BI.exe or ALEX.exe?

[Centaurion]

I've been away from RS for a long time, but now I decided to try it out again. But I am curios as to which .exe I should use - BI or ALEX?

I've heard that the AI i much better in ALEX, is this true? Should I go with the ALEX.exe or just stick to the BI.exe?

[DedlySerious]

for the price Alex is very much worth it

[Chris Death]

for the price Alex is very much worth it

While it's true what your saying i don't know if it helps the op since this wasn't in question.

However - i'm playing it with alex.exe since better battle ai is what i'm looking for.

But don't expect the ai to be way better - it's not that big of a difference that i could write
a book about it. One thing i do believe having noticed is that it takes sometimes longer to
rout enemy phalanx and the ai's flanking moves become a tiny little piece better.

In campaign there's also a few adds like a third ancillary to the usual "tax farmer" and "architect"
but i forgot which one it was.

Also some disasters are being better displayed on the campaign map.

~S~ CD

[Spartan198]

The only things that BI.exe holds over ALEX.exe are shield_wall, hording, and shiltrom, but those features aren't coded into RS AFAIK, so ALEX.exe with its better AI beats RTW.exe and BI.exe in every way.

[Siegfriedfr]

The only things that BI.exe holds over ALEX.exe are shield_wall, hording, and shiltrom, but those features aren't coded into RS AFAIK, so ALEX.exe with its better AI beats RTW.exe and BI.exe in every way.

Alex.exe also improves performances significantly if your computer is not so recent.

[Invigilator]

Alex.exe also improves performances significantly if your computer is not so recent.

I hadn't heard of this, will it make a difference in RS 2?

[apple]

Just the fact that Alex enables the AI to retrain it's troops is enough for me to say that it's the best exe.

[Caesar_1991]

I havnt tried ALEX, but I like the shield_wall ability. So I would stick with BI.

[Squid]

Except as pointed out, RS doesn't use shieldwall so the point of BI is . . . ?

[Caesar_1991]

I modded it in. Legionaires and barb. units use it.

[Tenalon]

I'm playing RS 1.6 for a few months now. I have all the patches (BI/ALX) so I made a little testing with all of them, started from RTW, then BI and finally ALEX.
I went 50 turns deep with every exe, recorded my decisions for every turn (to make sure that I'll repeat the same actions in every exe) and I have to say that both in Campaign and in Battle Maps, the AI in ALEX engine is superior to the other 2. So, as for me, I'm full on ALEX.exe

[Caesar_1991]

How is the AI different like specifically. If you dont mind.

[Tenalon]

How is the AI different like specifically. If you dont mind.

The ability to retrain its troops, better tactical movements in battlefield and in campaign, naval invasions, the feel that you play with a more intelligent and unpredictable opponent.

[IamOdysseus]

Installing Alexander affects to vanilla version?? I didn't know it. Or do you open Roma Surrectum with the alexander exe??

[Squid]

You run roma surrectum with the alex exe. Alexander by itself should not affect vanilla in any way, though of course RS totally destroys the vanilla install it's put into.

[Darkie]

Don't you have to install RS in the alexander data map to let it work with ALEX-TW.exe?

[Tenalon]

Don't you have to install RS in the alexander data map to let it work with ALEX-TW.exe?

No need. The RS 1.6 shortcut for alex have the following line in its properties:

"C:\RomeTotalWar\RomeTW-ALX.exe" -nm -show_err -mod -noalexander

where -noalexander -mod means that it doesn't go to the alex's subfolder.

EDIT: Thanks Squid for the heads up. I corrected it

[Squid]

No the -mod mean it doesn't go into the alex subfolder, the -noalexander tells the exe not to look for an alexander character.

[Centaurion]

Cool. Thanks for the input. I'm downloading alex from Steam right now!