View Full Version : The Caravel Mod
Some things I forgot to mention:
- range of the missile units. This returns in every mod. Units armed with javelins, grenades, etc. are not used properly by the AI due to the "skirmish behavior" issue. This is even more noticeable with huge units setting. Huge units are obviously bigger (especially wider) than Normal units. For example, if you want to throw javelins at 200 man unit from a side you have to nearly walk into the enemy unit. It's hard even for a player and absolutely impossible for the AI. IMO you can increase the range of those units to at least 3000 or remove those units from the AI recruiting preferences. If I understand the parameters correctly, missile units' range should be much higher than engagement threshold value (1500 or 2000 for some cavalry units) to be efficiently used by AI. Other way it ends with constant running forward and backward. I only consider AI behavior and gameplay not any real/historical accuracy. Now, units like Naphta throwers, Almughavars, Spanish Jintes, etc. are useless for AI and nearly useless for a player .
- Please, make the mod more user friendly. The install procedure is very complicated for a casual player. Believe me, many people have hard time finding even installation folder not to mention many other subfolders. My advice is to make zipped archive that player puts into game directory and simply "right click > Unzip here".
- you could clean up files after editing with Gnome (I assume it's a leftover gnome's stuff). The end of the unit_prod and build_prod files is a mess.
Hello Stazi,
the missile weapon's range is in the projectile txt file and not in the unit prod. If you compare that to vanilla you'll see that the javelins have already a received a slight increase in range as did the naptha throwers, precisely to facilitate the AI in using them.
However, i do not think that the approach some other mods take, namely to make the range too large as in RTW for teh AI to really use them is a good idea. The mod however tackles the AI's ineptitude to use these by restricting them.
For example;
-Jobbaggy have homalands (the Balkans) and cost as much as other spear units to recruit and maintain so teh AI doesn't overpprouce them and fills his stacks with javs that he can't use.
-Murabitin have a large shield and a slight spear anti-cav bonus iirc - similary to the Jobaggy they have homelands (Mahgreb desert) and do not cost cheaper for teh AI to spam them and so mess up his stacks
-Slav Javelins are Volhynia only and rebel and early only
-Spanish Javelins are Leon only and rebel and early only
-Almughavars have great attack and charge and morale as well as full anti-cav bonus and the AI is tweaked to use them in melee as assault units
Also the preffered ranks of all javelins have been customised for huge unit settings as those of all other missiles (and other units) to balance the men that fire (2 front ranks) with having a maneuverable unit (if too long the units become unwieldy and can be penetrated and routed too easily in cavl charges).
So while the problem you describe defintely exists it is essentially a non-problem due to these units either having other qualities that redeem them or due to never being overproduced (and this is certainly so in all playtesting i did) to mess up teh AI stacks as in vanilla that teh AI makes them in droves and then teh player can just round them up like ship with a few cavalry units.
As for the player, the units are slightly more easy to use than in vanilla due to the extra range and so that should be no problem. The correct use of such units is to keep them in reserve for firing in melee blobs and also for flankings towards the end of a melee to add a final push in routing wavering melee blobs. They can also pursuit infantry reasonably well.
To be honest with you, if this mod was for me only i would have taken the javelins out completely altogether and made the Almughvars a melee unit. This was the initial idea we had with Caravel, but, in order to keep the flavor of the vanilla game i decided to let them in but restricted and without being produced in droves as discussed above.
EDIT If you check out, the AI has max 2 (or at extreme cases 3 but that is petty rare) such units per stack for the factions that can recruit them. Sometimes in re-appearances he may have more, but never too many to make the re-appearance wirthless, save for the Murabitin in some cases as the Almohads and teh Turks, but that's rare.
Please, make the mod more user friendly. The install procedure is very complicated for a casual player. Believe me, many people have hard time finding even installation folder not to mention many other subfolders. My advice is to make zipped archive that player puts into game directory and simply "right click > Unzip here".
Absolutely. Its something that at the moment is certainly missing :bow:
you could clean up files after editing with Gnome (I assume it's a leftover gnome's stuff). The end of the unit_prod and build_prod files is a mess.
Yes, as we were discussing previously in this thread it is an editor leftover. Since i became aware of it i stoped using the editor and do all editing manually. The file being a mess does not affect the mod at all in any way as i said previously. However, since you insist from last time :) please help me out with it. Check your pms :)
I honestly don't see the big deal with dropping a .zip file somewhere and then extracting it to merge into the existing directories.
The end of the unit and build prod is easy enough to clean up and you should do it every time you finish with the gnome editor to avoid any corruption. Open the file with a decent windows text editor such as notepad++ look at the last section of the file and wipe out the duplicated mess at the end and save it.
Javelins are a liability and to be honest they should be just taken out altogether. You can simply never balance javelins to work properly in the same way that you can never balance undersize uber units. Personally I wouldn't worry what others think - take them out / turn them into spears or whatever. If some people don't like it there are a plethora of other mods out there that still have javelins.
Hello Stazi,
the missile weapon's range is in the projectile txt file and not in the unit prod.
I know. I mentioned engagement threshold because IMO it has a significant influence on units in skirmish mode, especially those with short range missile weapons.
If you compare that to vanilla you'll see that the javelins have already a received a slight increase in range as did the naptha throwers, precisely to facilitate the AI in using them.
Yes, I noticed that but IMO it's still too short. Ok. Forget it. It's not that important. If I'd like to use naptha throwers (I love grenades:)) I change them myself.
Yes, as we were discussing previously in this thread it is an editor leftover. Since i became aware of it i stoped using the editor and do all editing manually. The file being a mess does not affect the mod at all in any way as i said previously. However, since you insist from last time :) please help me out with it. Check your pms :)
Forgive me if I sometimes resurrect old subjects. I'm only a poor, old men (of the mountains ;)) and my memory has more holes that a cheese :bow:. But.. you know... it was bothering me every time I opened those files. <problem solved>
btw you can try Dragon Editor. It has some flaws but it's much better than Gnome, has more features and doesn't spoil file structure.
I mentioned engagement threshold because IMO it has a significant influence on units in skirmish mode, especially those with short range missile weapons.
Oh right, i misunderstood you then... I in fact have not messed with those at all and i thank you for bringing it up. I will most certainly be looking into it. have you tried any values yourself for the engagement range? If so i'd love to hear them although i will run my own custom battles too and see what i get.
Yes, I noticed that but IMO it's still too short. Ok. Forget it. It's not that important.
May i suggest that you customise it for your own copy then? I am reluctant to increase it further for the reasons mentioned above. Feel free to do whatever customisations you need and even publish them if you like as add-ons mods of the mod. Its absolutely fine by me.
If I'd like to use naptha throwers (I love grenades:)) I change them myself.
heh ,yes they can be fun ;) One thing you can do as an alternative to increasing the range is to increase the accuracy. At the moment is way higher than vanilla but still somewhat low (0.75). If you put it at 1.2 you can have really good grenadiers and not awfully overpowered (only slightly).
Forgive me if I sometimes resurrect old subjects. I'm only a poor, old men (of the mountains ;)) and my memory has more holes that a cheese .
