Questions & Ideas

[pevergreen]

If for some reason it isnt, I don't see why not.

For those of you following this, I have been tinkering around with what I can access in the demo.

If nothing else I should be able to get rid of some of the scripting on the land battle.

[richyg13]

IDEA:

Increase the unit sizes (for the ultra setting) to match that of a traditional battalion of the C18th.

For infantry at least...

For Cav could make these Companies.

[pevergreen]

Unit sizes will definately be modified. I looooove big units.

[richyg13]

The only problem with the Total War's series has been its attempt to be "beautiful" and therefore for performance reasons has had to cut its unit sizes to unrealistic levels.

Other games that I've seen including full unit sizes (eg. Histwar and Take Command) have been forced to have a 10 to 1 kind of display ratio for the units.

Techinically when you recruit a unit it should be an entire regiment! around 2000 men.

[Sir Beane]

Unit sizes will definately be modified. I looooove big units.

You'll probably want to make this optional though, since many people are struggling to run the game as it is, without 10,000 men on the field at once.

[pevergreen]

Yeah, and since you can modify it to whatever you want pretty easily, I'll probably just do a mini guide on it.

[Sir Beane]

I have another suggestion. I was playing on the demo and in the naval battle I noticed that every single ship looks near exactly the same. They are all plain, brown and boring. It would be nice if we could edit the tetures a little to add a bit of paint to them and brighten them up.

I seem to recall that British ships were black and yellow for instance (it might be a bit later than the timeframe though). I also think that a lot of other ships were brightly painted and had different figureheads depending on where they were built. Ships were certainly not as identical as they appear in game.

How easy would it be to add a little factional variation into ship's paint jobs?

[richyg13]

I have another suggestion. I was playing on the demo and in the naval battle I noticed that every single ship looks near exactly the same. They are all plain, brown and boring. It would be nice if we could edit the tetures a little to add a bit of paint to them and brighten them up.

I seem to recall that British ships were black and yellow for instance (it might be a bit later than the timeframe though). I also think that a lot of other ships were brightly painted and had different figureheads depending on where they were built. Ships were certainly not as identical as they appear in game.

How easy would it be to add a little factional variation into ship's paint jobs?

It depends 90% on the coding. If the game has been coded to keep each ship the same then we're buggered. If they have allowed for some kind of factional differences then it just takes an artist (like myself) to go in there and change stuff.

[pevergreen]

I doubt there is coding to keep ships the same, would they not be just models?

[richyg13]

There has to be a section of code or scripting that tells the game what models to load. The record could be an array of models (w/ textures) of just a single reference. I'm guessing the former since thats how the land units work.

[geala]

I would like to have first
- better flags
- 4 turns
- bigger units (100 for cavalry, 400 for infantry f.e., what is still too little but could symbolize the normally weakened squadrons/battalions on longer campaigns)


Then of course also
- more provinces, bigger map
- weaker, that means more realistic cannons (which had a range far too long imho and the strange ability of indirekt fire seen in combat first only at the end of the 19th c.)
- perhaps, if they are so fragile as some suggest, a slightly stronger cavalry (which decided many battles); let's wait and see
- drums, pipes and bagpipes (is it in the game? I read about it but don't hear it in the demo)
- if possible new factions with new units (in the east f.e.: Siam, Birma, Safavids of Persia, Afghanistan, Goorkhas of Nepal, second Indian faction Maratha or Mughals, all important players in the 18th c., China as the biggest empire with the biggest army in the 18th c. would be difficult/impossible but fantastic)
- new traits
- in short terms: make it like Europa Barbarorum

[pevergreen]

It is not going to be a history mod. It is going to be mainly vanilla. New Factions are unlikely. The biggest changes will be the maps.

[richyg13]

I wouldn't rule out new factions... wouldn't be outlandish to suggest their inclusion if you accept some help on the matter.

[pevergreen]

I'm not going to prevent help coming!

I'd just like to concentrate on finding out what is easy enough to do. Adding a proper factions is a decent amount of work, so I'm hoping, if anything, to just add a small one, Switzerland, to start off with.

I checked the link in your sig, thats some nice work!

[Sir Beane]

Looking at the screenshots of the Caribbean that are out there now we definitely need more islands there. So far we have Curacao, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola and thats it. More islands = more fun .

[richyg13]

I'm not going to prevent help coming!

