Rome: Total War annoyances

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2004-10-25 11:29pm

Captain_Cyran wrote:My problem. I need this game.

More seriously though. While playing the demo it infuriates me when my elephants go amok and end up in the middle of my formation, tearing everything apart and there's nothing I can do to stop them. It won't let me kill them.

You have to use them right so they don't do that. Have them charge then retreat, and only at engaged forces. I used them mainly to cause a rout so I could use whoever was fighting somewhere else.

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2004-10-25 11:32pm

StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:
Captain_Cyran wrote:My problem. I need this game.

More seriously though. While playing the demo it infuriates me when my elephants go amok and end up in the middle of my formation, tearing everything apart and there's nothing I can do to stop them. It won't let me kill them.
You have to use them right so they don't do that. Have them charge then retreat, and only at engaged forces. I used them mainly to cause a rout so I could use whoever was fighting somewhere else.

I usually do that. But this game I was running on hard level so honestly, I couldn't afford to pull my elephants back without a flank getting overrun and then all hell breaking loose. I knew it would eventually rout them or make them go nuts. I'm just annoyed that the damn things killed half of my archers and I couldn't turn my troops on them to kill the elephants.

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2004-10-25 11:35pm

You can order the elephants to kill themselves you know.

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2004-10-25 11:36pm

StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:You can order the elephants to kill themselves you know.

I... did... not... know that. Also, how do you make troops run away when a battle is lost? Damnit I need this game. It's like a drug.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2004-10-26 12:21am

Captain_Cyran wrote:
StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:You can order the elephants to kill themselves you know.
I... did... not... know that. Also, how do you make troops run away when a battle is lost? Damnit I need this game. It's like a drug.

The withdraw command, I believe, located near the rest of the command buttons.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-10-26 12:24am

I hate the fucking time limit! Just because I was trying to wipe out an enemy army to the last man, and spent time cutting off their ability to retreat with my cavalry, I ran out of time AFTER THEY WERE ROUTED and my troops were cutting them down piecemeal. Then the battle ended LITERALLY with their thirty-five remaining troops COMPLETELY surrounded by two units of heavy cavalry, three phalanxes, and a second line behind those guys of skirmishers and some more light cavalry units. Those guys literally had NO CHANCE of surviving the battle for another twenty seconds, but instead I LOSE because I run out of time. GRRRRR!!!!!

Post by **Beowulf** » 2004-10-26 12:53am

Master of Ossus wrote:I hate the fucking time limit! Just because I was trying to wipe out an enemy army to the last man, and spent time cutting off their ability to retreat with my cavalry, I ran out of time AFTER THEY WERE ROUTED and my troops were cutting them down piecemeal. Then the battle ended LITERALLY with their thirty-five remaining troops COMPLETELY surrounded by two units of heavy cavalry, three phalanxes, and a second line behind those guys of skirmishers and some more light cavalry units. Those guys literally had NO CHANCE of surviving the battle for another twenty seconds, but instead I LOSE because I run out of time. GRRRRR!!!!!

You can turn that off...

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-26 02:41am

Beowulf wrote:
You can turn that off...

Can you do it so that if you're in the middle of a campaign, that change applies? Because right now I'm besieging Carthage and I keep fucking running out of time before the battle is finished, even though there's no doubt the victory was mine for the taking. The only reason it was taking so long was the Onager bombardment of the Large Stone Walls and that all the Scipii Cavalry Auxilia were scattered throughout the city protecting broken-yet-not-collapsed sections of wall.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-10-26 02:42am

Beowulf wrote:You can turn that off...

I've already done it, but that result still pisses me off. How can a handfull of thoroughly demoralized, routed troops stop a fresh, disciplined army dozens of times their size if it's completely surrounded them and is about to go in for the kill?

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2004-10-26 05:08am

FUCKING GREEKS! Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Larissa all rebelled in the same turn for the 2nd time!

Even when I had a thousand troops in each and with the population thinned out from previous exterminations, it STILL happens.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-26 05:50am

Captain tycho wrote:FUCKING GREEKS! Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Larissa all rebelled in the same turn for the 2nd time!
Even when I had a thousand troops in each and with the population thinned out from previous exterminations, it STILL happens.

Any Arenas, Hippodromes, Temples, Governors, Lower Taxes, etc?

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2004-10-26 05:56am

Vympel wrote:
Captain tycho wrote:FUCKING GREEKS! Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Larissa all rebelled in the same turn for the 2nd time!
Even when I had a thousand troops in each and with the population thinned out from previous exterminations, it STILL happens.
Any Arenas, Hippodromes, Temples, Governors, Lower Taxes, etc?

