Sinuhet's Battle Mechanics

Version 4.0 - Creation Date: July 15, 2007, Release Date: September 15, 2007

Download:

SBM_4_0.zip file in TWC Download Section


This original project is not an open source, it is a freeware - you can use freely all files included for your personal use only. To release in public the officially published version of this mod or any part of it that is originally developed by me (and it doesn't matter if un-modified or modified) is possible only after my written permission.

This mod is registered in TWC Database of TW Modifications.

Description and Using Medieval Total War 2: "Sinuhet's Battle Mechanics"
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This mod is a modification of 4 original files from MTW2: "descr_formations_ai.txt", "config_ai_batle.xml", "descr_formations.txt" and "descr_battle_map_movement_modifiers.txt", and also reformated "battle_config.xml" file is included. These files define the way in which the AI creates group formations of units in the battles, some features of the battle AI, Human Player formations and speed of units in respective types of terrain. They were expanded and tweaked for more challenging AI and more variety of the AI behaviour during the battles. Don't be afraid of any irreversible damages of your game's installation by implementing of this mod - you can simply remove it at any moment by copy/paste of your original archived files.

This version has been developed and thoroughly tested on the MTW2 1.2 platform (official patch 1.2), but it should be fully functional with leaked MTW2 1.2 pre-patch too eventually.

This mod should be fully saved-game friendly, but nothing is ever 100%, so use only the archived games to be sure you don't lost any information.

The key features:
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This is a revolutionary new battle mechanics that is introducing the various attack formations in MTW2 platform in such manner like it was in RTW. Many modders has claimed that they had created a set of different attack formations for MTW2, but they have been of no use in game, because the engine have use them only in the deployment phase of the battle, and from the start of the battle, only one of them was used in every case. Well, I dont want to discuss this more deeply, I am already sick of fighting with auto-suggestions of blind masses, but this is another case how only writting something in the Readme has created a virtual reality again. Yes, the whole MTW2 community was happy with "variuos attack formations used by the AI in attack", but they were not used fully by the game engine in fact.
However, this new feature is revolutionary for the MTW2 game engine to such extent that the apparent new bug in the game's hard-code is de-masqued, as compared with the RTW engine. I have been trying to find out any solution for avoiding the bug last two months, but it was a way in no-where. So, what is the problem? Well, it will seem un-believable, but if one is introducing the set of attack formations in MTW2, it is alway on cost of creation passive defensive AI formations.

With this technological break-through, I have been able to introduce the fully functioning attack formations of mine from RTW platform, including the so-called "small ones". The impact on the gameplay in battles is huge, in my opinion, compared to vanilla, and also as compared with all other formation's battle mechanics released to-date. There is one exception - CA has decided to remove "pursuing" formations from MTW2, so my small pursuing formations from RTW cannot be used, and the cavalry is a bit less flanking than in RTW with my formations from this reason. Nevertheless, you will have a lot of work to cope with Mongolian cavalry also in MTW2 with these new AI formations.

I have decided to release them in public, because I think that they enhance the game, and that to live with passive AI in defense is possible by means of one small trick. Always when you are going to attack the AI army in campaign, save the game, quit the game, replace the two respective files ("descr_formations_ai.txt", "config_ai_batle.xml") in the respective Data folder with the two ones in the Data-defend folder included in the archive file of this mod, restart the game, start the battle by attacking the AI army, and you are on the safe side of the things. And vice versa, i.e. after the defensive-AI battle is over, replace the two files with the original ones. It is boring, but it is only way how to play MTW2 battles in a quality comparable with RTW game. Always when you are doing this, you can praise the people payed by CA for the development...

The included two files in Data-defend folder are the files from my battle mechanics version 3.0. Here is the respective part of the Readme of this previous version of my AI formations for MTW2:
- modified the original "Triple line" AI formation template by CA - (compared to version 2.0 of this mod) it is now used again in the defence only like in version 1.0, and the main attack formation is the newly developed one called "Open_battle". I have rearranged this formation a bit in this version, to be more like in vanilla ...
- included and partially modified almost all my "RTW formations" for open battles, siege and bridge battles and small formations where applicable (i.e. without "pursue" ones) from version 7.0 of my RTW AI formations project. By this way I am introducing also on the MTW2 platform the AI formations of the 3rd generation (i.e. the ones which dont change only placements of units for respective factions, but they are changing the functionality of the units and the whole battle dynamics (as for the theory to this look at the respective threads to the RTW project in TW centre forum).
!!!REMARK: Yes, they were included, but they were not functional during the AI attack as explained above.!!!
- redefined also several "formation independent" settings "config_ai_batle.xml", which create overly more aggressive AI behaviour during battles. It was very difficult to find out only the several ones from the huge number of all possible combinations of parameters, the results are relatively optimal, but I dont state that still better settings of these or some others parameters in this file doesnt exist, they are still more enhanced compared to the version 1.0 of this mod.
- included also new HP formations based on the ones, which I have developed already for MTW2 Demo - in fact it was the first modification for MTW2 platform ever released and it was released still before the full game official release. In this newer version I have implemented two complex formations on the position 5 and 6 (two universal ones, the 1st is based on the CAs original triple line form the AI formations, the 2nd one is in fact my own Universal Attack formations from Open battle section of the AI formations ...)
- redefined the movement modifiers, another thing, which was developed for MTW2 Demo already - it is not something hugely original, but it is creating more variety compared to MTW2 vanilla, similarly to various MTW2 mods

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Installation Instructions:
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1. Copy all 5 files from SBM 2.0/data folder to <root folder of your MTW2>/data,
or alternatively to the "your mod"/Data/ subfolder.
2. If you dont use them included in "your mod", you need to install these 5 files via "file_first" option in cfg file or via -mod mymod switch or ShellShocks MedManager - it is all possible and should be fully functional, but I personally
prefer the "hexediting" of the data pack (you can do it also for convenience via MedBattleSelector program by ShellShock) because of the theoretically best performance .... Feel free to install it in your preferred way ...
3. You can freely combine this mod with parts of the Battle mechanics by other authors - if you use only the files, which are not included in this my mod, you could obtain very interesting combo without any lost of the functionality of my project .... You can combine it with the parts of the same files too for your personal usage, but be careful in this, because you must know exactly what you are doing. The game is very sensitive on these files, and you could create hidden CTDs by this way. Again, you can do this, but you must know exactly what is the respective part of the code for ...

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The Most Important Changes\ Update Log of previous versions:
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12/16/2006, version 1.0 - original version
7/6/2007, version 2.0, for MTW2 with patch 1.2 only
7/8/2007, version 3.0, merged the main principle of the version 1.0 (mutually independent formations for attack and defence) and functionality in defence of the version 2.0 (via a lot of my own formations migrated from RTW platform)

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Known limitations:
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Naturally, this mod is incompatible with other mods of the "descr_formations_ai.txt", "config_ai_batle.xml", "battle_config.xml", "descr_formations.txt" and "descr_battle_map_movement_modifiers.txt" files or mods, which have these mods incorporated. Otherwise, no incompatibility issues are known in this stage of the development. However, it has not been systematically tested with all available mods for MTW2 1.2.

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