The Mad God's Stat Mod (NTW)

Taken from my post on the .com:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Quote:

---

Basically, having looked through the other mods on TWcenter and not found any that quite suit my taste, I've decided to jump headfirst into the wonderful world of TW modding and create my own. This mod will only change stats, not models, textures, or any of that sort of thing.

This is just an initial outline from what I've gathered by looking around with the pack editor, how much of this can actually be accomplished at my skill level remains to be seen.

My initial focus will be the two factions I feel require the most work, the Russians and the British. A basic outline of the intended changes:

Global changes:
-Increase musket ranges. About 100 seems to be a popular number, so it shall be. Light infantry will be set to 130 or so, while rifles will go to, oh, maybe 180.
-Increase artillery ranges. I was thinking initially that it would be best to simply double them and see where that goes.
-Decrease morale, line infantry will no longer fight to the death. Initially go with simply halving most units morale and see where that goes.
-Decrease accuracy, so the entire front rank doesn't get wiped out in a single volley. My initial idea was to make the 'average' accuracy around 35 or so.
-Increase men per unit, 400 for line on 'ultra' size units, 100 for cavalry
-Grenadiers, lights, will have same unit sizes as line.
-Remove grenades from grenadiers
-Ships will have their costs, upkeep, and hull strength greatly increased. If required, morale will be reduced so that ships surrender before sinking.

Russian faction changes:
-Increase morale relative to other factions, the Russians were known for their staying power, this will be reflected in high morale, charge, and melee ability.
-Increase elite units abilities relative to other factions. Russian elite units were, in comparison with the rest of the army, well equipped, trained, funded and generally considered elite. Therefore grenadiers, guards, and elite cavalry will be at least a match for other high-end units.
-Decrease accuracy of Russian artillery relative to French, increase reload rate. Russian gun crew stats doubled in comparison to other factions to represent the fact that they almost never abandoned their guns.
-17th Jaegers will be modified to reflect the fact that they were clearly time traveling Spartans. Other unique units will be made significantly better than their generic counterparts.
-A few increases to Cossack stats, price, etc., possibly adding pistols to the unit. We'll see how it works out.
-Will look into modifying the Russian attrition immunity. If it can't be changed, I'll have to decide on whether to remove it or leave it.
-Russians will be able to recruit ships with over 80 guns. If time permits, Russian ships will have weaker hull strength than other factions, but fire faster and be better in boarding, reflecting the fact that the Russians employed naval infantry to good effect on several occasions.
Overall faction summary: Below average regulars will be compensated for by superior elite units and artillery. A modest navy will be able to keep Russian interests in the Baltic and Black Sea secure, but most likely won't be up for toe-to-toe with the main forces of the Royal Navy.

British faction changes:
-British infantry will have low melee skills (but fairly high defense), and be above average shots.
-Highlanders will be restated to be something like grenadiers to give the Brits something to use in the melee. They will be only average shots, however. May possibly replace bayonets with swords, just because it would look cool.
-KGL and other 'foreign' units will be restated to reflect their superior nature. No longer will KGL line be inferior to regular line.
-British cavalry will vary from poor to average, rather than all-round superior. They will retain high morale, however.
-British artillery will be fairly poor and expensive. If there is some way to limit ammo for artillery, the British will have the lowest artillery ammunition levels.
-British naval vessels will have slightly poorer hull strength, but high morale and accuracy. They will be significantly cheaper than other factions, however, and possibly build faster.
Faction summary: Poor melee skills will be balanced with decent shooting in most British units, limited amounts of foreign 'elites' will provide a solid core for the British. Poor cavalry and artillery. The Royal Navy will rule the seas, however, with numbers and ability.


I am welcome to feedback and suggestions, however, please do not turn this thread into a historical argument thread. We already have one (or, rather, several) of those. This mod is mostly geared to my tastes, and how I feel the factions should play.

As I go on, other factions will be changed. For example, Austria will have larger unit sizes to reflect its historical...larger unit sizes.


An example of my idea of the stats for an 'average' line infantry unit:
Musketeers:
Range: 100
Accuracy: 35
Reload: 30
Ammunition: 10
Melee: 5
Charge: 8
Defense: 6
Morale: 4

---

Currently this is in the alpha phase, I've gotten a lot of the planned changes for the Russians and British done, with some tweaks left to do and plan to move on to the Prussians next.

The mod is quite playable, as, for now, the stats remain within the range of regular NTW units.

The key with the Russians is aggressive melee attacking with artillery support. Don't get into firefights with your regular line, 'cuz they'll get whooped. Your jaegers will beat line infantry in a firefight, but not much else.

The British play defensively, let the enemy come to you and give them some of that delicious musketry, then hit them with your Highlanders. Learn not to rely on artillery or your regular cavalry, although you can replace them with the better trained foreign units (KGL, for example).

The Prussian's will be presented as having mostly above-average stats, but poor morale, reflecting their antiquated leadership.

Testers would be welcome, and feedback much appreciated. The mod can be downloaded here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...10#post6944710

So would you describe it as a realism mod with what you know of the armies of the time?

It actually sound better than most that I have looked at.

Are you doing anything with artillery ranges and accuracy? Are you increasing the range for canister out beyond rifle range?


Thanks

Good luck and looking forward to seeing more.

I would call it a 'semi-realism' mod. Of course, achieving perfect realism is impossible, even using accounts of the period given that you can find somebody who was willing to say anything about anybody. Mostly, I'm seeking to balance my impressions of the various states with gameplay. Thus, for example, the KGL line being treated as a 'semi-elite', shoring up the generally poor British melee ability.

