Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 77

Thread: The plans for 1.7 (+Its going again.)

  1. #1

    Default The plans for 1.7 (+Its going again.)

    As a opening statement, no, I did not get a preview build to update Tuskmod in advance. Having just gotten home for the first time since the update, I am only now just getting a chance to browse through the tables of this new DLC, finding which ones had their schemas broken, and piecing together the new changes from vanilla.

    In a few hours, I hope to have integrated much of the new content into my development version, I will be making it public for the entire period that I am going through the balancing/fleshing out stage. In addition, I will be consolidating toned down dynamic garrisons with the core version of tuskmod throughout this beta, in part to speed development, and in part because said submod really deserves to be integrated into the heart of this mod.

    I don't want to get into a lengthy speech about how 1.7 will be, because the goal is to show you this as soon as I possibly can...
    But expect things in 1.7 to be very different, as a lot of changes have been made since my last public release already, and I am very excited to show them all off.

  2. #2

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7

    I am closing in on the release of a custom battle ready version of 1.7, this will focus on highlighting the latest edition of the battle enhancements, but it will also feature the most BASIC of Slavic compatibility in custom battles. (It took longer to get a version of 1.7 that didn't crash then I expected.)

    Campaign:

    Reduced the rate at which hunnic armies spawn, increased the number of obsolete armies that spawned.

    General Balance:

    Initiative has been reworked, and generally scales just as much with unit size/individual aggressiveness as it does with weapons. (As such, expect shock infantry to better be able to break spearwalls.)

    Shieldwall/Spearwall will once again make blocking missiles more difficult. (Can't have them protect against everything.)

    The majority Skirmisher's morale has been tweaked to make them feel properly prone to fear effects.

    Cavalry deceleration altered to make cav better at trampling down light units in DEEEEEP formations.

    Missile Changes:


    Missile infantry unit size has been made more consistent.

    Poison arrows are getting reworked to weaken enemy bracing, slow them, and wither their initiative, while inflicting a slow but steady fatigue effect. A single arrow will not kill 30 men and the general anymore.

    Todo:

    Integration of slavs into the campaign.

    Polishing and redesigning of slavic units.

    Updating dynamic garrisons.

    Giving skirmishers their own entities, to help further tweak their physical properties.

    Rebalancing.

    Timetable on these features
    :

    Campaign support, and Dynamic Garrisons. TOMMOROW.

    Slavic Polishing. ASAP AFTER THAT.

    I want this version done. FAR. FAR FASTER then any previous Tuskmod version. Simply put, I want you people to be able to enjoy the new content in a balanced environment, but soon.

    But where is the first version of this experimental branch?

    1.7 Tusk Alpha.zip <- HERE. (Custom Battles thursday alpha.)

  3. #3

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Thursday Development Snapshot)

    Great news! Will this version require a new campaign? And wich version on steam workshop will be updated?

  4. #4

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Thursday Development Snapshot)

    I am currently working on getting the campaign fully functional in this version.

    I will quickly upload a pre-dynamic garrisons, pre-unit recruitment revamp of this version. The true "Tuskmod" features for the campaign will take a few more hours to get finalized and functioning... But I will try to finish them before I sleep today.

    I have been spending a lot more time discussing and coordinating regarding how the Slavs were even going to get handled due then I originally intended due to their interesting... Roster composition. (In essence, while I was working on the campaign, I got distracted talking about battles.)

    The good news is that I have the slavs recruiting units in the campaign without it crashing.

    1.7TuskAlpha2.zip

    If you want the slavs to spawn with their new units, that will take a new campaign to get it going, as a note.

  5. #5

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Early Friday Development Snapshot)

    Damn Walrus. Your the boss alright

  6. #6

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Early Friday Development Snapshot)

    Its midnight now its best I sleep before I start hallucinating things in the DB tables, the next phase of the 1.7 alpha should come out in about 14 hours.

  7. #7

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Early Friday Development Snapshot)

    Alright, getting further into my drafts of "What I actually want to do with these guys," and I want to post them before I actually finish setting this all up, so you can provide feedback before they are finished.

    Poison mechanics:

    I will try to split poison into a family of statuses that are applied roughly in a similar window, to try and represent the fear and disorder within a unit that has men that believe they have been poisoned.

    The main reason for me not to explore the poison mechanics more in depth would be if it hurts performance, where I will instead use just the standard two abilities try to reach a happy medium.

