Build times

[Dijeeh]

I first came to MTW from Shogun - Total War

Where turns were seasons and so on, This way, It did not seem like buildings took as long to build.

I get Frustrated with MTW having to spend 30 odd years of gametime building all the buildings needed for a certain unit i want.

I wish there was a way for the user to adjust build time of buildings/units to somthing to suit him or her better.

I don't have the patience to spend a few hours fighting my battles and ending my turns waiting for one single structure to finish building.

The Citadel takes 16 years am i correct? surely in real life it would have taken longer even? But this is not real life, this is a game, and i would *LOVE* the ability to change things like this to better suit my lack of patience


Does anyone else get bored or frustrated with very long build times?

I think they are very long because your number of turns is so limited, and the game advances in years (i liked seasons better )

[HopAlongBunny]

Might be something the modders could do.

Til then .worksundays. will speed things up a little http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[solypsist]

While I myself as a person (and not as a representative of the Org) dislike the posting of cheat codes, there are several available to simplify your game. That particular code above will reduce the build time of every structure to one turn.
If you would like to modify your structure build-times manually, please ask the folks in the Dungeon.
(so basically Hop has finished this thread and my reply is redundant)

[Dijeeh]

I was not looking for cheats, 1 turn build times is more of a fun killer.

I just wanted to know if its possible to reduce build times.

Thanks

[HopAlongBunny]

oops

sorry 'bout that Soly http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

[Kraxis]

Hop don't be sorry. Soly has his idea of what you should do, you have yours, that was basically what he said, or else I misunderstood him badly. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Cheatcodes are up to the player to use, just like any mod of the game. You can mod the game almost to all aspect the cheats can, so it is just the name that differs. But mods makes it possible for better management and steps. So go to the Dungeon.

[FesterShinetop]

Some buildings do take very long to build. I once was constructing one of the later buildings that take 20 years to build. In the same year my building (don't remember which one it was) finally was complete the provence it was in suffered from a flood that wiped away... you guessed it... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

Now... THAT was very frustrating...

[Rocket_Boy]

Well because in Medieval, troop production corresponds to the buildings in the province, so pre-patch the only limit on availibility on high level troops was the amount of time taken to build the required structures.
I have to admit that I don't find build times excessive, (although I would'nt want them to be longer&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif. For defensive provinces that I don't have making high level troops, I'm happy to leave at citadel level, sometimes with a barbicon. Siege times are'nt vastly different to fortress and how often does the AI assault anyway?

[HopAlongBunny]

Well because in Medieval, troop production corresponds to the buildings in the province... (Rocket_Boy)

I have to agree. Post-patch, keeping ahead of the tech curve with buildings is easy. You just can't build the troops that the building would "un-lock" anyhow (but it is nice to be ready http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif ) On defence, there doesn't seem to be much difference between a fortress and a fort-all fall 2yrs max I find.

[deutschlanduberalles]

To be honest this is about the ONLY reason I reload games. It's SO FRUSTRATING to lose a minor battle and have this 150-man invading force destroy 80+ years of work in a province. God, I hate starting over from near-scratch. I think they should either reduce building times a bit (let's not go crazy, maybe citadel in 14 turns instead of 16....fortress in 16-17 instead of 20....etc...) or reduce the likelihood that when a well developed province is conquered, the area suddenly becomes almost totally useless. I feel bad about reloading a game, but I feel worse about reconquering my lost province and spending another 50,000 florin and a century to rebuild it.

[Dijeeh]

Building up takes so much management i have a habbit spending most my time looking after one province specific needs, making sure it has best units possible and best buildings, then i forget about the rest of my nation.

One province can build all the great units while the rest are 100 years behind.

[Maelstrom]

It's one of the best part of the games in my opinion, and spreads the interest over the whole duration. It encourages a slow, strategic, defensive build up and discourages rushing.

The damage done when a province is lost can be a real downer though, and seems uncomfortably (but probaly not unrealistically) destructive.

[LovelyHaji]

I have a set list of about 5 buildings i make in all my provinces - town watch, 20% food, border forts, fort, castle, church, port.

I normally have at least one province devoted to ship production, another on strategic agents, then several more devoted to troop production. This keeps things reasonably simple, apart from moving all those stupid holy men and spies about. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif

[Kraxis]

I build much like Lovely, but I keep all but my main provinces (and some of the better ones I capture) at Fort level to have the full benefit of Inns and still no Bandits.

Also remember castles only lose levels if a garrison os starved out, so don't worry about that Fortress getting pulled down. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif And most often the Cathedral/Grand Mosque is far away from the front. So in reality I see no problem with pillaging when we are talking the player, but damn the AI for its pillaging. I can still see the Dark Ages return in some games because of the pillaging.

[MizuKokami]

i guess the building times aren't so bad, but the rebuilding times suck. build a citadel in sixteen years and a flood comes and wrecks it. it then takes 16 more years to rebuild it? i guess the flood washed "everything" away(shrug). it would seem to me that a wrecked citadel would take less time to rebuild then it would take to build, since you won't need to gather as many stones and bricks. same goes for any buildings that were destroyed in the initial attack. the foundations should still be there, and hence take less time and money to rebuild. maybe in a future add-on the option would exsist to rebuild from exsisting foundations, or start from scratch. a castle that was rebuilt won't last as long when seiged as a castle that was built from scratch. and spearmaker workshops would suffer a valor penalty...etc...