I'd just like to concentrate on finding out what is easy enough to do. Adding a proper factions is a decent amount of work, so I'm hoping, if anything, to just add a small one, Switzerland, to start off with.

I checked the link in your sig, thats some nice work!

Yeh I agree with Switzerland being a new minor faction and I think Portugal needs more love and made into a major faction.

You can then start to dig up other small to medium factios not properly included and add them too. I'll probs have more suggestions after the game's full release < on which note, play.com have confirmed they have their copies now in stock so mine is likely to be shipped by monday and should recieve tuesday.

Also, the work I have on deviantart is nothing compared to the main project I'm working on currently :)

[Sir Beane]

Yeh I agree with Switzerland being a new minor faction and I think Portugal needs more love and made into a major faction.

You can then start to dig up other small to medium factios not properly included and add them too. I'll probs have more suggestions after the game's full release < on which note, play.com have confirmed they have their copies now in stock so mine is likely to be shipped by monday and should recieve tuesday.

Also, the work I have on deviantart is nothing compared to the main project I'm working on currently :)

All good ideas . I'd love to see Swizerland added and Portugal fleshed out. And I can already think of a few good ideas for other minor nations to add if Switzerland turns out ok.

Out of all the mods suggested so far this is by far the most promising .

Many thanks to you pevergreen .

[pevergreen]

New minor factions are no problem. I won't be able to look at the game until the 5th when it comes in, and I should be starting full time work so...

[Beskar]

You thinking of modifying variables such as the price and upkeep of ships/profits possible from trade/etc.

Many reported that building and up-keeping a ship is cheaper than a bunch of Scots (don't Scots run on whisky?) so making ships far more a realistic price an idea, but possibly not make it the real prices, but more of a ratio/more realistic range in comparison.

[richyg13]

You thinking of modifying variables such as the price and upkeep of ships/profits possible from trade/etc.

Many reported that building and up-keeping a ship is cheaper than a bunch of Scots (don't Scots run on whisky?) so making ships far more a realistic price an idea, but possibly not make it the real prices, but more of a ratio/more realistic range in comparison.

yeh good plan

[pevergreen]

Yes, as soon as I saw the low upkeep for ships I knew I had to change that fast.

[Mailman653]

I was thinking, it the RtI campaign ends in 1810 and the Grand campaign ends in 1799, could it be possible to mod the Grand campaign to also end in 1810? I think that would be pretty cool, it would add 20 extra turns.

[pevergreen]

I am definately going to be adding turns, though by extra years, or extra turns per year, I am not sure.

[richyg13]

Both in my books... adding extra turns per year would, however, require sorting out alot of mathematics including shortening the move distance of units on the campaign map to reflect they only moving 3 month's distance.

Extra turns are easy to add to the end, I reckon ending in 1815 would be best, end of the Napoleonic Wars. Start date changing would require a review of starting provinces.

[pevergreen]

Yeah, I'm no history buff of that era at all, so I will just extend, rather than move the starting date back. But even then, I might need to redo some starting stuff.

[The historian]

I'd like to ask for Moldavia and Wallachia to be added as minors, ottoman protectorates of course

[Sir Beane]

Any idea if modding will become possible in the future pevergreen? Will modders work out how to edit files or or CA going to have to step in?

It will suck if modding stays impossible for long.

[pevergreen]

It does seem like we have to wait for mod tools.

I tried a bit of modding, but it deleted about 7gig of game files...so...

[Beskar]

I would like a force_accept mod some where, the AI always asks for like 60,000 for anything, even wanting you to pay 10,000 so they can trade with you. It just gets silly. One faction just refused to accept anything, even if I gave it all my provinces, 1,000,000 gold, etc just for a trade, they would just go "Do you think I was left out in the sun too long? I am not stupid!" or some random crap like that. So even trying to work out how the AI decides on diplomacy might be an idea to find ways to improve it.

For example, when I offer technology, the Ai doesn't think anything of it at all, but when I request 1 or 2 from the AI, they want 60,000 odd for it.

[pevergreen]

The diplomacy Ai is good. If their populace does not like you and they think they can beat you in a war, they will not accept things.

I havent heard them ever asking for that much money, this is the first case. Screenshot please.

The highest I've seen them ask is 600 or so.

If you ask for trade from Denmark as Britain on turn 1, it will cost you 150 gold.