RTR VII: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Frequently Asked Questions
1) Does RTR:XX have a new map/units/factions etc
RTR offers total conversions; so yes, all maps/factions/units have been changed.
2) "What happened to the Senate, Brutti, Scipii, and Julii?"
If you even casually read a non-fiction (re: history) book on the Roman Republic, you'll recognize that the "three family system" and Senate faction as modeled in vanilla RTW is not even remotely historically accurate. The civil wars were between individual generals and their individual legions. The Roman Republic was never divided into individual familiar or factional sub-political-entities. The only time the Roman Empire was ever divided in the way RTW depicts was during the time the Empire was split between East and West. And that is way beyond the timeframe of the original vanilla RTW game and RTR modifications. When you play as "SPQR", you are playing as the Roman Republic historically existed: As one unified political, social, and military entity.
3) "What Happened to the cool Druids, Onagers, Screeching Women, War dogs, etc, etc?"
Creative Assembly did a great job appealing to the masses by introducing many "elite", "über", and "hero" units with "special abilities". This is common for most RTS games. However, historically, armies were not composed of units of armed, chanting druids, "screeching women" were not recruited as an army unit, ‘war dogs’ were not used en masse, and ‘onagers’ did not tower two hundred feet in the air. RTR is a comprehensive mod that replaces every original RTW unit with thoroughly researched, historically accurate military units for each faction.
4) "How Do I Install Rome Total Realism and Rome Total War at the same time?"
All modern RTR modifications (that is: Platinum 1.9, TIC & FOE) are using the mod-switch system, which allows you to install several mod-switch modifications in one game-folder. Therefore, you will be able to play vanilla RTW and RTR modifications with the same install.
5) "What is the AoR thing?"
The AoR/ZoR (Area/Zone of Recruitment) system gives factions the ability to recruit unique units from lands they conquer and also accurately represents the fact that conquering armies could not immediately replenish their ranks from the local population. For example, a Roman consul could not invade Gaul and immediately recruit Principes and Triarii from the local villages. A period of assimilation would need to take place before the Romans could begin training their own Roman-style armies. The Roman player can, for instance, recruit Gallic warbands to add to his armies, or recruit local mercenaries. This adds historical flavor to the game recruitment mechanic and also lends greater versatility to your army composition. Any faction can recruit nearly any unit in the game now, but faction specific units (i.e., Triarii) remain only faction specific.
6) "How do I play multiplayer with RTR?"
To play RTR on multiplayer, you simply need to do is find another person that plays the exact same version of RTR as you do. The best way to arrange a multiplayer game would be to visit the forum and add a new post in which you ask people to set up a multiplayer competition with you. Both players need a program such as Hamachi. If you use Hamachi, you need to log in and join the same network as another player (try one of these: CC Multiplayer Competition - password Caligula, or RTRFOE - password RTRFOEP) and then run up FOE and select Multiplayer/LAN Battles. If all goes well, you'll see your opponent in the Lobby there and be able to set up a battle. In the case of incompatible game versions (this is normal for some reason), both players should find the map_copy.rwm file in FOE/extras and place it in FOE/Data/world/maps/base.
7) "What are land bridges?"
Land Bridges allows you to move from one coast to another without using a fleet. The Land Bridges were created to both aid the AI in expanding over sea (which in many cases it is reluctant to do so) and to create an abstraction for how an army could move over a narrow channel of water with rafts, barges, and small craft, without the need for a fleet of transports.
8) "Which difficulty setting is best?" or "What difficulty setting is RTR made for?" or "What do the difficulty levels mean?" etc.
Many prefer Hard/Hard, others prefer VH/VH, though very few play on Easy or Medium. Some have suggested that a "difficulty bug" exists, which causes Med to be harder than Hard and Very Hard to be the easiest of all. However, this 'difficulty bug' seems to be a rumor, and nothing more. The RTR Team suggests you play on whichever difficulty setting works best for you. Below are the known effects of the difficulty levels:
Battle difficulty:
Easy: +4 morale and +4 attacks to your troops.
Medium: No bonuses.
Hard: +4 morale and +4 attack to the ai troops.
Very hard: +7 morale and +7 attack to the ai troops.
Campaign difficulty: Exact effects are not known but the AI cheats on VH by getting an extra $10,000 a turn.
Note that the VII campaigns are balanced at M/M difficulty level, and are a challenge then already!
9) "How do I take a screenshot and post it on the forum?"
To take a screenshot follow this simple guide;
1. Hit Print Screen key on your keyboard to capture the image into memory.
2. Open any graphics program such as MSPaint, Infranview, ACDSEE, or Photoshop, etc.
3. Hit Ctrl-V
4. Save the image as .jpg
5. While making a new post
6. Hit "Browse" button next to "File Attachments"
7. Select the .jpg file you just saved, hit OK, and then hit "Add This Attachment"
8. Complete the post by hitting "Add Reply"
10) How can I play RTR with Steam?
- Run the FoE installer like normal, changing the install path to xxxx/steam/steamapps/common/rome total war gold
- Ignore the launcher and short-cut prompts, they won't work
- Open Steam, right-click on Rome: Total War Gold in the My Games menu
- Select Properties
- Under the General tab select Set launch options ...
