New Darthmodlite 4.6 BAI for IS 2.1

[Tariq]

Hello all

here is new BAI test pack for IS 2 based on Darth's new mod. I tried to maintain all the IS unique features while achieving best results.It was extensively tested.This is unofficial sub-mod and is not made by IS team.

This is testing version and will be further developed( 2 links available) *** 11/27 HOTFIX FOR MILITIA MELEE ISSUE/ 01/11 added fixed German states to optional downloads***:


http://www.filefront.com/15224895/ISDM-Hotfix.rar/

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XGE1SBCX



IMPORTANT READ :

- You need both files from this download , since there are changes in Imperial Splendour DB-simple
-Do not use Darthmodlite_IS with this file, IT'S OBSOLETE NOW!
-EUA DLC owners check Optional downloads for DLC file addon.
-BSM 4.x for IS will not work properly with this because of range changes ( check Optional downloads)
-Vanilla units are not supported. IS 2 does not use them and there was no reason for me to work on them.
-I cannot make strategy genius out of BAI, only CA can, and purpose of this mod is to reduce melee in IS 2.1 to lowest possible level,and not to fix the game
-Please understand that i am only a one man team and i couldn't not personally test every single unit in IS.If you see that certain unit(s) is behaving erratic repeatedly(not only once or twice), please post it as feedback (with unit name and faction) and i will try to remedy that in future releases


Based on testing results,it is recommended to play with Ultra size units in order to get best out of BAI.This update should be save game compliant, just make backup of your save, before you use it.



New in Hotfix:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- There were reports of several factions going back to melee issue. Hopefully it is fixed now
- All Militia,Irregulars and mob reverted to skirmish class. I was hoping that they will not cause widespread melee, but unfortunately that was not the case .
- Added limitations to fixed artillery recruitment and lower level ships. It was silly to fight stack of Sakers or Light Galleys in mid game.

Instalation:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Make backup of your Imperial Splendour DB.pack and do not use it !
- Extract this into ETW Data folder, and checked it in your Mod Manager or user.script
- your Mod manager should look like this :

IS_Hotfix Keep it on top of everything else.
MOD_ISAmericasDLC (only with EUA DLC. It is posted in Optional download section)
Imperial Splendour Media
Imperial Splendour DB-simple (use this one instead of Imperial Splendour DB.pack)

Optional Downloads(last update 11/25):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You will need latest UPC file for most of them (link here ):

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=259541

EUA DLC for ISDM(Oby):

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=66RQ4HK6

http://www.filefront.com/15220317/DL...d--simple.rar/

-AUM for IS:

When Swiss Halberdier releases 2.9

-BSM 4.1 for IS 2.x -Full(Mech_Donald):

Full version:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JCU49R4X

http://www.filefront.com/15262311/mo...ull---IS2.rar/


Medium:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5KCEE2RV

http://www.filefront.com/15262319/mo...ium---IS2.rar/

Light :

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DCZE9K60

http://www.filefront.com/15262321/mo...ght---IS2.rar/


- Scarlet Dawn (British mod by Gen. Cornwallis):

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=W0Y9TL97

http://www.filefront.com/15220499/Sc...---simple.rar/

- Great Britain Mod (by Pom):

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=R43QILA5

http://www.filefront.com/15220403/Po...---simple.rar/

- The Rise of the Black Eagle(Prussian mod by Gen. Cornwallis):

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q74OE3LX

http://www.filefront.com/15220467/Ri...---simple.rar/

- Colonial Troops Mod (British Colonials by Gen. Cornwallis):

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=S0DMR96G

http://www.filefront.com/15220275/Co...roops-mod.rar/

- Warcry of the Republic( French Republic mod by Gen. Cornwallis) :

