The Caravel Mod

[gollum]

Greetings fellow Medieval Total War fans and orgahs and my best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2011 :)

The Caravel mod is a modification for Medieval Total War VI v2.1 i've made with the help of friends and fellow orgahs that works in both domination and GA for the early period only of the main Medieval campaign, and is hosted with the kind permission of TosaInu here at the org, that thankfully provide the space for it.

You can download the mod here:https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/local...id=163&id=6586
or follow the Download link in my signature.
Note: the latest version is version 3.3; for your enjoyment be sure to have this, as its better than the previous ones in every way.

Please also check out further down the thread:
-Caravel Mod game settings, how the mod is reccomended for play
-Information about the mod, its key concept(s) and gameplay
-Installing the mod, with detailed instructions how to
-Suggested iron-man rules and play modes; ways to spice up the game
and
-Credits, a whole hearted and well deserved thanks to all having contributed and kindly interested



Caravel Mod Game Settings

The mod was made and playtested with the following in mind, and it is strongly suggested/reccomended, for your own enjoyment, that anyone who'd be kindly interested to try it, to play thus:

1. Add the -ian and then the -loyalty:130 and the -green_generals lines to your MTW shortcut
(for instructions how to do this see here:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. Make a shortcut of you MTW exe (if you don't use one)
2. Then right click the short cut and select "Properties". This will show you among other things the target box of the exe shortcut. Put then your cursor to the target box. Leave the text there as is, and also leave one space.
3. Then type: -ian

The -ian command line allows you to change factions mid game. It also allows you to add further commands, and zoom in and out of the battle field without limits on the camera angle, which is good for a "close to the action" feel as well as for screenshots. Every faction is represented by a number of your keyboard.

Factions are:
1. Rebels
2. Almohads
3. Byzantines
4. Danes
5. Egyptians
6. English
7. French
8. Germans
9. Italians
0. Polish
Shift+1. Russians
Shift+2. Spanish
Shift+3. Turks
Shift+4. Aragonese
Shift+6. Golden Horde (after they appear)
Shift+7. Hungarians
Shift+9. Pope
Shift+0. Sicilians

Furthermore, and after leaving a space for -ian after each, you add the following two command lines:
-loyalty:130
-green_generals

The loyalty bit makes the AI keep 130 loyalty in all his provinces at all times, This practically means that he is keeping small garrisons in them, and hence his long terms devlopment is much safer from rebellions civil wars and his attacks more prudent rather than recklessly opportunistic

The green_generals makes dead generals being replaced by the game engine by new statistically inferior versions; hence you cannot cultivate super generals over a long campaign. It also downgardes and changes their traits.

or here:https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...eval-Total-War
Chapter: 5.5 Cheat codes and command lines).

2. Choose either huge or default unit setting, hard (or expert) difficulty
(unit settings can be chosen from: Main Game Menu\Options\Performance and sroll the unit size bar to huge or leave it to default).
NOTE: While the choice is yours, my personal reccomendation is huge; the mod was conceived and received most of the playtesting with huge. Default was also playtested however and works just as well.

3. In the campaign/era menu, choose either "CRVL (huge)" campaign if you have set unit size to huge, or "CRVL (default)" campaign if you have set unit size to default.
NOTE: It is important to choose the right campaign as economics have been customised for unit size. If your unit size choice and Caravel campaign do not match, you'll get either too much or too little money available in the campaign.

4. Turn the battle clock off
(Clock can be closed from: Main Game Menu\Options\Game Options and tick the battle clock box off - found at the bottom).

All these settings make considerable difference and so please, for your enjoyment, remember to implement them. You can read more about their significance in the spoiler below:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-The huge unit settings are calibrated with the "CRVL (huge)" campaign income provinces' for good short and long term campaign pace and AI behaviour. They give more spectacular and tactically edgy battles that require foresight, as there are less blocks available for the most part. Battles also tend to be less tedius (because of the lower amount of reinforcements due to the lower amount of stacks - as every stack has more troops in it in huge). Generally huge slows the battle pace allowing better control, puts a greater strain on resources in the campaign map, requiring more planning. Its downsize is that in the battle units may seem - at first at least - unwieldy and there there is less room to maneuver and hence less flank attacks etc. Essentially battlefield gameplay becomes a bit more strategic in huge.

