Roman generals....less command stars?

**Papal_Knight** · January 18, 2008, 09:58 AM

Hey guys. Quick question. I notice that my Roman generals do not have near as many command stars as the other factions, especially the barbarians. My best guy has only 4, and he's 53 and has won every battle he's been in, including some tough ones and one heroic one.

most of my generals have no stars at all, even after a few battles. is this something that EB does, say, for play balance sake or realism sake? This is not a complaint at all, just a question. I actually kind of like it, as it makes the battles more interesting.

do all the human controlled factions get this in EB? thanks in advance for the answers guys. I am really enjoying this mod, and I see no end to the enjoyment!!

**johnhughthom** · January 18, 2008, 10:45 AM

It doesn't matter which faction you use, the AI generals always get a boost to their command stars. EB has a lot of traits which give bonuses to morale and are more important than command stars.

**Papal_Knight** · January 18, 2008, 11:33 AM

ah, gotcha. I thought it might be something like that. thanks!

**mcantu** · January 22, 2008, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by johnhughthom

It doesn't matter which faction you use, the AI generals always get a boost to their command stars. EB has a lot of traits which give bonuses to morale and are more important than command stars.

Depends on who you believe...

Jerome from CA posted this over on the EB boards

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=91895

Just to clear this up ( as requested ;-) ), from the old code on my machine at CA the General's command modifier on attacks is still there in the last version, but it only applies to melee attacks and it is -inverted- so the quality of the defender's general is applied as bonus directionless defense for the defending soldier. It is also rescaled to range from -6 to +6, changing quickly at low bonus levels and then slowing down towards the top of the range. The idea was to limit the number of stacking bonusses which speed up the battles, i vaguely remember.

Also, the bonus is not limited by physical distance, and is supposed to represent a good general's ability to get superior performance from his troops through training in small scale maneuvers. The only way for this bonus to result in faster combat death rates rather than slower ones is if the defender's general has bad command traits...

If you want to test it, I would suggest a battle between some big peasant units, fighting the units 1v1 and timing the length of time to rout; then repeat giving each army a 10 star general. You should see a slower time-to-rout with the generals. In the end though 6 pts is not enough to make up huge troop quality differences, so don't expect to see miraculous differences.

and this...

Originally Posted by JeromeGrasdyke
It currently affects both morale and combat ability - we tried it for a while with just morale, but it ended up being not enough of a bonus. The combat calculations have changed so much from Rome to Medieval as to be unrecogniseable, so it's no longer easy to equate stars to experience.

As a rule of thumb it's one point of attack per command rank, up to a maximum of 10, and this can become negative for very bad generals. This combat bonus is applied to all troops under his command on the battlefield. Experience is one point of attack and one point of defense per chevron, plus a morale bonus as well.

The general's command also controls his radius-of-effect, which is set to 30 m + 5 m * command + 2 m * influence. This is used to award morale bonusses to nearby units (in addition to the combat bonus), and when testing which units are affected it tests the distance between the actual general's position and the centre-point of the unit being considered.

**Papal_Knight** · January 23, 2008, 08:23 AM

great info. thanks!

**kingsword** · February 09, 2008, 08:52 AM

Is there any way to disable the script's command star bonuses to AI? I love EB but this is ruining it for me. The worst AI cheat ever as it destroys any sense of accomplishment as far as the roleplay of your generals go. Do you have Julius Caesar? Or Hannibal? No matter, that rebel John Doe is as good as your genius, if not better.

I'm tolerating bonus cash to AI but this is way over the top in a bad way.

**Ludens** · February 09, 2008, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by kingsword

Is there any way to disable the script's command star bonuses to AI? I love EB but this is ruining it for me. The worst AI cheat ever as it destroys any sense of accomplishment as far as the roleplay of your generals go. Do you have Julius Caesar? Or Hannibal? No matter, that rebel John Doe is as good as your genius, if not better.

It's your choice, but I think your setting too much weight at those stars. No matter how many stars rebel John Doe has, he remains a dunce at battle tactics. Stars don't have that much of an effect on battle performance anyway. More important are the morale bonuses your general provides, and that is where good generals are distinguished from bad ones.

**Papal_Knight** · February 09, 2008, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by kingsword

Is there any way to disable the script's command star bonuses to AI? I love EB but this is ruining it for me. The worst AI cheat ever as it destroys any sense of accomplishment as far as the roleplay of your generals go. Do you have Julius Caesar? Or Hannibal? No matter, that rebel John Doe is as good as your genius, if not better.

I'm tolerating bonus cash to AI but this is way over the top in a bad way.

plays great as it is. game will play poorly if you change it.