Age of Enlightenment and Revolutions, a gameplay overhaul mod for ETW - 2017-05-04

[Iutland]

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Age of Enlightenment and Revolutions (AER)

The AER mod is an overhaul of ETW with the aim to improve gameplay and add immersion to the vanilla game. The mod is focused on history and realism (but it doesn’t mean that it is 100% historical correct), within the limits the CA source data and game engine provides. I have tried to keep AER modular, so it can be played alongside other mods that change other aspects of the ETW game. The mod is released at version 1.1 and future updates may happen. If you have any change requests or requests for additional contents in the mod, please post it in this thread.

The following three images shows some of the modified campaign map flags and faction names.

The following contents is currently included in this mod, which is based on my work with LME for NTW:

• Overhaul of battle (e.g. projectiles, combat, morale, unit movement) and AI behaviour settings
• Overhaul of campaign (e.g. campaign variables, diplomacy, trade commodities) and AI behaviour settings
• Eight factions made playable in the Grand Campaign as amjor factions with full diplomacy etc.: Denmark, Portugal, Mughal Empire, Thirteen Colonies, Bavaria, Venice, Papal States, Safavids (new in 1.1)
  
• Modified Victory Conditions and minor changes to diplomacy settings (new in 1.1)
  
• Small modifications to already researched technologies - per request (new in 1.1)
  
• Tighter "line infantry" formations - per request (new in 1.1)
• Visual improvement to campaign map pieces (e.g. ships, flags)
• Rework of faction flags on campaign map and UI
• Rework of battle flags for some factions
• New load screens with naval/land battle themes
• Forts have much higher hit point level

The following two images shows modified battle flags.

Installation:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Download and unpack the AER_1.1.rar file containing the “aer_1_1.pack” mod pack, the custom mode Grand Campaign (modfoldered ESF file and Script) and custom made UPC file (credit to Swiss Halberdier for the baseline UPC file) “aer_nse_rae_unit_pack_compatibility_project_empire_v6_7_english.pack” files to your data folder (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Empire Total War\data)

Just Remember to have only one text file in the “data” folder.

The mod is mod packed so just place the aer_1_1.pack file and the text file referenced above in your “data” folder and the user.empire_script.txt file (attached to this post) into your “scripts” folder. Alternatively add the following entry to your current script file: mod aer_1_1.pack;

Compatibility:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The mod is fully compatible with my Naval Supremacy and Realistic Artillery mods. This mod should also be compatible with most other mods that do not change flags, battle and campaign AI settings etc.

A mod combination could be:
Age of Enlightenment and Revolutions (this mod)
Naval Supremacy mod for ETW
Realistic Artillery mod for ETW
Any “unit pack mod” such as AUM
Any “smoke mod”
Any “music mod”
Any “battle sound mod”
Any “campaign mod” that makes more factions playable

[bk2-modder]

Whoah, very sudden, and very nice looking. Very much want to download this and try it out once I complete what I'm doing and can clean my install to allow swapping with this mod and mine. Awesome work, good sir.

[Alwyn]

Impressive work!

[keem78]

Looking forward to trying this one out. Thanks for the hardwork!

[Iutland]

Thank you

[Rick]

Jutland, do you also have the zoom in feature for the campaign map that you have in NTW-LME?

[Sulpicius]

Hi I have downloaded Naval Supremacy mod for ETW
Realistic Artillery mod for ETW
And AUM.
I have been enjoying your mod and hope you have time and plans to develop further. I just needed a quick empire fix and this was just right. Thanks for making it.

[Gustav Mahler]

Beautiful enhancement of vanilla! I played almost all hosted modifications and although I think Imperial Destroyer is the best overhaul your mod keeps the vanilla feeling but also adds different, more realistic gameplay which is really good. I have only two complaints and recommendations - could you make all units tighter i.e. without so much spacing between individual soldiers, they should be shoulder to shoulder and could you make fire by rank, canister shot and ring bayonet available from the start. Canister and rank fire were used far into the 16th century, and ring bayonet was available in the late 17th century.

[Iutland]

Jutland, do you also have the zoom in feature for the campaign map that you have in NTW-LME?

Hi Rick. No not just yet. I will put it on the to-do list ;-)

Hi I have downloaded Naval Supremacy mod for ETW
Realistic Artillery mod for ETW
And AUM.
I have been enjoying your mod and hope you have time and plans to develop further. I just needed a quick empire fix and this was just right. Thanks for making it.

Thanks Sulpicius :-) I will start working on an update of this mod and see where it ends.

