Lands to Conquer v2.1

[Lusted]

Lands to Conquer v2.1

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Mod Overview

Lands to Conquer is a mod aimed at improving the gameplay and balance of Medieval II Total War. It does this through extensively rebalanced unit stats; changed unit costs; longer, slower paced campaign; more difficult to maintain larger empires; improved campaign ai thanks to the Ultimate AI mod; and various other things. It also features an easy to use installer that does everything for you.

Installation Instructions

This is a standalone version of the mod, you do not need any previous versions to play it.

Lands to Conquer v2.0 save games are compatible with 2.1.

It installs to its own folder so it does not affect the default game. Just use the Lands to Conquer icon on the desktop to launch this mod, or the M2TW icon to launch M2TW.

To install the mod simply point the installed to your Medieval II Total War installation, which by default is installed to:

C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War

It is recommended you install Medieval II Total War Update 1 Patch before instaling LTC 2.1. This will make your gaming experience much better.

Once installed you should use the new Lands to Conquer desktop shortcut to run the game.

The changes Lands to Conquer 2.1 makes to Medieval II Total War are listed below:

2.1
Battlemap
-Shield bug workaround courtesy of the_foz_4.
-Improved balance of units.
-Latest version of Darths formations mod and config_ai_battle.xml, battle_config.xml and descr_pathfinding.txt included.
-Fixed bug with Gallogiach and custom battles.
-Reduced wall and gate strengths from 2.0 as they were far too high.

Campaign map
-Reduced money boost given by money script
-Reduced distance to capital and religious unrest effects.
-Ultimate AI mod v1.1 included.

2.0
Battlemap
-General all round better balance of units.
-13 new custom battle maps. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=76887
-Longer lasting, slower battles.
-Spearmen rebalanced so they are now more effective against cavalry
-Cavalry charge is less devestating than in normal M2TW, but has more impact and heavy cavalry can still wipe out sword infantry pretty easily.
-Longbowmen given longer range, slightly better attack and faster rate of fire
-2 handed axe unit bug workaround. They now use a different animation and rebalanced attack stats as a result.
-HorseArchers charge fix. Now all units will charge properly, and light cav is the best against routers. Also all round better charging as a result.
-Slowed movement speed on the battlemap
-Incorporated Darths Formations v1.0 for M2TW
-Musketeer/Hand Gunner units attack reduced
-Byzantine Infantry, Varangian Guard and Kataphraktoi made more powerful
-Range of low level artiller increased
-More variation in stats between units that previously had the same stats(Order Knights, Dismounted Druzhina and Dismounted Boyars Sons)
-Venetian Heavy Infantry and Archer armour upgrade bug fixed.
-More difference between arrow and crossbow projectiles.

Campaign map
-1 Year per turn, and dates shown on campaign map again
-Building construction times and cost increased so as to fit in best with 1 year per turn campaign.
-Ultimate AI Mod 0.9 by GrandViz incorporated, makes camapign ai better, diplomacy is more logical and alliances are much better. But still a nice element of backstabbing in the game.
-Traits and Ancilliaries mod v1.1a by Orientis which fixes all the bugs related to traits.
-Unit recruitment changed. Units now replenish slower and elite units have smaller recruitment pools. Also units no longer recruited from walls or from castle upgrade buildings.
-English Armoured Sergeants, Dismounted Broken Lances, Dismounted Gothic Knights and Dismounted Mongol cavalry units added into the campaign
-Ai recruits better armies. They are more balanced and have more higher tier units in them.
-Receruitable Generals.
-More variance in the date at which the Mongols and Timurids appear
-Merchants make more money.
-Inquisitors made less powerful.
-Unit costs tweaked so ai builds more balanced armies.
-Money script for ai factions so it gets a cash boost when it gets low on cash so the campaign is tougher.
-Increased movement distance for armies and agents.
-More recruitment slots in castles.
-More free upkeep slots in cities.
-Recruitable generals.
-Assassins made more powerful.
-Pirate and Rebel spawn rates reduced.
-New population levels required for each level of settlement, but lowered slightly from 1.21.
-Distance to captial penalty increased, but not as severe as in 1.21.
-Religious Unrest increased.
-Corruption increased.
-Income from trade increased, and population growth from trade decreased.
-Population growth from farms increased.
-Cannon/Ballista tower bug fix included.
-Assassin and spy movies back in the game, thanks to a .bat file i've made that copies them over during the install.

