DarthMod: The Last Episode__General Feedback

[Thorn]

hi,
play tested darthmod 1.4D + BBBv2.1 under kingdoms and its the best possible experience ive had yet with mtw2. the battle/ai is where it truly shines above all elses mods. you get a different feel that battles are more engaging as far as the coherency /cohesion is concerned. there is more aggressiveness from the AI standpoint and im losing battles, not because of tactical engagement from the AI, but because of better fielding armies (this could be from kingdoms expansion) and the different "FEEL" that chooses to wipe out my feudal knights against an AI army of the aztecs. how are lower quality troops ascending to victory against my higher end troops? i rather not question it as i do believe its once again the "FEEL" taking effect here.
other mods tend to focus more on functionality which is eye catching to an extent, but the sacrifices made to an under-developed gameplay in regards to battle AI is really deceiving.
people say darth's EDU is superficial because of the overwhelming cavalry stats, i disagree here. i always thought cavalry dropped like flies in the approach of LTC or SS. besides they are ffew in numbers, why not make them elite.

i changed some routine values in darth's already perfected config_ai_battle by means of a more devastating AI behavior. this was done by visual observation. test concluded a yield of 10% or more AI efficiency throughout a battle. but what do i know, im not a modder.

I will try your file when i get some time and post results..

[Borluc]

if that is true we should deactivate casallization once for all

Not sure what you mean by "casallization". I didn't know what it meant so I looked it up and it isn't in the dictionary hehehe.

Seriously though, I'm not trying to bash the mod or anything. Its just that the more experienced I get with it, the easier it turns out to be. Diplomacy is the main problem. I can't imagine that I'm the only one noticing this either because a lot of you guys were testers.

[Borluc]

Wait, so you got a Crusade against France? Were Spain and Milan allied with them at the time?

That must have been one hell of a battle lol.


@Andy B

Hey man at least it makes for an interesting campaign lol. Its almost like some of the Catholic nations took exception to a Crusade on France.



What unit size do you use? Huge?

[DARTH VADER]

Borluc can you upload your save game?

[Thorn]

Not sure what you mean by "casallization". I didn't know what it meant so I looked it up and it isn't in the dictionary hehehe.

Seriously though, I'm not trying to bash the mod or anything. Its just that the more experienced I get with it, the easier it turns out to be. Diplomacy is the main problem. I can't imagine that I'm the only one noticing this either because a lot of you guys were testers.

och.. the "C" key is just at the left of the "V" one... that's all..

We have tested a lot.. and we know, or at least i think so, that the diplomacy is the weak spot of this mod (if we should pick one) the tools and files CA gave to us aren't too good for moding, too much rules without a clear organization, but i could tell you we are still working on it.

[Borluc]

Ok, Winrar didn't work so I tried winzip. Hope this worked.

Really though, I wouldn't call the diplomacy the weak spot. You guys have finally achieved a level of reasonable interaction that was never feasible before. I don't mod but it seems like the acceptable values for in game diplomacy deals are too much in favor of the person offering.

[Andy B]

Wait, so you got a Crusade against France? Were Spain and Milan allied with them at the time?

That must have been one hell of a battle lol.

nope this is whats got me puzzled...

i auto resolved it just for the shot, but i saved just before so i'm going to see if anything changes if i replay it... - dont know if i should now tho cause i just took out denmark, france has one region left, i may aswell show spain and milan whos the daddy
-------------------------
started off like this...

after taking the capital of france and taking rhiems, i gave to spain them both cause the moors were whooping them + milan had sent an army up to have a dig at france which i helped them out with,

the pope called a crusade on france, so i joined straight away, cause i was already at war with them, then next turn spain, portugal, HRE joined, edit: and the pole's.

now spain and milan "were" my close allies, military rights, i was giving them both a regular tribute, and our relations were outstounding...

and when i went to assault the walls they were on france's side, so they got whooped, and now there both at war with me. "FUBAR" lets boogie

// Andy B

[DARTH VADER]

Thank you borluc for your prompt reaction.

Checking the save game I see that you play with not huge settings (small?)

This probably affects the population rates and therefore the economy bloom.

I remember this happening from RTW where different army settings gave different campaign feel.

I only play with HUGE and all setiings is with HUGE which is the recommended (I should have told but never realised it would affect so much). Do you play also VH/VH?

Venice was historically the wealthiest nation of the region and the dominant merchant force. I see you have achieved that.

Try to play another campaign with Huge settings and maybe with another country and tell me what you get.

Venice is easy because you played well with your merchants but I see you have not gained any lands...you are just wealthy while other forces around you are very strong and maybe you will have problem when they will coordinate attacks.

Anyhow.

I insist that my campaign/diplomacy AI is unseen so far and you will witness (the most important) quick update of relations even mid turn and also allied packs as never before.
AI will assist any trusted ally and you can also gain military passages for this.

[Thorn]

@Darth.. are u using Composite_arrow and Cav_composite_arrow entries at projectiles file ?

i can't find any unit using them..