    "Poison Missiles" (Applies other statuses, ends the moment the volley stops hitting, and causes small fatigue effect.)

    "Poison Missiles (heavy)" (Same, but has a larger small fatigue effect.)

    "Poisoned" (50 minute status, -5% speed, -5% bracing, -3 morale.)

    "Severe Poisoning" (Short status applied at the start of being poisoned, 20 seconds of an additional -5% speed, bracing, and -1 initiative.)

    "Heavy Poisoning" (Like the above, but for heavy poison. 25 seconds, -10% speed, bracing, and -1 initiative.)

    New Weapons:

    5 new types of wooden javelins. (Unhardened, and poison. Plus precursor versions of the standard, and unhardened variety.)

    A melee inf sidearm sling.

    (Notes: Expect the slavs to be one of the most missile happy factions in tuskmod to date. Why? Otherwise, the extreme unit overlap, and the lack of)

    Current Plans for Slavic Garrisons and recruitment scheme.

    Standard core units. (Basic Axe, Spear, Bow, and Skirmisher Line.)


    General all "Levy" units have their upgrade to the next unit disabled, Bows, Spears, Javelins, and Axes are part of city recruitment. Professional warriors come from reasonable and logical development.

    Generally, the goal is to pay a bit more respect to the personality of slavic forces of this era. Abundant, lifelong raiders of whom, who loved to skirmish, and charge. None of these in any particular order.

    As a note, the realism branch does have a more developed take on the Slavs in battle. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=591200193
    If you wish to try out a more refined version of slavic battles, this is definately a place to look while I work on developing my battle and campaign mechanics.

    Spears:

    Spear levy upgrades disabled, Spear levy carries one wooden javelin. Remains accessible from the city settlement itself.

    Small shield spears are made to be slingers second, recruit from fields.

    Large shield spears come from the carpenters line. (Due to some of the sword/axe units getting moved into the metal working line.) As such, the carpenter line will give a mix of high end bow and spear troops.

    Swords:

    Enjoys skirmishing with wooden javelins before joining into the fight as second line infantry.

    Basic warriors will likely be accessed from the first level smithing building, the remainder I am working out the details on.

    Axes:

    Slavic Levy Line: Slavic Axe Levy->Slavic Axe Levy. Cost reduced, defensive attributes not buffed, given bearded axe. NEW UI ELEMENT "Strong Versus Shields" to represent the shield piercing attribute that has been on certain weapons (Bearded Axe, Horse Hewers, and Falxes.) Carries a single wooden javelin.

    Tests indicate that this setup for Slavic levy dies like flies, but are very efficient at killing expensive units when they manage to avoid enemy missile fire. (Note: Nearly every ally is a missile happy maniac.)

    Slavic Axemen Line: Slavic Axemen->Slavic Axe Warriors. Standard Axe wielding line of slavic units. (Note: Becomes standard garrison line, instead of axe levy. Making them the professional troops in Slavic garrisons.) From basic industry.

    Doubles up as a slinger.

    Horse Cutter Line: Horse Cutters->Horse Butchers. Will try to represent them as being a mixed Spear+Axe unit, via clever trickery. What sort of clever trickery? You will see when I do it.

    Peruns Line: Undecided.

    Ambushers, and other guerrilla deployment axe units: As a lot of the slavic light and medium infantry are in consideration to get guerrilla deployment, these guys will likely get the ability to stalk, raid, and cause fear if it plays well.

    Bows:

    Slavic Levy Archer Line: No longer upgrades, becomes standard archer line in garrisons, recruit-able from settlement, like axe levy

    Poison archers: Due to the nerfing of poison, they will get a secondary shot type.

    Stealth of the Hunter will no longer give range, and instead buff movement speed, grant hiding in grass, and stalking capabilities for a period of time.

    Javelins:


    Levy javelins split off to be the end of their own line, and are recruit-able from settlement. (Remains the garrison unit of the javelin line, but the garrison version has large unit sizes.)

    Skirmish Cavalry:

    Fewer missiles then standard skirmish cavalry, but more charge happy (Those familiar with playing the huns can relate them to hunnic ambushers in Tusk... Another comparison could be made to Saxon skirmish cavalry in AOC.)

    "Standard" raiders split off from unit tree as a levy unit, and made to recruit at basic fields.
    Last edited by Walrusjones; February 27, 2016 at 04:49 PM.

