Smaller rebel stacks to begin with?

[Demokritos]

One of the very few things I don't fancy in SV is the size of the army in almost all rebel settlements. It's a bit off balance compared to the size of a given garrison for the different factions at the start of the campaigns. It's as if every independent provincial ruler has more manpower than any of his provincial counterparts belonging to a bigger faction. The quantity difference is of course there only to give the player a greater gameplay challenge. But it often makes it more rational to attack the other factions first, since they are about as weak as you are, both in numbers and development (I tried the Byzantines the other day and destroyed the Seljuk Turks in my second move of the campaign, by taking their lone settlement when the main part of their forces went eastwards, presumably in an attempt to take a rebel settlement). Unless the rebel settlement has a very large population, I think it would be more fitting to get the greater gameplay challenge through facing (even) higher quality troops. This would be as if every independent provincial ruler can recruit better soldiers and train them harder than any of his non-independent counterparts belonging to a bigger faction. In a multi-provincial empire, such matters must be handed over to the distant king, tsar or sultan, and one can imagine it takes a while for the big rulers to get a grip on their big realms before they can match the independent rulers on this score.
I just wonder if there are any plans for changing this side of SV in the future. Otherwise, I'll just go into the files and change the composition of the rebel garrisons a little.
Still think SV provides the most Medieval looking M2TW game of all mods.

PS. I haven't noticed yet, but are the rebel settlements scripted to change the size and composition of their garrisons over time?

[DaVinci]

With the next release, this and other campaign balance things will be changed, for example through the garrison script.

The fact, that the independant factions (rebels) have bigger garrisons is due to the fact that they don't recruit units out of their settlements (as yet) and to give them a chance to survive some time, and yes, all selectable factions have low starting garrisons to give the player a challenge.
From my view, that you're attempting to decrease the starting rebel garrisons is an odd decision

[Demokritos]

The changes sound interesting. Thanks for the quick reply.

My own changes would be, as I implied, not simply to reduce the rebel garrisons, but to swap quantity for quality. In other words, I would delete several of the lesser quality units from the rebel garrisons all over the place, but replace them with a few more of the already present higher quality units, and perhaps up their experience etc as well.

BTW, is there any way I could reduce the size of the banners a little also? They make me think of flagpoles rather than banners. It's the only unrealistic visual content of the battle mode and it would be swell to get them more in accordance with the beautiful rest. Examples below:

[SicilianVespers]

To add to what DV just said, the garrison script includes every settlement, for all AI controlled factions. All this was accomplished without impacting the turn length, so you won't even notice the script is running.

Some settlements will also get special garrisons to reflect their historic importance, and also to help the one province factions.

In SV, you should really think of the rebels as minor factions.

Regarding the banners, I am not sure this can be changed, but the next release will include the Kings Banner mod. So there is something to look forward to

[Demokritos]

I can't wait to get my hands on the new SV! I mean, I really look forward to the release of it, whenever it is due. Better do it slow and good, than fast and lacking in a number of ways. Well, as long as joy enjoy doing it.

What about the banner thing? Can I do something on my own there and, if yes, how do I do it?

[SicilianVespers]

I can't wait to get my hands on the new SV!

What about the banner thing? Can I do something on my own there and, if yes, how do I do it?

I think the only way to reduce the size of the banners is to mod them. You can also disable them via the cfg file:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=70942

[Demokritos]

Yes, thanks for the tip about how to disable banners, but I knew about it and think I prefer oversized banners than no banners at all.

Which file do you mod when you want to reduce the size of the banners (the link you provided does not say anything about modding such a thing)?
Thanks for your help in this matter.

Edit: never mind. I searched the forum on this subject and found the info I was looking for. Thanks anyway for the previous replies.

[DaVinci]

Yes, thanks for the tip about how to disable banners, but I knew about it and think I prefer oversized banners than no banners at all.

Which file do you mod when you want to reduce the size of the banners (the link you provided does not say anything about modding such a thing)?
Thanks for your help in this matter.

I hope, some day in future we'll have real flag/banner bearer units, and then we can get rid of the ( unrealistic in units sticked and too big ) banners, and no, i guess there is no way to reduce its length due to hard codes, but i might be wrong.

[Demokritos]

Oh, thanks for your reply Davinci, which you posted while I was editing my last post(!). But my search gave me an answer from bdotward in the thread "Joe's Banner & Symbol Mod" somewhere at the Total War Center Forums. This bdotward guy seems to have been able to do it in the file he mentioned there. I will check it out later today or perhaps tomorrow.

Your solution sounds very interesting, though! I'd like to see a sample of that some day.

PS. Decided to make a quick test about changing a certain numerical value in the descr_banners_new.xml file referred to by bdotward, from 1.0 to 0.5, and look how it came out in battle mode:

Voilà! Reduced banner sizes with the simplest of modding! Compare with the Scottish banner in my first example above.

