Turbo
12-31-2002, 18:15
One of the flaws I see with most of the MODS is that they try to be everything to everyone. Starting out the AI on roughly equal terms with the human player results in an unequal game no matter how good the AI logic is. There is always some flaw, some edge that a clever human can exploit. I love this game, and enjoy getting thrashed occasionally by the AI. Unfortunately the flaws of the game became apparent and playing MTW became a boring game of kick ass.
The advantage with MTW however is that you can edit those edges away by picking one faction as the human player, then MODDING the game accordingly. I constantly tweak my French MOD to it more challenging without resorting to "cheapass" early AI steamroller armies.
In my "MOD" for the French, I loaded the AI up on building discounts, faction/regional unit advantages, more land improvements, more buildings, etc. I did a lot of tweaking to the .txt files. For example: The Pope's income jumped significantly just by adding trade resources in Rome and the Papal States (interestly, the game doesn't have any in either province)and a level 2 merchant building. To help the AI with alliances, I added more emissaries/princesses for them at start, and removed the French emissary. Removing the Wessex-Flanders landbridge and adding 2 x barques, a shipyard and port in Wessex, a level 2 merchant building, made the English a serious threat. I added emissaries/princess to Dennmark and made Aragon a catholic trader (as it was historically). Both Dennmark and Aragon start with ports, 1 ship, and level 2 buildings, and an INN (Aragon uses the INN nicely). I found Novgorod getting hosed early, so I added more starting troops, and better oriented the AI logic towards cavalry. Regions around Novgorod were given unit build bonuses (steppe cavalry, horse archers, mounted sergents). Novgorod now expands nicely. The Poles are pretty hopeless, but they do a bit better on Isolationist. Spain seems to have an edge with the patch in their war with the Almohads, so I added a 2nd Townwatch 2 in Morocco and jacked up the AI build for Almohad urban militia. To balance out the naval trade (this is the biggest unbalancing feature in the game due to the terrible naval AI), the French are limited to more advanced and expensive ships. The AI is able to get an early lead on the naval aspect through the cheaper vessels. The agents are tiresome and unbalance the game, so the French can only build emissaries and the AI build logic for agents was reduced significantly. I also reduced the AI build for siege machines since the AI does not seem to use them well. All catholics even the Pope can occasionally launch a crusade. Units available as mercenaries were trimmed way back and there are fewer quality troops (no more INN rushing).
In my "MOD" I tried to retain some of the historical ambience of the period and of the game design. Instead of making units more faction oriented, I tried instead to make them more regional(province)oriented under the theory that conquering armies would likely recruit local forces. I kept religious restrictions as having Spanish building berber camels was too much for me. Having 3 exclusive Swiss units were too much for me, and I revised one to be a German Landsknecht. I also bumped up some of the rebellion factors for historically rebellious areas such as the Armenias, Swabia, Valencia, Navarre etc.
How does the game flow? In most of my games, the minor factions survive better. In my current one, Aragon actually expanded out in Iberia and captured Sardinia and briefly controlled Corsica. The Pope lost the Papal States in a vicious war with the Sicilians but holds Rome. My allies, the Byzantines are losing ground to the Turks (I have been sending crusades to help them -- they shall not fall!http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif. Spain and Almohad are deadlocked. Italy is landing in Africa but losing ground to the HRE in Italy. Provinces change hands frequently. Novgorod has conquered several far eastern provinces, Denmark is king of Scandinavia and briefly held Livonia through crusade, but are locked in a losing war with the HRE (Denmark is lost). The HRE seems to be fighting everyone and controls 2 Italian provinces. I am having a difficult time protecting the coastline from the English and fighting off HRE assaults into Flanders and Ile de France. The English are out of France but launch vicious naval assaults. ((BTW -- Adding more English/HRE emissaries seem to increase odds of these two allying)). I captured Naples by Crusade and survived a joint attack by the Italians and the Pope (the ingrate). My war with the English resulted in me getting excommunicated (I was retaking my own land!http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif and the Spanish launching a crusade against me. The Hungarians have expanded in the Balkans. The Poles control Pomerania and their starting provinces and are at peace with everyone. The eastern mediterraen is dominated by the Egyptians who have captured Rhodes and Crete. The Egyptians are consistently the most wealthy and have crushed every crusade thrown at them.
