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Thread: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

  1. #1

    Default Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Hardcore Micromod 1.52 for SS 4.0


    DOWNLOAD HERE

    Key Features

    1. Vastly Improved Building Tree.

    2. Improved siege units & defences.

    3. Re-balanced unit strengths and addtional unit optimizations. Re-worked missile unit balance and overall strengthening of missile units.

    4. Unit and building availability based on historical times.

    5. Resource based building scheme for blacksmiths & shipyards. (require Iron mines & timber)


    Much much more if you have the patience to go through the entire changelog.

    New units:

    Dismounted Mamluks
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    With permission from LAca; Byzantine Heavy Spearmen
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 


    LAca's thread for Byzantine Heavy Spearmen unit, he made it from scratch! -> http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=111360

    Building trees:
    Castle
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    City
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    =================================================================
    Hardcore Micromod 1.52. For the serious Medieval 2 junky.

    =================================================================
    More challange, more fun.
    =================================================================

    What you need:

    1. Stainless Steel 4.0
    (if you do not have this, you have been living in the dark ages!)

    Get it here -> http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=110425

    Extract all files to

    ..\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\Stainless_Steel_Mod

    (the paths are stored already, don't be afraid to overwrite)

    =================================================================
    Changelog:

    Version 1.52

    1. Re-balanced pikemen to be more effective vs. cavalry.

    2. Fixed an issue with a basilisk explosive shot blowing up the crew.

    3. Included LAca's Byazntine Heavy Infantry unit. (Don't be afraid to +rep him!)

    4. Fixed a CTD issue with the Knight Orders event.


    Version 1.51 - Full compatibility with Stainless Steel 4.0!
    (Version 1.5 was finished just before SS 4.0, now that pesky .01 needed to be added...)

    Building Changes

    1. Decreased the amount of happiness wall upgrades provide. Huge stone walls give 15%, large give 10% & stone gives 5%, all the rest give 0.

    2. Tweaked starting buildings in capitals, all of them.

    3. Worked out some bugs with the building tree as the game would get "confused" with conflicting conditions. This is now solved. (Such as an iron mine requiring a blacksmith which requires a market which a castle does not have)
    -A CTD caused by requiring a gunsmith to be built in the unit pool description was fixed. Now all units that use gunpowder can be built through a gunsmith, thus enforcing the condition without being limited to an event counter.
    Unit progression (better max units in pool and faster refresh) will advance through the cannon building sub-tree.
    Thus all basic gunners that would have started in the militia barracks will now start in the gunsmith etc..
    -All bombards/cannons and gunpowder siege weapons erased from gunsmith building. They will only appear in "cannon maker" and onwards.
    (This will potentially upset the building tree balance as some factions will now have virtually nothing in later barracks buildings. An overhaul is required.)
    Removed Royal Arsenal from castle build tree. Since a castle cannot produce gunpowder units, there really is no point to the building, its too expensive and a city can produce the same & has higher unit refresh rates.
    -A castle blacksmith no longer requires stables. This was a mistake, only leather tanner should have that prerquisite.
    - Thebes and Medina no longer start with a generic building icon for their small masjid.

    4. Have re-balanced wall/castle upgrades to cost less & take less time. The updated values for castles are: Motte & Bailey 2 -2500, Wooden castle 3 -5000, castle 4 -7500, fortress 5 -10000, citedal 6 -12500.
    Walls (cities) now have the following values, wooden pallside 2 -1000, wooden wall 3 -3000, stone wall 6- 9000, large stone 9 -15000, huge stone 12 - 20000.
    This is based on reading of various text that prove castles were cheaper and easier to build than cities. The only military need of a city, is money and recruits. (or in the game, money) so you could say the only need for a castle is to protect your money.
    By this cost/time balance you could potentially have all settlements as castles...but you will quickly find that without serious income your advance/expansion will be much more like a slow crawl, if not headed straight ot bankrupcy.

    5. Updated building descriptions for militray academy as some factions did not have descriptions.

    6. Increased cost & construction time to all Castle --to-> City conversions. The logic being, a castle has less people and less material to convert, thus costing more and taking longer. City to castle is left unchanges. Its easy to break down city walls and use them for smaller ones (in terms of area) & less buildings.

    7. Gothic armourer now provides a +4 experience bonus to its units. (tabardariyya, scots guard, armoured swordsmen, noble pikemen) the previous armourer provided a +1 bonus and there seems little reason to squander so much wealth just for a slightly increased refresh rate for unit pools.

    8. any and all gunpowder Units/Buildings now require a gunsmith to be built first. Also removed alchemist lab from needing gunpowder to be discovered as it already requires a gunsmith which needs gunpowder to be discovered.