  8. #8

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Early Friday Development Snapshot)

    Alright. It has become clear that trying to force myself to a hard time constraint is only going to make me anxious.... As such, I should probably start following a simpler rule. To be frank: Do enough that I feel proud putting out the daily snapshot of 1.7's development progress, and that is what I did today...

    1.7 Tusk Saturday Alpha.zip

    The Saturday alpha. Simply put, the way Slavs recruit troops should be in, and a lot of you will like how the Slavs handle unit recruitment...

    Normally, tuskmod has very few unit "Upgrades" compared to vanilla. With the Slavs, its a little different, Only one instance of a land unit going obsolete is in the entire unit tree is getting left in....


    I hope you won't morn the loss of your Slavic Axemen, as I have already committed to making enough of the roster unique to the point of standing out on its own.

    Starting off, you have a humble roster of what I intend to make four of the most competent, but specialized levy units in the game. The reason is simple: Its what the Slavs did the most of in this era.



    Of course, the fact that building options have such a huge influence on what units are available means that you will be able to expand what your army is capable of in some way, which will usually come in conjunction with increased capacity for survival.

    ... And if you are still worried about the levy troops being described as competent, you might want to read the post just above this one, as it provides details as to why you should fear relying too much on large numbers of low morale troops. It will also describe a lot of the unit changes I will be putting out over the next weeks series of daily snapshots as I polish campaign features, and update dynamic garrisons.

    After tomorrow, I will hopefully be able to declare ourselves out of 1.7 alpha, and start up a steam branch where the daily snapshots of its beta will go... Just so you know, we are looking for feedback.
    Last edited by Walrusjones; February 27, 2016 at 11:41 PM.

  9. #9

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Saturday Development Snapshot)

    Thanks for your work Walrus, are these 'snapshots' campaign compatible, or should I wait for the steam branch?

  10. #10

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Saturday Development Snapshot)

    I just posted screenshots of the latest snapshots campaign setup.

  11. #11

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Saturday Development Snapshot)

    What tuskmod submods on the steam workshop can I use with this snapshot?

  12. #12

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Saturday Development Snapshot)

    Dynamic garrisons should still work, and scavenging should work for most factions still, but I have hidden mods on the workshop that won't function without an update until I actually get to them and manually alter things.

  13. #13

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Saturday Development Snapshot)

    Tldr, yes, the snapshot contained in this post is playable in the campaign, as the slavs. It contains a lot of overhauls to how their roster is played, but the polishing is to come over this week. Have fun with the most missiles heavy infantry faction, and watch the corpses pile up due to friendly fire.

    Ello everyone. This weekend I got a lot of work done, most of it isn't anywhere near its finished state, but it should now at least have reached a point where most everything will be interesting. As such, I declare Tuskmod 1.7 to have hit its beta state.

    I have finished assigning missile weapons to the Slavs, and setting their units to their respective buildings of recruitment in the campaign. In the process of doing so, I needed to learn how to do new things, the most important of which was actually learning how to set up new animation tables to assign to units. (Essentially, writing new sets of existing animations to assign to units.)

    As such, you can expect to see some spear, and axe units with slings as a sidearm in the latest version of tusk.

    Of course, when it comes to playing the Slavs in Tuskmod, you are going to need to be very careful about playing them, as, while they are a very aggressive missiles+charging series of factions, they also have a disturbing lack of armor...


    As such, I recommend the following order of operations: Throw, THEN CHARGE. Then you are minimizing your risks of making an unsightly mountain of your own men.

    It results in a very fun, and reasonably unique playstyle for them. Their melee units are in general, equipped with longer ranged missiles then other factions equivalents.... But I think I make it painfully clear that they are NOT marksmen. Nor are they very armored. What they were in this period was a culture with a lifelong hobby of raiding their neighbors, and defending their home territory to the last man.

    The best thing about this, the current version I have on my hands right now is the one that I will be making playable to all of you at this moment!

    1.7TuskSundayBeta.zip
    or you could find it on on the workshop.
    HERE.

