Okay, I've been looking it over, and I have some comments and questions.
Cav
First of all, about Cav-- the general paradigm for modifying these guys seems to have been a concept of "Cav charges, but loses momentum and sucks", and putting all of the emphasis on the charge. I however am not sure if this is supported by historical evidence. We can look at any of hundreds of major battles in history that have involved Cavalry comparable to that which is simulated in this game, and the melees have a tendency to last at least fifteen minutes if not an hour. If the greater portion of cavalry's power was derived from its charge, then it is hard to see the advantage in its being used in this way, and hard to see how it would last that long against a variety of foes and still come out victorious.
I believe the mental illusion of such the all-powerful cavalry charge could easily come from the fact that in many cases where it is used correctly, it is saved for the final, critical moment in battle, where there is a weak spot or an open flank in the enemy, and where the sudden application of force from the cavalry will end it all and bring victory.
So needless to say I was quite happy with the charge-melee balance in the original stats. I didn't see, and still don't see, any need for these bonuses to be so much higher. I could be wrong, though. This is more of a question, such as "how did you come to this conclusion?". It could be that it's all fine and dandy anyway, but I am quite curious as to the impetus for the change.
More Cav
Another Cav question-- the speed of Cav has been upped.. but its manueverability has gone unaltered. It had seemed to me that a Max Turning Angle Whilst in Motion (from now on referred to as MTAWM) of 8 was much too low for the Japansese Heavy Cav, which when compared to Western Cataphracts is "Heavy" only in name, and really closer to (though probably better in general than) "Heavy Cav" of Alexandrian and Roman days. With the Real Deal I increased this to 32, so that they were still a bit clumsy but now had more manueverability and power. It would seem to me that any comprehensive cavalry reform would have to deal with this issue in *some* form, as it is an extremely critical factor for cavalry and has always been messed up IMO.
Similarly the UBER-effectiveness of Mongol Heavy and Light Cav is directly attributable to their UBER-high MTAWMs. They both have MTAWMs of 128, which effectively makes them GOD. In the planned Mongol-Era expansion for the Real Deal Mod the MTAWM of the MHC would have been reduced to 64, as obviously these guys are good but I have a real problem with believing they're THAT good, I mean they've got a good deal of armor and weaponry strapped on to them they're not going to be doing backflips or anything like that.. this is and would be an even more excellent way of both balancing the MHC and bringing it more into line with reality.
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Naginata Infantry
Alright, now to the Naginata Infantry-- I in particular have big problems with the changes here. Basically the approach was to make them into a ridiculous caricature. They were already a caricature. Now they have a melee bonus *lower* than YS. Please people, I mean a guy with a Naginata, a nimble and deadly weapon, no matter how much armor he's got on, is going to have a higher killing rate than a guy with a long spear locked into a rigid formation.
I really have big problems with this new "cement block" paradigm for Naginata Infantry, primarily on realism and game flavor levels. I mean if this were a fantasy game that would be done in big, cartoony colors for the kids, a unit like this would be fine, but in this context I find it to be markedly ahistorical and indeed rather distasteful.
BTW in the Real Deal (not to plug it neces., just to provide contrast) Naginata Infantry was given an important place by increasing melee to 1, decreasing defense to 5, and making Yaris both more important and quite unwieldy, and putting WM in a more appropriate role, so that NI was (a) a wieldier, if slower, alternative to Yaris, and (b) the only cost-effective FRONTAL Yari-busters.
YS
Also-- Yari Samurai still down at armor level 2, same as YA, which still doesn't sound right to me, if only in terms of realism (you think a Samurai won't manage to scrounge up a *bit* more protection than some poor peasant conscript?). Again, just for contrast, in the Real Deal the YA/YS balance was dealt with in other ways.
Guns
And a question about guns-- in the Projectiles.txt that I got, Arquebus was given a power of 8.0, twice the 4.0 of the musket. I like the new figures, indeed it's quite a coincidence that the gun power in the Real Deal is 6.0 (the arith. mean).. but what, are you trying to add more relevance to Arquebusiers now? I don't have enough specific historical knowledge to say yea or nea on this, but I'd like to know your reasoning.
