Sinuhet's Battle Mechanics for MTW2

Version 1.0, Creation Date: December 16, 2006, Release Date: December 16, 2006

The 1.0 version of this original project is not an open source, it is a freeware - you can use freely all files included as you want for your personal use only, any other than official releasing in public of this mod or any part of it, which is originally developed by me (doesnt matter if further unmodified or modified) is possible only after my written permission.

Download links:

download from Filefront.com

download from Uploading.com


Readme:

Description and Using Medieval Total War 2: "Sinuhet's Battle Mechanics"
This mod is a modification of the 4 original files from MTW2: "descr_formations_ai.txt", "config_ai_batle.xml", "descr_formations.txt" and "descr_battle_map_movement_modifiers.txt". These files defines the way the AI creates group formations of units in the battles, some features of the battle AI, Human Player formations and speed of units in respective types of terrain.. They were expanded and tweaked for a bit more challenging AI and more variety of the AI behaviour during the battles. Don't be afraid of any irreversible damages of your game installation by implementing of this mod - you can simply remove it at any moment by copy/paste of your original archived files or via one click in the included auxilliary "installation" program created originally by Shellshock for MTW2 demo.

This version has been developed and thoroughly tested on the MTW2 1.0 platform, but it should be fully functional with MTW2 1.1 patch too.

This mod should be fully save game friendly, but nothing is 100%, so use only the archived games to be sure you dont lost any information.


The key features:
- introduced new AI formation especially for attack in open battlefield - this is an expansion, which was not meant by developers of the game, but is enhancing the gameplay hugely. The finding out of the "right" syntax, placement and mainly the interrelations between the other group formations templates and settings in the "config_ai_batle.xml" is for the first time introduced in this mod - this is the most "precious" priority of the whole project.
- modified the original "Triple line" AI formation template by CA, it is now used in the defence only and during deployment phase
- included and partially modified several my "RTW formations" for siege and bridge battles
- redefined also several "formation independent" settings "config_ai_batle.xml", which create overly more aggressive AI behaviour during battles. It was very difficult to find out only the several ones from the huge number of all possible combinations of parameters, the results are relatively optimal, but I dont state that still better settings of these or some others parameters in this file doesnt exist ...
- included the HP formations, which I have developed already for MTW2 Demo - in fact it is the first MTW2 modification ever released and it was released still before the full game official release, nevertheless it is fully functional and I have not done any changes in it form the October ...
- redefined the movement modifiers, another thing, which was developed for MTW2 Demo already, but I have not released it yet - it is not something hugely original, but it is creating more variety compared to MTW2 vanilla, similarly to various RTW mods


Credits:
I am grateful to Shellshock for his great MedBattleSelector program and his kind permission to use it for my way of installation the "small" (i.e. as for the number of modified files) modifications in data packs.


Installation Instructions:
1. Copy all the files from SBM 1.0 folder to <root folder of your MTW2>, including the data subfolder and the 4 files in it to "../Data/" subfolder
2. Then start he MedBattleSelector.exe and the archiving the data_0.pack will start. The backup has almost 1 GB, so you need this free space on the HDD partition, where you have the game installed - but this is only for archiving purposes.
3. After you will see that the data_0.pack file is backed up and patched in the log window, you can exit the MedBattleSelector, you dont need to do anything else. Then you can start the game and everything should be installed already and fully functional. To be sure try to ply some Custom battle at first to see the difference and eventual error in installation of this mod.
4. If you will want to uninstall this software, simply open the MedBattleSelector again and push the button undo. And it is all, the game is the same as original, the patched data_0.pack is erased and the original one previously backuped is now fully used again.
5. You may want to install these 4 files via "file_first" option inn cfg file or via -mod mymod switch or ShellShocks MedManager - it is all possible and should be fully functional, but I personally prefer the "hexediting" of the data pack because of the theoretically best performance .... Feel free to install it in your preferred way ...


Known limitations:
Naturally, this mod is incompatible with other mods of the "descr_formations_ai.txt", "config_ai_batle.xml", "descr_formations.txt" and "descr_battle_map_movement_modifiers.txt" files or mods, which have these mods incorporated. Otherwise no incompatibility issues are known in this stage of the development. However, it has not been systematically tested with all available mods of MTW2 1.0 and also not with MTW2 1.1 patch.

-------------