KOTF mod

[Ignoramus]

I like the term season. I hated referring to turns - it's too gamey.

I think that a beefed up AI is necessary. In LotR, we slaughtered the AI, although that was partly due to HA's which we won't be able to get as the French. Ideally, it should be moderately difficult to conquer a province if there's spirit of cooperation between houses. Gaining that support, however, is another thing.

[econ21]

For those into stats, the unit stats in LTC seem to be very close - if not identical - to those in the "M2TW grand campaign with Kingdoms stats" mod. They are nicely presented in BrandyBarrel's FAUST for that mod:

http://www.mediafire.com/?4cgy1lcd1in

Although the stats don't tell the whole story (due to the effect of animations), compared to vanilla, I noticed:

(1) Spears get a big boost - armoured spears have the same ATT and DEF as DFK now :eek:
(2) Missiles have ranged attacks unaltered, but tend to have melee ATT and DEF reduced a lot
(3) Cavalry get a minor nerf in stats (but also smaller units)
(4) Swords get a major nerf
(5) France does not get many two handers, but those dismounted nobles look tasty.

Anyone know how the early/high/late thing works? Are there fixed dates at which higher tier units are recruitable? Or does it just affect the initial starting situation.

[_Tristan_]

Or does it just affect the initial starting situation.

That's it.

[_Tristan_]

Hereunder is the changelog to the different files :

1.0 :

Descr_strat.txt :

- Renamed Rheims to Reims
- Changed King Philip to Philippe
- Changed Bertrada de Montfort to Bertrade de Montfort
- Changed the heirs' names : Henry to Henri and Michiel to Charles
- Changed the order of the heirs (historically exact)
- Renamed Perrin Gassou as Alain de Rohan (Rennes)
- Renamed Guillemont de Lyon as Raymond de Provence (Dijon)
- Renamed Raoulet poitevin as Hugues de Champagne (Reims)

- Changed the king's purse for all AI factions (per Zim's request)

The three last were contemporaries of King Philippe and could be considered Duke in their own rights (particularly the first two)

Descr_names.txt :

- Deleted all surnames that didn't sound French enough
- Added some real French nobles and bourgeois surnames from the XIIth up to XVth century.
- Revised the firstnames list
- Added more than 170 references (first- and surnames)

2.0 :

- Changed the king's purse for all AI factions (per Zim's request)

[TinCow]

Excellent! Many thanks Tristan!

[_Tristan_]

Now I have to check if it works....

[Cecil XIX]

Sounds pretty nifty Tristan, good job.

[_Tristan_]

Finally, i've managed to create all the files needed for the French Names Project...

I've only to playtest it but I see no reason why it wouldn't work...



EDIT : Have to wait until tonight when I get home...

[Ramses II CP]

I have limited experience with LTC gold, but I'd say the main improvements to the AI are on the strategy map, in terms of tactics during actual combat it is still limited by it's failure to understand terrain and movement factors. The AI does a much better job guarding cities and bringing reasonable stacks to the fight, but it's just as easy to lead it around and surround it once the fight starts.

I don't have enough looks at the revised diplomacy to tell if it really matters at VH/VH, but I think we should play there. The road should be fairly difficult IMHO.

I will say that I'm very glad we don't have an HA heavy faction. It's just too easy. Also I recommend that people avoid charging directly into set formations of spearmen with their bodyguards. In LotR we had BGs that could butcher armies, which made it difficult to tell when your character was about to die. In LTC if you bog down after a frontal charge at spears above the militia level you will die. Pin them and hit them from behind, or run them until they'll break on impact, etc. Victories need to be won on morale more than brute force, more like what we did in KotR (when not facing 3x gold stacks).

[econ21]

. Victories need to be won on morale more than brute force, ...

I have not played the mod, but looking at the unit stats (compared to vanilla), that sounds like good advice. Morale values seem unaltered - the AI will run just as much as before. But those spears are sharp now.

[Zim]

Does anyone know how large the LTC is? I was not able to get to an acquaintance's comp with much better internet access today and was wondering about the feasibility of downloading it on dialup.

[ULC]

Does anyone know how large the LTC is? I was not able to get to an acquaintance's comp with much better internet access today and was wondering about the feasibility of downloading it on dialup.

Less then 500Mb if IIRC

[Zim]

86.4 MB in zipped form, apparently. It probably unzips to 500...

Anyone think any of the mini mods on the LTC site will do us any good?

This one looks neat but likely changes too much (and changes starting date)...maybe for SP sometime.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=166563

[econ21]

Anyone think any of the mini mods on the LTC site will do us any good?

The mini-mod you linked to is interesting - especially increased movement for agents (they crawl in M2TW) - but I agree it changes too much.

