civIV Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (RFRE)

Here is a link to some nice Persian Units Bakuel made. He said next up are Sassanid Persians. Here the link:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=11762

Also, is there anything you would like me to do? Pedia, XML, playtesting, art, ect...?

I found an excellent book on the fall of the empire, it titled 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' by Peter Heather. It examins why the empire fell, has lots of maps, and a nice timeline in the back.

If primordial stew don't have any thing more important to do, you could make some art for legio I and legio II (for hastati, principes and triarii).

Errr, you mean all three in one unit? I could do Legio I and II. I'll base them off of the ones in Rome Total War.

I meant different art for hastati, principes and triarii and all of them would be combined in the Legio I and II.

Sorry, I'm not going to do that much art. Remember, the art for a unit is just a 'token' for the unit. Technically, all barbarian infantry should have both armoured infantry, light infantry, and others. Too much work. If you want to make all units have identicle composition to their real life counterpart, skinning isnt that hard, just time consuming

Well it's taking forever to wrap this up.. so this one is more raw than usual. I was able to build the debug dll, but python bombed when running this way So no major debug, and I haven't playtested much of python changes yet. If you encounter a problem post a savegame and I'll fix it up.

There is 1 XML error that I haven't been able to find.. just click "ok" on it. Some new promotions have been added using buttons + inspired from Total Realism. The usage of these could be expanded some, so if you have any ideas for applications lets hear them!

Slaves + servus now get consumed by certain improvements, like building a mine, but not something like building a road. Thus more slaves will be needed than before. This probably needs balancing, like to which units can enslave, and the chance of enslavement.

The "Persian Units Bakuel made" are included, but not used yet. Hopefully he has some horse archers in the next batch!

The files is 32.5M 7zipped.
http://rapidshare.com/files/200641240/RFRE.beta1p6.7z

If python fails to load (eg research is at 100%), replace
Assets\Python\Screens\CvMainInterface.py with the one from beta1p5 or rename CvMainInterface.py_mainscreenMod2.2w to it.

So far I have plaid the new version up to 206BC (the 275BC scenario). Didn't you said you will make Hannibal more powerful. This time I probably have been lucky and I destroyed Hannibal's army in north Italy with no loses at all!

Yay, v6 is out. Once I load it up I'll post comments.

Comments on unit art and units (Changelog didnt say anything about building or wonder changes):
>Vandal Bellatores are using default art.
>Armoured Slinger is still an archer. (If you want me to reskin it, I will)
>Clibanarius are red blobs.
>Dromons are still pink except for a few areas aft.
>Since Foederati and Palatini have identical art, it might be nice to give them different art.
>Incursor still has the old art.
>VERY MINOR: Navis Barbaraci shouldnt be using Lateen sails, those were primarily used in the Mediterainian. If you cant get the Dromon art to work, this art would work for the Dromon.
>Tribus Gothi has the worng KFM. It should be using the same one as the Praesidium Mercenarium. (greekphalanx)
>For Vexelatio, you are using a Schola shield on the unit, I have a vexxelatio shield included in the DL. (If you dont have it, redownload it.)
>Slightly minor, why are you using the Cohors Eqitata Miliaria art for the Late Roman Cavalry as opposed to the Late Roman Cavalry that I made which is currently being used as Vexelatio?
>For the Persian Saggitarius, in the pedia entry, I didnt intend the aside about Theoplyact Simocatta to be includued, it was more an interesting fact.

I'll try out the map now.
EDIT: If you need a horse archer, I can give it another go. (My first one turned out horibly) Any prefrence to which model I use?

Comments on the 200 AD scenario:
>It feels like the economy is alot less constricted than before.

General:
>Did you modify the hitpoits? If yes, it really needs to be marker on the units.
>Something needs to be done to the Jewish Temple. It is copied directly from core civ, and feels a bit out of place.

EDIT: In the 200AD scenario, every time I am getting a crash when I finish researching Severan Dynasty. I think some form of python in bombing there. I'll see if I get tech crashs in the 275BC scenario.

In the 275BC scenario, when I research First Punic War, the game doesnt crash. I'm assuiming it is something with how to python is set up for the 200AD scenario.

I captured Cartago Novo and Utica. Numidians declared war on Charthage But the second Hannibal army never appeared or I was looking for it in the wrong place.

I hope the debugger will soon be fixed. The CTDs are becoming weary annoying.

Pstew: Bakuel just released his Sassanid Persians, here is the link:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=7800265#post7800265
There are no horse archers, but I put in a request for some. Have you considered PAKing the art assets? It might reduce the space they consume and it does speed up the loading times drasticly.

Jakob Safa said:

I captured Cartago Novo and Utica. Numidians declared war on Charthage But the second Hannibal army never appeared or I was looking for it in the wrong place.

I hope the debugger will soon be fixed. The CTDs are becoming weary annoying.

Click to expand...

Post a savegame. I didn't get to do much testing..

To workaround the CTDs I just exit occasionally.. usually if an art gets corrupted (too much black) that means it is time to get out.


Good to hear that Persians horse archers are coming!


> Hannibal
Is there a better way to do this? The intent is historical, but since everyone knows it's coming they'll just build up in anticipation...

> LateRomanCavalry+shields vs LateRomanCavalry

Got it.

Heres the save for the 200AD scenario that crashes on Severan Dynasty:

Pstew: Out of curiosity, are you going to be restarting Escape form Zombie Island again? I am working on a post-apocalyptic tactical shooter mod, but if Zombie Island is basicly done, I can help with that. I'm doing it more in an afterworld style, not as strategic though.

I can post EFZI3 if you want. The XML is 85% there. To do:
1) "ranged bombardment" mod needs to be merged
2) some python needs to be done to handle all of the enslaving (zombies and heros). This is easy once the units are all available.
3) balance strengths, and costs
4) flesh out the art work (eg zombie nurse)
5) add in the music prepared for.. ehh.. a different zombie mod that is shelved


If the tech is added in WB there is no immediate crash, but if no tech is selected, then no crash. Hmmmm...

primordial stew said:

2) some python needs to be done to handle all of the enslaving (zombies and heros). This is easy once the units are all available.

Click to expand...

(Perhaps a strange question, but: ) What are zombies doing in Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire? (Or did I miss something and were they the real cause of its fall?)

@JEELEN: I was talking to Pstew about his Escape from Zombie Island mod because I am working on a Afterworld meets civ mod and wanted to know how far he was on EfZI.
Pstew:
Merging in Ranged bombardment might be a bit of a pain if you already have custom python.
If you are making it in BTS (as I assume you are) you can take advantage of the LineofSight tag in Afterworld and how Afterworld handles ranged fire. All that would be needed is to hack the unit turning python from afterworld.

For RFRE, to avoid the crash with Severan Dynasty, just give myself the tech in worldbuilder?

Hear is the save of 275 BC map where the second Hannibal army didn't appear.

Why is there Persian off map city building in three southern Illyrian cities. Shouldn't there be an Illyrians building.

For the first Hannibal army the size of it should depend from the size of players forces in North Italy and from number of player walls in the North Italy.

> Why is there Persian off map city building in three southern Illyrian cities. Shouldn't there be an Illyrians building.

Umm... the map does have the correct buildings (BUILDING_PERSIA and BUILDING_ILLYRIANS) in their respective cities. If you didn't change them then it is a side effect of corruption in the game. There was a problem for quite a while where Portus Ostia was supposed to give a free granary in every city, but instead it gave a brothel!!! The XML was correct, but yet the wrong building showed up


Attached is a new rfre.py, just replace the existing one and then replay the turn where Utica is captured. And build more legions!

> Severan Dynasty
Yes, just use WB as a workaround.

> Zombies
Definitely off topic!


Any thoughts on the new promotions? They are quite rare, maybe too rare? One expansion of this could be to have certain buildings modify the chance of getting them. Like with a barracks there is no "inferior recruits" possible.

It seems the Persians are too strong now, they wiped out the Armenians in the 194BC turn. Perhaps the new BUILDING_PERSIA needs to be given later, like with the Sassanid tech, or maybe the should accumulate over time so the Persians slow get really dangerous?

Severan Dynasty Crash> Thanks. Do you have any idea on what might have caused this?
Zombies>If there is still plenty of python work to do, then I cant finish it up. I have no knowledge of python at all.
Promotions>For low quality recruits, perhaps if the unit is built when you dont have lots of money (late rome), they have a chance of getting low quality recruits. I made a list of possible promotions for a different mod a while ago, I'll see of any would work here.
Persian Building>Perhaps have a Parthian version that is weaker than the current persian one. The Sassanids were a much greater threat than the Parthians.
Barbarian Invaisions> I dont know if you saw this idea I had a while ago, but to make your life easier coding the events that occur in the WRE, perhaps just have general effects with a python popup saying what is occuring. The only downside with this though, is that inevitable someone will want to play as the WRE and there wont be any Rhine Invaders.

> WRE situation
I want to see how the WRE plays out as is. The neighbors should be established by then by which I mean that the AI seems to go though a period of doing very little after it is born, but after 10-20? turns it becomes "active". Both the Franks and Vandals will be established, so maybe just give them a building giving riches like the Persian one and that should be all it takes.

I suppose 1 good project would be to create a scenario starting soon after the division. I don't know of good data to base strengths on, like was possible with the 200AD map.

> severan CTD
No, I haven't had time, but should next week.

I'll post what I have for EFZI3 over in that thread next week too.

For deployment maps for WRE (and to a lesser extent the ERE) you could look at the Notita Dignitatum. It updates the wests armies until about 410 (The Rhine invaders which included Vandals, Alans, Suevi, and a few Pannonian tribes.) and updates the Easts armies until about 395 (IIRC).
What will you be doing with the migrating tribes, like the Alans, Vandals, and Visigoths. The Franks and the Ostrogoths shouldnt be that hard. I suppose I should play the 200AD scenario to see how it is all set up.

Edit: I have a list of ERE deployments until about the Avars, I have a list of the WRE from the early
5th century, although it only shows the prefectures they are based in, not the actual position. In addition, it only shows very limited information on the limitani. It does have all the names of the Comitatenses and the Scholae. I did a quick check on the Notita Dignitatum, it was partialy updated until around 420/430, so some units are in 2 different places at the same time.

EDIT2: When I gave myself Severan Dynasty through worldbuilder, the game didnt immediatly crash, but when I hit end turn it did. Here is my python debug log and XML log. (The PythonErr and Sdkdebug didnt include anything. I am including the XMl because I think the problem with the technologies and the error on load is related to a bunch of 'Infotype NONE not found' bits in the XML log.