[The Last Emperor]

Like Mizu has suggested, has GA thought of having buildings damaged instead of them totally destroyed in events like flood or earthquake? Maybe they can just deactivate those building affected by those events and implement a period of repair time for certain amount of florins before being fully restored for us to use them again. I find it both weird & frustrating to see my gaint fortress being swept clean by the floor while the tiny watch tower is still standing Just can't stand the time and florins needed to rebuild those advanced buildings. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif

[chunkynut]

I think of building times as not just the construction but the establishment of these buildings.

For example; A Spearmakers guild takes 2 years to build but the training of apprentices and the experience of the master spearmaker and all the other little things that aren't represented in the game, infrastructure etc.

Yes it can be frustrating waiting for buildings to finish so you can build advanced units and sent them to the front. But surely this is all part of being the leader of your faction(we dont all have to be town planners or something it just takes abit of effort). And yeah floods destroying your high level expensive building sucks but to coin a well known phase "S*$t Happens" http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif. I think if you dont like the campaign mode, play MP or custom battles where you can choose troops or mod or cheat to get what you want. Cheating is only acceptable (imo) as long as your not lieing to yourself that your the 'l33test' player or something http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif and you just play to have a good time and win.

[Katasaki Hirojima]

I don&#39;t care aboutthe castle building times, its thebuilding building times that get me. With the exception of Larger buildings and farms, most buildings take about 1-2 years to build. Buuut noooooo, I have to sit and wait 2+2+4+6+4+6+6+12 or 42 turns to get FEUDAL KNIGHTS >.< DO you REALIZE how LONG 42 turns is??? Ecspecially if I fighta battle every other turn. I&#39;m not a lifeless gamer who sits around all day playing games, I&#39;m usually out doing things, I only get a couple hours everyday to play my beloved Game. And, for the guy who said &#39;Play Custom" above me....

CUSTOM SUCKS >.< http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/angry.gif There is no reward or fun in that at all. "Oh, Haha, I&#39;v beaten the AI...again..."

[FesterShinetop]

Quote[/b] (MizuKokami @ Nov. 26 2002,03:58)]it would seem to me that a wrecked citadel would take less time to rebuild then it would take to build, since you won&#39;t need to gather as many stones and bricks. same goes for any buildings that were destroyed in the initial attack. the foundations should still be there, and hence take less time and money to rebuild.
Good idea. I hope someone from CA is reading this also. Because it&#39;s really annoying that those BIG buildings get washed away entirely and you have to build them up from scratch again. Just say the building is damaged and it takes half the original time to rebuild it and I will be happy http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Kraxis]

Hmm... yes, that would be quite historical.

There have been many instances in history where a town/city has been razed completely (Kiev anyone?) and later returnedm sometimes even quite fast.

It would also make the AI suffer less from attacks, which it suffers greatly from now. Then perhaps raiding would be viable while not completely overpowering as it is now. Then the pillaging would serve the purpose it should, set back the development for a time, not completely.

[Hakonarson]

You might not want to build yuor citadelle in eth same place as the one that proved so vulnerableto flooding

Besides - teh whole building thing isn&#39;t about individual constructions anyway. It&#39;s jsut a surrogate for the overall level of various technologies withing a geographic area.

Sometimes technologies did get lost - for example we couldn&#39;t produce a unit of knights in a year now anywhere in the world - we could make teh armour and weapons without much bother, but the training isn&#39;t there. Nor do we have the technology to produce huge fleets of galleys, etc.

Similarly in ancient times technologies did get lost - the Chariot, the pilum, the Huscarl (in England after 1066), even decent spearmen in England after they went for teh longbowmen.

If you consider the buildings as actually representing a single physical construction then sure - a lot of teh time is rubbish.

If you consider them as representing teh spread of a technology widely throughout an area then it makes a lot more sense.

[Dijeeh]

Yes, getting your building you spend 10 years to build up and construct is very very frustrating.

Once my Royal Palace flooded away the turn after it had finished building

That was so anoying.

[A.Saturnus]

A solution would be the possibility to construct more buildings at a time. If you have to rebuild something, it wouldn`t stop the main developement.
The building times are ok (however, 4 years for a fort is outragious), but when I conquer provinces around 1300, I often realize it`s impossible to build a decent infrastructure before the end

[Dijeeh]

I normaly have constructions going on in all or most my provinces, but a concerntrate building special/powerfull army training buildings in the hardest to conqour province, or the one least likely to get attacked by enemy.

[gothicform]

its not a problem if you play fromthe earliest possible turn. i ear mark four or five key provinces and develop highly and only have basic stuff in the rest. these provinces have massive garrisons and make the units for everywhere else. smaller provinces just have basic facilities and dockyards. you dont need decent infrastructure everywhere, just enough to have decent defenses when youve captured a province and a few places that have serious offensive capability with massive garrisons.
all you need is five fortresses, you can then produce 5 top units a go and have the smaller places just earning money.
remember you dont conquer europe overnight it takes years.