Samurai Warlords Question

[A Nerd]

Just a quick question. I love the mod so don't take this the wrong way but...I've noticed that there are ALOT of royal units. The AI seems to have at least 3 in most of his armies. My new general spawns are usually at least a 5 rank or so too. Any reason for this? Also, the general units are extremely difficult to kill. They always seem to get down to the last man and run away. Even if completely surrounded by my forces. Can't think of anything more at the moment, have to play more to note anything else. Don't take this as a rant, I enjoyed the original STW and find this mod highly enjoyable and addictive. Also, I love the kensai, I know people find them unbalanced and unrealistic but I have an honor 9 kensai and he is a killing machine! I fear some I find to the east as I move in that direction (I am playing as shimazu). Thanks.

[gollum]

The AI in MTW does the same thing ie builds the royal units - it seems that the high stats/lowmaint. cost is an attraction. One way to lessen the problem is to make royal units unrecruitable. It has some drawbacks but it will go some way towards solving the problem. The Royal Units that harbor royal family members have much more multiple hit points leaders (the last man remaining is the leader) - usually the sure way to kill them is by teppos, bullets dont care about valor and take away HPs quickly. However you are likely to suffer friendly fire as you need to pin them while shooting.

The general default stars can be modded, as i recall SWs used to have even higher stars as default that coupled with the provincial titles and the office titles gave pretty high star generals and plenty of jedaism (unroutable armies/units). I personally always lower the default stars when i play this mod or MTW. I prefer to make generals than get generals but that's just me. Other people, and mods take the opposite appraoch ie trying to make AI generals as high star as possible.

:bow:

[A Nerd]

I appreciate your reply, very informative. I have very little computer experience but still would like to know how to mod the general recruitment and the command star attribute. Any information (as simplistic as possible) would be greatly appreciated!

[gollum]

Hello A Nerd,
recruitment is altered from the UNIT_PROD text file. In MTW this file is called CRUSADERS or something, this is because the game originally was planned to be released as Crusader: Total War.

In there you get a list of the data that the engine loads in many columns. Essentially many aspects of recruitability and performance, owenership etc can be changed from there. You need to find the column that describes which factions can build the unit and you can right NO_FACTION or leave it blank if you want the unit for no-one but still appearing in rebellions. In order to find it use the file key that is at the very beginning ie a description of what each data column is and what values/descroptions it can take. Its pretty much intuitive and inviting to mess around with it after you've done a beginning. Remember however to make a copy of the file before you make any change; many times things can go wrong (in the format/structure of the text file) and this can cause CTDs or even tghe game not loading at all. For that its best to do changes in small steps and test them out - in this way you know where the potential error mught be. If you have made a huge amount of changes it might be impossible to find an error if it occurs.

The default stars if memory serves can be altered from the same text file in which hero names are declared for the campaign. You are given the option therein to set the default stars of new generals to a level of your choice.

Sorry i can't be more specific, its been a long while since i had the game installed now.

:bow:

[A Nerd]

Thanks, I'll have to try and fiddle around with that file alittle. Also, while I have you here...the AI seems to tech up quickly and build huge armies fast (mabey its better this way) but, I wanted to know if I could affect the starting purses thus changing this somewhat. Is that possible also? Thanks.

[gollum]

Yes, it is. You need to go to the startposition text file. In there is the whole set up for a campaign, factions, provinces, trade goods etc. as well as the starting treasury.

:bow:

[A Nerd]

I found the startposition file and will alter the starting purse. But I couldn't find a way to change the general spawn star ranking. Is it in the 'honor level' attribute of the unit_prod file?

[gollum]

I dont think so, the honor level refers to valor. Its in a different file that has stored the names of historical heros methinks.

:bow:

[A Nerd]

Alright, I'll keep muddling thru those text files! Its kind of fun even though I don't know what most of it means! If I have anymore questions I'll ask...I appreciate the help.

[gollum]

:bow:

[R'as al Ghul]

Hello. :bow:

Thank you for your answers, gollum. You are more active than the hosts of this mod.
One thing I always wanted to do for a next version was to reduce the honour/valour boni of provincial titles and royal titles.
They tend to stack and create uber-units. Jedis as we call them. Happens mostly with family members but can affect others as well. In an earlier version we had plenty of 9* generals.
Personally I'm pretty much against honour boni per se. So, maybe we get rid of them altogether somehow. Kensai is a completely ridiculous piece and will certainly not be included in a next version.
Same with Battlefield Ninja. I suppose the next one will have its roster reduced to original Shogun troops.
We also wanted to include more maps for SP and the beautiful castles that Yuuki worked on.

However, you will get faster results if you start modding yourself.
We have an excellent source for you directly here at the org:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?69-MTW-modification
Use the search function and you'll find it all. If the "Blind King of Bohemia" is still around, you can try to PM him.
He has pretty much modded every file of the game for his mod.

:bow:

R'as

[A Nerd]

Thanks for the info...great mod by the way. I made a few changes and it fits my playstyle more...more enjoyable. I'll check out that link, thanks!

[Puzz3D]

I'm in favor of getting rid of the kensai. I spent a lot of time trying to balance this unit, and couldn't do it. The reason is that the battlefield upgrade feature was designed for 60 man units. So, even the hatamoto and battlefield ninja units show some undesirable effect, but the kensai is the worst. A 9 star kensai can kill over 3000 men which is very unrealistic. Also, elimination of battlefield ninja, xbows and ships provides for a stronger tactical game from the AI. There is also a modification of province starting costs available that reduces the economic differential between the northern provinces and the southern provinces which allows greater diversity in viable campaign strategies, and better winning chances for the poorer clans.

[gollum]

It would be really good if all these changes are published in a set, as a sub-mod or otherwise. I do them myself when i play, yet others cannot due to lack of modding experience etc.

They are a worthy variance that makes the game even closer to STW. Also imo mercenary pools can be recalibrated to make mercenary rates smaller. The AI cannot recruit mercs.

:bow:

[A Nerd]

I have another question. I still play Samurai Warlords, but want to give vanilla MTW a whirl. I installed Samurai Warlords over my MTW folder. Do I have to reinstall MTW or can I still play it in the current folder. Also, what's better to play MTW or MTW:VI? I have both.

[Togakure]

I had two installs in two different locations on my hard drive, one for SamWars, and one for MTW.VI. If I remember correctly, with older versions of SamWars you could play either from one install, but in the more recent ones, certain elements of the original MTW install are disabled by the mod (can't remember which ones). R'as or one of the other SamWars gurus can clarify specifically.

I prefer VI over vanilla MTW; like Warlord Edition, VI adds a lot of color and variety to the original game, including new campaign scenarios, and fixes a few things.

[A Nerd]

Thanks! I'll rename my SamWars folder and reinstall MTW:VI!