Feature Requests

[DimeBagHo]

About stone walls: Currently you can't build Epic Stone walls, and although you can build large stone walls, what you get on the battle map is really just the small stone wall. The reason for this is that the larger walls are bugged - there is a pathfinding issue with seige towers that can really mess things up for the AI.

Building large sophisticated stone defenses certainly took a long time, but building a basic stone wall did not. Almost all Greek cities had stone walls centuries before the game period. After the Peloponnesian war the Athenians rebuilt their stone wall, which had been destroyed as part of the peace terms at the end of the war, in a very short period of time.

I'll take a look at increasing the cost of building stone walls, and maybe the time for large stone walls, but I don't think that building a small stone wall should be all that expensive in cost or time.

Zarax: I agree on the desert peltasts and infantry. I'll probably tweak the stats so they have a significant advantage in desert and scrub. As for the Greek mercs, they were not elites, but they are the best infantry available to several factions, and I don't think they should be available in the same quantity as native troops.

[Zarax]

Well, the RTW basic stone wall is a fairly complex building as far as fortification goes...
About greek mercs: giving them both high cost and upkeep will discourage both players and AI from recruiting them, most factions can recruit similar infantry after all...

[Zarax]

DBH, is it possible to reactivate the short campaigns?

[Locky]

Our old friend ATG is back, with a new awesome spartan skin! Looks pretty damn good like all his work. I think that this one would make a good replacement for the Spartan royal guard.

Wow...this thread is still going strong ; ) A big thanks to all of you for all of the nice comments and continued interest in my work. I especially want to thank DimeBagHo for taking the time to drop by this thread periodically and provide support to those that may have had any questions/issues....it is much appreciated.

Well, after a long break I'm back. I am not sure how involved I will be with regards to modding RTW. I would like to continue making more Greek units and I have some other ideas I would like to implement but it will all depend on how much free time I can allocate to this.

Anyway, I've finally rebuilt the installer for my mod. Due to popular request, I made a new installer that has an option to make all the necessary entries to the data files automatically...this should be very newb friendly and fully resolve the unit card issue. There will still be a manual install method for those of you that wish to make the changes yourself. I'm also finally releasing all of the gloss files as promised. I'll explain more about the installer when its released.



You're right, I did put a lot of work into this. I spent a lot of time searching through paintings/sculptures to get ideas for making the textures as well as reading various background information on them. The way I understand it is that each man was responsible to attain their own armor, not everyone could afford bronze which is why some used linothorax. Many depictions show the Spartan's in linothorax. While I lived in Greece, I went to a museum and remember seeing various Spartan pottery that depicted them wearing linothorax. My memory isn't so good, but I'll have to refer to some of Plutarch's writings if it mentions anything regarding this. I am no expert and you may very well be right; but my point is that there is more info out there that says it might have been worn than there is info that says they absolutely never wore it.

Either way, I don't have the time or energy to debate this...but your post did motivate me to make one last Spartan that I will be releasing with the new installer. I started working on this texture long ago but canned it due to time constraints. I finally finished it today....

Bronze Spartan Hoplite



I just have to complete the unit cards, gloss maps and repack the installer. It should all hopefully be ready sometime this weekend. More info then.

-ATG

[DimeBagHo]

Zarax: Yes, I think it would be just a matter of adding the short campaign conditions back into the win conditions file. I'll do it for the next version if you like.

Locky: That's good news about ATG returning. He has made some of the most amazing Greek skins available.

[Zarax]

DBH, I think it would be a good idea as the current XGM campaigns are way longer than vanilla ones and this way one could have some quicker fun.
BTW, is really needed the alliance between romans and gauls at the start? I'm getting the former pretty much locked into Italy after getting sicily in my games...

[DimeBagHo]

In my own tests I found that without the alliance the Romans would turn against the Gauls too soon, perhaps because the Julii are hardcoded to expand that way, leaving the south in the hands of the Greeks and rebels, and then get crushed on all sides. The alliance forces them to take the south first, which puts them in a much better position to deal with the Gauls later. Usually war with the Gauls breaks out eventually, although I could script an end to the alliance if you think it is necessary.

[Zarax]

Well, wouldn't it be simpler to reduce gaulish economic bonuses? Spain got a bit overpowered too imho, I'm finding almost impossible to survive as Carthage between them, numidians, romans and eggies, resulting in a multi front assault that gets marian tech very soon while I'm still at level 3 techs...
I could still win by playing all battles but still facing 2 full stacks of iberians each turn is a big challenge considering that it's impossible to cover the whole front with a single stack...

