Medmod IV v3.08 Beta Update/Patch

[WesW]

The 3.08 beta is now posted at my website.

I went into the startpos files to try some of the recommendations, and to fix the bug in the Late text. It turned out that there were two bugs, but I got them.

There is a whole list of fixes and improvements to the mod:

I configured the capital provinces to be able to produce BG units from the start. The only exception, I believe, is the English, whose Norman Kns are produced in Normandy.
I ran a short autorun game, and I was really pleased with I saw as far as army composition. I think this last move here has finally led to the game we have been looking for.

I made some provincial ownership changes to try and strengthen some weak factions. I gave Sweden to the Danes in Early, and added a lot of buildings to both Norway and Sweden in both the Early and High eras.
I gave Bulgaria to the Huns in High and Late. I also gave Wallachia to the Huns and Moldavia to the Horde in Late.
I gave Volhynia to the Poles in Early and High.

I switched the HRE to defensive, though I don't know if it will do much good. I set the English to Expansionist.

Btw, have you noticed in your games that the Danes don't assign a governor to Denmark? Both times I have checked them, the only governorship they assign is to Norway, and he had the Chancellorship as well. Please try and note this, so I can maybe find out what is going on.

I also checked, and all factions were having Princesses. I tried ordering the heirs lists into alphabetical order, but I doubt this will do anything. I had thought that a mix-up had some of the Christian factions producing only males instead of the Muslims, but I don't know what is going on now.

I tried setting all provinces to a rebellion of one, but didn't like what I saw. The AI seems to think of loyalty control as an additional burden taken out of the leftover money normally used for infrastructure, from what I could tell.
I have reduced all provinces with more than one point of rebellion back to one. (Livonia, Portugal, Lithuania, Scotland, Prussia and Flanders)

I have reduced some of the factions' Homelands by a couple of provinces. Most notably the Baltic Coast provinces from the HRE.
I also separated the Polish and Hungarian Homelands, taking the Baltic provinces from the Huns and the lower Balkans from the Poles, though I also added Bohemia to the Poles'.
I took Rum, Armenia and Edessa from the Byz, and Constan from the Turks, to try and keep either of these factions from becoming so dominant with one stroke.

I restricted Serbian Husars to Serbia.

I found that the AI was sometimes spending precious money on additional Palaces early in the game, so I made them unique and eliminated them from the requirements list for the Royal Court series. Looking at the files, I don't think this will impact the game much, other than maybe save the AI money.

I added a good many more buildings in addition to those for the BG units, and added ships for the Danes, English, Sicilians, Egyptians and Almohads in Early.

I also switched a lot of Spearmakers to something else in Early, so maybe we will see fewer Spearmen. When I was adding buildings for v1 of the mod, I think I got mixed up and thought that Spearmakers were required for the other basic buildings instead of Town Watches. Thus I added dozens of them to the game. This may account for a good bit of the overuse of spears by the AI.

Finally, I fixed a couple other bugs which were causing major problems for a couple of the factions. The fixes and the improvements listed above should finally, finally do the trick I believe.
I was very happy with what I saw in my short autorun, and this was before most of the changes, and with the rebellion set to one, which was hindering the AI. The AIs were definitely building more BG units, as well as more sword/axe units. With the replacement of about 20 Spearmakers with mostly Bowyers and Swordsmiths, I hope that we will finally see the strong, balanced armies we have been looking for all these months.

[-Isapostolos-]

Great job wes, but there's one thng I don't understand. You seem to talk about the huns yet they are not in any of my games, nor are those minor factions you talk of...

Ofcourse it could all be me, but would you like to enligten me?

[Old Bald Guy]

Wes, I ran a game last night for almost two hundred years, until my under-powered computer bogged down.

The English and Danes just sat, again. Nobody had any money, except the French, who dominated, again. The Byz did well, but the Poles kicked ass, until the GH and French worked 'em both sides.

One thing I noticed. when the Byz reappeared on Rhodes, with a huge army, they went into the red and kept going deeper. They finally took Tripoli, but by then, they couldn't build a thing.

