RSIII problems and bugs

[Saul Tyre]

Hi i hope this question hasnt been asked too many times, i have rome steam with BI and installed everything according to the instructions and everything works fine until i try to start a campaign, it crashes every time right after the loading screen. any ideas/solutions?

Roma Surrectum only works with the ALX exe. on steam, the download & install instructions clearly state this mate. The ALX expansion is very cheap these days and is worth buying even if it's just for this mod alone, there are a couple of other mods that use it if you need more reason to justify it's purchase.

[der_baba123]

Roma Surrectum only works with the ALX exe. on steam, the download & install instructions clearly state this mate. The ALX expansion is very cheap these days and is worth buying even if it's just for this mod alone, there are a couple of other mods that use it if you need more reason to justify it's purchase.

Even if i use 2.6? i thought only 3.0 required Alex.

[Saul Tyre]

Even if i use 2.6? i thought only 3.0 required Alex.

Sorry mate, I assumed you meant RS III. although I would double check about 2.6 if I were you. Have you tried taking your game out of programs (x86) and putting it in your c:/drive, you could try installing the mod "as administrator" and you could also try disabling your UAC for the game, this link will show you how, http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...Store-Problems, I don't use steam I have the disc version of Anthology all this has worked for me. It runs great, I also use the free Large Address Aware software(google it) I have had very few ctd's and very little lag. My resolution is set at 1920x1080x16 I have most of my settings on high except grass(medium) vege(medium) unit detail(medium because there is virtually no diff from high) unit size (large) glints/reflections off and campaign shadows off. I hope this helps
EDIT: check out my youtube channel to see the effects for yourself, the link is below in my signature, just left click on it.

[gaaxure]

IDK what causes this or even if it's exclusive to RSIII, but my units seem completely baffled by concept of urban navigation. And they *can not* seem to be able to capture towers/gatehouses from the inside. I just lost a full stack to this idiocy.

[~Seleukos.I.Nikator~]

IDK what causes this or even if it's exclusive to RSIII, but my units seem completely baffled by concept of urban navigation. And they *can not* seem to be able to capture towers/gatehouses from the inside. I just lost a full stack to this idiocy.

Can you be a bit more specific about what happened? Any screens, perhaps?
Are you by any chance referring to Celtic hillforts? These, as far as I know, have been broken all along.
Otherwise the pathfinding inside the settlements goes just fine.

[Saul Tyre]

Otherwise the pathfinding inside the settlements goes just fine.

No it does not, I'm afraid I have to disagree, unless ofc you are extremely unique in that you never have this problem. I don't find that it is making the game unplayable, but it does cause problems in gameplay tactics and placement of units. The new buildings are the main cause imo as they cut across or close in on pathfinding routes. I have had cavalry hugging the side of buildings, units morphing through walls, units splitting in two when sent up on the outer wall, failing to enter the dooorway to the wall, half running along the wall and the other half running along the ground beside the wall to reach another entrance, units running in the opposite direction from where they have been sent, two units fighting each other half in and half out of a building, units morphing though the gateway next to the ram, refusing to exit the siege tower, a unit of men running round crazily trying to reform just inside the perimeter wall. There is also the AI's units little "changing formation" dance around in field battles when they are on the defence, which often tires them out before my army approaches them. IMO pathfinding is THE major irritant with RSIII, should you choose not to believe me then check out my Let's Play's for RSIII on youtube, I'm sure you won't have to search far before you find an issue concerning pathfinding. There are many other "small" issues with this mod, whether they are fixable or down to hard coding in the base game I don't really know. Although imo it is still the best out there, and I'm one of it's biggest fans, it is imo far from being what you say it is.

