Italic Legions

[Caesar Augustus]

Just a quick question here guys, how does one go about changing a units formation and how "tight" it appears? I've been having a bit of an ExRM sesh today as I got back from my holiday, but it's been bugging me that my Italic legions (specifically the hastati and principes) don't have quite the same formation and tightness as their Roman counterparts?

Also, how would I go about making assasins more expensive?

Thanks guys!

[Quinn Inuit]

How to change assassin costs: http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showth...ruitement-time

Good catch on that formation. Just change this line

formation        1, 2, 2, 3, 5,square

to this

formation        1, 1, 2, 3, 5,square

I've fixed it in the dev version now, too.

[Caesar Augustus]

Cheers Quinn

I've changed the units over and they look much better now.

I've saved a version of descr_cultures in my documents for now, having doubled assassin costs for all cultures to 1,000 to see if it'll reduce assassin spams by the AI. For some reason it won't let me overwrite the original descr_cultures in the ExRM data folder, I'm getting an "Access is denied" message? I also get the same when I try to change the resolution to one which will fill my screen (I need 1366 x 768 for campaign and battle).

I'm still looking into that other stuff by the way, but I haven't had a chance for a couple of weeks.

[JaNuZ99]

Cheers Quinn

I've changed the units over and they look much better now.

I've saved a version of descr_cultures in my documents for now, having doubled assassin costs for all cultures to 1,000 to see if it'll reduce assassin spams by the AI. For some reason it won't let me overwrite the original descr_cultures in the ExRM data folder, I'm getting an "Access is denied" message? I also get the same when I try to change the resolution to one which will fill my screen (I need 1366 x 768 for campaign and battle).

I'm still looking into that other stuff by the way, but I haven't had a chance for a couple of weeks.

I doubled it to 2000 for all cultures, and i'm happy to also report that the Greek AI is no longer recruiting as many assassins as b4,in a macedon campaign i made to test out changing the upkeep cost (i should of known the AI doesn't pay attention to upkeep cost) and the Greek AI went on to recruit a total of ELEVEN assassins, but now that i changed the recruitment cost to 2000, they only recruited 2.

[Carados]

It might be worthwhile to increase the cost for diplomats and spies, not as much as assassins perhaps, to stop the AI (and even the player) from spamming them?


Do the italic triarii have the same formation as their Roman counter-part?

[JaNuZ99]

It might be worthwhile to increase the cost for diplomats and spies, not as much as assassins perhaps, to stop the AI (and even the player) from spamming them?


Do the italic triarii have the same formation as their Roman counter-part?

LOL whats wrong with spamming diplomats? its easier than sending your one diplomat to every city, when you can have a host going all over, and its easier when the AI faction send their diplomats all over, makes it easier for them to contact you and vice-versa

as for spies thats debatable, on one hand the spies the AI has in enemy cities help cause trouble for that enemy faction,but on the other the AI doesn't tend to coordinate its attack and its spies arn't used as effectively as they should (opening up the enemy gates for the AI besiegers)

[Caesar Augustus]

Yeah, the Italic triarii have the same formation as the Roman ones. It was just annoying as I found that my italic hastati and principes weren't as effective as their Roman counterparts at resisting charges (I prefer to defend when facing superior numbers, which due to my army size is about 90% of the time).

RE preferences.txt and descr_culture.txt would simply deleting the versions in the ExRM data folder and replacing them with my edited versions work, to get around the "Access denied" message?

[Carados]

Consistency is key.

But mainly as a precaution in order to stop the AI from recruiting nothing but diplomats.

[Quinn Inuit]

That hadn't occurred to me, but they do tend to make a lot of those, don't they? And I imagine they'd make even more if you increased the cost of their other options by a lot.

Another idea: Should we make them recruitable only from auxilia buildings? That way, the AI won't have cities where all it can build are diplomats &c.

C.A.: I've no idea why you're getting the access denied message. I recommend checking your folder settings first, or downloading Unlocker and seeing what process is locking the little goobers.

[Carados]

That hadn't occurred to me, but they do tend to make a lot of those, don't they? And I imagine they'd make even more if you increased the cost of their other options by a lot.

Another idea: Should we make them recruitable only from auxilia buildings? That way, the AI won't have cities where all it can build are diplomats &c.

They like to bribe them a lot too. Increasing cost would make that happen less.

Agents are recruited from the government and market buildings aren't they? It would be plausible to use the auxilia buildings instead. I don't see the local populance being much inclined to act as spies and assassins, less so diplomats, for their conquerers.