This is just an example that will hopefully inspire better MODDERS than me to make MODS that are tweaked for play against a certain faction. I think this is the direction that offers the best promise of making the game more challenging for those expert players among us.
The advantage with MTW however is that you can edit those edges away by picking one faction as the human player, then MODDING the game accordingly. I constantly tweak my French MOD to it more challenging without resorting to "cheapass" early AI steamroller armies.
In my "MOD" for the French, I loaded the AI up on building discounts, faction/regional unit advantages, more land improvements, more buildings, etc. I did a lot of tweaking to the .txt files. For example: The Pope's income jumped significantly just by adding trade resources in Rome and the Papal States (interestly, the game doesn't have any in either province)and a level 2 merchant building. To help the AI with alliances, I added more emissaries/princesses for them at start, and removed the French emissary. Removing the Wessex-Flanders landbridge and adding 2 x barques, a shipyard and port in Wessex, a level 2 merchant building, made the English a serious threat. I added emissaries/princess to Dennmark and made Aragon a catholic trader (as it was historically). Both Dennmark and Aragon start with ports, 1 ship, and level 2 buildings, and an INN (Aragon uses the INN nicely). I found Novgorod getting hosed early, so I added more starting troops, and better oriented the AI logic towards cavalry. Regions around Novgorod were given unit build bonuses (steppe cavalry, horse archers, mounted sergents). Novgorod now expands nicely. The Poles are pretty hopeless, but they do a bit better on Isolationist. Spain seems to have an edge with the patch in their war with the Almohads, so I added a 2nd Townwatch 2 in Morocco and jacked up the AI build for Almohad urban militia. To balance out the naval trade (this is the biggest unbalancing feature in the game due to the terrible naval AI), the French are limited to more advanced and expensive ships. The AI is able to get an early lead on the naval aspect through the cheaper vessels. The agents are tiresome and unbalance the game, so the French can only build emissaries and the AI build logic for agents was reduced significantly. I also reduced the AI build for siege machines since the AI does not seem to use them well. All catholics even the Pope can occasionally launch a crusade. Units available as mercenaries were trimmed way back and there are fewer quality troops (no more INN rushing).
In my "MOD" I tried to retain some of the historical ambience of the period and of the game design. Instead of making units more faction oriented, I tried instead to make them more regional(province)oriented under the theory that conquering armies would likely recruit local forces. I kept religious restrictions as having Spanish building berber camels was too much for me. Having 3 exclusive Swiss units were too much for me, and I revised one to be a German Landsknecht. I also bumped up some of the rebellion factors for historically rebellious areas such as the Armenias, Swabia, Valencia, Navarre etc.
How does the game flow? In most of my games, the minor factions survive better. In my current one, Aragon actually expanded out in Iberia and captured Sardinia and briefly controlled Corsica. The Pope lost the Papal States in a vicious war with the Sicilians but holds Rome. My allies, the Byzantines are losing ground to the Turks (I have been sending crusades to help them -- they shall not fall!http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif. Spain and Almohad are deadlocked. Italy is landing in Africa but losing ground to the HRE in Italy. Provinces change hands frequently. Novgorod has conquered several far eastern provinces, Denmark is king of Scandinavia and briefly held Livonia through crusade, but are locked in a losing war with the HRE (Denmark is lost). The HRE seems to be fighting everyone and controls 2 Italian provinces. I am having a difficult time protecting the coastline from the English and fighting off HRE assaults into Flanders and Ile de France. The English are out of France but launch vicious naval assaults. ((BTW -- Adding more English/HRE emissaries seem to increase odds of these two allying)). I captured Naples by Crusade and survived a joint attack by the Italians and the Pope (the ingrate). My war with the English resulted in me getting excommunicated (I was retaking my own land!http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif and the Spanish launching a crusade against me. The Hungarians have expanded in the Balkans. The Poles control Pomerania and their starting provinces and are at peace with everyone. The eastern mediterraen is dominated by the Egyptians who have captured Rhodes and Crete. The Egyptians are consistently the most wealthy and have crushed every crusade thrown at them.
This is just an example that will hopefully inspire better MODDERS than me to make MODS that are tweaked for play against a certain faction. I think this is the direction that offers the best promise of making the game more challenging for those expert players among us.