Samurai Warlords - A Shogun style mod for MTW-VI

[barocca]

Welcome to the Samurai forum

Samurai is the latest installment in the Shogun Mod for MTW-VI

Samurai is a port of Shogun into the Medieval engine. Which is not such an easy thing. Much has to be decompiled and recompiled to suit tweaks made to the game engine for Medieval.

Beta 5 introduced new clans, including Date, Ashikaga and Ryuzoji (amongst a host of others) and also introduced some new buildings and units.

The next step is refining the mod, rebuildng the unit stats, adding more clans and Adding in the Mongol Invasions!!

We Hope to make Single Player campaigns more challenging and provide far more variety than the original edition.


The goal For Online MP is an expanded unit mix limited to specific era's,
thus the MP player can chooose to go with the Shogun Unit mix,
the Mongol Invasion unit mix or the Expanded Campaign unit mix simply by setting an Era.


Samurai (clan wars) / Shogun mod for Medieval - Viking Invasions Total War has been two years in the making so far,
now we are going to finish it

in order to do that we will need some input and ideas from you.

I am going to copy the big threads about the mod and split them into smaller ones in this forum

i am going to post unit and clans lists and ask for input

all that will be later - got to rush to work,
but first

The team that has worked on facets of this mod is enormous,
be they beta testers, file makers, utility makers, idea's men (and women)
so many i would not dream of being able to remember all of them,
but i'll try...in no particular order

Puzz3D, Orda Khan, R'as al Ghul, 1pain1Duck, Kraellin, C.E. West, F.W. Seal,
Duke John, Lord Krazy, Lord of Storms, (the ENTIRE Lords team re: NTW),
Tosa, Tomi says, Soly, Eastside Character, Wellington, BKB, Antalis, amagi,
CBR, Papewaio, Wasabi, Diaz de Vivar, Rory 20 UK, Trousermonkey, dlunide,
Todaswarriors, Aggonyshim, BDC, Hecose, TenkiSoratoti, Whitey, spmetla,
lancer6969, dessa14, NagatsukaShumi, Emp. Conralius, Marshal Murat,
Jeebus_Frist, Iced~Metal, TheSilverKnight, Yuuki, the Sword of Cao Cao,
Hosakawa Tito, Gregoshi, Kukri Kahn, Rob the Bastard, Vinsitor,
Bevan of Hertfordshire, The Naked Geisha, Jacque Schtrapp, Robbie-san,
The Wizard, Fearless, Scipio, Pat, Aelwyn, neogerry, Alrowan, Sir Moody,
ShadesPanther, ShadesWolf, neogerry, Dr_No, MizuKokami, Old Bald Guy,
Skomatth, Tatsumaru Rokkaku, dclare4, Daevorn, LeChuck, Hattori, Balmont,
Thoros of Myr, RCS, MiniKiller, insolent1, Seven.the.Hun, Julius Caesar,
buujin, Duke Dick, Tama, DeadRunner, Dagsby, Steppe Merc,
Sir Zack de Caldicot, Kaatar, Spartacus, ChErNoByl, DeadRunner, +DOC+,
Lt Mor, Ypoknons, Wild Bill Kelso, Mithel, ceasar010, Winter, Hetman,
Pyrodingo, Swartskof, DCB, Inuyasha12, soibean, Zanderpants, uksiu,
SirGonkSevenT3, sprucemoose, Pax, Wayan, Medieval Assassin, Sasaki Kojiro,
Byzantine Prince, Nautilus, Tha White Wolf, Old Nick, DeadRunner, Mudshovel,
Peregrine_Tergiversate, Yoshitsune Returns , Albino Gorilla, Ldvs, Tomcat,
Catiline, kaverne, TaijisToshi, 1dread1lahll, Cha, Yunus Dogus, meatwad,
TheJian, ichi, Troy Lawton, Wes Whitaker, cegorach1, Razor1952, Sp00n,
L'Impresario, KyodaiSteeleye, Krypta, Jochi Khan, ArmaEtLorica_Mongoclint,
Tera, spacecadet, Dionysus9, Krasturak, baz, Cheetah, ColdKnight,
ElmarkOFear, Clips, Shingen Mitch, ShingenKrypta, Iguanus Commodus, Krasturak,
Sid_Quibley, shogun888, ELITEofIMPERATOR, LuminousSun, UglyandHasty,
Crazed Rabbit, Wilbo, cromwell, Yoyoma, PFJ_bejazuz, shingenmitch2,
zaphod, shand994, Mithrandir, ShinKamiizumi, Hamburglar, NagatsukaShumi,
el_slapper, frogbeastegg, AggonyShim2, TogakureOjonin, Kongamato,
Rosacrux, hellenes, TheSilverKnight, Lehesu, Shogun 144, Doom Train,
Wavesword, Marshal Murat, Prodigy, YunDog, Norseman, Cazbol, Whitey,
Empress_Zoe, ChaosLord, buujin, Shurikenjitsu, makkyo, Chimpyang, Wishazu,
Ithaskar Fëarindel, Ashen, insolent1, Qilue, Kaatar, SwordsMaster, Ludens,
Kansuke, ah_dut, Xiahou Liao, RCV, Hedge, Yas, xealous,
Zaphod

MP testing = Swoosh, AMP, MagyarKhan, Puzz3D, CBR, Orda Khan, ShingenMitch, ShingenKrypta. (ongoing)

informative and helpful tips and advice from :-
Giljay, ECS, Intrepid Sidekick, Target, The Shogun, Captain Fishpants

Cheers,
B.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

People who worked on the mod...
A cast of thousands.

Since EB will take a few more weeks to release, this sounds intriguing. Especially since I've never played Shogun. :book:

[soibean]

I haven't played shogun either, which Im rather disappointed about, but this could make up for it. I'm intrigued. Keep us updated.

[Puzz3D]

We also had valuable input from players Swoosh, AMP, MagyarKhan and other MP vets of STW which identified several problems in the multiplayer stat which I believe are successfully corrected in the current stat with the possible exception of cav archers which might require some further fine tuning.

[Orda Khan]

Yes, the cost and melee value of cav archers was an issue

....Orda

[Shaka_Khan]

Will I still be able to play the MTW factions after I install this MOD?

