD-causing bugs...this is a no -brainer, but most people don't think of it.

playing shorter sessions...RTW can be very finicky, especially on computers not optimized for gaming, and this double true for EB because of its complexity. Instead of going for four or five hours at a time, limit you campaign play to about 2 to 3 hours at a time.

save frequently, but not just with auto save...every four to five turns, save your main campaign save and then delete the auto-save file. The auto-save in RTW, while very useful, can be very dicey at times, so use it wisely when running EB.

delete and re-save your main campaign save from time to time...for the same reasons as the auto-save. Simply open the campaign save (I usually name my campaign saves after the faction I'm running in them i.e 'Saka') delete it, then create a new one.

let me know if any of these tricks work

Interestingly, I have also found that using a high-end PC with graphics set to highest seems to screw with the RTW graphics engine. You may need to turn down the settings. I don't think CA envisioned 8800 GT (or better) cards running in SLI mode giving you 1GB of VRAM, or running on 32bit or 64bit OS (Vista) at the time RTW was created. Their engine doesn't seem to be able to handle so much power.