Playing DM 8.0 RTW campaign with BI.exe

[daud.fr]

I tried to run DM 8.0 RTW version through barbarian invasion exe file, like that:

"C:\games\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe" -show_err -mod:

It loads the menu fine, but will it make some features unavailiable, or will it have some negative effect on the gameplay overall? Does anyone know?

[DARTH VADER]

Can this be done? This loads the BI.

[wipeout140]

Can this be done? This loads the BI.

It can be done as daud.fr says

It Loads up RTW 1.5 but uses BI features in RTW 1.5 aswell

[daud.fr]

I got exactly this line in my shortcut
"C:\games\Rome - Total War\RomeTW-BI.exe" -show_err -mod:
It loads DM 8.0, and i just managed to start imperial campaign as julii, everything worked fine (it just loads bi video in the begginning).
The only error i've noticed so far is that the shield_formation looks buggy and after pressing "alt+F4" (which closes the game) error message comes up saying that there is an error in database "greek general's unit is not founded" or smth like that....
Anyway seem that it is possible))

[DYRWI]

(it just loads bi video in the begginning).

If you want the normal RTW Video (Don't know why =) ), just copy rome_title from
Data\fmv, and place it in ...bi\data\fmv

Rename the video (rome_title) to BI_Intro_640x480 (The only file in the folder)..you must also rename the original BI_Intro_640x480 to something different...just put a . in front of it or something. =D

[Maced0n]

YES you can load RTW with BI.exe with -mod:,and all menu features will be available plus AI will be little smarter and will make a lot of naval invasion.Also all bi features :named legions, formations... will be available with little modding of EDU ,DR .....

[Ciaran S]

YES you can load RTW with BI.exe with -mod:,and all menu features will be available plus AI will be little smarter and will make a lot of naval invasion.Also all bi features :named legions, formations... will be available with little modding of EDU ,DR .....

But does it keep the RTW features like Senate missions and offices, popularity, Marius Reform etc.?

[Tadajon]

But does it keep the RTW features like Senate missions and offices, popularity, Marius Reform etc.?

yes it does

[nointernet]

This would be awesome, to be able to play the roman campaign from 270BC with all of the features of BI would simply be amazing. Can you imagine trying to keep peace and order in a distant city where you have a huge distance to capital penalty, a religios difference and a culture penalty; whilst at the same time your uber army that was about to cause havoc and mayhem just rebelled and declared their general the new emperor. WOW now that would present some challenges.

[Shaggy1973]

shield wall for hoplites

[daud.fr]

DYRWI thanx for info, but i really hate those intros, in fact i've simply deleted them all) to speed up the game loading...
I've noticed several buggy things so far:
1.Some units are somewhat to bright...
2.Shield wall button is buggy.
3.Sometimes when you press Custom Battle button, game ctd.
4.If you try exiting by "alt+f4", some completely random error comes up... Once it was about greek general's unit, then umbria region, both somehow missing in database...

[DARTH VADER]

Better not to use it..I fixed the mod with the old exe...so these happens occur rationaly.

[Eird-Way]

I for one was ecstatic to start playing classical DM in BI.exe. The battle AI is much less patient to let its formations settle down between maneuvers -- much more agressive and challenging. And as we all know the campaign AI is definitely better.

Is anyone up for looking over DM 8 so that the classical period can be played smoothly in BI.exe? I have noticed, of course, that the button graphics will be screwed up. (but who cares?) And I noticed some insignificant abnormalities in the behavior of the phalanx formation, but I absolutely want shieldwall for old-fashioned hoplites. Maybe a fan-mod to look over the few vital files and smoothe things over as much as possible, implementing the new features? It probably wouldn't be too hard.

How much work would it take to add religion and loyalty?

[Eird-Way]

Actually, just putting "-mod:" in the command line is working well for me. Everything seems to be smoothe sailing. Those other things would be fantastico, however. DM with MTW-style randomness would be heaven.

[babacaman]

"YES you can load RTW with BI.exe with -mod:,and all menu features will be available plus AI will be little smarter and will make a lot of naval invasion.Also all bi features :named legions, formations... will be available with little modding of EDU ,DR ....."

What little modding would that be? : )

Also, there are some weird things that happen when playing with Bi.exe. On a bridge battle i had recently, every single one of the enemy units (including barbarian warlord) could cross the river like swimming light infantry can in BI. Also, the special ability button is turned into Shield Wall with many units, replacing their original specials (like the Warcry of the warband). Any idea on how to address these issues?

[Eird-Way]

Easy!

There are a lot of vestigial unit attributes in the RTW EDU file that have NO FUNCTION in the game, because they were not implemented until BI.

Shield_wall and can_swim are two of these. Shield wall overrides warcry, since a unit can only have one special ability.

Just open up the export_descr_unit.txt and take away those abilities. Or don't! I gave my chosen swordsmen/heavy spearmen shieldwall and they can hold the line like you wouldn't believe.

Also, the newest version of Caligula (search for it) supports BI attributes. So you can just open up your EDU in Caligula, and remove the check boxes.

[babacaman]

What about the civil war? In other thread, i saw that it was impossible to be outlawed by the senate playing with Bi.exe. To test this, i tried lots of assassinations. Guess what: Brutii and Scipii broke their alliances with me but no war. And no matter what i did (ignored every single mission and tried assasinating senate members until i had only one "shield" in the senate floor) the senate didnt break an alliance or outlaw me. They didnt even ask for me to commit suicide.

Does anyone know how to address this in DarthMod?

[DARTH VADER]

I do not know..in fact I never tested DarthMod RTW unter 1.6 engine.

I was afraid of possible bugs so I uploaded the guaranteed 1.5 version .

But those who actually play with it..do you find it better than my original 1.5?

(In fact DarthMod is ready for 1.6 bcs I have put secret BI code in EDU file valid only with BI exe...I just never used it)

[Eird-Way]

Well, I have seen axemen from scythia and germania go into a shieldwall, but this can throw off the formation settings because the unit width is decreased.

Gaul is actually quite disadvantaged by default because their units have the shield wall attribute, which supersedes their warcry. They aren't programmed to use the shield wall, and they don't last very long without their warcry. Dacian warbands have it too, which I used to great effect in my campaign.

Not sure about power_charge. Is this what makes naked fanatics toss enemies in the air, or is that just the berserker trait?

That's why I suggested an EDU audit for BI.exe. I think you could happily make a unit file fit for both versions. Unless the synergy of shield_wall/swimming with formation files is difficult to generalize. Hmm, I imagine it might be. I haven't had any bridge battles, but it would be cool to see some swimming barbarians. Perhaps even swimming hastati?

[DARTH VADER]

There is swimming code there as well.
I cannot do this work but if someone can propose an EDU fixed for BI.exe no problem to post here.