Graphical
-New loading screens and splash screens.

Credits

A big thanks to the following modders who's work i have used in this mod with their permission.

DARTH VADER - for his formations mod and battle ai imporvements
GrandViz - for use of his UltimateAi mod that really imporves the campaign ai, diplomacy and alliances.
Orientis - for the use of his Traits and Ancilliaries fixes
lawngnome - for helping with the edits to unit recruitmnt and settlement mechanics.
zxiang1983 - for the use of his ballista/cannon tower bug fix
the_foz_4 - for his shield bug workaround

[IsItStillThere]

::Stands and breaks into wild applause::

[Armoured Hoplite]

Awesome, I like the changes to Hungary, good to have Hussars back, I like the experience bonuses with higher level production buildings, and I really like the Academy giving experience bonus to cavalry. Hungary is now a very strong cavalry faction IMHO, which is nice since their infantry is average and their ranged units are pretty weak.

But, I did find a bug. I went into custom battle and a unit of Varangian Guard costs 8820, and it did deduct that amount when selecting unit. Not sure if this is the case in campaign. I am going to go ahead and assume this was meant to be 820 florin cost.

Anyway, thanks for the great work, much appreciated. Can't wait to get into campaign with lowered money script so I don't have to fight stack after stack after stack...

Thanks again.

[Lusted]

But, I did find a bug. I went into custom battle and a unit of Varangian Guard costs 8820, and it did deduct that amount when selecting unit. Not sure if this is the case in campaign. I am going to go ahead and assume this was meant to be 820 florin cost.

I believe the correct term is d'oh!!!!

[Hochmeister]

Thanks Lusted

I have been playing LTC exclusively since it came out and it just keeps getting better.

Kudos to you and your fellow modders for making this game playable.

[Armoured Hoplite]

I believe the correct term is d'oh!!!!

LOL, no problem, I already fixed it, very easy to do.

Just a couple comments after non-stop custom battle testing:

First of all, some very nice balancing so far. It was great to see my Pavise spearmen actually beat a cavalry unit one on one, even better results when in schiltrom, before it made no difference. I also like the slower, longer melees.

One thing I noticed though is that Halberd units seem a bit weak. They are devastated by cavalry charges, just like swordmen, and do poorly vs. infantry. I figure I will use them behind my main line and bring them in once the fight is started, but they still seem pretty poor. Will test more.

Second, as I said I like to play Hungary and my dismounted chivalric knights (which have a slightly lower defense than other dis. chivalric knights) are losing to dismounted feudal knights. Based on pure stats this makes sense, but in vanilla the same battle would be a very easy victory for dis. chivalric knights. I can't see a reason to produce them at all if they are inferior to dis. feudal knights. They have less armor and skill (10, 10, vs. 11, 11) but there seemed to be something hidden before that made them very effective. Now they seem underpowered, especially vs. units that are lower tiered since they are losing to them.

Just to test further, dismounted feudal kinights regularly beat armoured swordsmen somewhat easily, but dismounted chivalric knights (at least Hungary's) lost every time but by a slim margin. Still, something is wrong I think, a higher tier, elite unit like dis. chivalric knights shouldn't lose to armoured swordsmen and dis. feudal knights.

Thank for listening.

[Lusted]

One thing I noticed though is that Halberd units seem a bit weak. They are devastated by cavalry charges, just like swordmen, and do poorly vs. infantry. I figure I will use them behind my main line and bring them in once the fight is started, but they still seem pretty poor. Will test more.

Halberd are effective against cav if stationary and in the shield all formation. They do better against cav than normal spears and can do better against infantry.

I think, a higher tier, elite unit like dis. chivalric knights shouldn't lose to armoured swordsmen and dis. feudal knights.

I'll have a look into this.

[saobsidia]

First of all,
Great mod! Hats off to Lusted who made MTW2 worth playing.

Possible bug? Check to make sure hiring mercenaries charges you for the initial cost. I just started a new campaign with the byzantines and hired a large batch of mercenaries for free. Although it's nice of them to willingly join up without actually charging me for hiring them, I'm not sure that's what was originally intended.

