Alexander was so worth the $

[hellagrant]

I notice many of you still play without Alexander expansion. I think it is worth the $10 on ebay for a used copy. The AI fights much better. That is pretty much the only difference I notice, but it is a huge improvement. EB does have an unofficial version to work with Alexander.

that is all

[mamik_yev_konak]

That's right hellagrant. Alexander does display a stronger AI. The engine is after all the newest edition in the Rome series of engine revisions. More importantly, for some players, the Alexander revision of the Rome engine is the most efficient performance-wise and therefore works better than the 1.5 edition of Rome when played on the same computer system. Combined with Darth's formation modification for EB, I believe Alexander can give most of you a better battle experience in EB.

By the way, for those of you who are having trouble installing Maksimus' engine-only Alex mod for EB, I made a user-friendly installation package last month. You can find it at the following link:

http://www.filefront.com/16509997/EB...lexEngine.exe/

[Bonapartist]

Better AI, really? I didn't notice.

What I hugely resented about Alexander was that it was a ticking-clock defined, objective based, super-simplistic game. What the hell? Who decided that's what the total war player wanted, games defined by their open ended nature and practically infinite replay value. You can't even play as the other factions without altering .ini files, I don't think.

If the AI was so improved, it's a shame we aren't building mods off of that. The Total War complete pack was like 4 dollars during the steam winter sale, pity that's not a permanent price...

Those who want to buy Alexander can get Rome complete on Steam for 9.99 (RTW, Barbarian Invasion, Alexander)

[mamik_yev_konak]

The battle AI isn't vastly superior. It's minor. You really have to bother if you want to analyze the differences at all. It's not important enough to make mods off it unless you're making a phalanx formation-dependent mod. Look at Diadochi: Total War. It's an ALX mod.

[tonedog]

That's right hellagrant. Alexander does display a stronger AI. The engine is after all the newest edition in the Rome series of engine revisions. More importantly, for some players, the Alexander revision of the Rome engine is the most efficient performance-wise and therefore works better than the 1.5 edition of Rome when played on the same computer system. Combined with Darth's formation modification for EB, I believe Alexander can give most of you a better battle experience in EB.

By the way, for those of you who are having trouble installing Maksimus' engine-only Alex mod for EB, I made a user-friendly installation package last month. You can find it at the following link:

http://www.filefront.com/16509997/EB...lexEngine.exe/

does this installer make all the necessary changes to the chracter traits files or any other file that has to be modded etc?

i was gonna use the files posted in the alex thead in the unofficial mods forum but the list of changes to be made is massive.

[mamik_yev_konak]

does this installer make all the necessary changes to the chracter traits files or any other file that has to be modded etc?

i was gonna use the files posted in the alex thead in the unofficial mods forum but the list of changes to be made is massive.

What kinds of changes do you need done? This installer is simply the same as the engine-only mod that Maksimus has created, except it is in installer form. It's newbie-friendly.

[tonedog]

these were the changes that i was told to make -



Edit 3 files
a) Go - ''Rome - Total War folder/eb/data/export_descr_character_traits.txt''
Open the file and add the Immortal description at the end of trait section! That should look like this:


;------------------------------------------
;Trait: CeasesAmbassador
; o Ceases_Ambassador (1):

Trait CeasesAmbassador
Characters diplomat
AntiTraits Ambassador

Level Ceases_Ambassador
Description Ceases_Ambassador_desc
EffectsDescription Ceases_Ambassador_effects_desc
Threshold 1

;------------------------------------------
Trait Immortal
Characters family
Hidden

Level Immortal
Description Immortal_desc
EffectsDescription Immortal_effects_desc
Threshold 1

;------------------------------------------
;Mod: EBMod801 - 12/31/05 : trait to make diplomats better when stationed in a settlement for EB 0.7.2.1
;===============================================================
;Section: == TRIGGER DATA STARTS HERE ==
;===============================================================

Then save!

