Feedback & Feature Requests

[Silven]

This is where all feedback unrelated to bug reports go.

Like the fact that longbows have a range of 180 meters, but don't like the fact that javelins have a range of 80 meters? Feedback like this goes here.

Want to see new features like factions starting with larger territories? (which is in the works by the way. ) Feature Requests like this go here.

Please keep all of your feedback constructive. If you don't like something, offer examples of another way to do it. I may or may not act on your suggestion, but as long as your criticism stays constructive, you can at least know you won't be outright ignored.

[PurpleScotch]

My feature request for now would be the fact that Hellenic factions need to deploy in more than one line in battle. Currently, all infantry units in Hellenic factions would deploy into a thin single line, and while we might assume the human player can easily change that, the AI cannot. So my request would be for the Hellenic factions to deploy into two lines, or atleast with their units in a square-ish formation rather than a thin line, as that makes the army more vulnerable to flanking. Another benefit of being deployed in a double line formation would be that the battle would have more than one charge/phase, as well as the fact it would add more tactics into the battle.

[Xaero.xiii]

Congrats for being a hosted modification Silven cheers!
What i want to know is to what extent will the faction like the Seleucids expand with larger territories? Although this is a good step for the Mod in my opinion, i hope it doesn't make the faction too powerful at game start. Also hopefully the next version won't remove any factions because of the increase in territory and give them 1 settlement at the least.
Another would probably be that the disorder in the province is high at game start (diplomatic penalties due to cultural differences etc etc.) so that an army representing that eastern faction shows up and takes the settlement.

Anyway no complaints with the Mod so far though id like a link of the 2.0x unit size beside the 1.0x unit size in the 1st page of the STIM thread for easier navigation and download for the next versions to come as i much prefer to play in the 1.5x unit size.

[Silven]

@Killerxguy
I'll see if this can be altered, but to my knowledge I don't think it can. I'll agree though, that if the AI can be instructed to deploy with reserve lines its definitely something I'd advocate.

@Xaero.xiii
As with all things considering this mod, the added territories will be made in moderation. The Seleucids won't own the entire Middle East, I can tell you that much. As far as having to remove factions completely, I'm going to try and leave them all in, but in some situations I think its just going to be unavoidable.

Also the 2.0x unit size link is exactly the same as the 1.0x unit size on the first post of the STIM thread. The download link will provide you with both options in the same download.

[DiamondWraith]

I think the garrisons may be beefed up little too far but I'd like someone else to give their opinion on that.

[PurpleScotch]

The garrissons do seem a little large, I'm almost always outnumbered when attacking cities. But the only reason I feel it is appropriate is because it slows down expansion to more historical levels. You no longer see a random african nation take over half the world in 4 turns.

[HenrikN]

I thought I'd give some more feedback/suggestions..

In my Rome campaign (turn 116 with 2 turns/year) both Egypt and Carthage got knocked out pretty early, Egypt around turn 60 maybe (without me touching them, it was all done by some minor african faction.. they sure are afri-cans, not afri-can'ts ), and Carthage was down to a single region in Spain when I knocked them out (I had fought them early in Scily and Corsica, but after that it was some minor that roughed them up).. Granted, this is just from one campaign, but I would lie if I said I'm not looking forward to the STIM-version where you have made at least Carthage a bit stronger, it will be more fun having epic fights with the (supposedly) major factions than the minors.

I think the increased garrisons work well, haven't had any real problems with being outnumbered.. but then I play with 35 units per stack, so percentage-wise the increased number of garrisons is smaller for me.

Now to my suggestion.. I'm still having problems with the navies, I think it all goes too fast, with any larger fleet than a couple of ships I lose all sense of control if I don't constantly pause and give new orders/check what's going on etc (which I do anyway, and during land battles, but that's just how I like to play, but with navies I feel I NEED to play like that, not just because I want to.. if that makes any sense). I would suggest you slow down the ships.. I might do that myself in my copy anyways, just a suggestion.

