Shogun 2 Vragos Campaign - Version 2.9.6 beta released!

[Vragos]

Vragos Campaign
Version 2.9.6 released. Full version.
20th of September, 2012

2.9.6 is not save-game compatible with older versions due to changes in startpos.esf

Overview

• This is an complete and very extensive overhaul of the campaign, almost nothing remains vanilla.
• It is intended for experienced players who want to play the original campaign again, with new possibilities, new challenges and a completely new experience.
• It is not based on any other overhaul or compilation, though some of them have reached the same conclusions that I have.
  
• Testing and balancing is incredible timeconsuming, but remains my top priority. Feedback is much appreciated, just keep it contructive.
• Tech-tree overhaul. The core tech now takes less time to research, while the side-techs take significantly longer. Each tech researched will impact much more than in vanilla.
• Skillpoints and ancillaries completely remade from scratch.
  

Main features

• A much longer campaign, up to year 1600, with 12 turns per year.
• All battlefield mechanics rebalanced:
  
  • Archery is no longer homing. Friendly fire can happen now. Armor is more significant in archery duels. Archery will not stop any charging unit, but is meant for wearing a unit down over time.
  • Melee last longer, units rout less quickly
  • Cavalry have the same stats mounted and unmounted. Mounted they still suffer against anti-cav units and when fighting in forrest.
  • Mangonels range and impact effect increased, but less accurate.
  
  
• Region specialties:
  
  • Almost all regions specialties have changed on the map.
  • Horse, ninja, monk and fletchers will allow a limited amount of special units to be recruited from that region.
  • Ninja and Monk heroes recruitable, as generals, from region specialty buildings when upgraded.
  • Armor smiths can be build in castle-towns.
  • Some region specialties can be changed. Choose between horses and lumber, or between lumber and fletchers.
  
  
• Generals:
  
  • Yumi, yari, naginata, nodachi, monk and ninja generals are now recruitable.
  • All generals use brand new and massively overhauled skilltrees.
  
  
• Agents:
  
  • Ninja, monk and metsuke agents have minor changes to their skill trees.
  • All agents are generally less effective.
  
  
• Technology:
  
  • Core technologies are faster to research, branched off technologies take significantly longer though.
  • Impact of technologies increased.
  
  
• Clan retainers:
  
  • Clans will now be able to recruit a few cheap naginata and bow samurai units. Monk clans can recruit monk and monk bow unit retainers instead.
  
  
• Garrisons:
  
  • Will heavily depend on which buildings are build inside the castle-town.
  • Most regions start with fortress level, major clans capitals at castle-level.
  
  

• It is carefully balanced, as a stand-alone mod. I strongly recommend you use this mod with only visual and/or audio mods running at the same time. Litterally hundreds of hours of testing and balancing has been put into giving a challenging experience, and to make sure the AI acts realistic.
  

What's going on right now:

• Testing and troubleshooting
• Reconsidering clan retainer units, again. I might create a brand new unit to replace them, which will be more unique and distinct on the battlefield.

Installation
Just unzip the files and place them in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\total war shogun 2\data

To fix any sound issues, that all mods that change or add units have - check out Sinfonia Semplice and the tutorial on it by Radious


Uninstallation
Delete vragos_**.pack from C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\total war shogun 2\data

Compatibility

• I strongly recommend running this mod alone, the changes are extensive and covers almost all aspects of the game which means it conflicts with most other mods.
• The massive changes in mechanics and unit stats means conflicts with other mods will completely throw off the balance of the game.
  
• It works fine with mods that change unit cards, loading screens and most other visual tweaks. If in doubt, post below and I'll look into it.
  

Before you start

• It is for the original campaign, not for ROTS and FOTS.
• It is not savegame compatible! You will have to start a new campaign.
  
• It is not multiplayer compatible! If you want to play multiplayer and not risk your avatar, move the vragos_campaign.pack to a backup folder before launching the game.
  
• Do not trust the encyclopedia. I have not updated it to reflect my changes. Read the tooltips - almost nothing is as it was in vanilla.
• It is tested and balanced at hard difficulty.
  
• Approach the campaign as if you never played it before, and be prepared for a long hard struggle to become shogun.
  

Known issues

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

• The new skilltrees for generals do not apply to Ikko Ikki, I will fix it soon.
  
• Sounds effects are messed up. This happens for all unit mods. Download Sinfonia Semplice and run it to fix it.
• Starting ashigaru units for many minor clans are size 400.
  
• The patches, oh the wonderful patches. If a new patch is released, and it mess up - you can try to temporarily remove the patch. This release was build on patch 23.
  

Feedback
Feedback and suggestions are much appreciated, but please be constructive in your critisism.

Credits and thanks to
CoconutFred for allowing me to integrate Better Unit Card mod. Grab it if you don't have it, it is awesome.

Banner
Insert this to your signature to show the banner:

[url=http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=9620433#post9620433][img]http://www.twcenter.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=167400&d=1307699020[ /img][ /url]

And then remove the space in front of the /img and /url in the end.

