Recent news about hardcoded features

[Dead Moroz]

From the FAQ on official forum.

Q. Which things that are currently hardcoded do you plan on changing (e.g. number of men per unit, faction limit, number of factions that are controlled by the Senate?)
A.None. The way factions are managed is more flexible now, but that's something that most people won't notice. Actually, the Senate is gone in BI; by the late 300s they were no longer a significant force in Roman politics, so they won't be 'controlling' anyone.

[Meneldil]

Yeah, read it this morning.

Gah. It does suck.

[SpencerH]

So no changing our olympic sprinters. BAH!

[IrishMike]

All I see here is: Question...Will you improve the game?
Answer.....No we like it how it is, don't you? No? Oh to Bad!

I hope it changes, and I hope i'm correct that more than likely this guy was not trying to reveal anything, so he avoided the questions.

[Bwian]

I would guess that they have built a load more units, made some new factions, and used pretty much the same basic game engine. They have tweaked some aspects of the hard-coded parts, but not done anything which would involve a major code re-write. It's an add-on, not a new game, so I suppose that is to be expected.

If the price is under £20, I'll probably buy it, since it will make a much better base for modification with no Senate!!!

[Myrddraal]

I hope they have added factions... We need a higher faction number availiable.

[lt1956]

What I heard is its the same 20 factions and same model numbers. Basically I have no plans to buy it for skins. It takes alot fo work to mod a game and right now what I have read on the forums its not worth porting over our mods.

Its said really but I think RTW is dead where CA is concerned. Infact I really do believe the Whole TW series is out the window in favor of Console games. We will know later on maybe next year. Shame because they had a great thing going but atleast the game can be modded to allow medieval gameplay.

Over all I will no waste $20 for a skin expansion EB will have way better models and play over ANY expansion they could release, after all they released this game without sea battles. lol Even their competitors have those!

The game was close to a classic, but as it stands now only the Mods will be a classic.

Lt

[cunctator]

I can`t believe that the hardcoded limits are not rised. I think this FAQ only says that things that were hardcoded in RTW will still be hardcoded in the expansion.

The previews say that there will be 10 new factions. I doubt that CA can make a new campaign with new features like victory conditions and nomadic way of life for some barbarians, without adding new slots, as long as the old impirial campaign should still be playable.

Maybe I am too optimistic?

[Lord Adherbal]

there will be new factions, but there is no telling whether you can put them AND the old faction in a single campaignmap. Actualy I'm quite sure you can't.

Looks like this will be the first TW game I will not bother playing.

[wlesmana]

There's a lot of factions in the vanilla game already. But hey, it's always nice to have the limit upped or removed. What I REALLY want them to do is to make more cultures! You get a ton of factions but they got stuck in SIX cultures!! It's ridiculous! It kills the modability of the game because you get a limit of 6 atmospheres.

[Simetrical]

It's not all bad, though. Only mostly bad.

Obviously each faction has its own victory conditions. These will be editable, should you feel like it. . . . The rebellion mechanisms have changed to allow for rebellions to spread, and to allow for disloyal generals making a stab for ultimate power themselves. . . . The AI has improved generally

We'll have to see for ourselves, ultimately, but that's at least one hardcoded aspect (victory conditions) lifted.

-Simetrical

[Epistolary Richard]

Where do we submit questions for this FAQ?

This is interesting:

Q. Will there be civil wars?
A. Yes. The rebellion mechanisms have changed to allow for rebellions to spread, and to allow for disloyal generals making a stab for ultimate power themselves.

Shame they couldn't ask anyone what this question meant.

Q. Will the issue of infantry behaving sometimes like cavalry be fixed?
A. Sorry, but after much thought we have no idea what this question means.

This is a bugger, as trade resources are one of the few ways we have of having non-settlements appear on the campaign map.

Q. Will there be ability to create new trade resources?
A. No. Aspects of trade and resources are hardcoded.

Q. Will there be ability to create new events? Will there be ability to attach appearance of units and buildings to certain dates or events?
A. New events can be added. You won't be able to change the *appearance* of units and buildings as a result of events because these are tied to the underlying culture of a faction, not any particular event. If, however, by appearance you mean availabilty on a particular date, then the game can be modded so that different units rely on the Marian Reforms to trigger their availability.

Obviously we can change who the marian conditionals apply to already. I wonder what is meant by new events... If it's just new historical events then we can do that already - if it's a new event that can be used as a conditional (doubt it) then that would be much more useful.

Q. Like the feature you added to Viking Invasion, will CA add the option of adding new campaigns to the game, rather than having to replace the original campaigns?
A. Actually, dropping the right files into the campaign/custom folder will cause a new provincial campaign to appear. This is a big item, and can't be explained quickly, but the talented modding community will undoubtedly get their teeth into the business!

Have modders not already been doing this?

Q. Will we be able to save the replays for campaign battles again?
A. No. The underlying game code will not support this feature.

Q. Will the Huns have possibility to move their settlements or they'll be static like all other factions?
A. Settlement locations are fixed in the game; ownership of settlements is not. This might annoy a few people, but there are usually very good reasons why towns and cities are located where they are, and little tendency for them to be completely abandoned even when conquered. What can happen with the Huns and other people is that a horde will form when the (last) settlement is lost as all the inhabitants go on the road in search of a new homeland. If they are lucky, they'll manage to conquer someone else's territory (although they can migrate peacefully too). If they are unlucky, the people will be cut down during the migration.

If they had just taken out the requirement for an AI faction to have a settlement and given us the correct parameters for spawn_army we could do this already. *sheesh*

[caesar44]

what a dissapointment
i never will understand why in mtw they let you mod the game freely and now you have the hardcoded limitations why ?

[Myrddraal]

there will be new factions, but there is no telling whether you can put them AND the old faction in a single campaignmap. Actualy I'm quite sure you can't.

What makes you so sure? In VI you could.... I'm keeping my hopes up untill it comes out. We'll have to see.

[Epistolary Richard]

Just give me a list of what parameters we can use where and which commands work and which don't, that's all I ask...

[Duke John]

It's a luxury problem IMO. CA lets us import units, buildings, landscapes, edit factions, interface, sound and animation. No other game gives us that possibility. We can always wish for more, and we will no matter what they give us. But that doesn't change the fact the current build allows alot already.

About the addition of factions. I am sure that you can add them to the exisiting batch. Think about it; the engine must know which faction eblems to use, in descr_models_battle.txt it is needed to have have different tags for each faction so that R:TW knows which skin to use.

And M:TW had the same limitations on the amount of factions and units.