Sub-mod: Campaign for BoA 2.0! (Outdated, see Download Thread)

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Argh I'm soo close. Almost done with Oda, that will leave just Hojo left which shouldn't take too long (Hojo is the smallest faction character-wise). I did have to scale back Oda some, they are now tied for hte most commanders with Uesugi, but I had to leave out two famous Oda Commanders Narimasa Sassa and Yoshinari Mori, plus Captain Hachisuka. It can't be helped, Oda is dominant in the early game with the most provinces to produce troops from, the strongest early game troops (albeit slightly), and such powerful commanders. It makes sense really, considering Oda starts at the pinnacle of their power controlling all of central japan. No other clan starts at the largest point of their expansion (though you could argue that imagawa and takeda start with more than they ever had... but being split in two really waters down their advantage).

To be fair, Oda also has the most rebellious commanders by far, including Nobuhiro and Nobuyuki Oda, Hisahide Matsunaga, and Mitsuhide Akechi. I'm hoping these powerful but ambitious generals will help keep Oda's expansion in check.... only multiple playtests will tell though. I should be ready to upload soon, any suggestions as to where to upload? I'm only really familiar with megaupload and rapidshare.

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Here is my preliminary edits, enough to get all factions up and running reasonably well. Note that this is not my final version, it lacks some of the bells and whistles I will add later. But it has all been tested and runs smoothly with no bugs or late game errors (that I have been able to detect), and definitely no CTDs.

http://files.filefront.com/BoA+Campaign+Edits+v1+by+arar/;13916916;/fileinfo.html (FileFront Link)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OSD48ET0 (Megaupload Link)


WHAT ALL IS IN IT? The files that add starting armies, characters, and family trees to each factions.
Major changes to the building tech tree for every faction, allowing all units for the faction to be produced, and creating some variation between factions.
Varied Daimyo Bodyguard units, unique to each faction.
Greatly altered rebel forces, with a much lower spawn rate but more variety of low and medium tier troops.
Removed Greek portraits and unit cards for generals.
Recruitable Emissaries, Assassins, and Naval ships for all factions.
Minor changes to a few units, including Uesugi Cavalry Archers, Takeda Naginata Cavalry, and Oda Elite Yari Cavalry.
A huge increase of historic names available to each faction, including male, female, and surnames, and unique names for famous generals.
Hidden Traits and Epithets allowing certain famous generals to pass their name down to their children.
Minor editing on various text files, allowing names of characters and cities to be properly displayed.
Farming Values for all regions set based upon Tokugawa Era values.

and thats all for version 1, work is still ongoing so expect to see a version 2 or 3 in the future.


What Files are Necessary
Most of the modifications are to the descr_strat file, but a couple files are optional. The entire "UI" folder is optional, which simply affects the portraits of your generals.
"imperial_campaign_regions_and_settlement_names.txt" is an optional file that fixes the formatting for the names.
"descr_regions_and_settlement_name_lookup.txt" is paired with the other regions name file, affecting format of those names.
"descr_rebel_factions.txt" is optional which gives rebel forces a wider variety of units.
"export_descr_buildings.txt" is optional, but effects a lot of changes to the tech tree, the availability of units and buildings, and the bonuses of each building. Not changing it will still allow you to play with most of the units and buildings.
"descr_regions.txt" is the final optional file, which alters the farming values for every region.
All other files are mandatory or will cause immediate CTDs upon trying to start a campaign (or sooner).

How To Install
This does not include the downloads for the Battles of Asia mod or Campaign Map submod, you can find and download those here in the forums. Start with the BoA v2 download, then add Alex's Campaign Submod files, and his rebels fix (I am not certain if this is a necessary file, but it doesn't hurt as it fixes a glitch with Rebel Unit Models). Finally, download my file and and copy over the data folder.

Any questions or comments should be addressed on these forums, either in this thread or as a personal note to Hayami Kagemusha. Feedback and input is encouraged, thanks.


HOW TO USE EPITHETS. At the start of a new campaign, make a quick save (Ctrl S), and then quick load (Ctrl L). This will allow all Epithets to appear correctly. Also, please note that when these commanders have children, their names will not appear in the family tree page until they come of age. This method does not cause Clone Character CTDs.

[Alex1987]

Hayami thanks for you great work, downloading now!

[inquisitor]

Could someone upload it on filefront
Megacrap always tells me...you exeeded your download limit...and then they ask you to wait 7 min...no lol

[GERMANICUS]

Hayami downloading now .....very pleased with your efforts Thanks once again for the time you have invested and your dedication historical detail.
Salut!

[Hayami Kagemusha]

added a filefront link. Funny, I always thought you had to register to use filefront, guess I was wrong

I assume the lack of comments means its working, at least to some degree =)

[GERMANICUS]

Hayami
Played through 1/2 dozen turns as Takeda clan and find everything fine so far I will start taking note of additional files for editing, still lots RTW vanilla family portraits ....
IN your next version will you look at changing any of the voice files for battle commands
Superb work thus far!!

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Vanilla portraits for commanders, or just for emissaries/assassins? If its for commanders then I musta screwed up the upload somehow, because you shouldn't get any except for dead characters.

I would like to change voice files, but haven't looked into it yet. I have STW installed so I should be able to get the old sound files. Judging from the fact that the BoA team never changed them theirselves, I assume its more complicated than it sounds so we will see.

[Mr.Layf0n]

Oh god just for making rebels more entertaining you did a very good job, keep it up D:

PS: Megaupload is fine, most people use it along with rapidshare, never had any problem with them, tho MU is better, no time to wait between downloads

[Reverend Scott]

Hayami Kagemusha-

Great work! Thanks! +1 rep

[paradamed]

Ty Hayami! Just a quick question: are there scripts in the mod?

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Thanks all. Not yet paradamed thats still on the list. I just wanted to get a release out for those that just want the bare mod.

Scripts will probably come last as I've still gotta decide exactly what all I want them to do. Some of the ideas I've been toying with include: Specific commanders and armies may spawn in response to a territory being captured (Hosokawa offering their aid for capturing Kyoto. Date Masamune Rebelling if Dewa is captured, etc). Certain characters may gain special traits and titles for their achievements (for instance, Yoshihiro Shimazu could gain the title Devil Shimazu for winning a battle against great odds). Of course there are also events that could be played with, and the possibility of using the Imperial Court in some manner, or other locations such as the free City of Sakai, the ninja villages of Iga, the Ikko Ikki, etc.

First up though are some basic text edits for the correct display of various in game descriptions, and game balance issues. In particular I want to take a look next at the various cities, resources, and starting incomes and seeing how to best balance them, as I haven't given it too much attention yet. I did lower the starting money for all factions other than rebels, but 8000 was not a calculated ammount, just a random number.

Also, I forgot to mention that I did alter the farm values for every region. They are based off the relative values given during the Tokugawa Era, so they are close to what they should be. A few territories may be further developed than they were at the time, but nothing unreasonable. Highest value is 12, which is Owari and Musashi (Compared to the handful of vanilla rome territories which had 14, including Carthage). Lowest value is 1, but I'm starting to see that I might need to make the lowest value 2 or 3. Each increase in farm value is equal to a 0.5% increase in population growth, so 12 is 6% and 5 is 2.5%. I don't know exactly how much money you make farming, but its clear that increasing farm value increases your income from the province.

Finally, I am strongly considering changing the farm upgrades to make them useful. What I want to do is make farm upgrades increase farm values (thereby increasing income) while also decreasing squalor, so that building farm upgrades wont cause your population to revolt (as easily). Really it never made sense to me in RTW, if your population is revolting from squalid conditions, shouldn't you WANT more efficient farms? Besides, the vanilla system discourages you from building farm upgrades to take advantage of rich territories.

Well enough for now, thanks again and enjoy

[inquisitor]

You definitely earned you a +rep

Thank you very much.... elvis would say this now(i like Slayer more though) lol

Will start a mori campaighn right away

Edit: the Samurai to yari unit of the imagawa clan has a sprite problem i think,when zooming out at one point the shadow of that unit dissapears

Edit: the Ashigaru unit of the shimazu clan,when they start routing..i noticed that there lower half of there torso also dissapears,wierd thing is...you only notice it when looking at there backs,the same goes for there general bodyguard unit

[GERMANICUS]

Hayami
In regards to vanilla poryraits still seen in family trees it is only female and children that are Vanilla all commanders are correct...sorry should have been more specific.
I like some of scripting ideas as well as farm upgrades.
The economy of the campaign I have played thus far offers good balance but have a more distinct feel to it would be great!

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Ah, I have yet to see an option to change the female and children portrait. I suppose there must be a folder for portraits common to all factions. Glad to hear the economy is running smooth, Alex gets credit for that all I've done so far is change the starting amount.

As for unit models, I have nothing to do with those and I definitely wont touch them, as they are the property and work of the BoA team. I'm sure they would like to know that though. From what I understand they are currently working on a different mod but have concrete plans to return to this when they are finished. I intend to consult them soon on a few balance issues including the issue of defense skill being capped, as well as my idea for daimyo bodyguards.


Current known unit balance issues include:
-Defense skill for most units are supposed to be 60+ up to around 120. But the game caps defense skill at 65, so elite units aren't getting the defense they are meant to.
-Similarly, attack skill is also capped around 65. The only units affected are missile units (Which still deal awesome damage) and the ninja's melee attack.
-Daimyo's bodyguard units. No unit in game was ever designed to be a bodyguard unit, so the bodyguards are currently overpowered. While I could reduce the stats of their units, that would cause balance issues later in the game when you can recruit their units normally. Bodyguard unit sizes are limited by the general (Faction leader gets a full unit, heirs get a slightly reduced unit, and other generals get about 4/5ths of the unit), however I still think bodyguard units should be somewhat smaller in size. Currently I am considering making a second copy of each bodyguard unit, designating one as the general's unit and one as the regular, recruitable unit. In addition I have a very creative idea for making unique daimyo bodyguards, but need to consult the team first.

-Recruitment costs and upkeep. I did not alter them and I haven't looked to see if Alex altered them from their original (custom battle) settings. However, it is clear some need to be adjusted... naginata should not be cheaper than yari samurai. I'll look into it when I have a better idea of the game's economy.
-Finally, I need a solution for the Imagawa and Takeda factions. Since you can no longer instantly transport units from port to port like in STW, Imagawa and Takeda are at a distinct disadvantage. While I have alleviated this somewhat by beefing up their standing forces (and weakening their rivals), named characters are still essentially stuck where they start, isolated from the rest. For instance, Imagawa's faction heir starts in the west, making the faction vulnerable to getting cut off (of course, you might not mind considering that Motoyasu Matsudaira aka Ieyasu Tokugawa is next in line XD ). For those interested, Takeda did in fact own Aki at one point, though they had lost it by 1530 (First to the Ouchi, then Mori clans) and they never controlled neighboring bit chu and Bingo. The Imagawa holdings on Kyushu were actually the property of the Otomo family, a largely Christian faction and the last family to resist Shimazu on Kyushu.


Last thing for this update is a question to those that have tried my edits. I made alot of the units available a little bit earlier, I'm wondering if people feel that is a good idea. Yari Samurai are now available at first tier, does this make ashigaru obsolete? Most elite samurai are available at the Large City level, this was done so that you have access to nearly all units without having to go to the huge city level (and thus deal with all the high squalor/population issues RTW is so famous for). Going to the Huge City level is only required for Takeda Naginata Cavalry and the Foundry (Due to my slight adjustments on the Blacksmith and Armorer, you can have silver melee weapons and armor at the Minor City level, gold at Huge City). Tier 5 buildings will produce better troops but no other new troops, thus you should only NEED to get Huge City for a handful of military provinces. This I feel is more realistic to begin with, very few cities would ever hit the Huge City mark in reality, and it will be easier to manage your cities without worrying about population growing out of control.

Is this a good idea? Should units be harder to get? Huge Cities more rewarding? Thoughts?

[austere]

If you want help, I can do some text editing

[RomanSoldier9001]

Finaly! Thanks a lot! Great Work!
I just want to ask to instal I already have BOA instaled I just copy this folder to the data folder of BOA rigth?
Then where I put the fix?THe fix is the one that is written in russian?Sorry but I just dont understand russian where can I put the fix?
Also is the versions of megaupload and mediafire different?
Cheers.

[RomanSoldier9001]

Finished, for now. No really I'm done with the major things I wanted to edit, there isn't a whole lot left so its ready for its first upload. I'm using MegaUpload for now, I'm aware not everyone likes it and it favors certain countries/regions over others. But its not a huge file so bare with it please ^^;

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OSD48ET0
http://files.filefront.com/BoA+Campa.../fileinfo.html


What all is in it? The files that add starting armies, characters, and family trees to each factions.
Major changes to the building tech tree for every faction, allowing all units for the faction to be produced, and creating some variation between factions.
Varied Daimyo Bodyguard units, unique to each faction.
Greatly altered rebel forces, with a much lower spawn rate but more variety of low and medium tier troops.
Removed Greek portraits and unit cards for generals.
Recruitable Emissaries, Assassins, and Naval ships for all factions.
Minor changes to a few units, including Uesugi Cavalry Archers, Takeda Naginata Cavalry, and Oda Elite Yari Cavalry.
A huge increase of historic names available to each faction, including male, female, and surnames, and unique names for famous generals.
Hidden Traits and Epithets allowing certain famous generals to pass their name down to their children.
Minor editing on various text files, allowing names of characters and cities to be properly displayed.

and thats all for version 1, work is still ongoing so expect to see a version 2 or 3 in the future.

This does not include the downloads for the Battles of Asia mod or Campaign Map submod, you can find and download those here in the forums.

Any questions or comments should be addressed here, either in this thread or as a personal note to my (Hayami Kagemusha) account. Feedback and input is encouraged, thanks.


Ohhhh I almost forgot, I should explain how to use the epithets thing as it is not obvious. When you start a new campaign, save your game before you do anything else, then load that save. Once you do that, the names for famous generals like Motoyasu Matsudaira, Hideyoshi Hashiba, and others will appear correctly. Also, when these commanders have children, their names will display incorrectly in the family tree page. By that I mean that Matsudaira's son will be listed with the Imagawa last name instead of Matsudaira. Don't panic, when the child comes of age his name will change to Matsudaira. It all works and has been tested and causes no CTDs or errors during long-run tests (that we know of or could detect).

Thanks Hayami1 resp point for you and Alex.
I dont want to bother but the instalation is just put your "version" in the folder of BOA?
I dont need to put Alex Version or the fix previous to that?
Cheers.

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Heyas sorry for the delay. No its no bother, I should make that stuff more clear.

My stuff goes in last, so you want to put the unedited BoA files in, then Alex's campaign mod (and his fix file if you need, I personally am not sure if its needed to avoid a bug, but it does fix a graphics problem with the rebel faction). Then add my files. I'm also going to add a file next time that tells you exactly what each file does, so you can pick and choose if you want.

Megaupload and Filefront are the same, someone requested I post it on Filefront. I'll also clarify that in my old post in a bit ^^;

Hey thanks austere, I'll send you a note when I get the chance. Gotta go for a whil first though

[Hayami Kagemusha]

I have just updated the post with links above, to answer any questions people may have. I also gave Al-Hassen Ibn Yasin the links as requested, so that they may be posted on the download page and easier to find