Nothing to forgive Stazi. I am greatly indebted for your feedback, thank you very much and please keep pushing me as it only helps tremendously to make the mod better to the benefit of all :bow:
But.. you know... it was bothering me every time I opened those files. <problem solved>
Absolutely, and if other people wanted to mod the mod may have stumble, actually would have stumbled in the same problem. Problem solved thanks to your skill and kindness, thank you very much.
btw you can try Dragon Editor. It has some flaws but it's much better than Gnome, has more features and doesn't spoil file structure.
Thank you for the suggestion, i will cetrainly do at some point. Currently, i know my way around the files so well that i do not use any editor and edit manually straight in the txt.
I honestly don't see the big deal with dropping a .zip file somewhere and then extracting it to merge into the existing directories.
The end of the unit and build prod is easy enough to clean up and you should do it every time you finish with the gnome editor to avoid any corruption. Open the file with a decent windows text editor such as notepad++ look at the last section of the file and wipe out the duplicated mess at the end and save it.
No other big deal other than my incompetence master camelier :) I was doing just that and got crashes everytime. Stazi kindly did it for me though and will be in the next version.
Javelins are a liability and to be honest they should be just taken out altogether. You can simply never balance javelins to work properly in the same way that you can never balance undersize uber units. Personally I wouldn't worry what others think - take them out / turn them into spears or whatever. If some people don't like it there are a plethora of other mods out there that still have javelins.
Indeed. however the mod tackles the problem as mentioned ie the javelins are pretty rare occurences in AI stack that maintain the vanilla flavor without ruining the AI stacks at all as i hope you will discover your self if you happent to try it. It works well, or so i found. I went to great lengths to retain as much of the vanilla game as possible while balancing it out as much as possible without losing the flavor :bow:
By the way Stazi, how do you find the campaign playing now, in v2.8? Is it any better?
Try a couple of turns with Danes. Denmark is a black hole. Governor with 6 acumen and max tax gives 90 income. Upcoming princes make all things worse. I got rid of some units, sold royal palace and I've finally managed to take off the ground but it's impossible for the AI. Rebel army in Sweden is bigger, has good general and vikings. Alternatively you can attack HRE but AI will never ever do this (btw Saxony is a poor province too). You start with 2000 florins (hard) so if you make one mistake you are sitting duck.
Aragonese have a chance cause they have better province, start with fewer units and Navarre doesn't hold any rebel units.
Please, have mercy on poor Danes ;). Give them a chance.
Hello Stazi,
Governor with 6 acumen and max tax gives 90 income.
Only if there is famine. The province has a pretty decent base income of 377 florins from agriculture. So only 90flrns at max and 6 accumen gvernor can't be. The garrison in Sweden is bigger than vanilla but smaller than previous Caravel Mod versions.
Basically you have two choices with Denmark. One is disband starting units and build up to get better units, and the other and far better is build Town Militia, archers and get your vikings after you get 2 heirs and attack Sweden. if you win, you get to keep it and that solves your problem as you can continue to develop. If you lose you have burned some troops and so can make a few more and come back stronger to retake it a few turns later.
After getting Sweden you are set up to build up to Keep level and longboats and then you can expand at a variety of places. Alternatively you acn attack the HRE but that has a risk especially at first and it might be creating more problems than it solves.
The faction essentially is the same as in vanilla only that the Vikings are rightly priced and recruited from Keep level as they should, so teh super vanilla rush that you can do is much slower, but can still be done to great effect. The gameplay is essentially vanilla only enhanced.
Could it be that you are too much of a turtler hence why you find that (i mean having to rush, expand early) unpleasant :) ?
The Danes, Aragonese and teh Russians do just as bad as before as otherwise the player can win too easily with them. The Russians only occasionaly do better now.
The Spanish also do relatively so-so but instead the Almohads can do really great in Spain so there is a power coming from there. This was again to make the Spanish a challenging proposition to play with or at least much more challenging than in vanilla that they are too easy. However they do much better than before. By the way the Almohads are no easy either especially with having to do with the Spanish and the rich and powerful and aggressive Egyptians on the other side of North Africa.
The Sicilians, The Hungarians and the Polish are doing great - sometimes the Italians beat the Sicilians and otehrs the Sicilians the Italians or the Byzantines or teh Polish the Hungarians or the Hungarians the Polish, but nevertheless one of them will be doing really well and there is competition at start.
The Aragonese have a better chance as the player, yes - as the AI they do nothing. As the player the best you can do is get Toulouse, then Aquitaine and then Navarre. After that you can choose whether to kill the Spanish or move further into France up north or take it to the seas.
Only the Spanish take Navarre or if they are too late the French or the English either by sea or by land.
:bow:
Only if there is famine. The province has a pretty decent base income of 377 florins from agriculture. So only 90flrns at max and 6 accumen gvernor can't be.
Sorry, my fault. It's 177 florins. Still not much. Anyway, I'm talking about problems for AI not for player. Player can do many things not possible for AI. In vanilla, Danes does a way better because they have smaller start garrison (so smaller upkeep) and rebels' garrisons in Sweden and Norway are much smaller too.
Hmm.. Let me describe how I see things. The main power of this game lies in replayability. Every campaign can be different.. bah... even every opening can be different. While you make factions behavior easily predictable, you spoils most of the fun. Don't get me wrong, I like factions with tough openings but when something is tough for a player, it's impossible for the AI.
You say that you want to keep the vanilla flavor and not change the factions balance. Giving all provinces the same percentage income boost makes big functions much stronger that small ones so it's totally against your idea. It's a good move but I think only careful rebalancing of weaker factions can keep the vanilla flavor, fun and variety of the campaign scenarios. IMO the main factor that totally changes how the campaign goes, is stronger rebels garrisons. It has huge impact especially on small factions that are unable to gather army big enough to conquer those provinces.
I'll play play some more and let you know. The idea to start with +2 acumen title is really good. It should help the AI even if it choose not the best governor.
Sorry, my fault. It's 177 florins. Still not much.
Hello Stazi, the best opening moves imo for the Danes are:
-Give the two titles to your best governor and build a 20% farm and start building Town Militias and ally with the HRE
-Build a watch tower and keep building town militias and archers
By the time you have the20% farm upgrade Denmark with a 5 governor makes 440+ and by the time you have the 40% it makes 510+
Once you have 2-3 TMs and 2 Archers as well as at least one heir you can attack Swdeden. Although they have more vikings than you, you have Royal Knights that can turn the battle in your favor.
In vanilla that battle is a non battle - there is no risk with it. The rebels in Sweden are so small that they retreat to Norway and that's it.However in the mod they most likely won't unless you build too big a force, that will either weight in your financies or make you waste turns in development.
The true possibilities for the Danes come after you taken Sweden and have made a Keep (ie you get longboats and Vikings) ie where to go next to conquer.
In vanilla the clear winning move is England. In the Mod the English are much more stronger and prepared to fight back such an invasion, so it will require good generaliship, blood and effort as well as having a risk - ie that the invasion might fail and you end up back with your 2 Scandinavian provinces not having achieved much.
