Playability Mod
I have an idea for a Mod to let people play Empire: Total War the way they'd like to play, I.E. without "Win Conditions" or Time Limits. When I play games like the TW games I prefer to conquer every last province and town. I like changing History. I strive for complete and Total domination. I'm a perfectionist that way. As such the "Playability Mod" will Not be Historically accurate. This is what I propose.
1. Time Limit changeable from 2 turns = 1 Year to 4 turns = 1 Year or to be turned off entirely meaning the year is nothing more then a date counter.(as for the campaign Map have 2 turns of Summer then 2 turns of Winter to simulate Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer)
2. Ability to play as Minor And Emergent Factions regardless of the date. When starting as a Emergent Faction on the very first turn your Revolutionary army is spawned in the capitol city of the faction of your choosing and you must defeat the loyalists. OR You start as the Emerged Faction already under control of your empire's capitol but you will still have loyalist supporters to defeat if your starting faction has more then one province. Meaning if you start as Scotland you start in Edinburgh but still have to defeat England and Ireland to take control of England entirely.
3. Ability to "toggle" the happiness modifier of appropriate buildings so provinces will not revolt when your empire gets too big. This enables you to conquer the world without having to run back to some small place on the other side of the globe just to put down a minor revolt. Now your large armies are free'd up for more important conquests.
This would have to be separated some-how from the happiness modifier affecting wealth. If not it's a money cheat as well. The point of this is to keep the people "content" so you don't waste your time with places you already conquered, Not to make the game easier by having happy people provide more income.
4. Choose your own "Win Condition". Options include all standard win conditions plus more. "True Domination Mode" = conquer every province or be the last surviving faction. No time limit. You won't trigger the "You Win" video until you either take the last province or your last enemy surrenders to you. The game will never end unless you want it to and you'll still be able to "Win".
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(Below is a copy of a post I made on Empire's official forums about this idea.)
I love the TW games. I own them all and have loved them all since Shogun. Ever since Rome: TW though I think CA has taken one minor step backwards and that comes in the form of limiting "Win Conditions". It does make sense "Historically" to have a country hold a certain number of provinces it held in real life to "Win" the game by a certain date, BUT, it does take away from the over-all experience. Let me explain how.
If you choose any Victory Conditions other then "World Domination" you have a list of objectives that must be captured and held by a certain date in game. The "Short Campaign" runs from 1700-1750. The other Victory Conditions all end at 1799 and the "Prestige" Win setting adds yet another thing that must be accomplished though it is much more free form then the other Win Conditions because you can earn Prestige in more then a few ways. Still, the other Victory Conditions are limiting to the player because he always must accomplish them by a certain time to "Win". This forces you to use more or less the same strategy every time you play as that faction. If I play as Great Britain then by 1799 I have to hold province A, B, and C respectively. No longer am I free to conquer who-ever I want in what order I want. No longer am I free to come up with my own plans for domination. Yes I can choose to conquer province C before A or B, but no matter what I have to conquer those provinces and as such my entire campaign as Great Britain will be more or less the same every time I play it unless I play with the "World Domination" Victory Condition which states that I only have to hold England along with 50 other provinces by 1799. Ok, so I get tired of playing as GB so I decide to go with Prussia. Prussia has it's own unique set of provinces it has to hold by a certain date to "Win". No matter who I play as unless I'm playing on World Domination I have to follow the set guide lines to "Win" with my chosen faction.
This shouldn't be or since it is how about randomizing it so playing the same country twice won't mean I have to do the same things twice and use the same over-all battle plan again so I "Win". The biggest draw to the TW games IMO is that I'm free to take the country of my choosing and lead them to global victory any way I see fit. I don't have to follow history's path. If I wanted to play as Britain and Ally my-self with France against the Ottomans I could. Now how-ever I can't because my Victory Condition says I have to have such and such a province that my new Ally France has and the only way I'll get it from him is by invasion and forcing a war that otherwise wouldn't happen in my game because I chose to play it differently. The Victory conditions limit the game no matter who you play as because you always have to take certain objectives forcing me to not enjoy my game as much as I could playing it my own way yet still being able to "Win".
Please add a more Free Form campaigns so I can play my way with-out resorting to Mods. Don't get me wrong, I love the TW mod community and they do a great job, but even some Mods still require you to play a certain way. To me the Total War games have always been about conquering the world My way, changing history in the process. Sadly though since Rome TW I haven't been able to do that without heavy modding.
Please give us more "Free Form" campaigns. Or better yet, give us the option to still be able to "Win" without holding such and such by a certain time frame. Please CA, give us the world!!!! Please take out the "Victory Conditions" or at least let us turn them off!!!
Keep up the great work CA. Long live Empire!!!
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I'm pretty decent at Modding MTW2 as far as buildings and starting provinces and other things, but as we all already know Empire is somewhat different and it isn't that easy any more. Some of the things I mentioned above have basically been done already or have been to some extent. I'm compiling a list of what I've seen people mod into Empire so far and keeping track of parts that might be useful for this idea. If these things are done as separate mods then they can be combined into a super Mod (giving credits and rep to the original makers of course ).
Thoughts? Ideas? Can anyone think of anything else they'd like to see in a free form mod?
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Re: Playability Mod
Originally Posted by stefaneke
. In M2TW you conquerer enemies very easy. They didn't provide any rescistance. It was boring. In empire this has been improved but still it is to easy.