-The default unit settings are calibrated with the "CRVL (default)" campaign income provinces' for good short and long term campaign pace and AI behaviour. They give a more action oriented campaign game, as armies replenish faster, but also more tedious battles as there are many stacks floating and battles become too long with many reinforcements. In the field, default means more room to maneuver, however this is more taxing on micromanagement skill, especially since match ups resolve quickly and there are lots of flanking moves from the enemy to counter as well as to do. Essentially battlefield gameplay becomes a bit more tactical in default.

-The loyalty:130 addition in the MTW exe shortcut is particularly crucial; without it, the (many) factions that are set to be expansionist AI personalities burn themselves out by rebellions as they don't pay attention to loyalty of their provinces, no matter how newly conquered(!), when they invade.

-The clock off makes the AI use sensible tactics rather than trying to beat you by the clock, which inconveniences him as he turns his back to the player to use the clock and that can turn to a rout.

-The green-generals makes the engine replace your generals at their deaths with statistically inferior men, so you cannot cultivate them for the entire duration of the game, that results in huge command stars generals that makes morale redundant as a gameplay element (also known as jedis = unroutable).

Mod Information (a short description of the mod's concept and gameplay)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Mod Concept

In a way you can think of The Caravel Mod as MTW's version of Jack Lusted's "Lands to Conquer" series of mods for RTW and M2TW. It is based on essentially the same concept ie maintain the vanilla feel and flavor and improve on it.

So the mod is not:
-a mod providing more factions, units or provinces than the vanilla game
-a mod featuring new graphics, icons, models, portraits, unit cards etc in other words it does not have any new aesthetic touches.
-a mod geared for impossible difficulty, although it is by far more challenging than the vanilla game
-a mod that is geared to make the game strictly historically accurate, although it improves on the historical plausibility of teh vanilla game in a number of ways

The mod is a comprehensive and complete (but by no means exhaustive) take in bringing out the potential of the vanilla game and make it shine. All gameplay concepts, art, features and attributes of the vanilla game have been maintained; the existing core game has been improved/optimised for SP (single player).

What the mod achieves in the campaign and the battlefield

Improvement and optimisation consisted of small but numerous (too many to meaningfully list) alterations and in the (heavily playtested and proven) combination thereof.

The results are more meaningful faction choices and so behaviour without losing in diversity, flavor or complexity. By improving stack composition, AI unit choices and choice priorities and helping the AI factions to regenerate more easily and quickly decent stacks (through meaningful building choices and dependencies), the battlefield experience is also (considerably at times) improved over vanilla.

Overpowered or underpowered vanilla units/weapons were tweaked (mildly to retain familiarity) accordingly in order for them to become units/weapons with clear battlefield roles ie having clear plusses and minuses, which the AI can recognise and use as such, and so put them to good use on the battlefield.

Battlefield gameplay was then enhanced on the basis of combined arms.

Combined arms basically means that you need to coordinate your units and your unit types (missiles/heavy-light-missile-cavs/melee infantry/light infantry/artillery) in order to win on the field of battle, rather than having units that can do everything themselves (can fulfil multiple roles too well) and singlehandendly (ie so strong that they make other units redundant, hence overpowered) carry the day. I drew on this account from my own TW singleplayer and multiplayer experiences as well as of other players'.

In order to make navigation of units and buildings that have been tweaked easy for players and the game intuitive to play, the text descriptions of units and buildings were changed to reflect their attributes and intended uses. hence what you read in the description is what you get.

