Total Vanilla Beyond 3.0 Release - Once more with feeling

[heavenoverhell]

@izumi
from what I read it affect mainly two handed NON sword units (billmen, axemen etc) due to them wanting a unique animation for both. Problem is animation was even slower than the swords. Not saying they couldn't kill the feudal knights, but when one wasn't better than the other in raw stats by a large amount, two handed tended to fail, hard. Of course the way the game/mod has them being good flankers and cav killers (not in the sense their able to tank cav but rather cut them down quickly in melee) but usually failing elsewhere and i prefer them being better than other infantry at flanking, cav killing but able to hold in front line when needed.

[Hellvard]

The problem with ghost Wallace occurs because Ordo Draconis, Tripoli Knights, etc are mercenary units, and captain in such unit is treated by the game as the merc too, but as he don't have "mercenary texture" section in battle_models file, he is without skin Have a little fix for that
Put it in your totalvanilla/data/unit_models folder and overwrite.

[4zumi]

@heavenoverhell

some say it is a bug, some say it is intentional that the animations are slower. I will keep them, as they are right now, as they work well for me. But I am looking forward to your submod

@hellvard
A thanks, have not thought about that and could not figure it out. Now it works fine

[4zumi]

@all

3.1 is right around the corner. I will give everything a closer look until I am ready for release.
The following points is what is changed right until now:

-fixed a bug that caused a ctd, when the castellan building in edessa was finished
-fixed the "no show" of weapons of dism polish nobles and armenian spearmen (thanks hellvard)
-fixed the silver surfer scottish captain (thanks again hellvard)
-altered mission rewards, so they grant double the money
-altered some cuman units upkeep to bring them more in line
-fixed a crash with the turkoman unit in battle
-fixed a bugged battle location south of jerusalem
-fixed aztec farms not working properly
-some minor changes to unit stats and cost
-removed the skynet cai, to get a little bit salt'n'peppa back in the campaign. in both my test campaigns this works out fine. I think I will keep it that way.
-altered the skynet bai a little bit to remove the long lines in front of ladders and towers, if the front door is right open. this seems to work now too.
-implemented the missing armor upgrade for mounted cuirassiers (by Medusa0)

So, if there is anything else let me know.

[Cokjan]

Thanks a lot for the fixes man!

[beermugcarl]

i'm excited for the next release.

i'll shamelessly plug my own AI for you to try out http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...3-0&highlight=
which also has some useful advice for you.

[4zumi]

@cokjan
you are welcome

@beermugcarl
i am too
I had a short look, and will take a longer one.
But I do not think I will integrate a modded ai in the next release, except the Skynet BAI I am tinkering with right now.
I am not opposed to that, but you are welcome to make a submod with the AI.

And I just saw, that you had the same idea as I, with allowing the AI to built buildings, even if bancrupt

@all
I experienced in the last few days a few battle loading ctds, where the game told me it was due to high graphics settings.
I don't think it has to do something with that, rather with the new nvidia driver. But that is just my speculation.

[4zumi]

@y'all
Regarding morale and stuff.
Someone (forgive me for forgetting who it was, you still live in my heart) mentioned the fast routing. I have now taken some steps to counter this, by simply raising the morale of all units by a simple sceme (If that would only be so easy in rl...).

There are different morale groups

3 = peasants/rabble/cannonfodder
5 = better cannonfodder/skirmishers
9 = normal trained units knights/etc
11 = elite units elite knights/ order knights/ professionals
25 = all the crazy people like jaguars, berserkers

I changed it mostly like follows

3 (+2/ 66%) 5
5 (+3/ ca. 66 %) 8
9 (+4/ ca. 45%) 13
11 (+5/ ca. 45%) 16
25 (+0) 25 was good enough

I thinks this is a reasonable change, so the units do not rout as easy but rabble is still rabble and normal/elite units are not unroutable.
I will test this out. The old EDU file will still be included in the files so you can revert back at will, if you want to, once 3.1 is released.

[4zumi]

And one last thing.
The Skynet BAI will most likely be removed also. I will return to my loved dumb vanilla BAI.

