AI Battle Formation Mods

[Warmaster Horus]

Uh, can someone upload it to another site, since filefront and me don't go well...
And which formation pack do you guys recommend?

[Lysander13]

Uh, can someone upload it to another site, since filefront and me don't go well...
And which formation pack do you guys recommend?

If you can hold off a bit WH, I'll post another mirror in this thread later on today, first chance I get, for those who may have issues with FileFront for what ever reason. Is there a particular upload site for those who have issues with FileFront prefer?

As for a recomendation: It's a matter of preference really. However, if it's a recommendation you'd like. I recommend you give Sinuhet Formations a try.

[Warmaster Horus]

Fine, I can wait. As for another site, I don't care. Anything's fine so long as filefront isn't involved.

I'll be sure to try Sinuhet's pack then.

[Lysander13]

First post updated to reflect another download link added. Presumably for those who have trouble downloading from FileFront. Perhaps this mirror will suffice.

[Warmaster Horus]

Ah, yep, I can download it. Problem is that my antivirus picks up both a virus and a trojan the second the download is complete...

[Lysander13]

Ah, yep, I can download it. Problem is that my antivirus picks up both a virus and a trojan the second the download is complete...

Your antivirus is registering a false positive. I assure you i'm not in the business of uploading trojans and viruses under the guise of modified formations for EB to the internet. You wouldn't happen to use AVG would you? Anyhow, as a precaution, i downloaded, scanned, and installed from both links. There both fine.

[Warmaster Horus]

Okay, fine. I wasn't doubting you at all.

[mcantu]

lysander13,

did you make any changes to sling stones/bullets? they seem to explode on impact now...

[Lysander13]

lysander13,

did you make any changes to sling stones/bullets? they seem to explode on impact now...

Yea, I tinkered a bit with projectiles in a visual sense. Really only to suit my tastes however. If you don't happen to like it and would like the original EB settings. All you need do is copy/paste the relevant files from the archive into the EB/data folder. Presuming you'd like to keep the formations and just return this setting to EB's that is. I know you know this mcantu. I mention it for the benefit of others
who may not.

[mcantu]

i think i'll keep it. i like the other projectile changes. it just confused me a little seeing the sling stones shattering...

[Lysander13]

Perhaps I should have given it a little more thought in regards to the sling stones. They're actually sling bullets as I recall. Obviously there wasn't a deep though process involved here. I just think it looks cool. :P

[Blazing141]

Hi all,
I have downloaded this, but before installing just want to confirm this is save-game compatible and also that it is compatible with the Alex.exe.

Thanks!

T

[Lysander13]

Hi all,
I have downloaded this, but before installing just want to confirm this is save-game compatible and also that it is compatible with the Alex.exe.

Thanks!

T

No worries mate. The answer is yes on both counts.

[Intranetusa]

Hmmm, so apparently from reading 5 pages of posts, I've come to the conclusion that:

Darth Mod is better for barbarian formations

Sinuhet is better for phalanx formations. It is better overall but has problems with elephants serving as skirmish units instead of heavy cavalry

[Dutchhoplite]

Can you install two mods and what´s the effect??

[Intranetusa]

Can you install two mods and what´s the effect??

I doubt it...I think it'll just override each other - cuz the mods all use the same AI battle formations text document.

[Atraphoenix]

thank you for this great submod.

I play mostly my old pal romani because they have best infantry.

also when I bored with them as the best cavalry faction I play Pahlava.

so for romani which mod or formation do you advise ; I am still happy with manipular formation .

for pahlava I find difficult to apply eastern skirmish formation. so same question again and AFAIK elephants is put as skirmish cavalry in the formations.

thanks for you and for all who gave their labour to this wonderful idea.

[Carta]

Hi how can I check if the mod has installed properly. I have installed Darth Formations 16.2 for EB to EB1.1
Thanks

[Lysander13]

Hi how can I check if the mod has installed properly. I have installed Darth Formations 16.2 for EB to EB1.1
Thanks

You can verify installation simply by opening the descr_formations_ai.txt file located in the EB/data folder with notepad. If installed correctly there should be a Darth Formations 16.2 reference along the top of the text file.

[Demivrgvs]

Hi! I've been using Darth's formations till now but seeing how many of you prefer Sinuhet's ones, and considering I play on Large settings (my PC could handle Huge but I think Large scale is better imo) I want to try them out. Anyway I've a few questions:

- Does "DESCR_BATTLE_MAP_MOVEMENT_MODIFIERS.TXT" has any real effect on the AI's performance in battle? Sinuhet's files also change the "battle map movements" but I prefer EB's ones which are slower and more broad-based;

- I've read elephants are used as skirmisher cavalry, does it mean they are not used effectively? Not that I've ever seen the AI use them with great results...

- I was thinking too about raising cavalry mass values, but I would have raised them much less than you did. Do you think that lower bonuses wouldn't be noticeable?

Thanks for your mods anyway, these formations are a huge improvement over vanilla's lame AI, and even much better than EB's one imo.

[Lysander13]

Originally Posted by Demivrgvs
Hi! I've been using Darth's formations till now but seeing how many of you prefer Sinuhet's ones, and considering I play on Large settings (my PC could handle Huge but I think Large scale is better imo) I want to try them out. Anyway I've a few questions:

Sinuhet Formations work just as well on either large or huge unit settings.

- Does "DESCR_BATTLE_MAP_MOVEMENT_MODIFIERS.TXT" has any real effect on the AI's performance in battle?

That would depend on your definition of the word performance. I increased movement rates for 2 reasons.
1) In vanilla RTW, movement rates were set high as a generality. Really for no other purpose than to mask AI battlefield deficiencies, IMO. Giving the AI what could perhaps be seen as somewhat of an advantage ( albeit small ) of being able to execute orders and be on top of it's opponent very quickly. Player is at a small disadvantage not in terms of tactics of course but in how quickly he can react to the AI's very quick moving force. EB of course slowed the movement rates quite a bit. I chose what i considered to be a happy medium between EB's slower movement settings and vanilla's speed racer settings to suit my own tastes.

The main reason however was....

2) I recall reading something about movement rates quite a ways back. It was from a very reputable RTW Modder as i recall. May have been Darth or Sinuhet, i don't recall exactly. Anyhow, what i read was that reduced movement rates will cause units to fatigue quicker. I decided to test it out back then for myself to formulate my opinion and it does seem that way. Naturally, the remedy to this would be to play with fatigue off since the AI doesn't handle fatigue very well anyway. However, i don't like playing with fatigue off as it just doesn't seem right to me to do so in a realism mod. So i increased movement rates to stave off fatigue just a bit longer.

Sinuhet's files also change the "battle map movements" but I prefer EB's ones which are slower and more broad-based;

By all means then use EB's settings.

- I've read elephants are used as skirmisher cavalry, does it mean they are not used effectively? Not that I've ever seen the AI use them with great results...

Elephants are used in skirmisher blocks within the formations. Not like skirmisher cavalry per say. The original authors of these formations were of the opinion that they were better served being in these skirmisher blocks in terms of effectiveness. I happen to agree. Keep in mind words like "effective" & "performance" are relative terms when referring to the battlefield AI in TW games.

- I was thinking too about raising cavalry mass values, but I would have raised them much less than you did. Do you think that lower bonuses wouldn't be noticeable?

I happen to like the higher cavalry mass values. I've always liked a bit more disparity between the mass of cavalry and infantry. I like the cavalry to be a bit heavier so to speak and have the ability to disrupt and push around the battle lines a bit more. Of course anything i've done here has been to suit my own tastes when playing EB. I never expected everyone to like it nor have i ever claimed it's a better setting than the original EB setting. It's just how i like it is all. As for lower mass settings. Obviously the lower the setting, the less noticeable the push the cavalry achieves. Matter of personal preference i suppose.

Thanks for your mods anyway

Your welcome. Hope i answered some your questions to your satisfaction. Enjoy

[Demivrgvs]

Hope i answered some your questions to your satisfaction.

Indeed you have, thanks!

Regarding battle movement and fatigue, I'll try it out...what it seems to me is that fatigue is tied to time instead of space. Thus slower troops will fatigue faster because they take more time to march the same distance.

I'll try a "happy medium" between your mount mass values and EB's ones.

[Poppis]

Just started a new campaign as ptolemy and during the first battle, I noticed some weird ass smoke buffs apearing every time a unit got hit with missiles. There were lots of skirmisher units in the battle, but I'm pretty sure it was the Sphendonetai (Hellenic slingers) who caused it. So that every time they hit a unit with their bullets, there were these weird smoke clouds appearing.

One of your earlier posts you mentioned that you had done something to the visual appearence of projecitiles, so I just wanted to know whether this is caused by this mod, or EB(this didn't happen with Accensi in my previous campaigns).

I'm using Darth Formations and Camillan.

[Lysander13]

One of your earlier posts you mentioned that you had done something to the visual appearence of projecitiles, so I just wanted to know whether this is caused by this mod, or EB(this didn't happen with Accensi in my previous campaigns).

This mod changed changed the visual appearance of projectiles. It isn't EB. In retrospect, for the purposes of this mod, I should have perhaps left projectiles for slingers in their original EB form. Considering the projectile is a sling bullet as I recall. No big deal however if you'd like to keep the formations but use EB's original projectile settings. Just take the projectile files provided in the archive and copy/paste them into your EB data folder.

[Poppis]

Ok, thanks.

Btw, there was a descr_particle file in the archive too, does that have anything to do with projectiles?

Also, how come I didn't see anything weird with Accensi? Do they use some different animation or something?

[Lysander13]

Ok, thanks.

Btw, there was a descr_particle file in the archive too, does that have anything to do with projectiles?

Also, how come I didn't see anything weird with Accensi? Do they use some different animation or something?

Yes, to restore the original EB projectile settings, place the particle file in your EB/data as well.

As for the Accensi:
I haven't played EB in a while. So the unit or the projectile it uses escapes me and I'm unable to access the files at the moment to check for you.

[Maksimus]

hi,

can anyone give me his observation on differences betwean snth and dv ai mods, and what is the story of elephants not charging in snth AI formations. Also, what is more suitable for big battles, I prefer dv's but I cant seem to notice much of a difference, if alxeb is going to pick one, we would like the better one

[Primative1]

Is this compatible with 1.2?

[Woreczko]

Yes, it is, though backuping your files is advisory - it may be difficult to return to EB formations if you do not like new ones. Files oyu should backup are (IIRC) descr_formations.txt, descr_formations_ai.txt, descr_projectile_new.txt, descr_mount.txt, DESCR_BATTLE_MAP_MOVEMENT_MODIFIERS.TXT, descr_particle.txt

[Praetor Diego]

Hi,

I have a question, witch files are remplaced with this mod?