Preview Battlefield?

[CassiusGnarus]

Hey
How is it possible to examine the terrain of the battlefield before I do battle?

Throughout the history book there are examples of men denying battle until the ground is in their favor. How am I supposed to do this in empire, as it seems that regardless of whether or not I'm attacking or where I am, I always have the worst position possible.

Any help would be appreciated

[p.jakub88]

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Hmm, as far as i know, there are a "square deployment zones" of friendly and enemy forces, set to be visible during the deployment process in the land and naval battles.

I noticed, that most of enemy troops, deploy at the middle of those deployment zones (!!).

So, zoom out to see how big is the deployment area for enemy army and make some calculations.

For 80 to 90 % of the time, the enemy will be deployed at the middle of battlefield.

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[CassiusGnarus]

Haha, yeah, i had noticed that. What I mean though isn't quite so much a "where will they show up" idea though. I remember in R:TW that the player could view cities even not in conflict (which I though was a rather neat feature), but I was wondering if that kind of locale examination was possible for additional strategy in ETW. It doesn't seem to make much sense that the Player can't deny combat until the field is in his favor.

Yea, or Nea?

[p.jakub88]

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I see that you have expectations like a sort of general from XX century ( Montgomery maybe...) about planning battles.

Maybe you would like GPS or air recon in Empire Total War ( Osprey air recon... ) ?!

For me, ETW Grand Campaign battles are enough easy on normal, to bother with any "extra" settings.

You could always "escape" from a battle, if the enemy is too strong....see the strenght bar above enemy units before engaging in battle or city siege.

I made a mod, that make the strength bar invisible (transparent), heh --> so i will never know the amount of enemy units garrisoned (such mods are changing "realism" --> ancient word, not used in vanilla ETW... ).

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[CassiusGnarus]

Haha, I'm not expecting satellite imaging or unmanned aerial drones in the 1700's.
I'm merely working on the assumption that generals in the 18th century had (somewhat) detailed maps of Europe, considering that they had been waging war across it for approximately 1000 years.

It is very possible that the engine generates the map in favor of the defending player, assuming just what I'm asking - that a general will attempt to find good ground from which to defend.

[p.jakub88]

Haha, I'm not expecting satellite imaging or unmanned aerial drones in the 1700's.
I'm merely working on the assumption that generals in the 18th century had (somewhat) detailed maps of Europe, considering that they had been waging war across it for approximately 1000 years.

It is very possible that the engine generates the map in favor of the defending player, assuming just what I'm asking - that a general will attempt to find good ground from which to defend.

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I know that, it was only a joke....

We have already, too many informations about enemy army in ETW, in my opinion.

We know the exact size of enemy army ( pre_battle screen).

I could be wrong, but i think that even today ( XXI century) it is impossible to get info about the exact size of enemy army before battle.....

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Sorry, but asking questions like that is a bit silly, don't you think?

Vanilla ETW has a lot of bugs, so you could only wait for a better patch than 1.6....

If you expect a mod, best wishes....

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[CassiusGnarus]

You have yet to answer my original question. This seems to be a case of you either deliberately misunderstanding what I am asking, or a case of me not stating plainly what I am requesting. In either case, I am sorry.

I am not talking about enemy army information. like you said, there is a glut of that in the pre-battle screen.

I am not talking about "where will they show up". I had, before the beginning of this thread, realized that the AI tends to clump everyone in the same area (dead center of the deployment zone)

These are things that anybody could pick up on, as they are fairly thrust into the players face.


What I am asking is, simply, is there a way to preview the battlefield, without clicking the little "fight" button? Is there a way that I can see the contours of the land and decide that "Yes, I will take my inferior force and make a stand here." Much in the way that General Buford did with his cavalry in the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg.

It is a very simple question, and it is, actually, not a silly question for any player that actually wants to play the campaign like a war.

Is this possible? if so, how?

[p.jakub88]

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Ok, now i understand what you asked, but i don't think that this is possible in Grand Campaign.

Maybe you could view the battlefield terrain inside the game files?

But it would be hard to open them.

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So, the only option think i could consider is the knowledge about geography of the World, nothing else.

It could be good, if we have a sort of "pre battle map pop-up" which shows the terrain : suggested defense position, buildings, cities etc.

I think, that some aspects of Grand Campaigns are hard-coded.

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As you see, noone beside me, is interested in this topic, so there must be the reason....

I' m not stupid too ( i wrote already 516 posts on TWCenter and i created few mods....), so i will try to make some mods to improve the overall realism of Grand Campaign.

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Keep in mind, that CA is against modding, and we haven't got to many modding tools available...

Some Grand Campaign aspects are controlled from *.luac files and some of them from *.lua.

Opening lua is easy ( with Notepad ), bu editing *.luac is a painful process.

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Of course, i 'm open to suggestions, proposals, etc.

I added some polls to my mod topics, but as always noone is interested in it....

So, tell me : how we could change something, if noone expects those changes or worse --> is against them?!

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[CassiusGnarus]

Thanks for the quick response. As an amateur modder, I understand exactly CA's position of modding, (which is pointless, shortsighted, and counterproductive) and I understand the limits that this policy has forced on their computer literate consumers.

There may be a lack of interest, but how often do great features or mods come from someone reading an old forum and saying "hey, I can do that!"

And just because nobody thinks it has potential doesn't mean that it doesn't have potential. I will keep poking around with it, and let you know if I get a breakthrough.

Thanks for your input, suggestions, and conclusions.

[p.jakub88]

Thanks for the quick response. As an amateur modder, I understand exactly CA's position of modding, (which is pointless, shortsighted, and counterproductive) and I understand the limits that this policy has forced on their computer literate consumers.

There may be a lack of interest, but how often do great features or mods come from someone reading an old forum and saying "hey, I can do that!"

And just because nobody thinks it has potential doesn't mean that it doesn't have potential. I will keep poking around with it, and let you know if I get a breakthrough.

Thanks for your input, suggestions, and conclusions.

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Yes, you are right in 100%.

But as i said : i' m unable to mod some aspects of ETW on my own, without help of forum members.

Maybe look here for ideas and released mods :

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1075

As you will see, i made some mods that "fixed" battle realism in Grand Campaign.

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If i manage to edit some aspects of pre_battle popup panel, i will post a mod for sure.

I' m playing Grand Campaign as United Provinces and i look forward for any ETW bugs or stupid features, that i could remove or make invisible as a texture.

Your idea is good, but someone must do a mod to make this happen.

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