    9. Reaching the New Era event is now a requirement for creating military academy

    10. All merchant quarters and better buildings require the science maths zero event. (1202)

    Unit Changes

    1 Slight increase of all siege engine H.P. Should stand up to masses of flaming arrow fire better.

    2. Ottoman infantry requires the "Ottoman empire" event event. Mamluks require the "Rise of the Mamluks" event (1170)
    Janissary units require the Ottoman empire Begins event.

    3. Turks now have an Archer militia unit available for building within cities. (cloned egypt archer militia & slapped on a turk flag. Could have done better, but I'm lazy with graphics )

    4. Egypt now has Dismounted Mamluks. A unit which often proves to be more than a match for feudal knights, as they have maces and thus Armour Piercing.

    5. Decreased the occurance of the dishonor trait that occurs when a general is under siege. Your general might still get the trait "Dishonourable" or "reputation destroyed" But the chances are much reduced. (was 100% now its 10% & 5% for destroyed in case you have Dishonourable). Sorry Byg, its just too severe, IMO.

    6. Re-balanced projectile damage to have flaming arrows do 0.5 damage to siege equipment. Naphta does 5, hand gun 2, arquebus 3, musket 4, pistol 1, camel gun 2
    (surprisingly, the projectile values of accuracy, mass & radius are very like my previous settings. Obviously someone thought along the same lines I do.)

    7. All order knights require the knights order event (1100), teutonic knights require the teutonic order event (1190)

    Conversion changes (stuff changed from 1.5 to 1.51 - 1.5 was not released)

    1. In a fit of near insanity sorting through the EDB's unit pools I found its impossible to work it without sorting alphabetically. I also had the "pleasure" of merging all double entries of different faction making the same units. Done!
    (Wouldn't you want to trade places with me just for that piece of heaven?)

    2. Modification of the "arbalesters" unit to have 300 range (in reality often up to 500), +reload delay of 125, upkeep of 155.

    3. All arqubusiers, musketeers and hand gunners have a firing reload of 50. Including sudanese gunners, cossak musketeers and camel gunners.

    4. Modified cost/armour and attack values for all new units. (new from 4.0)

    5. Kievan Palace Guard unit is now recruitable from the Royal Armoury, not the mayor's palace. (mayor's palce provides obvious order and health benefits, worth building unto itself. Royal armoury must justify its cost.

    6. Changed the amount of years per turn from 1.5 to 1. (supply traits are less severe that way.)

    7. Changed some building descriptions to allow a player to understand INGAME what he would need in order to upgrade. (Such as descriptively hinting that a new discovery event needs to take place before an upgrade can happen...)

    =================================================================
    Changelog for older versions
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Version 1.4

    1. Fixed some spelling mistakes and some description mixups for Iron mines.

    2. Fixed arab cavalry shield, should have been 0.

    3. Afghan javelinmen upkeep set to 185, kurd javelingmen cost raised to 450 and upkeep set to 155. Desert archers improved to 9 missile attack, 20 reload, morale raised to 7, cost set to 450 and 135 upkeep.

    4. Removed minimum settlment size requirement for markets. Fairground requires a town, Great market requires a large town. Merchant quarters etc still require a city. And merchant banks require merchant quarters...god knows why this was not the default option.

    5. All agents now have substantial bonuses from the best buildings. The best building will provide +3 experience for the agent. This is true to diplomats, assassins, spies etc. Thus a huge cathedral will now give a 3 point experience boost to priests. A Huge jama will provide the same bonus. + religious buildings tweaked for population happiness etc to make the largest and most expensive worth building.
    (Seeing as though building walls is much harder, some might prefer to create religious buildings to keep the masses at bay.)

    6. Alchemy buildings now require a gunsmith to be produced FIRST. Alchemy building effects now doubles. Give +2 to gun powder units & siege weapons. To increase the vlaue of creating them.

    7. Bimaristan now has double effect for retraining. which shoudl justify its cost and construction time.

    8. Siege buildings now require timber as a resource. Should also reduce A.I.'s spamming of siege units. + contruction time for siege works building changed to ballista range 2, catapul 3 & siege works 4.

    9. Added timber to sarkel region.

    10. Removed/reduce health ponus provided by some city hall buildings. Mayor's palace provides two, then 1 & the first two provide 0.

    11. Artist studio first building builds in 1 turn & costs 1500, second 2 turns & costs 3000. Else no one will ever build them.

    12. Theologians guild religious bonus set to 1, 2, & 4 respectively.

    13. University now provides an additional bonus of 30 for stone construction.

    14. Printing press now requires the timber resource to be built OR a great_market. Printing house needs timber and cannot be built without it, market level irrelevant. I cannot imagine the amounts of wood needed for this...they defenitely did not make paper from sea weed, tough luck.

    15. Added global melee blade bonus of 1 to swordsmiths HQ.

    16. Creating a cathedral, orthodox cathedral or great jama will now have a +5% happiness global effect.

    17. Pope approval/disapproval for creating/destroying churches now follows this ladder: for the best build (E.G. Huge cathedral) approval will be 3 & disapproval will be 5. Every prior building have both stats reduced by 1 until they reach 0.
    An abbey has 1 approval & 3 disapproval, for instance.
    This way if you create a huge cathedral or two you can get away with being a really bad christian

    18. Squashed a bug that allowed anyone with a great market to build printing press.

    19. Rebalanced egypt...garrison quarters no longer gives kurd javelinmen, Thye are only received at Barracks level (two levels later, because they got too much too fast).
    Egyptian cities no longer produce Arrow militia first, now they produce spear militia and then arrow.
    Since both Army barracks & Militia barracks give NOTHING (until gun powder) to egyptian cities other than +5% (each) order I have added a relatively high experience bonus to egyptian troops priduced. Specifically the Spear & archer militia. In militia barracks they get +2 XP & army gives saracens +2xp and archer & spear +4
    (next version might feature a better solution, a new unit maybe)
    -Marksmen range increased unit pool maximum of peasant archers to 3, decrease desert archers to 2 & nubian to 3.
    -Naffatun unit pool maximum reduced by 1.
    -Desert archers changes to elite archer unit over nubian. -Nubian has less armour & less missile attack. Desert now has 12 missile, 7 melee and 2 charge. Nubian has 9 missile, 6 melee and 1 charge, armour 1 & def skill 4.
    -Cost rebalance to make Desert archer slightly more expensive.
    -Archery range decreased maximum unit pool for desret archers and nubian. In order to give the now elite archer unit desert archers a re-balance.
    -Moved timber resource from just between Gaza and Alexandria (was in gaza region) to Alexandria region. so Alexandria can have a proper port later on.
    =================================================================
    Version 1.3

    1. The creation of Iron Mines is now required for armourer (smith) or better. If the region DOES NOT have iron it cannot create that type of armouer or any better.

    2. Removed conquistadors from Knights templar build pools

    3. Have re-distributed Iron resources across the map. Allowing Almost every faction to either start wiht Iron resource or quickly conquer a rebel settlement with Iron.

    4. Changed all charge values for horses according to these guidelines:
    Pony 4, Fast pony 5, Mailed horse 7, Heavy horse 8, Eastern Armoured horse 7, Barded horse 8 and armoured horse 9, camel 6, Elephant 13. If they had a primary missile attack they charge bonus is dropped by 3 points.

    5. All ports now require markets or timber resource to be built. Shipwrights or better require wood & cannot be build anywhere that does not have timber. A city may expant & eventually reach a state that it has a great market, in which case shipwright will be allowed, but no larger port may be built without timber.
    =================================================================
    Version 1.2

    1. All missiles reload times tweaked. All crossbow minimum reload time set to 50 (they were notoriously slow) More experienced/elite archer units have minimum reload time reduced (base is 25) To compensate for slow reload all crossbows have Armour piercing & higher attack value.

    2. All missile ranges tweaked. Cross bow set to 150, steel crossbow 180, Arrows set 170, Composite arrows 200 & bodkin set to 250. (longbows could reach some 275 meters!) cavalry variations have -30 range as their bows needed to be smaller. cav crossbow remains as infantry.
    Javelin unit ranges increased to from 55 to 70 (world record javelin is 105 30 meters less should be fine)

    3. Some cavalry missile accuracy reduced. It is much easier to be steady on foot!

    4. All missile units rebalanced in the idea of arrow attack minimum 7, crossbow min 9, javelin 12 gun powder 16
    better units will have better values, these are the minimums. All named missile have +1 E.G. Armenian archers have 8 attack value, to distinguish from peasnts.

    5. All arrow missile unit reload times tweaked. The more proficient, the faster it reloads. Sherwood archers are fastest, peasnt archers slowest.

    6. Fixed billmen and other polearm units to have bonus fighting cavalry.

    7. Removed shiled defense bonus as it does not work. Added half of the original value to armour and skill rounded down. If a unit had 6 armour, 5 skill 5 shield, it now has 8 & 7 respectively.
    This issue was causing havoc with segeant spearmen that had NO ARMOUR AT ALL. Peasant archers were making minced meat out of them. Not anymore.

