Although EU Rome is certainly dated, Reign of Ancients adds considerable depth and immersion to one of my favorite paradox titles. After the disappointment of the shall we say, no Rome 2 just yet vibe i felt following the recent stellaris announcement, playing this mod again i have to say, really helps to take away some of that pain. 
If you had trouble in the past installing this mod and gave up it's totally understandable, instructions on the main post are out dated and somewhat lacking. I think the main issue people have when installing is mixing up which version of the game they actually have when dealing with the beta patches. I managed to properly get Rome +VV
up-to-date (v2.36c beta - checksum XEVC) and working with the latest version of ROA.
So here's a clear break down on how you can achieve this:
- Completely wipe (uninstall) the previous installation,
double check to make sure no mod folders are still lingering where you uninstalled the main game files on your cpu
- Install the game to your default directory then copy the whole game folder and put it somewhere else as a back up (
if your having issues running it in your program folder etc ...simply use the copied back up that you put somewhere else on your cpu)
- If you have the Gold Edition or GOG Version your game will be patched up to 2.36c (
this is not one of the beta versions!), if you installing a much older version you may need to simply use the auto-update to patch it to 2.36c with VV if not already. So before we get into anything else simply load up your game to the main menu and confirm you see the following checksum (IYID for Steam, SWBL for a non steam rome game)
- Ok now you download the latest beta patches first you need to get
2.36B you can find it further down in the tech forums or follow the link from RoA download section, now you need to download the second beta patch
2.36C again found in the tech forums around the top since it's the newest one.
-
BEFORE!!! you attempt to install 2.36B beta patch open up your
Main game folder (the one with all the folders in it and exe files etc) and remove everything in your map/cache folder
EXCEPT!!! the Province Textures Folder.
You will come back to this step 2 more times i will simply paste this same step again further down the line to remind you.
- Find your
2.36B download and extract it's contents to a folder somewhere on your computer. Open that folder and copy all the files and folders within, then navigate back to your Main Game folder again and hit paste overwriting files if asked. Now load your game it may take some time since it will have to recalculate the map paths finally when you get to the main menu (
where you see single/mulitplayer, options etc) Simply
Quit dont go any further ...then reload the game a second time to the main menu and you should see the checksum
YRDK. Now quit the game, WE WILL REPEAT THIS STEP AGAIN WHEN INSTALLING BETA 2.36c
-
BEFORE!!! you attempt to install 2.36C beta patch open up your
Main game folder (the one with all the folders in it and exe files etc) and remove everything in your map/cache folder
EXCEPT!!! the Province Textures Folder.
You will come back to this step 1 more times i will simply paste this same step again further down the line to remind you.
- Find your
2.36C download and extract it's contents to a folder somewhere on your computer. Open that folder and copy all the files and folders within, then navigate back to your Main Game folder again and hit paste overwriting files if asked. Now load your game it may take some time since it will have to recalculate the map paths finally when you get to the main menu
(where you see single/mulitplayer, options etc) Simply
Quit dont go any further ...then reload the game a second time to main menu and you should see the checksum
XEVC.
Ok! Still with me were almost done!, now the easy part installing RoA the mod
--
BEFORE!!! you attempt to install
ROA 2.01 MOD you need to yet again ...open up your
Main game folder (the one with all the folders in it and exe files etc) remove everything in your map/cache folder
EXCEPT!!! the Province Textures Folder.
- Now download ROA 2.01 from the dl link page if you haven't already and extract it's contents somewhere on your computer, inside the ROA folder you will see the Reign of Ancients folder and a Mod file you simply copy both and paste them to your
MOD FOLDER found in your Main Game folder.
- You need to select the mod, so always launch the game from the launcher selecting the Reign of Ancients Mod from the Drop-down Box.
- Now load your game it may take some time since it will have to recalculate the map paths finally when you get to the main menu (where you see single/multiplayer, options etc) Simply
QUIT dont go any further ...Now reload the game a second time to main menu and you should see the checksum PKYC non-steam
.....
YOUR DONE! enjoy this great mod!
EDIT: Since there may be no need to bother with the 2.36b patch and jump right to the 2.36c beta, the latest beta patch should contain all the previous patches however just to be on the safe side i still recommend you installng 2.36b and then 2.36c following the instructions above this was the way i managed to finally get the game and the mod to work so...
