Differences between APE: TI and Darthmod?

[RuleBritannia]

What are the differences between APE and Darthmod?

I know that both are campaign and battle-based mods that improve AI, combat, etc., and that Darthmod adds more numbers to regiments (which ruins the AI in my opinion, as they aren't capable of commanding 300-man regiments and armies of 20,000 - 40,000 at a time), but other than that, what are the differences?

[l33tl4m3r]

What are the differences between APE and Darthmod?

I know that both are campaign and battle-based mods that improve AI, combat, etc., and that Darthmod adds more numbers to regiments (which ruins the AI in my opinion, as they aren't capable of commanding 300-man regiments and armies of 20,000 - 40,000 at a time), but other than that, what are the differences?

Probably just about everything -- while the two mods may change the same things they mostly likely do not change them in the same way.

The additions of manpower, new units, and new technolgies are definately different.

You also get faster support and more timely updates from APE: TI.

[boche]

were cooler

[alpaca]

Can't say I've played Darthmod in a while, why don't you test both and tell everyone the differences

[erasmus777]

Darthmod doesn't have unlockable ninjas with +2 vorpal throwing stars or add "Tourist Brick-a-Brack Kiosk" to your entertainment building chain.

[The Donz]

Neither does Darth look good in orange.

sorry

EDIT: I'd like to add something constructive to my spam.

I go with alpa. Try them out both, decide youreself

[alpaca]

Darthmod doesn't have unlockable ninjas with +2 vorpal throwing stars or add "Tourist Brick-a-Brack Kiosk" to your entertainment building chain.

Neither do we. Or did you change something lately

[RomanGuy]

I have been jumping back and forth between both mods, because I can't make up my mind which to use. I think it will take more developing of both mods before I decide to stick with one. We'll see what you guys can come up with.

Personally, I don't like the research costs in this mod, but you guys at this forum are better with updates and support.

PS. I find it difficult enough to support even one army and have enough money to develop cities in vanilla ETW without the extra research costs and I'm no newbie to strategy games.

[l33tl4m3r]

I have been jumping back and forth between both mods, because I can't make up my mind which to use. I think it will take more developing of both mods before I decide to stick with one. We'll see what you guys can come up with.

Personally, I don't like the research costs in this mod, but you guys at this forum are better with updates and support.

You know it is fairly easy to edit those costs -- you can find them in the TI_Prefs.lua file, in the TerraIncognita directory in your main Empire folder; simply reduce the costs or set them to zero!

Let us know if you need any help with it!

[alpaca]

You know it is fairly easy to edit those costs -- you can find them in the TI_Prefs.lua file, in the TerraIncognita directory in your main Empire folder; simply reduce the costs or set them to zero!

Let us know if you need any help with it!

I concur. Luckily most of our scripted features are easily customizable.

[Tan Zhi Han]

Gah. I hate to repeat myself so much... I may just put a topic stating what I believe about Darth/APE:TI...

Anyways, Darthmod focuses on gameplay changes and APE:TI focuses on realism and accuracy. Darth has permanently moved to large scale units, while last I checked, the Darth community stills edits the pack to allow vanilla size units. Our mod includes gameplay changes that affect the same stuff Darth does. Our mod changes unit sizes to fit historical unit sizes. We create units from history and we try to balance everything out (that should be balanced).

APE:TI adds features to the game that make your choices in the application of military, politics, and science crucial. No more building huge stacks in every city to quell the population. No more capturing a new region EVERY turn. Now, you must fight in the trenches, pay the occasional mercenary, and yes, lose those precious men in uniform. This is ETW like no other, be prepared to wet your pants. I wear rubber undies.

Hahahaha. Ok, as for Darth. Their changes are great, and they remove certain things that we remove, they add things we have added. All that is really different in the core mods, are the numbers changed. I highly recommend you try both before you make a decision. And yes, it is possible to play with BOTH. You simply have to make sure that certain things are overriden correctly. I know someone pmed me about how to do this and I never replied... I will look into it if you want?...

As for affecting battle AI. Battle AI crunches numbers and there is no magic switch that makes the AI suddenly turn into General Cornwallis or the Swamp Fox (though that would be hot...) So both mods try their best to change numbers here and there to make the AI believe that certain choices are better.

[Stildawn]

PS. I find it difficult enough to support even one army and have enough money to develop cities in vanilla ETW without the extra research costs and I'm no newbie to strategy games.

I dont get this part.... Like Vanilla is a walk over.. I use APETI cause its more realistic and more of a challenge..... Im not one of the designers but it seems to me that they made it hard like it is so that you couldnt field massive stacks everywhere and that war and conquest was more than just point and click. Just like real life... In vanilla I can easily conquer the almost the entire globe by 1740 ish.... Thats not very realistic is it?

