Ian command - more than just a tester.

[Weebeast]

It's a way of playing for me now to some extent. I use this command mostly to deal with dumb political stunt AI's usually make. In the end I feel like playing againts human player. Well, since I'm playing XL, some factions are left alone but that doesn't necessarily kill those AI factions. I only interfere in diplomacy (alliance) and war stuff. Their economy is still AI-managed.

I got an inspiration to share this when I saw that Multiple Army Battles down there. Well, this Ian command makes alliances become 'realistic' by having more than 2 armies fighting on one battle. There's more tiny stuff I get from using this command. Well of course I can't always 'gang up' on a faction but AI factions can always 'gang up' on me. I can always 'cease fire' even when some drunk sailors can't respect alliance or crucial peace.

[Csargo]

What is this Ian command you speak of
Is it the cheat I never figured out how to do it

[Ironside]

Create a MTW shortcut on the desktop, select properties and find this line "C:\Program\Total War\Medieval - Total War\Medieval_TW.exe" add -ian on the end so it looks like this:
"C:\Program\Total War\Medieval - Total War\Medieval_TW.exe" -ian

Then when you play you press g to enter godmode were you can do alot of stuff.

Shifting factions and facing your own Behemoth to a facction is quite fun , although the risk of losing is considerble.

[NodachiSam]

Cool, I'll have to try that.

God mode looks like the .matteosartori. cheat except less useful. What can you do with it and how?

[Betito]

The part that i like the most about -ian is the switching factions.


Let's see if i can remember the exact mechanics... you typed the number of the faction and it automatically switched; if the number is above 10, then it was shift-number:

For example:
to play as the rebels, type 1
for almos is 2, byz are 3, turks were 12 or 14(shift-2 or shift-4), can't remember

You can bring a dead campagin to life again in no time, it's just a matter of switching to every single faction and using .deadringer. on them. Or raising a strong empire only to switch and play a weaker one. Try it some time

[acesman]

I have never heard of this before, could it be used to do a kind of crude multi-player campaign?

[NodachiSam]

Cool thanks Betito.

Acesman, theorhetically it could be. ONe person plays until they would normally pres end turn then switches faction and saves it and sends it. It depend on the honour of the players but it is doable..

[Roark]

Can the -ian cheat be used to play as the Swiss in unmodded MTW:VI 2.01, even though they are not normally a playable faction?

Coz I've never bothered to learn how to mod, but I would love to play as the mighty Swiss.

[Csargo]

Is there anything else you can do with this cheat other than switch factions?

[NodachiSam]

Oh my!!!

I was looking at the other factions when I accidently hit turn not in my own and the AI's choice of actions are retarded in the extreme. Arbitrary deployment of troops, breaking of sea connections despite ~every~ piece of water having about 4 ships!!!! He did bribe the two livian stacks at once which is kinda cool since I won't have to fight anything but it also put about 8 of my stacks in lithuania (everything around there except for one of my trading partners, the novogordian fins, was mine. Then they bribed one stack in northumbria out of 4 that were there and then broke the sea links so I can't support it! The ai was never made to manage large empires I guess. Really pathetic. It'll take a decade to fix this retardation! Arrrggh!!
Of course, I think it just crashed on me too...

Roark, only if the swiss show up (which I've never seen personally) If they do you would be able to play them. You can play the papacy and rebels too.

[Weebeast]

Ooops, sorry to hear that lol.

I'm suprised there are people really use this to play. Cool. I thought I was crazy.

breaking of sea connections despite ~every~ piece of water having about 4 ships!!!!

LoL yeah this one makes me sad. I remember I had to keep moving Sicilians ships just to make sure they're getting money from trading.

[Ludens]

I have never heard of this before, could it be used to do a kind of crude multi-player campaign?

Acesman, theorhetically it could be. ONe person plays until they would normally pres end turn then switches faction and saves it and sends it. It depend on the honour of the players but it is doable..

