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alright, i seem to be dominating the campaign, no matter what difficulty i choose.
i play vanilla MTW.
do you think the game is too easy?
ive had the game for years now, so just being so familiar with it might be the problem.
do you have any suggestions?
i thought about using a mod, but that seems rather complicated.
It's not really new to MTW. Once you have the basics of battlefield combat and managing morale and countering units down, the game IS pretty easy. RTW is even easier if you ask me. You would be surprised though, when Total War was a new series, how many people really struggled and couldn't get over the learning curve of why their whole army was routing. Morale was a fairly new thing in strategy games with Total War, it was certainly one of the very first mainstream strategy series to employ it realistically.Quote:
Originally Posted by cambovenzi
Short answer: No, I don't think MTW is too easy.
Slightly longer answer: While I don't find it overly easy, neither do I find it severely difficult as a general rule (although there's always the occasional exception, where you have a campaign that really has you sweating). You play *any* game long enough, and you're eventually going to develop a feel for what works and what doesn't, what actions your opponents are likely to take (and how you can best deal with them), etc.
Of course with MTW specifically, it also depends on which faction you are and which campaign you're playing -- especially if you have Viking Invasion and/or any mods installed. In the main campaign, factions like Aragon, the Turks, Polish, and the HRE can usually be relied on to provide a decent challenge for most players. In the Viking campaign, a lot of people find the Scots, Welsh, Picts, and/or even Northumbrians to be rather challenging. Anyone who's played the XL Mod can tell you that the Armenians, Irish, Portuguese, and Volga-Bulgarians are all pretty brutal.
In the end, I personally find MTW's difficulty curve to be just about right -- neither too easy nor too hard. ~:)
Not at all, cambovenzi. I'm about as "computer-stupid" as they come, and I've never had any problems downloading and installing mods for MTW/VI. :beam:Quote:
Originally Posted by cambovenzi
There are several very fine mods available for the game, and you owe it to yourself to try out at least a couple of them. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. :yes:
well, most of the mods are for VI, which i dont have:furious3:
im basically just messin around with different factions, and havin some fun with battles.
while im not the greatest commander, im alright, and always seem to keep expanding my "empire" on the campaign map. no matter the difficulty.
i would just like a mode i can occasionally play where i wont usually dominate at will.
or atleast change it up a little.
but like i said, almost all mods ive seen are for VI.
The hardest part of MTW for me is finishing, lol. I can do everything else wonderfully, but once my attention is diverted - campaign is over.
You could probably pick up Viking Invasion pretty cheap. At the moment I am writing, there is a copy for $5 plus $4 shipping in the USA (used) at Amazon.com. I see it on eBay for $1.83, but it doesn't say what the shipping cost is (seller is in the UK)
If you don't want to go the Viking Invasion way, you could try getting the gnome editor and doing a little modding yourself. I suppose you could weaken your favorite faction and find it harder to get yourself established.
That said, I think there is a problem with the game. You can make the start of the game tougher if you like, but once your empire gets really established, it gets pretty easy.
Still, its worth getting VI, in my opinion. It really livened up the game for me a lot, and I have only tried one downloaded mod so far.
Or try MTW-Redux. There's a version of that that doesn't need VI, and it seriously upgrades the difficulty for most factions. Check out the thread - it's one of the most lively at the moment.
Hello everyone, (:laugh4: Hi Wes, doing the some stuff "for the greater good of redux” ehh? I just love how that sounds. :laugh4:)
Well cambovenzi, you not having a copy of VI kind of narrows things down for you. At the top of my head you basically have two alternatives left without VI. The WesMod (did I get that right?) and my own, MTW-redux.
At any rate, the redux thread is open man, and we have sorted out every problem we had so far. If you got any problems we solve ‘em, as simple as that (or die trying). There are more people than just me there that are willing to help you out if need be.
What I am trying to say is that, you are just a mousclick away from the redux version of MTW-bliss. Click on my signature and your'e there…
EDIT: about the “WesMod”, what I meant was actually the; Medieval mod IV v1.85 for Total War v1.1
- Cheers
--------
Ooh, and in answer of your thread question: "essentially yes". (One of the many reasons why I did redux)
You can also get MedMod, google it, there's an old copy (clearly stated on the guys site) for MTW vanilla. I don't really recommend it, I thought it felt kind of arcade-y, but eh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Axalon
alright thanks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Martok
i will definitely check those out.
i had a prob w/ redux, posted it in that thread.
med mod...
dloaded fine.
i start playing.
a few turns in:
~140% loyalty and a good amount of guys including my king in navarre, and they revolt.
not just any revolt.
but a 2 1/2 stacker, with loads of knights templar, feudal foot knights, and mounted sergeants...
and some longbowmen for good measure.
if i may ask, WTH is that?
lol
i guess i brought it upon myself saying the game was too easy.
