Comments & Suggestions.

[Monk]

Have some comments or suggestions? Feel free to post them here.

[Monk]

Feel free to post your own strategies and guides for the factions in question in their respective threads.

[PanzerJaeger]

Nice writeup, Monk. Appreciated the screenshots as well.

[Polemists]

So if this is the area only for faction guides is there going to be a seperate area for Economic Guides, Diplomatic Guides, and Trade Theatre guides?

or are we just going to lump them all in here?

[Monk]

So if this is the area only for faction guides is there going to be a seperate area for Economic Guides, Diplomatic Guides, and Trade Theatre guides?

or are we just going to lump them all in here?

First, please familiarize yourself with the Rules/Table of Contents thread.

The ETW guides section is intended to house all guides that are related to ETW. However, writing a guide takes serious dedication. If someone would like to begin compiling information and piecing together a guide, then they are more than welcome to post it in Parliament as they work on and progress their guide.

As their work grows, becoming a well researched and comprehensive piece, it can then be considered for a move here.

[Polemists]

Thanks monk that clears it up, I have almost no intention to write any, i just wanted to know where the other guides would go when they are done .

[Monk]

For all who were complaining about not being able to edit posts, you should be able to edit to your heart's content now.

[PowerWizard]

Hi Orgahs, some very nice guides here.

I made a guide library at TWC, and added the link of this Org forum:
Gameplay & Strategy Guides Library

If you posted your tips here, feel free to post them at our faction threads too, linked in this library. Let's cooperate to help ETW players in all forums, after all we are fans and prisoners of the same game series!

[Monk]

Hi Orgahs, some very nice guides here.

I made a guide library at TWC, and added the link of this Org forum:
Gameplay & Strategy Guides Library

If you posted your tips here, feel free to post them at our faction threads too, linked in this library. Let's cooperate to help ETW players in all forums, after all we are fans and prisoners of the same game series!

Thanks for the link Powerwizard!

I've edited the Table of contents to now have a link to the main library directory. It is under our off-site material section and is the first addition of that kind. It should get people looking in the right direction.

[PowerWizard]

Thanks for the link Powerwizard!

I've edited the Table of contents to now have a link to the main library directory. It is under our off-site material section and is the first addition of that kind. It should get people looking in the right direction.

Thanks, Monk, nice!

In exchange I boosted the Org link to the first section of the library, italiced it and added a little compliment.

May both forums and both groups of forumers benefit from this link exchange.

[Major Robert Dump]

Hmmm, can't choose difficulty settings for the US episode 4 campaign. And it's only 27 years long.

[pevergreen]

RtI is locked difficulty, but you can presume its either M/M or H/H.

Its only meant to be 27 years long. Having the USA form at 1700 would be a bit weird.

[Monk]

RtI is locked difficulty, but you can presume its either M/M or H/H.

Its only meant to be 27 years long. Having the USA form at 1700 would be a bit weird.

I'm of the opinion that it is M/M myself, either that or the AI in the first two chapters is seriously scaled back.

[Thermal]

As a suggestions thread maybe we could have faction threads on minor factions, not all obviously, not straight away at least as it would take to long but the really interesting minor factions (like portugal, italian provinces, persia etc.) should get a thread perhaps? I've heard that most people are already able to unlock the minor factions (via modding), if this is the case then people will have played these factions aswell.

[Monk]

As a suggestions thread maybe we could have faction threads on minor factions, not all obviously, not straight away at least as it would take to long but the really interesting minor factions (like portugal, italian provinces, persia etc.) should get a thread perhaps? I've heard that most people are already able to unlock the minor factions (via modding), if this is the case then people will have played these factions aswell.

Short answer? No.

Long answer? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Okay okay, kidding aside now.

I've been thinking about this question since ETW hit and quite frankly, i agree, there's no way that we could support every single minor faction. The sheer magnitude means that we'd be looking at 40+ threads, many may never even see a single post. It was because of this and with no clear way to unlock the factions at release that we opted not to support them.

However, I understand that minor factions are now unlockable, but that just raises the question of which ones will be supported? Who makes that choice? You have to understand that since ETW covers a period of time where many modern factions exist, to exclude one minor while including another may be perceived as an insult by someone against their nation. I would rather not go down that road.

Then there comes the question of just how these factions are unlocked? The method would need to be described in every thread where a minor faction was concerned, and while easy as a copy paste, what is the method of unlocking? Is it a simple text edit? A mod that people have trouble with? I fear that if the method were far too elaborate people would try to get technical help in the faction guide thread, rather than turning to the appropriate areas. This is not the appropriate area.

