Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caerfanan
Err, no, I'm not playing ian.... but I'll check the border fort stuff!
(how do you play in ian mode?)
Right click your desktop shortcut, click properties and change the path to the file. At present it will be something like:
"C:\total war\ medieval - total war\medieval_tw.exe" -strictserver
You want it to be like:
"C:\total war\ medieval - total war\medieval_tw.exe" -strictserver -ian
With this enable you can change factions by using the ctrl and number keys or shift and number keys. This allows you to monitor AI movements.
(I used it in my last "pics and history of your empire" campaign as the Byzantines to give the Fatimids, my arch enemies a helping hand by disbanding some of the units that were paralysing their economy through support costs and investing in infrastructure to make them more challenging, otherwise I would have steamrollered them in a few years - I didn't continue either the campaign or the write up after that though.)
Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
I'd like to clarify what I said earlier about Sweden and ships in the Baltic and Skagerrak - first off, I'm using the XL map, so Sweden's port is in the Baltic. Another campaign from the same mod, I am based in Cyprus and have occupied all sea areas from there to Greece and into the Black Sea - I cannot see into a single province from the sea! Many of the provinces have ports (it's a very trade-dependent faction, which is why the ships are there, and the trade is working according to my economy scroll.) Only two other factions have boats in my areas - still early game so no-one's at war yet, however, Eastern med, Rhodes, Crete and Myrtoon seas have neutral ships in. This raises another possibility - do your ships need a clear run back to your capital/king to be able to report what they've seen, ie can "intelligence" be blocked in the same way as trade? (Though I'm sure if this was the case I would have spotted it before :laugh4: ) BTW some of the factions I'm trying to spy on can only build watch-towers and not border forts, and so early in the game none of them will have spies or assassins on the go yet, all of which would seem to rule out the watch-tower and counter-spy theories.
Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by macsen rufus
I'd like to clarify what I said earlier about Sweden and ships in the Baltic and Skagerrak - first off, I'm using the XL map, so Sweden's port is in the Baltic. Another campaign from the same mod, I am based in Cyprus and have occupied all sea areas from there to Greece and into the Black Sea - I cannot see into a single province from the sea! Many of the provinces have ports (it's a very trade-dependent faction, which is why the ships are there, and the trade is working according to my economy scroll.) Only two other factions have boats in my areas - still early game so no-one's at war yet, however, Eastern med, Rhodes, Crete and Myrtoon seas have neutral ships in. This raises another possibility - do your ships need a clear run back to your capital/king to be able to report what they've seen, ie can "intelligence" be blocked in the same way as trade? (Though I'm sure if this was the case I would have spotted it before :laugh4: ) BTW some of the factions I'm trying to spy on can only build watch-towers and not border forts, and so early in the game none of them will have spies or assassins on the go yet, all of which would seem to rule out the watch-tower and counter-spy theories.
OK, thanks very much for your clarifications! Not knowing the mods, I had figured that the swedish port was in skagerak!
With both -ian instructions and all your inputs, I might do some testing playing in -ian.
Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caravel
Right click your desktop shortcut, click properties and change the path to the file. At present it will be something like:
"C:\total war\ medieval - total war\medieval_tw.exe" -strictserver
You want it to be like:
"C:\total war\ medieval - total war\medieval_tw.exe" -strictserver -ian
With this enable you can change factions by using the ctrl and number keys or shift and number keys. This allows you to monitor AI movements.
(I used it in my last "pics and history of your empire" campaign as the Byzantines to give the Fatimids, my arch enemies a helping hand by disbanding some of the units that were paralysing their economy through support costs and investing in infrastructure to make them more challenging, otherwise I would have steamrollered them in a few years - I didn't continue either the campaign or the write up after that though.)
Sooo... If you play in -ian, you move everything you want to move for a faction, then press shift plus a number to play for another faction? Or you can take control of one faction at a time only?
Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caerfanan
(how do you play in ian mode?)
Copy your VI desktop shortcut and paste onto the desktop.
On the "Copy of....." one, right click the icon and click "Properties"
On the second tab ("Shortcut"), in the line which says "target", make it look like this...
Code:
"C:\Program Files\Total War\Medieval - Total War\Medieval_TW.exe" -ian -loyalty:135
The quote marks must be used, as shown.
(The loyalty parameter controls "auto-set taxes" behaviour and is completely optional. I've used it here to show how to 'stack' additional switches.)
The reason I've suggested making a secondary shortcut is that the {-strictserver} command-line switch is compulsory for participating in multiplayer games, so MP fans will want to preserve the original shortcut, to ensure they don't get locked out (-ian de-restricts camera motion around the battlefield).
Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
The reason I've suggested making a secondary shortcut is that the {-strictserver} command-line switch is compulsory for participating in multiplayer games, so MP fans will want to preserve the original shortcut, to ensure they don't get locked out (-ian de-restricts camera motion around the battlefield).
Good point, I forgot about that. I never play MP myself so it doesn't affect me. I usually just remove the -strictserver command line argument.
:bow:
Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
Gah! I fell for that old chesnut - not realising the thread had moved onto another page before hitting the reply button.
Apologies for repeating much of what you'd said.
That only leaves the -ian mode keypresses to be explained.
G - God mode - see the whole map (except enemy stealth agents)
A - Autorun (to stop it: press A again, while the line of leader portraits is lighting up, then wait a few seconds for the turn to complete itself)
# - sets your own faction to AI control
(on UK-keyboards this is the {# and ~} key, next to the backspace key, I can't remember what the US-keyboard equivalent is)
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 (top line of keyboard, not the keypad digits)
Switch to other factions (1=rebels)
Shift & 1,2,3,4,5,(no response from 6?),7,8,9,0
More factions
(don't worry about the provinces lighting up green while you press shift)
You WILL need to switch factions in order to find their stealth units and, in some cases, to get full intelligence on what buildings they have, as well as what they are currently building/training.
- - - - - - tear here - - - - - - - -
A funny thing:- the other day, in -ian, I switched to the papacy to let the other factions get on with their thing and discovered that the "Disband" button on his units just went 'click' and didn't actually work. On any other faction, it was fully functional. Wierd!
Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by EatYerGreens
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 (top line of keyboard, not the keypad digits)
Switch to other factions (1=rebels)
Shift & 1,2,3,4,5,(no response from 6?),7,8,9,0
More factions
Don't forget, though, that in most mods there are more factions than those 20 you can access. This means that if you start out with, say, faction #22 and you change control only once, you'll never be able to return.
I outline this because it happened to me recently in a very promising MedMod Teutonic Order campaign ~:mecry:
Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
Quote:
,(no response from 6?),
Are you sure that faction was still in the game? I got caught out by that one last night :laugh4:
Re: The boats: spies sometimes?
@macsen
I wasn't paying close enough attention (I was testing a mod) but that sounds like a perfectly logical explanation.
It might even be that it's the slot reserved for Burgundy, who are defined in the startpos for Early, like everybody else.
My latest findings: -
Me as Dutch (from the AddFaction tutorial pdf) with one province (Freisland).
My ship in North Sea alongside an English ship (neutral or allied with me) - I cannot see into their lands.
A few turns later, the English ship moves away - I can now see into Mercia, Northumbria and Scotland.
On the same turn, in English Channel, my ship alongside an English ship but the presence of a third faction's ship (also neutral or allied) seemed to enable me to see into Normandy. I could also see into Wessex but I think that also has a small segment of coast in contact with North Sea, doesn't it?