AI battlefield use of certain units was also tweaked (through the available parameters in the files), like for example BG units, xbows/arbalesters and guns, to improve their performance at the hands of teh AI, with good results.

Basically, if you enjoy the vanilla game, but are tired of slaughtering armies of peasants and ballistas (or other low end units) with your lancers, or of the AI wasting good florins in buildings that cost much, take forever and train no units or have no other benefit for that faction or in that region (say master merchant in a landlocked province), or of Lithuanian cavalry having building requirements that rival those of Gothic Knights, or sick of winning the early game with mercenary dismounted Druzhinas then this is a mod you might want to try.

NOTE: all levels of difficulty start with 2000 flrs treasury. This is because 2000 flrs is the default treasury, and all AI factions, that is the factions that the player does not choose, revert back to it. This is pretty easy to assert, just start a campaign in vanilla and after the first turn switch to another faction (note: by use of -ian every faction is represented by a number in your keyboard - press the numbers to change factions; also use switch+number). What you'll see is that (any of) the AI faction is down to 2000 flrns as starting treasury. Hence, its only fair for the player to start at the same money level - if the AI can do it, we can(?) too ;)

Installation (instructions on how to install the mod - installation made easier since v2.9 as now mod comes with a self extracting .rar)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The mod comes with an easy to use .rar self exctracting archive. You need to target it for exctraction in the main game folder ie wherever you have placed a clean (unmoded) install of MTW/VI v2.1. It also includes a read me file that provides installation instructions. These are reproduced here for your convenience:

In order to play the mod, you'll need to target the .rar archive that contains the Mod,
to extract itself to wherever your Main MTW game folder is.

The location of the main MTW game folder varies according to edition.

If you have the original game and the VI expansion patched to v2.1,
then your game will be in: C\Program Files\Total War\Medieval Total War

If you have the Gold edition, that includes combined the main game and the VI expansion and installs through DVD rom, then make sure the game version is patched to v2.1 (for some gold editions you need to download and install the v2.1 exe patch); for them the game will be in:C\Program Files\The Creative Assembly\Medieval Total War

If you have installed the game in a custom location, then target The Caravel Mod.rar to extract itself there

You will be prompted if you want the files replaced (with those of the Mod), choose "Yes to all"

NOTE: the Loc folder that contains game text (for unit descriptions etc) has been modified for the english language only. If you are playing in another language edition you can re-install the game in English before you install the mod or if you are playing in an edition that uses another language only, you can try installing the mod save for the loc folder; although you will be missing all changed text - and there is lots of changed text that helps navigate the role of units - but if you can live with this ommission, that should work.

Suggested iron man rules/modes of play (iron man rules/modes of play you could try that may perhaps enhance your gaming experience; also applicable to other mods and the vanilla version)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There are also a number of iron man rules/play modes that you could try, that certainly make the game more interesting and challenging imo:

1. You can prohibit yourself from manually razing buildings and disbanding units - the AI cannot do the same; instead he has to raid enemy cities by the autopillage automatic engine function and rid of overbudget troops by making war.

2. You can grant land titles only to those generals that are either of royal blood or are married to the royal family (via a princess) or are given office. Once a general has assumed a title (after being eligible) he cannot leave the province he governs unless his title is revoked or the province lost. This has benefits as, if you keep governors in their respective provinces they get traits from what you biuld in those provinces (builder, stweard etc), traits that can keep the population happy and also increase your output ;)

3. You can play a single ruler and once he is dead, switch (note:by use of -ian every faction is represented by a number in your keyboard - press the numbers to change factions; also use switch+number) to the youngest ruler of any other faction on the map. If more than one are the youngest you can choose. This allows for:
a) much better roleplaying
b) many challenging new starting positions for all factions as history is rewritten
c) constant challenge as you never have time enough to make a faction so large that the game becomes a chore, and you would have to fight the factions you helped to make very strong with other, weaker, factions.

