Stainless Steel 7.0 Preview I: Gameplay Features

[Ferdiad]

That checks if a army is besieging a city. That's two different things.

[Lord Diego von Hapsburg]

@Lord Diego von Hapsburg

Obviously they're going to add more loading screens.

WOW!

Thank you a lot for listening!

I appreciate the answers! Only a few comments, with full respect of the suggestion:

- Do you think the confusion that the archers are in the castle walls can be resolved or is wrong with my PC?

- The Crusader States, that the story is similar to the real, I suggested that states help the Catholic Crusaders, even with money, giving a survival. I understand that at the beginning of the game, back in France, there is concern about the state Crusaders, but they have already suffered much at the very beginning, when the European invasion and actually get since there remains a lot of them.

- I still think the heretics very strong. They do enough damage and are not easy to get rid of, different from the real life of the time. Still, why would not hinder me to say that my poor anti-pope who was elected a Cardinal (Bishop of Bologna) was burned to death in Silesia. Poor anti-pope! I had to put up with the heretic until he died, had killer good enough for him (which was the maximum).

- Did not mean to use priests to denounce heretics. I said I pity them with speed decreases while the influence of the heretic only increases. That is, you lose the priest because he becomes just stay close to the heretic, heretic and does the opposite, or at least weakens.

- I know the submodes but not feel comfortable installing and possibly screwing something up. I suggested that you put some castles in the campaign as quoted in Britain. They are very useful.

- I mentioned that the map CAMPAIGN / BATTLE, when the unit has dark tones for art, it blends with the corresponding number of units, it is difficult to see, in the heat of battle, how many units you still have the number that represents merges with the dark background.

- Since the maximum number of children are 4, could see more "candidates" for marriage.

- I liked the role of training generals. But it would be better if you went to a Medieval function to assign titles to whom you want.

- Sorry if I'm not expressed clearly, I'm from Brazil and learned English for a long time, however, as I do not practice every day, I'm rusty.

Thank you!

[alis_sakfok]

How about being able to recruit governors for cities so people won't have to keep their generals inside and concentrate on warfare much more?

PS - general bodyguards should be nerfed IMO, you can easily conquer rebel provinces just by sending your general there, with good controls you may lose no single horseman in your unit and wipe away an army of peasants or even heavier infantry. It's also very easy defending towns with only generals from minor armies of enemies. I once crushed a pretty big army of Lithuanians with my Kievan bodyguards using only one squad of mercs for distracting.

[Judeman266]

@alis_sakfok

General bodyguard unit sizes have been reduced. Generals are military generals as well as administrative governors

[Ferdiad]

Its not that much of a problem to just recruit a general in a castle then move him to a city.

[MAG]

That checks if a army is besieging a city. That's two different things.

That's almost what we need :-) Any ideas who can give a hint how to start working on this kind of task?

[Duck of Death]

Its not that much of a problem to just recruit a general in a castle then move him to a city.

As long as they keep in mind that recruiting generals as governors will cut into your families birthrate and marriage offers.

[Ferdiad]

It doesn't.

[Duck of Death]

Are they changing that for 7.0? The territories-to-generals ratio?

I thought they were unable to change that.

[HolyRomanWarrior]

There are some very good ideas here - but what do we all want to see from the new Stainless Steel that we haven't seen in any of the other Stainless Steels?

I have some interesting ideas:

1. Small way-castles (like in the Britannia Campaign) and small towns & villages, surrounding regional capitols.

2. Royal Families surviving all regions lost, like the Papacy; a faction is only destroyed when the faction's Royal Family adult males, are all dead.

3. ALL females in a faction's Royal Family become Princesses.

4. The player can CHOOSE a faction's heir like in Rome Total War.

5. Top assassin's have the ability to create plague pandemics.

6. Princesses constitute actual units on the campaign map, for example an armoured carriage with an armed escort similar to the giant crosses carried by the Crusaders.

7. Armoured princess carriages remaining on the battle map are not attacked, they are just left there immobilized after the escort guard is attacked, just like cannons are left immobilized whenever a cannon's gunners are attacked and when an armoured princess carriage remains on the battle map after the battle is lost to the enemy of the princesses faction, the princess can either be ransomed, killed or imprisoned.