[Kaidonni]

Just a quicky...seeing as how we can install over LTC 2.0...how exactly would we do that? I've never actually installed over a previous LTC before, or over any previous mods that could be over-written, so I'm afraid of mucking the installation up. Or will it just be fine to target my main M2TW folder like with LTC 2.0, then load up my saves and continue my campaign? Thanks.

[Lusted]

Or will it just be fine to target my main M2TW folder like with LTC 2.0, then load up my saves and continue my campaign? Thanks.

Bingo. The installer will just ask if you want to overwrite some files this time.

Possible bug? Check to make sure hiring mercenaries charges you for the initial cost. I just started a new campaign with the byzantines and hired a large batch of mercenaries for free. Although it's nice of them to willingly join up without actually charging me for hiring them, I'm not sure that's what was originally intended.

M2TW bug.

[saobsidia]

M2TW bug.[/QUOTE]

Yep --- I reinstalled and it cleaned it out. Everything seems to be working fine now.

[Rollon]

Hi Lusted.
I like your mod very much. However, I can't agree with your version of Byzantine's tech tree.

Lets see.
1st level Barracks give us Peasants.
2nd level adds Spearmen.
3d level gives nothing new, just adds 1 XP to Spears.
4th level finally gives us Dismounted Lancers.
5th level suddenly adds both Latinkos and Varangians.

At the same time 3d level Stables give us both Lancers and Latinkos (and General on top of that, which I consider a bit too early).

I'd move Dismounted Lancers to the 3d level, and Latinkos — to the 4th. The roster seems more consistent this way. I'd also tune down Stables a bit, at the moment 3d level seems to be somewhat overpowered.

[General Zhukov]

Hi Lusted.
I like your mod very much. However, I can't agree with your version of Byzantine's tech tree.

Lets see.
1st level Barracks give us Peasants.
2nd level adds Spearmen.
3d level gives nothing new, just adds 1 XP to Spears.
4th level finally gives us Dismounted Lancers.
5th level suddenly adds both Latinkos and Varangians.

That's the vanilla tech tree for castle barracks, except normally Varangians can only be built at the city top tier barracks.

At the same time 3d level Stables give us both Lancers and Latinkos (and General on top of that, which I consider a bit too early).

Lancers can be built straight out of fortress walls. But yes, Latinkos are normally at the fourth tier, not third. If Latinkos are third tier, do you get Cataphracts at fourth? If so, then the fifth stable becomes superfluous.

[Rollon]

5th level allows to recruit Vardariotai:) Also it allows to recruit modernized generals (well, in LTC you can recruit them from 4th level, but I think that's a bit too early, so I deleted ordinary generals from the 3d tier and moved them to the 4th, same with upgraded ones).
BTW, Varangians seem to be overpowered with changed animation. I can see no problem with the original one, they are still tough.

[Lusted]

With the original animation they will not kill any cavalry in melee combat and little to no infantry. This is because of the 2 handed bug. The only kills they will make will be form the charge.

The Byzantine infantry and cavalry recruitment roster should go:

Cavalry:
Skythion > Byzantine Cavalry > Byzantine Lancers > Latinikon + Kataphraktoi > Vardiotati

Infantry:

Peasants > Byzantine Spearmen > Dismounted Byzantine Lancers > Dismounted Latinikon > Varangian Guard

I messed it up slightly in 2.1 so it'll be fixed in 2.2.

[MikeNY]

Hey Lusted, Im enjoying you mod. Thanks for all the effort you put into it.
it makes it a much tougher game.
I do have one problem though. Its a CTD when fighting a battle. Not every battle but two out of 3. Happened when I fought a siege at naples and then again at a bridge in the holy land. Both of them involving more than two stacks on the attackers side. I was on the defensive. only one stack would appear at a time because of hardware constraints, or so the game tells me.
I Installed 2.1 over 2.0. could that be the problem? I installed it in the default folder and I use the icon for 2.1LTC. Is anyone else having any similiar CTD's.
If it helps here are my computer specs

pentium 4 3ghz< 3years old>
2megs of ram
Nvidia agp 6800 gts oc 256 mb card
21 inch gateay widescreen lcd

as a side question does anyone know of good settings to set up the video with these specs. I keep getting the upgrade hardware message If I want more than one stack at a time.