Arf. Medmod on hard/expert really punishes, doesn't it? I remember a Byz campaign where I was double-teamed by Sicily & Venice (or whatever their equivalents are, cannae remember now) & all those unstoppable Italian heavy infantry types marching inexorably up a great big hill! It was terrifying, but exhilarating...Quote:
Originally Posted by cambovenzi
Responding to your original post: What I sometimes do when I'm bored -- normally just before my empire gets to "raping the neighbours with ease" stage, like when I ( as the Byzantines) have defeated the threat in the East & have most of the Balkans under control -- is drop into debug mode, switch off the AI, then go around beefing up everyone else's production queues/economy/army to a level where they'll provide a challenge. Then switching back to either my original faction or one that looks kinda interesting. Sometimes I leave the AI on for a larf, & return to my original faction to find it a quarter the size, with no money left, fleets scattered to the four winds & all my stacks inexplicably shuffled around to inappropriate/nonsensical places... Getting the thing back together always provides me with some interest again, & can revive a boring campaign.
Then again, I may just have too much time on my hands...
I think the XL mod is really hard. Mainly because the AI doesnt spam peasants all the time. I think Shogun total war is the best for a challange. I love that game. A shame the game doesnt run on my new crappy vista computer.
There are a couple of simple things you can do to improve the difficulty of the game. One of the best things to do is to mod out the ability to recruit peasants (and muslim peasants). Make the AI spend it's money on good units instead of hordes of ineffective troops that flee at the first swing and chain rout the rest of it's army. It also makes your garrison costs go up, realistically peasants should be in the fields, not manning the walls. Along the same lines, you can also increase the unrest factors across all provinces, an extra 20-40% makes it harder to keep rebellions down. You can also increase the export percentage for trade, this means the AI factions will earn more money when you trade with them, as they are pretty helpless when it comes to setting up trade routes themselves. If you are going to mod out peasants, you may as well mod out ballistas while you are at it. The AI's tendency to fill 3-5 unit slots with these worthless devices is legendary.
For fun, you can use the .conan. cheatcode to play as the rebels. Always good for a laugh, and it can be pretty tough.
As well as the above you can also:
1) Decrease the incomes of trade goods and slightly boost farm income.
2) Armour and weapon upgrades can also be removed. These give the player the advantage and imbalance the game as the AI is poor at building them in the right provinces.
3) Remove the valour bonus regions. The AI tends to push all of it's florins into trying to tech up to the valour bonus unit, even if it's not available for until the next era or so! It will cripple itself financially trying to do this, ignoring farming, mining and trading upgrades in the province.
4) Remove Grand Inquisitors and restrict Inquisitors to the Papacy and/or rebels. These agents are simply too powerful and if you really wanted to abuse them you could wipe out all of your rivals with ease. They also do a lot of damage as the AI uses them indiscriminately - even on it's own high ranking generals.
5) Remove Border forts and let the espionage begin. With border forts gone, AI spies will start to increase in numbers. They will survive longer and gain more experience, this will make them a bigger danger.
I said "simple things". ~D
You did, didn't you...? :toilet:Quote:
Originally Posted by drone
Hmm. All this makes me want to reinstall the Pocket Mod again.... (I hadn't done so yet since reformatting my hard drive.) ~D
EDIT: ....Or not. Apparently the Org's download section still isn't working. :thumbsdown:
That's great, let me know when you're finished debugging... :beam:Quote:
Originally Posted by Martok
Heh. ~;p
Well maybe I *would* if I could actually get my hands on the bloody thing. :no: I put in a heads-up to Tosa earlier this afternoon about the Org's download section not working, but I have a feeling he's not been on yet today.
Unfortunately my hosting is down. I can't see it going back up either. Next month I intend to move ISP so I may get some more hosting sorted out by then.
Yes, vanilla MTW is too easy. You've got access to all of your faction's best troops regardless of the time period, and the computer player has to struggle with poor starting buildings and, therefore, poor army composition.
Get VI and then get modded with XL, then come back and report when you've completed the Armenian campaign... :yes:
What I've done to make my current game a bit more challenging is to let the AI do all the training and building for me so that I have to fight with whatever the AI gives me and I cant just spam out the best troops. It makes for much more interesting campain, imo.
interesting idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by scowie
maybe ill try it out.
im currently trying to just stay in certain provinces.
or turtle up. and have some fun
i might try to stay geographically correct, and just hold the position.
walking through everyone just doesnt really do it for me. and managing 50+ provinces gets very tedious.
i was playing the redux mod for awhile too.
so im bouncing back and forth between that and vanilla MTW to keep it interesting and different.
You might also want to try the "-green_generals" switch when running the game. This means that when your generals die of old age they are replaced by a statistically inferior general instead of one with identical stats.
I use -green_generals too. Generals stats remain mostly the same after a death. They just lose a star and certain types of vice/virtue are lost, e.g. valour boosting ones. I think acumen related virtues are still kept (as if the general had taught his protege everything he knows!) so your high acumen governors will always keep their high acumen, unless they are killed in battle or by an assassin of course!