Personally, I think it would be best to stick to plain LTC. The mod is very polished (it's a gold version) and in its final form (Lusted is working at CA). Mini-mods will introduce some risk of instability, as they tend to be more works in progress. After player apathy, instability is the worst nightmare for a PBM (one thing that has put me off EB for a PBM - many players report getting so far and then get a crash they cannot go beyond). With the mini-mod for RTR that we used in WotS, IIRC we encountered a crash issue that fortunately we could work around but by the end were using an outdated version of the mod that was not available for download. It was worth using that mini-mod for the in-game Roman ranks, but since then we have developed our own ideas for ranks and titles.

[_Tristan_]

Updated the changelog for the KotF mod here

[_Tristan_]

I had almost everything working fine and now when I launch the campaign, I'm taken back to the Campaign Selection screen.

Seems there is a conflict caused by descr_strat. So I'm now doing a bit of retro-engineering to find the cause of the problem...

[Rowan]

I had almost everything working fine and now when I launch the campaign, I'm taken back to the Campaign Selection screen.

Seems there is a conflict caused by descr_strat. So I'm now doing a bit of retro-engineering to find the cause of the problem...

It's not the coding, it's the QA that's the hard bit... hopefully you'll the bugs.

[_Tristan_]

Still working on it but it doesn't look good... Even when following the step by step guide...

Any people with modding experience are welcome to lend me a hand...

[econ21]

Any people with modding experience are welcome to lend me a hand...

You could try asking Factionheir for a hand - he was very able and helpful with kotrfix. You could also try to entice him to join us while you are at it...

I can look at it if you can't find a real modder, but I can only offer enthusiasm as opposed to experience.

[Zim]

FH is philosophically opposed to Securom last I heard (too bad, I'd love to have him...) but he could certainly help with the mod if so inclined. I can take a look at it, although I'm not a great modder. I do have some programming experience, I'm guessing some really tiny problem is causing your crash, it always seemed to be a single line or punctuation that crashed our programs in school.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

What error message do you get?

[_Tristan_]

No error per se, the game just won't launch even though using the utility tool listed in the guide I managed to get 0 errors...

If someone is able to mod the name files, I can send them the list of French names I have compiled...

The main problem as I see it is not having access to the Vanilla names.txt file (used by LTC) and not wanting to unpack the files.

Whenever I try to create a names.txt files from scratch, it just won't be recognised but updating a pre-existing one works.

So if anyone would care to upload a version of the Vanilla names.text file I might be able sto solve all the problems affecting my modding...

It just seemed so simple to start with...

[AussieGiant]

Securom...did MTWII have securom?

[TheFlax]

Securom...did MTWII have securom?

Only Kingdoms has it.

[AussieGiant]

Only Kingdoms has it.

I hope this doesn't screw my machine up.

[_Tristan_]

I never knew anyone who has had his machine screwed by Securom. Mine is doing fine though I installed from the start.

[Ramses II CP]

I have known people who had their machines screwed up by Securom, but that was about four years ago. The latest versions are nothing to sneeze at, but there is a reliable procedure for uninstalling the one that comes with Kingdoms now. A procedure that you can find with a quick search around the 'net. I personally wouldn't attempt it before I was ready to uninstall the game as well, although obviously it's been done by a part of the gaming community it would be ill advised to discuss here.

[econ21]

No error per se, the game just won't launch even though using the utility tool listed in the guide I managed to get 0 errors...

If someone is able to mod the name files, I can send them the list of French names I have compiled...

The main problem as I see it is not having access to the Vanilla names.txt file (used by LTC) and not wanting to unpack the files.

Whenever I try to create a names.txt files from scratch, it just won't be recognised but updating a pre-existing one works.

So if anyone would care to upload a version of the Vanilla names.text file I might be able sto solve all the problems affecting my modding...

It just seemed so simple to start with...

If you are still having trouble, maybe you could upload the current version of your mod so that people could have a look at? (And the list of new French names you wanted adding, in case it is better to start from scratch.) I will root around for the names.txt, although perhaps like you, I am not too enthusiastic about unpacking 7GB of largely redundant files.

[AussieGiant]

I have known people who had their machines screwed up by Securom, but that was about four years ago. The latest versions are nothing to sneeze at, but there is a reliable procedure for uninstalling the one that comes with Kingdoms now. A procedure that you can find with a quick search around the 'net. I personally wouldn't attempt it before I was ready to uninstall the game as well, although obviously it's been done by a part of the gaming community it would be ill advised to discuss here.

Thanks Ramses. No I'm not going to start that whole topic again. I just wanted to check before I installed that I remembered correctly.

A well. I guess I'll take the plunge.

[Zim]

I think my version is unpacked. At least I used to unpack everytime I had to reinstall. Where would that file be?