[C&E] Questions & Suggestions

[Frunk]

Hi all!

Please feel free to use this thread to ask any and all questions you have regarding Colonies & Empires. I will be more than happy to answer them.

Additionally, I am eager to hear any and all suggestions you have for Colonies & Empires. I have an overall vision for Colonies & Empires, but the finer details are yet to be determined, and the mod is still in relatively early terms of development, so your suggestions have a good chance of being implemented, and making this mod, hopefully, a good one!

I will also be compiling a Frequently Asked Questions list in this post, which will be updated regularly with all information.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. When will this mod be released?

I have no idea. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future, but I make no promises.

2. Which factions will be included?

Currently, there are 28 factions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

European factions

1. New Spain
2. New Castile
3. New England
4. New France
5. New Netherland
6. New Sweden
7. New Augsburg
8. New Scotland
9. New Courland
10. Portuguese faction
11. Russian faction
12. Ottoman faction
13. Knights Hospitaller
14. Brethren of the Coast

American factions

1. Aztecs
2. Apache
3. Chichimeca
4. Tlaxcallans
5. Tarascans
6. Kiche Maya
7. Tutul Maya
8. Inca
9. Muisca
10. Cherokee
11. Iroquois
12. Sioux
13. 1 more

Plus, Rebels

I'm leaving the other 3 open for now (31 is the hardcoded limit for factions). I would rather have "complete" factions, and there is only so much one can do within the hardcoded limits (500 units, etc.), so I may not add any more at all. On the other hand, may need to add more for balancing or just a bit more action later on. If you have any suggestions or requests for possible additions, though, feel free to ask!

Obviously, more to come soon!

Cheers,
Frunk

[♔atthias♔]

will this mod make gunpowder uint more effectieve then they are in MTW2 by removing the fire_by_rank attribute in the EDU?

[isa0005]

I really like the way EB and EBII does their government system, providing building chains that allow the player to recruit local soldiers from various regions based on the government types installed in each province. I feel like this would be a really cool feature to see in this mod, reflecting the relationship between colonials and natives on a far deeper level.

My idea is that if you conquer a native village, the player would have two options.
1. Maintain the native settlement as an ally or vassal under your control, thus allowing the player to recruit native soldiers (perhaps with a modern twist i.e. muskets etc) and providing a semi-faster and indeed safer method of developing their cities (i.e. high levels of happiness in settlements due to retention of local values, customs, religion etc, at least in mid to late stages of the settlement development with the counter balance of lower sanitation levels and increased chances of disease) with colonial buildings being available but at the cost of public order and lesser ability to recruit European units.

2. Construct colonial settlements, which would provide exceptional economic advantages greater European recruitment opportunities, especially when it came to elite units, but damage ur relationship with native neighbors (if thats possible) However development would be much slower, perhaps requiring some kind of colonization building chain that would only open up after certain other buildings are constructed.

Just my two cents, hope things are going well for both the mod and your self personally Frunk keep up your amazing work!

[Frunk]

will this mod make gunpowder uint more effectieve then they are in MTW2 by removing the fire_by_rank attribute in the EDU?

To be honest, I'm not familiar with that attribute mate. Can you please enlighten me?

I really like the way EB and EBII does their government system, providing building chains that allow the player to recruit local soldiers from various regions based on the government types installed in each province. I feel like this would be a really cool feature to see in this mod, reflecting the relationship between colonials and natives on a far deeper level.

My idea is that if you conquer a native village, the player would have two options.
1. Maintain the native settlement as an ally or vassal under your control, thus allowing the player to recruit native soldiers (perhaps with a modern twist i.e. muskets etc) and providing a semi-faster and indeed safer method of developing their cities (i.e. high levels of happiness in settlements due to retention of local values, customs, religion etc, at least in mid to late stages of the settlement development with the counter balance of lower sanitation levels and increased chances of disease) with colonial buildings being available but at the cost of public order and lesser ability to recruit European units.

