What tweaks to MTW do you play with?

[+DOC+]

Ok this is simply a thread for trading and sharing ideas to help each other enhance their SP campaign experience. Like many of you i play the campaign my own way with several excellent modifications to the various moddable text files (campaigns, units, buildings and projectiles files)..... and some of these ideas have been sparked from other patrons' ideas....

So, what do you tweak? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Here are some of my finer additions:

1. Campaigns:

a) All AI factions start with 10K florins for all eras.

b) In the early era, the AI Danes start with a castle4, shipyard with longboat, royal palace with emissary and level1 improved farmland. In all eras Denmark's province income is doubled. This now makes them a very competitive AI faction. When i play as the Danes i play as they were intended.

2. Units:

a) Peasants are now 150 man units.

b) Fanatics are now 125 man units.

c) Number of men in all siege units x1.5. Stops them being made redundant from casualties so quickly.

d) Hashishin and naptha throwers x1.5 men.

e) Crossbows and pavise crossbows available in all eras.

f) All catholic factions can now build a type of crusader knight and the order foot. They still can't build chapter houses, but if they capture one through conquest they can now construct "effective" crusades. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

g) Differentiated the crusader knights:
IMHO melee and defence are better so,
Templar gain +1 melee (+ another 1 to compensate for their poor charge) giving +2 melee.
Santiago gain +1 defence.
Teutonic gain +2 charge (since they already have a habit of spontaneously charging).
Hospitaller get +2 armour.

h) All archers now have 30 ammo.

3. Buildings:

a) Churches/mosques, reliquaries/ribats and cathedrals/grand mosques all give extra +1 morale.

I'm still thinking of something for the University building, since it currently doesn't do anything, so any ideas for an applicable bonus?

4. Projectiles:

a) Accuracy
Short bow 0.60 to 0.65
Longbow 0.60 to 0.65
Mounted bow 0.40 to 0.50
Javelin 0.15 to 0.20
Handgunner 0.05 to 0.08
Arquebusier 0.07 to 0.10
Grenade 0.03 to 0.05
Ballista 0.9 to 1.0

b) Lethality
Short now 0.63 to 0.70
Longbow 0.63 to 0.8
Mounted bow 0.63 to 0.70

c) Siege weapon movement
Even the big immobile siege engines can now rotate, albeit very slowly.

Come on, share your ideas... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Maelstrom]

Thanks Doc, very interesting. I have been looking at the projectiles file for a few days thinking about the changes I would make - Yours look like a good starting point, though I would give the longbow a slight edge in accuracy over the shortbow to represent the long and intensive training/practice that they engaged in.

As for the University, would it be possible to add +1 accumen for all leaders raised in the province?

How have you found your changes to impact on the game balance?

I note you haven't adjusted some of the other unit sizes that have been suggested in other threads (usually cavalry) - I guess the patch might make this unnecessary.

Could you post links to your moded files? - I for one would be keen to give your ruleset a try on my next campaign.

[ToranagaSama]

None, as yet.

The tweaks I'd be interested in would be all aimed at the AI. Specifically, the Strat Map AI.

Curious, anyone know who's responsible for the Strat Map AI at CA?

[Coucy]

There was a post a while back that seemed to imply the University gave residents certain "educational" V&Vs, such as Master of Numbers. You just had to sit there long enough in the cultural glow of the University for the virtues to sprout. I've never built a University, so I can't personally verify this, however.

For those who want a more tangible use for the *perhaps* totally useless University, consider making it the building that hands out the "Archbishop" title (instead of the Cathedral). This is not as strange as it sounds, historically. Universities back then were with rare exceptions under administrative control of the Church; they served mainly as advanced seminaries for those interested in a career in the higher clergy, and were often the scenes of some of the more important theological debates of the Middle Ages. The University of Paris, for example, being a prime example of this.

[+DOC+]

Maelstrom if you have an email address i can email them to you I don't have a website to put them up and this forum doesn't allow you to upload files. So either i can get them hosted on the ORG, or i can email them to you which would probably be the quicker option.

Pre-patch i would certainly have considered increasing the size of cavalry units but post-patch this is no longer necessary as cavalry have received the boost they needed. I also considered raising the number of archers in units, but decided that modifying the projectiles file was a better and simpler option to achieve the same end product.

How do you give the University a bonus like that? I was thinking about something like a general valour upgrade or morale boost, but i wondered if other potential bonuses can be awarded?