Credits (a thanksgiving to all interested and also kind enough to contribute and help in any way)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Full credits go to:
1. Anyone at CA involved in making MTW(1)
2. To Caravel, as co-maker, constant inspiration and raison-d'etre for this mod - you're the greatest mate ;)
3. To Raz, for his suggestion about BG behaviour and for making himself available for technical issues.
4. To victorgb, Glenn, Belisario, Stazi, Raz, Durango, Tristrem, Cyprian2, huth, armoros, virus found, faremisch, vanitas, RRMike, Togakure and drone for their feedback interest and encouragement
5. To Stazi for discussing issues related to loyalty settings effect in gameplay
6. To Axalon, Stazi Durango and Ra's al Ghul for making me aware that the weather modification was not working due to engine limitations
7. To Stazi for suggesting an increase in campaign funds or decrease in unit settings in order to make the camp game more dynamic by allowing to the AI factions the funds they need to be competitive and aggressive
8. To Stazi for suggesting increasing the priests' conversion rate to compensate for decreasing the same from religious buildings, that helped teh AI converting newly conquered lands, without sidetracking from the intended religious gameplay
9. To Stazi for detailed feedback that spotted lots o minor glitches and omissions in v2.3 and others
10. To the late TosaInu and totalwar.org for kindly hosting and the TW community - thank you for all these years :)
11. To TinCow and the new org admins for heping me out with tech issues and putting up with my ineptitude.
12. To Caravel, Belisario and Stazi for giving me courage to stick with the concepts and ideas i set the mod on.
13. To Stazi for pushing me to make the mod more user friendly by including a self extracting file.
14. To Stazi for cleaning and ordering the unit and build_prod files from the tail leftover by the gnome editor
15. To Belisario for notifying me for a mistake in the read me of v2.8
16. To Stazi and Caravel for providing advice how to clean up tails in txt files produced by editors
17. To Sazi for providing advice and aid on how to add famous rulers and heroes to the GHorde
18. To drone and the org for stickying the Caravel Mod thread at the org's Engineer's Guild (the org MTW modding section).
19. To Ishan and the TWC for stickying the Caravel Mod thread in the MTW section of the TWC
20. To Stazi for testing and advice he did and gave me on how to add the historical G. Horde characters.
21. To Stazi for spotting a mistake in the vanilla files that is resopnsible for the "Mongol Leader turns catholic" glitch on the campaign map while the Mongol leader piece moves.
22. To Stazi for spotting a syntax mistake in the txt file of version 3.0 and notifying me very early for it :)
23. To Stazi for suggesting to fix a glitch in the names of the new Horde Heroes - fixed in v3.3.
24. To Stazi for suggesting that the Byzantine unit builds is problematic for their AI personality which prompted me to change it in v3.3.
25. To Stazi for kindly thinking to write a review of teh Caravel Mod in a polish site - i am most honoured and thank him kindly.

I would be happy and grateful if anyone finds something that is awkward or downright wrong or simply has a suggestion or a question and wishes to post it - you are very welcome to do so in this thread, and i'll reply as soon as i can.

Last but not least, this mod is named after and dedicated to our fellow orgah Caravel Hopefully he, and others, from now on can play MTW SP without having to worry too much about the dillema of giving in or not to the modding urge... Unless of course its all about the modding urge ;)

I would also like to thank Stazi for his feedback and keen sense of observation that unearthed many issues that could be improved as well as for his skillful, kind and timely help. I am most indebted for your significant contribution to this mod

I hope you all enjoy the mod as much as i do :)

Yours truly, gollum

PS The naming and dedication of the mod to Caravel is completely unrelated with any forum politics issues that may have existed at the time of its original release (january 2011). Apologies if that came at a time when it could be misunderstood.