[Yun Dog]

I cant seem to retrain Nodachi?

even though I can build them in the province

is this done on purpose?:help:


and for a bit of a laugh

http://members.westnet.com.au/rogun/screenies/Yunratta2.jpg


some people would say that dread text at bottom describes me perfectly :laugh4:

[R'as al Ghul]

I cant seem to retrain Nodachi?

even though I can build them in the province

is this done on purpose?:help:


Konnichiwa.
Iirc there're still a few bugs in our version. You aren't able
to retrain any of the starting units.
The problem shouldn't be restricted to No-Dachi.
It has to do with their starting size or sth.
Sorry, it's been a while since we've worked on this....

:bow:

[Yun Dog]

Konnichiwa R'as al san

*bows*

Yes you are correct I had noticed certain units

that explains much

greatly appreciated thx

:2thumbsup:

[soibean]

hows this mod progressing?

[R'as al Ghul]

Actually, it's not progressing at all.
That is, at the moment.
I cannot say if or when this will change.

:bow:

[MiniKiller]

Does this mod have a fully playable single player yet? It sounds like it does, also will it need a fresh install or just go over mtw (meaning I can play mtw with mtw units as well)

also where is the downloadable version

thanks m8's

[Puzz3D]

Yes it has a fully playable single player. It is compatible with vanilla MTW/VI, but requires a stat swap. I copied my MTW/VI install and then applied STWmod to that so that I don't have to swap stats or worry about incompatibility with other mods. My sig has a link to the STWmod, and Samurai Wars stats.

[neohu]

I have played this mod,it is very nice.If someone can change the western castle into japanese castle it will be perfect.

[Puzz3D]

Barocca has already made the necessary models, and I tried converting some maps using them, but ran into a compatibility problem with VI using them online. I'd like to get STWmod working with the JSGME mod swapper since it can support multiple mods. The modified maps and model files could move in and out with the STWmod using the JSGME swapper which would should get around the compatibility issue. That would make it easy to switch between VI, STWmod and DUXmod with a single install. I'll try to spend some time looking into this.

[Tomisama]

Because the JSGME swapper takes more time to do it’s operation than simply changing games. I have found it quicker to have a separate install for each of the mod games.

That way I also can leave the Sounds changes for STW in place, which I think are a very nice addition to this mod. I only whish the Voices files could be converted also.

I have not looked into doing this myself yet. Has anyone else?

:book:

[Puzz3D]

STWmod doesn't use the JSGME swapper, so swapping is very fast. However, I do have a separate install of MTW/VI for STWmod. Then I have a regular install of MTW/VI to which I installed DUXmod.

I have STW voices on the battlefield. I'm not sure if all the voices are there. I think they came in with the Sounds.bat conversion, but I'll have to check on that later.

[Tomisama]

The music and sounds in the “Sounds” file are converted, no problem there :smile:

But the “Voices/BattleEvents” are still Medieval.

So at the end of the battle in stead of hearing;

“Your Taisho brings you honour by sacrificing his life in battle.”

with a Japanese accent, you get a nasally English;

“Your General has fallen before the enemy.”

I’m thinking that going through and comparing files, and creating STW replacement set.

Its just a mater of getting the time to listen to them all, and change the file names.

[daleef]

Are you going to put the Date Clan in Mutsu and the Mogami Clan in Dewa in the next release of this Mod?

[Tomisama]

Barocca has already made the necessary models, and I tried converting some maps using them, but ran into a compatibility problem with VI using them online.

But they work in single player? Would they work if all players in a multi had the same conversion? I am guessing from what you said, that this would work.

Being that VI is less than a 2.5 GB install, requiring a dedicated copy for the next revision (with the converted castles and whatever else), should not be a big deal.

You think?

[Puzz3D]

But they work in single player? Would they work if all players in a multi had the same conversion? I am guessing from what you said, that this would work.

Being that VI is less than a 2.5 GB install, requiring a dedicated copy for the next revision (with the converted castles and whatever else), should not be a big deal.

You think?
Yes they would work if all players had the STWmod installed with the new map models, but at the time I was working on this the idea was to be able to switch back and play regular VI online. Now barocca is thinking along the lines of making STWmod require it's own install which would solve this problem, and allow him to do more with the overall conversion itself. Alternatively, STWmod could be made compatible with the JSGME mod switcher which saves your original VI files and supports multiple mod switching. It works for most people, but a few people have reported problems using it.

[JuanT]

First hello everyone, since this is my first post. I am new on this forum although I have been following forums here and at the TW center.

Second to express my admiration and gratitude to all you guys involved in making this mod (specially barocca, I guess). :bow: I am simply overwhelmed. I have done a bit of modding myself (for IL2 FB -the little bit we can do there- and a campaing for RTW that is almost ready to release) and I am staggered by the amount of work and detail that has gone into this mod. A few weeks ago, I went back to play Shogun, in terms of style and atmosphere is still my favourite. But of course it felt stale, then I thought, how about a porting into Medieval? And I have been kicking my teeth ever since for not having discovered your mod earlier!

A few comments and contributions if I may, following other posts:

-Installation. I have compiled the three parts plus the STW sounds into JSGME and it works fine. It takes a while though to switch. The .bat swapper of TosaInu is faster and essential to rename sound files. However I find JSGME simpler to use. A solution could be to make the . bat Sounds swapper copy the STW sounds into the MODS folder of JSGME.

-SOUNDS: I have added the Voices/Battle Events files from STW. The names are very similar and easy to port.

-Portraits: I have added more portraits, using some Medieval Pagan Generals (re-saturated to make them look alive) and some RTW:BI Hun portraits.

-UNits: I would suggest, following Barocca's request, to add peasants. The best .BIF I can see is the Ghazi infantry, or Dervish.BIF. The shield needs removing or making into a stick (Bo) and the axe reduced to a sickle (Jisarama). The unit could be called peasants, or Jisamurai (supporting troops armed with sickles). And battlefield ninjas, for vareity. And the very most basic form of artillery guns, which were used in the historical period and without which sieges bog down (I know, again very much as in reality, but...)

-Further modding: I would encourage you to make this into a replacement mod using JSGME or whatever. This would allow much more, new units etc. To begin with, end that old annoying business that Yari cavalry-Naginata look the same as they use the same .BIF, and the same for Heavy-Archers-Hatamoto (BTW what a briliant unit!)

-Videos: I have seen posts that detail how to put the STW videos back into RTW. Any chance here?

-Castles: And finally, could I BEG YOU GUYS TO RELEASE THE MODDED BATTLE CASTLE MODELS. I do not play Total war online (so far) and they would add so much to sieges.

OK, that's all for now. Again congratulations and thank you. I am enjoying playing this mod inmensely.

[L'Impresario]

Welcome to the boards as a poster JuanT.

