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Thread: Divide Et Impera/Ancient Empires Attila based Warhammer combat mod, 1HP!

  1. #1

    Default Divide Et Impera/Ancient Empires Attila based Warhammer combat mod, 1HP!

    Friends and Romans,

    I am currently making a combat mod for Warhammer, based on the concepts of Rome II's Divide Et Impera and Attila's Ancient Empires mods. I feel these two mods have simply the best combat simulation of any mods, allowing not only more time for tactical scope and ploys, but also time to simply sit and enjoy watching the combatants slug it out once the main battle lines have closed. Afterall, we spend hundreds/thousands building a powerful PC, only to sit and watch the battles from afar in what many feel like is a ridiculous click fest.

    I have gone through the pack files for the Attila Ancient Empires mod, and tried to take the concepts over to Warhammer. So far, it seems to be working ok! A 1 on 1 combat between two well armoured regiments can take 20/30 minutes, which is exactly the way I want it, as this will (hopefully!) allow for the real need to manage your line breakers carefully, while giving the player more time to play with all the crazy toys Warhammer brings. I've been playing Warhammer tabletop for about 20 years, so I really want to make this mod work, as the game is technically a dream come true for me, but no matter how much I want to like it, it really is just unplayable

    A bit about the mod so far:

    1 HP SYSTEM

    The main purpose of the 1HP system is to slow down combat to levels the player can appreciate more, and to make stats more meaningful. Currently, the vanilla stats in Warhammer (and Attila actually) are so large and varied, as to mean absolutely nothing at a glance. Reducing all these stats to around 20/30 maximum, means players can more quickly evaluate the capabilities of a unit. Anyone who's played Ancient Empires will probably tell you that seeing your unit's health bar as just the number of warriors remaining is much better than having a HP bar of 3000 for x amount of warriors!

    1 Base Damage, NO AP DAMAGE
    Taking another leaf from Ancient Empires, all base damage is currently 1, all AP damage is 0. I like the concept of AP damage, but sadly it just doesn't seem to do anything but speed up battles, so it's gone! Lords and Heroes still manage to take out merry swathes of infantry in combat, which is great.

    Morale reworked
    The morale system follows the Ancient Empires pack file closely. Units no longer break after 1 or 2 minutes of combat, and stop running away and rallying so far out with so few numbers left as to be absolutely pointless.

    Current Issues

    It's not all Sunshine and rainbows though! Here are some issues I've found so far, some of which are simply the product of having not worked on that aspect yet:

    1.
    Not enough distinction between unit purposes as of yet. This will hopefully come as the mod develops and I can re-devote time to this specific task. It is in very early stages at the moment and I'm currently more concerned with getting the base mechanics right.

    2.
    Units of multiple monsters like trolls, treekin, minotaurs, rip through infantry like hot butter! This is my main task at the minute, and I have managed to slow them down by modifying the splash attacks and target acquisition cooldown timer. Hopefully, a little more work and I'll have this right. Atleast the monsters are dying in return though, and as they usually have a lower Morale than most, they don't stick around forever.

    3.
    Lords and Heroes are somewhat immortal at the moment. I plan to play with their defence, armour and health stats to fix this.

    4.
    Cavalry aren't having the impact they should. I haven't worked on this area yet.


    The Future of the Mod
    I wonder sometimes if it is really possible to do this in the Warhammer setting, with all the crazy monsters and whatnot about, but I keep reminding myself "hey there are Elephants in Divide et Impera and Ancient Empires, and they made them work, why not trolls and dragons?" It is a shame that Lords and Heroes do not come with bodyguard, as I think that would make balancing them a whole lot easier in the long run. Perhaps by the time this mod nears completion, someone will have found a way to do it!

    I would like to eventually work on creating unit abilities and formations like spear and shield walls, to give some of the units a more clear defined purpose and edge in an advantageous situation.

    It will take me a long time to complete this mod, it's the first one I've ever made, and is a bit ambitious. I'm also studying Engineering, whilst working in a bar and as a musician, so my time is really limited. I'd love to dedicate more time to this but, c'est la vie! I'd like to extend the mod to the community, if anyone is interested in helping create it, or even just playtesting it for a laugh I can put the pack files up for anyone to help themselves to. I'd be very happy to be a part of making this game much better for us all I will continue to work on it.