[Togakure]

Well hi there and nice to see you, Gollum. This sounds quite interesting and at some point I will give it a try. Meh, as it happens, I just uninstalled MTW1 to make room for some other stuff, as I use an aging laptop with a somewhat limited HD capacity. But my last run through of vanilla (the first in years because I'd been stymied by the CTD that has since been resolved by the button fix), was lackluster for reasons that this mod seems to have been developed to address. Nice touch on the dedication too . Looking forward to trying it when I cycle back to a desire for "oldskool" TW.

[gollum]

Thank you for your interest and kind words Togakure,

i hope it adds to your enjoyment of the game.

[Trapped in Samsara]

Hi Gollum

Just downloaded your new mod's files.

These days real life rather gets in the way of me spending as much time as I ought on MTW, but I anticipate a window of opportunity opening up in the near future so fully expect to be enjoying your mod in the next month or so, and will report back.

It's really great that chaps like you, Axalon, Cegorach et al are still developing mods for MTW. Thank you all of you.

Best regards
Victor

Sapere aude
Horace

[gollum]

Thank you for your interest and kind words victor, its nice to see you :)

I hope it adds to your enjoyment of the game.

[gollum]

Woa, Togakure, i didn't realise immediately that you are Masamune.

Nice to see you again too...;)

[PershsNhpios]

I knew I would regret not keeping a fresh vanilla install on the drive next to XLTYB, P&M and NTW...

I will be trying this as soon as possible Gollum - I remember when it first came up in conversation! A fine contribution it is without doubt and it offers a very experienced and unique appreciation on the real MTW I'm sure, which is something not found in other mods.

I think everyone will be most fond of your mod and the new attraction it brings to the idea of playing vanilla.

Thank you very much for your time and effort!

[gollum]

Thank you for your kind words Glenn,

i hope the mod adds to your enjoyment of the game.

[Cyprian2]

This intrigues me, gollum! I'd love to try it, but I can't get the download to work for me. Everything comes up as code! Am I missing something?

[gollum]

Hello there Cyprian2, and thank you for your interest.

I've just tried both links, the one in my signature and the one in the #1 post of this thread, and they both work for me.

When you say "everything comes up as code" do you mean after you download the .rar file or somewhere else?

[gollum]

Ok, i'm just guessing, i think your problem may be that you follow the link to the downloads page and then don't know what to do.

There is on the right hand side to the name of the mod a small icon of a hard drive with a red arrow on top of it. Click on it and you will get the download menu. Alternatively, you can just click on the Download link in my signature that is direct.

Let us know if you managed.

[Cyprian2]

gollum--thanks for the speedy responses. Actually, I knew to click on the red arrow to download. My problem occurs after I do so: I see the "redirecting" screen, then suddenly the .rar file starts unpacking on my screen. (That's what I meant by "code.") For some reason, I don't get to see the .rar folder at all... I'm a little baffled, as I've never had this problem before. I should clarify that I'm operating on Mac OS X (for downloading purposes only, and not, obviously, for playing the game :) ) I wonder if it has to do with my default browser settings?

[Cyprian2]

Aha! It's just as I suspected... I changed browsers (from Safari to Firefox) and now I'm able to see the folder as it downloads. All I can say is sorry for wasting your time! I now look forward to playing this mod! Thanks again, gollum!

[gollum]

I am happy you are all sorted Cyprian2,

sorry i wasn't able to offer any real help; tech savvy was never my strong point ;)

I hope you enjoy

[gollum]

There will be an upgraded version (v1.2) of the mod up very soon. It irons some glitches - mostly edited text - and does some additional tweaks; again small but significant. Unless someone points out something awkward or wrong that needs fixing or suggests something that will work better than it does within the context of the mod, this will probably be the final version.

I hope you enjoy it as much as i do :)

Thank you



PS The upgraded version is saved game compatible with the previous one, and better in every way. For your enjoyment, if you are interested in this mod, its worth redownloading and substituting the files again.

[gollum]

Latest (and most likely last) version (v1.2) is up. Enjoy ;)

[gollum]

By the way, the use of the smiley in the signature that advertises the mod, is because it clearly portrays the relationship i had with the "creative" process, while making the mod :)

[Cyprian2]

Downloading now! (I've gotta make sure I wipe the older one off my hard-drive first...)