Even though I'm not aware at all of the mod's SP status, I also agree that having a JSGME version would be very beneficial to all, even though it's a bit time-consuming for players who want/have to switch mods immediately.
I don't know if there could be a version that switches only the graphics and .txt/stat files, so time could be saved (this is ofcourse of interest mostly to us MPers).

[R'as al Ghul]

OK, that's all for now. Again congratulations and thank you. I am enjoying playing this mod inmensely.

:bow:

Hello fellow Samurai,

thanks for your interest. As long as barocca is busy with real life I'm his executioner. I'll try to address your questions as good as I can.

Installation & sounds: You have to keep in mind that we cater to two groups of people. Those that have the Shogun game and those that don't. This means that importing sounds wil always remain an option for those that have the old game. It probably won't be included in the final version. Copyrights are an issue here.

Portraits: I've uploaded 100+, they are free to download an will be included in the next beta. We're still working on more.

Units: It's yet to be decided if more units are necessary. Iirc there're one or two that barocca wanted to include.

Further modding: This will finally become a total replacement mod like Nap:TW.
More units, like the Mongols are an option.

Videos: Sorry, Medieval doesn't have any video animations that could be replaced.

Castles: I'd like to include them myself. It will be done eventually.

Again, thanks for your interest. This mod has been sleeping for some months and only recently got more interest because of the Samurai Wars competition.
Barocca hasn't logged in since months and I'm myself to busy to do any major mod working. Have a look at the screenshots that I posted, though, there're some graphical conversions that I did for the campaign map etc. that aren't included in the beta_5.

:bow:

[JuanT]

Thanks a lot for the quick replies.

Sounds: Yes, the copyright and the sheer size of the sound files is an issue. there could be a JSGME mod with all files except the sound files, and separately, the TosaInu Sound Swapper. I may try to write the commands for adding the Battle events sounds to the .bat files.

great news on portraits, castles and further units. I look forward to new releases! (I see that there seem to be a beta6 and 7 hanging around). In the meantime I am messing around with some BIFs for fun.

Regarding peasants, my idea is that this should be a crap combat unit like Muslim peasants. Perhaps with low recruitment costs but high maintenance costs (it is daft to have your peasants in the army instead of producing koku). This would also avoid using them as garrison, which no daimyo in their right mind did, in fact they hunted down weapons amongst peasantry. It is just an idea to have more realistic rebel, ronin and ikko-ikki, and last resort armies.

A final question, why the clans start as catholic and not pagan?

[TosaInu]

The music and sounds in the “Sounds” file are converted, no problem there :smile:

But the “Voices/BattleEvents” are still Medieval.

So at the end of the battle in stead of hearing;

“Your Taisho brings you honour by sacrificing his life in battle.”

with a Japanese accent, you get a nasally English;

“Your General has fallen before the enemy.”

I’m thinking that going through and comparing files, and creating STW replacement set.

Its just a mater of getting the time to listen to them all, and change the file names.

Very good to bring this up Tomi says. The SoundSwapper is updated.

http://www.totalwar.org/tosa/STW_Mod_Sound-v2.zip

It's checked and checked again, but it's still possible that others experience problems.

This bat allows swapping Jenglish and Japanese speeches.

MTW has 3 versions for each event (3 enemygeneralrouted messages). STW only has 2, so the second one is simply used again to make the 3rd.

MTW also has messages to indicate that enemy general/kings are captured, STW has not. As those can be important for the campaign (get rid of nasty general/king) those are not swapped by default. But there's a seperate option in the bat if you want them to be replaced. Killed messages are then used.

Possible to do:
Messages for capturing castle.

Please report any problems.

R'as al Ghul added frontend files, http://www.mizus.com/files/files/MTW/Stats/STW_Mod_BETA5_frontend_files.rar

Thanks R'as al Ghul, I'm going to install now.

[TosaInu]

A final question, why the clans start as catholic and not pagan?

Hello JuanT,

There are some reasons for that.

-STW had the Emperor, and the emperor was very important. Compare it to the pope in MTW. We want to keep the emperor, so Daimyos have to be catholic to 'use' the emperor.

-MTW doesn't have any system like the STW portugese arrival and thus introduction of the new religion, so that's dropped.


The Japanese factions in this mod are only catholic to make them loyal to the Emperor. I think the final mod will remove the visual catholic references (and make them the mix of Shinto also Buddist also Catholic but not too much and also..)
The mod could make this step: daimyos that turn (system) pagan are catholics and thus no longer loyal to the Shinto Emperor. (Real history is much more complex, but when you find yourself in a boat in the middle of a lake, would you refuse to use a pink peddle?).

[cegorach]

Units: It's yet to be decided if more units are necessary. Iirc there're one or two that barocca wanted to include.

Further modding: This will finally become a total replacement mod like Nap:TW.
More units, like the Mongols are an option.



You should start with those present in the mod at certain level ( i.e. descriptions, names, actionpage in textures/men etc) like Oda's Yari Ashigaru - htey really should be there.
Besides the mod generally needs more units - they could be reserved for the SP only if you will see thm as not properly balanced. I am not a great expert about Japanese history at that time, but you might add better bodyguard or household units recruitable only in the areas fully conquered and absorbed by a faction and vasal samurai with weaker stats ( you need only few buildings to make it work 2 levels Takeda homeland structure, Oda homeland etc.) this way some factions might use their historically famous soldiers. It generally isn't too difficult to add, but would make the game much more interesting, even the AI doesn't have much problems in using similar structures - they work fine in mine Pike and Musket TW 1.5, so it is a suggestion worth thinking...

Regards Cegorach :book:

[JuanT]

Very good to bring this up Tomi says. The SoundSwapper is updated.

http://www.totalwar.org/tosa/STW_Mod_Sound-v2.zip



This is great news TosaInu. The extra files add more atmosphere. I wondered as well about using the 'killed' messages for the 'king/general captured'.



The Japanese factions in this mod are only catholic to make them loyal to the Emperor. I think the final mod will remove the visual catholic references (and make them the mix of Shinto also Buddist also Catholic but not too much and also..)
The mod could make this step: daimyos that turn (system) pagan are catholics and thus no longer loyal to the Shinto Emperor. (Real history is much more complex, but when you find yourself in a boat in the middle of a lake, would you refuse to use a pink peddle?).