8. A third option of imprisonment should be available along side ransom or kill, however, the player can choose what conditions they are kept in whether, 'utopian, luxurious, comfortable, fair, poor, dismal or squalid', - all of which cost the player a certain amount per term and if kept in poor conditions, the prisoners soon die off, at a rate depending on how bad the condtions are.

9. The Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller as separate factions and more regions in the Holy Land to represent them.

10. A large campaign map covering all areas from Europe to Japan and a more realistically sized Americas, with more regions.

11. A far, far higher ancillary and retinue limmit - room for at least 20 ancillaries and 30 retinue.

12. The player can voluntarily surrender units and cities.

13. The player can SEE whether or not his opponent has enough money to ransom hostages and can edit to the ransom label to whatever the player wishes.

14. The player can re-name any city the player chooses to re-name.

15. The player can choose to convert his faction to a different religion.

16. Protestantism/Lutheranism becomes and option half way through the game and some Northern European AI factions may automatically convert to Protestantism/Lutheranism.

17. The Papal States are made a full upgraded, playable faction, where the player can make Papal decrees independently of AI.

18. The player can play up to three different factions at once.

19. The player can edit the names of the newly born members, of the players own Royal Family.

20. The player can edit the spoken accent of the players faction characters.

21. A "Hand of God" cheat, where the player can artificially create natural disasters, such as earthquakes and plagues.

[Judeman266]

@HolyRomanWarrior Don't post the same thing in 2 different threads, bad way to start on the forum.

[Ferdiad]

Are they changing that for 7.0? The territories-to-generals ratio?

I thought they were unable to change that.

Theres nothing to change. Generals don't affect the family tree.

[Ichon]

Theres nothing to change. Generals don't affect the family tree.

They still take up slots that could go to family tree members though. If you have 10 regions and 7 family members, if you recruit 2 generals your family only has 1 space to have a new member.

[Duck of Death]

They still take up slots that could go to family tree members though. If you have 10 regions and 7 family members, if you recruit 2 generals your family only has 1 space to have a new member.

Right, this is what I meant.

[Munchausen]

IF i am to make a suggestion, i would definitely point towards wallachia(valahia in romanian) alias romania, romanian principalities (principatele romane) ;
Regarding Wallachia, aka "Tara Romaneasca" - historically it was the southern part of the country, with borders stretching from Hungary(West), the Black Sea(East), Transylvania(North - West) and Moldova (N-E)
Since it's mainly known through medieval history for constantly fighting back the ottomans, with proeminent figures like Vlad the Impalor (Tepes), Stefan the Great (cel Mare), Iancu de Hunedoara ( ... of Hunedoara/ Hunyadi - hungarian) - who was called "Christ's Athlete" by the Pope, Mihai Viteazu (.... the Brave), i suggest creating a faction generically called "Romanian Principalities / The Principalities of Romania", which is of orthodox faith and responds in front of the Patriarch of Constantinople or that of Russia (don't know where his seat was), has a "Eastern European Culture" (like Russia, Byzantine), it's rooster is determined by all the neighboring factions - light cavalry/l.c. tactics, for the principalities were for some time under the cumans, horse archers, good defensive and offensive infantry, some heavy cavalry (the boyars /boierii - which could afford far more expensive horses, weaponry, armor) ; all these romanian troops must have stronger morale or something, for there is no other explanation for the fact that romanian troops held their ground for so much in history - there were not a few battles when 15.000-20.000 romanians held 100.000 - 150.000 "like grass and leaves (cat frunza si iarba)" turks . In order to not see an Europe conquered by romanians, i suggest making the ai for this faction (u modding-geniuses sort it out) a rather defensive one - the only offensive stage should be when their national integrity is at stake - the romanians were harassed not only by turks, but even hungarians (they always carved for transylvania, they still do), poland and even russia, at high times.

[Ferdiad]

I get the feeling your from Romania/Wallachia.

[MaximusTheGreat]

There are some very good ideas here - but what do we all want to see from the new Stainless Steel that we haven't seen in any of the other Stainless Steels?

I have some interesting ideas:

1. Small way-castles (like in the Britannia Campaign) and small towns & villages, surrounding regional capitols.

2. Royal Families surviving all regions lost, like the Papacy; a faction is only destroyed when the faction's Royal Family adult males, are all dead.

