[PItalica2] Preview : Winter script

[SigniferOne]

Folks,

I would like those who are interested in testing and helping out this mod, to let me know if the Winter script works well in their game. If not (after a lot of testing), if it hampers the gameplay without adding real improvement, I'll take it out.



At present, it works in the following way:

-during non-winter turns, your generals have normal movement points (in fact, even more than before).
-during the winter turn, generals have drastically reduced movement points.
-regular units, unless being led by a general, will always have the level of movement points that your generals have during winter.

As a side note, when you first get a general, his movements will be somewhat less than maximum, but will be maxed out for every turn after that.


Screenshots:

Regular screen, regular terrain:


Regular extent of movement during normal turns (our map is large)


Every winter, it becomes this many turns:


For rank and file soldiers (when outside of the general's group),this many tuns:

[alhoon]

It would be maxed out for the general alone. Any army the general leads should be outside a city with the general for a turn to benefit from the increased speed.

[SigniferOne]

Correct, the army has to be with the general at all times, to have more than a small movement range.

[Hister]

How does the AI cope with it?

[SigniferOne]

That's what I would like people to report on, as it plays out in their individual separate campaigns.

[SigniferOne]

I will need to know what people think of the script before I make the Announcement opening up the new build to the whole community.

[Quintus Marcellus]

For my own personal gameplay, I love the winter/general script because it makes your training buildings in each city much more relevant, as you must take in reinforcements along the way to replenish yor forces because shipping reinforcements is now all but almost impossible. All those little villages are now much more useful.

As for the AI, I'm playing as Rome, consolidating my holds in Latium and incorporating the Sabinii (70 turns played), so I'm not too spread out to see what everybody is doing. However, from my watchtowers on the frontiers, I see Umbrian, Samnite and Etrurian armies moving around, all led by generals, except for a few lone units camping out in the wild. At least for me, for now, it is not an obstacle for the AI.

[PlayerOne]

I thought i would open up a new thread just for dev forum. Also i will talk about the movement script as they seem related, if thats ok.

My first thougts:
- I like the difference between general and captian movement points. Makes general more important to recruit and look after.
- General movement distance is good, not sure if its too large. But will see after playing.
- Captain/non-general movement distance is small, it may be to small in my opinion. Taking 3-4 turns to go from rome to antium may seem long. However this may make the game more strategic, ie harder to retrain higer tier units once away from important cities.
- Definately agree with the reduction of movement during the winter, just makes sense especially if the landscape in mention is hit with snow and cold climates.
- Unsure precisely how the ai is coping with the movement script. From what i have seen they have the normal bands of small armies, which have no generals, so are crippled with movement. Only one or two generals seem to be used, not always properly mind, by each faction outside the cities. ( this may be because the faction only has two or three generals/family members)
- So far then it doesnt seem like the ai understands the movement script. There is no real problems with it, just the mehanics of it i think is not understood by the ai.
- If movement for non-general armies was increased a fraction, maybe by a 1/4 it may help with the ai disadvantage.

These ares only my views, others may see it differently.

Not long into campaign so will say more later on...

[SigniferOne]

Uploaded some pictures to the first post, to illustrate how the script works.

[Hister]

I can back up PlayerOne's observations. For me this winter movement script is really cool so good jog Sig! Only AI needs to be tought how to use it properly and we will all be a happy bunch.

[Skyn0s]

The whole point of the script is to make units suffer without generalship... Now you can't move your units as if they were their own self-appointed generals. That honestly made generals redundant, as you could have armies led by themselves, and be perfectly fine with that. This makes generals into totally-important leaders without which the armies cannot function.

On my observation, and little test i could do on a Roman Campaign, the Winter Script works fine for me.
As my quote belove, i think an army without leaders, particularly in those time couldn't work correctly.

With this script the generals have an higher importance, without him it's difficult to apply a tactic, and that is totally realistic.

Like Hister, i have found that the AI needs to make a better use of this script if it's possible.

Actually that is a good job ! It makes the campaign more interesting

[SigniferOne]

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[Hister]

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[aesthete]

Works great for me.

[I3enjaIvIin]

Does the winter script also affect ships? Like if you would put all your units in a ship then they can't move as far or would they be able to travel larger distances?

[PlayerOne]

Ships are affected but they can still move further than if the units were on land...

[SigniferOne]

Nope, ships arent affected, unless I had some sort of mistake in my code.

[PlayerOne]

Oh right, well if i put units on a ship without a general the ship cannot move as far as normal.

[SigniferOne]

Oh... hmmm.

I'll try to get this fix into the upcoming patch, where ships are able to travel fast at all times.

[PlayerOne]

Depends what you mean by fast. Yes they can travel a large distance on there own, but when units are on-board the distance decreases.