Another thing I didn't like about fleets were the transports, I still thought they were much too powerful compared to real warships, the AI always have a bunch of slingers/javelin units in their armies, and those just destroy any assault ship that comes near them, since (at least for me) the AI often has large stack armies (I play with 35 units as mentioned), and I usually have smaller fleets with naval units (15 units maybe), and if the ranged units doesn't rout my naval unit before I even reach them, their large melee units just boards and kill my tiny hastati assault ships, or my larger velites missile ships.

I didn't like the feeling that my navy was useless, so I made the transport ships even weaker, up to the point they pose almost no threat at all to a proper navy (as I feel they shouldn't). First I tried to change the fire arc of transports, as I doubt 120 slingers would be able to stand on deck and do their thing with ease.. but that didn't work, they still had 360° arc. So I nerfed them by slowing them way down, speed 2-2,4, so the warship can fairly easy outmanoeuvre them, and lowered their hitpoints and changed the ramming damage so all but the smallest warship will break them in 1 hit. This way they can still be dangerous if you get tangled up and they manage to board you, or you get too close to a bunch of missile units with too few of your own warship, but generally transports are no danger anymore to a real fleet.

More navy woes.. I think there are some odd things about the availability of units/building chain/tech tree. Early on we can research Naval Manoeuvres and build the Military Wharf and Docks port buildings. And with Military Wharf we can already build the Velites quinquereme, the second largest ship.. and the next 2 levels of the "wharf" chain, Drydock (tech Double Plank) and Portus Classis (tech Fore & Aft Rigging) just gives 1 available unit each, assault hexareme triarii and tower hexareme, triarii. While Docks give missile trireme and assault bireme and the last "shipwright" chain (tech Double Plank) give again missile quinqueremes and assault quads.

I don't know, but it feels unbalanced somehow, I have yet to research Double Plank Construction, and all my navies are Quinque Velites, Quinque Arty, and an Admiral Hexa, and have been like that for many, many years/turns. I think it would be better/more fun to move the units around a bit, so we get matching assault/missile ships at the same tech levels, as right now I get to choose between a Quinque missile ship, 140 men and 1020 hp, or an assault bireme, 60 men and 566 hp.. I choose the Quinque every time, which makes it no choice, which equals to less fun, as choices are good.

Hmm I just noticed there actually aren't any assault tri- or quinquereme ships, just bi, quad and hexa.. and no missile quads, just tri and quinque, maybe that's what's wrong, and the step between the assault and missile ships gets too big? Would it be possible to create the missing ship types, like assault quinqueremes? Oh and lets not forget about the raiding hemiolia and persuit trihemiolia. Maybe it should be something like:

Tier 1: Raiding Hemiolia
Tier 2: Persuit trihemiolia
Tier 3: Assault bireme, Missile trireme
Tier 4: Assault trireme, Missile quad
Tier 5: Assault quad, Missile quinque
Tier 6: Assault quinque, Missile hexa
Tier 7: Assault hexa, Missile tower hexa
Tier 8: Assault tower hexa

I realize the ports only have 4 levels, and I just wrote 8 tiers, but there are different chains of ports, and combined with different techs something should be possible to be worked out. I don't know how the different ships should be split between the wharf and the shipwright chains (and harbour which have the persuit ship), missiles for one and assault for the other, or mix and match between the different levels? If making new naval units is off the table, maybe something like this could work:

Tier 1: Raiding Hemiolia
Tier 2: Persuit trihemiolia
Tier 3: Assault bireme, Missile trireme
Tier 4: Assault quad, Missile quinque
Tier 5: Assault hexa
Tier 6: Assault tower hexa

But then we get that "boring" last two tiers with just bigger assault ships.. Maybe it's ok if assault ships actually outrank the missile ships, as they fill different roles? Smaller, faster ranged units vs larger, slower rammers/boarders..

Tier 1: Raiding Hemiolia
Tier 2: Assault bireme, Persuit trihemiolia
Tier 3: Assault quad, Missile trireme
Tier 4: Assault hexa, Missile quinque
Tier 5: Assault tower hexa

And I haven't even mentioned the artillery ships.. anyways, I'm just throwing out ideas here to try and get a discussion going, or at least maybe plant a seed in your mind, Silven, and see what you come up with. All I know is, right now, I'm using all missile fleets with no assault ships, and it feels like it shouldn't be like that.

