Napoleon Empire Realism 6 changes:

[JaM]

version 6

COMBAT REBALANCE:
Cohesion system was completely overhauled, now only applies to units maneuvering on the battlefield, but doesn't impact units firepower. Unit experience improves the rate at which unit loses cohesion, so units with high experience will be able to stay cohesive for much longer than fresh inexperienced ones.
Units stats were reworked to make difference between elite and ordinary units more profound.

NAVAL COMBAT REBALANCE:
Ships maneuverability was reduced, making ship positioning a lot more important. Difference between light and heavy guns was increased, while ship resistance to damage was decreased for above water parts of ship, so ships will get damaged a lot faster than before. UI hull strength value now represents ship tonnage/displacement and therefore is good indicator how tough ship is compared to others.

CAMPAIGN CHANGES:
Extensive changes to how Trade Theaters work. Now each trade zone represent single oversea colony. Putting any ship on trade node, guarantees access to resources of that colony. Ship is not responsible for transporting the goods, just protection of that colony, so number of ships on the node, doesn't increase output of goods. AI now has higher priority to capture these nodes, making colonial control more important for Navy.
Reworked industry bonuses, impact of ministers, technologies and resources on overall economy situation.
Research now provides important bonuses for both economy and military. Mobilization research adds bonus global recruitment slots

[JaM]

5.1 update:

- decreased dispersion values for muskets to increase short range lethality
- adjusted charge bonuses for cavalry based on weapon used (sword,sabre,lance)
- removed range penalties to damage from all rifles making them more effective at skirmishing
- reduced size of cavalry entity to compensate for musket dispersion reductions
- Grenadiers movement speed now same as Line infantry
- adjusted morale penalties to make melee more decisive
- Prussian Fusilier morale and accuracy increased
- Prussian Hussars unit limit increased to 16
- Prussian Life Hussars unit limit increased to 2
- Prussian horse artillery moved one tier up
- adjusted number of 6-lber artillery for Prussians
- adjusted unit limits for Prussia, Russia, Austria and France
- added single highly experienced Mameluke cavalry to French European campaign
- modified starting experience to Old Guard and reduced recruitment experience for this unit.
- decreased melee defense experience bonus
- decreased accuracy experience bonus for units with exp higher than 6
- convert Russian Jagers to Light infantry unit
- added Russian Jagers skirmisher unit
- removed "Skirmish Order" surname from Prussian Fusiliers, as they are already "Skirmisher type" so its no longer mentioned twice

[JaM]

5.2 update:

- All field artillery units now have 4 guns, howitzers 2.
- Experimental Howitzers converted into Howitzer battery (4 guns per unit)
- Russian Experimental Howitzer unit converted into Unicorn Horse Artillery unit
- adjusted explosion effects for howitzer shells
- French Grand Battery unit converted into Guard Foot Artillery
- reworked artillery accuracy model, with high accuracy at 1/3 range, and more dispersion on long range
- Artillery fast reload ability duration extended to 6 minutes in-game time
- General Rally ability renamed to "Inspire Troops" now have minor morale effect on all units in range
- General Inspire ability renamed to "Inspire Unit"
- General passive rally/inspire bonus increased
- Reworked Cohesion system for infantry (details will be posted in design changes thread)
- Hollow Square replaced by Full Square to give Infantry chance against cavalry charges
- Unit speeds and maneuverability values decreased due to Cohesion system
- Town Garrison units now have Line Infantry or Landwehr uniform and stats, with small morale bonus making them more useful in city defense
- reworked ship turn rate values for more realistic maneuverability
- reworked ship wind direction speed bonuses
- Increased hull resistance to Ships of the Line

[JaM]

6.0 update:

