Ars Gratia Artis - Complete Battle Overhaul, v2.7.2 - Patch 7 ready (updated 15/11/13)

[Sir_Pee_Alot]

Ok i have played some battles now and im finally getting the feeling that i wanted with ROME II. its getting there

great job Selea. and im playing also with TheDuBMod_CampaignAI and 2TPY and some other small mods and im getting some awesome results!

[Baltizar]

Hi Selea Played a battle last night (Egypt Vs Persia) using the latest Instalment at that time(your 3.06) of your mod . I must say it is a vast improvement. The battle lasted nearly 30 mins where as before, when I played vanilla, I would be lucky to get past 6. A great improvement many thanks....Battles are now enjoyable..the only problem I noticed were some unit skating. I''ll download the latest version tonight and looking forward to it.

[Selea]

Hi Selea Played a battle last night (Egypt Vs Persia) using the latest Instalment at that time(your 3.06) of your mod . I must say it is a vast improvement. The battle lasted nearly 30 mins where as before, when I played vanilla, I would be lucky to get past 6. A great improvement many thanks....Battles are now enjoyable..the only problem I noticed were some unit skating. I''ll download the latest version tonight and looking forward to it.

Yes, I know about the skating. I will see if I can do something about it but I don't know if I can do something.

It is one of the many issues with animations on the formations side that this game has. Men that stay on the back doing nothing, people that move without using the feet as if flying, Phalanx formations that don't hold, etc. etc.

I really hope CA will be able to fix these bugs because they are annoying and increasing cohesion they become much more glaring and visible than in the mass blobbing (it can also be that CA did the blob voluntarily to hide many of these issues, apart for the radius huge bug with naval battles). You can only hope and in the meantime I will see if I can do something about it; there are animation behavior to change, yes, but the dynamics are mostly hard-coded, you can usually just change the way an animation play (as in what frame play at which time) but not alter the animation itself.

[Guers695]

Couldn't get the mod to install despite the instructions, but I noticed my install of rome II has been weird. I'm reinstalling and going to try the mod when I do.

Just curious, how are horse archers in the mod? In Vanilla they were pretty weak and lacking with no caravan circle. Made playing Parthia underwhelming.

[Selea]

Couldn't get the mod to install despite the instructions, but I noticed my install of rome II has been weird. I'm reinstalling and going to try the mod when I do.

Just curious, how are horse archers in the mod? In Vanilla they were pretty weak and lacking with no caravan circle. Made playing Parthia underwhelming.

Go under %appdata%\The Creative Assembly\Rome2\scripts folder. There you will find (or have to create) a file named "user.script.txt" (if it's not there just use notepad to create it, it's a simple text file). On it add the line "mod MOD_Ars_Gratia_Artis.pack;" (without naturally the ") and save it (or even better inside the pack I already created a correct user.script.txt for users not using any other mod pack file; simply put it in the aforementioned folder and you are ready to go). Then put the content of the zip inside the data folder and start the game, it should now work.

If you still have problems simply use Mod Manager to enable the mod (by checking it). Even if the game crashes when you try to load it from Mod Manager (sometimes it happens) it doesn't matter, just start the game normally after because the mod will be already enabled correctly (but to enable it fully you must try to load the game from Mod Manager even if it crashes).

As for Horse Archers in the mod, the Parthian ones are extremely good in the mod, and then Cataphracts are godly (and you can even use bows with them also).

[est Dudus]

Ok, so my legions don't fire at all now just sit there and think about firing. It's way broken.....Can you please take this out and make it optional.

[Master Necromancer]

Ok, so my legions don't fire at all now just sit there and think about firing. It's way broken.....Can you please take this out and make it optional.

Mine do and everyone charges as they should.

@Selea:

I have a question about the loose formation, you gave it to Roman units that have tetsuedo (which seems redundant) but you didn't give it to any other faction, why is that?

[Selea]

Mine do and everyone charges as they should.

@Selea:

I have a question about the loose formation, you gave it to Roman units that have tetsuedo (which seems redundant) but you didn't give it to any other faction, why is that?

Ops....

That's the way it is in vanilla, I actually changed them to be exactly the contrary only that.... I made an error somewhere, couldn't resolve it, had to do half mod from the start, and forgot to re-add the change.

Thanks for letting me notice it, I completely forgot! I will immediately rebring loose formation to all units but spears, pikes and naturally Roman with Testudo.

P.S: I don't know why CA did give loose formation to romans, it doesn't make sense in fact. Probably because the option didn't work prior to patch 4 and they just forgot they left loose formation on roman units.