Another route is to kill off the Russians in Novgorod and take over Russia. This is easier to achieve - teh Russians are weaker than the English, but the result has its own risks - the Russian lands are Orthodox and so you need to win them over, relatively poor with lots of decent quality and quantity rebels, and also they may eventually be invaded by the Horde.
Giving all provinces the same percentage income boost makes big functions much stronger that small ones so it's totally against your idea.
Actually, if you read the calculation i did above, you'll see that wha has been done is completely equivalent to be playing in smaller sizes as you suggested in order for the AI factions to have more troops to burn and so be more aggressive quicker and tech up also quicker. After quite some playtesting in the autorun, i found out that the % income i gave worked exactly like putting the smaller (previous) incomes to medium unit size.
So, no its not against my idea at all. The fact that stronger factions develop quicker is only natural and a continuation of the balance of power that existed before.In other words larger powers developed quicker than small ones before. Now they develop even quicker but remember that they also comptete fiercer between themselves as well. The small factions also develop quicker when player controled because they too get the extra boost in income - all was increased in proportion.
IMO the main factor that totally changes how the campaign goes, is stronger rebels garrisons. It has huge impact especially on small factions that are unable to gather army big enough to conquer those provinces.
The rebel garrisons affect non other than the player in fact as far as smaller factions are concerned. In vanilla, that has smaller rebel garrisons, the Russians, Danes and Aragonese still do nothing at all. The lerger rebe; garrisons regulate the player's rush - not preventing the AI to expand as you say.
The only way to make the small AI factions good as played by the AI is to give them too many troops or more land at the beginning. Both will make the game dead easy for the player as them, and essentially will turn them from unique challenges, to similar like other medium sized factions (like the Polsih or the Spanish).
The rebel garrisons do affect factions in the east - ai Hungary and Poland and the Byzantines and teh Turks to take on the steppes too early. But this is good for gameplay and natural i feel. The Byz and teh Turks concentrate on their differences as they should in Anatolia and the Hungarians and Poles do take it east but slower than they did in vanilla that they reached Kiev in the first 10 years. This makes the game both unplausible historically and also too easy for the player when playing those factions.
Every campaign can be different.. bah... even every opening can be different.
I have strived hard to make the position of initial training infarstructire away from potential rivals that means easy and early rushes for factions. For example, as the French i could capture Burgundy and Swabia from teh Germans and that was a check mate move against them as they had their training centers there. Now however these are moved to Swabia/Bavaria/Franonia. This means that they are behind the lines and so teh Germans, even if they lose a few border provinces they will keep making troops to fight back, This calls for much less stndrad openings precisely, because the winning move is unlcear and will depend on what the opponent does and how your early battles go.
The same is for the Turks vs Eggs and teh Turks versus Byzs. The Eggs have a fort in Jerusalem to stem a potential Turkish rush that can take them out of the game, and the Turjs start with their fort and training facilities in Edessa and so its not as easy to take them out of the game as the Byzantines by occypying Rum.
Similar things have been done with other factions and faction leaders too. For example the Almohad faction leader being in Algeria in vanilla would be missing an early rush battle by teh Spanish in Cordoba. Now he is in Morocco and so he won't be missing it. SImilarly the Eggs faction leader was in Antioch that meant that as the Turks he could be captured and ransomed in an early rush. Now he starts in Egypt well protected from such an early disaster.
Equally much thought was given to the French/English opening garrisons and castle places. The english now have a barque over teh Channel that opens them few possibilities against an early French rush. Their faction leader can go to Normandy to relieve a potential French siege of teh fort there or even attack Brittanny as a reprisal. At the same time, the Englih don;t have that many garrisons in France as to be able to rush the French early. So its again a situation with not obviuos winning moves at the opening.
In general, i have striven to do what you are saying ie provide for not obvious openings for all factions. However, the strategic goals of each faction cannot change as long as their lands remain the same. For the French, always taking the English out of France would be best, for the Danes, taking Sweden and makinglongboats and Vikings beore deciding where to go next will be best etc.
Also remember that the true fun of the game comes after the first 20 -30 turns that the game progresses in ways that are unprdictable. Then every campaign is different. But it can;t be that different in the first 20 turns, as a game of chess can't be that different in the opening.
In any case, you can find yourself more often in diferent openings than that by also by changing rulers. Try it out and see for your self.
Last but not least, you are free and welcome of course to express your opinions and views, however may i point out that you play at least 100 turns with one or more factions (ie 100 turns combined) before doing so conclusively. If you play 10 turns or so it might be generally speaking too early to tell imo.
If you still feel that small factions need rebalancing after playing some, please tell me so and we'll take it from there. You can always mod the game your self as well to suit your idea of how small factions should play by the AI :bow:
Hello Stazi,
one more note on gameplay; it seems to me that the designers of the vanilla game wanted to have factions that have all types of openings hence factions that are 1 provnces to very large exist in the game and each offers a different challenge and proposition for teh early game on the way to victory. This is something that i want to keep in this mod.
Again i repeat, that if the Danes, the Aragonese and the Russians are made to perform well by the AI, their unique challenges of their openings for the player will be gone. The game has already small medium sized factions (Poland and Spain), medium size factions like France and England Italy and teh Turks and large factions like HRE, Eggs, Almohads and Byzantines. All of them come with their own uniqueness that derives from the roster, the terrain they occupy and the nature of teh geography of their lands as well as the number of neighbours and their cultures. If i turn all the factions to medium sized or small medium sized the game will be that much the poorer i feel.
If you will and can, give it a go as it is for a while and tell me later if you can what you think.
:bow:
Belisario
05-11-2011, 20:38
Hello Gollum, thanks I also hope you are well. I'll give it a try to version 2.8 to see the latest changes you have made. I wish I had more time to play. Check out the readme file because I think you have not updated it from previous version:
"2. Play on medium (80man sword unit/133man spear/53man horse ) unit settings and on hard or expert difficulty."
I'm well thanks Belisario. Enjoy when you want and have time :bow:
Thank you for this, i get on correcting it right away and repost v2.8 with the corrected read me.
I will also make up either a self installing rar or an autoinstaller and include the cleaned up unit and building_prod files as kindly cleaned by Stazi that will enable people to mod the mod easier at a later date.
Ok read me now corrected. Thank you again Belisario :bow:
Imo self-extracting rar is more than enough. 7zip if you want the package real small. It'll be self-extracting so it doesn't matter if a user has 7zip installed or not.
Some thoughts:
- Rebel armies are very cheap to bribe. I'm constantly tempted to buy armies (and simultaneously provinces) instead of fight with them. It speeds up your advance significantly. You get province, army to keep loyalty and sometimes good general too. Is it possible to make bribes cost more? We can't change loyalty of generals (which is the main factor) but maybe we can make copies of normal units (only for rebels) with much higher prices.
Is it a real problem for you or I'm going too far? I'm playing Almohads' campaign. I've bought El Cid, his army and Valencia at once for @4500 florins...and... it feels like cheating.
- You said that you can't make Golden Horde generals better. What about giving them a famous king and heroes? Will they appear along with the whole Horde in 1231?
