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Thread: The Darth Ages (Version 0.9 Available)

  1. #1
    Thorn's Avatar Artifex
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    Icon4 The Darth Ages (Version 0.9 Available)

    Download Latest Version





    After my disappointment with ETW i have came back to keep improving my little M2TW mod a bit more, but first lets take a look of what you will find in The Darth Ages:

    -The Darth Ages is a stand alone mod for Medieval 2 Total War: Kingdoms. It is based on The Long Road mod from where i have taken the map, most of the units and buildings. Its battle balance is based on Darth Vader's work in his own mod. At last but not the less this game has integrated the XAI to enhance the campaign performance and gameplay.

    Features:

    -New economic/develpment system
    • Buildings take less time to be finished
    • Buildings are more expensive to slow dow the game
    • New buildings added (mines, markets..)
    • New capabilities added to buildings to make them more valuable
    • Reworked the trade/resource system to help the AI (which doesnt know how to use merchants properly)
    • There are too few diferences between cities and casttles because the AI cant switch from one to another

    -New Map/factions
    • The map and factions are the same as The Long Road mod (I have plans to add 1 or 2 more)
    • The map has been tweaked to allow the AI to move through it without getting stucked too often

    -Diplomacy
    • Diplomacy has been tweaked to make it more valuable
    • All your actions will have an direct and indirect impact on how your neighbourgs see you (The faction standings file has 5 times the size of vanilla one and i'm planning to enhance it even more)
    • The AI will try to have an actively diplomacy prior going to war, when fighting a hard war or when fighting multiple wars at a time
    • Religion effects will be stronger and not only for catholics

    -AI
    • This mod uses XAI (XCAI and XBAI)
    • You will find the AI making alliance blocks
    • The AI will call and fight crusades and jihads
    • The AI will gather its trops to make decissive assaults on enemy territory
    • The AI will switch from defense to offense depending on its current status
    • The AI could offer peace if it has too many wars
    • The AI will seek for help if it feels it cant win alone
    • The AI will not backstab you for no reason
    • The AI will try to use its troops better than in vanilla (more maneuvers, less pasive)

    -Battles/Units
    • There are some new units not included in TLR
    • The maintenance cost has been reduced to allow bigger armies
    • The combat system has been totally reworked
      • New projectile file with several new projectiles adding more variety to missile units
      • New unit stats rebalance to make battles harder and a bit slower than vanilla
      • Changed cavalry to have a great impact during charges, but weak during melee (if surrounded)
      • Improved the AI to give us a better challenge during battles
    • Created a priority system to help the AI training stronger armies
    • Tweaked the autocalc to make it more realistic

    at last I would aslo like to thank all the forum mates that have helped me during this 2 years of development:

    Darth Vader (who show me this game could be fun)
    Tornight (for his amazing work with The Long Road mod)
    Xeryx (with his amazing AI show me it could be really challenge us)
    Averröes (who help with the resources and the first name fix)
    Phil Stanbridge (who help with the latest name fix and a lot of good feedback)
    There are, of course, a lot more who have helped me through the process with updates, fixes and mos of all good feedback to improve the mod, its a shame i cant remember his names..


    You can see the work process and detailed features here
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    I have been "away" of modding issues for a while, first helping Darth to get a really nice "last" mod and later due lack of time..., but now i'm here to try something i have been thinking for a long time..

    I will try to combine Darth Mod with The Long Road giving them my personal touch and making them playable on Kingdoms (Thanks to retrofit mod)

    I don't know how long could it take as i have not too much time to work on it, but i will post here any update of my work..

    Status: Working on Step 5 (90% done)

    Step 0: (100% done) (I hade some problems with Xenophonia.., too many mods at once XD)
    Understanding how to use Retrofit to create the mod.

    Step 1: (99%)
    *Using Darth Combat and Diplomacy over TLR
    *Total rework of the EDU file
    +More men per unit (max 250)
    +More siege engines per unit (3-5)
    +Rebalance for all units (Skills, cost and battle performance):
    -More diference between kinds of units (swords, spears, heavy, light..)
    -Light units attack faster, but are less lethal.
    -Medium units, good performance speed/damage.
    -Heavy units, slower but mortal. (this get worst with heavy polearms).
    -Cavalry can no longer hold versus a spear unit unless disorganized or being Heavy cavalry.
    -Light Cavalry could be beaten by common infantry in some situations.
    -Light cavalry can no longer stand vs heavy cavalry
    +Changes on combat system.
    -100% hit ratio for melee combat.
    -Rework on projectiles (range/accuracy and ammunition)
    *Included XAI

    Step 2: (99%)
    *Improving and adapting campaign gameplay.
    +Rework merchan TLR system towards Darth's values
    +Rework of Building system
    -Building Cost
    -Unit roosters
    +Rework unit pools
    +Rework unit costs
    +Rework of settlement variables
    -pop Growth
    -Pop happines
    -Pop and farm income