[Guers695]

Go under %appdata%\The Creative Assembly\Rome2\scripts folder. There you will find (or have to create) a file named "user.script.txt" (if it's not there just use notepad to create it, it's a simple text file). On it add the line "mod MOD_Ars_Gratia_Artis.pack;" (without naturally the ") and save it (or even better inside the pack I already created a correct user.script.txt for users not using any other mod pack file; simply put it in the aforementioned folder and you are ready to go). Then put the content of the zip inside the data folder and start the game, it should now work.If you still have problems simply use Mod Manager to enable the mod (by checking it). Even if the game crashes when you try to load it from Mod Manager (sometimes it happens) it doesn't matter, just start the game normally after because the mod will be already enabled correctly (but to enable it fully you must try to load the game from Mod Manager even if it crashes).As for Horse Archers in the mod, the Parthian ones are extremely good in the mod, and then Cataphracts are godly (and you can even use bows with them also).

Thanks Selea! Going to try a campaign now. Awesome.

[Syntax]

Selea: GREAT MOD, I tried it yesterday and I enjoyed it very much, I must say it is the best battle improvement mod out there at this times! I really wonder why I haven't got it earlier, but the truth is I tried all the mods of the well known modders first and u are not so well known (jet)....was my mistake to wait that long...
Keep it on - perfect balance, great battles!

+Rep, Thank u a lot for this mod and have a nice day....

[Socktu]

I see the version jumped from 3.11 to 3.15 over night. Huh, what'd you add onto the mod as I saw in the changelog vaguely said "retextures."

[Selea]

I see the version jumped from 3.11 to 3.15 over night. Huh, what'd you add onto the mod as I saw in the changelog vaguely said "retextures."

From 3.11 to 3.15 there are many little changes. There are an host of many tweaks (I simply didn't write them all because people would neither understand of what I'm talking about mostly), loose spacing for troops, little tweaks in campaign army cap and removal of most of the MP unit caps.

As for the re-textures I simply added some of the best reskins around in this mod even if almost everyone of those modders denied me the permission to "use their work". I frankly cannot care less. There's no sense on it and I will never abide to idiocy. I gave full credits for their work (as it is right) and even politely asked them for permissions. If they don't want to give it then I don't care minimally.

In case the mod got deleted (because I will never remove those reskins from it) I will still continue working on it anyway. I did the mod firstly for myself and you know the link to it on mediafire.

[baton1990]

The same problem was with early legionaries generals guard. They didnt throw pilums.

[Selea]

The same problem was with early legionaries generals guard. They didnt throw pilums.

You probably switch to melee; in that way they will not throw the javelins. Switch to melee (F) only when going in melee, not before.

I know, it's a little of a fuss, I will see if there's a way to have them throw javelins even when in melee mode with fire-at-will enabled, but anyway it is a little drawback for a lot of positives. It is much better tactically for pilums to work without a charge.

[baton1990]

Thanks for mod Selea , its quite nice. A little feedback, during battle my principies dont throw pilums but they have option for range attack. Did you have same problem ? (sorry for my bad english)

[Selea]

Thanks for mod Selea , its quite nice. A little feedback, during battle my principies dont throw pilums but they have option for range attack. Did you have same problem ? (sorry for my bad english)

Pilum users (i.e. almost all roman troops) have now fire-at-will javelins; that means that they will use them in defense instead than in attack. Roman troops are defensive one, they are not good at charging, so it is much better for them to simply wait the other side to charge while they fire the javelins. When the enemy gets too close, switch to a formation as shield screen to brace for impact and then win the fight

[Socktu]

Been testing it out lately, the mod is simply perfect. I love the changes and fine-tuning with everything and the features that make it realistic are a gift as well. Having fun in my Macedonia campaign, the most I have had in Rome 2!

[Selea]

@Socktu:

I'm glad you like it. I must be sincere, it is really good now. I tested a lot of battle situations and everything works almost perfectly.

The only thing that remains to be done now is a naval overhaul and then inserting some good unit packs and the mod is finally complete.

[Socktu]

One last question, if you don't mind. What difficulty is adequate for the game?

[Selea]

One last question, if you don't mind. What difficulty is adequate for the game?

If the AI was competent then normal would be the best because in that way nor you nor the AI get abritrary bonuses/penalties. However without them the AI simply cannot compete as of now and as such a good difficulty is hard/very hard.

P.S: I have two little circles under my name on the left and it's written "Selea we have a problem", does that mean that someone reported the mod? So it's beginning... let's see what it comes out of it; if the moderators ban me just because I inserted some reskins WITH FULL CREDITS inside my battle mod overhaul I don't know what to say, seriously. It seems to me we are in kindergarten.