What i'd do differently if i did TE again

[Lusted]

Just thought you guys might be interested in my thoughts on TE after having been modding on M2TW for over a year, and what i think i'd change about LTC. Just random thoughts about what i would have done differently.

-Different map. I think the map in TE goes too far east/south, so i'd cut a bit off those parts of the map, scale the remaining bits up to be the same size as the pre-cut down map.

-New artwork for loading screens, menu background, the new interfaces i did. After looking back at TE after a year i think i could have done much better.

-More unique factions. I think i would have tried to add in new units/tweak the rosters of several factions so there would be more difference between the Greek/Hellenic factions, and between the various Barbarian factions.

-New campaign map textures. After a year playing M2TW, the RTW map just looks ugly to me, i think i would have redone these at some point.

-Improved unit balance. The +15 morale to all units balancing i did was a bit crude and i know i could have done better.

-Provincial campaigns. Much like in LTC, take parts of the campaign map, blow them up and have them available from the provincial campaign list. Probable campaigns would have been one focusing on Successor states, one on western Mediterranean Iberia, possibly more.

But yeah looking back on TE there are some things i definitely would have done differently a 2nd time around.

[irishron]

Even though I know your heart is now in M2TW and will be Empire when it's released,you're welcome back at any point and time. I think the test of time has proven how good your original work on this was and still is. In fact I am still playing it at times with soundlikekilling's and Candelarius' addons.

[Papal_Knight]

this is too wierd that this thread is here today! I have hundreds of hours into RWT as well as MTW and MTW2, the last of which was Lusted's LTC for MTW2. Long story short, I could not get the latest LTC to work with my half-retail and half-Steam version of MTW2-Kingdoms.

So, I fired up RTW again (had been awhile) for a change of pace. Last thing I had on there apparently was RTR PE 1.7 (I know, dated). and I made a mental note to come here today and see what, if any, mods Lusted had done for RTW.

fate and timing are strange things... SO, do y'all recommend I try this TE mod? FWIW, I really like the way Lusted approcahes mods in general, tweaking instead of complete over-hauls.... is the EB mod any good?

thanks in advance!!

[Lusted]

TE is much more of a major mod than LTC. 2 new factions(Baktria and Epirus replacing Brutii and Scipii), single roman faction, new textures for all units and new modles for quite a few. New unit cards for all units, new map, new interfaces for each culture, new buildings taken from BI for Barbarians, about 40 new units. It does a lot more than LTC does. It's since TE that i've really focused on just small tweaks and improvements with my mods, and less of the major changes.

[Papal_Knight]

gotcha. thanks for the feedback. I am used to a single Roman faction since I have been playing RTR forever.

[Gaius Baltar]

The changes you suggest sound interesting. In terms of the map, one of the reasons I chose your mod over others was the use of the Mundus Magnus map. Many moons ago.

TE (sigh), I remember epic clashes with the Spanish Bull warriors in the passes along the border, sometimes with upwards of 16,000 men. Great stuff.

I have always wanted to see a version with more Roman factions, and a more limited economy.

+rrep to all

[Lusted]

The changes you suggest sound interesting. In terms of the map, one of the reasons I chose your mod over others was the use of the Mundus Magnus map. Many moons ago.

Mundus Magnas a good map, it's just a bit too big/crowded, the space in India/most of Africa is wasted, by trimming down then scaling up the resulting map should improve gameplay as about the same number of settlements, but a bit more space between them.

[irishron]

Maybe Mundus Magnus is too crowded in spots but to me it's still the best RTW big map out there and that's just because it's playable.

[Lusted]

Oh, and i would also have made the mod use a mod folder setup, and tone down the Iberians a bit as the Gauls never seemed to do much. I'd probably have done it by tweaking the Bull Warrior stats and the starting cash for factions.

[Gaius Baltar]

Oh, and i would also have made the mod use a mod folder setup, and tone down the Iberians a bit as the Gauls never seemed to do much. I'd probably have done it by tweaking the Bull Warrior stats and the starting cash for factions.

Yes, Bull warriors have 2 hit points. Makes them a juggernaut. Tune them down to 1 hit point. I tried this in my last TE game and see more balance between them and the Gauls, who still dont do well.

WHich is why I advocate turning down the economies some how. Make them more cart-like than rocket -like.

