OTZ's AOR Mod - feedback

[OTZ]

Hey everyone,

I have been slogging away at a personal mod for the last couple of weeks...I wanted something very simple that would allow me to recruit other faction's units if I conquered their territory, and I also wanted to limit the areas where I could recruit my own units.

Well, after a lot (and I mean a lot) of noobish trial and error, I've finished the first part of my mod. Militia units (ie city created) are done only. Starting at the City Watch level, you can ceate other faction's militia units in conquered territory. Similarly, once you have expanded past a certain region, you can no longer make your own units.

This is what I have done:

There are effectively 20+ regions on the map. The 2 big ones are Muslim and Christian. These are the regions where, you guessed it, Muslim factions can create their own units, and Christian/Orthodox theirs.

The varios sub-regions are all faction specific. As an example, If you are playing as France, you can start making English units once you've conquered territory along the North East shores of Europe, and England itself of course.

Iberia is a mixed bag of everything...Spanish, Moorish, Aragonese, and Portugese units are available.

This effectively adds approx 30 units to your roster. Their skins are all rather plain (rebels), since I was lazy and did not want to take the time to change them all. I did not include the Army Barracks units, but I will probably finish those up today.

Anyway, what I want to know, is whether to release this as it is now, or release it once I've finished the Castle Barracks units? I plan to keep working away until it's reached my level of satisfaction, but it could be another week.

Any thoughts/comments/suggestions?

EDIT: Also note that this is compatible with RC, but I think it can easily be changed to make it work with vanilla SS.

[Caesar Clivus]

Personally, I think you should wait until its a bit more finished, just so people can see better how it will work.

[delra]

Now, now, WE WANT IT NOW!!!!

Just kidding. Let's wait till it's finished. :-)

[whhyy]

I like quality mods.

[muffinhead]

yeah i have seen many mods (not so much this game) that have been rushed and turn out very buggy, many problems, etc. and i think that you should take your time not only for bug purposes, but boy would i love to create some gothic knights as france

[OTZ]

Well, just to toss out some more info...my time is somwhat limited (work/wife/life...not necesarily in that order), so my bug testing has been just checking to make sure I've got all the skins working correctly (and no Terminators running around the battlefield). I haven't actually been able to play a game yet to actually test how this "feels" - so when it is released, I would have to rely on feedback for any bugs/issues. I can confirm that the AOR works though...

It might be worth releasing what I have to a few people to let them beta test it to see if I'm headed in the right direction....

[delra]

I can take a look on this if you tell me how to merge it with my M2TW without breaking my RC. :-)

[Mike13531]

I'll beta it!! i volunteer!!!!!!! dam man, i almost missed this thread

anyways, great work! way to go, but i don't understand a couple of things, suppose i'm playing as the mongols... if i conquered byzantium, will i stilll be able to recruit my mongol units in byzantium?? How many, and which units can be used as our own?
thank you in advance for answering, good luck !

[OTZ]

well, the way it works, your core units will only be recruitable in regions that match your religion. As an example, If you are Muslim, than you can recruit your core units in the Middle East, Turkey, parts of the Russian Steppes, North Africa, Iberia, and the Balkans. That's effectively the range for those factions.

Same goes for Christians...as England, you can recruit your units as far south as Iberia, and as far east as Turkey, and some parts of Palestine that were Christian.

Beyond those regions, it's just militia units (for now - until I add the Castel Barracks units) of the nations you conquer. ie, again as Engalnd, Saracen militia in Turkey/Egpyt...etc.

Some regions are overlapping as well.

It's a quick and easy way for me to implement the AOR, but it can easily be changed.

Here is the link. http://hosted.filefront.com/OTZ/

Just extract it to your M2TW folder and it should work (crosses fingers)...back up your files of course. EDU, EDB, desc_regions, export.units, and modledb are all overwritten.

You will also need to delete the map.rmw file (Stainless_Steel_Mod\data\world\maps\base) in order for the hidden rsources to be implemented.

Again, this is only the early stages of the beta - I need feedback to let me know if what I have is acceptable and what I should/could change.

EDIT - I know I am missing some unit info - I wasn't too concerned about them. All the unit cards should be there though.

[Mike13531]

i'll give you my feedback, soon i hope, cause i gotta backup my other stuff, unlike the other guys here... my battle_model, EDU, trait and lots of other files are self-edited x_x

[Vacrovic]

Would it be possible to have a mechanic that as the regions you conquer stay under your control for some period of time you can recruit your normal units? For example, my Byzantine Empire took advantage of a Fatamid/Templar war to conquer all of Egypt. At first, I could mostly recruit Egyptian stuff but gradually more and more Egyptians become converted and 'assimilated' into my Byzantine Empire. Eventually the Egyptians are very loyal citizens of the Roman Empire once again and start producing units similar to the ones belonging to the rest of the Empire. However, they still have their 'identity' and can produce some very specific soldiers outside of the standard units.

Maybe religion-based? Like if 60-75% of a region belongs to the same faith as your nation is, you can recruit your normal units (exceptions being elite stuff like Janissaries and Varangian Guards) in it. Seems there would have to be something like this for Crusades. If a French crusade succeeds in taking Jerusalem they should be able to recruit some french units eventually, otherwise you'd have some real trouble re-supplying and reinforcing the armies.

I love the idea of regional recruitment, but as I usually play Byzantium I'd love for there to be some uniformity in my armies so I can know what to expect. If I would have to replace my normal soldiers completely with those belonging to a normal faction in a certain I would be most upset heh. I would hate to fight the Turks with an army identical to the Turks because I'm deep into their territory.

Just some thoughts.

[OTZ]

Well, I can certainly look into event counters, but I'm merely a novice modder. If someone knew for sure how this can be implemented, I'd be happy to give it a shot (I guess RTR had something similar)

[Daergar]

If you recall, RTR solved this by having a "citizenship level building" of sorts. It cost little, took many turns to build but basically reflected the gradual integration and naturalization of an area into empire X.

As an example, after a number of years (logically it would be 20 or so?), future generations of conquered Iberians or whatnot became "almost Romans" and thus you were able to recruit, if you had the army buildings needed, Roman army units. Before that happened, you had to rely on what the AOR allowed you to recruit alone.

Personally I loved the concept since it felt logical that a newly conquered province would hardly be that eager to form core units in the army. Same goes for the crusades as Vacrovic mentioned; that was the real crux with the crusades, reinforcements HAD to come from "home". They didn't exactly dig up new members for the knightly orders or the christian army in the holy land. Mercenaries (turcopoles and beduin scouts and whatnot) was the name of the game to fill out the relatively tiny army as far as I know.

[OTZ]

Wel, I just had a look at how how difficult it would be to add a Pacification/Assimilation type building, and it looks doable (with my skill level) - so I will defintiely take this into consideration. Thanks for the reminder about RTR's method!

[Daergar]

Sure thing, rtr came up in another thread so it was on my mind. Just strikes me as a simple and semi-logical solution (English unit X requires Y military, if not home area also requires citizen building Z or something).

[scivian]

OTZ, are you aware of this similar mod...http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=111420

Edit: I see you are. Others may find this interesting.

[Mike13531]

he got the idea from that mod.. god i wish i'm able to merge it, but x_x it just won't work

[OTZ]

OTZ, are you aware of this similar mod...http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=111420

Edit: I see you are. Others may find this interesting.

I hope so...anyway, I'll be away for a few days but if I can get everything working properly, I expect a 4.1 compatable release by next weekend.

[Mike13531]

alright! nice

[OTZ]

alright! nice

yep, so far so good. It looks like I will have 110 AOR units recruitable in this mod. I can add more if it seems lacking. There are about 75 infantry, 13 archer, and the balance in cav units...