Possible to tweak game files to make WRE harder/ houserules for them?

**Aenima** · May 03, 2010, 06:27 AM

I love this mod. I'm not sure what it is about 7.3 but I bloody love it. Maybe it's something to do with the feeling of impending doom and the desperation that I feel playing as the WRE...yeah, I'd say that's definitely it.

But the only problem is that that same feeling of desperation ebbs away after the first few turns; the Goths are easy to drive out of Italy, Spain is easy to hold onto and the economy eventually turns the WRE into a supreme powerhouse. In all of my WRE campaigns the reason I've quit isn't out of frustration or defeat, but that it's simply become too easy and as such, boring.

So I've got a question. Does anyone have
(a) modded game files or know how to edit the game files so that morale and such can be changed to make battles more challenging? As anyone knows the morale is the biggest issue with regards to fighting as Rome, since barbarians shatter in an instant.
(b) House rules that have been tested and make playing as Rome harder, yet still achievable. I don't want to fight with armies of peasants just to make things a challenge since I'd never win, but if anyone has ever played with house rules and found it much more difficult and fun to play I'd love to hear them.

Thanks very much, and I can't put into words how much I'm looking forward to v8.

**Joar** · May 03, 2010, 07:12 AM

Well, I understand what you mean. If you know your way around some of the text files, you can quite easily tamper with the numbers a bit. Back when I played 7.03 I was also a bit frustrated about the lack of morale amongst the Barbarians. Check out the EDU and the other related files that allows you to boost your enemy a bit. For example, I remember I edited the descr_strat so that the starting units of the Visigoths got "gold armour" and 3 bars of experience to reflect that they where an experienced and battle hardened army etc.

But a ready mod pack that does what your asking about? Not that I'm aware of, I'm afraid.

This situation will, however, be rectified in v.8.

**Gäiten** · May 03, 2010, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by Joar

This situation will, however, be rectified in v.8.

Western Romans may cry ...

**PSEUDO ROMANUS** · May 03, 2010, 12:04 PM

Do you realize what you just did, Aenima?!?!? You just brought darkness and destruction to the western Roman realm! May the gods forgive you for this!

**Gäiten** · May 03, 2010, 01:21 PM

Gods love good a challenge, do not they?

**Aenima** · May 04, 2010, 01:56 AM

Originally Posted by Joar

Well, I understand what you mean. If you know your way around some of the text files, you can quite easily tamper with the numbers a bit. Back when I played 7.03 I was also a bit frustrated about the lack of morale amongst the Barbarians. Check out the EDU and the other related files that allows you to boost your enemy a bit. For example, I remember I edited the descr_strat so that the starting units of the Visigoths got "gold armour" and 3 bars of experience to reflect that they where an experienced and battle hardened army etc.

But a ready mod pack that does what your asking about? Not that I'm aware of, I'm afraid.

This situation will, however, be rectified in v.8.

I didn't expect any submods, so luckily that's no disappointment. Do you know if it's possible to tamper with the stats to even them out then, or do you know someone/somewhere I could ask for advice on what to do? (Completely inept at messing around with game files

)

Originally Posted by PSEUDO ROMANUS

Do you realize what you just did, Aenima?!?!? You just brought darkness and destruction to the western Roman realm! May the gods forgive you for this!

Pah, I could take on Alaric's rabble, Attila's jockey club and those perfumed Sassanids with my hands tied behind my back! Mere men fear barbarians, but Romans....

Originally Posted by Gäiten

Gods love good a challenge, do not they?

The Gods....have deserted us *solemn ninja face*

**Gäiten** · May 04, 2010, 02:23 AM

Originally Posted by Aenima

Pah, I could take on Alaric's rabble, Attila's jockey club and those perfumed Sassanids with my hands tied behind my back! Mere men fear barbarians, but Romans....

Romans die.

**Aenima** · May 04, 2010, 09:30 AM

Originally Posted by Gäiten

Romans die.

And the next Roman, fearing neither death nor pain, steps into his rank and gets revenge for his fallen brother. It's a good deal

Thanks Taco, I'll give that a go when I get home. I'll guess that I'll have to look into giving the other factions exp/ weapon bonuses as well though since being at war with some factions won't really make a difference since the Roman Britones, sassanids etc are too far away. ERE though... might just work. I'll see how it turns out man, thanks.

**Aenima** · May 05, 2010, 03:56 AM

I've looked around on the internet; apparently the units morale can be edited by tweaking with the EDU file. If this is the case I'd be more than happy to spend some time going over it and changing it. To edit IBRR unit stats I assume that I need to go into RomeTW/ibfd/data/EDU? From there it's just a matter of editing the number next to 'mental stats' right? If someone could explain what the standard for morale is (10 the best, 1 worst?) and suggest the units that need to be edited and by how much, I'd be happy to edit my folder and post a thread with the edited EDU so that others could play a more balanced game. Cheers

**Taco Santa** · May 04, 2010, 02:38 AM

\RTW (MAIN Directory/folder)\ibfd\data\scripts\show_me\

Put the text attachment file in the above location. It is the 4turn per year script with an added script to make every faction (except one of the desert factions to the far east of the Eastern Roman Empire so they don't really matter) declare war on the Western Roman Empire. It doesn't take affect until the beginning of turn two though.

\ibfd\options\SCRIPTS
Also included in your regular 7.03 ibfd folder are several optional scripts. Apparently the full script option is buggy as hell. But, the Sack of Rome script option seems fine. That causes all of the Visigoth army to pile up outside of Rome and lay siege to it at the beginning of THE VISIGOTHS turn. That plus the regular 4tpy or my altered 4tpy scripts are kinda cool. The regular 4tpy script just makes the game have 4 turns per year. However, the attachment file makes it be 4 turns per year and everyone declares war on you at the beginning of turn two (if you are WRE). If having everyone declare war on me at once is still boring, then I'll look into how to modify the various barbarian armies experience points for their standing armies.

I started over my campaign now with the Campaign map difficulty set to Normal with the Battle difficulty set to Very Hard. Apparently the armies behave hownky and just stand around mostly if you have the campaign map set to Very Hard difficulty.

In my campaign as WRE by the end of turn 1 I am laying siege to one ERE town and about to lay siege to another. I have one of the Armenians? cities under siege. I have sacked that one city of the Constantine Roman Empire and laid siege to another. I'm moving the various garrison troops around and attacking some of the other standing armies (Vandels, Independents in North Africa). So hopefully by pissing off and attacking everyone around me (except the Huns in turn 1) I can finally get a decent challenge.

**Gäiten** · May 11, 2010, 12:02 PM

I do somewhat not get your problem. Maybe you can tell me the units you want to modify?

**Aenima** · May 12, 2010, 09:22 AM

Actually for the timebeing I'm alright. I decided to give it another go and am at page 55/213 with no problems as of yet. Just need to do the others and I'll copy and paste it into the EDU and give it a test to see how it works. I have to admit I'm not sure how I got mixed up either, I must have been doing something very, very wrong.

Unless I run into it this time around, at which point I'll post up my problem in greater detail before I forget. Until then, thanks again for all the help and interest shown!