Is it possible to change a city's strat map model?

[Konig91]

I'm playing as Rome and by the time I reached Northern Italy all of those settlements became huge cities. The thing is that they look barbarian, and I want them to look Western Civilized-like, like Roman cities. I can't upgrade past huge city, of course, so I'm doomed with barbarian look-alike cities on the strat map.

Any solutions?

[tiepilot98]

Oh, I care about this question for a long time. I have the solution, you can bind level of the city to another building and demolish government building, then build roman goverment. But how - I do not know...

[tiepilot98]

Or you can in descr_cultures.txt just change ".cas" file of huge barbarian city into roman.

[Darth Bane1]

This will be solved. dvk said, the barbarian factions can't build huge cities in the next version anymore, only Rome, Greek Factions and maybe Armenia, Parthia...

[dvk901]

Funny this question should be asked, because I have been thinking about ways to add even MORE realism into things that I'm trying to do now. Not that I'm claiming everything is going to be real or historic...but at least 'mimic' reality better than say.....well, I won't point any fingers, but the initials star with 'ca'. Anyway....here's what I'm going to do...list of major changes following:

1. ALL equipment (scorpions, Lithobolos, etc.) will be reduced in number from 3 to 1 piece of equipment, except in the case of the Large Lithobolos, which must have two. All of these units with then get a 'crew' of 40 men. This is more realistic, and in testing the AI likes these units better. The cost will be the same, but the unit will have extra men, and, the ammo that three pieces of equipment had, as well as a slight upgrade of punching power. Again, I have tested this pretty extensively.

The main reason for this change, however, is because these units are tied together like they have ropes between them, and they are constantly getting stuck on trees, narrow places, rocks, or even themselves!
Reducing them to one has corrected almost all of the silly maneuvering problems (90% plus), and they can move around in forested areas much easier.

2. All walls above 'Stone Wall' have been removed. The large and huge walls are either, a)poorly animated, or b)dysfunctional. The huge walls, especially, are crap. Still another reason is that I have avoided using the 'monstrously' tall RTW buildings wherever possible....the one I REALLY want to get rid of is the Roman Imperial Palace...but it's the only thing that comes close so far, so I keep it...so far. As a result, cities are 'shorter', and the humungous walls make them look like they're sitting in a hole.

3. In building custom cities, I've noted over and over that when Rome conquered many..or most of them, there were many Roman buildings built in them. Can't realistically put them there BEFORE Rome conquers them, and if you're playing Carthage or Syracuse or the Ptolemaic Empire, you don't want them either. So all cultures other than Roman will 'stop' at at least 'large city'...Barbs and Nomads at 'city'. Since there are no walls beyond stone wall, it makes no difference, and ALL buildings in RS2 besides the Imperial Palace can be built at the city level anyway. There are no 'slots' anymore either (why Rome2 and Attila kept that funky system is beyond me)...so there is no relationship between what you build on the Strat interface and what you actually see in a settlement. All settlements will be 'static'....you get what I put in them. The ones you build on the Strat map are for economics and immersion alone.

So here's an example of how this could work......Athens had several notable Roman buildings in it after Rome took over. I could never put them in 'unless' I have a settlement plan that allows the last city size (huge) to change the model.....and the last one will have the Roman buildings if you conquer it with Rome.

The net result of all this, anyway, is that the Romans will get the last (huge) city size...which will replace ALL settlements, ultimately, with a 'Romanized' model. Not necessarily the cement wasteland that CA created..that's gone anyway, but with a representative setup for the area. The Greeks and Carthage will get the 'large' city model to replace the Barbarian and Nomad ones. Eastern and Egyptian will also use Greek-ish looking setup. Barbarian and Nomad plans will never replace any others.

The Strat models should work in the same way...they will switch when the settlement plan switches.

[Ciciro]

That's a very interesting solution. Getting rid of those ridiculous walls and making it so the settlements Rome conquerors actually look Romanized in one stroke.

[Konig91]

Wow, thanks for your response dvk!

I'm glad someone found a solution to problem I've been having ever since I started playing Rome Total War.

[tiepilot98]

DVK, Can I now remove the possibility of building of a huge city? In EDU just remove the possibility of building of "Imperial_Palace" in other nations.

[kyrkac]

dvk,so that means if you play barbarian you cannot expand because high culture penalty...i dont know if i want play civilised nations only

[dvk901]

DVK, Can I now remove the possibility of building of a huge city? In EDU just remove the possibility of building of "Imperial_Palace" in other nations.