None of the factions built much of an economy. Most were stuck in low, low numbers of florins. I also noticed these guys would attack with an army of only a couple hundred, in a war of attrition, which kept both sides weakened.

Finally, in every game I've run so far, the Muslim factions were no factor at all.

I'll try 08 tonight. PS--Computer support is what I do.

OBG

[Lancer6969]

I believe that the Huns, are the Hungarians. They are a major faction....? I could be wrong.

Are any of the minor factions appearing during the Early.txt? Or do they only appear during the High and Late. Please answer this question, as many questions get bypassed with comments. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Great update Wes.

[BDC]

Wow another Pure gold... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif

[Yelping Godzilla]

Nothing but kings placed when starting from High. Is this happening for anyone else?

And yes, I have MTW working again. But only temporarily :[

By the way, are/do pavise units - Pavisier, Pavise Sailors, Pavisier Pikemen all going to have the same archer defense bonus/speed penalty as Pavise Crossbows and Pavise Arbalests?

I need to know for the descriptions. Speaking of which, they're still coming along. 75% done I reckon.

EEUURAAH.

[ChaosLord]

Woah, another version already. Its nice to see your dedication to this, really love the mod. Been playing as the Sicilians in 07. The Italians did very well, wiped out HRE, Spain, Almohads, Aragon. France did alright, but eventually lay stagnant. Novgorod suprisingly did well, ruling the enitre steppes and even capturing some Byzantine provinces. The Turks took the chance to eliminate the Egyptians when I waged war on the Byzantines, but they didn't do much after that.

I must say I love how the Muslim units are larger then their Catholic counterparts. Those hybrid archer units are really useful at 75 men. Most of the armies I saw were mixed as well, i'm installing 3.08 now to see how the changes affect things in a new game. Egypt/Turkey were actually trying to start navys this time around, though they kept getting in wars and losing it. Italy had a terrifying navy, a stack of 16 ships led by a 5 star. That was just in the med, they also had another stack by Britain. I was lucky to win the sea war against them.

The restricted units made things interesting, I was actually happy to conquer Hungary and get woodsmen. They're not bad once you get some armor/weapon/morale upgrades. They helped me fight Italian/Byzantine Infantry. Rambling on now, so i'll just give a few suggestions.

It'd look better for M:TW to change Forest Clearing to Plowed Fields, just for theme.

Also, in 08 Sicily starts with a Swordsmith in Malta, but they can't produce anything with it. Would be better to give them a Spearmakers since otherwise all they can produce is mounted units and archers. Sicily has pretty limited options as far as Infantry go so they actually need to be able to build Spearmen. Unless you want to enable Futuwwas in Malta.

[Razor1952]

3.08 french high

-Over the first 30-40 years about 5 different factions reported highest income, I guess this is very encouraging. 2 factions were eliminated early.I struggled when English/HRE/Egytiians/Turks/Aragon all attacked within a 5 year period.
-Nevertheless my naval trading strat has finally paid off and now richest and kicking those guys asses. The ai attackers are going down because most could not compete with the huge incomes available to naval trading strat.
-But certainly in the first 30-40 years the improvements to ai province income seems to be making it a much more even and competitive race between the different ai's at least in this inital to mid period.
-The problem possible emerging is that the ai's are now able to be more aggressive early and so tend to destroy each other now and the player just mooves in to take the pickings, still a serious and positive step forward.


-Married the Turkish princess this time, I havn't seen an Egyptian or Almo one though, maybe they are only restricted to the Turks?. Nevertheless I'd be happy if Muslims had princesses anyway.

My feeling is that now intrinsic province income is much better, naval trading income should be dropped, perhaps by making the second merchant upgrade available only with citadels.

Getting very excited though, game play is considerably different and challenging, well done Wes again.
-

[Razor1952]

Forgot, the french had no starting units(except the king), which was kinda interesting, I had to build an Inn in Tripoli to garrison Antioch/Tripoli as building regular troops took quite a few turns.

Also Muster fields didn't build peasants.

