RTR 6 Gold/Platinum - FAQ (please read this before posting questions)
Edited (Brusilov): The old '.net' links have been deleted as they point to the wrong site.
Frequently Asked Questions...Not sure why this thread wasn't opened here previously...maybe it was and it disappeared...But Please read this thread before posting questions about RTR
01) "What happened to the Senate, Brutti, Scipii, and Julii?"
If you even casually read a non-fiction (re: history) book on the Roman Republic, you'll recognize that the "three family system" and Senate faction as modeled in vanilla RTW is not even remotely historically accurate. The civil wars were between individual generals and their individual legions. The Roman Republic was never, ever, ever, ever, ever divided into individual familiar or factional sub-political-entities. The only time the Roman Empire was ever divided in the way RTW depicts was during the time the Empire was split between East and West. And that is way beyond the timeframe of the original vanilla RTW game and RTR 6.0 Gold. When you play as "The Romans", you are playing as the Roman Republic historically existed: As one unified political, social, and military entity.
02) "Where are the cool Hollywood Romans?" or "Where are the square shields/segmented armor?" or "Why aren't the Romans in red?"
Hollywood is to blame for the red capes and red plumes commonly associated with Roman soldiers. Though red was a common dye used in the ancient world, there is no evidence the Romans actually wore red capes and had red plumes. We know the configuration of Roman uniforms and gear, but, the colors are open to speculation. With that said, the most commonly asked question here is "Where are the square shields" and "Where is the cool armor that Maximus wore in Gladiator?". The square shields commonly associated with Roman legionaries did not come into common use till after the end of the Republican era. Rome Total Realism's time lines ends in 1 AD, therefore, the square shields you see in movies are outside the timeline of this mod. This also applies to the segmented armor, or lorica segmentata, as it was called, which did not come into use till approximately 30 AD. Again, this is outside the timeframe of Rome Total Realism. The units depicted in RTR are thoroughly researched and accurately represented.
03) "What Happened to the cool Druids, Onagers, Screeching Women, War dogs, etc, etc?"
Creative Assembly did a great job appealing to the masses by introducing many "elite", "uber", and "hero" units with "special abilities". This is common for most RTS games. However, historically, armies were not composed of units of armed, chanting druids, "screeching women" were not recruited as an army unit, wardogs were not used en masse, and onagers did not tower two hundred feet in the air. RTR is a comprehensive mod that replaces every original RTW unit with thoroughly researched, historically accurate military units for each faction.
04) "How Do I Install Rome Total Realism and Rome Total War at the same time?"
This is thoroughly covered here:http://forums.totalrealism.net/showthread.php?t=188
05) "Why are there so many phalanx units?"
At 280 BC, much of the world was Greek. The Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt was Greek, the Seleucid Empire was Greek, the Kingdom of Macedon was Greek, the various Greek City-States, obviously, were Greek. The basis of the Greek military was the phalanx, and dozens of her variations. The City-States used the traditional spear-based phalanx, as did the various copies made by the barbarians, whereas the Macedonian and Hellenistic kingdoms used the Sarissa, a pike. In order to properly represent these factions, and the backbone of their military, one must give them many phalanx units. And, to the entire Rome: Total Realism team, realism is key. So the obvious answer to the "what units should Egypt get?" would be "Hoplites."
06) "Where did the Britons go?!"
The Britons were historically insignificant. They did little more than be conquered by the Romans. They were isolationist, though they had ties to Celtic Gaul, and the Parisii tribe, along with others, of Gaul fled to Britannia after the Gallic revolt led by Vercingetorix failed. The Illyrians, inventors of the liburnia, and great pirates, were much more historically significant in Europe. Due to that fact, the Illyrians have been added in the place of Britons. The Britons are, in a sense, still there, but they are rebels. Lots and lots of rebels.
07) "What is the AoR thing anyway?"
The AoR/ZoR (Area/Zone of Recruitment) system gives factions the ability to recruit unique units from lands they conquer and also accurately represents the fact that conquering armies could not immediately replenish their ranks from the local population. For example, a Roman consul could not invade Gaul and immediately recruit Principes and Triarii from the local villages. A period of assimilation would need to take place before the Romans could begin training their own Roman-style armies. The Roman player can, for instance, recruit Gallic warbands to add to his armies, or recruit local mercenaries. This adds historical flavor to the game recruitment mechanic and also lends greater versatility to your army composition. Any faction can recruit nearly any unit in the game now, but faction specific units (ie, Triarii) remain only faction specific.
08) "How do I play multiplayer with RTR 6.x?"
To play RTR 6.0 Gold on multiplayer, you simply need to do is find another person that plays the exact same version of RTR as you do. The best way to arrange a multiplayer game would be to visit the multiplayer forum and find the "Rtr Multiplayer Crew! " thread which lists players and various ways to contact them(Xfire is the easiest and most used method).
http://forums.totalrealism.net/forumdisplay.php?f=68
09) "What are land bridges?"
Land Bridges allows you to move from one coast to another without using a fleet. The Land Bridges were created to both aid the AI in expanding over sea (which in many cases it is reluctant to do so) and to create an abstraction for how an army could move over a narrow channel of water with rafts, barges, and small craft, without the need for a fleet of transports. The Land Bridges are available in the following locations.