I see that it would be easy to change the Catholic icons (crosses) in the ico.BIFs in campmap. Then you would have factions that for the program are Catholic, but for the player look Shinto/Buddists. Making the Pope into the Emperor is genius! The Emperor in Shogun lacked 'teeth', I suppose 'excomunicated' could become just simply 'cast out' and therefore fair game for other factions. I also suppose 'modded' catholics could be done by making the Muslim or Orthodox or iconoclasts using crosses...:dizzy2:

I cannot see where the images for the parchments for the events are located. It would be great to change those (Most advanced faction, region conquered etc.) back to Shogun ones. At the moment, visually, the only two things that stand out are the Catholic issue and this one.

[cegorach]

The images are in EPIC.bif ( it has about 140 layers !) and are easy to change, a good idea obviously. :2thumbsup:

[Puzz3D]

I had started to convert the models on the maps in STWmaps using barocca's model pack and I was going to convert the castle maps as well as the rest of the maps from STW, but I stopped when I discovered the compatibility problem with regular MTW/VI. If the mod is going to be distributed as an uninstallable replacement mod or use JSGME, I could resume working on the maps. I'm not free to release the model pack. You'd have to ask barocca about that.

The conversion of the textures is rather time consuming because a couple of transitional textures are missing in MTW/VI, so you can get yourself into a pattern between trees and open ground that cannot be matched. The objective is to stay faithfull to the original maps of STW. Also, there is no working Japanese model for the castle gate. The castle entrance has to be open which is how it was in STW. If I'm not mistaken, ultimately the map names have to be changed to the naming convention used by MTW/VI to show up in the campaign battles.



Regarding peasants, my idea is that this should be a crap combat unit like Muslim peasants.
What is the purpose of peasants in the campaign, and is the strategic AI intelligent enough not to train them for battlefield units? I don't think peasants would have a use in multiplayer.

[R'as al Ghul]

I cannot see where the images for the parchments for the events are located. It would be great to change those (Most advanced faction, region conquered etc.) back to Shogun ones. At the moment, visually, the only two things that stand out are the Catholic issue and this one.

It seems the board software ate a post I made yesterday.
Juan, please have a look at the screenshot thread before you suggest things that are already done.

Perhaps there will be an update in the next time.
I have about 50 MB modded files that aren't in the beta_5 version.
They haven't been released yet because they bring a total conversion.

:bow:

[JuanT]

It seems the board software ate a post I made yesterday.
Juan, please have a look at the screenshot thread before you suggest things that are already done.

Perhaps there will be an update in the next time.
I have about 50 MB modded files that aren't in the beta_5 version.
They haven't been released yet because they bring a total conversion.

:bow:
Thanks for the reply R'as al Ghul. I am a bit confused, ~:( could you please say if the situation is:
a) some event pics are converted but not all

b) All event pics are converted but they have not been released in beta5

c) releasing these pics in beta 6 or whatever brings compatibility issues when playing online with MTW:VI

d) you are still working on porting and updating these pics.

To avoid confusion perhaps a list of what is already done but not released could be posted, or a list of what is intended to do. I have read the 18 pages of previous discussion and the screen shots but I don't have a clear picture (most of the posts are at least a year old). It would seem that lots more is done than released.

[QUOTE=Puzz3D]What is the purpose of peasants in the campaign, and is the strategic AI intelligent enough not to train them for battlefield units? I don't think peasants would have a use in multiplayer.
[QUOTE]

The purpose as I see is what I said next in my post:

[QUOTE=JuanT]Regarding peasants, my idea is that this should be a crap combat unit like Muslim peasants. Perhaps with low recruitment costs but high maintenance costs (it is daft to have your peasants in the army instead of producing koku). This would also avoid using them as garrison, which no daimyo in their right mind did, in fact they hunted down weapons amongst peasantry. It is just an idea to have more realistic rebel, ronin and ikko-ikki, and last resort armies.
[QUOTE]

Now I now next to nothing about modding MTW so if you tell me the AI cannot be made to use them as I suggest (tinkering with the building file or whatever) I accept that.

Just one thing, before I get more raps in the nuckles I honestly do not know what is the status of this mod, which might be not moving, or left as is, or about to move but in some direction and not others. It is not my intention to come rampaging into your mod, I am just looking for areas that I could improve and enjoy if you are not going to do it....and areas where you guys could be gently nudged to release stuff ~;) .

It looks to me that you guys are feeling restrained both by a great respect for barocca (which I share) who cannot put his attention to this mod at the moment, and a desire to keep MP compatibility. I also appreciate that this mod (beta5) seems quite free of bugs so far and you may want to keep it that way. I respect all of that. :bow:

If I can get on your nerves a little bit more, here is another suggestion. In some cases I have seen in RTW 'a minimod of a mod' and perhaps that is the way forward here. The 'minimod' could be then a single player swappable one so you could keep beta5 installed as it now, and just swap back and forth the overwrite SP elements if you wanted to.

[R'as al Ghul]

To avoid confusion perhaps a list of what is already done but not released could be posted, or a list of what is intended to do. I have read the 18 pages of previous discussion and the screen shots but I don't have a clear picture (most of the posts are at least a year old). It would seem that lots more is done than released.


Hello Juan,

yes a list would be helpful, I agree.
It is in fact more modded than has been released.
I did the graphical conversion of the campmap, meaning the whole interface (buttons, control panel, etc). I've changed the look of the parchments and inserted new info pics for the units, buildings and events. I made the Geisha work. I enhanced the capability of the campmap AI to build more balanced armies (well hopefully, I need some feedback on this).
Things we haven't done, but intend to do are the Mongols, more names and titles, religion, Emperor, some units like an artillery unit with huge shields.
And a lot of stuff I've forgot.
This mod was asleep for the last months or year.
Increasing interest in the MP part of this mod made me release the modded frontend files, so that we could all look at a more Shogun styled lobby and army screen. Turned out I forgot to include some files like the battle icons.
Tosa convinced me that it was good to release all the stuff I've made so far to the public and I intend on doing that.
In fact it's already uploaded but not public. I'd like to have the files collected in an installer for easier use.

Have a little more patience, please.

More to come, soon.

R'as

[JuanT]

Thanks for the update R'as al Ghul. That's great and helpful news. I appreciate the lot of work that you are putting into this and I am confident the result will be great. I also realize the different standard, extra effort and testing that needs to go into any modded material when it takes the leap from one's computer into the public domain. And I will rather have your work in my game than any homemade 'easy-cheap-quick' stuff.

Thanks also Puzz3D. I appreciate the amount of careful work that needs to be done there to go from model to map. So I guess when I said 'please release the castle models' really I should have said 'the castle maps'. If you could do that in the future that would be fantastic.