[Mackles]

I was wondering if you were planning on uploading a 1ypt version of STIM to the Steam workshop?

[Xaero.xiii]

The garrisons in my opinion is great actually, now when you're at war you actually have to put an effort into attacking a settlement with at least 2 armies lest you be overwhelmed by a numerically superior defender. This then means that most times when at war, most of your armies are on the front lines which can pave the way for interesting experiences such as slave revolts, civil war, hannibal invasion-ish attacks from other nations you are at war with that are in far away provinces you're army will not be able to respond to in time.

edit: oh yea please add the sack and liberate feature for all factions and no only barbarian ones. (I wanna sack Rome as Carthage )

[Falcon Hornbeam]

do you have any plan regarding the slaves? what do you think of them, are they balanced or not?

[Cavalier]

I think the garrisons may be beefed up little too far but I'd like someone else to give their opinion on that.

I disagree. I think the garrisons are fine the way they are.

[Tsar Brodsky]

I really like the large garrisons as they create more meaningful battles to play. Tough, I think it'd be much more enjoyable if there were slightly less troops overall with a few more free mid level troops.

[Muskelsteffen]

I think the garrisons may be beefed up little too far but I'd like someone else to give their opinion on that.

If the world would turn as I would like her to do, the garrison sizes and/or quality would be further increased. Conquering such large regions as those on the campaign map should be a real challenge. Because in most terms these regions are the one and only of the attacked factions and depict their resistance against their total annihilation and that should be a real appeal to put on the field whatever could stand.

edit: oh yea please add the sack and liberate feature for all factions and no only barbarian ones. (I wanna sack Rome as Carthage )

I approve of that.

[IDontEvenLift]

I just made an account just to tell you that STIM (and STEP) have really saved this game for me, and I love it! That you decided to fix the unit caps for the Spartan infantry, and the elite units at large, was enough for me to DL your mod, but the fact that you tweak the game in every right way really makes your mod the best one out there. If there's anything I would like for you to add, it would maybe be that I think that some existing Barbarian infantry needs retexturing. For example, Bloodsworn and Wodanaz Spears just don't look like fierce warriors to me, who've earned their gear in plunder. And Pontic Hillmen look like bananas. Seriously. At any rate, keep up the good work with STIM and STEP!

[Samwell the Ironborn]

I'm no big poster here, but i thought it might be helpfull for u, to get my feedback to
Srry for my english skills^^, but well let's start:

I realy thank u for you're great work
Until now, I always had a problem with big overhaul mods. They always had good features, but also features i didn't like. Because of that, i had mostly played vanilla^^ But you're mod realy has improvements i like and i'm playing it for a while. It's fantastic. There is only little bit, I'm not glad with.

What i realy like:
2YPT of course
longer researching and building times
big garisons when i fight a city
bonuses for AI factions like the more food
No magic abilities
All the combat balancing
unlocking troops and buildings changed
and on and on and on

Now the more intersting part^^ What might be better, what i dislike and what i want to see in future^^:
The bigger garrisons are way to strong, if u fight near the settlement and then u fight more armies at the same time. And the garrison often has a 15+ stack, thats way to hard. I dont know, how it will get better. The best thing will be, to forbid garrisons to help in near battles. But i dont know if this is possible to mod If it is possible, than it might be realy hard to do...
Next thing: Cause u have put away the magical abilities, generals who has high zeal are nearly useless with their abilities. That is unbalanced. I think, the abilities of generals have to be changed.
Furthermore i would like to have generals getting little bit experience while sitting in the cities. For example in the way, dresden's mod has done this.
And it will be a good thing to reduce the number of retainers u get in vanilla and in u're mod too. Like it is now, the retainers are nothing spezial. I would like the have not so many of them and to get sometimes (not to often) powerful ones too (+15% in xxx, instead of +5%).
The next thing needed, is a more agressiv AI. Its little bit to easy to get allianzes at the moment and enemies dont attack you're cities very oft. They stand and wait in there home provinces with their fullstacks. Bit annoying.
And one thing i would appreciate: More expensive buildings and troops. Right now i have always so much money, that i never try to increase income with buildings, because its useless. That is a big problem from middle game until late game. What about increasing building costs by the level of the buildings? (for example: +15%,+20%,+25%,+30%). And all troops +30% for example. I would also inrease the recruitment time fore some good units to two turns.
You're idea to make big factions bigger is good i think. But dont do it to extreme. Maybe something between now and dresden's mod.