[Action]

Can this be installed over 3.07?

[ChaosLord]

Yeah Action, its an update. Just copy over the older files if it asks.

[Old Bald Guy]

The new mod is terrific. Playing Novs, I was surprised the HRE and Siz sent crusades to Livonia and another rebel province--don't remember which--respectively. Either a waste of crusades or dumb AI move. And it was within the first ten years of the campaign. What's up with crusades?

Economies seem improved. English are on the move. Danes have even taken Finland. Byz are busy. Spanish sit. Elmos and Spanish are beating on each other, while the French are moving in on 'em. And the HRE seem more competitive. Armies are pretty much as I would build.

Great job, Wes. What should I be looking for, now?

OBG

[Lazul]

So when will the swedes be avalible? It would be really cool with alot of smaller minor factions. And ofcourse i like swedes.. dhu http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

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

[ShadesPanther]

the extra factions will probably come out with the first release.

Also Highlight the no men in high period http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Yelping Godzilla]

Minor factions are unlikely to be included by the time the mod comes out of beta. It's also looking unlikely that Swedes are going to be included as a minor faction when they are implemented, because the Danes need extra provinces, or will just sit there and stagnate.

EDIT: Since the older thread is pretty much abandoned now, I thought I'd repost my addon pack idea for anyone who hasn't seen it. Couple more ideas added too.


Wes has given me the ok to make a units addon pack for medmod 3. The pack will be exactly what it says on the tin, just added units, nothing more nothing less. This way it should bolt onto the main mod without disrupting it too much and of course will be completely optional.

So far I've come up with these rough ideas for added units, with the odd description I've written.

CATHOLIC

Staff Slingers (Spanish - Early, High) 60
Quite common in militia forces during the Iberian conflict. No armour, poor quality but good light infantry killers.

Bidets (Spain, Aragon - Early, High) 60
Light jav/dart infantry of pretty poor quality.

Irish Hobelar (Ireland - High, Late) 60
Light mail/leather armoured, medium quality with non-charge lances, large groups, mounted on hobin breed - Very small, very fast.

Portuguese besteiro (Portugal - All) 60
Light armour, crossbows that fire stones, fast moving, poorish quality, but mixed with infantry for ok melee.

Highland Archer (Scotland - High, Late) 60
Buildable by anyone who can get Clansmen. Mail armoured short bow archers of good quality.

The scots are famed for the bravery and tenacity of their light highland troops and fearsome assault warriors. However without the support of this essential ranged core, highland armies would have little success. These veteran soldiers are equally brave but far more restrained and more likely to survive the battle, clad as they are in a durable armour of mail, fabric and leather.

Norman Spear (Sicily, France - Early, High) 60
Same chainmail as FMAA, teardrop shields, FMAA kinda quality. Small for spear unit, but very useful as medium infantry with FMAA (which Sicily should also be allowed).


MUSLIM

Mozarab Infantry (Almohads - Early only) 100
Mail armoured, medium quality infantry armed with heavy spears. Recruited from the South of spain, commonly Andalusian.

Moorish Heavy Cavalry (Almohads - All periods) 50
Heavy lance cav, good quality, many of them Grenadine troops.

The Moor are not without an elite heavy cavalry to match the knights of Spain. Many of these warriors are Grenadine lesser nobles, who wear a mix of chain and plate influenced by the designs of their Spanish foe. For such heavy cavalry they are particularly fast and, unlike knights, are neither impetuous nor rash, maintaining discipline and order at all times.

Berber Horse (Muslim, Morocco/Tunisia region - All) 50
They didn't just use camels. These are light jav cav, slightly worse than Jinets.

The Berber people of Northern Africa have long fought hit and run campaigns against their enemies, whether from foot, mounted on a camel or on horseback. Berber horses are hardy and are fast, if a little small, and provide these unarmoured skirmishers with incredible speed. Their lighter javelins have excellent range, but are unsuitable weapons for close combat.