Again apologies if annoyance caused. Some old posts requested suggestions and I like this mod a lot!.

I wait and look forward to the next release. :2thumbsup:

[R'as al Ghul]

Again apologies if annoyance caused. Some old posts requested suggestions and I like this mod a lot!

Hehe, don't worry.
I may sound a bit grumpy sometimes but am generally a friendly guy. :wink:

Stay tuned.

[R'as al Ghul]

The mod could make this step: daimyos that turn (system) pagan are catholics and thus no longer loyal to the Shinto Emperor.

That would be nice.
But it won't work, I'm afraid.
Changing a faction's religion isn't in the game, is it?
You can only change the religion of a province's population.

The only possible way would be to have the emperor (pope), his catholic followers (loyal factions, can be excommunicated, loose his trust) and other factions that never had and never will be in the "circle of trust" of the emperor (muslims or orthodox). The emperor will take a neutral or aggressive stance to these factions.

[TosaInu]

All candy such as frontend files, buttons, loc files etc by R'as al Ghul and the music setup, are all in one 23 mb file now (I understood there'll also be an installer soon).
http://www.mizus.com/files/files/MTW/Stats/STW_Mod_Addon28-4-06.zip

[R'as al Ghul]

Bug:

Please move/copy the six .bif-files named STW_Geisha.... from
campmap/pieces to
campmap/pieces/Agents/ or
campmap/pieces/smap/Agents

Preferrably both.

Sorry for the inconvenience.
It will be fixed in the installer.

:bow:

[JuanT]

All candy such as frontend files, buttons, loc files etc by R'as al Ghul and the music setup, are all in one 23 mb file now (I understood there'll also be an installer soon).
http://www.mizus.com/files/files/MTW/Stats/STW_Mod_Addon28-4-06.zip

Hi there R'as, I think I have found two other bugs in this version of the add-on:

-the files:
Battle.txt
changes.txt
DESCRIPTIONS.TXT
Events.txt
names.txt
ToolTip.txt

should go into the loc/eng folder, not just loc/ as in the zip.

-The file STW_15_unit_prod.txt has an error. When installed, MTW does not load and produces error message: 'colum 28 row 43 faction unknown FN_GOLDEN_HORDE' . Removing the one occurence of the text 'FN_GOLDEN_HORDE' from the file (find with Ctrl-F) allows loading.

And then one can enjoy the new improvements as I am doing :2thumbsup:

[R'as al Ghul]

Hi there R'as, I think I have found two other bugs in this version of the add-on:

-the files:
Battle.txt
changes.txt
DESCRIPTIONS.TXT
Events.txt
names.txt
ToolTip.txt

should go into the loc/eng folder, not just loc/ as in the zip.

Hi Juan,

absolutely right. Thanks for pointing that out. If anyone has a different language than english, they should move the files to the repective folder. barocca and I have different language versions, that may be the reason. Of course they include a lot of altered text. So, missing them is not good.


-The file STW_15_unit_prod.txt has an error. When installed, MTW does not load and produces error message: 'colum 28 row 43 faction unknown FN_GOLDEN_HORDE' . Removing the one occurence of the text 'FN_GOLDEN_HORDE' from the file (find with Ctrl-F) allows loading.

And then one can enjoy the new improvements as I am doing :2thumbsup:

Yes, we discovered that. It's been fixed for the installer. Thnx.
I should've triple-checked everything.

:bow:

[Puzz3D]

Thanks also Puzz3D. I appreciate the amount of careful work that needs to be done there to go from model to map. So I guess when I said 'please release the castle models' really I should have said 'the castle maps'. If you could do that in the future that would be fantastic.
OK. I'm going to proceed with converting the rest of the maps, including castle maps, from STW to STWmod using Barocca's Japanese model pack. I'm not sure how long it's going to take. Krypta was assisting with the map conversions, but I don't think he has the time to devote to this task now.

[JuanT]

Glad to be of help.

This mod rocks!

Probably a silly suggestion Puzz3D, for the castle gates: Could you just put the MTW wooden gate just behind or coincident with the modded STW stone wall model with an open 'gate'? In the simulator IL2 FB we can superimpose two models and it works fine, I mean larger/outer parts obscure the smaller/inside ones (which is great if you put say a fire inside a house. when the house is destroyed, you see the fire. Or to make composite models as I suggest in this case). However each model remains destructable independently of the other (which in a WWII flight simulator is not an issue, one bomb destroys both models). In here it would probably mean that if you destroy the STW stone wall near the gate, you then will find the MTW strech of wooden gate wall to destroy next!. However, this STW mod still offers no way to break a stone wall, right?

What I have seen in the MTW map editor shows models can be superimposed but I do not know how they will behave in the game.

Something like this:

https://img376.imageshack.us/img376/8376/gatesmall0lb.jpg (https://imageshack.us)

where I have put the palisade gate in the antioch castle gate.

[Puzz3D]

I thought we had a working open gate in the STW models, but, apparently, we don't even have that. We just have a gate that appears to be open, but men cannot go through it. Hopefully, this can be fixed. I don't think it matters from a gameplay perspective whether the gate is always open or not. The gate has to be defended in anycase, and the attacker has to go through the gate. There is no way to scale walls in MTW/VI.

AFAIK, the Japanese didn't have artillery that could knock down walls. According to barocca, "Sengoku era artillery used by the Japanese was confined to large caliber arquebus. They used them to shoot at walls. They were not usefull against troops with an extereme low rate of fire and absolutely dreadfull accuracy. If you managed to hit the wall you aimed at it was cause for celebration.".

[Tomisama]

That brought to mind some pictures :bow:


http://www.clanwarscomp.org/samurai/hayashi.gif

Hand canon target practice :laugh:



http://www.clanwarscomp.org/samurai/gunsmany.jpg

In comparison to the rest of the arsenal...



http://www.clanwarscomp.org/samurai/castlegate.jpg

A castle gate in Takeda 2 (A game that never made it :sad: ).

Edit: Guess I was wrong, it finaly did come out.

http://www.ezgame.com/buy.htm

[R'as al Ghul]

https://img452.imageshack.us/img452/56/000003828hr.jpg

Shogun flags/standards anyone? :wink:

General flag will also be changed.

:bow:

[Puzz3D]

Unit recognition is unsurpassed in STW and STWmod. It's quite important to have clear unit recognition when playing battles.

[barocca]

most odd that it shows up different colours between the banner and the mon,
i matched them seamlessly on my system...

are they all like that?