[~Seleukos.I.Nikator~]

No it does not, I'm afraid I have to disagree, unless ofc you are extremely unique in that you never have this problem. I don't find that it is making the game unplayable, but it does cause problems in gameplay tactics and placement of units. The new buildings are the main cause imo as they cut across or close in on pathfinding routes. I have had cavalry hugging the side of buildings, units morphing through walls, units splitting in two when sent up on the outer wall, failing to enter the dooorway to the wall, half running along the wall and the other half running along the ground beside the wall to reach another entrance, units running in the opposite direction from where they have been sent, two units fighting each other half in and half out of a building, units morphing though the gateway next to the ram, refusing to exit the siege tower, a unit of men running round crazily trying to reform just inside the perimeter wall. There is also the AI's units little "changing formation" dance around in field battles when they are on the defence, which often tires them out before my army approaches them. IMO pathfinding is THE major irritant with RSIII, should you choose not to believe me then check out my Let's Play's for RSIII on youtube, I'm sure you won't have to search far before you find an issue concerning pathfinding. There are many other "small" issues with this mod, whether they are fixable or down to hard coding in the base game I don't really know. Although imo it is still the best out there, and I'm one of it's biggest fans, it is imo far from being what you say it is.

That's a bit of a generalization as it actually depends on what campaign you play and what settlements you besiege. Since the release of RSIII I've played a couple of campaigns and at times indeed I found the pathfinding quite challenging, but that doesn't concern all the settlements and certainly doesn't make the game unplayable. I might have lost a unit or two due to buggy pathfinding, but to lose the entire stack to it...

Overall I find the Roman, Hellenistic and, unless my memory deceives me, Easter settlements with the default, vanilla layout almost spotless. Some minor issues may occur, but they do not have an impact on the battle experience as a whole. With regard to DVK901's settlements, well, I can only speak of those that I've had a chance to besiege. So, from among them, the siege of Antioch and, as far as I remember, Ephesus went fine, with only small issues. The siege of Sparta I remember was a bit annoying, especially around the inner wall surrounding the forum, but then again it took only a bit of running around it to find an entry. What is, however, a real problem are the Celtic hillforts. These are broken, no doubt about it, and even though they look nice at first sight, they should perhaps be removed from the mod and replace with the vanilla settlement layouts. That said, all those pathfinding issues associated with them follow in general a certain pattern that, once learnt, might be used to avoid them and make the siege of those hillforts a bit less annoying.

Whether you struggle with these pathfinding issues or not depends thus on what it is that you are actually dealing with in your campaign. If you play Rome fighting against one of the northern tribes, or you manage one of the barbarian factions, then yes, you will definitely struggle a lot and this will no doubt have an overall impact on your gaming experience.

Of late I've been for example playing a campaign with Macedon, fighting mostly in Greece and Asia Minor and I wouldn't really point to any serious problems that I've experienced with sieges in that particular campaign. Before it was a campaign with Pontus and again no major issues. Before Pontus there were Arveni, and well, surrounded by mostly hillforts I found besieging them quite irritating.

[ur-Lord Tedric]

No it does not, I'm afraid I have to disagree, unless ofc you are extremely unique in that you never have this problem. ......................

Are you, per chance, playing with 'Huge Units' ?

[Saul Tyre]

Are you, per chance, playing with 'Huge Units' ?

No, large units.

[Saul Tyre]

@seleukos99 Thanks for your reply, my comment was in answer to your statement that the pathfinding "goes just fine" I did not say that it makes the game unplayable but actually the opposite, nor did I say it had an impact on my battle experience, that I struggle and that there were serious problems. I also said I was not putting all issues at the door of RSIII, but my point was that there IS pathfinding issues, whether large or small and they are irritable to me(but definitely not impossible to overcome) I am currently playing as Athens and had some small(but funny) issues when Macedon tried to take back Thessalonike, you can see this in my last episode (29.00 to 45.00) I have also played as Macedon, Pergamon, Syracuse, Dacia & Belgae(as an LP) and all had similar issues at some point, in fact as Belgae I had The Romani attack me in Bibracte and their ballista actually fire bombed a tree and some empty spare ground with none of my units near it lol, I have it on video, though I cannot remember which one it is. I definitely agree the Hillforts are a pain and would probably be best left out but in 2.6 they were probably just as bad, they just look nicer this time..PS. I played Belgae on vh/vh and had a major crash I could not get round and had to abandon it. The others I played on h/vh....and btw I did not win them all

[~Seleukos.I.Nikator~]

@Saule Tyre, yes, indeed, it's definitely not in RSIII that we have to cope with these problems for the first time. The hillforts have been broken all along. And even in vanilla Rome the pathfinding was not so accurate.

