Comments and Questions About Med Mod

First I'd like to thank everyone who worked on Med Mod. It's like playing a whole new game. The AI seems to act differently even. I played as the Byzantines and I was on the edge of defeat on several occasions where I never had a problem before.

1) I like the idea of the homeland system but I'm not sure that it works as implemented. It makes sense to not be able to build specific units outside of their original provinces but most would still be available. Perhaps you could make it so after a generation or two in game time the population is sufficiently inducted into the home culture that you can build normal units there.

Rome eventually started recruiting soldiers (at first just auxiliaries but eventually even legionaries) from the provinces it had conquered. William the conqueror came from Normandy and managed to capture most of England relatively quickly. He and his successors eventually recruited armies from England.

Feudalism naturally adapted conquered areas to that of their conquers. William brought in French nobles who trained the native English to be Norman style Knights who in turn influenced the lower classes. Eventually the lower classes were trained as well.

At some point I think the culture would have adapted to allow most units to be trained in the provinces.

2) I think that linking Rhodes with the mainland (was it Nicea?) was a bad idea. I understand that it was to stop the Byzantines from being cut off but it also allows for an easy invasion route that makes no sense. The Turks bypassed by Fleet and jumped right to the island. I think it should be cut off again.

3) I can't seem to build full galleys or Greek fire galleys with the Byzantines but the Italians and Sicilians seem to have them. Were they taken away from the Byzantines? I didn't see any reference to it in the readme.

4) Where is Outremer? I've never heard of it but several of the unit infos mention it.

5) Why can't coastal ships round the straight of Gibraltar? Is it too rough of a journey?

Thanks for your time. Keep up the good work

I can answer a few of your questions, namely:

3) The Byzantines can only build dromon, firegalley and cogs

4) Outremer = Crusader States = ID_TRIPOLI,ID_ANTIOCH,ID_JERUSALEM,ID_SYRIA,ID_EDESSA,ID_CYPRUS,ID_LESSER_ARMENIA,ID_RHODE
S,ID_CRETE,ID_MALTA (as far as I know)

5) That has been done to prevent the player from having to large trade networks, and gaining to much florins and thus having a huge financial advantage over the other factions

Hmmm. That's interesting...

3) Ok...so how do you build them? I do I have to be in the High period? Also, if anyone knows, why can't they use War Galleys? Didn't the Byzantines use them?

4) Thanks.

5) But the if the AI could do it, I don't see how it's a problem. They seem to cover the trade routes very well on their own.

I just thought of another question.

6) Will the Viking Invasion expansion eventually get the same treatment as the main game? I noticed that new units were added but they were not renamed...Chinese infantry for the Vikings for instance...


Thanks.

6) A unit's stats can be described in two files:
*crusader_unit_prod for the units in the main campaign
*viking_unit_prod for the units in VI campaign

The name a unit gets when you are playing the game is determined in the loc\eng\names file. I think that in MedMod, Wes just changed the name of viking thralls to Chinese Infantry (and changed the stats in crusader_unit_prod). He didn't create a new unit named 'Chinese Infantry'.
Because Viking Thralls are used in both campaigns, their name changes in both campaigns. I think that the same happens with other units (saxon huscarles?)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Doc Holliday @ Dec. 14 2003,11:37)]Hmmm. That's interesting...

3) Ok...so how do you build them? I do I have to be in the High period? Also, if anyone knows, why can't they use War Galleys? Didn't the Byzantines use them?

4) Thanks.

5) But the if the AI could do it, I don't see how it's a problem. They seem to cover the trade routes very well on their own.

I just thought of another question.

6) Will the Viking Invasion expansion eventually get the same treatment as the main game? I noticed that new units were added but they were not renamed...Chinese infantry for the Vikings for instance...


Thanks.

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3)Is covered in the unit notes doc. I have pasted the Ships section below, along with another that covers some things you will eventually run into. There are a lot more topics covered there, so you need to read it all.
Btw, I have re-worked the Readme for the new update to better explain why and how to cover these files, since the most frequently asked questions usually involve info in the unit notes.
The section on artillery and missile units also explains what would happen if you allowed a few of the cheaper units to be built anywhere- there would be hordes of them and not much else.

The purpose of Homelands is to put a hard limit on the number of provinces that you can have churning out units, no matter how large your empire grows. This is to slow down the snowball effect you get, and which makes the game progressively less challenging the more powerful you become.

5) is a problem because it throws the economics of the game askew, meaning that you become able to buy anything and everything you can access, which is bad all the way around, whether the faction is you or the AI.

6) I did my mod for the viking campaign first. It is version 2.04. Note that you need to un-install version three if you want to try it out, but not vice versa.

Ships:
Ships have been divided into four cultural lines, with one ship in each era, plus Longships, which are a specialty of the Danish and Swedish factions. In addition, Early-era ships are excluded from the Late era. High-era ships may be built in the Late era as well. All ships take three turns to build. Ships no longer need Foundries to produce, and Shipyard requirements have been standardized so that Early-era ships need a Shipwright, High-era ships a Dockyard, and Late-era vessels a Shipbuilders Guild.
The Muslim ships stay the same, but can only be built in Muslim Homelands, which include the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor, with the exception of Constantinople.
The Byzantines now have their own line, which will be shared with the new Serbian, Cuman and Kievan factions when they are added in a later version of the mod. Their line consists of Dromons, Fire Galleys and Cogs, and are restricted to the Byzantine Homeland, plus Kiev and Khazar.
The third line belongs to the Italians, Sicilians and Papists, and consists of Galleys, War Galleys and Gun Galleys. They can only be built in the Italian Homeland.
Finally, the last line belongs to the Catholics, and consists of Barques, Caravels and Carracks. Their are no provincial restrictions placed upon them due to the wide dispersion of their factions, the probable limited access that some of these factions will have to the coast, and the lower number of coastal provinces in the northern section of the map.
Note: the three Mediterranean ship lines may also be built from provinces along the northern coast of Europe, to enable a possible conquest of the British Isles.

Artillery and Missile units:
Playtesting revealed that the AI would produce hordes of generic missile and artillery units in non-Homeland provinces, so a couple of techniques were devised to either limit their production to Homelands, or severely limit the number of provinces that a faction may have that are capable of producing these types of units.
Siege engineers, foundries and gunsmiths are now unique. Thus the only way to control more than one of them is to capture a rival’s.
Note that Serpentines and Organ Guns no longer require both foundries and gunsmiths. Serpentines only require a Master Foundry, while
Organ Guns now require a Master Gunsmith, and are restricted to the Late era.

I have another question about the unit portraits in the info parchments... like the woodsmen... why are there black dots in those pictures?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Doc Holliday @ Dec. 13 2003,19:00)]2) I think that linking Rhodes with the mainland (was it Nicea?) was a bad idea. I think it should be cut off again.

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No problem Doc Holliday. Just go through theese folders: Total War/ Campmap/ Startpos and for each game "Early-High-Late" delete Nicaea from Rhodes and vice versa at "SetNeighbours". This way you can remove, or add, any landbridge that you don´t like.
Personally I´ve taken away EVERY one. The only time I ever heard of an army walking on water was when a Swedish king actually crossed "the great Belt" in Denmark when it actually frooze at winter which is very unusual thereby hitting the agressing Danes in the back. Talk about a daring move