[caravel]

Honoured and humbled by the dedication but feel it was somewhat unwarranted. You've always had good ideas for mods mr gollum and never needed anyone else's input.

Alas, I would give it a go, but I don't have a PC that can run the game... I will be interested in Cyprian2's experiences however.

[gollum]

Honoured, yes, humbled never. The Caravel Mod is as if was made by you and me, as it was originally planned before extraneous factors got in the way. Hence, while went on and made it on my own, i had to name it after you, as the reminder of who the other person who is responsible for this is.

Without the help of the org SP an MP community, Mr Gollum would be one clueless TWer. Thanks to all for what they taught me and for all the great times. Thanks also to CA of the time, for making MTW - an amazing, amazing game.



PS Any ideas, observations, criticisms etc are appreciated. I actually (already!) did some more tweakings. All those are small and build on what the first release is - they don't radically alter the gameplay and are saved game compatible. Eventually, maybe next week, there will be a another upgrade: v1.21. Better playtest the tweaks before letting them out :)

[gollum]

Ok, in answer to Cyprian2 who asks if there are any unplayable factions in Caravel and what factions can Crusade:

1. All factions are playable (including the Novgorodians, renamed Russians) save for the papacy the Golden Horde the Swiss and the Burgundians. The mod is only set up for early, however, if one so wishes, he can use the building dependencies and unit stats and play the other two eras available by the vanilla game.

2. The factions that can crusade are the vanilla factions: Spanish kingdoms/France/England/HRE/Italy/Sicily, leaving out Poland, Hungary, Denmark, the Papacy, the Swiss and the Burgundians.

I know that there has been endless arguments upon arguments whether the factions that do not crusade should or should not be allowed to. My take is to follow the vanilla position which is historically plausible (ie following the kingdoms that historically did organise crusades and also were big/important enough to do so, however from a cetrain point onwards its silly to talk about accuray as the game is all about exploring potential historical possibilities) and fits with the GA gameplay.

There is nothing stopping you to add to the crusading factions any other you wish. Just make the crusade marker buildable for them and give them some knights and the order foot, as well as make the Chapter house buildable for them, and you are set to go on the path of the cross.

[PershsNhpios]

You're addicted Mr. Gollum!

I will do this right now:

Delete all three copies of MTW, and go through the arduous process of reinstalling and recopying the vanilla (Leaving a spare this time!) and then I will download and install this mod so that I can make proper comment (Although I am not experienced enough in vanilla to know the real differences).

I will then start on my AAR, and after that meets whatever end it may - I think a Caravel mod AAR is in order...

----------

Welcome back Caravel, I look forward to your presence in our Hall.

EDIT:

Perhaps you could give instructions on how to make crusades available to all catholic factions sir? I believe that adds to the potential!! Greatly!!

I have never seen the Papacy crusade, but that would be a wonderful experience!

[gollum]

Instructions are: just make the chapter house buildable for all catholics of your choice; give them crusading knights of your choice and order foot, make the crusade marker buildable by the catholics of your choice.

To make the changes easily, use the Gnome Editor v2.0 tool, that helps you edit the units, building and projectile txt files:
http://www.mizus.com/files/files/Tools/

[gollum]

By the way Glenn, there is one more small mistake in your signature, but i didn't wanted to correct it too quickly (that is annoying). In the sentence "mistakes" is the subject so your "others" (αλλοι) needs to follow the gender of the subject. "Mistake" ("λαθος") in Greek is neutral, hence you need to write "others" as "αλλα". "Αλλοι" is "others" for male subjects only.

In english, of course, "other" works for all subject genders.

I commend you for your diy learning efforts

[PershsNhpios]

Having troubles with this Gollum!

I added all desired factions to the 20th column in the crusaders build file, and the game started without a hitch.