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OYF9DHOR

http://www.filefront.com/15220537/Wa...---simple.rar/

- Das Oesterreichische Heer v1.2 (Austrian mod by Preussen Gloria)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=X0LOYRKM

http://www.filefront.com/15220301/Da...eer_V_1_2.rar/

- German States (by Pom)

http://www.filefront.com/15334153/ge...es_IS_mod.rar/


For Naval changes , i would recommend Dogmeat's file here (only use Navy Tables part though):

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=303960

Overview of previous changes:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

V1:
- Infantry units are changed to skirmish.
- Mob, Militia, Irregular and melee infantry stayed same. IS team spent lot of time working on optimization of irregulars and i will keep them as is , as long they are not influencing BAI in negative way.
- Darthmodlite file is changed to comply with IS original stats, unit sizes and GC features, however no stats affecting BAI directly are changed or removed.
- None of the original IS features is removed in this version.If necessary , they can be tweaked upon further evaluation

Updated 11/21:

- Cleaned up some leftover files that were not necessary
- Some General units had more then 20 soldiers, it is fixed now.
- Fixed some discrepancies with IS unit sizes and /or stats
- resolved some minor conflicts

11/25 changes:

- Removed all instances of Fire and Advance and Platoon Fire from IS, Technologies that research it , will give you -1% of upkeep to land/all units respectively instead.
- All changes merged into 1 file.Darthmodelite_IS is obsolete now (do not use it !)
- Slight increase in ranges to Line Infantry, Guards and similar units (they are all 110 now)
- All ISDM stats changes are now almost completely based on reworked original IS 2.1 values.
- General now have sabre and no pistol, they were keep ending up going up to close to the enemy line and disrupting their own line.They will still do that on occasion, but it was reduced by far.
- Added several sub-mods to optional downloads

Possible future additions(work in progress):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

- Possibly changing some cavalry classes to make them more utilized and efficient
- Look to possibly tweak some values to prevent AI stack spam in late game, without compromising IS features and direction (that will be very hard one)
- Possibly globally increase unit sizes, if it appears that AI cannot perform properly with IS unit sizes.Or decreased it, whatever works
- Look into adjusting unit formations to maneuver tighter. They sometimes turn in snakelike shape
- Check cavalry formations to make sure that they are not completely disturbing friendly infantry lines when they running through them.
- Look for something specific for Light Infantry.With everyone being skirmish unit, they lost some of their specific qualities.
- Add more recruitment limitations for some naval and land units

This sub-mod is tested with IS 2 on Ultra size, and i cannot guarantee that it's going to perform perfectly if you are using some original additional unit packs like AUM or Gen. Cornwallis. However, i am not discouraging you from using them.


Special thanks to :

Lazy Knight and others from IS team for allowing me to tweak IS file(s)
Darth Vader for his work
Pdguru for helping me with testing
Gen. Cornwallis, Pom, Swiss Halberdier, Oby, Mech_Donald, Preussen Gloria for their mods
ToonTotalWar and TAR team for support

Please leave the feedback( i really , really need that), positive or negative and enjoy.

[Lusen]

Whats the difference beetween the DM AI and the IS AI?

[Tariq]

Whats the difference beetween the DM AI and the IS AI?

Original IS BAI is vanilla BAI, one with "melee bug", which is(if you read posts all over this forum and CA blog) "broken" in last patch.

DM BAI tries to fix that issue and , again, if you read from several forum posts works rather successfully in doing that. This is just adaptation of that BAI , in order to be able to use it with IS 2.x

[Caelifer_1991]

Does this effect naval battles? Thx for this btw +rep

[Tariq]

Does this effect naval battles? Thx for this btw +rep

No, i have kept Naval battles out if it for now(meaning it's removed), because:

- IS has it's own Naval battle system that they worked on for awhile.
- There is thread with Dogmeat's Naval Battle setup , which IMHO, is extremely good: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=303960 . You can use only Naval test file(actually you should) from it, if you are not satisfied with Naval Battles at present time.
- Implementing Naval Battles would require changing several stats and recruitment/upkeep prices globally , in order for DM Naval BAI to have proper effect.That could possible stray away from IS vision of Naval portion of the mod


That's not to say that i won't include Naval portion in future, pending detailed testing and specific feedback of why Naval portion is not good. But right now, i highly respect work that IS team made so far in that area and overall, and my goal is not to detrimentally change their work , while (hopefully ) fixing Land BAI.

[ilikepie]

Will installing this require me to start a new campaign? And what if I don't have a mod manager?

[carbide]

I've been reading a lot of good news about the possible fix and was waiting for someone to make it compatible with IS. Thanks for the hard work, I just installed it and will try it shortly.

+rep

[Tariq]

Will installing this require me to start a new campaign? And what if I don't have a mod manager?

If you don't have Mod Manager, script should look like this then :

mod "Imperial Splendour DB.pack";
mod "Imperial Splendour Media.pack";
mod "MOD_ISAmericasDLC"; (only if you have EUA DLC)
mod "darthmodlite_IS"; (in this case, this file should be always last on the list)

As for new GC, probably is safer to start new one. Most likely is save compatible, but i didn't test it.

What you can do is to backup 2 files from your Data folder (Imperial Splendour DB.pack,Imperial Splendour Media.pack) and then replace them with these.After that try loading your game, and if it doesn't work restore files that you backed up.No harm done.

[ilikepie]

I see. And if I already have Darthmod Formations installed, will this just be an update, or go with it? (Darthmod formations: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...hp?t=310627%A0)

[Tariq]

I see. And if I already have Darthmod Formations installed, will this just be an update, or go with it? (Darthmod formations: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...hp?t=310627%A0)

Darthmod Formations are old version of his mod. Those are just original starting formations from 1.1 patch, which don't change any AI units behavior. They just force AI to start in certain formation , in order to have (hopefully)higher chance of AI not ending up in melee right away.

You can only use one or another, but not both.New formations(by Darth) are included in Dartmodlite_IS.pack .

[ilikepie]

Thanks for the help. It did not break my save game (as far as I can tell).

[Tariq]

Thanks for the help. It did not break my save game (as far as I can tell).

You are welcome

Hopefully you will enjoy the battles.Please leave any feedback, if you have one.

[britishballer]

is this an adaptation from darth's mod directly or from brig's mod where he further increased shooting distance? also, this is strictly BAI>? not game ai with money, units, building time, etc?

[ilikepie]

Alright... I tried a battle and there are some problems.

For whatever reason all infantry units have become skirmishers, it has some major drawbacks. The default deployment is to put all skirmishers in a front line, which means that light infantry are put in a line with line infantry and guards, rather than ahead where they belong. When battle broke out, the units organized themselves into a zig-zagged mess rather than a line. Since it seems that the standard darthmod is in general good, the changing of infantry to skirmishers is probably the main issue here.

[Tariq]

is this an adaptation from darth's mod directly or from brig's mod where he further increased shooting distance? also, this is strictly BAI>? not game ai with money, units, building time, etc?

It's strictly BAI.Money and other things are IS 2.IS2 itself already has increased shooting distance and projectile spread.This mod is based on same platform that is used in TAR right now for new BAI.

Alright... I tried a battle and there are some problems.

For whatever reason all infantry units have become skirmishers, it has some major drawbacks. The default deployment is to put all skirmishers in a front line, which means that light infantry are put in a line with line infantry and guards, rather than ahead where they belong. When battle broke out, the units organized themselves into a zig-zagged mess rather than a line. Since it seems that the standard darthmod is in general good, the changing of infantry to skirmishers is probably the main issue here.

Darth changed them all into skirmishers in order to achieve cohesion, and It is included in overview part of the first post here.Game has an issue with Light Infantry and that is main cause of so-called "melee bug".Changing class of all those units is one of the main features of his mod.Placing Light infantry in front of rest of the units is solely number 1 reason for AI charging without shot into other side.

