The Siskinies

[komninos]

Hi all,
I have seen some stacks but that is ridiculous. Though the Persians have some very large units so each of the armies has about 5 – 7 units in it. Most probably this comes from the huge income the east provinces get and the large number of provinces the Persians and Lydians get at the start. I am not aware of a Golden Horde Bug, but if it is there I think it has to do with CA stuff. We can’t cause events to happen ... I wish we could.
I will try to get the economics tighten up most probably reduce farming income by 2/3. But remember a good part of your income comes from trade and that can be lost in a matter of seconds This will starve your faction.

Cheers

[Antalis::]

If you say you had crashes with custom battles: Please say also which map it was.
And please the exact name, not a description, like there were huge mountains and a forrest.

[Spartacus]

from what i've heard i'm not daring to play the tesslians

the thracians are a well done faction

[Thoros of Myr]

Spectacular work all

The very first time after installing HTW it froze at the title screen, I was able to close it with task manager and at restart it worked fine.

To cut my teeth with some of the new units I played a historic battle, Gaugamela.

Everything worked great, no CTDs or graphic glitches from what I could tell. The elephants and chariots made a brave last stand and almost killed me. They seemed to take forever to die and really sluaghtered a lot of my men, I dont know that they were overpowered, think it's just I need more practice dealing with them The action was fast and fun for sure.

On to the campaign...

Athenians, Geometric, Default size, Normal:

Played from 100 to 130 so far:

With the lands split over the sea I went for a trade/naval dominance strategy. It seems to have payed off so far as I have a well established Navy and pretty much control the heart of the map.

Money is definatly fairly easy to come by. It's kind of nice not having to micro-manage it so much but I can see things possibly getting crazy later on with all the riches. Farm income does seem a little high.

So far factions seem balanced.
No impossible to defeat factions have appeared or total push-overs.
The Argians have really become a thorn in my side but they dont look impossible to deafeat.
This will change alot tho as time progresses ofcourse.

The new music is very nice and it fits well from what I've heard so far. Good

No catastrophic bugs to report or even much of any bugs so far. If I wanted to be really nitpicky I could say some of the unit's pictures have blocky/discolored pixels in the unit description pop-up. Some of it makes parts of the decription hard to read. Could just be my Vcard too. (I'll get a screenshot of this if needed)
A Building completed tex (was a shipwright) said building destroyed.
The picture for Castle completed to me looks a tad too blurry/lacks definition.

I know you want to hear what needs fixing but I havent found a whole lot yet I'll try to be really critical in my next play and see what bugs I can find, somehow don't think I'll find many

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Apart from a few spelling mistakes with the historical campaigns they play great and i'm having loads of fun with the alexander and the greek wars one. There is one particular one in which you are the Spartans and your two greek allies just can't be bothered to help Anyway its cool.
I think my earlier remarks about the spartans supremacy has been soundly thrashed as the aetolians and athenians have had enough and along with the corinthians have proceeded to kick my arse all over the greek peninsular. Naval power is really important and i have found this out to my despair

[insolent1]

Quote[/b] (Frodo Lives @ June 02 2004,02:13)]I must really suck at storming a castle because I usually get slaughtered. Even if I outnumber the defenders 10 to 1 I can expect to lose about 70% of my soldiers. Most of that comes from the arrow towers and such. Even in areas that can't produce archers they have effective Arrow towers, that just seems wrong. Is there a way to lower the strength of castle defenses? Battering rams don't seem to be very effective.

I have noticed sometimes I can't move an army by boat even though I have the only ships in that area and the dock is bordering that sea area.

Other then that

I concur, I take massive losses when assaulting anything above a fortified villages. Battering rams are pretty useless, they do knock down the gates pretty easily but I prefer to go through the stockade as it normally puts you in a better position. The AI does not deploy in the inner walls at all which is good as I would take even more losses if they did. Tbh I think the forts & castles are to big. I normally take even worse losses when autoresolving.
I had a CTD when assaulting Athens(map looks good), it was during a campaign so i'm not sure of the unit line up & I have not been able to replicate it since my last save was some time away.
The Argians are virtually impossible in the Classical era. I've tried a number of times but get bogged down assaulting castles with only a few men. They need to be either made stronger or removed from the period(the Island they get is to far away to be of use). They are easy in Geometric & you can wipe out the Spartans in first 2 years, then Corinth etc. Archaic is probably the best period for them as you have access to the Argian Hoplites & they are excellent against all but the Spartans.
I tried the Spartans to see how easy it was to beat the Argians. In geometric its tough, Archaic is easiar & classical is very easy, you can attack Argolis first turn with loads of troops & capture the province without a fight & get a nice big fat ransom 18,000
So from a few campaigns I can kinda see what happens in the rest of the game. The Persians go to war with Athens & normally take most of the provinces but they loose sea control quickly due to the large Athenian fleet. This then leads the Spartans to attack the Persians which IMO is very good as these two factions can give the Persians a good fight. I think its better to remove the Argians from the classical period & make the Spartans Stronger. The Thesslains do nothing they are trapped in their one province from the start & after about 30 turns one of their 3 greek neighbours overruns them. Maybe a stronger Macedonians would be a better for the game. Overall I find the AI builds much better armies than the previous version. One problem I have been having is the 100+ man units of cavalry with javelins, the AI redeploys them 2-3 ranks deep so they take up a huge part of the map & when they get tied up in melee they can tie up my whole army due to their width & the small sized formations Hoplites are in. The hoplites take a very long time to kill them even if 6 units are tied up fighting one unit(due to the small attack area of Hoplites & the huge spacing the new cavalry model has). I think some of the titles need to be changed there is a distinct shortage of loyalty from most of the titles which can lead the AI into civil war very quickly(Athenians most likely).
The mod really adds an epic feel that goes beyond MTW nearly every battle i've fought has involved thousands on each side & I find in my campaigns that it takes a lot longer to complete compared with MTW as every single battle is at least 30 mins long & normally longer.