    8. Sherwood archers, hashashin & battle field assassins now have 1 HP but have 50% more men.
    Khan's guard now has 2 HP (was 1), templar guard unit reduced by 50% and given 2 HP.

    9. All Two handed units have more mass in order to 'cut into' an enemy unit + increased charge bonus.

    10. Added basic mines ONLY, to iron resource.

    11. Building tree has certain requirement, such as not being able to buil a tanner (first smith) without stables. Admiralty requires a shipwright for the last upgrade.
    =================================================================

    Version 1.1

    1. Tweaked unit costs, pony units +50 upkeep, fast pony +75, heavy horse +125, Barded horse +125, armoured horse +150
    To name but a few.

    2. Added cost to feudal knights and d. feudal knights. The idea is that these are lords given money, lands and grants, they are not cheap. There are too many of these for too little money making other units pointless. Now you will appreciate other unique faction units with LOWER costs. (professional armies replaced the feudal system for a reason)

    3. All flaming projectiles (including arrows) now inflict damage to siege engines. If you fire at a ram/tower it will take damage.

    4. All siege machines tweaked to allow realistic flammability & enhanced hit points in order to deal with new damage by archers.

    5. Rebalanced gun powder units to have much higher attack value and much lower damage in descr_projectile.txt
    this is due to an unforseen problem that the gun powder units would destroy siege equipment much too quickly and easily.
    They now still do serious damage, bu siege equipment will most likely reach walls.

    6. All siege weapons tweaked. All explosive round capable units now have better radius to inflict more damage.

    7. All siege units now have double artillery pieces, E.G. 4 in any unit. Despite strengthening siege units by a factor of two

    I have strengthened walls by as much as 2.5. This simply gives the game a nice 'epic' feeling when multiple siege units fire.

    8. All siege weapon ranges & angles tweaked.

    9. Building tree build times tweaked as several buildings still took too long to complete.
    (no changes to size upgrades as in walls/castles)

    10. Ram damage cut down by two thirds & gate strength increased (especially the later gates which are Iron)
    This is to illustrate reaslim. All gates are breachable, just some take a VERY LONG time to breach.
    (make sure you have at least two rams for any siege assult, the math is simple, two rams per gate. If you are going after a citadel, 6 rams. Think its crazy? try ramming your way into a citadel! :-P
    This ensures that after the large investment of upgrading walls your settlement will not fall to a measly ram. thats what siege engines are for.
    =================================================================
    Version 1.0

    1. Several balance changes for knights, making feudal slightly weaker than order knights.

    2. All mounted knights are onw balanced according to assumed strength from weak to strong:
    Scouts ,Cav Militia, M. segeants, M. knights, Italian Men at Arms, F. Knights and Chiv. Knights.

    3. Elite and late cavalry units tweaks to be useful (made cheaper or stronger). original version had units like the
    Stradiots & Famiglia Ducale completely outclassed by the relatively same strength F. knights (which were much cheaper too)

    4. Several changes to the building tree to be more realistic in its building times (1 year per turn!)

    5. Castle/city size upgrades are now extremely costly & time consuming, making sure no one develops at an exponential rate.
    For huge stone walls 25000 gold & 15 turns & for citadel 20000 gold & 13 turns etc.

    6. Tweaked all gun powder units to be more effective, especially the musketeers which now practically shred unarmoured units.

    7. Morale tweaks to elite/professional units that seemed to suffer from poor morale (V. guard for instance)

    8. All arrow/javelin/crossbow units tweaked, ranges & angles. This is based on historical knowledge of which weapon had which range & how fast it could reload.
    Keep in mind that this is not 100% true to historical realism as gameplay would suffer tremedously.

    9. Tweaked javelins to have more mass to add impact and slow enemies down.
    Last edited by ME2_junky; July 27, 2007 at 06:31 PM.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    This looks fantastic - however (and you just *knew* there was a however!) Would it be possible to have the settlement/campaign changes separate to the unit changes?

    Obviously I'm quite keen on RC and whatnot but the changes you've made seem more logical than they do hardcore

    Very good, I shall watch with interest

    PS I see that you're doing the 1.5-1.51 conversion at the moment - It might be worth reviewing the map to make sure the resource dependant modifications are still feasible

    Shaeff
    30 Mis-spellings of Shaeffer and counting!

  3. #3

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Yes of course its possible...
    For the settlement only, you need these files:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    In "data" folder
    export_descr_buildings.txt
    export_descr_buildings_enums.txt
    descr_walls.txt

    In ..\data\text
    export_buildings.txt

    In ..data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
    descr_strat.txt


    But remember, you will not get dismounted mamluks.
    And you will have to edit their existence out of the unit pools in export_descr_buildings.txt

    Thats as easy as it gets.

