My Review Of "The Long Road"

[derf]

Having recently re-installed M2TW since many many months ago, I decided to try a mod straight away.

I was playing as England. For some reason 95% of my generals were useless governors (negative pop growth as soon as they enter town) so I put about 15 of them in 1 stack and took Ireland.

By that time I was at war with the Scottish, which for some inexplicable reason fielded almost nothing but nobles, knights, templars and siege weapons. I mean come on! I'm not big on Scottish history but I always thought they lacked the funds, knowledge, capability of fielding such armies.

Rebels spawned once in Ireland as some pretty advanced units. Not even I had access to those units yet. I thought the whole idea of rebels was that they have generally inferior resources, let alone in Ireland.

Spanked the Scottish. Found out that 20% of the time, enemy cavalry inflicts 80% casualties within seconds. The Scots got murdered because tactics were non-existant. They simply swarmed ahead in the most incohesive lump of man and steel imaginable.

I also got the impression that my widescale economy building policy did very little to boost the economy. Never had more than 1 full stack.

Uninstalled it.

[Valantine]

The Long Road has not been updated for quite a while, and because of this other mods seem to have surpassed it. If yo uenjoy the slow and steady approach with Role playing elements i suggest Deus Lo Vult.
The Long Road was grea tin its time and i heartily think that anyone without Kingdoms woudl be wise to give it a try, but with the expansion and active development of DLV i think you'll find something more to your tastes.
V

[anaztazioch]

TLR was my favorite, and i never had spotted such templar stack by AI.
Further more, AI recives scripted money, that gives even scotland the founds.

As for governors. All new come to age generals get bad governor trait. But every 2 or 3 turns governing they beocme better, making your farming better, tax boosts, population growth due to lower squaltor, public order.

As AI in combat, i think u havent played MTW2 mods for a long time. Kingdoms AI is much much much better.

TLR has moved, or should i say, died, due to its main members personal reasons. Some of TLR regulars or even creators, moved to help Naimad making DarthAges.

[Condottiere SOG]

TLR will come back better than ever.

[Philippon]

In my opinion the following improvments would bring it back.

First of all, reduce the cost to build city and castle improvements to one tenth of their cost, but triple if not quintuple the build time. When you are completely demobilized and holding ten to fifteen provences, you should be able to be buillding something in every single settlement. Otherwise you'll never get everything built in any settlement you should wish for. I got very bored hitting turn buttons waiting to accrue 10,000 gold to upgrade a castle when I controled all of Spain and North Africa.

Next thing, readjust the virtues/vices so that all the leaders don't end up extravagent alcoholic adultuerous gluttons. I ended up keeping all my leaders in a single castle who were not on the field because the vices ended up destroying any advantages that were accrued from long term governership.

In short, the build costs mean that you can control a large area of the map and get one thing constructed in one city provided it doesn't cost you more than a few thousand and that's with one or two armies on the field with garrison troops and the governors make it next to impossible to build even that because they've become such sots that they waste all the money that the city brings in anyway.

[Condottiere SOG]

alright. the vnv's are a bit hedonistic. buildings may have to remain as they are for the moment.

[Irishmafia2020]

alright. the vnv's are a bit hedonistic. buildings may have to remain as they are for the moment.

Are you working on this mod now? I personally loved the building times, and I find myself annoyed by other mods where you can build up a city in only a decade... TLR is still one of the best mods out, it is a shame that it never reached Tornight's envisioned completion...

[Condottiere SOG]

was there an envisioned completion? seems like life took over for him as it did for me for a time. the biggest thing is that we need dedicated modelers/texture specialists for the completion. i am fairly good at this but do not have the time. Argent Usher is the man. as are others. we also need an animator.

[Alexios_Komnenos]

Are you working on this mod now? I personally loved the building times, and I find myself annoyed by other mods where you can build up a city in only a decade... TLR is still one of the best mods out, it is a shame that it never reached Tornight's envisioned completion...

Same here - I like the build times like they are now. Really cheap buildings would throw the entire economic model off whack. Even if they did take a long time to build - them you'd be really poor for a long time. And I think it would actually be less interesting - instead of waiting to be able to build something, you'd be waiting 47 turns for your Mustering Hall to finally finish building. Slight exagerration perhaps, but the point is it seems well-balanced now.

The "extravagent alcoholic adultuerous glutton" problem might be worth looking into; I did notice a high tendency towards gluttony in my last game. Adultery seemed more or less similar to base M2TW though, besides the fact that some children (but not that high an amount) were illegitimate. Extravagance and alcoholism also seemed reasonable. But it might have something to do with the genetics of each family - perhaps my Scotch were simply prone to gluttony.

It'd be great if this mod were updated. I've no graphical skills, and have never modded M2TW, but perhaps could be persuaded to look into come mid-December. I've done a bit of modding in Civilization III and a couple things in Civilization IV; not sure how similar M2TW is to either of those modding-wise.

[Condottiere SOG]

For my version I could use all the help I can get. People come and go, but I stay because this is my favorite mod and I have been changing things on my end for almost a year and a half now. A long time for one person. When it is done, I will release it to others. I can say this that the changes are progressive and things are exciting. I get ideas from my friends and partners, also from the community, I even adopt a submod or two, but not without recognition, if I did not come up with it myself first. I also improve upon things. So when it is finished I am sure everyone will be pleased.

