Log in

View Full Version : Tired of Micromanaging? - No Agents mod



Lord of the Isles
09-11-2002, 21:45
This is basically an unsolicitied testimonial for the "No Agents" mod, as provided by that Doyen of Developers, that Munificence among Men, the Prince of Programmers .. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif .. EatColdSteel. Download it from:
http://www.totalwar.org/MTWFiles/Stats.shtml

always remembering to save the original four files it replaces before replacing them.

If micromanaging a large empire bores you after a while, if moving 50 assassins a turn back from the provinces they have chased targets to gives you cramp, if playing MTW begins to seem like Civ3 with a few battles (and of course you removed Civ3 from your hard disk months ago), then give the mod a try.

It removes assassins, spies, religious agents (bishops, alims, priests etc) and inquisitors from the game, along with most of the buildings that produce them. The exceptions that I have seen so far are churches and cathedrals (and equivalents) which stay because these are now the main (only?) way to keep religious faith figures up in a province (their effect has been increased).

You still get emissaries and princesses but that is all. Now, if you prefer, you can concentrate on strategy and battles without spending hours moving strategic agents around.

Of course, it is too early to decide if this simple mod has unbalanced the game in favour of emissaries. It may be that the lack of assassins means that unstoppable army bribing will be a problem. But so far, around 1190 as the Byzantines in my first No Agents game, I'm a happy Emperor.

I'd welcome comments from others using the mod on how it has affected gameplay.

Arkatreides
09-11-2002, 21:47
I found it very stable ... but of course I missed the assassins myself.

Talenn
09-11-2002, 23:27
Nice mod. I'll prolly go with it for my next campaign. I get tired of the mind-numbing movement of strat units mid-late game.

What I dont understand is since this is a known 'problem' for the game system, why not takes steps to alleviate it with some sort of Upkeep for Strat units or something?

I cant imagine ANYONE enjoys individually moving piles of strat units around the map. IMO, make 'em more expensive, make them have an upkeep cost, and make them more effective at what they do.

For example, make a religious unit cost 3-4 times as much plus some upkeep, but have him do the work of 4 or 5 of the current guys. That way, people dont need to move hordes of the little bastages around the map. Same can go for most of the strat units.

Why make people go through the unecessary tedium of these things by requiring piles of them to be effective?

Thanx again for the mod. Lets hope in patches or future releases, something is done so that they can be left in for the flavor without all of the hassle that goes along with them.

Talenn

Didz
09-11-2002, 23:38
Quote Originally posted by Talenn:
Nice mod. I'll prolly go with it for my next campaign. I get tired of the mind-numbing movement of strat units mid-late game.

What I dont understand is since this is a known 'problem' for the game system, why not takes steps to alleviate it with some sort of Upkeep for Strat units or something?

I cant imagine ANYONE enjoys individually moving piles of strat units around the map. IMO, make 'em more expensive, make them have an upkeep cost, and make them more effective at what they do.

For example, make a religious unit cost 3-4 times as much plus some upkeep, but have him do the work of 4 or 5 of the current guys. That way, people dont need to move hordes of the little bastages around the map. Same can go for most of the strat units.

Why make people go through the unecessary tedium of these things by requiring piles of them to be effective?

Thanx again for the mod. Lets hope in patches or future releases, something is done so that they can be left in for the flavor without all of the hassle that goes along with them.

Talenn[/QUOTE]

Allowing them to be stacked might be a quicker solution with the added advantage that they don't take up as much space. Some provinces get very crowded.

Thus you can send a team of five Assassins to eliminate that troublesome priest.