Permissions
For the time being, this mod is: P ersonal use only. That means you may not rerelease it as you own, or your own version of it. If I don't come out with an update after a patch that breaks it, you are allowed to fix the errors and upload it in this thread.
This mod may not be uploaded on any other site without my permission.

[Lord Baal]

Wow dude, a really nice mod! I should try it ASAP... I invite you to try my mod, it's called Baal's Delirium, http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=453678.

Maybe we could exchange ideas?

[Vragos]

Wow dude, a really nice mod! I should try it ASAP... I invite you to try my mod, it's called Baal's Delirium, http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=453678.

Maybe we could exchange ideas?

Yeah, I saw you put up your beta while I was considering releasing mine - and saw that we shared many ideas. I'll be happy to answer to any questions you might have, and welcome the chance to exhange ideas and experiences.

[Lord Baal]

That sir, would be very much appreciated! Well I'll try your mod this very night so expect some feedback this very week. have some rep for your efforts by the way!

It's nice to see people that also like the 12 turns per year system, like you and GambleFish.

[Vragos]

Looking forward to it Lordbaal.

I am currently working intensely on the next update, you can read about it in the work in progress spoiler. I got it more or less sorted, testing the balance of the new cavalry and hero units this afternoon and evening. Should be able to release a new version sometime tonight.

It will be savegame compatible with those who are already playing a vragos campaign, although there might be some glithces regarding the sizes of cavalry and heroes already recruited.

[Lord Baal]

I see those changes are important! Specially the calvary ones! Mounted heroes, a natural tough! Can't believe nobody thought about it before...
And the mounted samurai being as good or better when dismounted than the foot ones it's logical. Only the most elite ones where allowed to ride to battle, thus they should be really elite, hence the importance of having tons of yari ashigaru!
I would implement this in my mod too if that's fine?

[Vragos]

I see those changes are important! Specially the calvary ones! Mounted heroes, a natural tough! Can't believe nobody thought about it before...
And the mounted samurai being as good or better when dismounted than the foot ones it's logical. Only the most elite ones where allowed to ride to battle, thus they should be really elite, hence the importance of having tons of yari ashigaru!
I would implement this in my mod too if that's fine?

By all means, Lordbaal, feel free to implement it, I'm sure you'll give me credit if you find it is important enough to be worth it.

Regarding the overhaul of the cavalry and hero units, I simply found that the vanilla was too much a copy-paste of the previous Total War releases and didn't at all reflect that samurai first and foremost were horsemen and archers, and that their training with a large range of weapons, mounted and dismounted was the probably the best the world have ever seen. If any word comes to my mind when I think of the samurai combat abilities, it is versatility.

The samurai class also span from very poor to extremely rich, and was actually a very large portion of the population. I've seen numbers from around 7-8% of the population were samurai at this age. While it is impossible for us to show this variety in equipement and the sheer numbers of troops our computers and the battlefield can manage put further limitations on us; I don't see the need to add many new troops. Those we deploy simply need to matter more.

So far I feel that I have plenty of tools available during the campaign, and the battles clearly reward using troops at their strengths and avoid putting them in situations they are illequipped to handle.

Instead of ending up in 3-4 stack armies of ashigaru as I did in vanilla, I have reached over 150 turns in the campaign without ever seeing more than one stack armies with my mod.

The Ashigaru have their strength in numbers, but they don't have the training for the kind of versatility the samurai should have. I try to keep it that way. A pure samurai army is pretty small, and are in risk of getting overwhelmed by a pure ashigaru army. But instead of making the AI and the player recruit a lot of ashigaru units, I increased the cost significantly and the size of each unit to about the maximum the AI can handle on the battlefield.

I'm not a historian, nor an expert on Japanese warfare - I might be prone to some of the glorified impression of samurai that we probably all suffer from. But I like it, and so far it brings some truely epic battles.

[Vragos]

Version 1.1 released.

• High tier sword, archery and spear dojos now give two units to the defence of the castle city. Lower tiers still give one unit. Garrisons from forts adjusted accordingly.
• Temples now give morale bonus to units recruited, slight reduction in region specialty morale bonuses.
  
• Each dojo now add a recruitment slot. Reduction in recruitment slots from forts/castles.
  
• Reduced income from farms.
• Ports supply 1 food.
• Lowered battle movement speed of cavalry units.
• Cavalry units reworked, increased to 120 in size on ultra. Increased dismounted stats to be slightly better than their infantry counterparts. In essence cavalry is now mounted infantry.
• Heroes are now cavalry units.
• Armor values balanced. Increase in the effectiveness of heavy infantry armor.
  
• Slight reduction in armor gains from smiths.
  
• Reworked bonus for master and legendary dojo bonuses to make them impact the quality of troops as well as the experience.
  
• Increased recruitment time of cavalry to 4 turns (3 turns with master and legendary dojos).
• Minor adjustements to tech bonuses, most importantly more bonuses to fleet campaign movement range.
• Experience levels from dojos reduced, to make experience in battle matter in end game.