Beautiful enhancement of vanilla! I played almost all hosted modifications and although I think Imperial Destroyer is the best overhaul your mod keeps the vanilla feeling but also adds different, more realistic gameplay which is really good. I have only two complaints and recommendations - could you make all units tighter i.e. without so much spacing between individual soldiers, they should be shoulder to shoulder and could you make fire by rank, canister shot and ring bayonet available from the start. Canister and rank fire were used far into the 16th century, and ring bayonet was available in the late 17th century.

Thanks for the feedback Gustav :-) Interesting points you are making! I will take a look at them and see what can be done to address them.

[Iutland]

AER is updated to version 1.1 with the following changes:

Eight factions made playable in the Grand Campaign as amjor factions with full diplomacy etc.: Denmark, Portugal, Mughal Empire, Thirteen Colonies, Bavaria, Venice, Papal States, Safavids

Modified Victory Conditions and minor changes to diplomacy settings

Small modifications to already researched technologies. Canister shot available to all playable factions and ring bayonet available to Western factions from the outset. I didn't include rank fire for gameplay purposes.

Tighter "line infantry" formations


Good luck
iutland

PS. I could not make the zoom feature work succesfully

[Sulpicius]

Hi iutland
just had my first crash:
Error:expecting version
RigidModels\naval\galleon\logic.xml.rigging.gallant(1)
Just checked it happens on late Galleons in campaign and quick battles.

It has not dampened the fun I've had playing this mod when real life allows.

[Kruniac]

Played as Thirteen colonies. About turn 20 or so the game stops working while GB is taking its turn.

Happened at turn 15 or so, but I reloaded the autosave and ended turn again. Worked fine. However, it consistently locks up at turn 20 or 25 or so.

[stas]

Hi iutland
just had my first crash:
Error:expecting version
RigidModels\naval\galleon\logic.xml.rigging.gallant(1)
Just checked it happens on late Galleons in campaign and quick battles.

It has not dampened the fun I've had playing this mod when real life allows.

I know this problem. You need open unit_stats_naval table from the mod and uncheck top_gallants_allowed on the problematic galleons.

[Gustav Mahler]

Hello. I noticed that vanilla inconsistency where pikemen in melee use sabers and hold with their left hands pikes up in the air, effectively becoming a sabre unit and not a dense pike unit. My suggestion is to ditch sabre completely and use pike as primary and foremost (only) weapon. In that way pike units would be far more effective and would have purpose in A.D. 1700. where they were very rare (at the beginning of 16th century 90% of weapons were pikes and cold weapons, 10% were fire weapons, at the beginning of 17th century ratio of pikes and firearms was 50%-50%, at the end of 17th century ratio was 2/3 firearms 1/3 pikes).

[bobwauters]

I've followed the instructions with installing this mod,however nothing is happening...

[Sar1n]

Since this is pretty much mandatory to play this with some unit pack, I recommend getting in touch with Swiss Halberdier and prepare a modified version of AUM for this. Because it's not really compatible gameplay-wise. AUM units use looser vanilla formations, and some units-especially artillery-use non-vanilla projectiles, which messes up the gameplay, especially if used with Realistic Artillery. In fact, I'd recommend a version of AUM with no artillery, as most of those included in AUM are essentially same units.

[Principe Alessandro]

The colonies of Britain, Spain and UK are already merged with the main faction or are separate factions in this mod? If not it is possible to install a mod that merges colonies with their main faction?

[Sar1n]

Two suggestions from me.

Sieges are absolutely horrific due to AI in ETW, and there's not much to do with it. I suggest you include some kind of no siege mod, or at least raise cost for fortifications to extreme levels.

With tightened formations for line infantry, some light infantry units, especially riflemen, have way too loose formation. There's a light infantry toggle for that, I suggest tightening their basic formation to something like 1-1,2 file and 1,8-2 rank spacing. I'd do that myself, but for some reasons DB editor goes weird and crashes when trying to edit your pack.

[StugDontCare]

Hi im pretty new to the modding community and I found this mod and decided i would give it a try. However i'm a little unsure about where to put the scripts text file because I can't find one single "scripts" folder just a bunch of different ones such as "lobby_chat_scripts" and "mp_grand_campaign_scripts" can somebody tell me where to put the text file?

[Gustav Mahler]

Hi im pretty new to the modding community and I found this mod and decided i would give it a try. However i'm a little unsure about where to put the scripts text file because I can't find one single "scripts" folder just a bunch of different ones such as "lobby_chat_scripts" and "mp_grand_campaign_scripts" can somebody tell me where to put the text file?

Local disc C, Users, your name, app data, roaming, the creative assembly, empire, scripts