Caralis-Aleria
Rhegium-Messana
Athens-Chalkida
Byzantion-Nicomedia
Maronia-Abydos
Smyrna-Mytilene
Side-Kyrenos
10) "What are these auxilia buildings?"
The auxilia buildings slows down the game a bit by avoiding the "steam rolling affect" common in the vanilla game and reflects the fact that it took some time to change the culture of a settlement. The Phase I Auxilia structure represents your cultures subjugation of a foreign territory. The structure only gives you a population control benefit, but is necessary to construct the Phase II Auxilia structure. The Phase II structure, with some factions, allows you to recruit limited local troop types, and lends additional population control benefits. This is considered an abstraction of your colonization of the area. Finally, the Phase III Auxilia structure allows you to recruit all locally available native troop types, and also adds additional population control benefits. This structure is an abstraction that represents your cultures assimilation of a native territory. You can only start to build your own faction's "core units" after you've finished building all of the auxilia buildings and completed the Provincial Barracks structure.
Additional Notes on Barracks:
- Foreign Provincial barracks, Royal barracks and Auxilia buildings are completely useless and can be safely destroyed.
- Foreign Stables and Practice Ranges will allow you to produce the corresponding units but they will give a cultural penalty.
- The military buildings work like this:
Auxilia Phase 1 = Gives a happiness bonus
Auxilia Phase 2 = Able to build basic AoR units in the area.
Auxilia Phase 3 = Able to build all AoR units in the area.
Barracks = Build basic faction units + all AoR units in the area.
Royal Barracks = All faction units + all AoR units in the area.
11) "I'm in year X BC and still have not had the Marian Reforms!"
Gaius Marius reformed the Roman army in the year 107 BC. This reform was undertaken in part because the Roman military engine had exhausted all eligible Romans of proper social rank for the military, and the Republic was under increasing pressure from the Gauls to the north and from Jugurtha of Numidia to the south, not to mention Mithradates in the east. By allowing members of society from the "head count", or, the landless lower class, Marius created a standing professional army for the first time in Roman history. The reform date in Rome Total War is hardcoded by the developers at Creative Assembly, and can occur at any date after 220 BC. However, several factors influence this. The reform will only occur if you have constructed at least one imperial palace in Italy and have sufficient population in Rome (this factor is open to dispute, however). The Rome Total Realism Team did not change the date of the Marius reforms, or influence it in any way. So, if you're unhappy you are in year 30 BC and still don't have legionaries, either build an imperial palace, or write to Creative Assembly.
12) "Will there be a mod of BI?" or "Is RTR compatible with BI" or "Will RTR 7.0 be set in the RTW or BI Timeframe?" etc.
The current build of Rome Total Realism is 6.0 Gold and is set in the timeframe of 280 BC to 1 AD. RTR 7.0 is currently in production and will be based on the Barbarian Invasion (1.6) engine, and will be based in the original RTR timeframe of 280 BC to 1 AD. The RTR Team is not going to release a version of the current RTR 6.x build that will be compatible with BI or with the 1.3 RTW patch. Instead, the Team is focusing its efforts on RTR 7.0 which will feature much more content and will be well worth the wait.
RTR Gold has been ported to the 1.5/1.6 engine by a group of fans. Please refer to #20 for more information.
13) "Which difficulty setting is best?" or "What difficulty setting is RTR made for?" or "What do the difficulty levels mean?" etc.
Many prefer Hard/Hard, others prefer VH/VH, though very few play on Easy or Medium. Some have suggested that a "difficulty bug" exists, which causes Med to be harder than Hard and Very Hard to be the easiest of all. However, this 'difficulty bug' seems to be a rumor, and nothing more. The RTR Team suggests you play on whichever difficulty setting works best for you. Below are the known effects of the difficulty levels:
Battle difficulty:
Easy: +4 morale and +4 attack to your troops.
Medium: No bonuses.
Hard: +4 morale and +4 attack to the ai troops.
Very hard: +7 morale and +7 attack to the ai troops.
Campaign difficulty: Exact effects are not known but the AI cheats on VH by getting an extra $10,000 a turn.
14) "How do I take a screenshot and post it on the forum?"
To take a screenshot follow this simple guide;
1. Hit Print Screen key on your keyboard to capture the image into memory.
2. Open any graphics program such as MSPaint, Infranview, ACDSEE, or Photoshop, etc.
3. Hit Ctrl-V
4. Save the image as .jpg
5. While making a new post
6. Hit "Browse" button next to "File Attachments"
7. Select the .jpg file you just saved, hit OK, and then hit "Add This Attachment"
8. Complete the post by hitting "Add Reply"
15) "I purchased RTW Gold edition, which includes RTW and BI patched to version 1.5, can I play RTR?"
Yes, you need to use the manual 1.2 patch. More information about the patch can be found here, at the "How can I install the official version 1.2 patch manually?" section.
http://forums.totalrealism.net/showthread.php?t=188
Alternatively, you can play RTR: Platinum Edition, which is based upon RTW 1.5/1.6. For more information, please refer to #20.
16) "What is the current version of RTR?
Review this thread for all information about the latest version(s) of RTR.http://forums.totalrealism.net/showthread.php?t=286
17) "Is there a map of 6.0 Gold available to download?
Yes, you can download this political map for RTR 6.0 Gold.http://forums.totalrealism.net/showthread.php?t=396
Originally Posted by Maximus Lazero
