Advice

[The Stranger]

I've decided to give M2TW another try... so I need some advice. Which patch must I play (vanilla being too horrible). And is there a finished mod that's worth it too play? Thanks in advance.

[PapaNasty]

Hi There aways best idea to play the latest patch, which is 1.2. For most of the latest and *best* mods out there, you will need this patch anyway for it to play right, or at all.

Many people around at the moment play the LTC mod, which is very good and the latest version especially is great.

I tried it, liked it but decided to stick with Stainless Steel, which adds a few more settlements, re-does the mercenary pools and many of the factions recruitment systems etc, and slightly modifis AI behaviour. I play SS over vanilla and haven't gone back to it.

I play the SS 3.2 version, which i find to work perfectly fine. Version 4 is out, but i believe it still has some unresolved bugs from what i've read in the TWCentre forums, plus a couple of features i'm not keen on, so i'm waiting for any more hotfixes or version releases before i convert to SS 4 (Edit- i didn't realise the 4.1 patch was out for SS 4, so i might look at it today )

Comparing LTC and SS, which are both really well done and fun to play, they both approach the game slightly differently, take a look at their pages and see if they have what you like

Stainless Steel 3.2
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92205

Stainless Steel 4.0 and 4.1 Patch (i didn't know the patch was out)
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=110425

Lands To Conquer 3.1
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=114290


Also, here is the list of hosted mods at TWCentre forums
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=211

[The Stranger]

how about the problems with secon handed weapons and pikemen. does cavalry chase routers properly now?

[ReiseReise]

1.2 supposedly fixed chasing routers, i still find it better to manually chase them (run through them and click attack when you are in the middle of them)

[PapaNasty]

I've never had much of an issue with routers, but i've only ever played from 1.2 and never played vanilla without the patch, so i have no experience of the pre-1.2 patch issues. My cav chases them without much hassle, although there is an occasional need to micro-manage what they do.

as for secondary weapons and pikes, some people say they still have issues, although I use pikes and cavalry tends to have a hard time against them, but i don't expect them to be the force they were in RTW. Kingdoms sounds like it will majorly change things though.

The main issue i know of (main for me anyway) is with units like Dismounted Feudal Knights and similar, who use polearms in Melee. Apparently (its in the buglist) they use 4 offensive animations, but only two of them actually give damage in melee against infantry, so effectively those units are handicapped in melee against infantry. The animations seem to work ok against cav if my memory serves me right though. Its a game animation bug and i'm not sure if any of the mods fix it.

[The Stranger]

hmmm... I'm still thinking about it... not sure whether ill do it... thanks for the advice anyways... ill check and see what the mods are about

[crpcarrot]

just though i'd add that LTC mod was made with input from CA developers and some of the balancing changes that will come out in kingdoms are included in LTC.

[Odin]

LTC is an exceptional mod and one I have played for many hours. It greatly enhances the game but you dont loose the original vanilla feel (this is a positive).

I am currently playing DLV mod over at TWcenter (link in posts above) it slows the game down a lot, and has many addon features.

[Lacessit]

LTC is an exceptional mod and one I have played for many hours. It greatly enhances the game but you dont loose the original vanilla feel (this is a positive).

LTC is probably my favourite mod. I too really enjoy its enhanced 'vanilla feel'. Whenever I play DLV, it gets too slow and cumbersome. Not just in computer-performance, but also in game-play feel. It has some very nice features, but it takes the 'realism' factor a bit too far for me. I remember once that the 'age-mod' feature it has killed off my entire family within 4 turns. 5 or six generals just dropped dead from natural causes. That's realism for some, but masochism to me.

[The Stranger]

ltc it will be then..