Implementing Eras in ETW - an Idea

[Korporal]

Forgive me if someone has had this idea before; I searched the forum posts and did not find it, but maybe I just overlooked it.

The lack of eras in ETW is annoying indeed. A 1700 soldier looked distinctively different from a 1750 soldier or its 1799 counterpart. Uniforms changed much during the 18th century. But currently, the game does not reflect this change: Line infantry, for example, looks just the same at the beginning at at the end of the century.

I wondered if there is some way to trigger a "new era" with a change in uniform styles - something that has an effect similar to the Marian Reforms in RTW. And indeed there is a mechanism included that we might use for this purpose!

The Ottoman Empire can adopt "European Doctrine" for its army and gets a completely new set of units. The question is: Couldn't a skilled modder use the game mechanism behind this as basis for an era change that might be applied to any faction in the game?

If this idea was successful, changes in uniform styles could be triggered and thus visibly demonstrate the progress of time. What do the experts say?

[Relic]

Would be an awesome idea.

[Spanky]

I hope that this is possible. You're absolutely right; the uniforms need to reflect that change. Somebody posted an image earlier of a Russian infantryman where they replaced the original model with that of another unit, with a fuller coat that didn't have the tails turned back. The argument was that Russian infantry looked like that - but in fact, probably ALL infantry looked similar to that at one point because the images that we know Russian infantry from are mainly taken from Peter the Great's era, which is early 18th century.

Same with wigs for ministers, btw: that full, long curly wig disappeared toward the mid-century.

At the very least, there should be several versions of the basic line infantry model that succeed each other. Maybe this could also be achieved by successive versions of barracks?

[1dominator1]

The uniforms change after revolutions, so French post revolutionary soldiers look different than royalists. Maybe it's possible to do something with that?

[falcone79]

This is a very good question and is one I'm currently trying figure out. I'd like to create a mod where the game starts around 1650 with correct uniforms and battle tactics and slowly change (perhaps through the Tech tree), but the problem is trying to create a way to make new buildings that precede the current ones that allow the recruitment 1700 style units.

[redcoat22]

British Infantry Changes

[alpaca]

Yes.. no.. maybe. You can do the tech thing I guess but it'll only work for one faction at a time not as a global era.

[the_mango55]

The Ottoman Empire can adopt "European Doctrine" for its army and gets a completely new set of units. The question is: Couldn't a skilled modder use the game mechanism behind this as basis for an era change that might be applied to any faction in the game?

This would probably work, although it would be ideal to replace all of your old units with new ones, that's probably impossible. It would just allow you to create new units.

And I'm not sure if you can disable the building of units through researching a technology. It's not implemented anywhere AFAIK.

[HellFell]

It's preety easy to implement. Create a new technology, attach units with new uniform to this technology, attach these units to certain middle-game/late-game buildings and voila, you have some kind of era system. It's something Im going to do in my mod.

If it possible to create new governor types, then it will be even more easy. Just create 2 clones of monarchy regimes and a script that will change it on certain year. Then make the unit "converted_to" the one with a new uniform, and voila, another way to implement eras