B.

https://img452.imageshack.us/img452/56/000003828hr.jpg

Shogun flags/standards anyone? :wink:

General flag will also be changed.

:bow:

[R'as al Ghul]

most odd that it shows up different colours between the banner and the mon,
i matched them seamlessly on my system...

are they all like that?

B.

Yes, they are all like that.
The banner is shaded, it has white to grey colours.
Thus, the colour applied will take a few different shades.
The mon is a rectangular .tga with a solid colour background that gets pasted on it.
The original rectangular medieval mon-tga's are shaded, too, to fit better onto the original flag.
I'll see if I can adjust it.

[Tomisama]

A very nice touch R’as :grin:

And I hate to be so picky, but is there any way that the shaft can proceed the banner, and be to the front of the formation? Even if it had to be a bit smaller. Sorry, it may not be possible, but thought I would ask.

…..

And Yuuki. I found one voice that did not get the Jenglish replacement (besides the castle and area ones). PlayerGeneralRouting3 poped off in a game last weekend in full English glory :laugh2: . I found which one it was last night (an easy fix).

Thanks for all of your hard work guys :bow:

[R'as al Ghul]

A very nice touch R’as :grin:

And I hate to be so picky, but is there any way that the shaft can proceed the banner, and be to the front of the formation? Even if it had to be smaller. Sorry, it may not be possible, but thought I would ask.

Yes I could mirror it. Good idea actually, I'll see to it.
Bringing it more to the front is not possible. :no:

…..


And Yuuki. I found one voice that did not get the Jenglish replacement (besides the castle and area ones). PlayerGeneralRouting3 poped off in a game last weekend in full English glory :laugh2: . I found which one it was last night (an easy fix).

Thanks for all of your hard work guys :bow:

PlayerGeneralRouting3 and other ones that have three possibilities aren't all
overwritten by default. You have to copy and paste them yourself, I'm afraid.
One of the three will be double as Shogun provides only two sounds.
Try to load them all in winamp and you'll find the ones that still need changing.

:bow:

[JuanT]

Yes I could mirror it. Good idea actually, I'll see to it.
Bringing it more to the front is not possible. :no:


Hi R'as. If you mirror the shogun flag it lays just by one of the soldiers, rather good IMHO. The colours improve if the shogun-unit flag is made paler. A problem is that you notice that the pattern of creases and folds does not continue into the mon, but creases and folds can be erased or disguished. The general flag can be made into a long shogun one, it shows then white bands but again IMHO looks OK. The crown can be replaced by any of the old shogun general symbols that look to the front.

I suspect there might be another problem with the zip update since I do not get the front end shogun battle files (atack, fire, rally etc.). I will investigate.

Good job with the EPIC files. You did recolour some of the old shogun ones, didn't you?

[R'as al Ghul]

Hi R'as. If you mirror the shogun flag it lays just by one of the soldiers, rather good IMHO. The colours improve if the shogun-unit flag is made paler. A problem is that you notice that the pattern of creases and folds does not continue into the mon, but creases and folds can be erased or disguished. The general flag can be made into a long shogun one, it shows then white bands but again IMHO looks OK. The crown can be replaced by any of the old shogun general symbols that look to the front.

Hi Juan,

i'm on the problem with the colours, creases, folds and mons.
They're almost done. The general flag is a bit more difficult.
I don't thin I'll change it too much, cause there's no way that you can use the faction colour on the texture of the flag to "extend" the area of the colour. Meaning the spot for the mon on the general's flag is exactly 32*32. If you put the grey flag colour around it, it won't be coloured in the faction colour, which looks bad. (white bands)
Please provide an example of the old Shogun general symbol. I'm looking for a substitute for the crown and haven't found any suitable.



I suspect there might be another problem with the zip update since I do not get the front end shogun battle files (atack, fire, rally etc.). I will investigate.

Good job with the EPIC files. You did recolour some of the old shogun ones, didn't you?

Erm, yes the zip file doesn't include everything. The battle icons are missing.
I uploaded them to mizu's but don't have any download link for you atm.
They'll be included in the installer.
Glad you like the Epic pics. Yes recoloured, resized, imported new ones...whatever was necessary.

:bow:

[barocca]

R'as
you have a PM

BASE FILES for flags have been uploded and R'as has been sent the link
(prebat flags, castle flags and field flags)
basically

take a screenie of a flag
wipeout the colours so all you have left is shading,
now in photoshop layer a solid colour,
now decrease the opacity
now overlay your mon and merge down,

you now have shaded flag, in colour, with mon,
the colour WONT quite match the in game standard that the flag sits in, (what the soldiers carry around)
go into game, load custom battle - check what is wrong,
too light? too dark?
CAN YOU SEE THE SHADIING IS A MATCH?
tinker with image till happiness comes..
or until you go mad,
then stop that and go into startpos file and try tweaking the FACTION colour

labour intensive but you CAN get a seamless match, with a very professional look to it,
B.

[macsen rufus]

Mogami campaign, hard, beta5

Some early impressions on the campaign - admittedly I've only seen one end of Japan in my campaign so far, but it seems the heroes are coming thick and fast. I realise you'll be filling all the "spare hero slots" and I guess that means editing the appearance dates etc to suit. I just feel there are too many top-flight generals around for the start of the campaign (okay, I admit I'm getting a bit weary of getting whupped by Takeda's 9* monster :embarassed: )

Difficult to tell if the AI's training up in a balanced way, most armies I've seen so far seem to be mostly the starting units, so time will tell. Meanwhile I need to rethink my diplomatic strategy and start again.

[R'as al Ghul]

Difficult to tell if the AI's training up in a balanced way, most armies I've seen so far seem to be mostly the starting units,

The changes I made work only in beta_6 atm. The downside is no starting units.

The generals are a pain and need fixing, I agree.
It's an old problem.
:bow:

[macsen rufus]

Started again in the beta6 campaign. Made a slightly better start by NOT going after Date straight away, and captured Hitachi instead for the iron.

Factions around me seem to be TRAINING in balance, but aren't mixing their stacks. eg Satomi had one province full of Ashi Xbows and Yari Ashis, another full of heavy cav and hatamotos, with a few Samurai archers and Yaris spread around. (Made mincemeat of their cav and killed off their entire royal line in a nice bridge battle in which I only used 3 archers, 1 xbow, 3 Yari Sams and 1 kensai, whilst everyone else stood back and watched! The kensai gained 6 valour on that bridge.) The faction re-emerged later with a good mix of yari cav, archers, yari sams, monks and no-dachi, 3 stacks-worth on my border....