I think that at the end of the day it comes down to what do we actually expect from the modders. There's been so many skilled individuals working on these issues for so many years now, and since no suitable solution has yet been found, it is, I believe, simply something that we will always have to deal with. A prize of a kind that we have to pay for bringing into the game a bit more of a variety. Personally, I like it more the way it is now than having to besiege the same-looking clone settlements over and over again.

[dvk901]

That's a bit of a generalization as it actually depends on what campaign you play and what settlements you besiege. Since the release of RSIII I've played a couple of campaigns and at times indeed I found the pathfinding quite challenging, but that doesn't concern all the settlements and certainly doesn't make the game unplayable. I might have lost a unit or two due to buggy pathfinding, but to lose the entire stack to it...

Overall I find the Roman, Hellenistic and, unless my memory deceives me, Easter settlements with the default, vanilla layout almost spotless. Some minor issues may occur, but they do not have an impact on the battle experience as a whole. With regard to DVK901's settlements, well, I can only speak of those that I've had a chance to besiege. So, from among them, the siege of Antioch and, as far as I remember, Ephesus went fine, with only small issues. The siege of Sparta I remember was a bit annoying, especially around the inner wall surrounding the forum, but then again it took only a bit of running around it to find an entry. What is, however, a real problem are the Celtic hillforts. These are broken, no doubt about it, and even though they look nice at first sight, they should perhaps be removed from the mod and replace with the vanilla settlement layouts. That said, all those pathfinding issues associated with them follow in general a certain pattern that, once learnt, might be used to avoid them and make the siege of those hillforts a bit less annoying.

Whether you struggle with these pathfinding issues or not depends thus on what it is that you are actually dealing with in your campaign. If you play Rome fighting against one of the northern tribes, or you manage one of the barbarian factions, then yes, you will definitely struggle a lot and this will no doubt have an overall impact on your gaming experience.

Of late I've been for example playing a campaign with Macedon, fighting mostly in Greece and Asia Minor and I wouldn't really point to any serious problems that I've experienced with sieges in that particular campaign. Before it was a campaign with Pontus and again no major issues. Before Pontus there were Arveni, and well, surrounded by mostly hillforts I found besieging them quite irritating.

@seleukos99 Thanks for your reply, my comment was in answer to your statement that the pathfinding "goes just fine" I did not say that it makes the game unplayable but actually the opposite, nor did I say it had an impact on my battle experience, that I struggle and that there were serious problems. I also said I was not putting all issues at the door of RSIII, but my point was that there IS pathfinding issues, whether large or small and they are irritable to me(but definitely not impossible to overcome) I am currently playing as Athens and had some small(but funny) issues when Macedon tried to take back Thessalonike, you can see this in my last episode (29.00 to 45.00) I have also played as Macedon, Pergamon, Syracuse, Dacia & Belgae(as an LP) and all had similar issues at some point, in fact as Belgae I had The Romani attack me in Bibracte and their ballista actually fire bombed a tree and some empty spare ground with none of my units near it lol, I have it on video, though I cannot remember which one it is. I definitely agree the Hillforts are a pain and would probably be best left out but in 2.6 they were probably just as bad, they just look nicer this time..PS. I played Belgae on vh/vh and had a major crash I could not get round and had to abandon it. The others I played on h/vh....and btw I did not win them all

I am aware that there are a few issues with pathfinding....believe me when I say that I tested ALL of these settlements vigorously while I was building them, and only missed one MAJOR blunder that is fixed in the next version. But, as I've explained before, there were many small issues that were beyond my ability to fix, and a few that I felt just made the game a little bit more challenging. Units going through buildings, for example, happens because I could find not 'collision' files that would fit that building. A collision file is the part of a building (a separate file from the model of the building) that prevents units from walking through it. RTW Vanilla buildings all had them except for one of the Carthaginian buildings that got missed. However, Jarlaxe's buildings (all the new Greek ones that were used extensively) had NO collision files. That's because he made new city layouts that prevents units from leaving the roads. I didn't use them, and couldn't because they were either too small or wouldn't allow me to build the cities I wanted to. That forced me to try and find RTW collision files that would 'fit' with his buildings. I found quite a few that would, but for some I couldn't find anything that would work. So those buildings will allow units to walk thru them.

The issues will some cities, like Sparta, are caused by the fact that the RTW city model (layout) considers the whole center of the city (where the plaza is) as a 'free path' for units. But the inner walls block that path. So if you just click on a bunch of units and send them to the plaza, they will take a straight as possible path to the plaza....which is then blocked by walls. The units will run into the walls and then bunch up and try to find a way thru or around the walls. I was aware of this issue, but with a bit of 'guidance' was always able to get units thru the gates. Irritating I suppose to players used to a more straightforward approach, but I have never had as my guiding goal making RS 'easier'.....rather, a decent challenge. Cites were always hard to take, just ask Pyrrhus of Epirus who was killed by someone throwing a roof tile on his head.

The same applies, in my opinion, to the Hillforts. They're hard, they're messed up, and there are really only two ways to get into them. Caesar had the devil of a time fighting around them. They could be defended by far fewer men than the enemy had outside them, and they were KNOWN for the difficulty one would encounter navigating in them. I just believe they are more realistic.

[ur-Lord Tedric]

.........................Lots of dvk' great stuff.................................................................................. I just believe they are more realistic.

[Saul Tyre]

I am aware that there are a few issues with pathfinding....believe me when I say that I tested ALL of these settlements vigorously while I was building them, and only missed one MAJOR blunder that is fixed in the next version. But, as I've explained before, there were many small issues that were beyond my ability to fix, and a few that I felt just made the game a little bit more challenging...................I just believe they are more realistic.

Thank you for the explanation, I do appreciate the lengths to which you(and others) have gone to make this mod what it is. My comment was not meant as a criticism but an observational reply to another post. Although I impulsively get irritated sometimes, I have always tried to make light of the issues within and turned them into roleplaying "obstacles" creating the "realism" to which you mention, just as I have done with other mods with hardcode issues. I understand there are limits set down by the hardcoding of the base game, or at least as much as I can not being a modder. As far as I'm concerned RS is the best mod bar none to play, even though there are one or two others that run it close, I continually find myself leaving the others and returning to it. I am presently(afaik) the only Let's Player who represents RSIII on youtube and have given rep to your painstaking work during some of my narrations(occasionally I have have given reference to Tone, Sinuhet, Jarlaxe & Quintillius for their work too) I don't have a large following yet as I have only recently started, but it has given me the opportunity to "put it out there" and let the public see RSIII "in action", which was part of my inspiration. Thanks once again for THE mod of the last decade (imo at least)

[Saul Tyre]

@seleukos99: I agree totally with everything you say and as I recently joined the RTR Project team working on the new 4.0 beta due for release in the spring, I appreciate even more the work that goes into a mod....and we all as players get this for free too. Anyway it's been nice "chatting" with you and trying to put the world of RS to rights, good Total Warring

[~Seleukos.I.Nikator~]

Likewise @Saul Tyre, good Total Warring and good luck with your development team! Who knows, maybe you will find at the last some resolution to this bloody pathfinding issue!

[Saul Tyre]

Thank you for your kind words, The RTR Project leader and the head of PR invited me after reading my comments and watching my LP's, I accepted as I wanted to try and give something back in my own small way as thanks for the hours of fun I've had playing their mods. I am the same with RS, although I'm not a great player or had any previous LP experience, I wanted to do something to express how good this mod is and made it my new hobby, afaik I am the only person currently doing RSIII as an LP on youtube, although there is one other person doing 2.6.

[Wolf Priest]

Please, add to installation process for Steam that you need to download .exe file, as without it it will just CTD. I spent hours to find answer. I just installed this mod today, old players probably know this, but new ones don't.

[Saul Tyre]

Please, add to installation process for Steam that you need to download .exe file, as without it it will just CTD. I spent hours to find answer. I just installed this mod today, old players probably know this, but new ones don't.

I don't use steam myself but I'm sure this has been addressed in some other threads in the forum. I agree it would be a good idea to put it in the initial dl & install instructions, maybe you could suggest it to those concerned.

[HG_SCIPCION]

Hi, I enjoy the mod, I dont see several problems, but this is very frustrating, why in RS the units don't broken formations (in rtw vanilla this dont is a problem)

any idea how resolve this?

thanks! and great work, RS is really awesome!