DarthMod Napoleon v2.4 Open Beta Update 5 (12/4/2012)***CLOSED***

[moralrelativism]

Dear Lord Vader:
I am so thrilled by your mod. Although I haven't had many play hours, the new excitements infused into the game by the unprecedented cornucopia of features you so ingeniously crafted are as eye-opening as they are breathe-taking and mind-blowing.
In as much as I love the game, However; I was compelled to replace it with other mods after a short while, all because of one insurmountable hard-coded handicap: TOO MUCH SMOKE.
I know this issue has been discussed here for quite a while, and the focus seems to lean more on nicety and realism of visual effects. Unfortunately, all games are played by machines; if machine can't handle, visual singularity could be more a burden than an asset.
I can't help but recall the feature of Darthmod 7.0 for Empire Total War. I was and am still playing it, thanks to the option-button that allows smoke density to be customized. Based upon my personal experiences, it occurs to me that the primary brilliance of Darthmod that tugs the heartstrings of so man fans lies in its formidable AI and numerous other improvements on game mechanism. In other words, it is the scope and depth of the GAME, instead of scope and depth of SMOKE, that remains its main source of attraction.
Understandable and praiseworthy as the attempt at promoting battlefield visual verisimilitude truly is, wouldn't it be better to make additional smoke effect optional (as has been the case of Darthmod ETW), so even those who stymied by their PCs' visual constrains can still have the opportunity of enjoying your outstanding work, the value and charm of which are no more compromised by the dropping of smoke feature than a diamond shredding off its package paper?
Thank you for your attention and best wish for your mod's future development!

[Private Normal]

Hawkeye74
Can you tell me if with this update5 the BAI is better?
About the smoke, it can be made thicker, but I need more opinions about this.

Definitely not thicker smoke, I love the effect but it makes it very hard to micromanage in you can't see anything but smoke.
Thanks

[Hawkeye74]

Having had a chance to run through several campaign battles both offensive and defensive.

BAI on the defensive: the AI still wants to march into range from miles off, even if I don`t move a muscle.

Now though, The AI will form lines once it`s in range, as a single line it does what it says on the tin, but those pesky units not in the front line run up behind the units who are doing their job and then we have the overlapping issue. As soon as a unit runs into another unit they start death rolling into my lines.

I can see the units trying to stop and fire, but then bump, stop attempt to fire, bump. Even if a standing unit is so much as clipped by another unit the, dare I say, bug presents itself.

Units that are say, a half bumped into by a unit from behind for example, the troops in the unit that have not been affected still continue firing until the effect causing the troops in the unit to move, because of unit cohesion, will then drag the rest of the unit forwards.

On a couple of occasions the AI with pitifully small numbers, I held fire and held position, just ran everything he had into me.

On the other hand, the AI on as many occasions marched into range and held his ground, also held back his cav behind his guns.

On the offensive: There doesn't seem to be any sort of sense that the AI is in formation, but has performed well, however, the overlapping bug is blunting the AI.

I've observed units coming into range stopping and firing, other units swing out and flanking but then the pesky second line units bumping, and then we have the death roll into my lines.

Overall, the AI always seems to be running, not marching in formation, although there have been times when the AI has spaced out his unit and adapted correctly.

The overlapping offensively and defensively I think is a major issue, it seems to ruin any plans the AI might have had, and then it goes a bit haywire.

It`s seems defensively the AI is almost there, he just need to stop marching across the battlefield.

Getting the AI to use depth formations...I remember Darth Rome taking the formations and defensive postures for granted...") and fixing the overlapping bug and issue of defence, and DMN will be good to go.


Glad to be of assistance.

Peace

[poohbear]

is there an ETA on the official Darth mod Napoleon 2.4 update? have'nt touched Napoleon in over a year and would love to revisit it using Darth's mod, love his mods!^^ Thanks in advance for any ETA!

[Leoben]

Hawkeye, have you tried the UAI? http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=370617

I'd like to know what are for you the good things and bad things of both mods in the BAI. If both have the same weaknesses, it probably means that it can't be fixed, unfortunately.

[Major Hogan]

Well, I played some more with the update 5 and Darth, I can only say one thing: I LOVE IT!!!

The smoke from artillery seems more alive and does not build a high tower in the sky. The musket smoke is amazing! I know people asked for less smoke and that is what we get in this update (perhaps already in update 4 but I missed that one) without losing too much density. It is beautiful how you managed to make the smoke so natural; it is irregular in shape and the wind effect and dispersing of the smoke interact with each other like it should. For me shape of the smoke, it's movement and the time it takes to disperse is fantastic.

Please do not reduce the smoke any further!! On a battlefield there should be smoke, and this goes double for a napoleonic battlefield. Gameplay is not affected in my humble opinion. The smoke has the right colour and feels and looks so real. Wow!!

The colour of the dust is fine as it is now. It is clearly distinguishable from the powder smoke and it adds a lot to the total picture. Had cavalry fighting and it is so great to see them in a cloud of dust from a distance!

Of course I would like to see another effect when cavalry runs through water; a dust effect is, eh... not what you need... And the wish for a kind of differentiation (no dust in rain, extra dust in desert) has been noted before. But that is something that might be possible in the future. In the meantime the battlefield looks awesome!!