In terms of artillery ranges, I was initially just going to double them all 'round, since I want to get the infantry and cavalry right first before I start dealing with something sensitive like that. Canister range would probably be out to rifle range, since I don't know how to tweak it and it's already not terribly effective at its maximum range.

Artillery accuracy will vary by faction, for instance, as I mentioned, the French will have accurate and long range artillery, but their reloading times will be longer than the Russians, representing the fact that the Russians had a larger space between the shot and their cannon's barrels.

Mostly I want to get a mod that's fun to play, though, which is why I'm keen on getting advice from as many quarters as possible. I figure if I can get a bunch of opinions I can work something out that appeals to more people.

Version Alpha 2 is out.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...40#post6950140
Download here!

Quote:

---

Version A2

-Tweaked artillery range, initially doubled it, but that made all artillery able to shoot across the entire map, so I settled for a slightly reduced range, heavy cannons and howitzers can now shoot roughly 3/4 of the way across the map, lighter guns about half way. Canister shot now has 180 range.

-Tweaks to Russians/British and Prussians. Prussian Fusiliers, Russian Jaegers and British Light Inf. are set to not be able to skirmish, although they seem to be able to anyway. Somewhat annoying. All of these units, in order to give them a reason to exist, are basically line infantry who are good at shooting at the expense of melee skill. I know that historically they were just infantry in different outfits (for most of the Napoleonic period, that is,) but I'd feel bad for just making them exactly identical to line.

-Accuracy roughly halved across the board (except for artillery, which I feel works nicely). This affects kill rates nicely.

-Increased stats of British lifeguard and Horse Guard. Horse Guard are quite deadly, but their lack of armor means a low defense.

-Twiddled with arty accuracy and reload rates. British have poor arty accuracy and reload, Prussians have poor accuracy, French and Russians have high accuracy and reload, although the French have better aim and the Russians shoot faster.
It seems range is handled by the projectile table, and I don't want to fiddle with making new projectiles, so for now everybody will just have to have the same range.

-Prussians altered to have high stats in general (especially in terms of rate of fire), but poor morale, representing poor leadership. Prussians with good generals will probably be quite scary. Prussian Jaegers are scary bastards too, befitting their reputation. I'm going to increase their price quite a bit, though, once I get to messing with prices.
Prussian cavalry are decent, but their artillery of the era was outdated, which will be represented by poor accuracy.

-Annoying bug discovered where the game crashes if you select the French in custom battles. Anybody know what might be causing this? I don't think I've changed anything to do with the French except some stats...

---

Have you also upped the gun count in the batteries to go with the size of the other arms?

It is sounding very good my man!

Yeah, arty has 10 guns to a unit now by default and seems to work pretty well.

Quote:

---

Version Alpha 3

-Implemented shot spread. Will have to tweak accuracy a bit in the future. Now light infantry have less spread than regulars, meaning that their weapons are inherently more accurate.
Also done for cannon grapeshot. At maximum range, grapeshot will not be very effective, but if the unit you're firing at is a few feet away...well, look forward to blowing massive holes in their line.

-Increased pellet count for grapeshot.

-Twiddled a few unit stats a bit. Highlanders have average accuracy now, slightly upped accuracy for a lot of units. Some other minor changes.



I'm going to be gone for a few days (at least) starting tomorrow, so I wanted to get out what I've done so far before I vanish for a while. I won't have access to my regular computer for a month or so as well, so I suppose this is on hiatus until then.

---

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...91#post6962791
Alpha 3 is out!

Looking good so far Sheogorath.

Am keeping my eye on it.

Gratse. I'll be looking for feedback on my return, so feel free to leave any comments or suggestions you might have.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=6968697

For those who want to destroy everything as the British, try my 100% 'Accurate' mod. British stats are through the roof, Russian stats are reduced to between 1 and 5 for everything. Behold my combined publicity stunt/sarcastic remark.

This looks nice. If you haven't done it yet, I have a suggestion: update the generic unit stats (inf_line_line_infantry, inf_light_light_infantry, etc.) that minors use to match those of major factions, as well as the minor faction unique units there are. I wanted to play Kingdom of Italy as soon as I discovered they had some unique units (Velite Grenadiers, Guards of Honor cavalry, Guard Horse Artillery, and Guard Foot Artillery) but I found their line infantry so weak that it bordered on uplayable. It takes a full stack just for the bar on the pre-battle screen to indicate an even match vs. a handful of Russian units.

I plan to once I get the majors done. Basically I'm working down from the factions I have the most info on to the ones I know the least about.

Although not at the moment, since I don't have a computer and this internet is somewhat...unreliable :P

Are you on a shuttle mission or what? :inquisitive:


Typically I screw up the installation and can never get them to work. (I lost my computer savvy with the move from Dos to windows.) Does it self install? :dizzy2:


:laugh4:

The next best thing, Oregon :P

But it doesn't self install. It isn't too traumatic, though. Just stick it in your "data" folder and add a line to your user.scripts...there should be more detailed instructions on the TWcenter mod forum if you need 'em.

Well, you may need to update your mod. They just had an update to the files and several free units.

Yup. I'll start work on that once I get my computer back.

First of all I'm glad to hear that someone is working on making NTW better "it sure needs work". Have you considdered increasing the number of units available for an army say from 20 to 30? I'm not sure if this is even possible. It would also be nice to have the outcome of Waterloo changed by being able to send an army to stop Blucher before he reaches Waterloo again I'm not sure if that is a realistic possibility...anyway thanks for your hard work.