- reworked cohesion system. Cohesion now decrease from maneuvering, not firing.
- Tweaks to charge distance, charge pose and pick target distance to units, should help with way how units charge each other, follow enemy position better. General bodyguard unit charge behavior suppressed.
- tweaks to spotting distances, max distance is now 400 (artillery range), while light cavalry and light infantry can spot units in scrub at range 100, while skirmishers can spot units in forest at range 100.
- musket reload rate doubled, (optimized for 2 rounds per minute rate of fire), removed accuracy penalties, which is now handled through dispersion only
- Reworked unit stats, differences between low and high quality units will now a bit more noticeable.
- Experience bonuses now provide mostly cohesion bonuses, Exp4+ provides accuracy and reload buff.
- reworked unit spacing and formations, Cavalry now in 4 ranks, Infantry in 3 ranks.
- adjusted "misfire" rate for projectiles to better simulate "volley fire" and "skirmish fire" which will be more "staggered"
- adjusted names for French units
- removed unit class name differentiation, to remove dual naming of units (line infantry, light infantry = infantry, etc..)
- Reworked misfire mechanics to now represent "Fire Discipline". Based on unit quality, volley fire will be better coordinated, while low quality units will have more sporadic salvos. Tech research will provide ways how to decrease musket salvo delays improving fire discipline of the unit.
- Adjusted recruitment slot amounts provided by barracks and certain conscription technologies.

ARTILLERY
- Artillery accuracy reworked, now more oriented towards dispersion values, where heavier calibers have less dispersion than lighter caliber artillery
- minor tweaks to Artillery canister ammo type. amount of heavy canister pellets reduced, their lethality and size increased.
- adjusted Artillery "Rapid Fire" ability to provide +40 to reload rate. now only elite units will get reload rate of 99 when enabled. less trained artillery will boost from 20 to 60, or 40 to 80..
- adjusted max elevation, canister range and muzzle speed of shells for howitzers
- reworked projectile trails. they should be now visible, but just barely (no star wars blasters) Artillery shots will be easier to follow.

- increased amount of generals available to player. Pool increases from second tier military building, with +1 general added with each tier. At the same time, research provides more Generals as well.
- Dragoons now use Line Infantry spacing when dismounted, and cannot "skirmish" Chasseurs Cheval or Light Dragoons use "skirmisher" formation when dismounted and can "skirmish"
- Mass Mobilization provides +1 recruitment slot globally, not just capital city
- Militia units now take 2 turns to recruit (basic training)
- adjusted experience gain and loss thresholds for units. experience will be easier to obtain, but also easier to loss when casualties are too high.


SHIPS:
- Reworked splinter generation for naval guns, they should now be more damaging to crew. Overall, naval gunnery will be more effective against crew than before.
- adjusted ship rotation speed based on ship actual forward speed. Ships will be now less maneuverable when they are stationary or very slow.
- Ship UI Hull Strength now represent ship tonnage/displacement. This value now closely correspondents to ship overall survivability. All hull armor values were reworked.



- Modified startpos files, adjusted naval units and minor tweaks to army composition on multiple campaigns
- all guard units were removed from recruitment tiers 1-3. They are now only available from tier 4-5, which are only buildable in capital. This way, Guard units will be only available in later game, which will make player and AI field standard armies first.
- melee and charge stats adjustments for cavalry, Lances are less effective in melee, but have higher charge. sabres are less effective in charge.
- morale drastically increased for Old Guard units, making them impossible to rout. Historically, they never routed, they will not rout in the game either.



CAMPAIGN:
- higher level of taxation for upper classes increases happiness for lower classes
- reworked wealth growth values provided by buildings. Values mostly reduced across the board, except for factories which have base GDP income reduced instead.
- Minister bonuses reworked, Having good ministers in government will be more important now.
- added global building cost reduction effect to iron mines.
- Trade Theaters change: Trade theater now represents resource colony. To claim colony, player/AI need to place any ship on trade node. Every ship is now capable securing full colony output (both military or trader ships). Output doesn't increase based on how many ships are on the node. Extra ships only provide "protection for the colony"
with limited output per "trade node", it should intensify the colonial fight for resources.
- Roads now increase trade good export capacity