    Notes and Known issue:
    • The unit polishing for the slavs is yet to be finished, but the Slavs are definitely in a playable state.
    • Certain units don't seem to be holding any javelins when they are ready to throw javelins, but spawn javelins once they complete their throwing animation. I will need to make new Schema's to fix this.
    • Unit abilities are yet to be finalized. Expect there to be fewer formations, and more "Aggressive" skills.
    • Dynamic Garrisons are still yet to be updated, but will be including in the upcoming beta's as I get them worked out and polished.
    Last edited by Walrusjones; February 28, 2016 at 07:08 PM.

  14. #14

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Sunday Development snapshot)

    Today's snapshot was a little more basic, the dynamic garrisons for the Slavs have started to get set up, some bug fixes, a crash fix, and I did input some accuracy scores as well... In general, things are shaping up nicely, but a little slowly for today. There is a good reason for it, I promise.


    A humble start for a strong militia.


    But the biggest thing hat happened today was getting a few battles in with a total war youtuber.... Which is good for publicity. Of course. It also helped to test a fix for a well hidden glitch I we had discovered internally. Didn't happen, so things are probably good now.

    (Of course, we did find a new thing for me to fix.)

    Regardless, the new snasphot can be found...

    1.7_Tusk_Beta_Monday_Beta.zip1.7_Tusk_Beta_Monday_Beta.zip
    HERE.
    Last edited by Walrusjones; February 29, 2016 at 11:26 PM.

  15. #15

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Monday Development snapshot)

    Alright, for today, I mostly just got minor bugfixes done (Some missing celtic/nordic garrisons got added back, crossbow flaming shot got its bonus versus cav back, and certain desert faction skirmish cav have gotten their attributes adjusted,) the reasons are simple: Earlier today, I was getting regular, short, 2-3 second power outages for about three hours which made it so my early attempts at progress were cut short, and things got more complicated as the day went on.

    It looks like tomorrow is going to be rough too, but I will do my best to muster my energy and get the progress done that I promised to get done.

  16. #16

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Monday Development snapshot)

    Alright, today I managed to fit in more tangeble features into the beta then I did yesterday, so that felt like a good way to end today with its tougher-then-normal events. Lets leave it at that.

    Most of what I got done was hidden-backbone work that I hope will pan out in the near future, but I did get some fun stuff done too, notably, I did some work regarding the Slavic Cavalry.



    Renaming Cavalry Counter Tactics as such also made me snicker a little.

    Now each "Tier" of slavic skirmish cavalry fills a different role.

    Raiders have limited ammo, high accuracy, and cavalry counter tactics, making them a very interesting, more melee focused hybrid option.
    Horse raiders have reasonable ammo and accuracy, with precision shot, making them the traditional skirmish cavalry.
    Svarog's raiders have a good charge charge, lots of ammo, quick reload, and frenzied charge... Making them a simple, but expensive hybrid unit that... Throws, then charges.

    In regards to backbone work:

    I set up bullet point elements that should allow me to set units as having "Good" attributes in their bullet point lists, even if they don't display that attribute.

    The three phase poison entities are in the files, I just need to get them to correctly spawn.



    Now.... It is time... For the latest download....

    1.7_Tusk_Wednesday_Beta.zip


    Edit: I accidentally locked this thread, it should be properly unlocked, so you can post feedback here again!
    Last edited by Walrusjones; March 02, 2016 at 09:32 PM.

  17. #17

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7

    Gret job Walrus! I haven't been able to try anything 1.7 yet, but I've been following this thread and damn it looks nice. Thank you for your effort on releasing this version so quickly!

    I love what you are doing with the slavs, they look unique and really fun. Those sidearm slingers... XD

    There's just one change I'd like to know more about:

    Quote Originally Posted by Walrusjones View Post

    General Balance:

    Shieldwall/Spearwall will once again make blocking missiles more difficult. (Can't have them protect against everything.)
    I understand your reasoning, it's not the same to protect yourself against an incoming horse than from a volley, but I feel like this change takes away the possibility of a shielded unit to brace against enemy projectiles. In my opinion, any unit that has shields should be able to do that to some extent (with the corresponding penalties to other things, as you said you can't protect against everything).

    Before, Shieldwall/Spearwall gave you bonuses against infantry/cavalry and projectiles, with this change only the former remains. So I'd like to know if you plan on adding the blocking bonus elsewhere or if it's just gone for good and your thoughts about it.

    Keep on with the great job!

  18. #18

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Wednesday Development snapshot)

    Well, there is loose formation, which tuskmod has optimized the spacing of so it actually works.