I then added these faction names to various knight units and I added all catholic faction names to OrderFoot.

I left everything untouched and just added 'FN_PAPIST, FN_HUNGARIAN' etc throughout, excepting the space for Hospitaller Foot which I changed from FN_ITALIAN to "FN_ITALIAN, FN_PAPIST, FN_SICILIAN"

Now when I start the game, I receive a message titled COLUMN_Unit_cost, saying "Too few values found in element data: column 3 data row 283

125"

I'll keep experimenting, but I can't see what was incorrect. I notice that Crusade was blank and thus available to all factions (?) so I imagine that is to be left blank... I haven't been anywhere near modding before..

EDIT:

Thank you for the correction Gollum! I am highly admiring of all things Hellenic! I hope to find experience in working somewhere in Ellada one day, and there are so many districts which I love even to see them in photographic form.
So I must write "αν ειναι άλλα λάθα, ο αν ειναι άλλα λάθοι;"

[gollum]

Ok then, its a common thing that happens at times with the editor.

Solution:
1. undo the changes that made the error manifest and make sure the game loads.
2. Go to the txt without the editor and do the exact editing you did before manually directly in the file

The editor shifts the columns sometimes and i have used the eitor many many times, which makes it more likely that this shifting will manifest, and then the game can't load because of it.

The crusade is blank because probably the filter is which factions can build the chapter house. So those that can't build it, can't crusade. In that case, leave the crusade as is and add the chapter house to the factions of your choice.

[PershsNhpios]

Thank you very much for your quick support.

I'll fix this and then we (That is, Cyprian2 and I) can get on with the task of enjoying and then glorifying this work of yours!

[gollum]

enjoy :)

[Cyprian2]

I'll keep experimenting, but I can't see what was incorrect. I notice that Crusade was blank and thus available to all factions (?) so I imagine that is to be left blank... I haven't been anywhere near modding before..

You're a braver man than I, Gunga-Glenn! I've always worried that any modding attempts made by me at this late juncture in my MTW career would result in the game falling to pieces before my eyes. Here's hoping that you get your desired game to work without a hitch. Of course, with our savy friend gollum's guidance, I have no doubts on that score. And when you do get it working...I may be tempted to follow in your footsteps. (Sorry, gollum--but I really think that making Crusades available to all the Catholic factions adds a unique flavour to the game.)

That said, I'm going to try The Caravel Mod first as it was originally intended. In fact, I plan to fire up a campaign as early as this evening. (I'm currently on vacation, and away from my usual setup, but there's no such thing as a vacation from MTW!) I will be sure to share my initial experiences with all of you fine folks.

EDIT: Given the fairly heated debate in the Main Hall recently about the various merits and weaknesses (mostly the latter) of the HRE, I am tempted to try a campaign as Kaiser. I'm curious, gollum, to see how you've tweaked them. Hmm, yes. I might just do that... Even if it means I go down in flames.

[gollum]

No need to apologise Cyprian2. We all like our our personal twists and most people i know in the Main Hall make their personal mods. As i said, i will make available the mod as i intend it to be, but there's nothing from stopping anyone to mod it, and enjoy the flavor you like.

The HRE is no more or less difficult than vanilla, as are most factions. The factions that you will find have become more troublesome are: the Danes, the Byzantines and the Spanish (somewhat). Even these factions though are not made impossibly difficult or anything, just they have more difficult climbing curves than vanilla in which they are all too easy; the danes because of their spam cheap and deadly Vikings, the Byzantines because they start with huge forces as well as the jedi princes, and the Spanish because Spain is the richest area in the map for no good reason. All these aspects are tweaked in Caravel. The Danes still have vikings and longboats, but they are not so easily accessible neither so cheap; the Byzantines still start big, but with very little forces to guard their many lands, and Spain is a land with much more realistic wealth and far more divided than in vanilla so as to require a decent effort to unite and so as to have dangerous opponents elsewhere on the map after that.