[Caesar Augustus]

That hadn't occurred to me, but they do tend to make a lot of those, don't they? And I imagine they'd make even more if you increased the cost of their other options by a lot.

So perhaps a complete overhaul of agent costs is in order then?

Another idea: Should we make them recruitable only from auxilia buildings? That way, the AI won't have cities where all it can build are diplomats &c.

That would be very logical, as Carados has said. I can't imagine a freshly conquered Gaul being particularly willing to act as an agent on behalf his conquerors.

C.A.: I've no idea why you're getting the access denied message. I recommend checking your folder settings first, or downloading Unlocker and seeing what process is locking the little goobers.

The Unlocker couldn't find anything, and I couldn't see a reason in the folder properties. It could just be a quirk of Windows 7. I've at least managed to get the battle and campaign maps the same size now, by deleting the old preferences and replacing them with my amended version.

[Quinn Inuit]

They like to bribe them a lot too. Increasing cost would make that happen less.

Good point. That is pretty annoying.

Agents are recruited from the government and market buildings aren't they? It would be plausible to use the auxilia buildings instead. I don't see the local populance being much inclined to act as spies and assassins, less so diplomats, for their conquerers.

That's what I was thinking, too. I'll make that change, but I want to double-check on what kind of CTD fix works best. I don't want to find out the hard way that diplomat recruitment prevents CTDs in some cases.

So perhaps a complete overhaul of agent costs is in order then?

Yep. Any suggestions?

The Unlocker couldn't find anything, and I couldn't see a reason in the folder properties. It could just be a quirk of Windows 7. I've at least managed to get the battle and campaign maps the same size now, by deleting the old preferences and replacing them with my amended version.

Oh, you have 7. Sorry, that didn't click before. There's a thread on that--7 tends to lock directories in Program Files unless you change a Windows setting.

[Boom S]

That would be very logical, as Carados has said. I can't imagine a freshly conquered Gaul being particularly willing to act as an agent on behalf his conquerors.

but haven't "traitors" been traditionally the largest source of spies in any conflict, past or present ? I can imagine them wanting a higher pay of course.

[Carados]

but haven't "traitors" been traditionally the largest source of spies in any conflict, past or present ? I can imagine them wanting a higher pay of course.

That's entirely true and something I'll have to think about. There wasn't enough time to do that this morning.

[JaNuZ99]

but haven't "traitors" been traditionally the largest source of spies in any conflict, past or present ? I can imagine them wanting a higher pay of course.

Do you know if its possible to make it so we can bribe spies and assassins? I mean they are technically underworld characters, men who do as they are paid, and whoever pays best, gets their "services"

I've been dying to be able to turn enemy spies into my own (thats justs cool) and their assassins too, thats almost as cool as bribing an enemy general and having him attack a close relative once he belongs to you. IDT anything could top that, well unless your assassins could kill generals from your own faction, that would rock, but sadly i believe that is impossible

[Caesar Augustus]

That's a valid point Boom.

I doubt it's possible, but perhaps if spies and assassins were made into mercenaries would perhaps be more accurate? Then again, I view the auxilia buildings as essentially "winning the hearts and minds" of the local populace.

Quinn - I'm thinking diplomats definitely need a drastic price increase, I hate having to keep assassins purely to get rid of the crowds of diplomats that tend to hang around particular points in the map. Spy prices will then definitely need to be upped to prevent spy-spamming. Maybe double the cost of the agents and see how that works out? Upkeep could probably do with an increase too.

Don't worry about me having 7 not registering. I don't really mention it that often. I'll try and find that thread now

[Boom S]

here's a thought, does upkeep increase with level ? if that's possible then may be you can think of making the upkeep(salary if you will) of experienced and competent agents, assassins and diplomats alike go through the roof. in that case there should also be an option of letting go of their services, at which point they become visible to all factions (provided they have an unit in the vicinity) and available for hire, at a much higher cost of course.

I don't know if this is possible but it's an interesting idea nonetheless.

[Caesar Augustus]

I'm not entirely sure if that's possible within the limits of the engine, but it does sound awesome

By the way, for anyone that's interested, I found the solution to the Access is denied issue. Essentially Windows 7 will not allow amendments to anything under Program Files, unless the editing program is specifically being run as an Administrator. This means that you will need to open the program as an administrator, the load the file you wish to make changes to. This thread has details of how to open programs as an administrator.

[Boom S]

well I did kill one of my own spies with an assassin once !

[JaNuZ99]

well I did kill one of my own spies with an assassin once !

oh yeah i forgot about that, which actually does make me wonder if we can kill our own spies, why not our generals, using assassins i mean.

After all politics was pretty cut throat back then, am i right?