Compatible uniform mods?

**mAIOR** · February 07, 2012, 05:16 PM

Hey, I'm wondering if this mod (much like NER) has a lot of compatible mods in sound, smoke and uniforms. I always use a graphical overall mod which improves the campaign graphics. Now, is there a compatible one for the battle graphics? I have to get Empire again and as soon as I get it, I'm feeling like having another go with this mod. Portuguese conquering the World!! Might actually start an AAR about it. Got the title and all:
Blood and tears: The making of an Empire

Cheers...

**JaM** · February 08, 2012, 02:14 AM

ER structure is very similar to NER, so yes, you can apply similar mods over it as you did with NER.

**mAIOR** · February 08, 2012, 06:37 AM

Do you personally recommend any?

Cheers...

**JaM** · February 08, 2012, 09:50 AM

i dont use any right now, i had some Graphic mods that enhance everything and add new graphical thingies,icons etc...

**mAIOR** · February 08, 2012, 10:41 AM

Yeah after playing a bit the most annoying thing is that the smoke dissipates too fast. Is there some Whiff of sulphur like mod for ETW? Couldn't find any in the mod threads... Also, the time scale you use un ER seems different than the one in NER. Am I correct? Or are the maps just bigger?

EDIT: Oh and units seem to rout a bit too fast. I played a battle vs the Mysore kingdom and their infantry routed after too little causalties. True they were in a blob so cohesion must've been pretty low. But this appears to need a bit of tweaking. I also had a unit of militia routing after one casualty. Musket fire is very good imho. Great stuff dude. +rep to you again

Btw, in PMs we traded a couple of months ago you said you thought that making ER have 6 turns per year would be awesome. I concur especially since the pirates in Africa seem to be able to cover the entire region map in one turn so they sink my ships easily. Also, I think that adding extra building capacity to ports
would be a good thing since ships now take a long time building (not complaining btw...). I'm using a startpos that allows me to play with Portugal could you add that facility to your standard startpos?

The problem with NTW for me is that it's campaign is just too limited. It's fun and all but the ETW campaign just has a lot more depth.

Cheers...

**JaM** · February 08, 2012, 04:09 PM

i wanted to have more turns per year, but then with current ER recruit system, it would just take lots of time to recruit certain units. Right now unit recruit time is not just the time needed to finish with basic training, but also the time needed to gather all men,buy all equipment needed, built them the barracks etc... Artillery units for example have even training time of officers accounted for (at least 2 years of school or more),same with cavalry etc... therefore i have adjusted the movement rates instead to get closer to 2 turns/year scale (but not as close at it should be).

Regarding morale, i can increase it a bit in next version, anyway it was intentional to make musket fire better morale breaker, so it is possible to rout melee only infantry, as it actually happened in reality,anyway +1 or maybe 2 to morale should make it slightly better,but will have to test it.

regarding pirates, it was also intentional - pirates are easy to eradicate if you want, giving them smaller,but faster ships with good mobility, makes them dangerous vs trade ships, but they cant fight against military ships, where simple Frigates can handle them easily. Just don't send Ships of the Line, as they will have issues to catch them - that is what Frigates are for...

**mAIOR** · February 08, 2012, 06:45 PM

Actually in my punitive expedition, I sent a 50 gun SOTL and a couple of frigates vs 4 Xebecs and a 50 gun SOTL (probably from the altered startpos) my 50 gunner was impervious to the Xebec fire and my frigates packed enough punch to actually arm the enemy 50 gun SOTL. Frigates do work vs Pirates

however, as Portugal, your first trade fleet in west Africa is doomed.

I understood what you were trying to make with muskets but I still think it's too effective. If I had 900+ (three units) guys coming at one unit of militia while taking flanking fire from another. They broke as soon as contact was made with minimum casualties.

As for units training times, how about some new technology like reserve system. It could lower your recruitment times based on reserves. This period has a lot of evolution from the permanent regiments to Gribeauval reforms on artillery so a tech representing the implementation of a reserve system would be cool! It would lower recruitment times and you could drop a couple of turns as is. It was rare for a nation at war to fully train their soldiers while in war. Most of them would complete their training at the frontline.

Cheers...

**JaM** · February 09, 2012, 03:37 PM

reserve units is a very good idea. i will try to implement it in next version somehow.

**mAIOR** · February 10, 2012, 06:17 AM

Also, I noticed I can only recruit 10 regiments of line as Portugal and they have the same shooting stats as militia. Is this correct? If so, what's the reasoning behind it?

Cheers...

**JaM** · February 10, 2012, 07:37 AM

i have restricted number of units small countries can recruit to prevent them from overtaking the world.. Portugal was not playable in original game..

**mAIOR** · February 10, 2012, 10:30 AM

I know Portugal isn't available in standard campaign but it's a great country to start. We had loads of money (badly spent money at the time but for you to have an idea we extracted tons of gold evey year from our mines in Brazil and we also exported wood and hemp to most of the world). For you to have an idea, if the tax collected at Minas Gerais (called derrama) didn't reach 1,500 Kg of gold, an inspection would happen to see if there was someone stuffing his pockets. Most of this gold was sent to england to buy for manufactured goods which Portugal didn't produce. This was a bit reduced with Marquês do Pombal government who tried to improve Portuguese industry and partially succeeded (short living as it was since he was there for a small amount of time) through a misc of genius (his reformulation of the portuguese industry and creation of several manufactures and the pacifying moves towards the Jews and the creation of the first wine region the world in northern Portugal), threat (the expelling of the jesuits including the closing of a Jesuit trading company which was using the power of the church to destroy the opposition or the creation of the first wine region in the world) and actual murder (the Tavoras case and the creation of the first wine region in the world. We even started to coin some of the biggest gold coins in the world worth more than anything else at the time. That's why Portugal gives some very interesting what if scenarios

Cheers...

**JaM** · February 10, 2012, 11:17 AM

it wasnt intended to restrict Portugal only. All small countries share same unit which have restriction set to 10 units=regiments. It doesnt have anything to do with money,but with soldier pool available. And because i had only one unit type available for all, i had to use some middle ground for all small countries, so they wont spam huge armies and roll over the world, no matter their real human resources... If you check, you are still able to recruit Grenadiers, and Guards, as well as Militia type units. Intention was to give those countries semi realistic army size restriction, to keep them around 30-40 regiments max at the same time (which is a lot).

Anyway, i agree they should have slightly better stats than militia/ provincial infantry units. i will definitely adjust that.

**mAIOR** · February 10, 2012, 11:37 AM

Oh, and Portugal was an absolute monarchy. Not a constitutional one at the time. I understand those restrictions but shouldn't those be a bit more balanced? I can still recruit infantry battalions and their unit size is more than enough vs the AI and from an AAR perspective Company infantry in India is more than enough (it involves a rogue nobleman making commerce the main currency on the empire). Empire strategic map is awesome. Also, nations don't seem to trade technologies with me. I made a test giving the brits 6 technologies including bayonets, carbines, cannister land enclosures and another humanitarian tech in exchange for seasoning. They rejected... I think that rejecting 5 techs which would save them over 12 turns in research is a bit wrong :/

Cheers...