- Download links & Installation -

[FFJean]

Dear both Joar and Gäiten,

I wish you all the best, to get well in the near future! Without any reaction from you, I had the impression that you had found my comments on « bugs & errors » unpleasant, I hope it is not the case.
I want to thank you again for all the passion you obviously have put in this mod, and hope you both will recover soon.

Kind regards,

FFJean

[MarcoAurelio82]

Gaiten and Joar, I wish you the best! I hope you both recovery soon.

About troops recruitment system, I have understood how it works, so I need no more explanation. In some mods the tech tree is not implemented (not for modders fault, but because the structures system is too “weird” compared to vanilla TW, so it’s not possible to implement it in the right way), but in your mod it has been implemented.

Old bugs update:
- Artestaran-i-Suqd it’s the unit that in the battlemap you hear “Triari” when you click on it.
- Together with “Armenian Heir” (about Kushano-Kidarites faction heir), there is also the trait “PusAy Vaspuhr”: I suppose that this is the correct one.

New Bugs report:
- The trait Cavalry Commander of Genius” should be “Genius Cavalry Commander”.
- It’s not a real bug, but Khwarazm region name is set in two territories: in one of them the “a” are written “å”, but it’s the same region. Probably is better to use something like “Western Khwarazm/Eastern Khwarazm”, or “Khwarazm Occidentalis/Khwarazm Orientalis”.
- Not 100% sure (maybe it's just an oversight), but I don’t have seen the message “Faction Destroyed” when I have destroyed Epthalithes faction.
- Considering how you have realized the mod about factions, I agree with the fact that factions located in west of Scythia can’t reach factions located in east of Scythia, but I’m not sure that this choice is good for the Africa: if you play with Berbers faction, it could be a good expansion choice the possibility to conquer all (the north) Africa.
- The peculiar structure in Barbarikon city named “Spice market” is without both the UI building picture and the UI building description picture (there is only the default image).

Question:
- If I conquer regions in far west with the eastern factions, which kind of troops I can recruit (if I can recruit) in these regions?

And a report about my campaign:
- Simultaneously to the Epthalithes invasion, 3 of my cities (all in the north) have been rebelled after some turns of war on their territories. Both the Indian and the Steppe front have been stabilized after many funny battles, where I have seen both victories and defeats, and in many turns I have risked to be overwhelmed in a decisive way, considering the few generals and troops engaged in this front. Mercenaries recruited have been decisive. After have decimated the last of their horde-army, I have cut them off the possibility to retreat (they have tried to return on their territories), killing also their King. From this point on, they have never returned to attack and, about the two cities on their hands (their starting city and one of mine conquered by them), I have re-conquered my city destroying their faction.
- My advance against Persians have finally reached the Gurgan-Parthava-Yazd-Persis line: I have played many funny battles (including some clear defeats). The inner region of Tus has resisted for many, many turns after I have reached the line, with 4 enemy generals (one of them with ten stars about command) inside one army and other 3 armies. In the north (Gurgan), Persians have tried only sporadic attacks; in the south (Persis), they have never tried to counter-attack. All their efforts have been concentrated in the center, sometime in Yazd region; often and with many armies in Parthava region. Now I have 5 armies inside forts that guards this line: their attacks have been reduced, but they often provoke me to attack invading my territories without to attack. In far north, Jaxarta is under siege and its fate is sealed.
- My plans for the final part of the campaign is to conquer the free people cities to reach the victory conditions, but I think I will conquer all of them south of Scythia. Barbarikon is fallen today (but also here, before to conquer it, I had underestimated the task, defeating their first army and suffering a crushing defeat against their second army). After that, maybe I will try a huge advance in the west.
- Now that my faction is the only power in this area, I feel a bit the lack of a faction south of Scythia (but I understand the modders choice), and I have become really rich (too rich). Every economy scenario settings choices have their strengths and weaknesses: about this mod, when you are in trouble, it simulates in a realistic way the fact that an empire must have a decent quantity of money to support at least some armies, but when your faction becomes a power, too many money enter in your treasury. In EB, a mod that I love, you start near the bankrupt and this is not realistic: if you perform bad in the first battles and/or if one faction more strong than you attack you too soon, you are finished (no good). Instead, in the advanced phases of the game, even if you have an empire, you must handle the finances rigorously (it’s more challenging). Probably a middle way would be the best choice, but I understand that it is very difficult to implement (and I have played only with one faction, so I don’t know the global situation: maybe the Kushano-Kidarites faction economy situation is one of the most favorable).