If we could come to an understanding of these questions I have, we may (and i use that term cautiously) be able to support some minor factions. But I would then return to my first point, where is the line drawn?

[pevergreen]

It is not simple, its a hex edit.

It involves the person downloading python, finding a script, unpacking, moving .pack files away, getting a hex editor, then editing a single file to change 1 byte per faction.

Or when mod tools come out, we can simply create a mod.pack that does it. approx. size would be 5kb.

[Monk]

It is not simple, its a hex edit.

It involves the person downloading python, finding a script, unpacking, moving .pack files away, getting a hex editor, then editing a single file to change 1 byte per faction.

Or when mod tools come out, we can simply create a mod.pack that does it. approx. size would be 5kb.

Hm. I see.

I'll need to take this under further consideration, thanks everyone for the points of view so far. If anyone else has thoughts on this matter either PM them to me or, by all means, post them here.

[Haxamanis]

Playing these minor factions is quite fun, and it's not so hard to unlock them.
Also, because you don't get an introduction when starting a campaign with a minor faction, a guide would be apropriate. I understand that 40+ extra guides would make a mess out of this section but there must be a way to incorporate these factions into the guides.

My suggestions.

1. You could make a new thread only when someone has already made a good guide for some minor faction, so there would not be many empty threads.

2. You could only incorporate some minor factions, for example only factons that start with 3 or more provinces and are independent. (I think that would only add 4 minor factions)

3. You could make new threads for regions of small minors, because their starting positions, enemies, armies, etc. would be aproximately the same. For example German minors, Italian minors, Indian minors or Native american minors.

Just some ideas.

[risker]

Your not telling me that its impossible to play with anybody (both campaign and battles) other than the 12 major factions (note that some of them (like prussia, despite the fact that they expanded a hell of a lot in that time period) are actually smaller than these "minor" factions) unless you use a mod when in MTW2, there was about 20 factions WITHOUT modding needed and another three to four with modding!!!

If yes then : I wanted improvement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



If no then i suggest you do the same with the economic guides that ptolemists was talking about : make them post it on parliament then if its successful bring it here...



dear god i hope its the second answer...

[Monk]

Playing these minor factions is quite fun, and it's not so hard to unlock them.
Also, because you don't get an introduction when starting a campaign with a minor faction, a guide would be apropriate. I understand that 40+ extra guides would make a mess out of this section but there must be a way to incorporate these factions into the guides.

My suggestions.

1. You could make a new thread only when someone has already made a good guide for some minor faction, so there would not be many empty threads.

2. You could only incorporate some minor factions, for example only factons that start with 3 or more provinces and are independent. (I think that would only add 4 minor factions)

3. You could make new threads for regions of small minors, because their starting positions, enemies, armies, etc. would be aproximately the same. For example German minors, Italian minors, Indian minors or Native american minors.

Just some ideas.

I wonder if a combination of two and three could be used.

Some minor factions start the game out quite large, like the Mughals and the Persians, while others only have a single province (German and Italian states). For the bigger factions that start out with three or more provinces we could donate an entire thread's worth of material, while the smaller ones could be divided up into threads that generalize their demographic. German city-states could have a thread decidated to them (Hanover, Bavaria, ect) for example.

This sort of mixing, however, will need to follow a proper format. People skim this forum looking for what they need, therefore in the mixed threads you would need to post something like:

Faction: Hanover
Difficulty: (campaign/Battle)

Main body of guide ect.

Ect. That way people skimming will see right off who you're playing. Most people do this already, but it would be a must if these mixed threads are okay'd.

The only concern I have left is unlocking these factions. How do you do it? We're going to need a simple, step-by-step guide that lays it all out. For this I would suggest that we KISS (Keep it simple, stupid), there's no need for largely elaborate steps when a simple abc method would work. (not meaning to offend with that btw ).

I would assume that one exists somewhere, whether on .com or twc.

[gollum]

Hello Mr Monk,

very nice work in the whole guides section, well done.

[Chaotix]

If I recall correctly, there are several mods over at the TWC that have unlocked all the playable minor factions, so that one doesn't have to download a hex editor him/herself. In the minor faction guide threads, we could provide a link to one of these mods, or if we don't want to risk "playing favorites" by picking only one, we could instead give a link to the mod sub-forum over at TWC and give a few examples.

[Meneldil]

Just make a "Minor factions guides" topic, with link to specific factions threads. Sticky it, and tadam, you're done.

If a faction has no guide or is not regularly updated, its topic will not appear on the forum (though still existing) and if someone actually makes a guide, well, that's fine and dandy.

[pevergreen]

However, they are not bug free.

I would wait until a bug free version is out, otherwise people will ask how to fix it in here.

[Thermal]

[QUOTE=Monk;2184928]like the Mughals [QUOTE]

The mughals really should be included in the guides, they are the only major nation that you can't play (and yes they classify as major, they have texts ready in the empire files and they come up as major on the diplomacy menu)

[Quintus.JC]

How about a sub-forum for the Minor Factions?

[gollum]

Welcome to the org Joe_B_Me - nice entry.

[Joe_B_Me]

Welcome to the org Joe_B_Me - nice entry.

Thanks.

I'd edit my first post, but I don't see the edit button. : /

I've been using brute force as my main strategy. Which if done correctly can be used to start a very effective blitzkrieg. I find that it is easier to control the lower masses if you wipe out a faction in a single turn, or as quickly as possible. If I didn't do this, I'd would end up having to exempt taxes in a newly acquired region and keep a full army in the region capital for a good 4-5 turns while I wait for things to settle down. I had this problem against Spain and France. But when I attacked Austria, I was able to take over all five or so of their regions in two turns. Sure, it took me awhile to build the forces to do such an operation, but I was quickly able to move those armies out of their former cities and move westward very quickly.

On a sad note. Because I don't focus on navies whatsoever. I had a lot of motivation to quickly wipe out the Ottoman Empire because they had a good 5-6 medium sized navies blockading my trade routes. I found it easier to just destroy their nation (which removes all of their navies/armies) instead of waiting 20 turns to make a decent navy from the few ports Russia can get early in the game.

Speaking of trade. Wiping out the Ottoman empire not only gives you a good portion of the Mediterranean Sea to yourself, but a couple sources of cotton also (which can yield up to 80 bales if I recall).

[gollum]

Hello Joe_B_Me,
you have to wait until becoming a full member to get edit capabilities unlocked. Junior Members cannot edit posts. It is however just a formality, its only purpose is to discourage spammers, trolls and the like registering multiple accounts and the like... The staff will (silently) take notice of you and soon you ll be a full member, given full access to all sub-forums and be able to edit.

[Monk]

Sorry I haven't commented in this thread until now. My sleeping schedule is a bit crazy right now, onto a few points:

Just make a "Minor factions guides" topic, with link to specific factions threads. Sticky it, and tadam, you're done.

If a faction has no guide or is not regularly updated, its topic will not appear on the forum (though still existing) and if someone actually makes a guide, well, that's fine and dandy.

I believe that would be far too cluttered. The current organizational styling of the guides forum is very neat and very easy to navigate. If we suddenly threw up a single thread and expected people to use that thread for 40 different factions, we'd quickly find the effort we put into the format was for naught. When someone needs gameplay tips on a faction they don't like to look too hard for it, speaking from exprience here!

Our main goal in the guides forum is keeping information up front and easy to find.

How about a sub-forum for the Minor Factions?

That might work, actually. But I'm not sure if we would need a sub forum. We've still got plenty of room for more threads here, it's just a matter of not putting up so many that we create a wall of threads!

If I recall correctly, there are several mods over at the TWC that have unlocked all the playable minor factions, so that one doesn't have to download a hex editor him/herself. In the minor faction guide threads, we could provide a link to one of these mods, or if we don't want to risk "playing favorites" by picking only one, we could instead give a link to the mod sub-forum over at TWC and give a few examples.

Indeed. The only problem is the conflicting reports I keep hearing, some say that the mods are buggy while others report they work like a charm. I'm gonna play around with a few, now that I have time to devote to the game again, but that doesn't mean what works for me will work for someone else. I've never seen a game so finicky about what systems it will run on than ETW is. We'll see.

I'd also like to remind everyone that feedback is very important. If you run mods such as this, that allow you to unlock all factions, please send your opinions of it to either myself or Quintus.JC. Before we can support telling Orgahs to use a certain mod we need to know how it runs. If an unlocker mod as too many complications it is out of the question.

Hello Mr Monk,

very nice work in the whole guides section, well done.

We strive for excellence here. Sometimes we succeed.