From what I recall, that would generate an error. You can try it, but make sure you back up the original file. The 'core_building' tree in EDB.txt is one tree that is very finicky about being messed with.

dvk,so that means if you play barbarian you cannot expand because high culture penalty...i dont know if i want play civilised nations only

No, it doesn't mean that. This all has to do with what things 'look like', not how the game plays. As I mentioned above, you can build 'most' all buildings in RS2 at the city level. There are a few you can't because of RTW limitations, but I removed the reason for those limits for most of them by removing the 'building slot' system in RTW. As far as 'penalties', there would be nothing different there than is already in RS2.

[tiepilot98]

From what I recall, that would generate an error. You can try it, but make sure you back up the original file. The 'core_building' tree in EDB.txt is one tree that is very finicky about being messed with.

I started do it. There are a couple of questions.
1. "roman," - all three "romans" faction (romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii)?
2. And why Thrace have legions? I can't understand this moment:
"recruit "legio iii augusta first" 1 requires factions { thrace, } and marian_reforms and hidden_resource area13 and hidden_resource r4" and many similar lines in EDB in "Imperial_Palace"...

[kyrkac]

And why Thrace have legions?
thrace - roman rebels

[tiepilot98]

And why Thrace have legions?
thrace - roman rebels

Oh, thanks. But who is "romans_julii, romans_scipii, romans_brutii"? "Romans_brutii" is playable Rome, but who is others?..

[tiepilot98]

Thanks! And the last qusetion: who is just "romans" in EDB file, if playable rome - "romans_brutii"?

[ferike_2007]

No, "romans" in this case means "roman culture type".
There are several culture types in game: barbarian, carthaginian, egyptian, eastern, greek, nomad and roman.
You will find them in descr_sm_factions, every faction belongs to a certain culture type.
So in this case "roman" means romans_brutii-Rome and thrace-Roman rebels; and in some cases the 'slave' faction also.

[tiepilot98]

I probably bored you with questions. But I have the last question, I think I found the solution in two days of trial and error...
So, in "export_descr_buildings" in "imperial_palace" line, it's written:
imperial_palace requires factions { %faction names% } or faction { thrace, slaves, }
What does "or faction" mean? What are the differences from "requires factions"?

[ferike_2007]

OK buddy, no problem

Let's see the entire line:

imperial_palace requires factions { romans_julii, boii, gauls, dacia, germans, spain, nomad, carthaginian, eastern, parthia, egyptian, greek, romans_brutii, } or factions { slave, thrace, } and hidden_resource nothing

- the blue factions could build the imperial without conditions, everywhere, in every settlement, the red one's just in settlements where the "nothing" hidden_resource is present, so in this way you can control the slave-free people and thrace-roman rebels where have to build imperial palace - huge city afterall, in this case.

- if you take a look at the academic buildings, there is somehow similar situation: you, as playes has some conditions to build academy/scriptorium/etcetera, but the AI controlled factions could build this building freely, without any conditions - except the settlement sizes, obviously.

academy requires factions { romans_julii, boii, gauls, dacia, germans, spain, nomad, carthage, eastern, parthia, egypt, greek, } or factions { romans_brutii, } and building_present_min_level law_enforcement townspeople

- here is something to read about hidden resources and some related files:

http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Hardcoded

[tiepilot98]

Thank you so much, my friend! Tomorrow I will write the solution how to not to give the other factions to build huge cities.

[ferike_2007]

OK, but what do you want with this 'solution'?

[tiepilot98]

OK, but what do you want with this 'solution'?

I wouldn't give the factions to build huge cities.
Find the solution was very difficult, but I still found...
So, you need:
Hind the "descr_strat" in "Play_%Faction Name%"
Correct this:
Find all "huge_city" and change on "large_city".
Find all "imperial_palace" and change on "proconsuls_palace".
Find all "epic_stone_wall" and change on "large_stone_wall".
If necessary, remove "map.rwm".
Then, find "export_descr_buildings".
Find line "imperial_palace" and change on "imperial_palace requires factions { romans_brutii, } or factions { romans_julii, boii, gauls, dacia, germans, spain, nomad, carthaginian, eastern, parthia, egyptian, greek, romans_brutii, slave, thrace, } and hidden_resource rome.