Rome Total Realism

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Rome: Total Realism (or RTR) is a complete modification ("mod") for the computer game Rome: Total War, intended to rectify historical inaccuracies in the original game and give a more enjoyable game play experience at the same time. The mod has been featured in several major gaming sites and magazines, such as PC Gamer US, PC Gamer UK, and GameSpot. Rome: Total Realism is the most successful modification of Rome: Total War, with an estimated 80,000 downloads on the first day after version 6.0 was released. It was followed by versions 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 and finally 6.0 Gold, a compilation of all patches. The unofficial, but recognized Platinum Edition also exists, no different content than Gold Edition, but with support for the latest Rome: Total War patches. The current version in progress is 7.0, which is based off the Barbarian Invasion expansion to Rome: Total War, and is expected to be released in late 2006.

Though the original Rome: Total War is a popular computer game, the RTR team believes it could benefit from substantial improvement nonetheless. In particular, the historical inaccuracies in the original game—in substantial part acknowledged by the game's creators, who did not intend it to be edutainment—are something RTR seeks to change.

One of the biggest changes was the portrayal of Egypt. Rome portrays the Egyptian faction more as the Pharaonic Middle-Eastern empire it was in the tenth century BC than the Ptolemaic successor state to Alexander's empire it actually was in the game's period (280 BC–14 AD). The developers of Rome have publicly stated that a chariot-dominated Egypt that matched their consumers' expectations was viewed as being more fun than still another phalanx-based Hellenistic successor state. The RTR developers believe that realism does not impinge upon fun, and that the starting conditions and other differences between the Ptolemaic Empire and, for instance, the Seleucid Empire or Macedon provide sufficient distinction to stop the faction list from being in repetitive and boring.

Gameplay was also enhanced, in both the strategic and tactical fields of the game.

Major changes

• Seventeen playable factions. By contrast, the original game only permitted players to play eight factions, and only three at the beginning. As of version 6.0 gold, the faction roster removes the Britons and Dacia, condenses the four Roman factions into one, and adds Illyria and Bactria. The Mod also renames different factions to more realistic names such as changing Spain into Iberia.
• Two hundred army units with new textures, models, and so forth. "Faction colors" have been removed— for example, in Rome all of the Egyptian units wore bright yellow clothing, Julii wore red, mercenaries green, rebels gray, and so on. In RTR, most soldiers wear rather similar colors (typically the greys and yellows and browns of undyed cloth), reflecting their probable historical modes of dress, as at the time, dyes for clothing and ornamentation were extremely expensive.
• The statistics of all units have been adjusted. The desired effect is that the length of battles has been increased by reducing the rate at which soldiers kill enemies, and the effectiveness of most missile units has been decreased. One of the most prominent of these changes is increase in the viability of the cavalry especially when charging, now cavalry is more realistically portrayed as a influential member of an army due to it mobility and the impact of their charge.
• New "Area of Recruitment" gameplay mechanic. In Rome, there was virtually no restriction on the units a faction could train in a given province- for example, Carthage could train exactly the same units in Carthage as they could in Spain. The exceptions were that Roman First Cohorts could only be recruited in Rome; Spartan hoplites could only be recruited in Sparta or Syracuse; and elephant and camel units could only be recruited in provinces that have those animals as resources. In RTR, the units that can be recruited in a province depend in large part on the province itself; Gallic infantry, for instance, can only be recruited in Gaul, but can be recruited by all factions. Still, all factions do have their own typical units that can be recruited anywhere.
• Redesigned campaign map. The map was extended east to India, instead of the Rome map's eastern limit of roughly the Caspian Sea. This shows the historical extent of the various eastern powers, such as Parthia and the Seleucids— in Rome the Parthians' starting position was split in half by the Caspian, with no eastern expansion possible and contact only possible via ship; due to the absence of Persia and modern day Iran, the Seleucids were also extremely cut down by their small Mediterranean, part-Babylonian and southern Asia Minor territories which often lead to them being destroyed by Pontus, Egypt and Armenia.
• Redesigned graphical elements. Most of the graphics in the game have been redone allowing for a more realistic interaction of units in the battles, again expanding the "Realism" aspect of the Mod.
• New, optional music from two composers, including a version of Ailein duinn used for the credits.
• The RTR website also hosts other mods which stack onto the RTR mod; these are also fan-made, but are not officially supported by the RTR designers. The mods make other changes, such as adding factions, changing the game years to four turns (rather than two), changing animations and formations, and integrating changes from Barbarian Invasion.

External links

• Official Mod Website
• [1] Official Forum