[Coucy]

Quote[/b] (+DOC+ @ Nov. 13 2002,12:50)]How do you give the University a bonus like that? I was thinking about something like a general valour upgrade or morale boost, but i wondered if other potential bonuses can be awarded?
You can change the building associated with each of the six special titles by modding the campmap/startpos files. Kind of a pain I admit, because you have to mod the Archbishop title for each faction, for each and every scenario in your startpos file you want to so mod. But it oughta work, I would think...

[+DOC+]

Oh, a change to the setup:

I changed peasants and fanatics aback down to 100 amn units. I got the impression that the AI starting preferring the 150 man peasant units to the 100 man spearman units, so to prevent this crazy assumption i reverted them back to their original values.

I'm also thinkling about increasing the range of the javelins ever so slightly, because at the moment they can't hit enemy skirmishing units. As soon as they get within range and start to aim, the enemy unit skirmishes thereby disrupting the javelin aiming procedure. This process simply goes on and on and on ... and it looks ridiculous, lol http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Orda Khan]

None at all

...Orda

[Soapyfrog]

DOC, Gil mentioned stability problems when increasing unit sizes above 100.

How do you deal with this?

[+DOC+]

Um, i didn't get any stability problems as such, what i think he may be referring to is if you were to use 150 man units and then play on the Huge units setting you might get stability probs, i.e. i'm not sure the game can go over 200 man units?

Otherwise not sure, but the only problem i got was the AI started really liking the 150 man peasant units and preferred them over the 100 man spearman unit. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

So i reverted them back to their original values. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Turbo]

Quote[/b] (+DOC @ +Nov. 13 2002,11:03)]Ok this is simply a thread for trading and sharing ideas to help each other enhance their SP campaign experience. Like many of you i play the campaign my own way with several excellent modifications to the various moddable text files (campaigns, units, buildings and projectiles files)..... and some of these ideas have been sparked from other patrons' ideas....

So, what do you tweak? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Here are some of my finer additions:

1. Campaigns:

a) All AI factions start with 10K florins for all eras.

b) In the early era, the AI Danes start with a castle4, shipyard with longboat, royal palace with emissary and level1 improved farmland. In all eras Denmark's province income is doubled. This now makes them a very competitive AI faction. When i play as the Danes i play as they were intended.

2. Units:

a) Peasants are now 150 man units.

b) Fanatics are now 125 man units.

c) Number of men in all siege units x1.5. Stops them being made redundant from casualties so quickly.

d) Hashishin and naptha throwers x1.5 men.

e) Crossbows and pavise crossbows available in all eras.

f) All catholic factions can now build a type of crusader knight and the order foot. They still can't build chapter houses, but if they capture one through conquest they can now construct "effective" crusades. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

g) Differentiated the crusader knights:
IMHO melee and defence are better so,
Templar gain +1 melee (+ another 1 to compensate for their poor charge) giving +2 melee.
Santiago gain +1 defence.
Teutonic gain +2 charge (since they already have a habit of spontaneously charging).
Hospitaller get +2 armour.

h) All archers now have 30 ammo.

3. Buildings:

a) Churches/mosques, reliquaries/ribats and cathedrals/grand mosques all give extra +1 morale.

I'm still thinking of something for the University building, since it currently doesn't do anything, so any ideas for an applicable bonus?

4. Projectiles:

a) Accuracy
Short bow 0.60 to 0.65
Longbow 0.60 to 0.65
Mounted bow 0.40 to 0.50
Javelin 0.15 to 0.20
Handgunner 0.05 to 0.08
Arquebusier 0.07 to 0.10
Grenade 0.03 to 0.05
Ballista 0.9 to 1.0

b) Lethality
Short now 0.63 to 0.70
Longbow 0.63 to 0.8
Mounted bow 0.63 to 0.70

c) Siege weapon movement
Even the big immobile siege engines can now rotate, albeit very slowly.

Come on, share your ideas... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
I eliminate the land bridge between Wessex and Flanders and the land bridge between Morocco and Granada, Morocco and Cordoba. I give the british a fleet and the Almohads a fleet. The britsh strategy becomes naval expansionist (with the Danish). I give the Danes a fleet too. I also bump up the rebellion rate to '2' as an average with all rebel starting regions at either 3 or 4. Most AI regions get improved farmland (income) and castle (so that the stupid AI doesnt necessarily meltaway). Like you, the AI gets 10k, I play with 2k.

The Danes are too easy for me. I play either the French or Spain. With the landbridges removed, the Britsh and Almohad pose a constant threat. Expansion is difficult. Your tweaks for units only help the human player btw, the AI rarely builds those units (except the 150 man peasant unit).

