Archive

[tornnight]

The Long Road
by Ely Soto (tornnight)

Version 1.8

--Download Here--
Core Modification
This is the required part of the installation.
Primary Download Site
Backup Download Site

Optional Addon Files
Seperate Addon Package contains:
- Options for Blood (Extreme, Realistic, Realistic Plus, Vanilla)
- Upgraded, more diverse Weather
- Upgraded Early and Late Era Unit Textures
- Early Era Textures for Captains and/or Generals
- Improved Campaign Map Farm Textures
Primary Download Site
Backup Download Site



This Mod for MTW2 is geared towards a long epic style campaign.

-Features-
Campaign:
- All Main Factions Unlocked
- Huge Map with extended regions, 50+ new regions
- A total of 900 turns
- 1 year = 2 turn or 6 months per turn (winter and summer changing each turn)
- New Advanced Campaign AI
- More field battles due to larger map
- More realistic movement rates.
- Balanced AI development for all factions. AI will expand their empire correctly.
- New win conditions, each faction has specific, more realistic goals
- New Landbridges: England-Main Continent, Corsica-Sardinia
- Reduced Pirates and Rebel spawn rates
- Improved Merchants
- AI negative treasury blockage. Still allows you to destroy their economy.
- Titles for Important Cities and Castles
- Fixed Character Traits and Ancillaries
- Many New Character Traits and Ancilaries
- New Rebellious Family Members
- Family Member Bloodline tracking.
- Improved Princesses
- Simulated Faction Council

Buildings:
- Improved Tech Tree. Reasonable, realistic requirements and progression.
- All Unit recruitment moved to specific buildings. No Free Units from Walls. Both Cities and Castles require their respective building types
- Recruitable Early Period and Late Period Generals at Castles. Including Dismounted Generals for certain factions.
- Building Costs and Times have been increased, giving you a challenging
game and forcing you to manage your economy. Balanced to allow the AI to develop.
- Updated Mission times to deal with increased build times
- Ranked Experience Bonus for Agents (Priest,Spy,Assassin,Merchant,Diplomat) from improved buildings
- Tweaked Wall and Gate strengths to be reasonable. Not too easy, not too hard. Just Right.
- Castle/City population requirements increased to slow down the tech tree.

Units:
- Improved Unit Textures
- Traits and ancillaries Fixes
- Added dismounted mercenaries
- Inquisitors toned down
- Heretics toned down
- Merchants make more money
- Recruitable generals based on castle size, Citadel allows Late stage generals
- Units attack with faster animations
- Units last longer on the battlefield
- Cavalry charges are now powerful.

Battle:
- Added missing units from standard MTW2
- Added all the dismounted versions of units
- Unit Balancing. Factions still quite diverse.
- Improved battle movement speeds
- Crossbows and Guns now require line of sight. No arching bullets.
- New AI and Player Formations
- Improved AI Siege capability. Reduced AI bunching up in front of the gate
- Improved Ladders and Siege Towers
- Ballista Tower/Cannon Bug Fix

Other Features:
Various other values and parameters have been tweaked to ensure the AI
reacts appropriately. They will capture rebel provinces, and build their empires
as intended by the new Campaign AI. This was done by ensuring they had sufficient money and that the movement speed was high enough to allow the AI to function.

All factions are unlocked.
If you wish to undo this, delete ".\The_Long_Road\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\unlocked.txt"

Includes the following fixes
- ballista/cannon tower fix
- 2 Handed Unit fix
- Venetian Archer armor upgrade fix
- Heavy Infantry armor upgrade fix
- Adds missing units
-- English Armored Sergeants
-- HRE Dismounted Gothic Knights
-- Venician Dismounted Broken Lances
-- Dismounted Lithuanian Cavalry
-- Dismounted Heavy Lancers
-- Dismounted Tuareg
-- English Mounted Longbowmen
-- Mongol Dismounted Heavy Archers
-- Timurid AS Monster Bombard
-- More!

Gameplay Tips:

While you are still a small empire you will only be able to either build your
infrastructure or field large armies. Building costs are high and you'll need
to save your pennies by not having huge Army upkeep costs. This will force you to wait to create your large armies until you really want to attack.

Focus on markets/roads/ports and growth based buildings at first to build your
economy.

After you have your economy in place you can start to build your army.

Starting the mod:

Starting the mod:

Simply execute
Execute "The_Long_Road" from your Start menu.

Uninstall:
Execute "Uninstall_The_Long_Road.exe" from your Start menu.