Ghaznavid Heavy Infantry (Seljuk turks - Early) 75
Mercenaries and remnants from the fall of the Ghaznavid Seljuks in what is now Afghanistan. Mail/Scale armoured, large shields, very heavy spears (anti armour), unusally high quality buildable mercs.

The Ghaznavid empire has fallen, crushed from the west by fellow turks, the Seljuks. Much of the Ghaznavid army was destroyed, but these men, the heavy core of the army, have survived to become mercenaries. Armed with hefty infantry killing spears and armoured in thick mail, they are experienced and cohesive veterans of battles against countless enemies, including their current employers.

Askari Cavalry (Seljuk turks - Early, High) 50
New royal bodyguards of Turks in Early, armed with sword, shield and bow. Medium armour. In many ways an upgraded and far more professional tucoman horse. Good quality.

Experts with both bow and sword, these former steppe warriors are the elite core of the Seljuk and bodyguard of the Sultan. In many ways they are responsible for Turkish success. Their lamellar and mail armour is of good quality, but is fairly light by Christian standards, they are mounted on a superior breed of horses and are as such highly mobile. Many of their ranks are dedicated Ghulam, willing to fight to the death against great odds.

Dailami Infantry (Seljuk, Egyptians - Early, high) 125
Buildable Mercenaries from further east. Armed with large shields and Zupins, their famous spears which are bladed at both ends. They get less defense bonus vs cav, but more offense. Fast moving and ok to good quality but light armour. In some ways, mini-halberdiers.

The Eastern Dailami have found places in both Egyptian and Seljuk militaries, mercenary troops valued for their unusual and effective fighting techniques. They wield Zupins, spears bladed at both ends, with considerable skill and are effective against both cavalry and opposing infantry. They wear very little armour, preferring to rely on foot speed, but carry large shields to protect themselves from arrows.

Agulani Cavalry (Seljuk - Early, High) 50
Assault cavalry that have heavy (for the area) metallic armour for both rider and horse. Use sword and shield. Quite slow for cavalry, but generally good quality.

The Agulani are the heaviest cavalry available to the Seljuk ruler, both horse and rider being clad in dazzling metallic armour. They are dedicated assault troops, able to tear opposing infantry apart and smash most eastern cavalry. They prefer a combination of sword and shield to lances, which reduces the power of their charge but allows them greater flexibility once commited.

Ahdath Militia (Seljuk, Egypt - High, Late) 125
These are civil militias that originated in Syria of standard spearman quality. They are very cheap and plentiful, the advantage of having them over spearmen is their added size and their added bow. They'd actually use compound bows, but with little skill, so they get the shortbow type.

Al Halqa Cavalry (Egypt - High, Late)
Elite heavy lance cavalry made up of free men rather than slave warriors. Medium/Heavy armour, excellent fighting ability, very disciplined. Their horses are specially trained to not fear camels. They are very high cost.

Akinci Raiders (Ottoman - Late)
Superb raiding cavalry, medium/light armour, blistering speed, contain within their ranks Delil, the crazed assault troops of the raider parties. Armed with both swords and bows. The special forces of their day.



ORTHODOX

Latinikon (Byzantine - Early, High) 40
Buildable mercenary Norman Knights. Usually from Sicily.

The Franks may be crude, unsophisticated and basically untrustworthy, but they can make excellent fighters. The Latinikon, as they are known in Byzantium, are a mercenary unit comprised almost entirely of Norman Knights, many from Sicily. Though mercenaries, they are true knights and are very well paid and equipped with mail and lances, ensuring their loyalty.

Trapezitoi (Byzantine - All) 60
Non mercenary light jav cav. Poor quality all around.

Trapezitoi are part of the provincial component of the Byzantine military, found supporting superior troops by covering the flanks and skirmishing with the enemy. They wear very little or no armour and carry only their slingful of javelins yet their lack of order greatly reduces their manueverability. They make poor light cavalry, but are at least inexpensive.

Peltastoi (Byzantine - All) 60
Light jav infantry. Like Trapezitoi, they are also pretty crap quality.

