AUH: Official Q&A and FAQ

[jalen911]

Cool !

[NLegari]

Hello,

I was wondering, do both Japanese factions have the same units, or do they have separate units? If they have separate units, would it be possible to make it so that when one of the Japanese factions unify Japan that faction will be able to train the other factions units as well as their own?

[Augustus Lucifer]

Hello,

I was wondering, do both Japanese factions have the same units, or do they have separate units? If they have separate units, would it be possible to make it so that when one of the Japanese factions unify Japan that faction will be able to train the other factions units as well as their own?

They have similar units. There's aesthetic differences between how the two look, but they will use pretty much the same roster. However, depending on how we choose to interpret warrior family affiliations, there might be some prevalent unit types available in certain parts of Japan, but it's just a matter of controlling those regions more than being a certain faction.

[NLegari]

They have similar units. There's aesthetic differences between how the two look, but they will use pretty much the same roster. However, depending on how we choose to interpret warrior family affiliations, there might be some prevalent unit types available in certain parts of Japan, but it's just a matter of controlling those regions more than being a certain faction.

OK, thank you.

[STELLover]

OK, thank you.

By the way- you look new...... and interested

Welcome to the AUH Forums NLegari~~!!

[NLegari]

By the way- you look new...... and interested

Welcome to the AUH Forums NLegari~~!!

Thank you. Also, are the Chinese factions going to use weapons like the Huo Qiang and the Huo Jian? If my sources are correct, both of these were used in the time period of this mod.


EDIT: Also, is this mod going to use the original campaign AI, or a different AI?(like Lusted's AI)

[Shadowcry]

What kind of armies will the Southeast Asian factions get?

[Andy1912]

why did you chose the year 1171 to be start date ? I think it's better to start it later and end the campaing in 1281-Failed invasions of Japan or 1288-Defeated in Annam (aka Dai Viet).

[Augustus Lucifer]

Thank you. Also, are the Chinese factions going to use weapons like the Huo Qiang and the Huo Jian? If my sources are correct, both of these were used in the time period of this mod.


EDIT: Also, is this mod going to use the original campaign AI, or a different AI?(like Lusted's AI)

The Huo Qiang is slated for inclusion. Some weapons shown on top of walls in sieges are not viable since you can't attack enemies on ladders. Gunpowder will be available to the Song Dynasty however, and some of their units will reflect this.

The mod will use a custom AI. We can't use another AI because they require a similar structure to the European setup. I will be making a new AI and borrowing some conventions from Lusted, GrandVIZ, and xeryx.

What kind of armies will the Southeast Asian factions get?

That's a fairly abstract question. They will have armies representative of the historical information available to us. Depending on which faction we're talking about in southeast asia, varying influences from China, Hindustan, or even the Middle East may play a factor as well as the distinct cultural elements shown in stone reliefs of Southeast architecture.

why did you chose the year 1171 to be start date ? I think it's better to start it later and end the campaing in 1281-Failed invasions of Japan or 1288-Defeated in Annam (aka Dai Viet).

Historical events beyond the start date didn't have much bearing on our decision, especially not towards the end of the campaign. It seems unlikely that an AI Mongol faction will expand in the same manner as they did historically, which is why the Total War series is dedicated to alternate history. All we can do with the dates of the mod is provide the most proper start and tailor the end to be reasonable, as well as some various events throughout.

1171 was chosen because it is the earliest estimate based on the earliest birth estimate of Chinggis Khan's 16th birthday. Additionally, it falls in the relative range of the beginning of the Gempei War, military insurrection in Goryeo, after the Treaty of Longxing, as well as just after the Dai Viet-Champa treaty which presents an interesting situation for Khmer. For most intents and purposes any time between our date and ~1180 might suffice, but it's better to fall before some of the events that reign in our start than after.

[Kabudhan]

Sorry if this is asked elsewhere, but are you planning on having any Hmong units? (Were they even in 'Laos' at this time, or were they still in China?) I only ask because I read a horribly biased account of their history in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (or something...) and I am curious how they really fit into the history of the regions, as opposed to the sweeping generalizations the author gives us.

Sorry for the rant.

[Yelü Dashi]

The history of the Hmong is contentious one. Their Chinese name is Miao (which I know they don't like one bit). During our era they most likely form part of the Kingdom of Dali. Dali's roster has yet to finalised but I should imagine many units will be tribal in nature. Hmong/Miao could also be added a trait for certain characters (we plan to implement many different ethnicities this way). We'll also try to avoid lumping all these groups into a generic 'Nanman' (Southerner) like the Chinese did and KOEI games do

[Augustyn]

Hotseat support? I'll play the mod even if there isn't, but it'd be awesome.

[mrcrusty]

Why are you guys so awesome?

What areas will the map cover? Will it stretch into India and will it incorporate island countries in South East Asia? (Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines)

[Augustus Lucifer]

Hotseat support? I'll play the mod even if there isn't, but it'd be awesome.

Possibly. I'll need people to elaborate on what in particular makes and breaks hotseat support. Since we have extensive scripting I'm sure the hotseat will probably break some of them, especially ones that extensively use counters. There might be workarounds. Probably it will be a matter of playtesting with hotseat and seeing which things break it so the script can be modified with an initiator that either checks for hotseat or prompts the player to specify if they are playing hotseat on the first turn and disables or modifies some scripts. Our first priority is the single player game.