What you are describing is something that never happened during the testing(to me or the others) and i would like to know more details , in order to see what can be done about that.Who was AI side? What turn it was?Which size of units are using?

Thanks ahead.

[Black_Rider]

Is this mod works with AUM?

[Tariq]

Is this mod works with AUM?

Certain AUM units stats need to be tweaked, for which i need time and permission from mod creator.You can try it as it is and see if it fits.Worse that can happen is that they wouldn't work as intended with BAI.

You won't get any CTD or any other game breaking issue , that's for sure.

[britishballer]

well sir in accoridng to the laws of amazingness, you sir get +rep! amazing job. can't wait to try it out

[ilikepie]

Okay... more details. I played as the British against the French (how original), and each side had 2 light infantry. At the beginning of the battle, they marched in good order against me, in a perfect line. However, as soon as our line infantry came in range of each other, they turned so that, while they could still shoot me, their units were all diagonal (maybe 30-45 degrees). There was a center unit lined up straight and on both sides, the units were slightly facing towards it (like this: \ \ \ _ / / / only the diagonal slope was much less). As soon as I began to surround and charge, they organized themselves into a mix of massive splats and mobs and crossed x formations... However, the units did not engage melee at all until I attacked.

I'll try again with no light infantry on either side. Hopefully it will work better, but still.. no light infantry...

Okay. I was the Prussians against the Austrians. Once again, they kept perfect order until our lines neared. Then they started moving diagonally. By the time I opened fire, they had about 3 or 4 lines of 2 or 3 infantry each. Though these lines were straight,they were far apart from the other lines. When I moved cavalry around their flank, they moved one unit to face me and another to face my infantry... with its back to my cavalry Some of their lines began to overlap and intersect. Charge, dead, win.

I don't know exactly what's wrong.

Edit: I tried the same battle, with all the normal files restored and Darthmod formations. More or less the same thing happened. The lines were straighter, but there were units in front of and behind them, and they spent a ton of time running around in a bizarre attempt to reorganize at the beginning.....

Edit again: I tried the same battle again, with the normal IS file (line infantry are not skirmishers) and the new BAI file. The infantry stayed in straight lines, but once again there were units behind and in front, and when shots were fired, they went beserk, trying to charge. The best AI of the three is probably this mod, but still could have some major improvements.

If the goal of this mod is simply to stop units from prematurely charging, it worked, but the formations themselves are still messy.

Edit again again!: I found what I think is the problem. It was my mistake. I downloaded Modmanager, but when I launched the game I put the IS file above the Darthmod file in Modmanager. I'll try it again in the order you suggested. In this case, should my script be blank, or does it not matter if I have modmanager?

[Tariq]

If the goal of this mod is simply to stop units from prematurely charging, it worked, but the formations themselves are still messy.

No goal of this mod is to make AI work better, meaning to minimize possibility of those things that you mention happening. That being to maintain lines(not to overlap or chicken dance) and stop premature (not all) charges. AI will try to flank , but ultimately no one can't make AI smart to see everything on field.However, on rougher terrain it will happen more often, and there is nothing that anyone can do about it(sadly)

I was the Prussians against the Austrians. Once again, they kept perfect order until our lines neared. Then they started moving diagonally. By the time I opened fire, they had about 3 or 4 lines of 2 or 3 infantry each. Though these lines were straight,they were far apart from the other lines. When I moved cavalry around their flank, they moved one unit to face me and another to face my infantry... with its back to my cavalry

Interesting..where was AI cavalry?AI usually(not always) keeps cavalry behind and tries to intercept flanking attempts with it.If AI didn't have any cavalry left on field, that would be cause for what you have seen.

As i posted in OP, this is first test version, in which i didn't move away much from original IS values, and preliminary testing were good enough to release this publicly. I am going to try improving this further , as the feedback comes back.


Thanks for feedback.