If you find it hard to support one army and develop cities at the same time.... make the choice just like the leaders of the time did..... If you dont have the money think about your situation and make your choice, if you need the army then build the army, if you want to build your infastructure, then dont build that army... I dont find the support costs that game breaking either... Its more of a choice of what to build first.

I find myself burning schools if I cant afford them.... and I like it like this... they should cost something...

[RuleBritannia]

Pros and Cons of APE:TI


APE:TI Pros:

1. Better AI.

2. Realistic Gameplay.

3. Far More Strategically and Tactically Challenging than Vanilla.

4. Better Recruitment System.

5. Better Build/Research System.

6. Difficulty System Seems More Balanced.

7. Better Forum Support and Faster Updates.

APE:TI Cons:

1. Frequent Annoying Pathfinding Issues That May or May not Have to Do with Mass Fire, etc..

2. Units Are Still Required to Get into Complete Formations before Firing (119 units are in line, cavalry is charging them, and they won't fire because one man from the back row isn't in line yet).

3. Schools Have Stupidly High Costs (I understand this was implemented to stop the AI from spamming them, but the highest-level palace/parliament building costs 5,000, while a level-one school costs around 10,000. Lowering the cost to 6,000-8,000 would be better).

4. 3 Turns per Year (should be 4 turns).

5. Smoke Mod (doesn't affect my PC negatively, but it has no purpose than to slow down computers with weaker graphics cards).

[Amaz]

what is Darthmod... and what does it offer?

[Danigol of South America]

dartmod is a mod, like ape ti, go to theire forums on the hosted mods section!

[Stildawn]

1. Frequent Annoying Pathfinding Issues That May or May not Have to Do with Mass Fire, etc..

2. Units Are Still Required to Get into Complete Formations before Firing (119 units are in line, cavalry is charging them, and they won't fire because one man from the back row isn't in line yet).

Im not sure.... but are these things actually related to APETI? I thought they were vanilla problems.

[rogergargantua]

I dont think its a con that schools and research buildings cost so much. I play as Prussia, I have over 100.000 money with only 8 or 9 regions. I'm in the year 1755 I believe.

I can upgrade my towns all the way if I like. But at the beginning, you must make a slow start, thats true....but I like the rough begin. Struggling your way to victory.

I've played DarthMod a lot around the release of E:TW. But I think APE:TI offers a lot more. Its just different for everybody, just go with what you like. For me, APE:TI works best! I also love the included blood&smoke mod for example. Its the little things that spice it up

And yea, APE:TI has great support! Everytime I posted a question here, it was answered within 1 a 3 hours so far I can remember.

[l33tl4m3r]

Im not sure.... but are these things actually related to APETI? I thought they were vanilla problems.

You are correct -- we'd sure like to be able to correct those issues but, alas, we can't.

[Tan Zhi Han]

Pros and Cons of APE:TI


APE:TI Pros:

1. Better AI.

2. Realistic Gameplay.

3. Far More Strategically and Tactically Challenging than Vanilla.

4. Better Recruitment System.

5. Better Build/Research System.

6. Difficulty System Seems More Balanced.

7. Better Forum Support and Faster Updates.

APE:TI Cons:

1. Frequent Annoying Pathfinding Issues That May or May not Have to Do with Mass Fire, etc..

2. Units Are Still Required to Get into Complete Formations before Firing (119 units are in line, cavalry is charging them, and they won't fire because one man from the back row isn't in line yet).

3. Schools Have Stupidly High Costs (I understand this was implemented to stop the AI from spamming them, but the highest-level palace/parliament building costs 5,000, while a level-one school costs around 10,000. Lowering the cost to 6,000-8,000 would be better).

4. 3 Turns per Year (should be 4 turns).

5. Smoke Mod (doesn't affect my PC negatively, but it has no purpose than to slow down computers with weaker graphics cards).

-The Smoke Mod is the light version and adds a lot graphically. -_- I like smoke and blood... But if people's pc's cannot handle it, it is easily fixed.

-At first I didn't like the 3 turn thing either. (4 seasons - 4 turns), but the reality is that during winter, most armies did not fight wars. And winters are usually longer than most seasons. Spanning from December-March (4 months : 4/12 = 1/3) and so Winter takes up 1/3 of the year, or 1 out of 3 turns per year.

[l33tl4m3r]

-At first I didn't like the 3 turn thing either. (4 seasons - 4 turns), but the reality is that during winter, most armies did not fight wars. And winters are usually longer than most seasons. Spanning from December-March (4 months : 4/12 = 1/3) and so Winter takes up 1/3 of the year, or 1 out of 3 turns per year.

Yes, the turns are designed to be;

Turn 1 -- December - March
Turn 2 -- April - July
Turn 3 -- August - November

If RB can replicate the feat with seasons he mentioned we will definately add it in!