    Wadey

  2. #2

    Default Re: Divide Et Impera/Ancient Empires Attila based Warhammer combat mod, 1HP!

    Im really interested in this idea. I hate health bars. Ill keep an eye on the future of this mod


  3. #3

    Default Re: Divide Et Impera/Ancient Empires Attila based Warhammer combat mod, 1HP!

    Hello again,

    With the new Bretonnians and subsequent patch the mod hasn't been working and I couldn't find what's wrong so I've started from scratch! It really makes me appreciate what proper modders must go through with the constant updates, it's quite humbling. I'm really dreading Warhammer 2 coming out now, as I bet I'll just get this mod working then that will come out and send me back to square one again.

    I'm on holiday at the moment, so I'm hoping to have one race playable in custom battles for the end of next week by chipping away at it each day...here's hoping! I'll probably do Orcs and Goblins as they're my favourites and have a good variety of troops and monsters. Then I'll upload it to see if I can get any feedback.

    By the way, when I do get an upload done, if anyone could help me with making my pack file more compatible and separating it into the edited tables so people can use just the bits they want I'd really appreciate the help.

    Bye for now, Wadey

    @Drillmaster, I'm SURE I saw an option in the game menu or one of the tables I was editing that gives you the option to change the health bar to just display the number of models left in the unit, if I find it I'll let you know!

  4. #4

    Default Re: Divide Et Impera/Ancient Empires Attila based Warhammer combat mod, 1HP!

    I can't get anything working at all now, not even a simple mod that changes just one leadership value to test it. I've just about had enough of this game.

  5. #5
    Matmannen's Avatar Ordinarius
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    Dec 2012
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    Default Re: Divide Et Impera/Ancient Empires Attila based Warhammer combat mod, 1HP!

    Just a small heads up. I have full respect for and trust in KAM as a unit balancer, but his unit balance mod for Warhammer has some major weaknesses, and as he balanced DeI, well, you do the math.

    Factions like orcs that thrive on the attack has been nudered to oblivion. If you are not careful, mods that focus on combat may play to the strengths of defensive factions like the dwarves, while pulling the rug from attack oriented factions.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Divide Et Impera/Ancient Empires Attila based Warhammer combat mod, 1HP!

    Hello again!

    Here is a (very) work in progress of the mod. It's taken me most of the week just to work out how to get my mods exporting and working properly, the method I used to use absolutely refused to work! I'm now doing everything in Pack File manager instead of DAVE. Before starting a custom battle, TURN OFF special character's abilities, and don't use magic or missiles, as i haven't edited them yet! Missiles wont take me long.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/1vw5og4zfx...p%21.pack?dl=0

    I may have given up on the idea of 1HP now, once I finally got mods exporting properly the gameplay wasn't the same as I used to have it, even though I used the same databases from what I can remember. I'm not sure what's changed but it just wouldn't work I'm afraid. I'm now making the health of every unit a percentage, most of them are turning out around 10HP. This may be 100+% for lords heroes and monsters. Damage has been reduced drastically and AP is out.

    I think the main aim of the mod now is to rebalance the units with the present mechanics. Some units may want more models in, some may want stats tweaking or extra damage potential. Having played with the mod a bit it has definitely slowed down the battles more than other mods I have tried.

    Please let me know what you think, and feel free to edit the pack file yourselves.

    Wadey

  7. #7
    McCarronXLD's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: Divide Et Impera/Ancient Empires Attila based Warhammer combat mod, 1HP!

    This is something I was planning on doing as well, though with a focus of changing how Total War is played. Trying to change the combat from rock paper scissors and flanking to a system that focuses on army formation, line pushes and using reserves properly. Great to see someone else using DeI/AB as a model for Warhammer modding!

    Tried out your mod and I think the balancing is rather good. Look forward to trying it out once completed!
    "You hurt me long ago; my wounds bled for years. Now you are back, but I am not the same."

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