The Caravel Mod

[gollum]

Dear all,
I have added some medieval art images in post#1 of the thread that introduces the mod, in order to make the appearance more appealling and also provide inspiration (for those that also like them :). The idea came from medieval illuminated manuscripts that i really like, and the post tries to immitate them, hence the oversized initial letters. Purely aesthetic and cosmetic, but that also has its value :)

[Trapped in Samsara]

I have added some medieval art images in post#1 of the thread...

Very nice effect.

V

[gollum]

Thank you victor

[gollum]

Dear all,
Stazi kindly did some playtesting and also helped me out to add historical characters to the G. Horde.

He got some interesting fndings that may prove helpful to others for their mods;

These are:

What I've found:
- King/Khan parameters are hardcoded. Engine ignores all except name - 1st from the list is taken. I assume the other famous kings are used in case of faction reemerging. It's how it works normally, right?
- Heroes work as predicted - no problems.

Minor issue - I found the original game bug. Mongols' Khan has christian campmap piece. I've checked the first MTW/VI and gold ed. It's cause by a small typo in file name. Check campmap\pieces\Units\Pagan. File is named "army_leader_waiting.bif" but it should be "army_leader_awaiting.bif". Engine can't find the right file so the default christian is shown.

So because of the Khans being hardcoded, i was left with adding G.Horde historical characters (3) that particiapted in the invasion of Russia and of Eastern Europe.

In short the new characters are:
*Batu* - gandson of Genghis Khan, and Patriarch of the Golden Horde. He crushed the Cumans, Alans and Pechenegs, and then the Russians, Hungarians, Germans, Poles and Lithuanians. He asked from the HREmperor to "detrone himself" in favor of him (Batu). He was planning to attack Europe all the way to "the great sea (Atlantic)" when the Great Khan died in Mongolia and had to return as he was eligible for the position.

*Subudai* - Genghis Khan's greatest general; served in all Mongol campaigns with distinction; Genghis called him one of his "dogs of war". He used imaginatively logistics, intelligence and combined arms including artillery to defeat his opponents. He always put the enemy into a very weak position before commiting to battle.

*Jebe* - Genghis Khan's 2nd best general; served in nearly all Mongol Campaigns with distinction. Early on his tribe and that of Genghis fought and he personally wounded the Khan. After the battle Genghis khan said "who was he that wounded my horse?" in trying to conceal that he got wounded. Jebe responded that it was him that had wounded the Khan. Genghis that valued valor and honesty forgave him and took him in his service to which end he fought many campaigns and was the equal of Subudai.

These folk will now ride with the Horde and make your MTW lives a bit more interesting :)

Thanks to Stazi for suggesting this, for doing the playtesting and for pushing me to include it

Another interesting point Stazi found is the graphical glitch/bug of the Mongol action's leader piece in the camp map turnign catholic. This is (as he says) because there is a missing letter in the description of teh piece in motion. Correcting this will make the Mongol faction leader have always his Mongol piece :)

Again thank you Stazi

[gollum]

Dear all,

version 3.0, is now up and available for download.

It contains:
-3 historical G.Horde characters that give the Horde a better historical feel and also beef it up as they are quite good generals
-minor price reductions to catholic high end cavalry to help the AI field it more - it was slightly overpriced for its stats too
-AI preferene values tweaked for Orthodox and Muslim high end religious agents as well as a slight price reduction of the same, again to help the AI field them more.

Version is fully save game compatible with 2.8 and 2.9 and essentially very much on the same streak with only minor - but significant - adjustements.

Last but not least, the mod since 2.8 (that received the extra funds) is absolutely great in both the battlefield and the campaign - it is as if it all locked together and its potential came to the fore. It has now also achieved a very high degree of completeness too and so, If you like MTW vanilla or in general, just give it a go and you won't be dissapointed.

I hope you enjoy! :)

Thank you

[gollum]

Dear all,
version 3.1 is now up and available. It contains minor price adjustments for low end cavalry and few other minor tweaks that will be invisible to any who may have played v3.0, yet they do exert a positive influence in playbalance and AI factions development.

I hope you enjoy

Yours truly, gollum

[Stazi]

I'm curious why you made Szekely so weak? Now, they are very similar to Horse Archers.

About weak Horse Archer type units in general.
IMO they need at least 2-4 morale to be effective. Have you used them without a good general? I tried to use them in such situation and it was a disaster. I sent them forward at the start of the battle in order to do some shooting. They didn't even get close enough to start shooting. They run away immediately when one of the enemy units began to march towards them. HA get a lot of morale penalties because they have to go far from the general. They have to work alone on the flank of even on the back of the enemy army so they are constantly worried about flanks. When any unit starts to attack them or only shoots at them all of these combined penalties make them run away sometimes even without one men lost. With so little morale (-1) they don't fit their main role and become totally useless. IMO all units should be at least usable without strong general support (or other external bonuses).