So far it looks a bit like the AI still likes ashi xbows a lot, but not sure if that's across the map or just my neighbours to date.

Diplomacy is working well, I think, with shifting, opportunistic alliances and a fair degree of back-stabbing!

And the new frontend adds some nice finishing touches. Might get around to changing the music one day..... :2thumbsup:

[Revolting Friendship]

Ok so I've tried this mod out now, great stuff, you've done a nice job converting STW into MTW.

Now I was only wondering, is there any way to easily remove the ashigaru crossbow unit? Personally I think the unit is ahistorical and expendable, also the AI build far too many of them, their cash would be better invested in just yari ashigaru. Perhaps I can make you a yumi ashigaru bif-file when I figure out how to properly make them with 3dstudio. Such a unit was really kind of lacking in the original STW and would make a nice addition here instead of those crossbows, since that was a weapon not commonly used anywhere near the Sengoku Jidai.

Another thing that bugs me is that sõhei can be built so early, the game ends up with a damn lot of them already very early in the game, and I've never been fond of building them myself. To me they are like wizards in RPG's, overpowered and annoying. I improved the stats of the teppõ units just for the pleasure of gunning them down in droves.

Also, is there any way to easily resolve the "spare hero slot" issue, like adding more names to some file or something? :laugh4:

[R'as al Ghul]

Hey Tomte,

I'm a bit short on time so only a quick answer now:

ashi crossbow: change the entry "All Factions" to "No Faction" in the unit_prod file to remove it.

sohei: Well I noticed that the AI likes them very much. We can still change the tech tree to make them not so eadily available.

Lord Spare slot: barocca pet project is a giant catalogue of names for all the generals. So, yes they will be filled eventually.

P.S.: we could use that yumi ashigaru bif. :smile:
Do you see now what the problem with the CAv-bif is?

:bow:

[Revolting Friendship]

Do you see now what the problem with the CAv-bif is?

Honestly? They look much better than the original MTW cavalry. The MTW cavalry was strangely pixelated if I remember correctly, and the riders looked like little else than blobs of color. Sure the cavalry is still not as crisp as the other units(except ashi xbow o_O) but IMO they are decent.

However, I will try this stuff out and see what I can do. One thing though, shouldn't the sashimono have faction-color coded color-values?

[R'as al Ghul]

Honestly? They look much better than the original MTW cavalry. The MTW cavalry was strangely pixelated if I remember correctly, and the riders looked like little else than blobs of color. Sure the cavalry is still not as crisp as the other units(except ashi xbow o_O) but IMO they are decent.

However, I will try this stuff out and see what I can do. One thing though, shouldn't the sashimono have faction-color coded color-values?

Well, yes at least they look like Cav. :grin:
It wouldn't be a catastrophe if we can't change them. And you may be right in that the horses are certainly more crisp than the riders in M:TW.

The sashimono would normally have to be faction coloured, that is pink/green.
However, like I said in the screenshot thread, I assume that the grey we use is still recognized as faction colour, as it was in original Shogun.
It's a bit weird. I'm stil looking into it.....

[macsen rufus]

I have a few more notes from beta6 - you may already know, but here goes:

* Mikawa province is famous for its KERNS :laugh4:
* Can't retrain hatamoto (specifically royal or ex-royal units can't be retrained in a dojo that can train new hatamoto -- guess the game doesn't see them as the same unit)
* Hojutsu dojo - I built the dojo but can't train any teppo - just not showing. Is this an "era" issue, if so what date do they come on line?
* Hojutsu dojo and advanced hojutso dojo BOTH showing in the build parchment at the same time - is this intended? (Like the light and light/heavy cavalry drill is in NTW, for instance)
* Resource labels may need looking at - can't remember where it showed, probably trade scroll, but saw salt labelled as "STW_SALT" on rollover text (tastier than the original, yummm...)

As for the campaign, the Satomi re-emergence has been trying to take Mutsu off me, with its waves of yari cav. Simple solution, come into the forest and meet my yari samurai. After three repelled invasions I thought it was time to take the matter to them, and now their Daimyo is cowering under siege, and I have the launch pad required to hit the Uesegi across a river.

Yes, nice mod, and enjoying the campaign. Hope the notes help, and really looking forward to some hero names :2thumbsup:

[macsen rufus]

I've got my teppos coming now, didn't notice the era had changed till I couldn't retrain my depleted xbows any more.

Another two provinces showed up with spearmen and fyrdmen as province specialities. I guess this is down to old units in the unit_prod file, so should be able to sort those issues once I download Gnome again (lost it when my old machine died :wall: )

Also having some trouble with geisha marker bifs and bufs, can't seem to get them in the right directory to satisfy the game. I'll have another look at that tonight, meanwhile there's a very sinister-looking question mark lurking in the shadows...

Uesegi now eliminated, and I have my second iron province at last. Takeda just attacked too many of my ships, so I decided to relieve them of Etchu and Shinano. Im now the richest and have the biggest army, so guess the campaign's going well, but can I get anyone to marry my daimo??? I don't know what it is but nearly all royals are unmarried everywhere I look on the map, not just my faction. It's not like there's a shortage of princesses...

[R'as al Ghul]

Also having some trouble with geisha marker bifs and bufs, can't seem to get them in the right directory to satisfy the game.

Try campmap/pieces/agents and campmap/pieces/smap/agents.

Also, please keep it coming. It's very usefull. You seem to be one of the few who plays the sp campaign atm and I only have time for specific tests.
I'm taking notes and read everything, even if I'm not replying everytime.

:bow:

[macsen rufus]

Hi, got the geisha in the right folder eventually - just shouldn't have been doing it at 2am in the first place. The highlight ring comes up offset slightly from the piece icon on the camp map (similar problem as in Pike & Musket Russian stacks). She works okay now, but had no BIF for the unit training panel (used a copy of Ulama for now), and no portrait, but I'll see if I can copy some princesses across.

Gnome got rid of the inappropriate units showing as region specialities! I see some of the STW_units are duplicated in the prod file. Haven't checked to see if they're EXACT copies or for mercs or rebels...

Any joy with the ashi bow BIFs yet? I see there's an entry in the prod file, so tempted to get it going.

Some of the ships show up in unexpected sea regions when built, but I can't remember any of the names right now. I know Shinano and Kasuza put them in the same bay, even though both ports are in a different sea region. I think Mutsu puts them out a region away as well (but that was in beta5 campaign, since abandoned).