Then, In the same folder you should make night_battle trrigers back to use!
That should look like this!:

;------------------------------------------
;NIGHT FIGHTING SECTION
;------------------------------------------
Trigger diet_of_carrots_1
WhenToTest CharacterTurnStart

Condition Trait NightBattleCapable = 0
and IsGeneral
and Attribute Command >= 4

Affects NightBattleCapable 6 Chance 100

;------------------------------------------
Trigger diet_of_carrots_2
WhenToTest PostBattle

Condition IsGeneral
and Attribute Command >= 1
and IsNightBattle
and Trait NightBattleCapable = 0
and WonBattle

Affects NightBattleCapable 6 Chance 100

;------------------------------------------
Trigger night_battle_crushing_victory_attacker
WhenToTest PostBattle

Condition WasAttacker
and IsGeneral
and WonBattle
and BattleSuccess >= clear
and BattleOdds < 2
and IsNightBattle

Affects Noctophilia 1 Chance 100

;------------------------------------------
Trigger night_battle_crushing_victory_defender
WhenToTest PostBattle

Condition not WasAttacker
and IsGeneral
and WonBattle
and BattleSuccess >= clear
and BattleOdds < 2
and IsNightBattle

Affects Noctophilia 1 Chance 100

;------------------------------------------
Trigger night_battle_crushing_loss_attacker
WhenToTest PostBattle

Condition WasAttacker
and IsGeneral
and not WonBattle
and BattleSuccess >= clear
and BattleOdds >= 0.5
and IsNightBattle

Affects Noctophobia 1 Chance 66

;------------------------------------------
Trigger night_battle_crushing_loss_defender
WhenToTest PostBattle

Condition not WasAttacker
and IsGeneral
and not WonBattle
and BattleSuccess >= clear
and BattleOdds >= 0.5
and IsNightBattle

Affects Noctophobia 1 Chance 66
;------------------------------------------
; StrategicSkill shown by bringing bigger battalions
;------------------------------------------

b) Go - ''Rome - Total War folder/eb/data/export_descr_VnVs_enums.txt''
Open the file and add the specified enums at the far end of the txt file! That should look like this:

Immortal
Immortal_desc
Immortal_effects_desc
Night_Fighter
Night_Fighter_desc
Night_Fighter_effects_desc
Noctophiliac
Noctophiliac_desc
Noctophiliac_effects_desc

Then save !

c) Go - ''Rome - Total War folder/eb/data/text\export_VnVs.txt'' Add one trait and replace one trait ''Rome - Total War folder/eb/data/text\export_VnVs.txt'' folder!


REPLACE

¬--------------------

{Legendary_Hero} Legendary Hero

{Legendary_Hero_desc}
Like Horatius, this man's bravery knows no bounds. He is rightly famed among Romans as Aeneas reborn, or even a new Romulus!

{Legendary_Hero_effects_desc}
+4 Morale for all troops on the battlefield, +1 Influence

¬--------------------

WITH

¬--------------------

{Legendary_Hero} Legendary Hero

{Legendary_Hero_desc}
Like Horatius, this man's bravery knows no bounds. He is rightly famed among Romans as Aeneas reborn, or even a new Romulus!

{Legendary_Hero_effects_desc}
+4 Morale for all troops on the battlefield, +1 Influence

{Night_Fighter_effects_desc}
+1 Command when fighting at night

¬--------------------

AND ADD

¬--------------------
{Immortal} Immortal

{Immortal_desc}
Hidden immortal trait

{Immortal_effects_desc}
No Effects

¬--------------------

d) Now edit your ''Rome - Total War folder/eb/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/descr_strat.txt'' folder by adding the line at the start of Campaign section (at the top of the file.). It should look like this:
; Helix 4 build
; Campaign file generated by the Trivium independant Map Editor (TiME) (c) MrHide - The Trivium Organisation
; Forums: http://www.thetrivium.org/php
; Contact: MrHide@thetrivium.org

campaign imperial_campaign
options +prebattle_night_battle_tickbox
playable
seleucid
pontus
scythia
parthia
numidia
romans_julii
egypt
gauls
germans
britons
greek_cities
macedon
carthage
romans_scipii
dacia
armenia
spain
thrace
romans_brutii
saba
slave
nd
unlockable
end
nonplayable

end


start_date -272 summer
end_date 14 summer

night_battles_enabled
brigand_spawn_value 50
pirate_spawn_value 95

e) Now - Copy chat_filter.san from your Alexander/data folder into your the EB\data folder!

These are the finall step's! You should add torches, lighting for night time, lighting to city buildings, and prebattle UI images (that is opional and not included in the download link)

1) To Add torches to the units:
Copy the following from your ’’bi \data\’’ folder to your ’’EB \data\folder’’
Like this:
’’bi\data\models_unit\attachments\’’ to ’’eb\data\ models_unit’’
’’bi\data\models_engine\’’ to ’’eb\data\’’
’’bi\data\models_effects\’’ to ’’eb\data\’’
’’bi\data\descr_effects.txt’’ to ’’eb\data\’’
’’bi\data\descr_effects_engine_torch.txt’’ to ’’eb\data\’’
’’bi\data\descr_effects_torch_fire.txt’’ to ’’eb\data\’’

Note: You can also get these files from XGM or from Archer's SkyMod that are better looking .)