Edit: and bodkin ones?

[Andy B]

@Burloc and whoevers interested ,

carry on...

so i thought i'd leave the other factions to complete the crusade, and just after i garrisoned my 2 armys, portugal took the oppertunity to assault the walls... but with massive consiquences

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

milan broke our alliance but the spainish maintained it. but spain also turned on portugal. after that thing's started to get dirty lol

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hmmm...

HRE & Poland called a ceasefire with france who has just allied with portugal, so before they all made an alliance i took my oppertunity to finish france off.

now spain and the moors are allies, both sandwhichin portugal, + i'm thinking of sending millitary assistance to the spainish captial thats under siege by portugal, and its about time the ruskies faces England's power
:hmmm:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

found what looks like two more bugs...

1. little one i'd say the torches the infantry are holding... thier not there just floating about by the side...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Again...

+ i found a super major bug at Hamburg, i think... check this out;

it shows 26216 Generals Bodyguards available , but when i click them it dosent go down?! i can just keep popping them out... forever lmao whatdya think?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

FUBAR.

Rep appreciated

//Andy B

[Don in the North]

imo we should just remove torches anyways.
they chew up alot of resources for night battles and are often present in day battles too.
if i wanted to do that myself what entry in what file should i delete/edit?

[Borluc]

No need for thanks man. You made me a great mod for free. Actually, I thank you as I know you are supposed to be retired now. You probably want some rest, not some random guy giving you a hard time.

HUGE armies and settings? Do you mean just the one value or are there other places in options to set populations to HUGE? Will it bog down my mediocre machine? Thats actually a great observation though. I never considered that that might be the problem.

Do you think that large armies would be acceptable?

I always play on VH/VH now. My unit size is Normal.

In my Venice campaign I've not expanded much by turn ... 40?...but I have captured at least 6-7 settlements. Mainly, I only did it for the extra merchants you are right. However, although my income was steady before, after I vassaled Byzantium I gained huge wealth. I know I could have done the same thing with several other countries afterwards because they all came and begged me for alliances.

If you noticed, each of my settlements had a large garrison with the option of recruiting more at any sign of danger. Anyway, I usually use few armies and cunning over brute force.

Btw what is the exact effect of the vassal system? I seemed to get a huge amount of money(150-200k) from the rich Byzantines for about 2-4 turns and then it leveled off at 18-20K a turn. I might be off on the numbers as I was overwhelmed with how much I was getting.

I'll try another normal campaign. I was thinking of trying out the custom VS. Muslims as someone mentioned it was more difficult but I can wait. I just hope HUGE doesn't kill my machine.

Thank you for your reply and taking them time to analyze my problem.

[nickman777]

hi,
took more time to further rework the parameters under config_ai_battle.
this time focusing on ai-siege-defending. you will witness yourselves the best possible coordination of the AI and its responsiveness.
just check the replay, it speaks for itself.

[Borluc]

@nickman777

Are you Darth's alter ego or a freelancer?

@Whoever wants to hear

I started as the Turks with huge unit size. I'm only on round 3 but the battles are much more intense with little lost in performance.

I actually am able to vassal Byzantines for map info and 1k though. Is there a way to isolate the vassal option and greatly increase the cost of demanding it? It should be based off of how much the potential vassal fears you.

For now, I'm just going to ignore that feature so I don't become overly powerful with a glitch.

[Amenbat]

I plea to you DARTH to rethink how to make cavalry less "Jedi-like", I like every feature of this mod and feel spoiled when I play a different one. Only enjoy M2TW thanks to your work but... I get really disappointed when using cavalry.

I've read you want it to make realistic and makes sence but horses just kill everything around. And the costs to buy / maintain are waaay too cheap.

Cavalry should be devastating when charging but weak when standing still in the middle of 160 spearmen.

I destroyed 320 spearmen just with 2 generals of 46 bodyguards each. With no charge, no experience, no armor upgrades, just entablish combat and spearmen would drop like rain in winter while my cavalry wouldn't drop in a single man for minutes afther fighting.

[folo4]

did you try VH/VH?

also, pikes = calvary murderers.

[Andy B]

i say the cavaly's class, i think you should just use them as there supposed to be used, for charging in on the flanks or rear with lances then pullin back, and so on

allthough it is qutie annoying when the enemys general bodyguards walk over and take ageeees to kill... lol
but my Armoured swordsmen do seem take them down quite easily...

// Andy B

[Thorn]

Ai needs help vs gun units... they keep away taking hits.., maybe their threshold is a bit less than it should be.. if you move the muskets a bit further, then the AI charges straight to them..

And spears units keeps turning back just before a cavalry charge..

[unKnownWarrior]

wait so the whole time i was playing the beta? cuz i installed and downloaded it on the 16th of september...

so the one posted up right now is the updated version?

[-[Scorpion]-]

Did i need to install version 1.4B before installing this new version 1.4D ?

I ask that since the 1.4B is 105mb and 1.4D is only 53,9mb so it confuse me a bit here.


-Scorp