Crazy Sohei
And Warrior Monks are still out of whack!! Come ON people! Nuf said about that one.
Ok ok, I will contrast it with the Real Deal, in which WM melee power was reduced to 3, making them still the deadliest footsoldiers out there, but best if not used against the full force of the enemy's spears, and more vulnerable to the new HC. This was parallel to a reduction in the effectiveness of No-Dachi (largely for historical but also for gamebalance reasons), so Warrior Monks have a real niche and are feeearsome, still.
All walk at same speed?
One more question.. why make all inf and all cav walk the same speed?? If you want them to keep together you just group them before you give move orders. I liked this system. Now it appears as if it will be necessary to run and thus tire your men in order to take advantage of superior manuevering speed for WM etc. Comments on this please.
Praise of v1.02
Okay now, a quick overview of what I LIKE about it (sorry I've been saying mostly negative things so far ):
-Gun balance may have been nailed straight on. Excellent. Still uncertain about the higher Arquebus penetration relative to Musk though.
-An attempt has been made at Cav reform. IMO not necessarily a full success, but at least the problem was acknowledged and addressed.
-No-Dachi were toned down a bit (melee down from 6 to 5). Good to acknowledge the imbalance, but from my own experience and based on actual history and realism, it would make more sense to leave melee as it is and cut defense drastically. This is my opinion anyway. It is hard to deny that they should be more marginalized on historical/realism grounds at least.
-Large number of plain and simple *bugs* fixed. Score!
-Unit size editing capability. Thanks for pushing for that one, Erado & Co.!
-Javelins brought into line-- finally. This is a very necessary change and appears to be well-implemented.
-Run/Charge speeds fixed-- nice.
-the BN changes appear to be pretty good. I never really messed with the unit myself anyway, but perhaps they will be more appropriate now. I like the armor reduction, though it seems as if their melee could use some weakening too (but then I've never messed with these guys much so I can't comment much).
-Upgrade costs increased-- Yay! I never felt good about the original upgrade paradigm. Hopefully now it has been balanced.
Suggestions for futher improvement
And now some suggestions for further improvement--
Well, for gosh sakes do something about spears! We all know they were the dominant troop type of the Sengoku era, it's time for them to take their rightful seat! We also all know that they are by their nature quite unwieldy, and UNUSUALLY dependent on good order and um not getting flanked.
Currently all of the infantry units are equal in their maneuverability. WM = SA = YS = ND = NI = YS. How BORING! Add some texture! Up the defense of YS (and YA), and curtail their MTAWM to 24 or below.
In the Real Deal YS defense went up to 4 and their MTAWM went down to 12. YA defense went up to 2, melee down to -2, and MTAWM down to 8. This also brought YA into their proper historical role, though they would still be less cost-effective due to their lack of armor and lack of morale and slight maneuverability disadvantage.
With all the changes made to other units in the Real Deal, spears become a critical asset, only replaceable by NI (which has HCav vulnerability). Spears also are more difficult to use, and the importance of *thoughful* maneuvering and watching your flanks increased exponentially. No more sudden turning to meet a flank charge, at least not with your Yaris . Disorder and such become very significant factors. Anyway, this is just providing an example of how it *could* be done, if you wanted to do it..
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Cav could use further improvement. It is still unmaneuverable. And MHC is still uber-maneuverable. Never underestimate the *exponential* effect of MTAWM on Cav.
I also have some issues with making JHC into more of a brick (defense up to 7). I think it is rather crazy to have them be so surviveable, as I said before they are not cataphracts. Contrast to the Real Deal, in which it was made into a 6/3/3 unit (with the MTAWM of 32). More fluid and hard-hitting, die considerably faster. Cav never has been or will be defensive, this fact is fundamental to their nature (and I'm talking about all eras all regions, including the modern one).
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It might be fun and kind of wacky to mod Early Japanese units to simulate the actual weapons-types and doctrines and disorder of the era. I had a shot at this, but never got beyond the prototype stage.. yet.
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And anyway.. that's it for now! Congrats to you if you actually read it all! Overall good job, Erado, Tera, Tosa, Krae, et al. And thanks be to CA that some new options have been added.
Matt
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