Aznauri Cavalry (Georgia - All) 40
Noble heavy cavalry, possibly Feudal knight stats. The new georgian royal bodyguard in all eras. Might also get bows.

Aznauri Spear (Georgia - All) 60
Noble spearmen. As such very high quality, perhaps the best true spear unit in the game. They are smaller than other spear regiments however.


PAGAN

Samogitian Militia (Lithuania - High) 60
Pagan hybrid unit, born of battle against Teutonic invaders. Leather/cloth armour, shortbows, two handed axes. Not great quality, but brave and get slight VS cav bonus to kill off Order Knights. Buildable by other religions (they hated Teutons, not Catholics), only Lithuania.

The countless raids of the Teutonic Order into Pagan Lithuania have of course not gone unopposed. While the Order are seen by many as invincible, these war hardened, if poorly equipped, men know different. They fight a defensive war against the invaders, skirmishing from the woods with their bows and using long handled axes to cut the hated knights from their mounts.


Any and all feedback is appreciated. I'm afraid I can't promise anything regarding the pack, it's just something I'm thinking of working on in the not so distant future. If anyone had any more suggestions or wanted to help me get the actual work done, that would be great.

I repeat, just to be clear - Do not expect the units listed above any time soon. That way you won't be disappointed :]

EEUURAAH.

[A_B]

I'm playing as the Hungarians, with some additional unit restrictions (mentioned in the 3.6 thread). My neighbors to the East were the Russians and Turks. I let them be, so that they would absorb the bulk of the Mongol invasion. They both had old and stable empires. The Sicilians - and to a lesser extent the French - are the other powers. The English, Spanish, Argonese, Muwahid are gone. The Germans and Poles are down to one territory each. The Egyptians and Italians are weak.

The unusual thing is the Mongol Invasion. I have never seen one so strong. It is easily twice as strong as the next biggest i've ever seen. It came in four territiries, with 15 full stacks each. It will be tough to survive this.

Question; does anyone know what inflouences the Mongol strenth? I've seen such a huge variation in the amount of force that arrives.

[ShadesPanther]

I think it is influenced by how many men are in the province like the pope but I think another factor is included and I think Wes has maybe added those entry points as it was random before

[Dukezer0]

Ah, just completed the first campaign on medmod as the argonese (on expert of course http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif ) and was thinking, yes done a campaign before a patch is released....... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif , damn.

The only thing i have to report is in conjunction with A_B's findings of the mongol horde.

Too bloody powerful http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/pissed.gif . I know that a few people posting here liked the idea of the mongols being more powerful.... but not IMO, i would be happy if they didn't arive at all. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Lets look at it, destroy the russians, a cool faction and the turks another cool faction and replace it with the mongols, a crap faction with the most annoying chicken s**ts (mongol horse archers).

This is the reason i always take khazar, if i'm turks, egyptians, russians, huns or the poles, or launch a crusade against it if i'm westward, and build up the mo fo until i nearly break the bank and kill the king on the first turn apon entering http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif ......rant....rant.....blah......blah.
*duke takes some deep breaths*

Ranting aside, half of the problem is the support costs, 30 for mongol heavy cavalry is just a little generous http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif and the sheer amount http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif .


All that said, these are my opinions and i'm sure there are a lot who will disagree.

*hols aloft a banner "ban the mongols"*


DZ

[Lancer6969]

Quote[/b] ]Too bloody powerful . I know that a few people posting here liked the idea of the mongols being more powerful.... but not IMO, i would be happy if they didn't arive at all.

Ok, if the Mongols didn't arrive at all, I wouldn't download this mod. The Mongols make the game more challenging, and add another aspect to the game. IMO I think that the mongols are a fun Faction to battle with. They are hard, and in my opinon hard is fun.

Great job on your mod.

Lancer

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

[A_B]

Quote[/b] (Lancer6969 @ Sep. 11 2003,10:53)]The Mongols make the game more challenging, and add another aspect to the game. IMO I think that the mongols are a fun Faction to battle with. They are hard, and in my opinon hard is fun.
The Mongols are very hard to fight. They are so damn fast, and the Chinese Spearmen add a new twist. As the Hungarians, i only have access to Croation Spearmen. They don't hold up that well against the Mongol Heavy Cav.

