Anyone modded down Bodyguard size?

**Red Harvest** · 03-07-2005, 06:50

Have any of you tried modding down the bodyguard size in an attempt to make them both less suicidal, and less decisive? The size of the bodyguard is often half as big or as big as the entire cav component would have been in many contemporary armies. With the faction leader it takes two or three regular cav units to have a chance of killing/containing it. So I've been wondering about cutting the size and cost of these bodyguard units. It sounds good, but obviously, this doesn't help much if they are just as likely to do the headlong suicide charge. So...the question is, have you tried it? Do they still charge headlong at archers or javelinmen in front of your line? Or does modding them to half size make them more hesitant to try to conquer the world single handedly?

**QwertyMIDX** · 03-07-2005, 07:17

I haven't tried it, but judging by the behavior of the Faction Leader and Faction Heir (big units) and the 'normal' family members (smaller units) the size doesn't seem to have much effect on their behavior.

**Attalus** · 03-07-2005, 09:45

Have you seen this 'mod' RH?

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index...pic=14652&st=0

Made by ferres with readme by GODzilla, this changes the early Roman 'General' unit into a HA unit.

The skirmish ability makes them less likely to charge gloriously into a wall of spears.

The rest of the 'mod' includes some of the best looking roman skins you find anywhere.

Worth a shot, IMO

**Red Harvest** · 03-07-2005, 17:51

Attalus,

I've heard that suggested. I've been holding it in reserve.

**Simetrical** · 03-08-2005, 03:33

I haven't tried this myself, but I've heard it can't be done. Have you considered greatly reducing the attack but greatly increasing the defense of generals? This would make them much harder to kill even if they did charge into battles, but wouldn't make them overpowered as combat units—basically, their role in actual combat would become largely negligible. They could still upset phalanx formations, perhaps, and cause morale penalties, but that's it.

-Simetrical

**Red Harvest** · 03-08-2005, 04:47

Originally Posted by Simetrical

I haven't tried this myself, but I've heard it can't be done. Have you considered greatly reducing the attack but greatly increasing the defense of generals? This would make them much harder to kill even if they did charge into battles, but wouldn't make them overpowered as combat units—basically, their role in actual combat would become largely negligible. They could still upset phalanx formations, perhaps, and cause morale penalties, but that's it.

-Simetrical

Yes, I've considered that option as well. The reason I have not tried it is that in looking at the in battle relative "strength" slider, it appears to me that it is = (sum of primary attack + all defense )*(hit points)* number per each side. So even if the AI has no effective attack, it might still be prone to attack if it has high defense.

**Jambo** · 03-08-2005, 10:21

Modding the Generals unit size can't be done easily (certainly not compared to the other units), but it can be done.

Changing the Generals units sizes in the export_descr_units file has no effect in-game. Instead, it appears to be hardcoded to the unit size. So, the way round this is to mod all the other unit sizes proportionally to how you want the Generals to be resized. A hassle? Most definitely, but it's the only way.

So for example, say you want a proportionally smaller General unit size. What you need to do is go into the units file and double the size of all the other units. Then, upon loading Rome, if you like "large" unit size, play now under "normal". This should give you large unit size in-game but at the same time retain the "normal" sized Generals.

I did this a while back, but instead of going smaller I made General units proportionally larger to try to keep them alive. I've since returned to default. If you try, let us know how you get along.

**Red Harvest** · 03-08-2005, 19:49

Thanks. Didn't realize that was hardcoded as well. Oh well...I don't really want to adjust the size of all the other units to conduct a test, so I guess I'll punt on this one.

**Calmarac** · 03-09-2005, 00:03

Originally Posted by Jambo

Changing the Generals units sizes in the export_descr_units file has no effect in-game. Instead, it appears to be hardcoded to the unit size

But you can change the General unit size in export_descr_units. Just look at the SPQR mod for example, with values of 8 or 6 in the `soldier` line giving units of 32 or 24 on Huge. I did this in my own homebrew mod a while ago - and chopped cavalry units down a lot at the same time. It doesn`t stop the AI from charging them in as far as I can see, but the small bodyguards means I`m less likely to, and they will die if I get careless or use them as tanks too much.

The thing which isn`t affected by this file change is the extra men given to the Faction Leader & Heir, so they still have large 50 & 100 man units on Huge

**Jambo** · 03-09-2005, 13:50

really?

will have to check again. I suppose it's conceivable i just looked the faction leader or heir...

**Jambo** · 03-09-2005, 22:41

this works for custom battles. Does it work in the campaign?

EDIT: yep, works in campaign, just as cloudnine suggests. I must have looked solely at my faction leader or faction heir when doing my initial modding!

**Oaty** · 03-10-2005, 06:05

Theres also reducing there HP'S from 2 to 1. And technically that right there halves the unit size. Someone said they did that in the modding section and said it works quite well. Also he said the generals route quicker because they take a higher rate of casualties in a given timeframe wich makes them turn tale and saving thier hides after most battles.