[Kraxis]

Quote[/b] (Turbo @ Nov. 14 2002,17:29)]Your tweaks for units only help the human player btw, the AI rarely builds those units (except the 150 man peasant unit).
What? You don't see any AI Crusades? I have them running all over the place...

And the increases to bows most definately helps the AI as it very often in the early game has an advantage in numbers of ranged units. You do know that the Turks are almost exclusively archers and Horse Archers early in the game. Now if you play as the Byzantine you can't just ignore those Horse Archers.

I have changed basically the same when it comes to archery but a little more pronounced, such as much better range for Longbows (7500) and slightly better range for shortbows (5500). This forced me to change the Velocity of the Longbow arrows (sadly) to 175 from 150. And because of the lower losses due to a lower angle (thought it would be higher losses at lower angles) I had to increase Lethality to 0.95. Lastly I have upped the rate of fire again (from 4 to 3 animations) so that they are faster thna shortbows again.
Range for Arbalests: 7000, Crossbows 5500.
Accuracy for LB: 0.75, SB: 0.70, MB: 0.60
And the Longbows got the armour mod upped to 0.4 (0.5).
Lethality for LB: 0.95 (remember the reason for such a heavy increase), SB: 0.75, MB: 0.75
Javelin range is 2000 (perhaps a little too much).
Naphta range is 1500 (up from 1200), that one helps the AI as I have seldomly used them and the AI have them in heaps.

Have given all dedicated archers 48 arrows (longbows 56) and all skirmishers and hybrids have retained the 28 arrows.

All units with shields now have the full benefit of it. Makes AUM and Hospitaller Foot Knights most dangerous.

This is all.

[+DOC+]

Turbo,

I'm very interested to know more on the effects of taking away the two crossings has on the game as it sounds like a very nice addition The english usually do fairly poorly as the AI in my games, so does this significantly help them out? Can the English cope with the Mercia to Flanders border cut off, or for that matter can the French cope with that change? Also the border at Granada and Morocco, what impact does that have on the game for both the Spanish and the ALmohads??

Kraxis,

I also made some more additions to the stuff at the top especially to the range of some of the missile units, mainly to increase the AI's ability to use them as intended:

Napthas 1200-1500, for exactly the same reason as you.
Javelins 1500-1800, this allows them to actually throw them at archers. Previously the archers would skirmish just at the javelins would aim...
Arbs 6000-5000.
I also further increased the longbows accuracy to 0.7.

I made both gun units reloadable while moving.
Handgunners 2000-2500.
Arquebusiers 4000-4500.

Getting all siege weapons able to rotate is a very nice addition, you should try it out

[Rosacrux]

Currently I have only tweaked the startpos files and the unit prod files, so I am very interested into seing those tweaks in the unit stats in action. I've already sent you a message to ask for them files, DOC.

As for my campaign changes, here it goes:

I've created two personal mods. The one is "Byzantium under siege" and the other "One province challenge".

In both I have upped the rebel factor of all provinces by 1 or (in some cases) by 2 - save those who already are at "4".

In "Byzantium under siege", I have left Byzantium with one province (constantinople) and barely enough troops to defend it, but with adequate infrastructure. I play it on Expert (early) with 2K florins, for a real challenging game. Greece, Trebizond and Bulgaria have all large rebel garissons and seldomly will the human player get the chance to get there before the Italians, Sicilian (Greece) Hungarian (Bulgaria)and Turks (Trebizond). The only fairly easy picking for the Byzantines is Nicae. Mid game Byzantium is struggling for survival, if it has been able to make it so far. I have yet to win this mod (on GA mode).

In the "one province challenge" mod, I've modded all factions, which now start fron one province. I tried to be historically accurate, so I've given to each faction it's central or most important province to start with, and after that I had to modify those starting locations greatly, in order to achieve some sort of balance. Still, even with this balancing, HRE and France never manage to pull out, and usually those with a good starting position (English, Egyptians, Novgorod sometimes) grow tremendously and dominate the map. The rebels pose quite a challenge (besides the rebel factor, I upped their armies and infrastructure) and generally it's a rather interesting modification.

Also, in both mods I tend to play with a tad upped cavalry units (25 instead of 20, 45 instead of 40)

[+DOC+]

Tosa, or any other forum moderator, would it be possible to move this to the Dungeon? I suppose this thread is more mod related than anything else and should probably belong in there?

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif