Samurai Warlords Question

[A Nerd]

Just a quick question. I love the mod so don't take this the wrong way but...I've noticed that there are ALOT of royal units. The AI seems to have at least 3 in most of his armies. My new general spawns are usually at least a 5 rank or so too. Any reason for this? Also, the general units are extremely difficult to kill. They always seem to get down to the last man and run away. Even if completely surrounded by my forces. Can't think of anything more at the moment, have to play more to note anything else. Don't take this as a rant, I enjoyed the original STW and find this mod highly enjoyable and addictive. Also, I love the kensai, I know people find them unbalanced and unrealistic but I have an honor 9 kensai and he is a killing machine! I fear some I find to the east as I move in that direction (I am playing as shimazu). Thanks.

[gollum]

The AI in MTW does the same thing ie builds the royal units - it seems that the high stats/lowmaint. cost is an attraction. One way to lessen the problem is to make royal units unrecruitable. It has some drawbacks but it will go some way towards solving the problem. The Royal Units that harbor royal family members have much more multiple hit points leaders (the last man remaining is the leader) - usually the sure way to kill them is by teppos, bullets dont care about valor and take away HPs quickly. However you are likely to suffer friendly fire as you need to pin them while shooting.

The general default stars can be modded, as i recall SWs used to have even higher stars as default that coupled with the provincial titles and the office titles gave pretty high star generals and plenty of jedaism (unroutable armies/units). I personally always lower the default stars when i play this mod or MTW. I prefer to make generals than get generals but that's just me. Other people, and mods take the opposite appraoch ie trying to make AI generals as high star as possible.

[A Nerd]

I appreciate your reply, very informative. I have very little computer experience but still would like to know how to mod the general recruitment and the command star attribute. Any information (as simplistic as possible) would be greatly appreciated!

[gollum]

Hello A Nerd,
recruitment is altered from the UNIT_PROD text file. In MTW this file is called CRUSADERS or something, this is because the game originally was planned to be released as Crusader: Total War.

In there you get a list of the data that the engine loads in many columns. Essentially many aspects of recruitability and performance, owenership etc can be changed from there. You need to find the column that describes which factions can build the unit and you can right NO_FACTION or leave it blank if you want the unit for no-one but still appearing in rebellions. In order to find it use the file key that is at the very beginning ie a description of what each data column is and what values/descroptions it can take. Its pretty much intuitive and inviting to mess around with it after you've done a beginning. Remember however to make a copy of the file before you make any change; many times things can go wrong (in the format/structure of the text file) and this can cause CTDs or even tghe game not loading at all. For that its best to do changes in small steps and test them out - in this way you know where the potential error mught be. If you have made a huge amount of changes it might be impossible to find an error if it occurs.

The default stars if memory serves can be altered from the same text file in which hero names are declared for the campaign. You are given the option therein to set the default stars of new generals to a level of your choice.

Sorry i can't be more specific, its been a long while since i had the game installed now.

[A Nerd]

Thanks, I'll have to try and fiddle around with that file alittle. Also, while I have you here...the AI seems to tech up quickly and build huge armies fast (mabey its better this way) but, I wanted to know if I could affect the starting purses thus changing this somewhat. Is that possible also? Thanks.

[gollum]

Yes, it is. You need to go to the startposition text file. In there is the whole set up for a campaign, factions, provinces, trade goods etc. as well as the starting treasury.