But why? You may ask...

I tell you why. I just conducted some tests, regarding the troop morale and a 20 stack was not able to capture a city held by 8 units. The attackers routed very fast and managed to slay one of the defending units to half health.
As I removed the BAI, they were able to capture the city and routed not as fast.
I don't know if the Skynet BAI needs very very very high morale stats or I made a mistake (likely possible), but I will leave the AI juggling for now for others to take it up as a submod.

Thats it.

I will conduct one or two tests over the weekend and plan to release on saturday or sunday.

[beermugcarl]

I love messing around with CAI so I will definitely make a tailored AI for this as I did with stainless steel.

as far as the BAI goes, the best I have seen is the 'really bad ai' that you can find in the kingdoms hosted.

[4zumi]

You are very welcome to do so.

If I ever touch an AI again, it will be as a submod and with enough time.
RBAI is bookmarked too take a deeper look

[4zumi]

Total Vanilla Beyond 3.1 Release

Alright I will make this unceremonial. 3.1 is ready for download.
This is not a patch. This is a complete standalone version.
3.0 will no longer be available. 3.1 is now the standard issue.

You can download it from Mediafire or Mega here (packed 2.2 GB, unpacked 4.9 GB)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/dyk5d6...233.1.zip/file

https://mega.nz/#!eDZCxQBI!IbAP2WgOK...c_rZJ6xdpbRrKA


Change notes:

-fixed a bug that caused a ctd, when the castellan building in edessa was finished
-fixed the "no show" of weapons of dism polish nobles and armenian spearmen (thanks hellvard)
-fixed the silver surfer scottish captain (thanks again hellvard)
-altered mission rewards, so they grant double the money
-altered some cuman units upkeep to bring them more in line
-fixed a crash with the turkoman unit in battle
-fixed a bugged battle location south of jerusalem
-fixed aztec farms not working properly
-some minor changes to unit stats and cost
-removed the skynet cai, to get a little bit salt'n'peppa back in the campaign. in both my test campaigns this works out fine. I think I will keep it that way.
-altered the skynet bai a little bit to remove the long lines in front of ladders and towers, if the front door is right open. this seems to work now too.
-implemented the missing armor upgrade for mounted cuirassiers (by Medusa0)
-removed the Skynet BAI
-Added the Really Bad AI 5.7 and G5 Settlement Tweaks 0.2 (by Germanicu5)

What happend to "I will revert the AI back to Vanilla"?
-Frustration happend. After removing the Skynet BAI I noticed a very strange behavior during sieges, as the attacker would line up left of the settlement after ramming in the gates and then proceed to prancing around the open gate and get shot to pieces.
Now, after reimplementing Skynet, I could see the same behaviour and I did not know how to get rid of it, what I had done to deserve this and why I thought at 18 years of age drinking milk mixed with sugar, Amaretto, Batida de Coco and Advocaat was a bright idea (shut up, it tasted yummy).
So desperate for a solution I thought love it and look at that Really Bad AI everyone is pestering you about. So I did implement it. Surprisingly easy to implement I have to say (I hope I have not loved up). And tested it out. Surprise, it fixed the "prancing" issue and i made some tests. I like it, it is now integrated. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.
-CAI is still gone for good.

You have one week to complain , then I will be away on vacation in Austria on a mountain (I did not say I would climb it)

Have fun on your campaigns.
-zumi

[Cokjan]

Thank you man. And yes the Skynet BAI somehow loves to make a straight line in sieges, it happened once when I was holding a fort against Genghis Khan lol
Now, lets show the old world, the Might of the Aztec!

And hope you enjoy the vacation mate!

[heavenoverhell]

As Cokjan said so far mod looking good, been remaking custom file all day (holy crap it takes forever to keep balance).
Enjoy your vacation, sir
btw Nice choice with the ai change

[4zumi]

Thank you both

I will check in, when I am back. It's just next week, but I have seen enough horror movies to know what happens in a lonely hut in the mountain woods with a bunch of people. And I am afraid I am not "Final Girl" material.
So if you do not hear back from me, you know what happend...

[heavenoverhell]

Btw just found out that urban milita for Damascus is wonderfully mistexture (fear the chainmail face and shield with eyes)

[Alondite]

Btw just found out that urban milita for Damascus is wonderfully mistexture (fear the chainmail face and shield with eyes)

I looked at battle_models.modeldb, there's an obvious mistake when defining the file path of the texture of urban militia.

Previous Code

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

13 urban_militia
1 3
67 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/urban_militia_lod0.mesh 121
67 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/urban_militia_lod1.mesh 1225
67 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/urban_militia_lod2.mesh 6400
2
5 moors
85 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/textures/mtw2_ME_light_mail_moors.texture
86 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/textures/mtw2_ME_light_mail_normal.texture
43 unit_sprites/moors_Urban_Militia_sprite.spr
8 damascus
88 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/textures/mtw2_ME_light_mail_damascus.texture
86 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/textures/mtw2_ME_light_mail_normal.texture
43 unit_sprites/moors_Urban_Militia_sprite.spr
2
5 moors
60 unit_models/AttachmentSets/Final ME Heavy_moors_diff.texture
60 unit_models/AttachmentSets/Final ME Heavy_moors_norm.texture 0
5 moors
63 unit_models/AttachmentSets/Final ME Heavy_damascus_diff.texture
60 unit_models/AttachmentSets/Final ME Heavy_moors_norm.texture 0
1
4 None
14 MTW2_Swordsman 0
2
18 MTW2_Sword_Primary
14 fs_test_shield 0
16 -0.090000004 0 0 -0.34999999 0.80000001 0.60000002

Correct One

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

13 urban_militia
1 3
67 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/urban_militia_lod0.mesh 121
67 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/urban_militia_lod1.mesh 1225
67 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/urban_militia_lod2.mesh 6400
2
5 moors
85 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/textures/mtw2_ME_light_mail_moors.texture
86 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/textures/mtw2_ME_light_mail_normal.texture
43 unit_sprites/moors_Urban_Militia_sprite.spr
8 damascus
88 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/textures/mtw2_ME_light_mail_damascus.texture
86 unit_models/_Units/ME_Light_Mail_Heavy_Mail/textures/mtw2_ME_light_mail_normal.texture
43 unit_sprites/moors_Urban_Militia_sprite.spr
2
5 moors
60 unit_models/AttachmentSets/Final ME Heavy_moors_diff.texture
60 unit_models/AttachmentSets/Final ME Heavy_moors_norm.texture 0
8 damascus
63 unit_models/AttachmentSets/Final ME Heavy_damascus_diff.texture
60 unit_models/AttachmentSets/Final ME Heavy_moors_norm.texture 0
1
4 None
14 MTW2_Swordsman 0
2
18 MTW2_Sword_Primary
14 fs_test_shield 0
16 -0.090000004 0 0 -0.34999999 0.80000001 0.60000002

However the upgraded one didn't have this problem, so if you have them upgraded, they will lose their chainmail face and shield eyes.

It's simple to fix and now works fine with test. You can just correct the code by yourself, or download this file and cover the previous one
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gl...SMrfSrt8Tkqcm4

[Delta35]

Damn, it's been too long since I checked in. Thank you so much for that fix with Damascus Turkomans.
Keep up the great work!

[4zumi]

@heavenoverhell & alondite

Well, I already have nightmare about them
Thanks for reporting.
This would be a wrong texture file. Sometimes CA it seems like CA used texture files with the same name, but a different layout, so the textures do not sit in the right place of the model if the wrong one is used.
I may have used the mtw2_ME_light_mail_damascus.texture from egypt or somewhere else and the urban militia needs a special one.
I will look into this.

The second mistake is with the attachement sets Alondite found. This should result in silver (untextured) shields or weapons, if they use one. Thanks for the fix.
I will adress both bugs in a fix that is coming somewhere in the future (as there is nothing gamebreaking, I will collect some more bugs, before making this one)

@delta
You are welcome and thank you

[_Tartaros_]

is the recruitment of siegeequipment still specialised? meaning catapultmaker can only create catapults and loose the ability to build ballista´s.