Hello Stazi,
Imo self-extracting rar is more than enough.
Ok, will work that out soon.
Rebel armies are very cheap to bribe. I'm constantly tempted to buy armies (and simultaneously provinces) instead of fight with them. It speeds up your advance significantly. You get province, army to keep loyalty and sometimes good general too. Is it possible to make bribes cost more? We can't change loyalty of generals (which is the main factor) but maybe we can make copies of normal units (only for rebels) with much higher prices.
Indeed, infact teh AI also frequently does that too - liek the Byzantines the PEchenegs in Wallachia and Moladvia. There is little to be done for this i'm afraid, other than the solution you propose ie duplicates that cost more. However that will mean that the AI will also have a harder time to bribe them.
The main function of the rebels is to regulate early rushes is the areas they appear, especially in the east. If a faction reaches the point that can bribe them, then allowing it can't be too much of a problem - its a valid way to rid of them as is to sweep them with superior forces.
In the vanilla version bribing the rebels is a viable option and would like to leave it thus. Bribing El Cid in particular as well as the longbows in Wales were always favorite options and strategies.
The duplicates suggestion is a bit of extra work - but that isn;t exactly what turns me off. The main point is that rebel garrisons consist of recruitable units. This means that i wuold have to duplicate a hell of a lot of units as well as ccarefully fix and mix the rebel groups ie take them from the recruitable versions and put them back to the duplicate rebel ones.
This would be quite a bit of work, and i am not certain that its worth the effort as mentioned. Winning the game via economic means is another way and the Almohads start among the large string powers that should be able to do that.
In adition, i think El Cid is the highest rebel general. The others aren't that good, so it isn't a global big exploit, but more like a smaller one flavor one that i am prepared to live with. Is that ok?
You said that you can't make Golden Horde generals better. What about giving them a famous king and heroes? Will they appear along with the whole Horde in 1231?
Well i said i don't know how to :) Yes that is the only way i could think of and i think it may be worth it. I haven't added a King or general before though, so i will have to experient with that. Help from anyone that has had experience in that is appreciated.
:bow:
Check this thread (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?32108-MTW-Hero-Creator). You can find useful info on the 2nd page. If you want to do it manually inside Campmap/names you have DEFAULT_HEROES.txt file. It contains some basic descriptions too. It's a little complicated so feel free to ask.
Thank you, i'll check it out :bow:
After recent experiences with editors i'd say manually is the best :)
Stazi, the editor seems ok for use for factions already in existence in the names files. However, the Horde is not one of them (i may be worng but i checked it). This means that i will have to introduce teh Horde in both the Kings and the Heroes section.
Is this something the editor can do? And if not, does the order of entries matter? I acn replicate an earlier one (from another faction copy paste) and then tweak the parameters to suit the Horde names and personalities to be introduced.
Also whether the Horde Kings and Heroes should be albelled 1230 or 1231 is another dillema. The Horde appears in 1230 but lands in 1231. I am afraid that if i desingate heroes in 1231 they won;t be appearing in the landing stacks, but will wait to appear in trained units - something that wuold be useless of course.
I have already researched the Horde and there are a few notable personalities as generals and Khans to be included. The landing Khan in particular, Batu, was a great general and pretty impressive personality.
Actually, there is one famous king for FN_GOLDEN_HORDE. Adding heroes looks like simply copy/pasting.
Date of appearance - check the El Cid. Campaign begins in 1087 but his date of birth is 1054. So set the date of birth for some Horde heroes to e.g. 1200. They should be adult and ready when the Khan will need them in 1231. I think all rebel heroes appear the same way. They don't come with recruited units but appear when rebellion happens.
Thank you Stazi :bow:
I will give it a go. It will be in for the next version though, and it will take a while before that happens. RL calls.
PS I meant next next version :) (v3.0)
Dear All,
v2.9 is now up and available.
It incorporates the following:
-Starting castle (fort) for the Turks was left in Rum by mistake in the uploaded v2.8. Now this is corrected - the (fort) castle appears in Edessa as intended
-Fixed a minor grammatical syntax error in the Pavise Arbs unit description
-Fixed price of Pikemen - they were slightly underpriced (500flrs, now 650flrns in huge) for their stats
as well as
-The Caravel Mod now comes in a self extracting .rar that makes it considerably more user friendly, as its easier to install.
-The Caravel Mod's unit and build_prod files now come clean without the tail generated by the gnome editor. This makes them more orderly and presumably easier for further manipulation by users who would like to mod it themselves.
Thanks to Stazi for pushing me to do these last 2 points as well as for kindly cleaning up and ordering the mod's files unit and build_prod (already given credit for it).
The mod is now simply great imo, both in the campaign map and in the battle map with the latest tweaks. If you have played it before or you like the vanilla game but wish the AI was much much better in his builds and behaviour, this is a mod you may want to try playing now.
For the next version, there are a few things to add/research:
-Historical Golden Horde Characters (Khans and Heroes) with 4 to 6 command stars to beef up the Horde and give it an historical feel.
-Dead men page for units that are currently missing it
-Experiment with javelin engagement parameters to improve the AI's use of them
The most important of those is the Horde extra characters. The two others are minor points - the one aesthetic and the other only very very small problem, i feel, due to the few and restricted javs and the already improved range of their's.
The next version will take a while though due to me not having anymore ample time to dedicate in the mod unfortunately for some time.
Thanks to Stazi's latest thorough taking apart of teh Caravel Mod, it has improved very very much in the campaign mainly due to teh extra incomes and it now really really shines.
In terms of polish (degree of copleteness) it is also pretty good - there is no text that i can see that is inaccurate in terms of description or awkward in terms of grammar. It also looks like that there are no glitches, ommisions or mistakes left in terms of dependencies etc. As far as i can tell its all correct and it works very well.
So, thank you all for your support and i hope you enjoy! :)
Yours truly, gollum :bow:
Trapped in Samsara
05-13-2011, 13:24
Hi Gollum and Stazi and any and all other collaborators on the Caravel mod
It may be a while before I get 'round to playing v2.9 but, in anticipation of that happy time, thank you for all your efforts.
Best regards
Victor
Sapere aude
Horace
Thank you victor, you are most welcome. Play when and if you want and will :bow:
The AI timidness issue we talked about last is now solved conclusively and big time (due to the loyalty:130 and the extra money on the campaign that makes all Ai factions having troops to be aggressive). However, keeping with this mod's precepts, Ai factions' stability and development are maintained to good levels as before.
Also the mod is now more polished - it wasn't all too bad before, but its even better in that respect. Thank you for your kind words and interest, we all hope it adds to everyone interested's game experience of MTW.
With the kind permission of Ishan and the TWC staff, the Caravel Mod has now found a place there too:http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=25
I am very greatful to them :bow:
That's good to see. I also notice that Aradan has mirrored Andres' guides thread. :bow:
Yes, indeed - a TW brotherhood :)
I hope more players will join the discussion here or on the TWC site.
btw Now, the mod (I'm still playing 2.8) is not only interesting at the start but later too. It's around 1200 and things start to look pretty bad. French and Germans send Crusades. Egyptians send Jihads. I have 3 strong enemies and not a single friend. I feel lonely ;). I tried to talk with Pope but he doesn't want to listen :). Thanks to my fleet that rules the seas I can fill the gaps effectively. The first time I'm waiting for the Horde to be a salvation. It should occupy the Egyptians for some time (they've taken all Turks' lands).
Belisario
05-13-2011, 18:34
Wow Stazi, it seems your campaign is proving very interesting. Thanks for the new version Gollum, oh and by the mention in the credits.
Thanks for the new version Gollum, oh and by the mention in the credits.
You're most welcome Belisario, i hope you enjoy :bow:
I tried to talk with Pope but he doesn't want to listen :)
What if you try speaking Polish to him ;) ?
What if you try speaking Polish to him ;) ?
Ooops...i forgot...it was previous Holy Father that was a Pole (His Holiness Pope John Paul II now on his way to sanctification)... the current one is actually a German...which may explain the crusade and the refusal ;)
Dear all,
I have added some medieval art images in post#1 of the thread that introduces the mod, in order to make the appearance more appealling and also provide inspiration (for those that also like them :). The idea came from medieval illuminated manuscripts that i really like, and the post tries to immitate them, hence the oversized initial letters. Purely aesthetic and cosmetic, but that also has its value :)
Trapped in Samsara
05-16-2011, 12:30
I have added some medieval art images in post#1 of the thread...
Very nice effect.
V
Dear all,
Stazi kindly did some playtesting and also helped me out to add historical characters to the G. Horde.
He got some interesting fndings that may prove helpful to others for their mods;
These are:
What I've found:
- King/Khan parameters are hardcoded. Engine ignores all except name - 1st from the list is taken. I assume the other famous kings are used in case of faction reemerging. It's how it works normally, right?
- Heroes work as predicted - no problems.
Minor issue - I found the original game bug. Mongols' Khan has christian campmap piece. I've checked the first MTW/VI and gold ed. It's cause by a small typo in file name. Check campmap\pieces\Units\Pagan. File is named "army_leader_waiting.bif" but it should be "army_leader_awaiting.bif". Engine can't find the right file so the default christian is shown.
So because of the Khans being hardcoded, i was left with adding G.Horde historical characters (3) that particiapted in the invasion of Russia and of Eastern Europe.
In short the new characters are:
*Batu* - gandson of Genghis Khan, and Patriarch of the Golden Horde. He crushed the Cumans, Alans and Pechenegs, and then the Russians, Hungarians, Germans, Poles and Lithuanians. He asked from the HREmperor to "detrone himself" in favor of him (Batu). He was planning to attack Europe all the way to "the great sea (Atlantic)" when the Great Khan died in Mongolia and had to return as he was eligible for the position.
*Subudai* - Genghis Khan's greatest general; served in all Mongol campaigns with distinction; Genghis called him one of his "dogs of war". He used imaginatively logistics, intelligence and combined arms including artillery to defeat his opponents. He always put the enemy into a very weak position before commiting to battle.
*Jebe* - Genghis Khan's 2nd best general; served in nearly all Mongol Campaigns with distinction. Early on his tribe and that of Genghis fought and he personally wounded the Khan. After the battle Genghis khan said "who was he that wounded my horse?" in trying to conceal that he got wounded. Jebe responded that it was him that had wounded the Khan. Genghis that valued valor and honesty forgave him and took him in his service to which end he fought many campaigns and was the equal of Subudai.
These folk will now ride with the Horde and make your MTW lives a bit more interesting :)
Thanks to Stazi for suggesting this, for doing the playtesting and for pushing me to include it :bow:
Another interesting point Stazi found is the graphical glitch/bug of the Mongol action's leader piece in the camp map turnign catholic. This is (as he says) because there is a missing letter in the description of teh piece in motion. Correcting this will make the Mongol faction leader have always his Mongol piece :)
Again thank you Stazi :bow:
Dear all,
version 3.0, is now up and available for download.
It contains:
-3 historical G.Horde characters that give the Horde a better historical feel and also beef it up as they are quite good generals
-minor price reductions to catholic high end cavalry to help the AI field it more - it was slightly overpriced for its stats too
-AI preferene values tweaked for Orthodox and Muslim high end religious agents as well as a slight price reduction of the same, again to help the AI field them more.
Version is fully save game compatible with 2.8 and 2.9 and essentially very much on the same streak with only minor - but significant - adjustements.
Last but not least, the mod since 2.8 (that received the extra funds) is absolutely great in both the battlefield and the campaign - it is as if it all locked together and its potential came to the fore. It has now also achieved a very high degree of completeness too and so, If you like MTW vanilla or in general, just give it a go and you won't be dissapointed.
I hope you enjoy! :)
Thank you :bow:
Dear all,
version 3.1 is now up and available. It contains minor price adjustments for low end cavalry and few other minor tweaks that will be invisible to any who may have played v3.0, yet they do exert a positive influence in playbalance and AI factions development.
I hope you enjoy :bow:
Yours truly, gollum
I'm curious why you made Szekely so weak? Now, they are very similar to Horse Archers.
About weak Horse Archer type units in general.
IMO they need at least 2-4 morale to be effective. Have you used them without a good general? I tried to use them in such situation and it was a disaster. I sent them forward at the start of the battle in order to do some shooting. They didn't even get close enough to start shooting. They run away immediately when one of the enemy units began to march towards them. HA get a lot of morale penalties because they have to go far from the general. They have to work alone on the flank of even on the back of the enemy army so they are constantly worried about flanks. When any unit starts to attack them or only shoots at them all of these combined penalties make them run away sometimes even without one men lost. With so little morale (-1) they don't fit their main role and become totally useless. IMO all units should be at least usable without strong general support (or other external bonuses).
PershsNhpios
05-21-2011, 11:17
Congratulations brother Gollum on the release of Caravel 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.0 and 3.1 - also the stickying of the thread and the translation of the mod into TWC.
:medievalcheers:
I am very sorry for being so absent - I assure you it could not and cannot be helped - and I despair of ever really having time to catch up again before a certain career takes me elsewhere, but there may yet be an opportunity!
I have been following the development here with interest, although I confess that I could not read the entirety of the dialogue between yourself and the industrious Pole, who has assisted you in writing a modification training manual it seems.
The modification, in everything from name, to fanbase, discussion and development, is extremely unique and deserves much attention - you must be very proud.
Thank you.
Cyprian2
06-04-2011, 21:13
I, also, would like to offer my congratulations, Sir gollum, on the release of version 3.1. Like our friend Glenn, RL has lately sundered me from the forums (though I'd only just set foot here!), but I've long awaited, and expect soon, to embark on the great
http://img40.picoodle.com/i564/cyprian2/ftnr_3b1_uc6fw.jpg
that will bring me back to the beloved shores of MTW!
Thanks for all the hard work you've put in!
(I guess I'll have to start another AAR, since the HRE campaign I was writing up was from Caravel eight versions ago!)
This mod seems really interesting, having read through some of the previous pages, and I look forward to trying it out. I am a long time MTW player but rather new to mods and this one really seems to fit my style of play!
