Feature Requests

[Cymera]

Spartans ain't what they used to be.

Good suggestions and ideas as always RedFox.

[Locky]

The Spartans at full force could send about 8.000 fully equipped Spartiates at any know time in the 400 BC years

What? By 400BC there was barely 3000 homioio left. In 280BC there was barely 400 homioio around.Uness you mean around 480, but the populence rapidly declined over the next 50 years. And they would never send the entire force out, even at Plataea there was only about 4800 Spartans present.

[RedFox]

Sorry, but I just need to bump this:

Dime and Zarax: I have a very wierd error with my version, the thing is, whenever I Alt+F4, or just Quit XGM, it CTD's and displays an error message.
Any idea what might cause this? Because it's silly and annoying...

Hope I get an answer this time before it gets flooded with silly replys..

[DimeBagHo]

Kara Kolyo: There are two kinds of problems you can get with converting the culture of a settlement. (1) The initial unrest, which can be dealt with by putting a high influence governor in the region. (2) The effect of neighbouring regions which may prevent the population from converting even after you build a colony. The way I usually deal with this is by colonizing whole blocks of regions at a time. Of course that can also get you an exciting civil war if you don't manage the initial unrest well.

The western civilized cultures also get some cultural buildings that help out a bit - I might take a look at what is available to the other factions and see if I can even things out a bit.

supeerme: I'm not sure about adding new wonders. You can certainly modify the appearance of the existing wonders (although you can't directly change their effects).

Zarax: Are you thinking about using the foot generals as governor units or more as battlefield generals? I still like the idea of recruitable governor units, and making them foot units would be one way to make them less useful on the battlefield.

RedFox: I take it you are getting a CTD with a Windows error message, not an RTW error message? I've had that before, but I can't remember what the cause was.

What happens when you delete map.rwm and force it to regenerate? Sometimes you can get funny results if you are using bad text files together with a map.rwm that was generated earlier with good text files.

[RedFox]

Dime: Yes, I get a generic windows CTD "report bug" window, as the game slowly crashes in the background. I'll try and recompile the campaign map to see if it has an effect, though I doubt... maybe it will not run at all?

[DimeBagHo]

If it's a problem with the map file then it should crash out when you try to regenerate it - but at least then you should get a more informative error message.

[RedFox]

Well, no luck with that, if I start a new campaign it regenerates a new map.rwm (size is 0.01mb smaller than the old map.rwm) and then falls back to the campaign menu. Keeps doing that over and over. Besides that, the old map.rwm now crashes when it's around 8/10 of the loading bar...

This keeps getting wierder and wierder, plus if you Quit it still crashes :S
Though battles still kinda work ok

[Zarax]

Zarax: Are you thinking about using the foot generals as governor units or more as battlefield generals? I still like the idea of recruitable governor units, and making them foot units would be one way to make them less useful on the battlefield.

The idea is still to have them as governor units, meaning foot generals with the minimum bodyguard size...

[RedFox]

I have looked all day for solutions and finally stumbled upon filemon.
Hopefully it will help me solve the problem and get back to finishing some new historical battles and battlemap chunks..

EDIT:

Well, seems that the Quit error is BI specific, I don't experience this with the RTW executable.
Another thing to note: With the newly generated map.rwm, I can't play historical battles, crashes right when I launch it. So I figure the base data files have been somehow "modded to shreds".

Any idea on the Exit CTD? It's so goddamn annoying - doesn't make use of show_err. (i'll try and disable show_err though, maybe that will change something..)

[gie]

In the quest for new unit ideas I borrowed a copy of the table-top wargaming supplement "Warhammer Historical - Hannibal". Got to say that this one, and the similar one on Spartacus could be great resources for new unit ideas. Page 79 of the Hannibal supplement details Ligurian allies of Carthage, with a picture of a guy wearing a horned helmet just like the RTW bull warrior (which I have previously thought of as pure fantasy) and carrying a sickle weapon, called a pennato, rather like a one handed falx...and a dead ringer for those "sickle men' from Alexander RTW.

Many other good unit ideas as well.

Can you give me more details on that ligurian with a pennato.
It is plastic figure or it is a drawing?Does the book contains good information on the armies Punic Wars armies and especialy the ligurians?

[icydawgfish]

What about including historical battles for certain factions at certain dates with different outcomes based on who wins/loses (like they are doing w/the enxt version of RTR). Also, what about including regional hoplite units (Athenian, Corinthian, Theban, Boetion, Tarentine, Rhodian, Syracusian, Lidyan, Illirian). And would it be possible to make it so that these units could only be recruited by the hellenic factions?

[Zarax]

After seeing some really nice documentary about carthaginian engineering skills I think the faction needs a few extra bonuses:

- Carthage should have a special building that gives some extra trade fleet bonuses to represent their city docks, the most advanced in all mediterranean

- They should have access to hepteres and deceres just like the greek factions

[RedFox]

Zarax and Dime: thanks to the numerous backups I made, Dark XGM (new name) is now running with some questionable stability.
The wierd "Quit CTD" error was caused by three new buildings added previously

building greek_colonies
{
    levels small_colony big_colony independent_colony
    {
        small_colony requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, roman, } and building_present_min_level port_buildings port
        {
            capability
            {
            population_growth_bonus bonus -2
			trade_base_income_bonus bonus 1
            happiness_bonus bonus 1
            }
            construction  1 
            cost  2400 
            settlement_min city
            upgrades
            {
                big_colony
            }
        }
        big_colony requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, roman, } and building_present_min_level port_buildings shipwright
        {
            capability
            {
            population_growth_bonus bonus -4
			trade_base_income_bonus bonus 2
            happiness_bonus bonus 2
			}
            construction  3 
            cost  4800 
            settlement_min large_city
            upgrades
            {
			independent_colony
            }
        }
        independent_colony requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, roman, } and building_present_min_level port_buildings shipwright
        {
            capability
            {
            population_growth_bonus bonus -6
			trade_base_income_bonus bonus 3
			happiness_bonus bonus 3
            }
            construction  5 
            cost  9600 
            settlement_min huge_city
            upgrades
            {
            }
        }
    }
    plugins 
    {
    }
}
building ore_import
{
    levels puny_import extended_import massive_import
    {
        puny_import requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, roman, } and not resource iron
        {
            capability
            {
			trade_base_income_bonus bonus -2
            }
            construction  1 
            cost  800 
            settlement_min town
            upgrades
            {
                extended_import
            }
        }
        extended_import requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, roman, } and not resource iron
        {
            capability
            {
			trade_base_income_bonus bonus -4
			}
            construction  2 
            cost  1600 
            settlement_min large_town
            upgrades
            {
			massive_import
            }
        }
        massive_import requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, roman, } and not resource iron
        {
            capability
            {
			trade_base_income_bonus bonus -6
            }
            construction  2 
            cost  2400 
            settlement_min city
            upgrades
            {
            }
        }
    }
    plugins 
    {
    }
}
building hinterland_ore_mines
{
    levels ore_mines big_ore_mines huge_ore_mines
    {
        ore_mines requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, roman, } and resource iron
        {
            capability
            {
                mine_resource 1
            }
            construction  2 
            cost  1200 
            settlement_min town
            upgrades
            {
                big_ore_mines
            }
        }
        big_ore_mines requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, roman, } and resource iron
        {
            capability
            {
                mine_resource 3
			}
            construction  3 
            cost  2400 
            settlement_min large_town
            upgrades
            {
			huge_ore_mines
            }
        }
        huge_ore_mines requires factions { carthaginian, eastern, egyptian, greek, roman, } and resource iron
        {
            capability
            {
                mine_resource 5
            }
            construction  4 
            cost  3600 
            settlement_min city
            upgrades
            {
            }
        }
    }
    plugins 
    {
    }
}

Looks ok to me, no idea why it causes a crash.
The second crash is related to the campaign script, if I run the script during the campaign, it will crash when I exit, something probably to do with descr_advice.txt, maybe the way script is triggered and handled causes this?
Here's the data:

;------------------------------------------
AdviceThread Startup_Thread
    GameArea Campaign

    Item Startup_Text_01
	 Suppressible n
        Uninhibitable
        Verbosity  0
        Threshold  1
    MaxRepeats  0
    RepeatInterval  0
        Attitude Normal
        Presentation Default
        Title Startup_Text_01_Title
		Script scripts\show_me\replenish_treasury.txt
        Text Startup_Text_01_Text1

;------------------------------------------
Trigger Startup_Trigger1
    WhenToTest SettlementSelected
		
    AdviceThread Startup_Thread  1
	
;------------------------------------------
Trigger Startup_Trigger2
    WhenToTest ButtonPressed
	
	Condition ButtonPressed faction_button
    
	AdviceThread Startup_Thread  1
	
;------------------------------------------
Trigger Startup_Trigger3
    WhenToTest ButtonPressed
		
	Condition ButtonPressed end_turn
    
	AdviceThread Startup_Thread  1

;------------------------------------------
Trigger Startup_Trigger4
    WhenToTest ButtonPressed
		
	Condition ButtonPressed construction_button
    
	AdviceThread Startup_Thread  1

;------------------------------------------
Trigger Startup_Trigger5
    WhenToTest ButtonPressed
		
	Condition ButtonPressed recruitment_button
    
	AdviceThread Startup_Thread  1

The trigger works as it should, only sideaffect being the extra CTD on exit
I think i'm close to releasing a small "beta" version of the Dark XGM, as soon as I get some graphics done I'll try and release an early beta.
By that time I hope to have included the following:
- XGM 5.1.1 Government system
- Unified cultural barracks
- Refined background script
- Factional AI Barracks
- Refined battlefield and sky textures
- More complex and balanced building system - Buggy, needs work.
- Finished set of custom animations - Almost done; need to edit the skeleton files.
- Finish balancing and tweaking all the historical battles, finish the Cannae Historical battle. - Partial
- New battlefield models, custom tiles and city pathfinding - Partial
- Spawning historical army stacks, player gets 1 turn warning to gather troops

Minor stuff:
- Mercenary Siege equipment, high cost and very high upkeep; should work perfect for quick sieges as maintaining a few catapults will drain your treasury dry in no time. Could also incorporate a script to disband this unit after a turn ends...
- Bigger mercenary resource with wider variety of units.
- Carthage gets naval bonus, barbarians get smith bonuses. - Done!

Big changes:
- Campaign pace made slower, buildings take long to build, faction treasury very hard to manage, units now have more realistic upkeep. - Done!
- Bigger Slave stacks everywhere; limit AI movement to easier targets such as other AI factions or player. - Done!
- Charge values have been dramatically increased, horses are now a powerful force to reckon with (unless you have spearmen). - Almost Done, need to tweak horse mass.


Any ideas on these changes or any good ideas what to further implement? Clearly I can't remember all of them, but I am planning to create a second world map which has the original limits of the Vanilla map, but much bigger and with more settlements. (doubt I will work on it in the near future...)

[RedFox]

Scrap the "Dark XGM", made some better use of vocabulary and Photoshop...



Rome - Total War: Diadochi

Should start concentrating more on Seleucids, Macedonians and the Ptolemies

EDIT: Oh crap, just noticed there already is a Diadochi - TW.. Back to the drawing board.
Maybe XGM - Total War: Diadochi ? I know... a silly idea.

[Cymera]

Love the font there RedFox, good choice.

[DimeBagHo]

RedFox: The problem with the buildings is probably the mining resource level - IIRC 4 is the maximum level. You may also get problems if you have more than one type if building that gives this type of effect. Also, because it controls the appearance of mines on the strat map, it may be more finicky than other building effects (road, port, and defenses, can also cause problems).

If the trigger for the script fires OK then it is unlikely that there is anything wrong with it. The problem is more likely to be in the script.

Diadochi Total War is such a good name that so far two mods have used it. One started way back when XGM was young, but was eventually abandoned (a pity really - it was one of the mods that I really wanted to play). The other one is a relatively new project.

[Zarax]

Hellenistic Total War could be an alternative (actually XGM might use a new title too since the scope of this mod is way broader than the original one)

[Cymera]

What could surmise the huge changes that XGM has made to the game? It is a difficult decision.

[Maraxus]

Εκτεταμένη ελληνική τροποποίηση
or
Εετ

I just typed extended Greek mod into Babel Fish translator

[RedFox]

Dime: I tested EDB with all buildings separately - all caused a crash when you exit the game, so I doubt it has got anything to do with the mines, as i've tested with 60 - 70 resources (got my treasury to 300k in no time... kinda unbalanced) and it worked flawless.

I will PM you the script, maybe you will have time to check it for any errors, it is really important to get that script working, because most of the campaign balance relies heavily on that script (even though it's not quite finished yet...).
Would also be a good idea if XGM 5.1.X started using one also, instead of the build time bonuses (which IMO triggers Marius way too early) it could "feed" money to desperate AI factions as they spam the player with stack after stack...
An even further improvement to get proper AI armies, would be to create AI barracks - the script will look for all settlements not owned by player, check if there is an "AI barracks" there, now separate blocks search for a barracks type and replace it with a corresponding cultural AI barracks.

If player captures the settlement the building will be destroyed (or health set at 0... whatever is possible) and just for the player not to be able to repair it, it's cost will be a million or two.

Now what do the barracks do? Simple - they limit the barracks recruitment to only current and previous level units, so if you have City Barracks, AI gets City Barrack units and Militia Barrack units, when it has Royal Barracks it will just keep pumping out elites.
Would make the game a bit better as from my experience players do the same, the previous barrack thing is just for not so obvious variance.

Zarax: Well, I figure it could go as a submod under the XGM Forums, don't see any problem as basically most of it is based on the Diadochi. But it means I have to expand the unit roster a little bit. Maybe add new units, especially some new Silver Shield variations, Ptolemies could need a little greek "facelift" also, to remove the stereotypical Hollywood Egyptians.

As for new names for XGM - couldn't agree more on this.
Some suggestions:
-) Advanced Greek Mod /(I know... silly, but lives up to "more than just extended" )
-) Rome - TW: Successors
-) Rome - TW: Hellenic States
-) Hellenic - TW

Don't have that many ideas on the subject, but at least it's a start..