Balance on AI armies looks pretty good, except where cash-strapped, and then still get lots of xbows. Re-emergences provide quite scary armies, especially when it happens in the province-next-door. More later...

[barocca]

Geisha
the highlight ring is out of place?
i know how to fix that, i'll try and survive a campagin game long enough to build one
(yes, i have not yet won a campaign in the mod i started - i am getting annoyed at the medieval "clan died out" screens, so will Shogunise those, or maybe R'as or Tomi hve some ideas...)

Ships
i have not yet found the cause of them being placed in the wrong sea zones,
2 possibilities,
the game is using one of the two following data elements to "place" ships
1. - location of ports, will try moving them around
2. - first adjacent sea region - if so will move the ports into the region
(i spent DAYS getting the map working right in the first place, have no intention of going there again - i am not going to go in and swap the sea regions around, that would be a MAJOR headache)

PLEASE try to recall all the errors so i can fix them


Ashi Bows - i think Tomte is working on those

UNIT DUPES - dont touch!!
one set is for SP and one for MP
they will be seperated into different unit files soon, we have been unable to get the game to behave with two entries,
sometimes it builds MP variants in SP campaign by mistake and then you cannot merge or retrain the beggars...

[R'as al Ghul]

the highlight ring is out of place?

I fixed that months ago, don't know how the wrong one turned up
in the upload. ~:confused:

https://img118.imageshack.us/img118/2787/000002490nj.jpg

[macsen rufus]

Hi, some more notes from my campaign:

Awaji - 'famous for Japanese Teppo', but has no iron, so they can't be trained there (need Yoroi).
Ship production: Kasuza and Shimosa put ships into Sagami bay, but ports are both in Tone Bay. Ships out of Shinano would be quite some feat :oops:
Hatomoto - CAN retrain royal units, but not standard ones.

I still need to go around all my ship-building provinces to check the rest for where ships come out. Campaign nearly finished, just the southernmost island to conquer now and only Ryozuji left to oppose me. Shouldn't be more than a couple of turns as I have complete control of the sea, and huge teched up armies ready to invade :skull: :skull: :skull:

[Puzz3D]

The SP and MP unit files are now split and a new startpos file made for MP. This should fix the unit retraining and recombining issues in the SP campaign, and it should fix the missing corpses as well.

[JuanT]

Hi there,

Just to add some feed-back on sp campaings. Playing with Satomi clan, level hard, smap6. Also played Shimazu level hard, smap5.

GREAT improvement in balanced AI armies in smap6 compared with smap5. Lots of mercenaries but too expensive for Satomi, not for richer Shimazu. AI does not seem to use mercenaries but I think it didn't in MTW either so not a mod issue? Still lots of Crossbows, perhaps make them a bit more expensice than ashi spears, then AI will build more ashi and less Xbows? (Hey, don't remove Xbows. it is another unit type and better than nothing if you have no archers)

Great that river maps have two bridges (Chikugo, Shimosa, Musashi). The AI does not handle this too well but still much more interesting that a bloodbath with one bridge. Also better hills and mountain maps, not so steep as in Shogun.

AI playing well, never had so much grief! backstabbing-surprise attacks aplenty. Really tough for Satomi. No-one wants to marry or make alliances with me but this may be for playing in 'hard', although I remember more sucess with diplomacy in MTW

Units: Yari cavalry has more punch than in Shogun, this is good since they are so expensive and carry lances. Hatamoto, great unit. Taishos and daimyos are however too difficult to kill in battle.

small bug: Chikuzen 'famous for its pictish cavalry' ?!

Overall great mod as I have said before!

[barocca]

the famous for 'pictish cavalry' 'horsemen' etc etc is due to the existence of other units from viking in the unit prod file,

with the decision to go to an overwite mod the next version wont have anything but shogun units in it, and that will eliminate the odditities

B.

[JuanT]

Thanks for the reply. I think it is good also if you can completely separate MP from SP units. I suspected this was the reason for the duplicated units in unitprod. At least twice I have had missing corpes, and once in smap5 I was able to train Hatamoto at the cheaper MP price, 400 instead of 1000 I think. For the battle graphics, the game definitively gets confused between SP and MP units (if you change the settings in column 48 to have more BIFs available).

Not having starting units in smap6 has solved retraining issues but leaves a less interesting and balanced starting situation. Some Rebel provinces (Kozuke) have no garrison at all and never train one. Clans starting with several training provinces have an advantage.

[Figaro123]

Hey, this is a great mod - all the great parts of Shogun with the extra features of Medieval added in too. There's something great about a Kensai getting 300+ kills and becoming a Natural Born Killer...

A few ideas...

-Kensai used to require a Legendary Sword Dojo rather than just the Famous one. That way they came in a lot later, which I think is a good thing - they're pretty special.
-Also they took four turns to build, rather than just one. Considering how good they are, being able to build them so quickly kindof makes other units obsolete.
-They also seem a lot more powerful... I've seen single Kensai with 15+ Valour take on and defeat armies 1,000+ strong. Surely that's a bit too much? Maybe Valour works differently to how honour did or something, but still.

-As to new unit ideas, I don't think that Crossbow Ashigaru should become obsolete once the Teppo appear. Surely clans unable to get their hands on Gunpowder would keep using them? OK so their purposes are essentially the same and one really is just an upgrade of the other, but there are millions of units in Medieval that are basically the same.
-Idea for a new unit: something to come somewhere between the Ashigaru and Samurai. I don't know that much about military history, would such a unit have existed or were all professional soldiers Samurai?
-Armoured Ashigaru... slower but tougher. Requiring Yari Dojo and Yoroi.
-Some kind of stealthy archer type unit similar to the Welsh Bandits in VI.

Also, a big idea I haven't read mentioned yet...

Why not include the Ainu? They were a people occupying the northermost island of Japan, and the reason why it's not included on the Shogun map. They also occupied parts of the northern end of Honshu, and which was comparatively undeveloped (which is why the provinces are so huge in Shogun). They were a different culture to the Japanese, with their own religion, however interacted quite frequently with them and were often at war. So, to include them, you could split up the norhternmost provinces so as to add one or two more (I'm assuming adding the northernmost island would be too difficult/time consuming) provinces for the Ainu to control.

Because the Ainu weren't Japanese, their unit line-up would be very different...
-No Samurai of any sort whatsoever.
-No Warrior Monks.
-No Teppo, so only Yari and Crossbow Ashigaru.
-Instead, they would have a load of special and unique units. Possibly armed with big arse-kicking Axes.