    Step 3: (99%)
    Campaign Testing
    Reports from campaign (no more than 20 turns into it)
    -Slow city upgrades
    -Cheaper units, but you cannot train units every turn due new replenish factors (sometimes you could be forced to train low level units)
    -Well rounded AI armies
    -Cavalry is strong, but not a key factor as before (I have lost an even battle with more cavalry units and with 2:1 kill ratio to my side)
    -Cavlary vs Cavalry battles have 2 phases. At first there will be lots of casualties on both sides, but as the momentum has lost and soldiers get more stacionary battles could last for a while..
    -Back charges are deadly, I've lost half my bodyguards plus my general cos i was hit by an archer's charge from the back while fighting enemy general's unit. I was forced to disengage to safe the unit..
    -AI is training lots of troops and merging into nice armies. You will notice diference between factions depending on their tresaury.
    -AI is training Merchants and chasing others faction merchants.
    -AI is training Priests and sending them to convert population.
    -New Faction Standings (99%)
    -Xeryx's AI (99%)
    -Diplomacy (99%)
    -Campaign DB (99%)

    Step 4: (90%)
    Battle system
    -New unit stats (99%)
    -Faction specific stats (Removed)
    -Improved Battle AI (90%)
    -New Formations (50%)

    Step 5: Test Phase (75%)
    Improving Agent training priorities (50%)
    Improving AI army composition (90%)
    Testing Overal Diplomacy and FS effects (85%)
    ...

    Version 0.75:
    New Features:
    Added new skins models from TLR.
    Added new textures for cities in campaign map.
    Added new artillery and dust effects.
    New settlemen mechanics.
    Xeryx's Campaign AI.
    Initial faction standings adjustments.
    Fixed minor AI errors concerning Portugal.
    New catholic-papacy diplomacy rules.
    New Diplomacy rules to avoid easy treaties. Faction standings have a higher weight than before.
    Less rebel spawn armies, but bigger ones.
    +10% to base defense during merchant acquisition attempts.
    Some tweaks into the auto-calc.
    Removed starting wars and alliances and replaced them with Bad or Good relations (all factions will have the same chances).
    Reduced some rebel garrisons and lowered their exp.
    Events and actions not affect only the pope, all factions are somehow affected by crusades, jihads, buildings, etc (no more "plain" FS file).
    Religion will be a key factor during the campaign.


    Current Changes:
    New Combat system fully functional.
    New Building cost.
    New Units pools.
    Pop Growth.
    Merchant System.
    Siege weapons accuracy.
    Increased (a bit) resource's values.
    unlock special ability for ribaults.
    modded siege engines to almost same Darth's values.
    Fixed "shield Bug" on campaign during AI turns.
    Reworked unit's cost and pools
    Units are cheaper than before, so you could have bigger armies. (this should help the AI building better armies)
    Buildings are more expesive to keep the balance.
    Lots of new rules into Faction standing file(3x size of vanilla file).
    More weigh for religion.
    Stronger effects to diplomatic actions.
    Jihads added.
    Removed duplicated rules.
    Faction Specific rules.
    New Religious conversion rules.
    New Mounted accuracy/range values.
    Shield Wall formation added to several shielded units.
    Improved Ballistae accuracy vs units.
    Removed all aztecks units.
    Fixed bad accents.
    Tweaked Turkish starting gold and population.

    To install, unpack the Darth Ages into the Medieval II Total War/mods folder. This is the same folder where the Kingdoms campaigns such as the Crusades are located.

    Complete mod (Version 0.84) It upgrades any previous version: Darth Ages 0.84 (auto exec)

    Battle Fix
    Fixed bad behaviour of units during sieges.

    UI files
    Do NOT download them unless you are getting graphics issues with city names or white screens
    Installation:
    UI.zip file goes into Medieval\data\ui folder
    DAUi.zip file goes into Medieval\Mods\DarthAges\data\ui folder

    Those are the files i'm using without any trouble..

    Update 8.1 it upgrades the mod with fixed unit files and new rules for Faction Standings and Script files.

    Update 8.4:

    Some of the current changes

    +Rebalance of the EDU file
    All units have 1 HP but elephants
    Tweaked some stats for infantry and cavalry units
    Greatly increased Ship offsets to help the AI
    +Rebalance of the EDB
    New values for religion buildings
    Some Tweaks on troops availability
    +New Money and development Scripts
    +Reworked the FS file
    A few new rules
    Rebalanced Jihads/Crusade events
    Religion wars have less effect
    Battles are less relevant for allies/foes
    +New land bridges on Ireland and Gibraltar
    +Added Real Horses skins from Argent Usher
    +Added XBAI


