DarthMod 0,85 General Feedback & Suggestions

[DARTH VADER]

ONLY FOR THIS VERSION


DarthMod Empire includes:

-Optimized Land battle system (Musket lethal in short range but not in long range, Extra balance for all units per faction, more difficult AI by indirect methods etc.)
-Optimized Naval battle system (Ships turn and handle realistically, each faction has a special battle character, realistic tactical battle AI from indirect methods etc.)
-Better Campaign AI (More aggressive AI, Better decisioning in land invasions, better Naval AI blockades, better Alliance group wars etc.)

Special New in version 0,85
-Removed Population cost for armies (Only 200 instead of 2000 which was set in previous version)
-Made the rank distance in units a little higher
-Re-inserted the cannon trails (Laser muskets are out permanently)
-Ferguson and green jackets will have variance (propose)
-Infantry morale has greater shock penalty against extended missile fire
-New fatigue alterations
-Campaign AI work out (Should be better, needs testing)
-Land experience will be gained differently in accuracy and reload rates
-Modified the charge distance (A new parameter I have found) to create a true battle experience and better AI

Special New in version 0,8
-Improved the Campaign AI (Hopefully).
-New Musket Balance = Devastating close range fire. Harder Battles.
-Removed the laser bullet-ion cannon trails of vanilla (I needed them for calibration... off they go now).
-New Land Unit Balance (Melee Units are very dangerous when they are close, Line Infantry get new special character=very large Defence, low Melee= The battle mechanics makes them to keep formation like the Last of the Mohican movie)
-Balanced Cannons= Special shells have lower range and higher reload penalty, adjusted their universal accuracy)
-Naval Cannons have special reload rates each. (Each Ship is now even more important due to the special realistic balance there is already)

Special New in version 0,75
-I removed the "fire and advance" ability. AI gets lethal without it.
-Increased the ammo.
-Optimized the accuracy and the aiming system of the muskets to feel realistic.
-Made Absolute Monarchy to have better bonus in recruiting troops.
-Many minor adjustments that were requested.

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Changes granted for next version (up to now):
-Grenadiers will not be able to throw grenades (Until there is a fix to be able to change their ammunition)
-More devastating close range musket fire (It is good but the crowd needs more)
-Cannon trails will be those of the great mod of scivian

[pauli]

the .85 download is labeled .8 internally. is this correct?

[Chevalier IX]

New unit spacing is perfect,do not alter a thing on this front in future installments,finally capturing the look and feel of tightly packed disciplined lines forming a wall of steel nd flesh advancing across the field to sweep ll before them.also I would like to point out that in several battles the ai seemed to realise when and if they should break from the firing lines and charge bayonets,which I have seen done not a unit or two but at times entire lines forming a breech through my front,only to bring up their reinforcements to replace the line of fire further back upon the field.excellent work Lord Vader

[Dreadhawk]

I think you uploaded the wrong version. The folder is named 8.0 and I don't see any cannon tracers. I may be mistaken...

EDIT: Woooo! Fixed! Thanks.

[The Sword 88]

For those of us who enjoyed the "laser muskets" how would one go about modding the darthmod to put them back in?

Also thanks for the hard work and the excellent mod.

[Don in the North]

getting crash on Huron turn in 1752. im already at war with them so they are declaring on someone else. disapointed but i should have enough saves to go back in time like marty mcfly and destroy the hurons as a faction.

wanted to let you know darth, in 8.5.rar, the folder in the .rar is listed as 8 instead of 8.5, just letting you know incase there is some confusion

[Lavoie-Qc]

for the next version, could you unlock all factions and also work on the Fog bug while playing as a minor faction.
thanks

[Don in the North]

could i also suggest for the next version we remove Huron Confederacy from the game due to the sheer amount of related crashes. recode the territories to another native faction.
ive tried loading up previous saves but, funnily enough, the huron bug keeps popping up 4-6 turns down the line, gonna have to start over yet again.

[ssfsx17]

I would like all unit costs to be reduced by 1/10th for custom battle mode. Either that, or add more options for the amount of funds that can be used.

[deadlyshadow187]

Iono it's OK, though for the most part, everything else that needs to be changed can't, because of hard coded issues or lack of tools, i just hope in the future you don't screw up what this mod already does great, for no better reason to put out another update.

Also the line infantry is fine, please stop F it up, it started out as a little tweak to be less effective at range, which OK, but now hell i miss 80% + at anything max range, which sucks, makes the whole point of making the ranges higher, if your simply gonna make long range miss like this, in turn waste bullets, then you should simply change the ranges back.

The rank file, finally thank you, it's perfect don't change a thing, diamond formation still has crazy pathing issues, I've been looking threw all the files to try and tweak it, but as of yet haven't found anything that looks promising.

One thing i completely agree with you is about the fire and advance, the units work so much better now, i tried on several occasions to try and tweak the fire and advance to make it more useful, but until we can tweak the animation it's completely crap, unlike platoon firing, which if you up the reload modifiers, becomes extremely OP, i think i put imp. at 100 and it completely tears rank fire up, makes elite units truly elite, love it.

Another thing can you please up the the limit of elite units, personally i put them all at 20, but of course that may be a little high for balance, but the whole 1 unit is unacceptable, needs an overhaul, also i took off the policing from the dragoons, and instead put them on the militia, which personally i think is goes alot better with game play.

Well keep up the great work, gotta get back to my game, talk to you laterz.

[joreto]

Darth is it possible to change the AI behaviour when attacks because now it only sends one two units into my land and just ride it (never attacks city) and the other thing is to make the AI sends help to its allies.

[ruzenqures]

Yea i agree joreto
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I just realized that we are getting closer for 1.0 version of the mod.
Are there gona be a special difference for this round number

[Lord Nova]

wanted to let you know darth, in 8.5.rar, the folder in the .rar is listed as 8 instead of 8.5, just letting you know incase there is some confusion

Not just that but I opened it up and the recruitment cost for units is still 2000 not the updated 200

[Rammstein]

I noticed when playing as France on H/H that Britain doesnt care about there blocked ports. I have 2 fleets blocking home ports but they just drive around Spain with a fleet the other in America. I dont see AI using trade ships in Brazil of Africa.

Britain has thousands of men in England but their US colonies are defended by 5-6 units not more.

I liked very much in the early versions (0.1-0.3) that there were a lot of wars from AI on other AI factions. I mean of course its smarter not to make many wars for the AI, but its just more fun when something happens in the game. Behavior when at war is the best I have seen in 0.85. I just think they should do more expansion of their own.

I noticed milita has very high melee stats 6 attack and 13 defense compared to line inf which often has 5 a 16 d. Im a little surprised about England which as 2 a 21 d. Makes them the worst attack unit in the game and best defense. I like you changing the stas for every line inf just this seems like a little extreme.

[pretorian]

Is the latest mod compatible with savegames from older versions ex. 0.75 ?

[joreto]

Yes it is fully compatible

[Lone]

for the next version, could you unlock all factions and also work on the Fog bug while playing as a minor faction.
thanks

I think it hardly is in Darth's interests to implement everything in his mod. Why not just rather use someone else's mod because they work perfectly with Darthmod?

Anyways: A great update! Thank you Darth for listening to the community, especially about the cannon trails!

[helmersen]

Why did you take back the cannon trails?

[DARTH VADER]

So by playing this last new version, I want all of you to give priority to the following:

-Land battles (How do they feel overally? Muskets, Cavalry charges, AI challenge through difficulty levels)
-Campaign AI (I wait for the naval Invasion fix to fully mod this thing, but I think, until then, it will be a good choice to use)
-Naval Battles (Not changed they are optimised generally)

[notger]

Suggestion: Please fix the never-ending wars the AI tends to get in.
The 18th century was the century of limited war-fare, not total war. I would love to see the AI make peace with another AI faction even once.

This would be a big boost for the campaign AI also, because the constant warring hinders the AI to build up a proper economy.

Please, pretty please, Darth; is this possibly or out of the reach or the mind of the dark side?

Bugs / Anomalies:
- France in 1750 has 90.6m inhabitants (!), due to the AI going on full economic research.
- This coincides with Austria not even having the basic bayonets researched in 1750.
- Papal States army marching on Naples turned around it and went to sicily to raid a college and a port, leaving Rome undefended.

Observations:
- AI sends artillery-heavy stacks and defends the cannons very well.
- A flanking maneuver with two light dragoons draws four line-infantry away. It seems, the BAI is still over-reacting to flankings, but reacting, nevertheless. No simple flanking possible. Well done.
- Peace deals with one-prov minors are very hard. Portugal being utterly in ruins and being let re-arise by revolution was still demanding 100.000 gold for peace and protector status. Savoy would not make peace for less than 50.000 and a province. Rhineland and Wurttemberg refuse to make peace for 100.000 even though there exists no land-connection! Rome did not want to make peace though they had no army and their land was raided.