    As for resources...I'm doing that now...

    Forgot to say...although my changes are not specifically meant at making the player's life harder...they do so by default. So changes are simply logical, but that also makes things harder rather than needlessly difficult.
    Last edited by ME2_junky; July 19, 2007 at 06:43 AM.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Perfect

    Shaeff
    30 Mis-spellings of Shaeffer and counting!

  5. #5

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Can you give me an idea of what types of changes to the Unit Combat Values and Recruitment Costs you'll be making?

    I'm using Quarks' "Real Combat Mod for SSv4.0", which has better unit balance than Darth's (imo), but Kataphractoi are 1500 bucks to build, which makes me shudder...

    Merci!

  6. #6

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Heya Prof

    If you like, I can send you a pm with how you can edit unit costs to whatever you wish?

    Then its only down to your conscience

    Shaeff
    30 Mis-spellings of Shaeffer and counting!

  7. #7

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    @HistoryProf

    There are numerous changes. All of which are documented in the change log.
    (Changelog for older versions Spoiler Alert, click show to read: )

  8. #8

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Uhm...it doesnt bump the post when you edit the first line...so there...

  9. #9
    Trajan's Avatar Capodecina
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    This is for SS so it belongs in the SS sub-forum unless KK doesn't want it there.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    This is a must for the hardcore fan! Thanks...and well done

  11. #11

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Thank you

  12. #12
    Caesar Clivus's Avatar SS Forum Moderator
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    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Even though I'm sure I already know the answer to this question, is your micro-mod save game compatible with SS?

    BftB2 UPDATED 22nd DECEMBER. Member of the Complete Byzantine Unit Roster team

  13. #13

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Csaear Cvilus

    Fraid not!

    Secffher
    30 Mis-spellings of Shaeffer and counting!

  14. #14
    Caesar Clivus's Avatar SS Forum Moderator
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    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Quote Originally Posted by shaeffer View Post
    Csaear Cvilus

    Fraid not!

    Secffher
    Oh touche. You've won this round!

    Yeah I doubted it would be. I'll have to try it in my next campaign

    BftB2 UPDATED 22nd DECEMBER. Member of the Complete Byzantine Unit Roster team

  15. #15

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    There was a little mistake with Thebes and Medina that started off with a small masjid instead of a castle small masjid...which meant they started off with a generic building icon that said "NOT FOR THIS FACTION" this is now corrected.
    If you have this problem, re-download.
    Last edited by ME2_junky; July 21, 2007 at 01:20 PM.

  16. #16

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    I'd just like to say that I've been playing with this for most of the day and so far I'm really liking it

    I panicked earlier as I couldn't see Janissary's at all, but then noted that they're tied to an event, which is great

    The building tree is much better than vanilla, and really makes a difference.

    I hope KK checks it out as I really do feel that this ones a winner :
    30 Mis-spellings of Shaeffer and counting!

  17. #17

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Thanks again

    Its not genius planning or anything...but I did put some effort into the building tree...

    My next step is randomizing loyalty, as many times a king would not know if a subject is loyal or not. I want to create a realistic AOR system for conquered factions units and probably going t oimplement an increased build time for units so armies would have to be planned rather than spontaniously created...I'm not sure about the last one... I think the A.I. will have severe issues with inreased build times for units...but I'll test it and see how it goes...

    Anyways...I'm glad you are enjoying yourself...hopefully I will be able to improve on that...when I re-make the Byzantine faction.

  18. #18

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    ME2_junky
    I have asked if KK can include hidden resources in the standard SSv4 around capitals. This is becuase I want mods to:
    a) Have the ability to recruit some units from conqurered territories, but only in those territories.
    b) Have capitals have an ability to build special buildings

    Don't know if he will do it, especially in 4.1, but if the option is there then people have the option of doing it without altering the basic game. It cuts down on the workload when new versions occur.

    Good luck with Byzantium, its a faction which definately needs a historic touch.

    +rep'ed you for all the good work you did on this mod.

    To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.
    Paul Ehrlich

  19. #19

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    Thanks Quark.
    As for capitals with special buildings...as I have included a global happiness bonus when you create a huge cathedral/great jama etc...I might make it a capital only building...or something of that nature...so we're thinking along the same lines.

  20. #20

    Default Re: Hardcore Micromod for SS 4.0

    I was also thinking Medeival Wonders, so option is either build in specific city or in capital to represent national build.

    To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.
    Paul Ehrlich

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