What i do like is the ebb and flow against the Mongols - which seems to happen every time i play them. They pound me and pound me, until i kill their King. They then turn into leaderless rebels. I then have five to ten years to regain some breathing room, until the Faction reemerges with a new King and i have to be careful again. The whole time i have to worry about getting stabbed in the back as i strip my western provinces.

The only problem with the Horde is that once you beat them, the campaign is pretty much over. You end up with a huge chunk of the map, most of the best trade provices, and a huge army.

The only bad part of MTW is that the end game (and sometimes the middele)is easy. I guess the only way to really make it hard is to make a mod to be faction specific for the human player, and then make all that factions special units cost 50 to 100% more to make and support.

[Lancer6969]

Quote[/b] ]They are so damn fast, and the Chinese Spearmen add a new twist. As the Hungarians, i only have access to Croation Spearmen. They don't hold up that well against the Mongol Heavy Cav.


I have the same problems with the Mounted Archers and Heavy Cav. They always skirmish, and are at the end of a losing battle. It sucks. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

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

[Dukezer0]

Quote[/b] ]They are hard, and in my opinon hard is fun.


I totally agree and i do like fighting them, but not just them and at the expense of two better factions.


Quote[/b] ]Ok, if the Mongols didn't arrive at all, I wouldn't download this mod.
I don't believe that at all. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif


BTW, yelping godzilla, if you're around, there is a mistake with the description of pyrenese brigands.

It says "north of a spain", were it should be "north of spain". http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif (medmod 3.07 i think)

You've done a good.... no excellent job with the unit descriptions IMO, historically informative and interesting. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Old Bald Guy]

>>The only bad part of MTW is that the end game (and sometimes the middele)is easy.

Somewhat true, which is why I enjoy playing GA more. I'd love to see a stronger GA game, with more goals and improvements. GA is a different game.

OBG

Where's Waldo, er, Wes?

[Dukezer0]

Quote[/b] ]Somewhat true, which is why I enjoy playing GA more.

I used to play GA, but found that the AI didn't go for them, it was just random that the AI was higher than you.

But this was a long time ago, has the AI changed since the first release of MTW?


DZ

[A_B]

Quote[/b] (Old Bald Guy @ Sep. 12 2003,04:11)]Somewhat true, which is why I enjoy playing GA more. I'd love to see a stronger GA game, with more goals and improvements. GA is a different game.
I've been trying to think of ways to make the end game harder. I think what makes the game get easy is building up the trade empire, and being able to use the resulting bundle of cash more effectively than the AI.

I've been playing with some of the hardcore rules; 'Body Guard' type units for province govenors (which limits you on how much acumen you have access to), and i limited my trade to either the Mediteranean, or the Atlantic. Still too much money.

So what are some other ideas to make the end game harder?

[A_B]

OK, i have another 'Extreme' idea which i think may prevent some of the wierd faction expansion going on. The idea is to limit the ocean travel between the Mediteranian and the Atlantic by eliminating travel in the ocean provices 'Atlantic' and 'Gulf of Cadiz'.

This would keep factions a little closer to home (the Sicilians took Wales and Norway in my current game). Also, i don't think trade routes were so sophisticated in the middle ages that they went from Byzantium to England and back again.

Alternatively, the Atlantic could be left open, but would only be available to travel with Ocean going ships. These ships could be limited to the LATE age, allowing comerce to advance in the later part of the game.

[ShadesPanther]

Yes AB I thought of something like that but i dismissed it because of the problems with the Iberian Pinninsula as ports go into the med and the atlantic

[WesW]

Hi everyone. I had a problem with my cookies Monday night, I believe, and couldn't sign in to post. I had asked one of the guys who has been helping out by email to post here about what happened, but I guess he couldn't for some reason.