[Silent]

Gauls seem a little overpowered, it doesnt matter how many of them i kill, literally millions, they allways come back with around 2 more full stacks and 5 half filled stacks, its getting rediculas.

[DimeBagHo]

I'm sure that's how the Romans felt about them at times as well. They will probably be slowed down a little in the next version.

[Cyrus the Virus]

So, are you inplanting any units from Alexander exp. yet?

[DimeBagHo]

Unfortunately I can't start work on that yet. I don't have a secure internet connection, and I don't have a connection from the machine I use for modding, so I don't even have Alexander yet. My internet connection should be sorted out next week though, so hopefully the next version will be out in 10 days or so.

[Locky]

Yes, i've notcied in my games, that Iberia goes Beserk, and if Gaul is crushed by Rome, they tend to explode outwards. But if Gaul destroys Rome, they'll just batter away at each other for awhile. I've also noted that Either Pontus, Seleciua or Ptolemies will take the east, whilst Amreniea and Parthia are crushed. Also, i haven't seen one faction attack the independent Greek cities, or the Roman rebels, they always are assisted by whoever is closest, and they appear to have allies that stay loyal.

[Silent]

yes, also why is everyone that borders me allied and all hostile vs me? lol i have no allies and when i did they never helped me out

[Zarax]

Well, AI is somehow much more aggressive in XGM (I guess it's because of the economical bonuses they get, sort of EB Style), making the game quite harder...
I'm trying to balance things through the core diplomacy settings but so far I didn't get good results...

[Zarax]

So, are you inplanting any units from Alexander exp. yet?

Check the screenshot thread, I'm currently importing a few units that doesn't require modding... I'm not sure if I will be able to release anything in beta format before DBH starts working on it though...

[Hippias]

Any news on what you are aiming to have in the next release? More loyalty, any factions out, any new ones in?

Re. loyalty - the Rebel Greek Cities seem to hang on up in Byzantium and dotted around the Black Sea, but both they and the Rebel Romans seem to get stomped in Southern Italy by Rome proper. When a roman city rebels after that it seems to get squashed straight away by some huge roman stack nearby. Haven't been playing enough of 4.11 so see if this is always the case, but have you got experience of Roman (particularly) rebels having a real impact as a faction?

[Sammur-amat]

Any news on what you are aiming to have in the next release? More loyalty, any factions out, any new ones in?

Re. loyalty - the Rebel Greek Cities seem to hang on up in Byzantium and dotted around the Black Sea, but both they and the Rebel Romans seem to get stomped in Southern Italy by Rome proper. When a roman city rebels after that it seems to get squashed straight away by some huge roman stack nearby. Haven't been playing enough of 4.11 so see if this is always the case, but have you got experience of Roman (particularly) rebels having a real impact as a faction?

that stack is scripted i think to show if you are not romans..and you completely right bout byzantion,but while i was carthage and one as romans i fight first 100yrz mostly west and north (talking bout slow expansion,hehe)they kick seleucids ass ,take out the skythians (with a lil' help of germans i push east),armenia,pontus and they strech to the persian gulf ,almost all east medi-coast to alexandria,but the parthia stopped them somehow(then i rush in and make their empire part of mine ...hehe)
roman rebels on the other hand (obserb only two times,parthia,seleucid) mostly static and as me greex they ussualy take on carthage(suicidal plan :tooth: ) and usually they are wiped soon by neighbours :hmmm:

[DimeBagHo]

In the next version you will probably see:
1. Seleucid rebels + loyalty for the Seleucids.
2. Some units from Alexander, mostly as AORs in the east.
3. Some further economic and difficulty tweaks (mostly to make certain campaigns a bit easier).
4. Civil wars implemented through character traits.
5. (Maybe - if I have time) Ptolemaic rebels + loyalty for the Ptolemies.

The way loyalty and rebel factions are set up at the moment, they are intended to be more of a problem for human players, than AI factions. Rebellions will become more significant though, once civil wars are implemented. What I intend to do is set things up so that when a rebel faction re-emerges, somewhere between a half and a third of the affected faction's family members will join the rebellion.

BTW: They way things currently work is that when a city rebels the garrison is ejected, and remains loyal, while a new garrison is spawned. This is all hard coded, and obviously if the new garrison is small it can put the parent faction in a good position to re-take the city before the rebellion spreads. Hopefully the new civil war mechanic will help rebellions to survive a little longer.

[Hippias]

Sounds good.....very good.

XGM is THE user friendly mod....keep it coming.