PershsNhpios
06-11-2011, 10:31
Do it, O Squire! Throw down the gauntlet unto the Caravel mod and it is you who will be found sorely challenged!
And welcome to our Hall!
Hello Vanitas, welcome to the org and the MTW section, enjoy your stay :bow:
I hope the mod adds to your enjoyment of the game.
Glenn and Cyprian2: thank you very much for your kind words; i hope you enjoy a bit more than otherwise MTW with the Caravel mod :bow:
Hello Stazi,
Szekely are a statistically superior missile cavalry in vanilla than normal HAs (vanilla and turcomans) although fast. This is counteracted by their availability only from 2 provinces. In the mod they were made available from any province the Hungarias occupy, and i tried to balance their very good stats via increasing their recruitment price. This iteslf proved somewhat bad for the Hungarian AI faction development; Szekely were a fort level unit that costed too much for such and the Huns were often staying behind in development. So i dropped their stats to similar to Turcomans (slightly higher than vanilla HAs) and droped their price and the Hun AI plays better.
As to if the HAs (fast and weak variety) are useless in missile duels, in my view this is simply not true. I have seen them being used to devastating effect both is SP and MP by skilled players and i have written some about HA use in the guides section. Most of what is written there follows either advice i received by or through observing skilled mp players when they played with HAs. Brandy Blue also made some interesting contributions. Perhaps it might be helpful. If interested, take a look here (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?33313-How-to-use-Horse-Archers/page3), starting from post #71 and onwards.
Thank you all :bow:
Dear all, version 3.2 is now up and available for download. As all versions for ages now it is save game compatible. However you will feel the full benefit of the latest tweaks in a new campaign.
It contains:
-Withdrew the jedai Byzantine Royals. Byzzie Emperors still have the hardcoded extra influence that makes for generaly good stats including command, but their command stats are now in par with other factions'. It makes for a much more fun game with them. They are still tough opponents to beat due to their superior tech and too good units for early and their generals still have command stars, but not 8-9 as a rule.
-Tweaked all missile cavalry AI use parameters including fast and weak as well as slower and stronger. Did quite some playtesting in custom and tweaked then re-tested etc and final values make for better use of these units by the AI.
-Did one each minor tweaks in the Byzantine and Russian rosters; Pronoiar cavs are made again available for All-periods and Rus Infantry are made available from castle level instead of keep.
-Slightly increased the buying price of mercs to reflect the increase of incomes by 1/3 around the map since version 2.8. Did not alter their maintenance costs however, as that was fine.
-Incorporated a fix for the Mongol Faction Leader piece while awaiting. As Stazi found out there was an error in the vanilla game in the naming of the paganpiece while awaiting which made the engine to show the default catholic one. The mod now includes a fix for this.
So this is it, i hope you enjoy :bow:
Good to see you still working on the mod. I didn't play Byzantines for a long time but I think I'll try them this weekend. Thanks a lot.
Hello Stazi, thanks for the encouragement :) Despite the mod having reached a really good degree of completeness, there is always room for extra tweaks.
Byzantines are a much better proposition to play without the abnormal command stars. My own campaign as them was considerably more enjoyable than usual due to this; hopefully you'll find too that this is the case.
:bow:
Dear All,
v3.3 of the Caravel Mod is now up and available for download. It incorporates a laborious finetuning of a number of aspects which i will list below.
*The most novel thing introduced in this version is the inclusion of a custom made version of the Caravel Mod for default (60mansword,100manspear, 40manhorse) unit sizes as well as another for huge. This has been made and playtested as it is clear that many people are either unwilling to move to huge or simply prefer default. Now the Caravel Mod caters for these people.
In order to play on the unit sizes you wish, first select the unit size of your choice (from Options\Performance) and then, in the campaign/era menu, choose either "CRVL (huge)" campaign if you have set unit size to huge, or "CRVL (default)" campaign if you have set unit size to default. It is important to choose the right campaign as economics have been customised for unit size. Please make sure you choose the campaign that corresponds to the settings you have chosen as otherwise the campaign may either have too much or too little money.
*Other than that, v3.3 does a major retouch on parts of teh English, Italian, Byzantine, Turkish and general Catholic rosters. This includes:
-Minor stat adjustements for units - in order for them to function more effectively within the roles they fulfill in their rosters, while as always being recognisably vanilla
-Streamlining of rosters - a few simplifications in order not to have quasi duplicate units that have little purpose.
-Retouching of certain units' texts - to give them a more historical feel
-A few skin switchings for certain units - in order to make them aesthetically blend in with the rest of teh factions they belong to.
-Slight unit costs adjustments for some missiles units - some were slightly overpriced.
-Slight change of AI use parameters - to improve AI use in battle after quite some playtesting.
*Did a streamlining for Muslim and Orthodox religious agents, as the major ones from Cathedral/G.Mosque were never used by the AI even when he was building those.
*Fixed a glitch as per Stazi'ssuggestion in the new Horde Hero names that would make them be called "Lord Khan" upon receiving a title - now they are called "Lord Batu" etc
*Fixed the Byzantine AI personality unit build preferance numbers in order to allow them to have more well balanced stacks, as per Stazi's suggestion.
As always, the new version is save game compatible, but you'll get the most out of the new tweaks if you start a new campaign.
So, this is it. There will be a while now for a new version of the Caravel Mod. If any of you Caravel Mod enthusiasts - old and new - have not given the mod a try since v2.8, please do, as its now really really better than prior to that.
Thank you all, i hope you enjoy :medievalcheers:
yours truly, gollum
:bow:
-Slight change of AI use parameters - to improve AI use in battle after quite some playtesting.
Could you give some more details about this?
What units' size do you suggest now? Still huge?
I've started my Byzantine campaign yesterday evening but didn't go too far. I'm glad because now I can start a new one without losing too much time with the previous version.
btw Should I expect any new version this weekend? I'm going to write a little review of your mod for the polish TW forum and I'd like to be up to date with all details (at least at the moment of posting the review:wink:). Should I postpone it? Current version seems to contain some major changes.
Hello Stazi, i certainly can, but in about a week's time or more if you don;t mind - i've had enough of MTW right now :)
No new version is planned - you can play v3.3 :)
I still suggest to play on huge - for me its much better in both campaign and battle, however the mod now has two campaigns in the campaign menu and each has the economic aspect customised for huge and default unit size respectively. This was done to offer a chance for people that play only default to play teh Caravel Mod. But as i said, i still suggest to play on huge.
The changes made are not major - they are all finetuning changes. The game is fully recognisable from 3.2 (and 3.1 for that matter). Yet, the Ai factions play much more coordinated in the campaign and the battlefield. Now that everything is set in terms of tech tree, dependencies and rosters, the details can be worked in order to have the most tight performance possible by the AI factions.
Each roster now also has a unique aesthetic feel - there are no western skins in Orthodox rosters or say the Turkish roster feels way more unique in terms of looks.
Thank you for your interest and encouragement, i hope you enjoy :) :bow:
Stazi,
i thank you for your interst in the mod and for your thought to write a review on a polish TW site. This mod would not be able to fulfil its potential to the degree it did without your encouragement, feedback, keen sense of observation and crucial and clever suggestions. I have updated the credits to include your recent contributions.
Again thank you most kindly :bow:
Here is the thread. There are so many sub forums that I wasn't sure where to look to take our conversation into a thread Gollum. But now I have 10 pages to read so maybe my questions will be answered.
Hello RRMike, and welcome :bow:
There is a link in my signature that reads "Info and Discussion Thread" if you click it it links directly to this thread.
Its best you ask away any questions you have and if tehy are duplicates i will direct you to specific posts. Otherwise you may find it boring scrolling over a 10 page thread - and in any case some of the points made are now irrelevant as the mod evolved in versions.
The only thing that requires reading is the #1 post that presents the mod.
Don't know if my install is bad or what but I have no CRVL default or CRVL huge options when starting a game. The 2nd militia building allows crossbows? rather than the bowyer workshop which enables nothing? How do I build militia sergeants, or their new equivalent? How do I build RKs? How do I get pavise x-bows, which I see across the border in Italy?
To add; No CMAA? No arbs? Just made it to 1205 England. Getting kinda lost trying to figure out what buildings to build to train units or even what units are available.
Trapped in Samsara
08-26-2011, 16:13
Hi Gollum
Seems a while since you've been on the boards. Hope all's well with you.
Have downloaded v3.3: it's a long weekend here in Blighty, so hope to get a campaign up and running.
Can I make one suggestion: if you were to countenance deviating in one aspect from the 'vanilla MTW experience' within Caravel, please consider allowing rebels to build ships. I encountered this feature in Axalon's recent version of Redux and I am completely sold on it. It just makes life so much more 'interesting' for the human player, thereby to a degree counterbalancing the domination of the seas, vast strategic mobility, and huge trade income that the human player inevitably acquires in mid to late game.
I really do feel allowing rebels to build ships raises the challenge factor significantly.
Best regards
Victor
Sapere aude
Horace
Pikenier
09-15-2011, 14:37
the Loc folder that contains game text (for unit descriptions etc) has been modified for the english language only. If you are playing in another language edition you can re-install the game in English before you install the mod or if you are playing in an edition that uses another language only, you can try installing the mod save for the loc folder; although you will be missing all changed text - and there is lots of changed text that helps navigate the role of units - but if you can live with this ommission, that should work.
I have a german version of MTW. Will I be able to play this mod?
When installing MTW XL3.0 I had to copy the files from loc/english into loc/german. The XL game was in english then, but that is not a serious problem. Would the same simple copy/paste action work in this mod also?
Cyprian2
09-18-2011, 01:13
Hi Gollum
Seems a while since you've been on the boards. Hope all's well with you.
Maybe he's taking a well-deserved break! Anyway, I like your suggestion about allowing rebels to build ships. I'm sure it's easily done if one has some modding know-how, but I can't say for sure.
To Gollum: I've been playing a campaign as the Hungarians. Fantastic, so far. Some harrowing battles against the Turks (I now know the true meaning of the phrase "shield of Christianity"). Anyway, I've got some great material for an AAR. So, er, we'll see what happens. Just wanted to alert you, though, that the deadpage coords for Italian Sailors seems to be missing. Like Victor, I hope all is well with you, Gollum. And thanks again for the mod!
I believe gollum has had some real life interference from his gaming recently. Here's to hoping he visits us again soon. :medievalcheers:
A version of my new map adapted to the Caravel mod has been uploaded. Check my sig :bow:
Thank you all for your interest. My work on the mod will not continue. You have been all great and i hope the mod has added to your enjoyment of the game :)
How come while you changed the first Byzantine Emperor's command stars to 1+2(defending) you kept the Spanish and Almohad initial rulers at 4+3(defending)? It seems like their's should have been reduced as well! ; In the interest of de-overpowering their rulers, just like the Byzantines for reasons discussed in this thread. (Also am hoping all the heirs for the Byzantines have a similar reduction, ?and Almohad/Spanish princes?)
From what I've seen and read so far, this seems to be the best vanilla style (or at least remotely vanilla) mod ever made and am looking forward to playing it!
Just played the first ~10 moves of an Almohad campaign and already the difference to vanilla or XL is noticeable, i anticipate this mod to be the most fun I've had since i started MTW.
Kudos to gollum for a phenomenal mod!
The Byzantine Emperor gets a hard-coded +2 influence and +1 command bonus. So it may be that his stats were nerfed the most to counter this - i.e. his heirs will still improve and gain stars. (disclaimer: just a guess as I've not played this mod)
Hi there Caravel!
Yeah i know about the nerf, I think the high degree of the nerf is more to do with the strong starting position - constantinople and the reasons discussed earlier in this thread etc than the influence bonus, i was wondering more why the Almohad and Spanish initial rulers weren't nerfed that much despite having very good command stars - The discussion in the thread last year about making battles more dependent on battle map strategy/tactics rather than being predetermined by the campaign map (excessive command stars).
No big deal though as it's just the first ruler and gollum obviously isn't working on the mod anymore.
You should try it out, its good stuff.
Hi there Caravel!
Yeah i know about the nerf, I think the high degree of the nerf is more to do with the strong starting position - constantinople and the reasons discussed earlier in this thread etc than the influence bonus, i was wondering more why the Almohad and Spanish initial rulers weren't nerfed that much despite having very good command stars - The discussion in the thread last year about making battles more dependent on battle map strategy/tactics rather than being predetermined by the campaign map (excessive command stars).
No big deal though as it's just the first ruler and gollum obviously isn't working on the mod anymore.
You should try it out, its good stuff.
Yes, constantinople and the aforementioned bonuses do turn the byz into somewhat of a juggernaut. In my home mod, I change the kats to 20 man units (as with other bodyguards) and this does help tremendously as far as balance is concerned. I reassign AHC to the byz and make alan mercs recruitable to compensate for this and it does help. They also have the byz lancers, byz cav and pr0n cav, so they do ok.
I'm not sure of gollum's specific reasoning behind not reducing the command stars for the Spanish and Almohad rulers, but here's my £0.02 for what it's worth:
Reducing the byz leaders command stars has to be quite drastic as the influence bonus and power of the kat bodyguard units will ensure that they thrive anyway and gain stars quickly.
The Spanish and especially the Almohad factions would be overcome by their neighbours/crusades quite quickly without half decent command stars for starting rulers/heirs/"hero generals". The Spanish in particular are in a strategically weak starting position surrounded by potential enemies. Muslim factions in general in MTW are underpowered.
In STW 0 star generals were quite viable early as almost all units were elite and it was common to build up generals from scratch. In MTW (single player) fielding a 0 star general is almost always suicidal due to the majority of units being non elites - they will simply rout off the field at the first sign of losses.
:bow:
Hi... so somehow I can play MTW on my gf8600, and I gonna try this mod first.
I just looked into crusader_unit file and find out that foot units(eg. gothic foot knigths) that can't be recruited in vanilla also can't be in this mod. I wonder if I modify those units, will that have big influence for gameplay and balance? Will AI behave differently?