3. ALL females in a faction's Royal Family become Princesses.

4. The player can CHOOSE a faction's heir like in Rome Total War.

5. Top assassin's have the ability to create plague pandemics.

6. Princesses constitute actual units on the campaign map, for example an armoured carriage with an armed escort similar to the giant crosses carried by the Crusaders.

7. Armoured princess carriages remaining on the battle map are not attacked, they are just left there immobilized after the escort guard is attacked, just like cannons are left immobilized whenever a cannon's gunners are attacked and when an armoured princess carriage remains on the battle map after the battle is lost to the enemy of the princesses faction, the princess can either be ransomed, killed or imprisoned.

8. A third option of imprisonment should be available along side ransom or kill, however, the player can choose what conditions they are kept in whether, 'utopian, luxurious, comfortable, fair, poor, dismal or squalid', - all of which cost the player a certain amount per term and if kept in poor conditions, the prisoners soon die off, at a rate depending on how bad the condtions are.

9. The Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller as separate factions and more regions in the Holy Land to represent them.

10. A large campaign map covering all areas from Europe to Japan and a more realistically sized Americas, with more regions.

11. A far, far higher ancillary and retinue limmit - room for at least 20 ancillaries and 30 retinue.

12. The player can voluntarily surrender units and cities.

13. The player can SEE whether or not his opponent has enough money to ransom hostages and can edit to the ransom label to whatever the player wishes.

14. The player can re-name any city the player chooses to re-name.

15. The player can choose to convert his faction to a different religion.

16. Protestantism/Lutheranism becomes and option half way through the game and some Northern European AI factions may automatically convert to Protestantism/Lutheranism.

17. The Papal States are made a full upgraded, playable faction, where the player can make Papal decrees independently of AI.

18. The player can play up to three different factions at once.

19. The player can edit the names of the newly born members, of the players own Royal Family.

20. The player can edit the spoken accent of the players faction characters.

21. A "Hand of God" cheat, where the player can artificially create natural disasters, such as earthquakes and plagues.

Where to begin... First I would like to say that while you do have some good ideas for a better experience in-game, there are many exotic and outlandish ideas that you have that are impossible to acheive. I will try to answer as many as I can but I cannot give answers to all of your questions. For the most part you have brought out ideas either in or much like Empire which cannot be used here in Medieval II because Empire has a much more advanced game engine (questions 5,8,12-17,19). You can only have a certain number of factions in Medieval II and so making the Knightly Orders into factions means you would have to take away some of the other factions which are had a much bigger influence globally than the Knightly Orders did, another thing to think about is that the Knightly Orders served mainly as a Paramilitary group and the rest of their order existed to support the military endeavours (question 9). As to the map, Once again the limited game engine limits the total game map to a maximum of 199, and the SS team has already made some more regions, but you also have to factor in turn time, as especially with the advanced BGR (IV) turn time is already quite long and so to make more regions would increase the turn time (question 10). If you want each individual faction member to have a different voice you may want to think about how hard it is to get a single voice for the faction (just look at how many mods are asking for people to do voices for them) so making every member have a different voice would be practically impossible (question 20). As for playing three factions at once? Try the Hotseat (question 8). The cheats are written into the base game code by Creative Assembly, not modders (question 20). So thanks for the ideas but all in all a little far fetched, and I hope this helps

[The Glorious Moldovan]

I get the feeling your from Romania/Wallachia.

No duh,if you see guys that make accounts here just to suggest to add the romanian principalities then they are DEFENITLY romanians...mostly wallachians

[Ferdiad]

all these romanian troops must have stronger morale or something, for there is no other explanation for the fact that romanian troops held their ground for so much in history - there were not a few battles when 15.000-20.000 romanians held 100.000 - 150.000 "like grass and leaves (cat frunza si iarba)" turks . In order to not see an Europe conquered by romanians

This was my favourite part of the post tbh.

[ITC]

That's almost what we need :-) Any ideas who can give a hint how to start working on this kind of task?

Hi!
I've asked the same question, and Point Blank answered:

I have written one, it;s possible it may be included.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...3#post11127083

It is a hole bunch of work to do....