Some questions

Hi folks, I've only had Shogun 2 for less than a day and already I'm full of questions :laugh4:. Some probably have fairly definitive answers and others are subjective, but I figured I'd lump them in one post to save space.

1. Has anybody figured the break-even point for trade ships on a single node? As in, at what point does the upkeep of the new ships outweigh the diminishing returns?

2. What's the deal with routing units? Normally if an enemy unit routs I can chase it down with relative impunity, but in one battle my general was mauled by an entire unit of routing yari ashigaru that decided to stand and fight. In the end I had to sandwich it with 3 of my units, and they fought to the last man. Was this just a one-off? (Note: It was after the battle had finished and I clicked 'continue,' and they had been routing for a good 20 seconds by then - they weren't surrounded and 'fighting to the death,' at least not initially)

3. Can monks incite revolts in Buddhist provinces, or only Christian?

4. Is the +% to bushido research from the general's trait and castle upgrades absolute, or does it just increase a 'base' level set by something else?

5. Do you think the battlefield ninja (kisho ninja?) are any good? How do you use them? (singleplayer or multiplayer, doesn't matter).

6. Is the multiplayer bug whereby a person can exceed their budget and still start fixed yet? So far in all 3 games I've played the other person appeared to be in the red and still started, though they might have changed some troops at the last second or something.

Whew, that was a lot. Thanks to anybody who can answer. Incidentally, I must congratulate CA on the new multiplayer stuff. Having never played multiplayer before, I decided to give it a go, and actually managed to win! I've managed to go 3-0 so far, though I expect that will change soon :laugh4:. I do like the fairly small number of units and low money to start with, it helps ease you in nicely. Customisation is nice too. It's a very polished effort for me so far.

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Originally Posted by Ishmael

1. Has anybody figured the break-even point for trade ships on a single node? As in, at what point does the upkeep of the new ships outweigh the diminishing returns?

2. What's the deal with routing units? Normally if an enemy unit routs I can chase it down with relative impunity, but in one battle my general was mauled by an entire unit of routing yari ashigaru that decided to stand and fight. In the end I had to sandwich it with 3 of my units, and they fought to the last man. Was this just a one-off? (Note: It was after the battle had finished and I clicked 'continue,' and they had been routing for a good 20 seconds by then - they weren't surrounded and 'fighting to the death,' at least not initially)

3. Can monks incite revolts in Buddhist provinces, or only Christian?

4. Is the +% to bushido research from the general's trait and castle upgrades absolute, or does it just increase a 'base' level set by something else?

5. Do you think the battlefield ninja (kisho ninja?) are any good? How do you use them? (singleplayer or multiplayer, doesn't matter).

6. Is the multiplayer bug whereby a person can exceed their budget and still start fixed yet? So far in all 3 games I've played the other person appeared to be in the red and still started, though they might have changed some troops at the last second or something.

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1. I think it's always profit since the upkeep for basic trading ships is 50, less eventually. Though I've been playing with 10-ship maximum stacks so I don't know if the situation changes when you get more and more ships. I think you'll always get profit, but the amount does diminish as more ships arrive at the node.

2. Usually units rout, if you really beat them down they become shattered and will not regroup. It's very rare that a ashigaru unit decides to fight to the death, this sometimes happens in castle defense and I believe is more common with higher morale values.

3. Yes though it's much harder to incite revolts as Buddhist monks in Buddhist provinces, Christian missionaries have it easy incitement-wise.

4. Well getting a 100% bonus to any research doesn't mean the research time is zero, I haven't found any exact formula that it follows but more is always better.

5. They can be good, when recruited from a province where they get +5 experience they can really give nasty surprise charges and disturb enemy units. I've very rarely used them to by-pass enemy infantry and charge at their archers when cavalry hasn't been available. But they are at their best when assaulting large castles, they can rather easily get to the walls and with improved climbing speed they can climb up to the platform where the keep is, and capture it. Even if they can't hold it, they'll make the enemy to pull some troops back for quite a long while.

6. haven't played multiplayer myself, can't help with that.

Regarding the research, I'd bet that there is a fixed amount of "research points" per turn you get, and the techs cost a fixed amount. The bonus % to research is just added to those points. Of course this is hidden, but it is easy to imagine how it is likely to work.

Lets say you get 100 RP/turn (RP = research points)
The first techs are done in 2 turns, so they cost 200 apiece.
The second tier techs cost 300 etc.

If you get +3%, you get 103 RP/turn.

That is how I think it probably works, although the 200 cost might as well be 150 because it would still take 2 turns.

What I also would like to know, is that if there is any spill over tech research if I have a big bonus and I research a tech that has a low cost (since some research will "go over" the limit).