    Update 8.6:
    +Small tweaks to the EDU
    Revised Camel units
    Revised Papal and Swiss Guard stats
    Fixed Hospitaler Knights bug
    +Latest XAI version
    +New Campaign script
    Instead of building the upgrades it will give pop, because some settlements werent growing
    +Less pirates (I hope)
    +Less heretics and witches
    +No ships available on Lakes
    +5 New mines, with diferent bonus and income
    Tin
    Iron
    Coal
    Marble
    Sulfur
    +1st try to help the AI training Agents.
    +Ports couldnt build ships on "Lakes"
    +Pirates should not spawn on "Lakes"
    +Removed TLR Leader Ancillaries (Temporaly, I hope)

    Update 0.88
    Changes into EDB to help the AI training more Agents
    Tweaks on names files to fix CTD issues
    Less pirates
    Latest XAI files


    Version 0.9

    -New XAI and XBAI
    -Tweaked Faction standings file
    -Some minor fixed
    -Reduced the chances of CTDs when destroying a faction
    -Tweaked some units stats
    -Tweaked economic system
    -Added new city graphics
    -Tweaked Unit priorities


    Download Latest Version


    Other Available files:
    Retrofit Mod:
    Enables the vanilla campaign to be playable on Kingdoms.
    http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=118680
    Last edited by Thorn; September 10, 2009 at 04:54 AM. Reason: upload DA

  2. #2
    Thorn's Avatar Artifex
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    Default Re: The Darth Ages (test)

    This is a mod based on The Long Road Campaign using Darth's combat AI, Xeryx's Campaign AI and running over Kingdoms.exe

    The mod is under development. Current version 0.75

    I'm working on Diplomacy and AI campaign behaviour.

    As i said i still have lots of things to improve, but i'll give you some advances of what you could see in The Darth Ages.

    Ferocious battles

    100% hit rate for melee combat
    Powerful infantry charges
    Effective spears vs cavalry
    Devastating chavalry charges
    Cavalry beatable when surrounded or stacionary
    Deadly rear charges
    Nice cavlary vs cavlary battles
    Improved pike units performance
    Improved projectile accuracy and disruption capabilities
    Reworked gunpowder units
    More siege engines per unit
    More soldiers per unit

    New Training System

    All units are available at casttles/cities (this helps the AI cos it doesn't know how to convert towns)
    Casttles train faster and more units than cities
    Mercenary buildings available to train AOR units
    Reworked unit's pools (capacity and regeneration) to a slower start. You could run out of soldiers or be forced to train low level units if you loose too much men.

    New Building System

    More buildings
    Expensive buildings to slower development of towns
    More bonus from buildings. (happines, income, etc)
    Time cost changed. (High level or special buildings may take years to finish)
    More agents (Cathedral 3 priests, Great Market 2merchants)

    New Economic/Settlement System

    Less income from trade (but more merchants available)
    Reworked resources values to something in between Darths and TLR values
    More income from taxes
    Less income from farm (but better farm bonus from land clearance)
    More panalties from high taxes
    More unrest from religion
    More penalties when besieged/blockaded
    Less income from non economic buildings
    More income from mines
    Markets gives income bonus

    New Campaign AI performance

    AI train big armies
    Good Army composition (Priority_offset for units)
    AI takes into account faction standings during negotiations
    Included XAI campaign AI

    New Faction Standings Rules (under development)

    Lots of new rules and tiggers to non catholic factions
    Faction specific tiggers
    Religious specific tiggers
    Huge penalties from hostile actions
    Good bonus for friendly actions
    More weight to diplomacy treaties and religion

    and much more up to come..

    Changes on version 0.8

    *Added some BanjeeBoy's minimods
    -Order's units
    -New BBB system
    -Fixed names

    *Revision of the FS file
    -New rules
    -Fixed old rules (mainly religious buildings)
    -Added religion into battle modifiers
    -Tweaked some values to a better paced diplomacy.

    *Revision of Diplomacy file
    -Tweaked some values (harder alliances)
    -Decreased gift money value
    -Some other changes form Xeryx file

    *Added latest version of XAI
    -Soon we will have a new religion PAGANs (probably Mongols and Timurids.. and maybe another new faction later on)

    *Added new Battle system aslo from Xeryx (still on development)

    *Tweaked some units values

    *Fixed som speelling errors

    *Increased priority of ships to help the AI making good fleets

    *Some other tweaks i should have forgoten since the last update..

    Changes on version 0.81

    *Units back to 0.75 stats

    *Fixed some errors on regions and settlement file

    *Added new Marriage rules to the Faction Standings file.

    *Redefined the script_campaign for a more balance economy
    Last edited by Thorn; August 30, 2008 at 01:56 PM. Reason: Moved the other posts to the DA reporting thread.

  3. #3
    Thorn's Avatar Artifex
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    Default Re: The Darth Ages (Verison 0.86 Available)

    1st post updated with current data.

  4. #4
    Thorn's Avatar Artifex
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    Default Re: The Darth Ages (Version 0.9 uploading)

    New version available

  5. #5
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    Default Re: The Darth Ages (Version 0.9 Available)

    Updated 1st post to make it more clear.

    Working on 0.9x version.

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