I have been working some on the mod, but playing it a lot more, and I have never been this happy about AI performance. I have another long list of improvements that I have made to the 3.08 version, but most of them are odds-n-ends.
I have also done a good bit of tweaking to try and bolster some of the weaker factions, the Danes, English, Poles, Hungarians and Almos, and weaken the French a little.

I like A_B's proposal regarding the removal of the two seas in order to sever the map into two separate regions.
I have also reduced the trade value of some of the most valuable items and raised the value of the least valuable. The values used to range from 20 to 50, and I changed it to 25 to 40.

I want to go over all the factions and chart out what buildings their units require, and make any needed adjustments so that you don't have a faction with little use for Town Watches, for example. In my game, I was the HRE, and I saw that they didn't need Watches until the Late era, so I changed the requirements for their light cav units from Spears to Watches.

This next item may be a problem, so I need any help you guys can offer.

My current game keeps crashing at the start of 1233, I believe. One time it gave me an error message which said:

"Attempted to get id for invalid culture type 255"

Switching factions didn't make any difference. Have any of you had a similar crash?

I looked through the startpos texts, among others, and the only place the "id" prefix was used was to refer to provinces. I don't know if this was what the error message referred to or not. Anyway, in the startpos texts I found an error in the Region Attributes section for all three; something that was not part of the mod, so I guess has always been there. The error is with Volga-Bulgaria. Its region attributes are only separated by spaces, not tabs. I always have "show tabs and spaces" enabled for my text editor, so I am surprised I never noticed this bug before.

I ran an autorun game with the error still in there, and the crash didn't occur. I don't know if something odd has to happen for the bad code to be accessed, or if the problem is something else. I think the Mongols were either besieging or has just taken that province.

The other possibility may have to do with the mysterious Princesses. I think there is a trigger which creates a Mongol heir on this turn who is alreay in his teens. If the game tried to create a princess instead of a male, I don't know if this would crash the game or not.

Come to think of it, the game had crashed earlier as well, but when I re-booted it ran fine. I thought it might be a video problem such as YG mentioned in the 3.06 thread.

[A_B]

I'm restarting as the Hungarians, with the sea split between Med and Atlantic. This split only goes to the Late age. I removed the ocean territory 'gulf of cadize', and made all ocean going ships available only in the late age(i think that is the 'definition' of ocean going ships). At that point, ships can move into the 'atlantic ocean province', and then between the Med and N. European provinces.

The trade good value being scaled back should help as well.

Wes, what about balancing out the income (through farming) between factions? It seems the Spanish are too rich, and the russians way too poor. I know this may not be completely realistic. Maybe units from poor factions can be a little cheaper? After all, one doesn't have to feed a poor russian soldier as much as a rich W. European soldier (even to this day). Just another balancing thought.

[A_B]

Whoops, never mind my farming comments. I just looked at the province incomes at it looks like it has been leveled already.

A suggestion for the Danes. As well as giving them Sweden, place a port and merchent in Sweden and possiby Norway as well. I did this, and gave them the Naval Expansionist personality. They stayed out of stagnation, and pretty much started the Viking Era II - moving into the Baltic States, Ireland, Normandy, Flanders and Portugal.

Note; i'm still playing on 3.6, with my more severe province restrictions unit_production file.

[ToranagaSama]

Did a Fresh install of MTW.

1)Install of MTW. (Did not Patch, should I have?)
2)Install MTW: Vikings
3)Install 3.08 beta

---

Last night, started a new campaign immediately.
MM Early, Scilians, Expert

Got interrupted so all I did was get to the Map.

Today, I loaded the Campaign, pulled the units out of the Castles, righ-clicked the Knights to check Acumen; right-clicked the "Titles", then proceeded to right-click the provinces, forget the sequence, but twice when I right-clicked Sicily the game crashed to the desktop.

Trying again...

[Yelping Godzilla]

3.08 is an update to the full beta file, found on WesW's website.

You need to install MTW (don't bother patching), then VI, then 3.03 (I think), then 3.08

Should help.

EEUURAAH.

[Lancer6969]

Then 3.09.... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[ToranagaSama]

Thanks Yelping Godzilla, I should have thought about that