This mod includes many portions community developed work. Thank you guys.
Ultimate AI - GrandViz
BigMap - Spurious
Orientiss_Vices_&_Virtues_FIXES - Orientiss
Titles, Civil_War, Princesses, Council - Dearmad
Formations, Battle AI, Unit tweaks- Darth
Win Conditions and Extra Loading screens - Repman
New Faction Names - Dadiodog
Weather Mod - HorseArcher
Blood Mod + Unit Retextures - Burrek
Loading Screens - Burrek

Version Information:

1.8
- This version features a new installer and addon package
- Added Dearmad's City Title's, Ancillaries,
- Updated Orientiss_Vices_&_Virtues (Use this install option for compatibility with 1.7)
- Updated Ultimate AI to 1.1
- Various Units Balanced
- Improved Battle AI (Siege AI is hardcoded and still stinks)
- Performance Improvements for Mid-End game
- Further requirements for certain buildings
- Optional Build Speeds. From Really Fast to Really Slow. "I Highly Recommend the Default"

- Seperate Addon Package contains:
- Options for Blood
- Upgraded Weather
- Upgraded Unit Textures
- Improved Farm Map Textures
- Modified Textures for Captains and/or Generals

1.7
- This version is a maintenance release, no new installer yet
- Fixes Theologians guild trade bonus at extreme levels, typo
- Agent limits for priests are max 1 per city.
- Corrected folder layout for unit textures and added correct startup switch
- Upgraded to 0.91 early version of Burrek's unit textures
- Completely compatible with 1.6 saves

1.6
- This version focuses on long term AI balance and AI Siege attacks
- All new splash screen by Remo
- Reduced building costs to assist AI development
- Tweaked build times in some locations
- Gave some reasonable requirements on buildings.
- Balanced Portugal development
- Tweaked Unrest in cities and castles
- Reduces squalor effects on order
- Tweaked distance from capitol penalties
- Upgrade to Ultimate AI 0.9 which fixes cease fires.
- Upgrade to BigMap Extended 1.06
- Upgrade to DarthMod Lite 1.2
- Upgrade to Orientis Fixes 1.1a plus hotfix
- New Faction Names thanks Dadiodog
- Minor Unit/Build Balancing
- Moved Scots Guard to archery buildings
- Corrected Game Event dates for new turn rate
- Fixed Wall and Gate Levels/Health. Now they make more sense.
- Improved Siege Formation for AI. No more bunching up in front of the gate.
- This release is not compatible with saves from version 1.5

1.5
- Fixed missing Units for Milan, Papal States
- Removed Elephant Artillery for timurids
- Tweaked Experience/Recruit rates for buildings
- Generals more expensive
- Markets now require roads or paved roads
- AI negative treasury blockage. Still allows you to destroy their economy
- Portugal now owns Oporto instead of Pamplona
- Increased Money from Sack and Exterminate
- Doubled ship costs and halved thier refresh times. Will help reduce AI ship spam
- Upgraded to Ultimate AI 0.8
- Various Guild buildings now actually have benefits
- Corrected Unit building experience progression
- Added missing units (English Mounted Longbowmen, Mongol Dismounted Heavy Archers, Timurid AS Monster Bombard)
- Verified using my new building/unit validator utility
- Added Pirate Ships for the Rebels

1.4
- Added Darth Formations M2TW version 1.0
- Tweaked Wall and Gate strengths to be more reasonable
- Added Generals for recruitment based on castle size
- Added burrek's Unique Europeans, Early Period v0.3 Textures
- Added loading screens, DLV - Repman

1.3
- Upgraded to BigMap 0.99i with 1.05 extension
- Fixes just the impassable terrains in Africa/Arabia and the early crossable
ocean is back to vanilla now

1.2
- Upgraded units and battle mechanics to DarthMod 1.1
- Added Dismounted Mercenaries
- Added Win conditions from DLV 1.8 ext - Repman

1.1
- Added updated mission times
- Removed units from wall upgrades
- Reduced Rebel Army Spawns

1.0
- Initial Release

License: Free

[vikrant]

great
upload it here too
thanks :

[Valkirah]

Nice job!

[tornnight]

great
upload it here too
thanks :

Done.

[mlc82]

This is one incredible mod, nice combo of what I wanted MTW2 to be (epic, difficult, etc). I don't know how many times I had to reinstall from wrecking my installation by trying to combine LTC, Darthmod, and Ultimate AI.

I've played about an hour into a campaign as England (I'm at about 1095 now I think), and it seems as if my archers (not crossbow) will not shoot off of castle walls at all. Could this be some kind of mix up from maybe fixing the game to where crossbowmen can't do the goofy out of the box "volley into the air" fire (and also needing a direct line of sight to their target, which I think is perfect), maybe somehow this spilled over into regular archers?

