Praise...and suggestions

[Red Harvest]

Wow! This mod is some incredible work! The detail is fantastic and the units look great. The maps are amazing. My hat is off to you.

Ok, now I would like to make a few suggestions/comments towards improving the gamplay experience based on my limited testing so far:
1. Reduce revenue. Seems to be way too much money available. I've never had to "tighten my belt" so far. Economics have been a non-issue in the campaign. There is quite a bit of ag revenue in some provinces, and trade can be incredible with just a few ships in the water.
2. Tone down the number of command stars given for governerships. I'm finding it too easy to make six star generals with only one combat victory. I think this also contributes to something else I've noticed (see item 3)
3. Units are too good. (I've noticed this often happens with various game mods.) Mine almost never rout until they are down to about 5% of their original strength, and I only play on Expert. I could see that being true for some Spartan units...but most others should be more prone to run away when things get bad. Not sure if this is because base morale is too high, or upgrades are too much, or if it is base combat stats.
4. Phalanx units don't seem to suffer much from being hit from the side or rear. Shouldn't they be shredded easily by flank or rear attack? Instead they seem to be more like super melee units. From what I recall, historically phalanxes were difficult to maneuver well, especially on anything but smooth/gently rolling plain. I think part of the problem is morale effects being too high. Perhaps instead of overall strength being high, they should get large rank bonuses for deep formation and be wimpy when they are only two or three ranks deep. Shouldn't they be about worthless in the forest?
5. Cavalry units seem too weak. Cavalry can't even run down fleeing phalanx units well and they are hopeless at running off skirmishers (the skirmishers cut them down in melee.) I know that back in the days before stirrups, cavalry was weak, but they still should be able to cut down skirmish units. A horse and rider alone (without weapons) would be enough to knock down skirmishers once they had closed.
6. Shouldn't the high end units cost a lot more to maintain? There doesn't seem to be much penalty to building tremendous numbers of them.
7. Using default unit size, if you have 16 units on the field the initial formations are a complete mess, one big mosh pit of interspersed units that must be sorted. I realize it is an AI placement issue but, is there any way to fix this?
8. Website page width is a bit too wide, the text stretches off screen even at 1280x960, making it difficult to read the last few words in each line.

[komninos]

Hi,

Unfortunately we are bound to the limitations of MTW engine.
The revenue fix is in beta though I have not heard any thing yet ~:(
The region titles are generated by a number of functions depending on many things.
There is a wide range of units. Greek look like they are too good but usually they fight in 1:2 or 1:3 and if they brake there formation they ate taken down more easily but non the less they will cause major upsets to big numbered but light Eastern armies. I have managed to defeat several Hoplite units using the Thracians though at the end I lost more men that what they did. Remember you need two turns to make any Hoplite unit and only one for the Eastern ones.
Cavalry at the time was not very effective they rode bareback on the horse. Companions were most of an exception than the rule. The Histofori cavalry were the first heavily armored shock type cavalry but I would not though them in to action against a Phalanx.
The formation problem is a big one we are trying to solve it.

[Marshal Murat]

The Atheneans always seem to overrun the Persians. By the end of the game, Athens controls almost all of Asia Minor!

[Steppe Merc]

I'd agree with the cavalry being to weak, even with the lack of saddle and stirrups. Of course, I only play as factions with strong cavalry, so I guess I'm biased.

[Pericles]

I have to agree - great mod.

It just needs a bit of tweaking.

Few suggestions:

1) The buildings - some of the buildings should have an increase in build time and cost with a corresponding reduction in the revenue they generate. This could be done along the same lines as those in the original MTW.

I did this using the Gnome editor, and the result feels more realistic. There isn't the initial flood of units, and it takes longer to build certain types of buildings and improvements, with the result that I must manage my economy better.

For example, Improved farmland:

Time to build: 2, 4, 6, 8 years

Revenue generated: 100, 140, 160, 180

2) Starting units:

Most countries start with a ton of units which makes fighting difficult by turn 15.

However, Sparta suffers from starting with too few units. I would suggest that Sparta be given at least one or two hoplite phalanxes added to its starting troop deployment.

It must still build the proper buildings in order to produce more hoplites.

Again, great mod ~:cheers:

[IrishMike]

I like the fact that you have way to much money, although doubtfully realistic, it provides a certain epic feel to the game that MTW just doesn't have. Within a few years i am having huge battles of 3,000 to 5,000 men, unlike MTW its more like 300 to 500 men.

Great Game, I consider it better than MTW. ~:cheers:

[Red Harvest]

I agree with Pericles about the building build times. They are incredibly short for the most part, although there are many buildings.


Komninos,

Thanks for the info.

I still can't agree that cavalry would be so weak, otherwise they would not have existed. It takes a lot of resources to maintain horses on a campaign, if the were so ineffective they would have quickly disappeared from the battlefield.

It has been some years since I've been on a horse, but I can't imagine someone on a horse having much difficulty in broken formation melee with non-pole armed troops--bareback or not. A horseman would simply ride right over them, or if they tried to step aside would whack them in the head with whatever he had in hand. If unhorsed, then they resort to melee. For people who have ridden bareback from the beginning I don't think this would be a problem. Sure they couldn't go head-to-head with later cavalry with saddles and stirrups, and they would be no match for the front of a phalanx or other spear formations. They would still be deadly from the rear of the phalanx. They should be deadly to unsupported skirmishers.

Have you ridden before or been around cattle? When a large four legged animal is determined (or driven) to go somewhere, you don't want to stand in their way.

[Grifman]

I agree that building times are too short, probably should be doubled. And the revenue is far too, I never face a money shortage once I get past the first few turns. These are my only real gripes with an otherwise very good mod.

I will say that the large amount of money does mean that both I and the AI can - and do - engage in alot of bribery, with provinces switching because of this. This is fairly historical in one sense, as many city states switched sides back and forth, depending upon which faction got control and how long they could maintain it. Oligarchic factions would overthrow democratic factions, and pro-Athenian factions would overthrow pro-Spartan factions. Few sides seemed fixed in ancient Greece.

Grifman