[Antalis::]

Zitat[/b] (insolent1 @ Juni 02 2004,08:28)]I had a CTD when assaulting Athens(map looks good), it was during a campaign so i'm not sure of the unit line up & I have not been able to replicate it since my last save was some time away.

Do you mean Attika?

And if yes, in which campaign?
Also from where did you attack?
From Boethia?

[insolent1]

Yeah Attika, I was the Spartans & I invaded from Corinthia but the general came from Cynuria so it was a sea invasion. But it was the seige assault that CTD so direction is irrelevant. The map had a bridge to cross before you could even go near the stockade.

Edit In my Macedonian campaign the Spartans & Athenians wiped out the Persians & both have turned into very scary super AI factions. The Athenians must be making 60,000-80,000 a year. This was within 20 years & I have only managed to take 6-7 provinces

[ElementUK]

I just updated using the E-mailed files...Is it supposed to say version 2.01 again on the load screen ?

I'ts fine it says 3.1 when loading actual save etc.

[insolent1]

Quote[/b] (ElementUK @ June 02 2004,19:17)]I just updated using the E-mailed files...Is it supposed to say version 2.01 again on the load screen ?

Yeah thats the MTW version, it displayed 2.01 before you updated.
edit the HTW version is shown when game loads at the start of a campaign(but theres no change with the new update).

Btw CZoF any chance of a quick readme on whats been changed in the new update

[Zanderpants]

Update on the STD's when doing a custom battle. I was playing on stirling bridge, and I switched to a different map and all worked perfectly. Must be the map.
Also, error messages when a ship is sunk during a storm. It says either dhows, cogs, or galleys.

[insolent1]

STD's

[Lord Zimoa of Flanders]

To all testers,

please be more specific and accurate when you are reporting bugs or CTD's.Always mention what units are involved playing with what faction in what period on what map invading from what province,clicking what button... and so on.This is very important just stating you had a CTD in Custom battle is no info we can analyse....

Thank you guys

CZoF

[Zanderpants]

lol, whoops. CTD*

[Zanderpants]

CZoF
That post was in regards to some of my previous posts in which, I posted my faction and units. Both battles were on Stirling Bridge. However, the same setup with units and factions works on other maps.

[insolent1]

oops mistake

[Lord Zimoa of Flanders]

No Zanderpants it was a post to ALL testers

CZoF

[Zanderpants]

to CZoF: Gotcha.

I played against the Persians in a custom battle, and I found the Indian elephants to be too fast. I used them again after slowing them down a bit and I thought the result was pretty nice comparitively. I put them at march speed 5, run speed 7 and charge speed 12. I changed it back of course to finish the Corinthian campaign.

Also, the readme says that some descriptions are missing, but the rebelling citizen hoplites have the description of the rus spearmen. Just wanted to bring that up in case you guys didn't know.

I don't know if this is a problem, but I eliminated the Lakedemonians, and when the leader killed in combat screen popped up, it was the picture of the leader dieing of old age or sickness.

On the light chariots that the lydians, thracians, peonians, illirians and phrygians use, the portrait is of a viking. Wasn't sure if you wanted it to be like that for the Lydians and Phrygians since they have different style portraits.

[BarkingBeagle]

Bloody... My 'trial copy of Winrar' has just decided to delete itself. I suppose I shall have to download it again or something. So... I haven't yet installed the update.

[ElementUK]

Well here we go..new update Lydians...middle age this time. More money than I can shake a stick at..73,000 something

In the 1st two yrs I have had 6-8 battles with troops in excess of 3/4,000 per side....man if this keeps up I won't have the time or energy to play a campaign lol. So far the only unit change i have seen is eastern Chariots swapped for skythed chariots...I hope they get some other units or there a tad dull and Im having a prob keeping up my interest in them as a Nation.

