The Caravel Mod

[gollum]

Dear all, version 3.2 is now up and available for download. As all versions for ages now it is save game compatible. However you will feel the full benefit of the latest tweaks in a new campaign.

It contains:
-Withdrew the jedai Byzantine Royals. Byzzie Emperors still have the hardcoded extra influence that makes for generaly good stats including command, but their command stats are now in par with other factions'. It makes for a much more fun game with them. They are still tough opponents to beat due to their superior tech and too good units for early and their generals still have command stars, but not 8-9 as a rule.
-Tweaked all missile cavalry AI use parameters including fast and weak as well as slower and stronger. Did quite some playtesting in custom and tweaked then re-tested etc and final values make for better use of these units by the AI.
-Did one each minor tweaks in the Byzantine and Russian rosters; Pronoiar cavs are made again available for All-periods and Rus Infantry are made available from castle level instead of keep.
-Slightly increased the buying price of mercs to reflect the increase of incomes by 1/3 around the map since version 2.8. Did not alter their maintenance costs however, as that was fine.
-Incorporated a fix for the Mongol Faction Leader piece while awaiting. As Stazi found out there was an error in the vanilla game in the naming of the paganpiece while awaiting which made the engine to show the default catholic one. The mod now includes a fix for this.

So this is it, i hope you enjoy

[Stazi]

Good to see you still working on the mod. I didn't play Byzantines for a long time but I think I'll try them this weekend. Thanks a lot.

[gollum]

Hello Stazi, thanks for the encouragement :) Despite the mod having reached a really good degree of completeness, there is always room for extra tweaks.

Byzantines are a much better proposition to play without the abnormal command stars. My own campaign as them was considerably more enjoyable than usual due to this; hopefully you'll find too that this is the case.

[gollum]

Dear All,
v3.3 of the Caravel Mod is now up and available for download. It incorporates a laborious finetuning of a number of aspects which i will list below.

*The most novel thing introduced in this version is the inclusion of a custom made version of the Caravel Mod for default (60mansword,100manspear, 40manhorse) unit sizes as well as another for huge. This has been made and playtested as it is clear that many people are either unwilling to move to huge or simply prefer default. Now the Caravel Mod caters for these people.

In order to play on the unit sizes you wish, first select the unit size of your choice (from Options\Performance) and then, 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. It is important to choose the right campaign as economics have been customised for unit size. Please make sure you choose the campaign that corresponds to the settings you have chosen as otherwise the campaign may either have too much or too little money.

*Other than that, v3.3 does a major retouch on parts of teh English, Italian, Byzantine, Turkish and general Catholic rosters. This includes:
-Minor stat adjustements for units - in order for them to function more effectively within the roles they fulfill in their rosters, while as always being recognisably vanilla
-Streamlining of rosters - a few simplifications in order not to have quasi duplicate units that have little purpose.
-Retouching of certain units' texts - to give them a more historical feel
-A few skin switchings for certain units - in order to make them aesthetically blend in with the rest of teh factions they belong to.
-Slight unit costs adjustments for some missiles units - some were slightly overpriced.
-Slight change of AI use parameters - to improve AI use in battle after quite some playtesting.

*Did a streamlining for Muslim and Orthodox religious agents, as the major ones from Cathedral/G.Mosque were never used by the AI even when he was building those.

*Fixed a glitch as per Stazi'ssuggestion in the new Horde Hero names that would make them be called "Lord Khan" upon receiving a title - now they are called "Lord Batu" etc

*Fixed the Byzantine AI personality unit build preferance numbers in order to allow them to have more well balanced stacks, as per Stazi's suggestion.

As always, the new version is save game compatible, but you'll get the most out of the new tweaks if you start a new campaign.

So, this is it. There will be a while now for a new version of the Caravel Mod. If any of you Caravel Mod enthusiasts - old and new - have not given the mod a try since v2.8, please do, as its now really really better than prior to that.

Thank you all, i hope you enjoy

yours truly, gollum

[Stazi]

-Slight change of AI use parameters - to improve AI use in battle after quite some playtesting.

Could you give some more details about this?

What units' size do you suggest now? Still huge?
I've started my Byzantine campaign yesterday evening but didn't go too far. I'm glad because now I can start a new one without losing too much time with the previous version.

btw Should I expect any new version this weekend? I'm going to write a little review of your mod for the polish TW forum and I'd like to be up to date with all details (at least at the moment of posting the review). Should I postpone it? Current version seems to contain some major changes.

[gollum]

Hello Stazi, i certainly can, but in about a week's time or more if you don;t mind - i've had enough of MTW right now :)

No new version is planned - you can play v3.3 :)

I still suggest to play on huge - for me its much better in both campaign and battle, however the mod now has two campaigns in the campaign menu and each has the economic aspect customised for huge and default unit size respectively. This was done to offer a chance for people that play only default to play teh Caravel Mod. But as i said, i still suggest to play on huge.

The changes made are not major - they are all finetuning changes. The game is fully recognisable from 3.2 (and 3.1 for that matter). Yet, the Ai factions play much more coordinated in the campaign and the battlefield. Now that everything is set in terms of tech tree, dependencies and rosters, the details can be worked in order to have the most tight performance possible by the AI factions.

Each roster now also has a unique aesthetic feel - there are no western skins in Orthodox rosters or say the Turkish roster feels way more unique in terms of looks.

Thank you for your interest and encouragement, i hope you enjoy :)

[gollum]

Stazi,
i thank you for your interst in the mod and for your thought to write a review on a polish TW site. This mod would not be able to fulfil its potential to the degree it did without your encouragement, feedback, keen sense of observation and crucial and clever suggestions. I have updated the credits to include your recent contributions.

Again thank you most kindly