    Edit: While I did make some progress on dynamic garrisons today, most of my work is still going into that category of thing I think should be working, but for some reason ISNT.

    In the end, after frustrating myself at the fact that I might have to scrap certain mechanics I wanted to put in, I did give myself a break, play more games with youtubers, and work out a few concrete pointers of things that may be imbalanced. (I will note, the maps we played on were REALLY awkward for the cavalry focused armies we were bringing.)
    Last edited by Walrusjones; March 04, 2016 at 12:41 AM.

  19. #19

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Wednesday Development snapshot)

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

    I WAS LOADING THE WRONG MOD THE WHOLE TIME WHILE I WAS TROUBLESHOOTING THIS STUFF.


    Two days of testing something I knew should work from the files. SADLY, I was loading the wrong internal test version when when I was trying to get this working.... And assuming it didn't work because of it.

    I am feeling seriously annoyed with myself at this moment. I will be taking a quick sleep cycle, testing this a bit more to make sure there isn't a performance loss from multi-status shot types, and then release the next snapshot.

    As it turns out, sometimes I beat my head on walls that aren't even there.


    But yes, the basic trick I intend to give the slavic status effects is that they will have a single shared side effect that WILL not go away throughout the entire battle. Meaning that, while their forces die way easier then those of other factions due to light armor, they make up for it by gaining the ability to handicap enemy forces in the long run.

    This also helps preserve the slav's allergy to friendly fire from vanilla in a way that should be much more enjoyable and interesting then the old instant casualty effect.
    Last edited by Walrusjones; March 04, 2016 at 11:09 PM.

  20. #20

    Default Re: The plans for 1.7 (+The Second Saturdays Beta.)

    Alright. As of now, I am feeling very anxious about releasing these new features. First off here, they are:

    * New UI elements have been added to the bullet points, in an effort to start marking units of skirmish cavalry that have good charge bonus.

    * Multi phase poison shot should be in and functioning, the first status is short and fatiguing, the second one causes some battle-long minor attribute penalties. In general, this is supposed to add merit to the slavs working as a skirmisher faction that relies less on raw damage, and more on wearing down their enemies and striking at their weakest moment.
    ** This may have an effect on performance when playing the slavs, as such, I would appreciate it if you could give poison shot a whirl, and make sure it has minimal effects on your game. (I haven't heard many cases of projectile status's causing performance drops in Attila, mostly just in Rome II.)

    * Poison shots low damage for has been compensated for by giving it a slight range buff.

    * Fixes to a UI glitch I had introduced to falx infantry.

    * Fixed the excessively high amount of fire damage done by flaming pitch to buildings... It still lights things up well, better then flaming shot, its just not instant anymore.

    I would have had more, but I had been loading the wrong version of my prototype file for these two features, resulting in me getting confused and enraged at the files for a few days as I tried to troubleshoot glitches that didn't exist. To be completely honest, I am extremely embarrassed that this happened.

    1.7_Tusk_Beta_Second_Saturday.zip


    No fancy pictures this time around, just some things I feel will probably play out well, but came a few days late.



    Now, on the backbone for a missile that causes multiple status effects, because its actually kinda cool.

    Simply put, missiles have two status effect slots, their on contact effect, and their overhead effect. Both have their own unique side effects.... They also have a slot for an explosion, which can spawn a projectile.

    The double-status missiles work as such: They directly inflict a status, and spawn an invisible explosion that spawns a second invisible missile with no velocity. Simply put, the second missile drops to the ground and inflicts a status without ever being seen, and because this second missile isn't flying fast enough to hit a second unit, its overhead effect can be used to apply a THIRD status without serious risk of the status spreading to nearby units.

    I have been warned that a lot of these things can have a performance impact, but my computer handles Attila well enough that I cannot confirm that it does. This is really why I need you guys to give the new poison shot... A shot... And tell me how it goes.



    From here on out, it should be mostly polishing, updating dynamic garrisons, and some backbone stuff like the diversification of man-entities before I will have a complete release of 1.7. (Making it so skirmishers get less out of bracing, for example.)

    Unlike last week, which kinda... Wrecked my energy... I should be able to make good progress on this while keeping up a much more enjoyable for me, relaxed pace.

    I will still put out snapshots when I hit milestones I am proud of, but I think I have learned some things in this past week that I am glad that I did.

    Regardless, enjoy.

Page 1 of 4 1234 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •