RTR Project 'Grand Campaign' BETA Testing through 0.4

[ahowl11]

Hey everyone there is a new link in the first post I had accidentally forgot to add the map to the compiled BETA, and now it's there. I tested and everything runs smoothly. That is the only thing needed to run the mod now.

News:
I was initially going to make all the UI's myself before I released but after some thought I changed my mind. I scoured other mods and basically found UI's for most every unit (except rebel units). Granted there are a few issues: The UI's are older and some don't match up with some of the unit's textures, and there are a few remaining vanilla UI's in there BUT it's good enough for a first release, especially when a lot of changes will be made anyways.
I have also been recruiting like crazy over at TWC to get some additional help for development after the first release. A few have expressed interest in joining this Project, hopefully we will see them around and they stay for awhile

To-Do List:
1. RS2 Settlement Trees (Hopefully Miles Invictus can get these in)
2. Siege Tower Bug (I asked z3n if he could just tackle this as I have no clue where to start)
3. Strat map Agents/Ships skins (Should add these in quickly)
4. New UI for Barbarians from BI
5. Edit descr_strat to balance out campaign
6. Final Testing
7. Release!

[ahowl11]

The last BETA will be 0.5. It will contain the following:

1. Pinarius Horses
2. Edited textures for Strat map agents/ships to match faction colors
3. UI's for most units
4. RS2 Settlment trees*
5. Fix for Siege Tower Bug*
6. BI User interface for barbarian culture*
7. phalanx_man's revised EDU*
8. descr_strat edits*

*-Still needs to be done

Then we will do some final testing.

Once testing is done we will make a preview to go along with our first release, 'The RTR Project v0.5'

[b257]

Ok, here is my Report on the Britons, Gauls, and Germans

First the Britons:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Of the 3 Barbarian groups, the Briton's have the easiest position in my opinion. Isolated on that little island I was able to build up quickly and conquer it with no problem. The Gauls put up a good challenge and the early slow economy really prevents you from taking on  faction like the gauls or Spanish right away, given the Isolation of the Britons and how easy it is to turtle up, that's a good thing and the number of rebel ships really keep you from having naval superiority. All in all the Britons are pretty balanced for the most part.

2nd the Germanic Tribes:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Like the Britons I found they had a very favorable position. While not as isolated as the Britons the Germans had a good buffer between them and their chief rival the Gauls in the form of rebel settlements. By the time the Gauls and Britons reached me I had a good sized and developed kingdom which ment I was able to hold my own against them and in the case of the Britons, destroy them outright. While the Germans have a lot of settlements already their under development really slowed me down which meant I spent more time building then recruiting which balanced out their isolation rather well.

last the Gauls:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Oh my the gauls, what can I say about them, they are everywhere. From Iberia to Anatolia they stretch far.  I found it difficult to give a fair report on the gauls as they had a great many settlements. But from my campaign I did lose some settlements but I was able to get rich fast and conquer all of Gaul and northern Iberia rather quickly. The gauls need to be isolated to Gaul as the territory they hold in game was held by other Related celt tribes. However if you want to make it easier you could just change the name of the Gauls to the Celts since the territory in game was held by other celt Groups.

[ahowl11]

Until I implement the Celtic Tribes faction, the Gauls will be scattered but that will be fixed. I plan on them having 1-2 settlements in Gaul and 1-2 settlements in Italy for the next version.

[ahowl11]

Added a step to installation to make it easier to follow

[Sigma]

My Scythia game at the moment:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm at 264 B.C. Everything is going ok so far. Expansion of the other factions looks to be historical, I was actually surprised that Egypt wasn't quickly eating up the Seleucids and instead had lost some territory in the Israel area to the Seleucid Empire. I find it a little odd that they have the city of Kasia at game start as it is far separated from the rest of the Scythian territories. My game CTD'd right after taking Olbia, when loading from the battle map back to the campaign map. That is probably a BI bug though. I'll finish up and edit this post later.

Edit: I have 20 turns in, I'm noticing that no one is attacking me. There were opportunities where the Greek City States and Parthia could have easily besieged me as I had my garrisons thinned out, but they did not. I might play a little more to see what happens. Other than that the factions are expanding nicely. Egypt, just barely being able to regain a territory or two from the Seleucids expanded down into the Arabian peninsula (you might want to make Arabia an unconquerable territory since it's just a large desert expanse.) It also seems to me that the Scythian horse archers might be a little over powered. Someone else may need to test that to confirm if they are.

Suggestions:

Maybe add traits for barbarian factions that would somehow represent how they were a collection of various tribes and not one centralized country. I believe RS and EB do something like this? This could probably also work for the factions like the Greek Cities and Hellenic Cities.

Get rid of the dogs and pigs of course.

Maybe for the city maps you could get a hold of RS devs and see if they will let you use those? I have always found it a bit painful that in RTW all the cities have massive mega buildings, massive column monuments dotting the city etc. Hegemonia has great city maps for the Greeks as well.

Parthia:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I was only able to play to 265 B.C. Parthia starts out with a large horse army with almost no infantry and hardly and buildings in their settlements. Debt starts building quickly unless I pretty much disband my entire army and leave myself vulnerable to the wandering Seleucid armies. I was able to take one Seleucid settlement and the Seleucids started spamming militia hoplites at their neighboring settlements making it impossible to take. This faction will be hard to balance, on one hand they need at least a barracks in their capital to recruit basic infantry. On the other hand giving them to much leverage could overpower them as they have really powerful cavalry and start out with numerous horse archers and two heavy horse units.

Other suggestions, Parthian slingers need a better skin, an empire would have to be incredibly insane or insanely rich to outfit peasants with slings in purple robes.

[ahowl11]

Quality report Sigma, bravo!

Yeah I get random CTD's as well but you're right I think it is a BI bug. We'll have to make sure to add that in when we release just so people don't freak out!

Scythia has Kasia because they need money to be relevant. Yes there are other ways to do this, but for now I just thought I'd give them more settlements. In ExRM 3.3, the Sarmatians had trouble expanding and they figured out that it was because they had such low income that once they had a decent army they would go into the red. If the army was defeated (it usually was) than they would slowly dip into the red and become irrelevant for the rest of the game.

I don't think anyone invades Scythian territories because there is nothing to really desire. It's pretty historical really. If you don't want constant warfare and want to raid nations, Scythia is for you!

The traits are indeed interesting. Something like, 'Aorsi Chief' or something..

Dogs and Pigs will definitely be thrown out for the next version.

As for different settlements, this is a total black area for me and my knowledge. I would need someone to walk me through implementing them since I have never looked into it. You are right and it does need to be in, I would just need help in doing so.

[ahowl11]

Well, I am experiencing a pretty nasty CTD. I am playing with 0.4 BETA with some other additions that will be part of 0.5.

I am playing a campaign as the Julii and it's a fun one as I managed to get to Messana and fight Carthage on Sicily before the Scipii could. Every battle against Carthage loaded cleanly whether it be a one on one in the field or a sally.
However against the Gauls, I get a CTD every time I go into battle against them no matter what the circumstances are. The weird thing is, I will load up my campaign, go to fight the same battle and everything loads fine. So every first battle encounter with the Gauls ends up being a CTD, the second try always works.

I am besieging Mediolanium and a Gallic army came to relieve it, CTD. Reload to same spot, try again, loads without error. After battle, second Gallic Army comes to relieve city, CTD.. I am tired so I just exited the game but I wonder what is causing this? If anyone else is experiencing these let me know. If anything when we release we need to let the players know that they should save often especially before a battle.

[Sigma]

Disappointing Parthia playthrough posted.

[ahowl11]

Thanks Sigma! Parthia will definitely get a bit of a makeover before release

[TheCheese]

This is a bit noobish I'm sure, but I get consistent CTD's when I press Start Campaign. I imagine my attempt at a making a copy/pasted clean install folder of Rome was unsuccessful. If that sounds about right, how exactly would I make a clean install? Just a reinstallation of vanilla?

[ahowl11]

Did you delete the map.rwm and map_heights.hgt files?
They are located in data/world/maps/base

[TheCheese]

I did not. Even saw that noted in the instructions too. I imagine that should do it, trying now.

[Mausolos of Caria]

Might there be an issue with a different language version of RTW than English? If I want to add the stuff in the target line of the shortcut, Windows doesn't allow me so. I had the same problem with Hegemonia City States and could never get it started 

[ahowl11]

I wouldn't know.. I didn't know that it was an issue. Maybe edit the language of the stuff added to the target line?
Could you explain the problem a bit more? Also did you ever post it in TWC?