Hope my feedback can help u in some way, thank u for you're work and bye

[wardo]

Good mod but I've stopped using it because missile units are pointless at the moment since they barely dent even medium armored units.

[Cavalier]

@Silven: Any possibility to add loose formation to certain units? Such as skirmishers and light infantry?

[DavidZ]

@Silven: I just got the mod, combat seems much better. However, the campaign feels a bit unbalanced, especially with 2 tpy.

I just started a new campaign as Rome, and after 12 turns I'm already at 10k cash. The buildings just takes way too long to build and I literally can't spend money fast enough. I think if you want to have a more balanced 2 tpy, double the cost of all the buildings / units, or halve your income (remember, you're receiving income every 6 months now, so it should naturally be halved).

Right now as it is, it feels a lot easier than vanilla. I'll keep playing and hopefully it gets more challenging later on.

[Silven]

@DavidZ

And as far as cutting income when using 2 or 4tpy, I'm always baffled whenever I see people talk about this? Just because you've increased the amount of turns in the campaign, doesn't mean that you're somehow now suddenly getting more income per turn? Your income per turn stays the same regardless, as does your expense per turn. The only thing that changes is how much money you might net by the end of your campaign, which has no effect on the game whatsoever. Cutting income would only break things and do nothing else.

In addition to this, if you've got a super low overhead then I suspect that you don't have a very large military force, because once you start maxing out your armies your upkeep will certainly keep your income in check. As you expand, corruption increases as well as squalor (which lowers income by forcing you to lower taxes). I don't think the economy can be fairly assessed by Turn 12. Keep playing and expanding and watch as your financial situation changes.

Increasing building costs by some minor amounts might not be out of the question though. I'll consider it. Thanks for your feedback!

@Everyone Else
Your feedback has been read and duely noted. Thank you for submitting.

[Xaero.xiii]

@DavidZ



In addition to this, if you've got a super low overhead then I suspect that you don't have a very large military force, because once you start maxing out your armies your upkeep will certainly keep your income in check. As you expand, corruption increases as well as squalor (which lowers income by forcing you to lower taxes). I don't think the economy can be fairly assessed by Turn 12. Keep playing and expanding and watch as your financial situation changes.

Increasing building costs by some minor amounts might not be out of the question though. I'll consider it. Thanks for your feedback!

@Everyone Else
Your feedback has been read and duely noted. Thank you for submitting.

With my Campaign at turn 99 on 2tpy as Egypt i most certainly disagree that net income is too high. Sure there are times that my income after a turn is over 12k. But with all the rebuilding of your army for better units, retraining for armor and equipment and the troop upkeep and costs. I can guarantee that income is kept in check. Although to some extent i do agree that there is a little bit too much money flowing around. But i am using Hellbent's TTT though which does give many generals governing bonuses if you pick those bonuses to the character so yea..

On a side note, at turn 99 i had problems upgrading my settlements to tier 3 because of the lack of food and i cannot upgrade them further until i research the tier iv farms which gives a plus 18 to food. Now i don't really have a big problem with this but i'm just expressing my concern because there are so many buildings that consume food. I dunno.. maybe i'm just a perfectionist coz i want all my building all maxed out as possible..

Oh yea Silven is there really no way to mod the the Civil War mechanic? From what i have heard there is none but it is such a disappointment that it borderlines game-breaking for me. Inner faction politics sucks balls. The civil war will trigger no matter how high high the family influence is compared to the others when you capture a certain amount of territories. What makes this even worse is that you as the player will have no way of knowing that it is happening. No foreshadowing of events etc. You don't even have the option to avoid civil war altogether by keeping everyone happy which in my opinion should be possible..