This is my first message but Im a long time lurker. Ive played the whole series from the beginning and basically this is the only game I play..besides madden on ps3.
Thanks again Lusted..or to anyone else who can help me out

[NightStar]

@ MikeNY

With 2 megs of Ram I am suprised you can even start the game

I hope you meant 2 gigs

[saobsidia]

Getting off topic here, but could you even start Windows with 2 Meg of RAM?

[MikeNY]

I meant 2 gigs. Sorry for that.

Im still getting the occasional lockup.

[Razor1952]

LOve the mod generally.

As Venice VH/VH 1120 have market in Venice and Merchants Guild but still have not been able to build any Merchants.

My starting merchant is still on gold at Zagreb from the start and still only level 2!

[Lusted]

Send him further away, that should help level him up more. and you now need markets to recruit merchants, a level higher. but they make a lot more cash. as Egypt i've got a merchant on silk near Baghdad with 4/5 finance making 1033 and i own the city. Another there with 2/3 is making 768. i've also got some on ivory down south of Cairo raking in the cash.

[Hochmeister]

Hi Lusted,

Just a few minor things I wanted to mention, certainly not gamebreakers!

Would you consider adjusting the levels required to bribe if it is moddable? I know RTW was too easy but MTW2 is just plain impossible! Maybe just lower it for rebels who shouldnt have high loyalty?

Also is it possible to make all the troops you bribe who arnt in your tech tree, join your faction rather then disband, seems very unrealsitic to me. (could they work like mercs?)

Loving themod

Cheers

[Rollon]

With the original animation they will not kill any cavalry in melee combat and little to no infantry. This is because of the 2 handed bug. The only kills they will make will be form the charge.

Well, I changed the animation back to vanilla and it seems to me that Varangians are adequate in your mode — somehow much more powerful than in vanilla (but not so overpowering as in LTC proper). Maybe that's because of the shield bug corrected, or something else.
Another thing. As far as I understand you've incorporated 3rd-party traits and ancillaries files. I just don't know whom to write about this minor bug so I write it here: it appears right now as if Marco Polo ancillary could be obtained by virtually any character. In my current game one of my elderly spies got him. It's a shame because I can't give it to my governor (he'd be more useful there).

[iceman0486]

This looks awesome, and I think I'll try it out. One quick question though: Does this overwrite the vanilla M2TW?

[iceman0486]

Alas, I cannot edit! I see it now, pardon my stupidity.

[Deathtone]

Thanks Lust a tons for this mod, but i got a question wut did u mean when u say recruitable Generals on teh campaign map? Meaning u cna recruit one as a merc or wut? Sorry If this is a dumb question

[Lusted]

As in recruitable from a certain building like every other faction units.

[Razor1952]

thanks for the mod lusted some feedback and queries

1.I find assassins rather too overpowered now , I easily upgrade them and kill most of a targets generals with only a few guys.

2. Inquisitors are quite neutered IMHO, but then again I send the pope 100 florins every turn and knock out heresy quickly, so maybe they could be retweaked stronger again? Perhaps though this will disdavantage the AI more than the human player?

3.I think the merchant changes are very good and should stay.

4. Pikes, does your mod include a fix for these?(playing as Venetian)

5. My faction Leader always seems to get +++++++ dread very quickly, I'm trying to kill these off and start again to get a chivalrous one without success so far, presumably though not a mod question??

[pat the magnificent]

Send him further away, that should help level him up more. and you now need markets to recruit merchants, a level higher. but they make a lot more cash. as Egypt i've got a merchant on silk near Baghdad with 4/5 finance making 1033 and i own the city. Another there with 2/3 is making 768. i've also got some on ivory down south of Cairo raking in the cash.

hmmm, i'm playing as milan and i've got 2 merchants on the silk spots near baghdad with like 6 or 7 finance. individually they only make about 200-300ish.

am i doing something wrong?

[Lusted]

Who owns the province? If its the rebels you wont make much cash, and if a faction owns it make sure you have trade rights with them.