A couple of .Org members actually tried this: you can find the thread here (and the story thread is here); but they didn't get far beyond start-up. I assume this is because they had chosen a very difficult scenario and the A.I. did not want to cooperate in their diplomatic ventures.

[acesman]

I tried the -ian command out, but I think the XL mod that I am using may present some problems. I could switch to some factions, but some of them, like Scotland, could not be played. I could not find the keys to access all the factions, the number keys seem to work for several factions, but that leaves a lot of them out. Any ideas?

[Geezer57]

I tried the -ian command out, but I think the XL mod that I am using may present some problems. I could switch to some factions, but some of them, like Scotland, could not be played. I could not find the keys to access all the factions, the number keys seem to work for several factions, but that leaves a lot of them out. Any ideas?

See this thread over here (5 pages worth): http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotal...ID=17059.topic

The 3rd paragraph says you can use SHIFT + the number keys to access other factions.

[NodachiSam]

I really like this command but you just have to remember to switch back to your own faction before turning. It can be used to make some of the less likely situations possible, like ai-argonese supremacy or seeing the french crusader state actually survive for a while. :)

Thanks for the link Geezer57. I havn't read too much yet but the one problem I could forsee with a chain game is the AI playing with people's empires during the end turn sequence.

[Geezer57]

Obviously, the "chain game in debug mode" concept works better with a smaller group of players, as the AI has fewer years in which to mess up your empire. The folks over at the ezboard.com forum found their best games with 4 or fewer players on the VI map, after agreeing to adopt starting positions remote from each other.

Too bad CA never saw strategic multiplayer as a viable option. For now, this is as close as it gets....

[CountMRVHS]

Yep, I was one of those ezboard players you speak of. It was rather fun, but as you might be able to tell from our postings, there were a couple problems.

First, as has been mentioned, the AI is pretty terrible with its ships. On the game we did when I played the Irish, it was a constant hassle because every time it was my turn I had to devote my entire time to building toward a navy.... and then when I passed the game on, the AI Irish would promptly ignore their navy and instead crank out thousands of peasants and spearmen.

With the exception of the Irish, however, the VI map worked pretty well. Although the Viking player could pretty much have his way with any of us that he chose. So if you leave those 2 factions to the AI, it could be a pretty interesting game. the thing to remember is that, as has been said, the more people you include, the longer the AI will control your faction as the other players play out their turns. Plus you have to decide how long each individual turn is. We went with 5 turns per player, I believe, so with 3 of us that meant 10 turns that the AI controlled our faction, then 5 turns that we got to wrestle it back to our own wishes. It's kind of a neat dynamic actually, as long as you're not playing a faction dependent on sea power.

The other thing -ian can do that I haven't seen mentioned is allow you total camera freedom in the battle maps. I never found much use for that though, so I don't use it. Although I may go back and try -ian to switch between factions like some are suggesting.

CountMRVHS

[Betito]

One of the main problems i see in the multiplayer campaign issue is when the time comes to battles.

There are two main problems, given a direct conflict between the players:

- At most,only one player gets to fight his owem battles, this makes it unfair for the other player, or for both, asuming they let the AI fight their battles

- A possible solution could be fighting custom MP battles to decide the fate, but even then, the results are difficult to replicate in the campaign, and it could only be used for smaller armies

So yeah, it is possible, but it still lacks...

Wouldn't it be great if there actually were MP campaigns?

[Weebeast]

Have you guys ever tried to switch to Mongols when they arrive? It's not the same experience you get as playing late era(if you have XL). Well, Golden Horde starts with 60,000 florins and negative some-thousand income.

I wanted to make a mongol invasion mod but it's a lot of work and I'm too lazy so this is how I get my groove on. :)

I was too lazy to wait for them to come so I started from 1205(high era). I was rebel the whole time until the year reached 1230. This time for some reason Mongols only spawned in Khazar which isn't a bad thing because my income was already negative. I've made a secure realm of my own now, stretching from Volga to Hungary, Novgorod to Anatolia. The year is only 1294.