2. Construct colonial settlements, which would provide exceptional economic advantages greater European recruitment opportunities, especially when it came to elite units, but damage ur relationship with native neighbors (if thats possible) However development would be much slower, perhaps requiring some kind of colonization building chain that would only open up after certain other buildings are constructed.

Just my two cents, hope things are going well for both the mod and your self personally Frunk keep up your amazing work!

That's a brilliant idea mate. I am embarrassed to admit I've not yet played EB or EBII, but I downloaded the latter a while ago, so I'll be sure to check it out now and examine what you mean in greater detail.

[♔atthias♔]

what I mmean is the fact that when uints fire by rank in vanila MTW2 the shuffle animation is bugged since they take far to long to get to the front line to fire again
but I suggest you contact this team http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...-the-End-Times
and ask them how they solved it
then implent it to you mod

[Metal.Pigeon]

what I mmean is the fact that when uints fire by rank in vanila MTW2 the shuffle animation is bugged since they take far to long to get to the front line to fire again
but I suggest you contact this team http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...-the-End-Times
and ask them how they solved it
then implent it to you mod

The solution is pretty easy, actually. All you have to do is remove every line of "fire_by_rank" in the EDU and it'll make the units kneel fire instead. It's what most mods with useful gunpowder units do.

You can also remove the secondary weapons from pikemen the same way, but it's a bit harder to balance them after you do that.

[Colos1987]

On EB governments: basically, if you acquire a settlement, you get to decide what degree of control are you imposing on the region, with the lowest level being a Vassal government, and the highest level is Homeland. Homeland type govs offer the best factional recruitment options and the highest level of civil infrastructure, but this is usually restricted to roughly the starting regions. Vassal/Allied state offers way less building options, next to no factional recruitment, which is replaced by regional recruitment. But they are available throughout the entire map, and can recruit a Governor character, who helps stabilizing the region (so this one is typically a short term solution). And there is a gov type in between, with more control then an Allied state but still less then Homeland - building options represent that, and also there is a mixed recruitment of regional and factional units.

In EB1 this system is static, for every faction there is a set amount of regions Homeland and Province type government, with Vassals available everywhere else. In EBII, it varies by faction, and is more dynamic, there is a certain level of assimilation. I would prefer the latter, though it is fairly complex and difficult to implement. There is link for that:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...s-and-Colonies

As for transiting a similar system for C&E:
I think there should be a Vassal tribe option, with native/regional recruitment, and restricted building options;
A subdued region, with more building options and a broader range of recruitment: natives, and natives trained and equipped by Europeans;
Core regions, with the best building options and factional units only - but you have to build ports to recruit them, as they are rather shipped in instead of trained on site;
And perhaps, if your colony decides to brake away from the mother state, then this event should unlock new stuff as well - but that's another story

Colos

[isa0005]

To be honest, I'm not familiar with that attribute mate. Can you please enlighten me?



That's a brilliant idea mate. I am embarrassed to admit I've not yet played EB or EBII, but I downloaded the latter a while ago, so I'll be sure to check it out now and examine what you mean in greater detail.

Thanks and get on it asap! Its a wonderful mod!

[lolIsuck]

I presume the Netherlands (well, Dutch Republic/Republic of the Seven United Provinces) is still considered a republic here, seeing as they only claimed independence 60 years after the start date of the mod.

[Frunk]

Thanks for all the comments guys. There appears to be some issue with comments being "auto-moderated", which means they require my or another moderator's approval before they appear. It seems to have gone away for the last couple of posts here, but if your post doesn't show up straight away, that will be why. Thanks for your patience with that problem, and with me.

what I mmean is the fact that when uints fire by rank in vanila MTW2 the shuffle animation is bugged since they take far to long to get to the front line to fire again
but I suggest you contact this team http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...-the-End-Times
and ask them how they solved it
then implent it to you mod

The solution is pretty easy, actually. All you have to do is remove every line of "fire_by_rank" in the EDU and it'll make the units kneel fire instead. It's what most mods with useful gunpowder units do.

You can also remove the secondary weapons from pikemen the same way, but it's a bit harder to balance them after you do that.

Seems like a very sensible thing to do, and I don't have any problem with the units kneeling instead.

On EB governments: basically, if you acquire a settlement, you get to decide what degree of control are you imposing on the region, with the lowest level being a Vassal government, and the highest level is Homeland. Homeland type govs offer the best factional recruitment options and the highest level of civil infrastructure, but this is usually restricted to roughly the starting regions. Vassal/Allied state offers way less building options, next to no factional recruitment, which is replaced by regional recruitment. But they are available throughout the entire map, and can recruit a Governor character, who helps stabilizing the region (so this one is typically a short term solution). And there is a gov type in between, with more control then an Allied state but still less then Homeland - building options represent that, and also there is a mixed recruitment of regional and factional units.

In EB1 this system is static, for every faction there is a set amount of regions Homeland and Province type government, with Vassals available everywhere else. In EBII, it varies by faction, and is more dynamic, there is a certain level of assimilation. I would prefer the latter, though it is fairly complex and difficult to implement. There is link for that:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...s-and-Colonies

As for transiting a similar system for C&E:
I think there should be a Vassal tribe option, with native/regional recruitment, and restricted building options;
A subdued region, with more building options and a broader range of recruitment: natives, and natives trained and equipped by Europeans;
Core regions, with the best building options and factional units only - but you have to build ports to recruit them, as they are rather shipped in instead of trained on site;
And perhaps, if your colony decides to brake away from the mother state, then this event should unlock new stuff as well - but that's another story

Colos

That all sounds pretty darn awesome. Also, it sounds pretty complex. That level of complexity and scripting is something I haven't even considered yet. Getting the factions (units, buildings and all the basic stuff) done is the priority right now. Then, I'll start looking at scripting and also plan a beta release.

Thanks and get on it asap! Its a wonderful mod!

Thanks mate! I sure will.

As for your other question, I'll PM you tomorrow.

I presume the Netherlands (well, Dutch Republic/Republic of the Seven United Provinces) is still considered a republic here, seeing as they only claimed independence 60 years after the start date of the mod.

Yes, it's the Dutch Republic, rather than anything else. One of the many historical conundrums that this mod will utterly ignore. There's obviously no way I can "explain away" a country that did not yet exist possessing a colony. I'll develop some kind of narrative when the time comes. As for how things in-game might be affected, the Dutch would probably have a poor standing with the Spaniards, possibly even starting at war.

[Metal.Pigeon]

If you haven't decided yet, I think that the Teutonic family tree (best general becomes new faction leader) would make the most sense for Europeans, as leadership in European colonies wouldn't be done like leadership on the mainland.

I have a few ideas for new factions:

Inuit Tribes - On the campaign map, they would fill in the Canada region and offer some non-rebel resistance to any colonies there. They would mostly have villages like the other North American factions, but would have some unique buildings regarding the coast (they did trade with the Ainu peoples in Japan, so they had some sailing technology). Gameplay-wise, they can be unique in that they would be a bow/javelin-focused infantry faction that may be able to get early access to gunpowder from Russia. Their units would be some of the only units (aside from Russia) that would have a combat bonus in snow.

Lakota Tribes - They would fill in North America and have a similar playstyle to the Apache.

Since the Ottomans are a faction here, I assume that there is going to be quite a bit of creative liberty with the factions here, so here are a few unconventional ideas:

Chinese Explorers - There was a Chinese admiral/diplomat/explorer named Zhang He with a really large fleet with very large ships that was directly funded by the Chinese emperor (Youngle) during this time. He is sometimes credited discovering the Americas before the formal European discovery, but funding for his expeditions was cut before there was any large Chinese presence in the Americas. If they were a faction, they could settle somewhere in South America to the far west with a small
population and relatively weak start. Their units would be very diverse with horse archers, arquebuses, guns that could fire 3 times before reloading (there is a way to skip the reload for guns which makes them fire faster, which is a process that is a bit long (but not complex) to explain here), swords, spears, and flamethrowers. I'm not entirely sure what their weaknesses could be, but Chinese cavalry in history has always been regarded as weak. I'm also not sure about who the faction leader would be, as Zhang He went back to China after his funding was cut.

Viking Colonies - There's already quite a few Viking-esque units in vanilla and even the Teutonic expansion for Kingdoms. Maybe in an alternate universe, not all of the Viking colonies in the Americas were disbanded. They would have better heavy infantry than the Europeans and the natives (soldier to soldier, at least) and some wooden artillery (ballistae, maybe catapults), but bad cavalry and missile units. They would also be pagan, but should be able to convert to Christianity.

The Lost Legion - This is the one with the least historical plausibility, but there was a Roman legion (Legio IX Hispana or the Ninth Spanish Legion) during the time of the Empire sailing somewhere to the north/west/northwest that disappeared without a trace and never showed up again. They could've been blown off course quite a long way...

About their campaign situation, they could occupy one of the small islands or the far western coast of the mainland. They would have a polytheistic religion which would be more acceptable to the natives than Christianity, but they could have the option to convert to Christianity like the Lithuanians in Kingdoms. They're also a Spanish legion, so maybe Spain could have some fun times with them.

Their best strength would be their legionaries and they would have mediocre cavalry and wooden artillery, but weak skirmishers and missile cavalry. If you really want to go this far and add them in, the models could be ported over from Rome: Total War.

Also, some faction name ideas, since I like long names because they sound cool:

New Spain - Viceroyalty of New Spain
New France - Viceroyalty of New France
New Scotland - Nova Scotia
Portugal - The Portuguese Empire
Russia - The Russian Empire
Ottomans - The Ottoman Empire
Knights Hospitaller - The Order of St. John/The Order of Malta
Aztecs - The Aztec Empire
Chichimeca - The Chichimec Nations
Tlaxcalans - Confederacy of Tlaxcala
Tarascans - The Tarascan Empire
Kiche Maya - Kingdom of Q'umarkaj
Muisca - The Muisca Confederacy/Confederation
Cherokee - The Cherokee Tribes
Iroquois - The Iroquois Confederacy/The Iroquois League
Sioux - The Sioux Confederacy/The Great Sioux Nation
Rebels - Independent Peoples (it seems like a more fitting name for this setting than Rebels )

[MagicTrinkets]

Hi, I tried my hand at the native factions list. This is what I came up with:

North America [3 factions]:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. Mississippian Civilization (Mississippian culture + Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, Seminole etc)
2. Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy): contains Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca.
3. Huron Confederacy: 4 tribes; their archenemy are the Iroquois Confederacy.

Mesoamerica (Mexico minus Yucatàn) [6 factions]:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. Triple Alliance (Tenochtitlan+ Texcoco + Tlacopan and tributaries): it's the aztecs, basically.
2. Tlaxcalan Alliance (Tizatlan + Ocotelolco + Huexotzingo) Cholula has been subjugated by the Triple Alliance: they are the archnemesis of their western cousins (they are technically aztecs, too).
3. Mixtec/Zapotec Kingdom of Tututepec (Ñuudzahui or "People of the Rain"): the entire valley of Oaxaca has plenty of groups featuring some pretty fancy weapons such as mesoamerican sarissae, 5-6 meters in length with a 2 meters long obsidian blade, used mainly by Chinanteka and Chiapaneka.
4. Coliman metropolis + Tecoman city: an ancient basin for a civilization whose roots trace back to the classic period (plus I found interesting references in Ian Heath).
5. Purepechan Empire (Tarascan people of Tzin-tzun-tzan): a federation of city states resembling the ones of the Meshika and the Tlashkalteka.
6. Huastec Kingdom: these guys are an ancient offshot of the Maya civilization that migrated towards the coast of present North-Eastern Mexico and then got isolated; the Meshika and allies reduced into submission the southern half of their territories but never got around to conquer their northern regions. They are the guys wearing cone-shaped hats, tattoing themselves like there's no tomorrow, cutting their hair like friars (kind of) and usually going around utterly naked berserker-style.

Yucatàn Peninsula [3 factions]:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. Itza Kingdom (Maya of the Peten Yucatan)
2. Maya of Potonchan (Kingdom of Tavasco); they are here mostly because of the lack of Yucatecan factions in my list, but are by no means as important as the others.
3. Maya of Q'umarkaj (K'iche'Maya in the southern Yucatan): they were in decline but still... Given that the area was vastly influenced by Teotihuacan (and since I found a few nice statuettes of Teotihuacan warriors) they could be made to resemble these (more) ancient civilization, for variety's sake.

South America [2 factions]:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. Inca Empire (Quechuas + subjects): they could start split into 2 sub-factions with the same rosters (Atahualpa VS Huascar civil war) they also must keep a vigilant eye on the Chimù city of Chan Chan (it used to be the capital of the Chimor Empire) because it has a happines malus and if it goes rebel it spawns an army and a new non-playable faction (possibly): the Chimor (or just a powerful rebel army made of Chimù units, so that you wouldn't have the hassle of making another faction).
2. Muisca Federation (Chibchas): these guys had actual chieftains and armies. Also, they are the mythical El Dorado (well, in the conquistadors' wet dreams at least), so they wear plenty of golden stuff.

Stuff I would do without:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. Zapotec Kingdom of Tehuantepec: should have started as either vassals or allies of the triple Alliance but it would probably be better to just make them part of the Triple Alliance with a general named Cocijoeza.
2. Tonallan Kingdom (Chichimeca Tribes): the Chichimeca never formed stable entities like cities; they comprised Zacatecas, Guachichil and a few other ethnic groups each formed by a few hundred tribes of relatively small size. They remind me of the Apache and other Native Northern Americans tribes. AFAIK they never formed federation-like entities, either.
3. Rebel Teotitlan (a mesoamerican faction)
4. Rebel Yopitzinco (mesoamerican troops): the Mexica considered them barbarians. They probably never formed particularly complex societies (not sure about this, though).
5. Rebel Metztitlan (mesoamerican troops): this region was contested by both Purepecha and Mexica, in the end they became part of the Tarascan federation, if I remember correctly.
6. Xalisco Kingdom: it's outside the map (way way to the West), unfortunately.
7. Apache: they have never been anything more than a group of loosely related tribes; never formed cities or even towns.
8. Sioux: I think I read somewhere that the name is an insult in Algonquian language meaning "less than snakes"; anyway, they are called Dakota, Lakota etc. and are nomadic in nature, therefore you could have them as mercenaries, possibly.
9. Cherokee: again, more nomadic stuff that doesn't really fit into the game system which is based on stable settlements (like all Plains Nations after all)
10. Maya of Chichen Itza (Northern Yucatan) : the city was in total ruin way before the time of the Spanish arrival.
11. Diquis Culture (apart from some stone spheres made around 100-1000 CE, only a few trinkets and statuettes; their statuettes are cool, though)
12. Cueva Culture (there's freaking nothing about these guys).

I also found a lot of cool statuettes with intricate body paintings belonging to Costa Rican populations so you might want to add them to the Muisca, possibly (even though the Muisca used to live in southern Colombia)? Unfortunately they made no actual cities/federations/anything-beyond-single-villages. In fact they remind me a lot of the Caribi and the Arawaks.

In general, from what I found, the Northern part of the Americas feels a bit empty as far as sizable native factions go.

Keep in mind I'm massively biased towards the Mexico-Yucatàn area, which is what I'm mostly interested in, so take what I wrote with a grain of salt.

[Frunk]

snip

Sorry for not replying to this sooner.

You wouldn't believe it, but I had literally all three of those unconventional ideas in mind at one point. I was definitely going to include a Norse faction as my map originally went far enough north to include Greenland. When I cut it down a bit, I still "kept" Greenland (the landmass was rotated to feature both the Eastern and Western settlements from the 10th/11th century) in the top corner of the map. The narrative I was going to follow was that the Little Ice Age isolated the Greenland colony (expanded to Vinland/Newfoundland), but it survived and they still existed as Catholic Vikings. I never developed it further though, and scuttled the idea when I cut the map down again to eliminate Brazil (and, by extension, Newfoundland).

Chinese explorers in the Galapagos Islands, and a Roman legion blown off course and lost in the Amazon, were both ideas I toyed with, but given the culture (7) and religion (9) hardcoded limits, these were less likely than the Norse idea (my personal favourite due to always loving them and the period they came from).

Currently, I've used 8 religion slots: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Islam, Sun God, Great Spirit, Pagan, and Heretic. Pagan is unused currently (other than being there for the possibility of being used for settlements at the start of the game, representing a native population) and could potentially be used/replaced with a religion for certain American factions (currently, Incas and Muisca are Sun God factions, whilst the Sioux, Cherokee and Iroquois are Great Spirit). Since the Chinese and the Romans would have needed their own culture and religion (not too mention limits on the EDB and EDU), they were never likely. I always preferred Orthodox Russians and Islamic Ottomans.

That said, I still have faction, religion, culture and region slots still open at this early stage, so there's always a chance, particularly for the Norse or the Romans since, as you say, it would be quite easy to source existing content for them.

Warning, here be spoilers:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Not sure if you've checked out the map preview, but the Ottoman colony is in Nicaragua/Honduras, whilst the Russian colony is in Southern Texas.

Originally, the Russians were going to be in their historical locations, i.e. Alaska, Hawaii and California, but again this was before the map was cut down significantly.

The Ottomans, meanwhile, I plan to depict as a colony established by the famous Ottoman admiral Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha.

Thanks for the faction name suggestions. I do intend to call both those two Viceroyalties, as well as the Viceroyalty of New Castile. As for Portugal/Russian/Ottomans, my concern is that those are the names of their parent factions. The parent factions aren't the ones in the game, but the colonies are (e.g. the destruction of the Ottoman colony doesn't mean that "The Ottoman Empire has been destroyed" ). In the Ottoman case in particular, I may use the prefix Eyalet, and I did consider the name Selima (Eyalet of Selima), suggesting that the colony was named in honour of Selim I, but I'm not sure. I still intend to get some opinions from the various historians here on TWC for this.

The long name of the Aztecs (the Mexica) will be something like The Triple Alliance, and the Tarascans will actually be the P'urepecha (demonym) and maybe the Kingdom of Tzintzuntzan, or similar, which they called themselves (transliterated to English). Some of the other American factions will be more troublesome (as MagicTrinkets alludes to), but it's not a huge issue to deal with just yet. I've just used short common names in the OP for simplicity's sake.

@MagicTrinkets: Once again I've run out of time. I'll reply to your message separately ASAP. But on first glance, you've got some cool ideas and suggestions!

[Metal.Pigeon]

Regarding faction names, that actually makes a lot of sense, but I'm not entirely sure what to call the Russians or Portuguese either. The Knights Hospitaller literally referred to themselves as the "Sovereign Order of Malta" but as far as I know, that entire thing won't fit on screen without getting cut off, so I think that "Order of Malta" or "Knights of St. John" would be a nice substitute. For the names of the colonies, that might be a bit difficult for some of them, like Nova Scotia, since the settlement itself was called Nova Scotia.

I think that the "Pagan" religion should be used elsewhere. Heresy already fills in the need for a religion that represents a native populace, as it is a religion that causes unrest, is spread by heretics (which can be renamed for this mod), and causes problems for all factions.