[MarcoAurelio82]

Old bugs update: - The Spice Market without pictures in Barbarikon (very probably) is not a peculiar/unique building (I thought it was), but the Spice Market building of Epthalithes faction. So maybe it has sense to investigate in this direction.

New bugs report:
- In the mercenaries recruitment pool, the Transoxanian Tribal Spearmen UI card is missing (it’s showed the default one: a peasant). After you have recruited it, the UI card it’s showed correctly.
- In tech tree, about School building, the fact that it requires a Great Market is missing.
- There are 2 regions named “Lusitania”, it would be better differentiate them in some way.
- In the faction victory message, the short video showed in loop it’s about Rome faction.

My campaign with Kushano-Kidarites faction is officially finished (I have reached the victory conditions), but I will play it for a while longer. I have had a lot of fun! Thanks again for this mod. Next time I think I will play with Berbers, Ephtalithes or Armenians.

[Gäiten]

Your bug reports are appreciated.

Debugging of some will require a new game start, so there will be two update: one of the minor debugging, and another for the more serious.

Question:
- If I conquer regions in far west with the eastern factions, which kind of troops I can recruit (if I can recruit) in these regions?

Only few.
However, there are a lot of different Mercenaries.

[Flavius Theodosius Augustus]

Good find! Gäiten will check this out as soon as he's able.

I would like to let everyone know that both Gäiten and me are struggling with serious health problems, and that's the reason why we occasionally are not so active. But we greatly appreciate all the feedback, and will adress it all as soon as we can.

Please take all the time you need, I'd never ask someone to place a video game over their health. I hope you guys get well soon!

- Now that my faction is the only power in this area, I feel a bit the lack of a faction south of Scythia (but I understand the modders choice), and I have become really rich (too rich). Every economy scenario settings choices have their strengths and weaknesses: about this mod, when you are in trouble, it simulates in a realistic way the fact that an empire must have a decent quantity of money to support at least some armies, but when your faction becomes a power, too many money enter in your treasury. In EB, a mod that I love, you start near the bankrupt and this is not realistic: if you perform bad in the first battles and/or if one faction more strong than you attack you too soon, you are finished (no good). Instead, in the advanced phases of the game, even if you have an empire, you must handle the finances rigorously (it’s more challenging). Probably a middle way would be the best choice, but I understand that it is very difficult to implement (and I have played only with one faction, so I don’t know the global situation: maybe the Kushano-Kidarites faction economy situation is one of the most favorable).

I wish I had this problem! In my ERE campaign I'm barely making enough money to replace the troops I'm losing fighting the Sassanids and their allies (OMG they never end! I've destroyed countless armies and they just keep on coming. I've already lost three armies due to casualties - one of which had a large amount of praesental units and comitatenses that I can't retrain and/or replace because no money - and have practically stripped the western provinces entirely of their garrison forces). I love this mod so much! As a side note I found that the Domesticorum Sagittarii Pedites also cause my game to crash (which is odd b/c I swear they used to not do that).

[Gäiten]

A hint for fighting the Sasanians :
Use your cities as fortified strongpoints with strong garrisons.
Feld battles against their Elite cavalry are difficult.

[MarcoAurelio82]

Ok Gaiten, thanks for the attention!

Old bugs update:
- After that the heir of my faction has become king, he has lost the wrong heir trait (“Armenian Heir”), but “PusAy Vaspuhr” has remained (and it’s wrong). Moreover, as king (“King of the kings”), again he has both traits: “ShahanShaia” (that it should be the right one), and “Ark’Ayits Arkay” (that it should be the Armenian trait). There is also another possibility: if you have coded these traits for Armenian and Persians as exclusive of these factions, both traits (for Kushano Kidarites). I’m port to think that you have coded king/heir traits as the same for Persians and Kushano-Kidarites, but of course I can’t be sure.
- The cavalry unit marked in battlemap as missile cavalry (instead of heavy cavalry) it’s “Azadan-i-Hyon”. Note: there are also few missile cavalry units that are marked as heavy cavalry, but they are really heavy: they cover both roles, so in this case I don’t think it’s a bug.

New bug report:
- I attach a screenshot. Two things: the text of the boat description (of the rebel boat in the lake) is bad formatted and it’s wrong in some words; in the strategic map is winter: the snow covered portion of forest surrounded by green forests (without to be on a mountain) I think it’s a bug.

I can't edit the post yet:
"There is also another possibility: if you have coded these traits for Armenian and Persians as exclusive of these factions, both traits (for Kushano Kidarites) are wrong". (I had forgotten to write "are wrong").

[MarcoAurelio82]

New bugs report (always playing Kushano-Kidarites faction: if I change faction, I will specify it.)

- In Army Fort building description (I don’t remember at which Army Fort level, but I mean after have built it), there is a unit named: “Fradaran-i-Gund-i-Kust-i-Kwarasan”. I don’t see it in the recruitment pool of that city, but in the recruitment pool there is a unit that it’s not mentioned in any of the city buildings: “Kidara Royal Bodygards”. I suspect that these two units are the same unit, so names should be uniformed (using only one of the names; or using both names with the English name in brackets).
- Campus Sakae and Kashgar cities they have stone wall marked as “Roman” instead of “Eastern”.
- In battle map, Khotan Cavalry bow it disappears after every shot, then it reappears (it's replaced by a sword, then replaced by the bow, and so on). This unit doesn’t have it as default in its graphic.
- Water well image in town building and in building construction queue are different: maybe one of them it’s the water well image of another faction.
- Probably this is not a bug, but I’m not sure: the first two ranks of estates buildings (for regional cavalry recruitment) are unbound from the other two ranks. This fact means that from rank 1 to rank 2, new rank 2 units are added in recruitment pool; from rank 2 to rank 3, old units are replaced by rank 3 units; from rank 3 to rank 4, they are added. I suppose it’s a modders design choice (in my opinion very interesting), but just in case it’s instead a bug, I report it.

[MarcoAurelio82]

- In Army Fort building description (I don’t remember at which Army Fort level, but I mean after have built it), there is a unit named: “Fradaran-i-Gund-i-Kust-i-Kwarasan”. I don’t see it in the recruitment pool of that city, but in the recruitment pool there is a unit that it’s not mentioned in any of the city buildings: “Kidara Royal Bodygards”. I suspect that these two units are the same unit, so names should be uniformed (using only one of the names; or using both names with the English name in brackets).

This is not a bug: all it works in a perfect way for both units. I got confused due to the fact that the city had damaged buildings (so some units were not available to recruit).

[RandomPerson2000]

Just a minor issue but I've noticed that the religious demographics of a few regions could be changed to reflect the historical situation more accurately like for example

• The regions of Mesopotamia owned by the Sassanids should have a Nicene Christian majority with relatively large Jewish, Manichean and Pagan minorities and perhaps a small Zoroastrian minority.
• Around 25% of Edessa's population could be Pagan to represent the nearby city of Harran where many of its inhabitants continued to worship the Mesopotamian pantheon until around the 11th century.
• The regions of Archaia and Peleponnesus could have a slight Pagan manjority considering that Christianisation in those regions didn't really pick up until after the start of the 5th century.

Here's a few sources that anyone might look into if they want to research this in more depth although they mainly cover the Eastern Roman Empire.
Early Christianity in Asia Minor and Cyprus: From the Margins to the Mainstream
Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370-529, Volume 2

[MarcoAurelio82]

New bugs report:
- In both start campaign menu and in the faction summary card while playing, for the following factions there isn’t specified which and how many settlements must be controlled to win: Hepthalites, Burgundians, Longobards, Berbers (I can search their victory conditions inside the files of the mod, but this thing should be fixed).
- In battle map, Khotan cavalry can’t form the cantabrian circle (it doesn't work) : honestly I don’t know if the bug it’s the fact that cantabrian circle doesn’t work for this unit, or if this unit shouldn’t have this feature by modders choice (but in this second case it should not be showed in the unit menu).
- Scythia region (I mean the one in ERE, not the Terra incoginta macro-region) must be named “Scythia Minor”, and must be inverted with “Tracia Secunda” region. The regions borders in this area (I mean in Moesia as macro-region) are not always perfect: the correction I suggest it’s the more quick way to obtain an important correction without to touch other things.