Galore.

Something is seriously broken here.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-10-26 06:17am

Captain tycho wrote:FUCKING GREEKS! Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Larissa all rebelled in the same turn for the 2nd time!
Even when I had a thousand troops in each and with the population thinned out from previous exterminations, it STILL happens.

3 words:

Total Realism Mod

A LOT more fun

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2004-10-26 06:26am

The 'culture' model is the cause of most massive unrest I've encountered; capturing a Roman city with my Greek armies will require a massive garrison for several years, until the 'culture shock' factor in unrest goes down. And, of course, if they DO rebel my army politely leaves and the rebels beam a massive army of high level units down from the sky fortress.

I planned on moving the capital to Byzantium from Antioch in my campaign westward, but all that does is make Susa and Selukia impossibly demanding unrest-wise. Some of these game mechanics are retarded. There are no long-term solutions to the 'hearts and minds' problem, so its either massive (unrealistic) expenditure of money in improvements and games or massive (unrealistic) armies in every single city. Bah, the late game is so damn fiddly. I played as Thrace; two provinces, no friends. Lots of fun, until you control Greece and each turn drags into 15 minutes.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-10-26 07:09am

Captain tycho wrote:
Vympel wrote:
Captain tycho wrote:FUCKING GREEKS! Athens, Corinth, Sparta, and Larissa all rebelled in the same turn for the 2nd time!
Even when I had a thousand troops in each and with the population thinned out from previous exterminations, it STILL happens.
Any Arenas, Hippodromes, Temples, Governors, Lower Taxes, etc?
Galore. Something is seriously broken here.

You're both wrong.

Let em rebel. in fact, pull your whole garrison out of the city and let em tear it apart. then, one turn later, move back in and enslave/exterminate the populace. by the time it gets to where the population is ready to grow again, you'll have all of the shit you need to keep em happy. also, Low taxes, low taxes, low taxes. Remember that mantra. Population controls are also your friend.

(Personally, I prefer enslavement, it bolsters the populations of your tiny little podunk cities in the middle of the motherfucking nooch.)

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-26 10:46am

As long as the podunk cities have governors, that is.

I finished the game as the Brutii. I never was too stressed by unrest in my cities- town watch/peasants/low taxes sorted that out.

Seleucid Greeks, here I come.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2004-10-26 10:57am

Vympel wrote:As long as the podunk cities have governors, that is.

I finished the game as the Brutii. I never was too stressed by unrest in my cities- town watch/peasants/low taxes sorted that out.

Seleucid Greeks, here I come.

Just finished a long campaign as the Brutii. Too bad you can't try to take over the world.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-26 11:40am

Vympel wrote: Seleucid Greeks, here I come.

Remember to kill of Egypt ASAP while kissing Parthian and Greek ass. Try to get an alliance with Pontus, the Parthians and the Greeks will attack you anyways, but try to get a ceasefire if they do. They will have other people to fight and will largely ignore you for a time. Use that time to clobber the Egyptians, then go in and crush Parthia and the Greeks, then take out Pontus.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-10-26 01:25pm

Are certain types of army units better at maintaining civil order than others?

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-26 01:37pm

Not that I know of. However, spies are supposed to keep unrest down.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-26 08:16pm

Darth Wong wrote:Are certain types of army units better at maintaining civil order than others?

Not that I'm aware- I just build lots of Town Watch for the purpose with two units of archers and one unit of cavalry for every city- this allows for killing bandits without pulling a campaign army off of more important work, and gives you a chance to adopt a new general when the Captain does well. The archers are also essetial for defending a walled city (even when you're sallyign out);

Lots of town watch and the above combo can even slaughter gladiator uprisings (since they're mostly hordes of peasants with a few velite and mirmillo gladiaotrs thrown in). Peasants instead of town watch would just get killed.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2004-10-27 02:22am

I have a rather stupid question.
How do you install the mod? I tried extracting the folder to my RTW folder, but nothing new appeared. (And yes, I did delete the required files in the maps folder.)

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-10-27 03:38am

Captain tycho wrote:I have a rather stupid question.
How do you install the mod? I tried extracting the folder to my RTW folder, but nothing new appeared. (And yes, I did delete the required files in the maps folder.)

It didnt worked with me the first time either. However, when I unpacked it for the second time it did work for some reason

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2004-10-27 04:23am

Ok, I got it installed correctly, but now everytime I click to start a provincial campaign, it takes me back to the realism mod selection point.

EDIT: Nevermind, apparently after installing the mod one of the map files you're supposed to remove is installed along with it.