I still think that a Chinese faction would be very interesting though, simply because of their weapon technologies and unique cultures that make them completely different to other factions, including the Europeans. It's possible to make gunners that don't reload, which can simulate the 3-barrel pole gun, flamethrowers (always fun), and they have a more "medieval" roster of infantry and cavalry that contrasts the pike and shot of Europe and the infantry/archer spam of the natives. There are a few Chinese mods on TW Center like the Imjin War mod that has Chinese units relevant to this time period, but the Mongol/Timurid units from vanilla look vague enough to pass as Chinese (except for those wooden lances, but I digress). Though I do see the problem with the cultures, and I agree that they should probably be considered last. I'm not going to be too biased because of my background, don't worry.

Since the 9th Legion was Spanish, maybe there could be a scripted event hidden somewhere to where if the Spanish factions (including Portugal, since they were considered part of Spain in the ancient era) do something special, they could be gifted with some units equipped in the ancient Roman fashion. Or the Knights Hospitaller, since they were an Italian-based military order and Rome is in Italy. Or the Ottomans since they conquered Constantinople and called themselves the new Rome. Either way, it would only use up 1 or 2 unit slots and could be a fun "easter egg", if you will. That, or there could be a stack of Roman legionaries that can either be destroyed or bribed to join someone's side.

Another script I think would be interesting is reinforcements from the homeland for European factions. Maybe if a European faction is on the verge of being destroyed, they could get some reinforcements to try and keep them alive. I think that the longer the faction was alive, the more units they should be given because 1. They would be considered more important to the motherland and 2. The game would have gone on longer, and 5 free units on turn 5 is way more of a big deal than 5 free units on turn 50. It would be kind of like the garrison script in Third Age in concept (giving a faction a second chance against being steamrolled), but less rage-inducing and something that makes more logical sense rather than entire armies appearing out of nowhere to defend a small village.

Native factions should definitely be given boats, since New Spain is pretty much impossible to destroy in Kingdoms, unless it's played-controlled and the player is intentionally trying to get killed off. That's not very satisfying for a native faction.

This one is a bit of a nitpick, but I kind of found it a little weird that the Europeans in the Americans expansion for Kingdoms don't have European music. I'm not entirely sure why, but I always felt that each culture should get its own unique soundtrack.

Last note: The 1648 mod has some really nice looking European Renaissance units, and burrek has a mod where he retextures all of the early/high medieval European vanilla units. You'd have to ask permission to use the 1648 units, but burrek allows anyone to use his textures as long as they give him credit. There's also an Ottoman reskin somewhere that looks rather nice. Rusichi Total War also allows anyone to use their units as long as they give credit, and they have lots of Russian units. I haven't seen any American custom models or reskins though, so you'd definitely have to find a modeller/texturer for that.

[preussen6]

http://www.colonialnewsweden.org/ Good page about New Sweden.

[♔atthias♔]

a suggestion
when if ever you run out of units slots you can do the following lets says that portugal and the 2 spain factions share a unit you can merge them into one and give them still their factions colours like yellow for spain and white for portugal
I dont know how it i done but I know it is possible because the COW Botet team has done it
just a suggestion for the FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR future

[Metal.Pigeon]

a suggestion
when if ever you run out of units slots you can do the following lets says that portugal and the 2 spain factions share a unit you can merge them into one and give them still their factions colours like yellow for spain and white for portugal
I dont know how it i done but I know it is possible because the COW Botet team has done it
just a suggestion for the FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR future

We have that in mind, but it would probably not happen. All of the factions will be very unique and have a different playstyle while being balanced with one another on the battlefield.

[Jaguar Paw]

One easy suggestion would be to allow native factions to finally recruit mercenaries.

[Metal.Pigeon]

Don't want to reveal too much, but all factions can build navies and hire native (and later, European) mercenaries.

No longer will Cuba be invincible

[Jaguar Paw]

Well speaking of the Greater Antilles... it would be great if about three regions could be added to Cuba and Hispaniola, and maybe divide both Puerto Rico, and Jamaica in two parts. This would be cool for a mod to the mod for a pre conquest era game.