It shooooould be savegame compatible if you already started a vragos campaign - there will be issues with cavalry and hero units already recruited though.
Enjoy!

[Solman88]

Sounds good but it's not compatible with my current mods.
any chance you could release mounted Hero as a mini mod?

[Vragos]

Sounds good but it's not compatible with my current mods.
any chance you could release mounted Hero as a mini mod?

Sure thing, I cut them out of my mod instead of making them based on the original values so costs, stats and buildtimes have been modified. If there is a huge demand for it I don't mind making one based on vanilla numbers, it's just going to take some time.

Also it only covers bow, spear and katana heroes as it does in my mod. Monk heroes remain unmounted.

Hope you can use it.

[Solman88]

Sure thing, I cut them out of my mod instead of making them based on the original values so costs, stats and buildtimes have been modified. If there is a huge demand for it I don't mind making one based on vanilla numbers, it's just going to take some time.

Also it only covers bow, spear and katana heroes as it does in my mod. Monk heroes remain unmounted.

Hope you can use it.

Greatly appreciated, will give it a test. +1 rep

[cpdwane]

Damn this looks like an interesting mod. I'll be sure to give it a go, although I've got to get through the vanilla campaign first

+rep

[Solman88]

Sure thing, I cut them out of my mod instead of making them based on the original values so costs, stats and buildtimes have been modified. If there is a huge demand for it I don't mind making one based on vanilla numbers, it's just going to take some time.

Also it only covers bow, spear and katana heroes as it does in my mod. Monk heroes remain unmounted.

Hope you can use it.

darn. doesn't seen to work in my custom battle. which mod do you think might conflict with this?

[Vragos]

darn. doesn't seen to work in my custom battle. which mod do you think might conflict with this?

Just tested it and it works fine for me. You can try to rename the vragos_mounted_heroes.pack to aaaaa_vragos_mounted_heroes.pack or something similar. That should put it in front of any other addons you run that modify the same files.

The cut-out was made so only the heroes are changed, so any other unit mods you run should work fine this way.

If the problem persists, I'll need a list of the mods you are running to give an educated guess on which one might conflict.

[Lord Baal]

It worked for me. Well I integrated to my mod, but basically didn't add anything else... so maybe what Vragos said should work!

By the way I totally love this mod! I tried it but not too much, since I'm at risk of getting addicted and stall my own development!!!

[Solman88]

Just tested it and it works fine for me. You can try to rename the vragos_mounted_heroes.pack to aaaaa_vragos_mounted_heroes.pack or something similar. That should put it in front of any other addons you run that modify the same files.

The cut-out was made so only the heroes are changed, so any other unit mods you run should work fine this way.

If the problem persists, I'll need a list of the mods you are running to give an educated guess on which one might conflict.

Still not working
took a screenshot for you

[Vragos]

Most likely it is darthmod and radius_stats_mod, as well as radious_upkeepv2 mod. They all edit the same files. I wish I could do more, but unfortunately there is too many conflicting mods in your collection for me to even attempt to make a fix for you.

[DaFranker]

Darthmod alone, while not fully compatible with the mounted heroes standalone, wouldn't prevent it from working. It's packaged as a mod rather than a movie pack file, so Vragos' changes should "overwrite" Darthmod's. However, those two from Radious' mods, stats and upkeep, are definitely the most suspect.

Maybe you could try a "zzzzz_" prefix instead of "aaaaa_"? The game seems to read those files from top to bottom in alphabetical order when otherwise of same priority, so changes from files at the bottom would overwrite those from files at the top.

Of course, in this case in your setup Darthmod practically isn't doing anything, since nearly all of its changes are being overwritten by Radious mods.

[Vragos]

Darthmod alone, while not fully compatible with the mounted heroes standalone, wouldn't prevent it from working. It's packaged as a mod rather than a movie pack file, so Vragos' changes should "overwrite" Darthmod's. However, those two from Radious' mods, stats and upkeep, are definitely the most suspect.

Maybe you could try a "zzzzz_" prefix instead of "aaaaa_"? The game seems to read those files from top to bottom in alphabetical order when otherwise of same priority, so changes from files at the bottom would overwrite those from files at the top.

Of course, in this case in your setup Darthmod practically isn't doing anything, since nearly all of its changes are being overwritten by Radious mods.

True, but from what I could see of his mods, the "v" in vragos would already put it as the last movie mod to be loaded. I'm not entirely sure how "mod"-mods and "movie"-mods interact since I always convert mods to movie for easier handling. If anyone know, feel free to enlighten me.

Regarding the full campaign mod, I'm working hard on 1.2 with quite a few adjustments. Mostly balancing, but also adapting to the Ikko Ikki DLC. I'm testing a rough version at the moment, should be ready for release tomorrow. Also some fixes that should improve the campaign AI even more. As always I try to keep the work in progress spoiler in the main thread updated with what I'm working on.

Thanks for all the encouragement I recieve in PMs, don't take it personally if I'm slow to respond.

[erdoszb]

Hi Vragos,

Is your mod works with the new DLC/patch?