2) Add lighting for night time
The BI weather and lighting settings look better for night battles than the in vanilla RTW. Copy the following files from ’’bi\data’’ to ’’eb\data\’’.
Like this:
’’bi\data\descr_battle_map_lighting_and_fog_control.txt’’ to ’’eb\data\’’
’’bi\data\descr_daytypes.txt’’ to ’’eb\data\’’
’’bi\data\descr_skydome.txt’’ to ’’eb\data\’’

The weather and lighting settings from Archer's SkyMod look even better. So If you have that mod -Copy the following files from ’’SKYMOD_BI\data’’ for ’’ Bi ’’ only to ’’eb\data\’’
The models folder!
’’descr_battle_map_lighting_and_fog_control.txt’’ to ’’eb\data\’’
’’descr_daytypes.txt’’ to ’’eb\data\’’
’’descr_skydome.txt’’ to ’’eb\data\’’

3) Add prebattle UI images! (optional)

If you skip this step the engine will use a default image that looks as a day battle. All you need to do is put a suitable .TGA image called ’’ prebattle_night.tga’’ in every ’’data/UI/[culturetype]/eventpics/’’ folder.
A good image to use is bi/data/UI/roman/eventpics/prebattle_night.tga.

4) Add window lighting to city buildings!

Copy the folder ’’ bi\data\models_building\textures\glowing’’ to ’’eb\data\ models_building\textures’’

all im lookin to do is play EB with the alex.exe. i understand the last couple of bits are optional but must all the rest of that be done as well?

the only problem i was aware of with usin the alex.exe was havin immortal generals. am i wrong about that?

[torongill]

AFAIK ALX doesn't have shieldwall, which makes the hoplites a bunch of no-good sissies, not to mention making the triarii weaker and the elite "barbarian" units much easier. Thank you, I'll pass The only thing I'd consider using ALX for is the fact that the AI retrains its units, thus freeing you from your own "no retraining" houserules.

[mamik_yev_konak]

Yeah but you forget that the mod EB is one for RTW, not for BI. Therefore, no shield wall. The shield wall is simulated by the unit itself, they maintain this formation. Learn the art of playing EB.

[torongill]

Yeah but you forget that the mod EB is one for RTW, not for BI. Therefore, no shield wall. The shield wall is simulated by the unit itself, they maintain this formation. Learn the art of playing EB.

I'm sorry, I must've been mistaken.

[mamik_yev_konak]

Like I said, it's a Rome: Total War modification, not a BI or ALX modification. See the unofficial sub-mod section of the forum for any extraneous info.

[torongill]

Mhm, and like I said, I've been playing it with BI and it's quite an improvement over the "sort of like hoplite phalanx" that you have in RTW. It's an improvement whether you use it or the AI uses it.

[War lord]

Hoplites in EB are defensively overpowered enough without a proper shield wall formation.

[mamik_yev_konak]

That's true War lord. And I believe the one bit that the dev team couldn't get around was the one regarding the phalanx-formation-enabled units. The shield for them was given a value of 5(!!!), forest of pikes, deflect arrows/projectiles, no doubt. But it does make it strangely defensive up close, with such a small shield yet high value. Hard to get around when you're modding.

[dbug]

the phalanx and the hoplite...
forever the issue in modding and especially in EB!!!

[saxonriseagain]

i would love to play with the alex mod but filefront dont seem to wont to let me download it keeps going bak to the first page so thats me ed

[mamik_yev_konak]

i would love to play with the alex mod but filefront dont seem to wont to let me download it keeps going bak to the first page so thats me ed

http://www.filefront.com/16509997/EB...lexEngine.exe/

Want to play EB using the Alex engine? There ya go.

[saxonriseagain]

thanks a lot mate but i mean the full alex mod link thanks anyway lad

[saxonriseagain]

haha since u said that its just started workin thats a lot mate u must be good luck lets get killin them romans with my mother ing gauls

[mamik_yev_konak]

thanks a lot mate but i mean the full alex mod link thanks anyway lad

Alex isn't a mod, mate. It's a full-blown expansion, just like Barbarian Expansion (you can have either expansion or both, Alex doesn't require BI, only Rome).