It basically stops you (and the AI) getting 9-star generals too easily. And also, if one of your units gets a nice valour boosting virtue, you need to make the most of that unit before the general pops his clogs and it goes back to being a regular unit!
So using the "-green_generals" switch affects the AI factions as well, not just the player's faction?
Yes, exactly, which is why it actually hurts the AI more, as it has a hard enough time keeping its generals as it is (not byz, though)Quote:
So using the "-green_generals" switch affects the AI factions as well, not just the player's faction?
/KotR
This is precisely why I don't use "-green_generals" myself.Quote:
Originally Posted by Knight of the Rose
Granted I only play sporadically (now not at all) but even back in my heyday I always found the HRE and Italy to be rather hard. HRE because when you are pushing into Greece with a low influence king the generals back home tend to be restless and Italy because the danged pope my how I hate that yellow....
Indeed, the HRE is just a tough campaign, period -- maybe even more so than the Turks. While I've not played as them very frequently, it's still significant that I can probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've managed to survive more than 20-25 years as the Germans. They definitely have the cards stacked against them in a lot of ways:Quote:
Originally Posted by Strike For The South
Their starting position virtually guarantees you'll be at war with multiple factions early on, and (not coincidentally) often times excommunicated as well. Their lands aren't particularly wealthy, they have no naval presence to speak of, and most of their good/unique units aren't available til the Late period.
About their only real advantage (if you can call it that) is the fact that, like the Papacy, they can't be destroyed by having their royal family killed off -- one never need worry about your faction dying without an heir. On the other hand, civil wars do tend to be much more of a threat.... :sweatdrop:
I've had problems with the pope when he went into expansion mode and took over half the map,then he took a liking to my stack of latin Auxiliaries,bribed them and bought over arbalests and swiss guard units as well,then the hungarians took a liking to that province as well,as i wasn't expecting 1: the ai to be that smart 2: the ai to be able to afford to bribe that stack,as I had them under a loyal general,or I thought he was loyal..
Many a time I have had a great empire only to see it split in half by civil war. If you get one of those you are done for because then the everyone and there cousin jumps on you and for me that usually means losing Swabia which is always where I produce my infantry (love those swordsman!) So yea I have to start over. :wall:Quote:
Originally Posted by Martok
Yes indeed, civil wars tend to hit the HRE harder than other factions because the French, Hungarians, Italians and Poles (even the Danes!) will immediately seize great chunks of your territory. In the case of other factions you can often use civil wars to change your stagnant family line and rejuvenate your ailing empire.
It's also bad news if you get excommunicated. This also causes free for all crusades from your treacherous neighbours. The HRE are certainly one of the harder factions.
Well Im glad we're agreed!...This place is so much nicer than the backroom.:laugh4:
I just realised I've never played HRE! I guess that shuts my mouth on comments on how the campaign is too easy :P I've dominated with Turks in High (I assume that's the most difficult era for them?), but it was just on Hard, though my skill was even weaker back then.
What I do find to be a bit of a problem for unmodded MTW is that while there might be some sufficiently hard factions, most of them are too easy. I want to play ALL of them (especially muslims because of their nice music =P), not just the same five over and over again! I guess this can usually be fixed by self-modding or something like starting stupid wars and inducing huge loyalist revolts, but still.
But then we have mods (which I haven't even tried yet...), so in the end there's no problem =)
Side question, are Aragonese tough (they're playable in VI, right?)? I remember back in vanilla days I used to think they'd rank up there in difficulty if they were playable.
As to the main question: Usually the campaign is easy once you've got yourself established. It's getting established in the first place that is the challange.
As to the side question, I find Aragon (vanilla VI) modestly tough. They only start out with one province (except for late), but it is a rich one, and their southern neighbour Spain is usually tied up by the Almohads, while their northern one is battling the English. So while they lack room for easy expansion, they have room for opportunity. Just remember to expand before your multiple sons empty the coffers of the realm.
/KotR
Exactly. :yes:Quote:
Originally Posted by Knight of the Rose
Agreed. With all your neighbors fighting one another, an Aragonese ruler has to be opportunistic. One thing I usually do as Aragon is to immediately bribe El Cid, thereby acquiring the moderately-wealthy duchy of Valencia in the process as well. It's expensive, but it does help Aragon get a leg up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Knight of the Rose
In my opinion, once you've have a few total victories on your record (the first few times it will be new and interesting), the point of getting established becomes actually the best spot where to stop and start a new campaign. Anything past that will just be more of the exact same thing. I have become to think of that point as my final goal in any given campaign.
Yes, I usually play MTW for the series of challenging battles and the challenge of becoming and established faction. After this point the game get's rather predictable and the autocalcing starts, at that stage it's not really worth going on IMHO. This is usually no the 60% victory but maybe 1/3 of the map or thereabouts.
With STW I'd usually play through to about 80% though.