Test Game

[TinCow]

Most of the rules discussions seems to have boiled down to balancing the ranks. Since that's an area that would take too long to test anyway, I would be comfortable starting up a test game with the new rules. Specifically, I think we should test out the Civil War rules.

It doesn't really matter if the test game uses a mod or anything, but I would suggest creating an 'advanced' scenario to play it in. Pick a faction in unmodded vanilla M2TW, have someone play the game forward a while until there are perhaps 15 avatars, then group the avatars together into 3 artificial families and assign players to them. 2 of the families go to war against each other a couple turns in, and we see how the whole system works. All battles would be fought as AI Battles to keep it moving.

At the same time, we can keep discussing the rest of the rules, particularly the rank system. Opinions?

[gibsonsg91921]

i like.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Sounds good.

I suggest either France or the HRE.

[_Tristan_]

Spain would be good also...(or Crown of Aragon if SS 4.0)

It would provide some change in army composition. Plus it had at the time a feudal system much like the French one...

[TinCow]

If someone feels like doing the work of advancing a faction to a good spot for the test game to start, I'm happy letting them pick the faction. I would recommend that we simply use the pre-existing KOTR installation version, since we know everyone already has that working properly. For the test it doesn't really matter what faction or mod we play with, since it's the basic mechanics we're looking at, not the campaign map, units, etc.

[Privateerkev]

It doesn't really matter if the test game uses a mod or anything, but I would suggest creating an 'advanced' scenario to play it in. Pick a faction in unmodded vanilla M2TW, have someone play the game forward a while until there are perhaps 15 avatars, then group the avatars together into 3 artificial families and assign players to them. 2 of the families go to war against each other a couple turns in, and we see how the whole system works. All battles would be fought as AI Battles to keep it moving.

I have an SP game going right now you guys can use. It's an England Grand Campaign game, no mods. I'm at 1280, have 16 avatars spread all over the map, and have territory in England, Outremer, Tunis, and an army marching on Timbuktu.

Just say the word and I'll upload the save.

[Ramses II CP]

Turkey would be a good choice as well. Not sure if I still have a save from my old Turkey game, but it wasn't done using KotRfix.

I have an England save similar to PK's, also without KotRfix, but it's my 'only archers' game so all my generals have no combat traits.

I'll use KotRfix to advance France to a decent state today, assuming no one jumps up excitedly waving their hands in the next few hours.

[TinCow]

It would be best to have a save where there were a large number of provinces clustered together (i.e. all of France conqured or British Isles + parts of France). This will allow for a better civil war simulation, as a war between two Houses with provinces on opposite sides of the map would be very slow. I expect any mod we pick will have more provinces than vanilla, so this kind of expansion will be easier, but for the test game it might require tripling or quadrupling the starting provinces, depending on the faction chosen.

[Privateerkev]

It would be best to have a save where there were a large number of provinces clustered together (i.e. all of France conqured or British Isles + parts of France). This will allow for a better civil war simulation, as a war between two Houses with provinces on opposite sides of the map would be very slow. I expect any mod we pick will have more provinces than vanilla, so this kind of expansion will be easier, but for the test game it might require tripling or quadrupling the starting provinces, depending on the faction chosen.

I have 21 or so provinces, but they are spread around. I have all of the British Isles and Caen (8 provinces) with 4 or 5 generals. An army with a general in Africa. Tunis with no general. And then Outremer. Which is pretty much all of it south of Turkey. And there, there are the rest of my generals from a few different families.

It's not ideal but it could be interesting. There are enough generals in Outremer to form two factions. And the third faction would be sitting off in England itself.

It's an option.

[Ferret]

I agree with TC and think it would be best to have all the provinces close together so that the game can be quick. We don't want to have to wait for years before some of the factions can even get involved.

[Privateerkev]

Turkey would be a good choice as well. Not sure if I still have a save from my old Turkey game, but it wasn't done using KotRfix.

I have an England save similar to PK's, also without KotRfix, but it's my 'only archers' game so all my generals have no combat traits.

I'll use KotRfix to advance France to a decent state today, assuming no one jumps up excitedly waving their hands in the next few hours.

Applying KotRfix to my save shouldn't be hard. I used to have it but I've unintalled/reinstalled M2TW a few times trying to get patch 1.05 to work.

Like I said, it's available and would require no extra work.