- Type in -mod:FOE -show_err -nm without quotations and click OK
- Launch Rome: Total War Gold by double-clicking it in the My Games menu
- Select Barbarian Invasion from the two-choice list and Launch.
11) "What is the current version of RTR?
The latest release is FOE 1.4 (Fate of Empires). FOE is a mod centred in the western Mediterranean and the struggle between Rome, Carthage, Epirus and other local powers. The starting date is 280 BC, when Pyrrhus of Epirus invaded Italy. TIC, the previous release, is a mini-campaign which reproduces Hamilcar Barca's struggle to conquer the Iberian Peninsula.
Gold is an old release of the RTR Team, and is a Grand Campaign which stretches from Iberia to India, from Scotland to Egypt. Platinum is a fan-made expansion of it bringing it up to date with the latest patch. There are several submods of this. Find the download links for all of them here.
12) I'm getting the "Select item from the list" error
You probably are using the wrong BI patch. Note that RTR VII requires BI 1.6 to be installed.
13) What do PE, FOE, TIC and ExRM stand for?
At present there are many popular spin offs and sub-mods of RTR. The main ones are:
- RTR PE: this is RTR 6, ported to be used with BI. PE stands for 'Platinum Edition', and includes a so called Grand Campaign, bringing realism from the UK to India.
- ExRm: Extended Realism is a sub-mod for RTR PE and adds a few factions and many game-play enhancements. This is the mod for the most difficult Platinum experience.
- TIC: The Iberian Conflict is the first of the VII releases. When playing as Carthage or the Celtiberians you'll have to struggle for the rule of the Iberian Peninsula in just 80 turns! The Carthagian campaign is heavily scripted, with set missions.
- FOE: Fate of Empires is the latest VII release. Covering the western Mediterranean, you'll find yourself in one of the most epic RTW experiences ever, with a difficult AI and new concepts like mini-regions.
14) Where can I find out more about RTR VII: FOE?
There are several threads about FOE. Here is the FOE manual, which gives you a good introduction into the new economic system, among other things, and here are the preview threads.
15) When I try to load FOE, it tells me to insert the correct CD. I have the RTW CD in my driver!
FOE is made for the Barbarian Invasion (BI) expansion.
16) FOE LOOKS great, but when I try hit "build a new empire" it tells me "select an item from the list", so I can't load it. What am I doing wrong?
Your BI isn't patched to version 1.6. Here is a download link for that.
17) "I'm in year X BC and still have not had the Marian Reforms!"
In RTR VII there is no Marian reform, so you can play on until 2010 and still don't see itHowever, a scripted reform is planned for the next version, if possible.
18) Why aren't there more factions in FOE? Surely the Barbaroi, Autonomoi Poleis and Autonomoi Dynastai could have been split up...
FOE (and TIC) were originally made as stepping-stones towards the Grand Campaign (GC) which would have a map stretching to India. To speed things up, the Team decided to make as much as possible as it would be in the GC - and after all, FOE isn't GC
However, this will be amended in FOE2, which uses all the 20 faction slots.
19) Why are some building cards in greyscale? What does "economic and social development" do? I don't understand the economy.
The buildings in grayscale represent the fact that these are buildings which provide represent an industry on a scale that has little impact on a settlement. To upgrade them, you must construct "economic and social development" and have the required resource present or as an import. However, only three industries can be upgraded per settlement, and one per settlement level, so choose wisely
To import a resource, build the "trade route" building and then choose an import. You can only import two goods to a region.
Incidentally, the economy has been coded so that the game will remain a challenge, even in the late game (in other words, so you don't have too much money). Here you'll find the FOE manual with further instructions.
20) Has anyone ever won the first battle as Rome?
Yes, some people have by placing their units on the higher ground. Read more here.
21) Where can I download FOE?
Here.
22) How can I join the RTR Team?
To join, you have to have made at least 50 posts to show you are going to stay, and more importantly, you have to have made good posts. Then you have to contact an RTR Team Member to apply. The final decision belongs to the team, of course.
23) Future releases?
The RTR Team is currently working on an expansion (FOE2) which will include a bigger map (to the east and north), and has been confirmed to feature Macedon, the Achaean League (Greeks) and several other unconfirmed factions. It is planned for it to be released sometime in the spring or summer this year, and will most likely be the last release of the RTR Team before they migrate to the Medieval Total War: Kingdoms engine.
24) "Why don't I have a new intro-movie for TIC/FOE?"
The FoE/TIC intro movie is stored in RTW/FOE(or TIC)/Data/fmv/ so all you need to do to use it is moving it to RTW/BI/Data/fmv and overwrite the intro movie there after making a backup of it in case you want to use it again
25) "Why doesn't the cheat window open when I press ` or ~ ?"
Originally Posted by Sneaking Viper
26) I don't have music after installing RTR Platinum mod switch
To fix this issue you can either copy your sound folder from your original RTW install and paste it in the RTRPE sound folder, or you can install the RTR music addon which can be found here (scroll to the bottom of the page). Additionally there is Marcus Camillus' RTR Music ReMix Mod v1.1 which has a few additional music tracks but is similar to the RTR music addon. Install the addons into your main RTRPE folder.
27) Does RTR work with a Mac?
The RTR-team has no experience with Mac and can not provide any kind of support. For further information on Mac and Mods, please refer to this Thread