Well, I am going to do this anyway, but I would appreciate your opinion :P
I just looked into crusader_unit file and find out that foot units(eg. gothic foot knigths) that can't be recruited in vanilla also can't be in this mod. I wonder if I modify those units, will that have big influence for gameplay and balance? Will AI behave differently?
Hard to tell. It depends what you change. Gothic Knights is costly high-end unit and AI rarely builds them. Probably only you will build and use them.
I left it as it was for now, because I started the campaign and saw that units are partially overhauled and I don't want to mess with it yet.
Edit:
I play campaign as English(this nation is totally overpowered in this game... well almost in any game...) at default unit size and of course CRVL-default and hard difficulty. I'm around 1150 and the changes in gameplay(strategy, military) are awesome, but economy seems to be too easy... I quickly destroyed France and then I stopped further expansion until 1140(with crusade on Cordoba), though I don't have any problems with money(after defeating France income was about 1k, now it's 3k+) and if I want I could easily blitz Castille, Aragon, Danes and HRE... and then further. Especialy with that great English heroes-generals and princes. I wonder what would it be on bigger unit size... Though probably huge size gives optimal balanse, but that two turns recruiting... I'll try it sometime.
I was surprised when Venice attacked me, fortunatelly HRE is defensive and they do nothing...
I looked into default_heroes.txt, well, it's a pity that there's no balance in heroes too. Again England totally overpowered- Tancred, Borleng, FitzGilbert, Marshall... all available very quickly. Ah and 5-7 stars princes...
Edit2:
I have some strange issue with Crusade, I made one on Egypt but I couldn't go further from Venice or Papal States(I can't remember). So after reload I made Crusade to Cordoba, get awesome 2 units of Templars and 1 OFS and Fanatics(love their high morale), add some feudal troops of mine, and after few times I started "reconquista". I was careful, because I Aragon and Spain are expansionist, and of course they attacked me(and I was smashed by those Jinetes and R. Knights led by 7 star King...). I would attack them first but without a 2-3 turns blitz, I'd be excommunicated, and I had other crusade on the move.. to Volhynia. Zealous German provinces gave me tons of Teutonic Sergeants, even Royal Knights, after succesful crusade I also bribed a besieged garrison, that consist 3 units of Lithuanian cavalry, and I feel like a Golden Horde khan, with all that cav. Because of trade and rich French and Moorish provinces I still make 2k per year...
Anyway, I found the game to be somehow tougher than what I remember... maybe it's lack of better unit tiers(spearmen)? Well, I could just blitz everything at the beginning(I wonder how it'd end..), but after 100 years it's not that easy. AI in battles is quite careful and attacks in group, though I didn't have a really big battle and I didn't try luring to split forces(because I don't have such units).
I'm not sure, but Custom battle settings wasn't fully updated(factions). I'll fix that.
And what is with that Man-at-arms unit, that uses Highland Clansmen skin and is at very beginning in Scotland? They are really good, pity that I can't recruit them... They weren't any challange, because I bribed that army anyway :P
Vigo Doria
09-07-2013, 15:51
I had some discussion here but my question was moved to the main page. Still i think it would be good if i would inform those who visit here that during my testing with the loyalty:130 command line, rebellions were common and it did not look like it is working. I tested the mod with the original loyalty:180 command line, and it looks like it worked better, i saw less rebellions.
epic dig out with kataphraktageddon - coming back of Byzantium.
https://i.imgur.com/2CS0pNf.jpg
thanks to all for your interest in the mod over the years..
:bow:
Hello, last weekend I started playing Humankind, this game can be played kinda as you want, it's audio and visual design is quite calm and very immersive, so it somehow brought me to reflect about countless hours spent in strategic games years ago... I've checked my disk do I still have totalwar folders, there were, one with MTW with Caravel mod, that I tried long ago.
I've gone wild with my thoughts, so let me put my hmm essay into spoiler, because it's pretty off-topic and just reminiscent...
It was actually last mod(well far later I've checked some version of Redux) before I quit playing MTW for Rome, M2, and other grand strategies. But MTW has something so relaxing for me, I don't know what is it, it was the first big strategy game I've played after some old 2D RTS and RPG games. I remember in my youth just having it run, ambient music played while I've been reading books or doing homework(offtopic- is it a right english tense to use it in this sentence? Doind smth while smth else goes on but everything in the past?). And doing some moves or battles once in while. And then a crash haha... old times. Maybe only Rome with Europa Barbaroum or Europa Universalis with Magna Mundi and some cRPGs gave me that immersive but calm vibe, though they are much more challenging and require a lot of thinking(well not cRPGs...). I have lost plenty of time in other games, they gave me fun but I consider it as lost, wasted, forlorn time, especially Civ games(they are good only in exploration and early to mid kingdom phase then it's managing of managing of m... and probably Humankind would add to it...), newer paradox strategies(fun over hmm... history?), totalwars from M2(why graphics matter more than gameplay integrity?) and M&B Warband and the whole mod and MP world of this - truly this ugly but immersive game with so many layers of gameplay(is it a medieval sim? battle sim? rpg? action game? tactics? even big strategy? - mods just made this game into dozen other. And MP mods... one made this an MMO - my first and the last, this type of games should be sold with excize tax because how addictive they are.
Well, years gone, and sometimes I think if I be born in the world without computers I would have a great edu degree and fine job and all that other important life things that people use to strive for. Or... went pathologic because I couldn't hide in virtual world while quite bad things happened at home. Or alcoholic or dead because I could not fill the uncertainty and emptyness of the late youth/early adulthood only with books(so exciting) and just go partying all the time. So I am - confiding at forums of twenty years old game. And I'm sober, oh man, now I've got to drink for sure haha.
Anyway, I started playing again, I've got sucked in...
I forgot how great is AI managing in Caravel. And that there're no peasants and other rubbish. Army roosters are accurate to a nation. They might seem boring without some fancy local units, and universal scheme of unit kinds, but it feels historically accurate and balanced. Catholics get types of militia-spearmen-shooters and mainly light-medium cavalry and some nation-specific unit but nothing weird. It gets a bit messy(a bit) in Middle and Eastern Europe. And of course Muslim/steppe cultures have an emphasis on bow, but I was surprised that their shooting units actually get into fighting and not only run. Well those Futuwas and Turcomans are quite a challange with some valour from high-star general.
I play Spain(well, it's more like Castile-Leon, but who cares), because it was always easy as I remember(and I wanted a chillful weekend game) just need a very risky and skillful first turns gameplay.
And well, it was. I took Cordoba early, then bunkered and went into economy while fighting Almohads for ransom money(well, it's a nice exploit, probably not so historically accurate as they're not Christians, so I suppose they'd be treated in quite unhealthy way...), slowly made a fleet, bribed Valencia and Portugal, got Navarra and left Aragon as a nice buffer. As things weren't interrupted by English and other nations crusades(they went East somehow) so I've unleashed crusade hell on the heathen North Africa and stop at Sinai, because Turks luckily didn't conquer Egypt yet. It seems Almohads are much weaker than in vanilla(they have some crazy good early period infantry units). Then... well I post later with screenshots, just need to check what are nowadays free pics hostings.
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