And the Ponts. Who spam whole armies of Cappadocian cavalry. More balance in unit compositions.

And hold off Imperial palace construction in Italy to say, I dont know, 100 BC?

ANd fix the slinger release sounds so they dont sound like archers. Same for head-hurlers.

[Lusted]

Yes, Bull warriors have 2 hit points. Makes them a juggernaut. Tune them down to 1 hit point. I tried this in my last TE game and see more balance between them and the Gauls, who still dont do well.

That's what i was thinking.

WHich is why I advocate turning down the economies some how. Make them more cart-like than rocket -like.

The problem with economics is unlike Med II, it's much more difficult to tweak them as all you can basically do is edit unit/building cost and some buildings and that's it.

And the Ponts. Who spam whole armies of Cappadocian cavalry. More balance in unit compositions.

There's no easy way of tweaking in in RTW unlike Med 2, the less flexible modding of Rome is one of the reasons i doubt i ever will go back to Rome, plus of course i've retired from modding. But who knows, i'm getting interested in playing TE again.

And hold off Imperial palace construction in Italy to say, I dont know, 100 BC?

I was actually thinking if i did it again doing something like RS has done and use AUC to remove people from focusing on doing some things by a certain date.

ANd fix the slinger release sounds so they dont sound like archers. Same for head-hurlers.

If i remember correctly that's a Rome bug.

[Cozur]

-New campaign map textures. After a year playing M2TW, the RTW map just looks ugly to me, i think i would have redone these at some point.

its quite easy to port the medieval 2 textures to rtw, and it looks almost the same with high resolution and high anti aliasing

[Lusted]

I wouldn't want the M2TW textures, looks too medieval.

[Lusted]

EDIT: Gah, silly forum.

[Legionem Insanis]

any Rome mods you can recommend for M2TW?

[Nelduin]

If you can make an Indian Faction for the new version, I think it would be really great !

[Cyrus the Virus]

If you can make an Indian Faction for the new version, I think it would be really great !

According to what I've read, he said he was going cut out part the east.
So that makes India not an option.

[Legionem Insanis]

Just thought you guys might be interested in my thoughts on TE after having been modding on M2TW for over a year, and what i think i'd change about LTC. Just random thoughts about what i would have done differently.

-Different map. I think the map in TE goes too far east/south, so i'd cut a bit off those parts of the map, scale the remaining bits up to be the same size as the pre-cut down map.

I thought the bigger map was fine, especially playing eastern factions. I was just looking at the Armenian and Parthian starting points in Vanilla and it looked claustraphobic.

-New artwork for loading screens, menu background, the new interfaces i did. After looking back at TE after a year i think i could have done much better.

I thought your loading screens were great, but I wouldn't mind seeing new ones.

-More unique factions. I think i would have tried to add in new units/tweak the rosters of several factions so there would be more difference between the Greek/Hellenic factions, and between the various Barbarian factions.

This sounds interesting and fun.

-New campaign map textures. After a year playing M2TW, the RTW map just looks ugly to me, i think i would have redone these at some point.

Can't say as I haven't had the pleasure of playing M2TW yet.

-Improved unit balance. The +15 morale to all units balancing i did was a bit crude and i know i could have done better.

Ive only played 1 campaign as Rome, but Iberia seemed overpowered and very aggressive. They would spam bull warriors at me in Northern Italy but leave all their cities with light garrisons. I finally got them to a ceasefire and then they proceeded to wipe Britannia off the map, lol. The TECAM mod definitely chilled them out. I believe it changes their AI from "comfortable/mao" to "fortified/napoleon".


[quote=Lusted;2550560]
-Provincial campaigns. Much like in LTC, take parts of the campaign map, blow them up and have them available from the provincial campaign list. Probable campaigns would have been one focusing on Successor states, one on western Mediterranean Iberia, possibly more.
[/quote/]
That would be REALLY COOL!

But yeah looking back on TE there are some things i definitely would have done differently a 2nd time around.

I think TE is a great mod and I have enjoyed it. It's definitely an improvement over Vanilla.

[Lusted]

I'm closing this thread as this was my "If i had all the time in the world to redo TE from scratch this is what i'd do" thread. What i'm actually doing for Gold is in the stickied thread at the top of the forum.