[snakescrin]

Uai 1.0.5 is much better in battle ai , the ai can form deep formation . you can try it out.

[Hockeywarrior]

Does anyone here have any ideas why my entire screen flickers every time a musket fires in the game? Does anyone else have this issue?

The problem didn't occur before the 2.4 beta versions. Maybe it has something to do with the new (awesome) smoke effects?

[snakescrin]

yes, i also have flickers every time when firing .don't know why.

[BrodY]

That flickering I believe is the edited muzzle-flashes. Although I can be wrong..

[Bendit]

Yes I have flickering too. Glad someone mentioned it. ATI card. 12.3 drivers.

[Major Hogan]

My screen flickers too, since about 3 April. Thought it had something to do with my card (HD5670) or drivers but if more people experience this flickering, it probably hasn't.

EDIT: I perused the fora a little more and found that I first reported flickering on 20 March (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=529008). This would be at the time 2.4 was introduced. Hope this is helpful and that Darth Vader or anyone may come up with a solution.

[Major Hogan]

In my last plays, I watched the howitzer shell explosions. Funny, when I began playing NTW I used howitzers always, as I was afraid to hit my own men when using normal artillery with it's round shot, and because I found it difficult to use the terrain properly. Nowadays, I love the round shot for it's range and think it is very, very useful! I almost never use howitzers anymore.

So I still LOVE the smoke and dust in update 5 and please keep in mind that in my earlier comments on smoke and the other effects of update 5, the howitzer effects were not included. To be able to share my thoughts on the latest explosions effects by our own Darth Vader however, I created a few battles with howitzers involved.

I can agree on the smoke of exploding shells being white rather than black. What I see now is a mixture of white and black... how's that?

It turns out that it is difficult to find any movie material of explosions caused by napoleonic howitzers. That makes it almost impossible to comment. Still, the white smoke is logical and it would also be fair to assume that an explosion on the ground would throw a lot of dirt in the air. Just look at the craters such an explosion makes... This last effect is missing at the moment. I'm not sure about the shape of the fire of the explosion - it is rounded and just seems not aggressive enough...

A quote from The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon to ponder on:

"Unless muffled by soft wet ground a bursting shell had a danger radius of 25 yards"

'Danger' is a subtle description. I'm not saying it is a kill zone (I tend to favor the psychological aspect anyway) but it says something on the impact of shell explosions.

[Bendit]

While I thank Darth for all the wonderful effects I think the howitzer explosions still could use more work. One criticism I would make is that the texture used for the smoke looks like a flat texture in the effect. ie. it is too easy to see the shapes in the swirls of smoke, so that it looks like a flat texture.

[Major Hogan]

Your critisism holds water for the flames too I think, Bendit... That is what I meant with the 'shape of the fire'.

[Waldwolf]

First Hello and very Big Thx for the Great Mods from Darth & another Mods Maker. You and another from Mods Community bring the 50% rdy of the Games to 100%! Much of Games without Mods are not really Ready in my Opinion it's little Shame for the Officialy Game Makers.

I have a small Problem i'm also missed firing effects when Infantry Shoots after i Enable Darth Mode Effects in the Options. Only Gun Powder Smoke i see When i Disable Dart Mode Effects i have the Flash Fire bur i don't have rest of the Effect Features. 2.3 & 2.4 beta same Problem? It's a Bug? Or maybe it's anything wrong in my Version? Maybe in the next Update is all Okay?

Another Quest it's possibly to have in the near Future in Dart mode also Classic Music in the 2D Campaign Map and maybe the Royal Family Tree?

my english is not so good sry

[Waldwolf]

First Hello and very Big Thx for the Great Mods from Darth & another Mods Maker. You and another from Mods Community bring the 50% rdy of the Games to 100%! Much of Games without Mods are not really Ready in my Opinion it's little Shame for the Officialy Game Makers.

I have a small Problem i'm also missed firing effects when Infantry Shoots after i Enable Darth Mode Effects in the Options. Only Gun Powder Smoke i see When i Disable Dart Mode Effects i have the Flash Fire but i don't have rest of the Effect Features. 2.3 & 2.4 beta same Problem? It's a Bug? Or maybe it's anything wrong in my Version? Maybe in the next Update is all Okay?

Another Quest it's possibly to have in the near Future in Dart mode also Classic Music in the 2D Campaign Map and maybe the Royal Family Tree?

my english is not so good sry

[snakescrin]

the Flash Fire has been removed , if darth can make a not removed Flash Fire version , it will be thankful

[Waldwolf]

ah okay thx for the answer i hope also the effect come back and much more sub mods in the future. have nice fun with ETW and Darth Mod 6-7. Great Thing

sry for the same reply i push a wrong button.

cya

[Hawkeye74]

@Leoben.

The AI issues are, as far as I am aware not something that can't be fixed. In previous versions of DMN 2.0 and below the AI on both attack and defence were excellent, as anyone who played them would agree. In fact I was astonished as to the behaviour of the AI, however, I was even more astonished when this had been changed. And now I believe Darth is trying to resolve this issue.

If you can have the AI behave in formation then why not share your knowledge, help us all out.

Peace