[DaVinci]

Oh, thanks for your reply Davinci, which you posted while I was editing my last post(!). But my search gave me an answer from bdotward in the thread "Joe's Banner & Symbol Mod" somewhere at the Total War Center Forums. This bdotward guy seems to have been able to do it in the file he mentioned there. I will check it out later today or perhaps tomorrow.

Your solution sounds very interesting, though! I'd like to see a sample of that some day.

PS. Decided to make a quick test about changing a certain numerical value in the descr_banners_new.xml file referred to by bdotward, from 1.0 to 0.5, and look how it came out in battle mode:

Voilà! Reduced banner sizes with the simplest of modding! Compare with the Scottish banner in my first example above.

That's great, and thanks a lot, i hope we'll come to the decision to adapt this little modification.

Some medieval created flag bearer units, you can view in the ChivalryTW forum (BI mods section), the screenshot thread, stickied, link: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=93741.

For the SV project though, we would adapt the textures, of then provided flags from banner modifications, for several new bearer units.

[Demokritos]

Checked the link you provided, Davinci, and, yes, it sure looks a lot more promising than the present system of showing banners, even if it has turned out that one can reduce them to the size one wants here.

I just wonder about something with this alternative way of showing banners which you are contemplating. I would think it really great if every character that acquires a title carried a special banner signifying this title when in battle mode. In this way, if three French generals show up on the battlefield against you, for instance, then, apart from all of them carrying the banner of the French, they would also carry the banners of "King of France", "Duke of Normandy" and "Count of Chartres", respectively. The sight of this in the game would be more like the spectacle which an approaching army was in real life back then. Unique title banners would have the added advantage that if one of your generals in battle has acquired a series of really bad traits, then you could easily pick him out to do the more dangerous work. My point is, a multitude of unique banners like this would be more difficult to implement with special flagbearers, wouldn't it?

[DaVinci]

Checked the link you provided, Davinci, and, yes, it sure looks a lot more promising than the present system of showing banners, even if it has turned out that one can reduce them to the size one wants here.

I just wonder about something with this alternative way of showing banners which you are contemplating. I would think it really great if every character that acquires a title carried a special banner signifying this title when in battle mode. In this way, if three French generals show up on the battlefield against you, for instance, then, apart from all of them carrying the banner of the French, they would also carry the banners of "King of France", "Duke of Normandy" and "Count of Chartres", respectively. The sight of this in the game would be more like the spectacle which an approaching army was in real life back then. Unique title banners would have the added advantage that if one of your generals in battle has acquired a series of really bad traits, then you could easily pick him out to do the more dangerous work. My point is, a multitude of unique banners like this would be more difficult to implement with special flagbearers, wouldn't it?

Interesting idea ... but atm. i can't imagine that it is possible to attach certain regional governor title banners in such a dynamic way, for instance to the lances of the bodyguards of certain generals for the battle mode, as it must be generated via the modeldb file respectivily the texture files. And those are, except the armour upgrade function, a static file. Check the files out to understand what i mean. It would be possible to create several general bg textures for each region though, and then these generals must be recruited from these regions via hidden resources codes ... only way to reflect this what you think, afaik, but not really feasable, as the number of hidden resources is limited.
Contrary to this, it is rather easy to create faction banner bearers, also possible for regional recruitment with the certain regional banners (with said limitation), but in every case a huge amount of work, so i would say, creating faction banner bearers is the first way of realistic battle banner simulation.

Btw., if you have time on your hands, and would have fun to help the development, via beta testing and discussion, then you are welcome to join the beta testing forum as test member.

[Demokritos]

I suspected my idea about title banners would be difficult to implement...

Thanks for the invitation, Davinci, and it sounds tempting to be part of a M2TW mod development team in some way, but I don't know if I can be of much help. I know nothing about programming or how to conduct betatesting of some software, and have only since about a couple of weeks ago started the humblest of a modding career, just editing some values in various text files. Neither do I have access to software in the way of graphical modding tools. But I go as a bit of an artist with pencil and paper, and I've studied history and philosophy at university, and, if I got into the world of modding, I guess I could do some work worth integrating with one mod of this sort or other. ATM, however, I have a paper to finish in between shifts to support myself. The situation makes me a bit wary to commit myself to something where people depend on me to deliver something within a certain time. But if you still think I can give you guys a hand with my meagre means, then PM me about it, specifying in what areas that would be, and I'll give it a thought.
Whatever you do, thanks again for asking.

BTW, I think Joedreck, the creator behind the King's Banner Mod(?), thought he could make every unit appear with a banner signifying from which province they were recruited. I will not swear on remembering this correctly, though. Can check it out later if you want me to.