Also does anyone know how the Darthmod battle AI tweaking compares to the of Darius' mod?

I was impressed as I was slaughtered trying to take a town in what I figured would be a usual easy siege battle, however the besieging (attacking) AI still seems to be dumb as bricks. The French especially love besieging my castles with an army full of mounted sergeants, and 2-3 crappy militia spear units with ladders/towers. I even had one battle at the same castle where a French spy had opened my gates, yet the cavalry (and also heavy cav reinforcements coming up on my flank) just sat there the entire time as usual, had they stormed my gate I would have lost within 20 minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if this was hardcoded and unfixable, as the TW AI as siege attackers has never been exactly brilliant.

Anyway, great mod and keep up the good work! Thank you for helping this game realize it's potential!

[mlc82]

Also forgot to add, in my game the Aztecs were both discovered and also allied to the Moors by 1090. I really couldn't care less about this so it doesn't affect my game for me (IMO the "New World" feature was just a silly gimmick idea anyway ), but if that could cause a potential problem figured you'd like to know.

[Bizspy]

When I click on the Bat file I briefly see the Command window and then nothing happens.

The installer is simple - I just pointed to the right folder - so I cannot understand why the mod doesn't work. I am wondering if I need to adjust/alter the Bat file.

[Gen_Lee]

Nice mod, tks.
I took the liberty to change the starting provinces and cities for Portugal as bigmap and extension v1.4 finnaly allows to make it a bit more historical, adding Oporto as Portuguese and removing Pamplona.

[mlc82]

When I click on the Bat file I briefly see the Command window and then nothing happens.

The installer is simple - I just pointed to the right folder - so I cannot understand why the mod doesn't work. I am wondering if I need to adjust/alter the Bat file.

Have you installed any other mods for MTW2? I've had the same thing happen before when I was tweaking with a few different ones and installed/deleted something incorrectly, had to reinsatall the game, repatch it, then reinstall the mod I was trying to use and it worked fine. It's a pain to do but if you've been playing around with the data files at all as I had you may have switched something around.

[tornnight]

This is one incredible mod, nice combo of what I wanted MTW2 to be (epic, difficult, etc). I don't know how many times I had to reinstall from wrecking my installation by trying to combine LTC, Darthmod, and Ultimate AI.

I've played about an hour into a campaign as England (I'm at about 1095 now I think), and it seems as if my archers (not crossbow) will not shoot off of castle walls at all. Could this be some kind of mix up from maybe fixing the game to where crossbowmen can't do the goofy out of the box "volley into the air" fire (and also needing a direct line of sight to their target, which I think is perfect), maybe somehow this spilled over into regular archers?

Also does anyone know how the Darthmod battle AI tweaking compares to the of Darius' mod?

I was impressed as I was slaughtered trying to take a town in what I figured would be a usual easy siege battle, however the besieging (attacking) AI still seems to be dumb as bricks. The French especially love besieging my castles with an army full of mounted sergeants, and 2-3 crappy militia spear units with ladders/towers. I even had one battle at the same castle where a French spy had opened my gates, yet the cavalry (and also heavy cav reinforcements coming up on my flank) just sat there the entire time as usual, had they stormed my gate I would have lost within 20 minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if this was hardcoded and unfixable, as the TW AI as siege attackers has never been exactly brilliant.

Anyway, great mod and keep up the good work! Thank you for helping this game realize it's potential!

The battle AI definately could use some more smarts. I may try to implement the AI command star accelerator in a future version. Not sure how that mod works though.

I couldn't reproduce the problem with the english archers. I tried a few battles with archers on city walls and they worked fine. I'm upgrading the next release to DarthMod 1.1 mechanics. That may fix it?

[tornnight]

When I click on the Bat file I briefly see the Command window and then nothing happens.

The installer is simple - I just pointed to the right folder - so I cannot understand why the mod doesn't work. I am wondering if I need to adjust/alter the Bat file.

Not sure what could be the problem. I noticed that I included the preferences folder in the mod. You could try deleting that?
Next version won't have it.

[mlc82]

The battle AI definately could use some more smarts. I may try to implement the AI command star accelerator in a future version. Not sure how that mod works though.

I couldn't reproduce the problem with the english archers. I tried a few battles with archers on city walls and they worked fine. I'm upgrading the next release to DarthMod 1.1 mechanics. That may fix it?

Actually I think the archers now just require a line of sight to targets also, they worked fine when playing today and all will fire so long as they can all see the target. If their target is obscured to half of the archers behind a wall or something, the half that can't see won't fire but the others will. Not sure if this is a problem or as intended but I don't really mind either way.

The strategy AI on my game is also kind of going nuts, back to it's original out of the box homicidal self... France refused a ceasefire even when they had only one lightly defended city left that I and half of the rest of Europe were crusading toward, and immediately after destroying France the HRE backstabbed me when they were already excommunicated and at war with several neighbors... Would it hurt the mod to reinstall UltimateAI into the Long Road mod data folder? I wouldn't think it would be any problem but may have to tweak the unit move rates afterward.

I definitely like the slower, more strategic pace here though, reminds me a little of Europa Barbarorum for Rome (my favorite game mod of all time )

[tornnight]

The tweaked movement rates would be overridden and if you include the campaign_script.txt file, campaign map weather won't match up right.
Thats about all it would do I think. I nearly took Ultimate AI 0.7 and dropped it in straight.

I guess France was feeling courageous? hehe

Glad you're liking it. I'm playing as Spain right now and France is kicking me back to iberia.

The way it seems to work is you can either field a large army or build you're infrastructure. Especially at first before you have many trade improvements. Gets a bit easier after trade increases.

[mlc82]

The tweaked movement rates would be overridden and if you include the campaign_script.txt file, campaign map weather won't match up right.
Thats about all it would do I think. I nearly took Ultimate AI 0.7 and dropped it in straight.

I guess France was feeling courageous? hehe

Glad you're liking it. I'm playing as Spain right now and France is kicking me back to iberia.

The way it seems to work is you can either field a large army or build you're infrastructure. Especially at first before you have many trade improvements. Gets a bit easier after trade increases.

Possibly so, I've heard even after UltimateAI France still tends to just go berzerk, however the HRE and I had an alliance and "good" relations, seems odd they would damn themselves by declaring war on me (more powerful than they are) when already fighting 2 other countries and excommunicated. I like the slow pace but don't want to be fighting "repel the spearmen" siege battles between every turn

I really do like the mod though! Saves me a lot of work with the installer also!

[mlc82]

The naval blockade AI attack is just hard-coded stupidity that can't be changed isn't it? I think I read that in the U. AI thread... Just wondering because my other ally the Danish just backstabbed me by blockading me.

I have noticed though that sieges now appear to require a vastly superior attacking force to win.. I've beaten the AI back multiple times now with half their number defending castles, and they've actually done just the same to me. Good touch there, now all we need is a way to mod the AI to only besiege a city with a much larger force, or multiple stacks. I'd offer to help you more if knew how to do anything modding- wise

[tornnight]

Much of the Campaign AI is hardcoded. Ultimate AI is great but it isn't perfect yet.

In your campaign, is the AI fielding better units or just spearmen, etc?

[mlc82]

Much of the Campaign AI is hardcoded. Ultimate AI is great but it isn't perfect yet.

In your campaign, is the AI fielding better units or just spearmen, etc?

So far there really aren't many better ones... The tech level hasn't progressed much, HRE is pretty loaded with spearmen but loves attacking me with full stacks of basic town militia, and the French liked besieging my castles by parking their heavy cavalry armies right outside the gates for my crossbowmen/archers to use as target practice. No swordsmen or any other units above sergeant spearmen and mercenary/mailed knights so far but it's only around 1110 so far.

[Bizspy]

Have you installed any other mods for MTW2? I've had the same thing happen before when I was tweaking with a few different ones and installed/deleted something incorrectly, had to reinsatall the game, repatch it, then reinstall the mod I was trying to use and it worked fine. It's a pain to do but if you've been playing around with the data files at all as I had you may have switched something around.

Thanks for your input.
I keep a clean unused copy of the whole MTW2 folder as a Master. When I install a mod I simply copy the Master; rename it and then put the mod in that. This way I avoid a lot of problems and if anything goes really bad then I just delete the new folder. It therefore appears to be some other problem.

[Bizspy]

Not sure what could be the problem. I noticed that I included the preferences folder in the mod. You could try deleting that?
Next version won't have it.

Ok, thanks - will give it a try.

[mlc82]

Thanks for your input.
I keep a clean unused copy of the whole MTW2 folder as a Master. When I install a mod I simply copy the Master; rename it and then put the mod in that. This way I avoid a lot of problems and if anything goes really bad then I just delete the new folder. It therefore appears to be some other problem.

Do you have trouble running any other bat files or have you tried? On god-awful win-xp, half of the time for me anything that launches up the DOS prompt will just crash right off.

When you copy your MTW2 folder to install a mod, do you name it exactly the same as the original would be named? If the bat file is looking for the default install location and your copied folder is off by even an extra space it might be messing up...