Why are you guys so awesome?

Genetic.

What areas will the map cover? Will it stretch into India and will it incorporate island countries in South East Asia? (Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines)

You can roughly see the map here(second map is regions map, won't be exact). No and no. I'm sure these two questions will be asked a lot though so I'll answer them and add it to the OP.

Why didn't we include Indonesia?

There are a variety of reasons for this, here are a few:

• Nations - At the time of our mod, the nations of Srivijaya and Kediri are the only scarcely documented centrally organized occupants of Indonesia. The Phillipines has before been referred to as 'Luzong' during this time but virtually no source material exists and it was very obviously a tribal federation. Similarly there's references to a 'Luwu' in Borneo(I believe), that are also very shaky.
• Sources - Similar to the above, the source material on the two that might be substantiated as minor factions(Kediri/Srivijaya) are scarce and in non-English languages. It's a whole lot of guesswork and very little substance.
• Quality, Not Quantity - Consider that we want to have 10+ unique units per faction and flesh them out solidly otherwise, and you'll understand why it would be a waste of our time to half-ass factions with no source material, thus making the production time longer and the quality of other factions possibly lower. We love our 15 factions that we've chosen, and are heavy proponents that we'd rather have a few really unique factions than a bunch of re-skinned carbon clones just to fill out the limitations.
• Naval Invasions - The AI is going to have a hard enough time with Japan, but we had to include it as it is very interesting and well documented in this area, so we will have to make up for it by possibly scripting invasions both ways depending on certain conditions. Indonesia would be a nightmare for the AI and it would just be them sitting there and the player killing them. Boring.

Why didn't we include India?

There are a variety of reasons for this, here's a few:

• Map Size - Our map is currently the maximum number of pixels horizontally. In order to expand it west we would need to condense the areas in the east or represent them disproportionately. This is a mod about East Asia, our goal is to give this very interesting landscape and period some love. As such we can't afford to extend the map to India at the expense of making China and Tibet featureless 3-city areas.
• Quality, Not Quantity - To really represent India in this time frame we would need to add at least 3 factions but more likely 5+ if we incorporated the entire region. This is also not counting any nations that would be present north of there in Central Asia or further west but blending into India. Pala could have been interesting if we wanted to just include Bengalla, but they got ousted by the fledgling and not-as-cool Sena before the time of our mod or shortly thereafter.
• East Asia - Our mod is about East Asia. India has its own distinct culture that's different in the south and north and a lot of warring factions. It could make its own mod. India fits much more into a mod about the middle east than it does asia, but again, it's still a melting pot of those two sides. If we expanded into India there'd be no reason not to go further into the Khwarezmian Shahdom and onwards(see the above two bullets for why this is bad).

[Kinay]

I have some questions:

From what I understand some factions, like the Japanese clans and Indo-China factions didn't use siege weapons (well, they did have arcuballistas but those where used as field artillery) or had fortifications/castles. How will that work out?

Will the unit speeches be the language of the faction and the general speeches be english with accent?

What about traits, epithets and retinues?

[Augustus Lucifer]

From what I understand some factions, like the Japanese clans and Indo-China factions didn't use siege weapons (well, they did have arcuballistas but those where used as field artillery) or had fortifications/castles. How will that work out?

If they didn't historically have siege weapons of any variety then perhaps they won't have any in-game. It however seems unlikely that the Japanese so noted for mimicking Chinese and Korean systems both socially and militarily would not be able to reproduce equipment such as siege ladders. It's a matter of historical necessity though and sieges were not commonplace during our era in those regions. This doesn't necessarily mean they lacked the ability to adapt siege engines if the need arose, it just means they didn't need them historically.

Will the unit speeches be the language of the faction and the general speeches be english with accent?

We don't have voice actors. In the future, probably not for quite some time, we will advertise for voice actors. If we have voice actors later on than units will speak in their native tongues to the closest modern approximation. Similarly if we have linguists to assist it's possible that requested sound bytes will be archaic and medieval iterations of modern day terms. If we have neither than they probably won't talk as opposed to speaking in English.

What about traits, epithets and retinues?

That's a fairly vague question. If you specify what it is you mean I can probably address it.

[Kinay]

About my 3rd question: well, I was wondering what will be done with them.

Since some of the traits/retinues wouldn't probably make sense in Asia and I don't think Asian generals were given a epithet. It would also be nice to see some Asian-related traits/retinues.

I do not find this and the speeches that important but they could help create athmosphere.

[Augustus Lucifer]

About my 3rd question: well, I was wondering what will be done with them.

Since some of the traits/retinues wouldn't probably make sense in Asia and I don't think Asian generals were given a epithet. It would also be nice to see some Asian-related traits/retinues.

I do not find this and the speeches that important but they could help create athmosphere.

Well our traits and ancillaries files were started from a blank slate. We don't have many vanilla traits or ancs in at the moment. In the future some which can be transferable to our setting will be re-added. So any concerns about traits/ancs being incompatible are unnecessary, as we are only borrowing from vanilla after assessing aspects, not leaving any of them lying around.

[NLegari]

Will the Mongols have a realistic army?

[Yelü Dashi]

No, they will all have horns and ride unicorns.

Please do post what you think a realisitic Mongol roster would look like