A consideration and 3 questions about IA
Usually, if I don’t read modders indication about difficulty settings, I play medium/medium (campaign and battle). Sometimes (for exampe with EB mod) hard difficulty about battles. Playing with Kushano-Kidarites, I have begun a big advance in the west with the objective to destroy Persian faction. I’m playing this mod at medium/medium difficulty. After have defeated the starting Persians armies in the past two weeks (they had a good number of heavy troops), during these days I have almost never encountered heavy troops inside enemy armies (only some medium troops per army, all the other are light troops; a single heavy unit inside an army it's the only and rare exception), so I obtain very often crushing victories. I would try the campaign with hard difficulty settings, but, in this game, I really don’t like the fact that hard/very hard difficulty settings usually they finish to destroy the already rather bad diplomacy IA behavior (for example, even if you guard your regions borders with strong armies, they continue to attack you anyway and/or declare again war to you: a foolish behavior). I anyway can take in consideration to play with hard or very hard (campaign and battle) difficulty settings, but I would to know the following things (about RTW BI in general, because I suppose that modders they don’t have touched this aspect) :
1) Someone knows if, playing with hard/very hard difficulty settings, IA recruits heavy troops in good quantity?
2) Playing the mod the IA never recruits mercenaries (that very often are heavy troops). In particular, in my campaign Persian Empire is the richest faction, but it prefers not recruit them. Someone knows if, playing hard/very hard difficulty settings, IA recruits mercenaries? I’m sure I have seen this in past, but I don’t remember where (org RTW; BI, Alexander, or some mods).
3) About diplomats bribe option. Considering that in my campaign Persian Empire is the richest faction, I expected it to corrupts some of my generals to slow my advance, but it has never happened. Again: someone knows if, playing hard/very hard difficulty settings, IA tries to corrupt generals? I remember I have seen a thing like this in the past (org RTW, or BI, or Alexander, or some mods: I don’t remember), even if not often.

[BroskiDerpman]

Congratulations to the mod team, it has been a long ride and the few that are left have finally seen the light of this release. I'll play through this in my spare time for my late antiquity fix and let the devs know as the people above my post have done so in terms of bug reports.

Diocle may cringe as I say this but man oh man have times changed; I cannot wait to run down the Romans on the mounts of the persian warhorses. The Roman defector broski....

[Iaius Statius Laurentius]

Amazing! I’d given up hope for ever seeing another IB mod.

I especially love the thematic late antiquity UI and all the building/event/character art. It’s authentic to the vanilla RTW style but correctly reflects actual late antiquity. That visual fidelity adds a lot of immersion and is probably the main reason I’m bothering to come back to an RTW mod. Exceptionally good job with the art!

Shame about the campaign script being buggy but I appreciate the advance warning; I’ll be sure to leave it off.

Shame that there aren’t the ethnicity traits of SAI, those were always fun and immersive.

Looking forward to trying R.R. out properly this weekend.

[Vishas]

Gaiten, Joar, you are two mythical gods or divinities representative of an almost extinct current in favor of the new editions of the Total War saga, so, see that today (2019) has managed to promote a mod of this category, is to cry from emotion. And no, I didn't cry but as soon as I knew it (last night) I took several extra hours and now I go to work with lack of sleep. I've been waiting for this moment for ten years...

The game is very worked. It shows that you have spent many hours of your lives and each of the units has been well treated, to the point of seeing aspects that even I never appreciated that I would observe in an incredible... MOD. Just say thank you from the heart for this gift.

However, I have several doubts, which I would like Gaiten or Joar to solve me, to know if in the future they will be able to make some changes in the mod. The first is...

1) Will the system of additional options be incorporated as in the UPS, with patches for VEGETATION or STRAP MAP MODELS?

2) Will an option for music modification be incorporated? (Yesterday, listening to the music of the original Rome, I felt nostalgia but at the same time trauma, since I've been listening the tracklist modified for many years lol).

3) Will the units, along with the graphic system, continue with the Vanilla TW line or will they be modified in order to obtain the graphic line of the SAI?

4) (And last). Is it possible to change the game screen on the battlefield, so you don't see the marks of the units, nor the flags of each of them? (In the style of the SAI) In his day I read that it was possible, but as I have never needed in the SAI...

A big hug to both of you. Taking out a mod of this type, consisting of two people and the timely support of other collaborators, is very difficult. Tremendously difficult. I would almost say it's EPIC.

[BHL 20]

4) (And last). Is it possible to change the game screen on the battlefield, so you don't see the marks of the units, nor the flags of each of them? (In the style of the SAI) In his day I read that it was possible, but as I have never needed in the SAI...

That's just a matter of going to your preferences file and setting SHOW_BANNERS:FALSE and DISABLE_ARROW_MARKERS:TRUE. It's possible to do this for any mod.

[Baron von Manteuffel]

Campaign as Visigoths crashes at loading screen. Tried it twice and both times it crashed.

[Sae]

Congratulations!


Lots of good work!

[BroskiDerpman]

So far my initial impressions are pretty good, though I have not tested the campaign yet. The units seem to be fine in terms of rendering, however the balance or gameplay intentions of the unit design is something I have not looked in depth at. Give me some time and I can probably give some more insight, it's great to see the old lads still alive here though.

[Gäiten]

I am feeling better.

So far I still collect your hints, recommedations and ideas to decide what I will include in an update.

[Fresco]

I would play with the Scripts,please fix it!!