Additional Edit: With the Archer units set to 125 Formation Length...they can't actually form a double Line. Have they been tried at 90 or 100 to squeeze them in ? Makes them look a little neater instead of the 2 1/2 lines formation.

[Nikolas Magnus]

Macedonians:

In the historical campaing Macedon in the battle of Chaeronea there is a problem with the mission objective description that says:
You must defeat Phillip II and Alexander III, this is a problem because you ARE Phillip II and Alexander III.

[Brianbbj]

Hi
I have installed the bnew update, and something REALLY has changed for me.
As you all maybe know i test the Thessilians, the weakest faction some would say.
actually now after the update I'm not defeated af 30 years, actully is going pretty ok.
And bribing has been on a low scale now.
so MONEY LEVEL OK NOW

anyway i had some real good allies and som evil enemys though the campaigns.

Acutally now i wanna tell you the best part.
I had DOZENS of allies battles, that would say that in MANY MANY MANY battles there has been 3-4 different faction in one battle.
My allies surporting me when i invade and other factions helping my enemy.
The battles with 3-4 sides are really funny, and i even seen the computer playing decent now, my ally helping my units when in trouble and such.
It just gives so much more to the game when the allies/enemys diplomacy really pays of in the game.

I don't know what you guys had done to the game, but damn im totaly sucked up in gaming right now, its so funny having the real ally/enemy feel to the game, really greek city state like, joining forces to defeat a supperior foe.

BUG.
In my game the Flag/city is still wrong.

[BarkingBeagle]

OK, installing it. Will try the new Archaic. (Did about 20 turns with the old, it was ... difficult.)
OK, a few things which maybe have been mentioned before...
Many of the unit descriptions are too long, and so we miss about half of the descriptions, which makes it hard to properly use the units.
Illirian cavalry's shields are slightly misplaced, noticeable only from a couple of angles.
I wanted to commend the Thessalian cavalry, their formation is indeed very flexible, and they can run circles around most other cavalry.

[Thoros of Myr]

Did a few custom battles to test battering rams(basic level, no valour or upgrades). They deal good damage to gates around 25% each blow. Although I had one do 70% damage in a blow once. They are quite fun to use. I think they die a bit too quickly from standard missle fire tho. If it was flaming arrows or hot oil I could understand. Considering how much they cost and thier slow movement maybe ramp up thier toughness some.

Also, they werent any more problematic then other artillery peices as far as obeying my commands. Arent artillery always pretty stubborn :)

[Nikolas Magnus]

Macedonians:

I was defeated by the combined armies of many countries sorrounding me. My king died, all of my troops exept for a princess and an emissary survived, yet the game did not end

Year: A.D 296

[Thoros of Myr]

As some have said I think units that throw javelin,staff,spears as a secondary attack should have less ammo. Maybe units that use large, heavy ammo types like javs,spears etc as a main attack should have a bit less ammo too.

Also, will Toxotes, Missle Slingers, Peltasts, Skythian Warband, and Rodian Staff Slingers have a unique deadbody graphic in the future?

Just wondering, does the range on Persian Archers feel realistic/fair to everyone else?

Also in later battles (like classical age) there is quite a bit of useless/decadent troop movements, sometimes I wish they would just sit down and fight or run away. This is a problem in MTW too tho but maybe it's a bit more highlighted in HTW.

Back to battle

[Lord Zimoa of Flanders]

Flag city is solved but not in this update yet.

Dead coord will be there for all units we are working on it.

Expect a total new test version next Sunday or Monday with many more changes,so far to all testers very good feedback thank you guys keep it coming

CZoF

[Spartacus]

do i need winrar to install the update

is it free

[stu]

Hi all,
This is my first test, i just got the update and installed it. First impression WOW great mod. I'm playing the phirgian's in geo campaign and struggling against the lydian's.
When starting a battle on deployment phase sometimes the army is deployed half line and half column and i have to spend a while dragging out units after the battle begins, but i didn't notice the province this occurred in, I'm gonna start again and take note next time.

[komninos]

Hi all,

Thoros of Myr, the heavy javelin units, like Polemiste, have just 1 javelin to though, lighter units like Peltast have 4. Archers have the standard MTW ammo 28 I think, and Slingers depend on there type the heavier the missile the less they have but there number of ammo is larger than archers since they can use stones that they find on the battle field. Rodians have standard archer ammo.

The effect is emphasized from the fact that not all the men in the unit release there missiles on each firing turn. This makes the unit fire 2 some times 3 times. With Polemist I have noticed this, the first through I see 3 or 4 javelins then there is a big through with 50 – 60 and then there is an other big one finally there might be a forth one with 3 or 4 more javelins. So they don’t carry 4 javelins each but only ONE.

Nikolas Magnus, this is a strange result, don’t think this is due to HTW can you repeat it?

Stu, I have to solve this, it is known but if you go though the formations offered then the formation will be unlocked and all formations will work ... can’t say what is causing this Formations are a difficult task I will try to deal with it in the weekend.