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Rome: Total War

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
(Redirected from Rome: Total War: Gold)

This page is for the original game. For the 2021 remaster, see Total War: Rome Remastered.

Rome: Total War
Rome: Total War cover
Developers
Creative Assembly
Creative Assembly International
macOS (OS X) Feral Interactive
Publishers
Activision
Expansions and digital Sega
OS X Feral Interactive
Release dates
Windows September 22, 2004
macOS (OS X) February 5, 2010
Reception
Metacritic 92
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time, Turn-based
Perspectives Bird's-eye view, Free-roaming camera
Controls Menu-based, Multiple select, Point and select
Genres RTS, TBS
Themes Classical, Historical
Series Total War
Rome: Total War on HowLongToBeat
Rome: Total War on IGDB
Rome: Total War guide on StrategyWiki
Rome: Total War on MobyGames
Rome: Total War on Wikipedia
Shogun: Total War 2000
Medieval: Total War 2002
Rome: Total War 2004
Medieval II: Total War 2006
Empire: Total War 2009
Napoleon: Total War 2010
Total War: Shogun 2 2011
Total War: Shogun 2 - Fall of the Samurai 2012
Total War Battles: Shogun 2012
Total War: Rome II 2013
Total War: Attila 2015
Total War Battles: Kingdom 2015
Total War: Warhammer (series)
Total War: Arena Cancelled
Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia 2018
Total War: Three Kingdoms 2019
A Total War Saga: Troy 2020
Total War: Rome Remastered 2021
Total War: Pharaoh 2023

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Rome: Total War is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and free-roaming camera RTS and TBS game in the Total War series.

General information

Official forums
Total War Center - A large fan site for the series with an active modding community
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
SafeDisc v4 DRM[Note 1]
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Retail
DRM details are not known
macOS (OS X)
Developer website (unavailable)
CD key
Requires online activation
Can only be used x times
Gold Edition. Five machines limit.
macOS (OS X)
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
[3]
Windows
Mac App Store (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Gold Edition.
macOS (OS X)
Steam (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
The Complete Collection.
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
All retail serial keys activate on Steam.[4]
Included with every purchase of Total War: Rome Remastered.
Free demo versions are available from GameFront: base game, Barbarian Invasion.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
The Barbarian Invasion Comes bundled with the Rome: Total War - Gold Edition and Rome: Total War - Anthology compilations.
Windows
Alexander Standalone; comes bundled with the Rome: Total War - Anthology compilation.
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Essential improvements

Patches

  • Every patch can be found here.
The Gold Edition is already patched to the latest version.

Skip intro videos

Method 1: Run the game with the -nm command line argument.[citation needed]

Note

Disables the background video in the main menu, but strategy mode videos are still enabled.
Method 2: Move, delete or rename[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\data\fmv.
  2. Move, delete or rename ATVI_Spinning_Logo_640x480.wmv, rome_title.wmv.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\preferences\preferences.txt[Note 2]
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4760/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\saves[Note 2]
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4760/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
See below. Stretched UI.
Multi-monitor
Stretched
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
See Widescreen resolution
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Run the game with -w or -window command line arguments
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Run the game with -ne command line arguments
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Set resolution in preferences.txt[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open preferences.txt.
  3. Edit all values named ***_RESOLUTION and ***_MAX_RESOLUTION to the desired resolution
  4. Make sure the following value is set: USE_WIDESCREEN:TRUE.
  5. Save changes.

Input

In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game camera settings.
In-game camera settings.

Audio

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Main, SFX, Music, Speech
Surround sound
Up to 7.1[5]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
EAX 3 via Creative Alchemy
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Retail only.
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
Hot seat
Use Play By Email Multiplayer/Hot Seat Campaign.
LAN play
8
Online play
8 The official GameSpy service is offline; the Steam version was updated to use Steamworks.[4]
Asynchronous multiplayer
Use Play By Email Multiplayer/Hot Seat Campaign.

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 3783, 6500, 6667, 28900, 29900-29901
UDP 6515, 13139, 27750, 27900
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

mss32.dll was not found

On 64-bit systems, the installer can erroneously set the default directory to C:\Program Files instead of C:\Program Files (x86).[citation needed]
Manually set the appropriate install directory, preferrably a custom one

Failed to find Steam

This issue is common with the Steam version of the game, with the error window appearing when attempting to launch either Rome: Total War or the expansion Barbarian Invasion.
Copy Steam.dll[citation needed]

Copy steam.dll from <Steam-folder> into <path-to-game>.

Disable Steam Community In-Game[citation needed]
  1. Go to the games library, right-click 'Rome: Total War Gold Edition'.
  2. Select 'Properties' and uncheck 'Enable Steam Community In-Game'.
Delete ClientRegistry.blob[citation needed]
  1. Exit Steam and go to <Steam-folder>.
  2. Locate the file ClientRegistry.blob and delete it.
  3. Relaunch Steam and allow it to update.

Notes

Deleting ClientRegistry.blob results in those settings being lost and this is not a permanent fix.
Run the game and Steam as administrator[citation needed]

Low FPS

Apply the Disable fullscreen optimizations compatibility setting to the game's EXEs (Windows 10 and newer)
Run the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3.
Limit the game's CPU affinity to 1 or 2 CPU cores
It's possible for this fix to reduce FPS further.
Use a DirectDraw wrapper

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0b
Shader Model support 1.0
ExecutablePPC 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
PowerPC processors were briefly supported in patch 1.1 of the OS X release (including all retail releases), but was removed again in later digital releases.

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Multiplayer GameSpy, Steamworks

Modifications

Europa Barbarorum:

Europa Barbarorum is a total conversion modification. The modification affects all areas of RTW; all vanilla units have been removed, all new models and textures, a new economic system, new traits system, new scripts, and in general new gameplay. No area of RTW is left untouched.

Roma Surrectum:

Roma Surrectum 2 is a full conversion mod to Rome Total war 1.5 and the predecessor to the original Roma Surrectum mod featuring unique Roman legions, new factions, units and a stunning high detailed map. Roma Surrectum 2 is developed for Rome Total war, but it will also run on both of its expansions, Barbarian invasion and Alexander.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98 SE
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz
AMD Athlon 1.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2.9 GB
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0b compatible
Shader model 1.0 support
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0c 16-bit compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10.11.6
Processor (CPU) Intel 1.4 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 10 GB
Video card (GPU) 128 MB of VRAM
Support for PowerPC processors was briefly added in a patch before being removed later.


Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
  2. 2.0 2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  3. 3.0 3.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/4760/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (4760) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References