Ancillaries and Traits are big on my list. Its a bit rough. However, under my newest xml format, most of the bad traits can be avoided(with some care to role-playing). These things are in tow with AI, diplomacy and factions' standings.

What would truly be cool is inventing animations for a sapper unit that can leave a shaped charge(a barrel or a pot) attached to a City or Castle gate and then blow it away.

Some units are completely redundant and take up space. New ones and inclusion of units from other factions is under works. Mercenaries will be extensive.

My eye is on units like Halberdiers for all catholic factions and then mounted ones, like those under Henry 8. Cavaliers with pistol and swords, Petardiers, Cuirassiers(like Reiters). Civic Guards armed with partizans and updated ones. 2h-swordsmen that wore no armor for mobility. Armor disappeared with the advent of firearms but the weapons did not.

I am trying to re-invent the fervor of VikingHorde's XL2.0 mod or the Blind King of Bohemia's Supermod. These are from the Medieval Total War game.

[Theodotos I]

For my version I could use all the help I can get. People come and go, but I stay because this is my favorite mod and I have been changing things on my end for almost a year and a half now. A long time for one person. When it is done, I will release it to others. I can say this that the changes are progressive and things are exciting. I get ideas from my friends and partners, also from the community, I even adopt a submod or two, but not without recognition, if I did not come up with it myself first. I also improve upon things. So when it is finished I am sure everyone will be pleased.

Ancillaries and Traits are big on my list. Its a bit rough. However, under my newest xml format, most of the bad traits can be avoided(with some care to role-playing). These things are in tow with AI, diplomacy and factions' standings.

What would truly be cool is inventing animations for a sapper unit that can leave a shaped charge(a barrel or a pot) attached to a City or Castle gate and then blow it away.

Some units are completely redundant and take up space. New ones and inclusion of units from other factions is under works. Mercenaries will be extensive.

My eye is on units like Halberdiers for all catholic factions and then mounted ones, like those under Henry 8. Cavaliers with pistol and swords, Petardiers, Cuirassiers(like Reiters). Civic Guards armed with partizans and updated ones. 2h-swordsmen that wore no armor for mobility. Armor disappeared with the advent of firearms but the weapons did not.

I am trying to re-invent the fervor of VikingHorde's XL2.0 mod or the Blind King of Bohemia's Supermod. These are from the Medieval Total War game.

I think I've got some information on what you're looking for, Condottiere, the petardier. You may know this already—I think from your comment that you have at least the barebones concept.
This comes from a 1949 book on artillery published by the United States Government for use by the Park Service.
A petard was an iron bucket full of gunpowder. It would be hung on a gate and then ignited, blowing open the gate.
Small petards weighed about fifty pounds. The larger ones, around seventy. Basically, they had to be heavy enough to blow open the gate, but light enough that a couple of men could lift it up and hang it on the target. The bucket part was packed full of the powder mixture, then a two-and-a-half-inch board was bolted to the rim to keep the air out and the powder in. An iron tube fuse would then be screwed into a small hole in the back or side of the weapon. When all was ready, the petardiers would take hold of the handles of the weapon, typically two, and carry it to the offending door.
Process would proceed as follows: Set a screw, hang the petard upon it, light the fuse and retire. Bye-bye, door.
The book says that they were used extensively during King William's War, to force the gates of small German towns. Even the biggest petards were useless against a heavy gate. Not to mention the fact that getting volunteers for such work was distinctly difficult. They went out of style in the 1700s. Good luck and hope the information is of some help to you.

[Condottiere SOG]

my Thanks, Theodotos I. You have the right idea. Spot-mf-on! +rep.

[Theodotos I]

Glad to know that I could be of some help.

[The Noble Lord]

Interesting review, i had never had a chance to play TLR but now it seem to be way behind the other mods.

[kepper]

This is because the TLR creator tornnight as long gone for the TWC community,and the mod as same version since May 16, 2007.
But Condottiere SOG is working in new version it will give back life to TLR.
TLR as my first for MTW II.Condottiere SOG keep the good work

[The Noble Lord]

Well, if it's coming back to life then it will good to try it. How long is going to take for the mod to be completed??

[Condottiere SOG]

2.1 is out. Try it. Feedback is, as always, more of a benefit than a hazard.

[Buggsy]

I think Calvary should be far more expensive then it is now. I like 100 units on everything, and I like more artillery pieces for artillery (easier then me manually adjusting that unit file), but calvary should be like 3 times more expensive.

[Condottiere SOG]

i'll take tha into consideration. thank you.

[Caledonian]

Having recently re-installed M2TW since many many months ago, I decided to try a mod straight away.

I was playing as England. For some reason 95% of my generals were useless governors (negative pop growth as soon as they enter town) so I put about 15 of them in 1 stack and took Ireland.

By that time I was at war with the Scottish, which for some inexplicable reason fielded almost nothing but nobles, knights, templars and siege weapons. I mean come on! I'm not big on Scottish history but I always thought they lacked the funds, knowledge, capability of fielding such armies.

Rebels spawned once in Ireland as some pretty advanced units. Not even I had access to those units yet. I thought the whole idea of rebels was that they have generally inferior resources, let alone in Ireland.

Spanked the Scottish. Found out that 20% of the time, enemy cavalry inflicts 80% casualties within seconds. The Scots got murdered because tactics were non-existant. They simply swarmed ahead in the most incohesive lump of man and steel imaginable.

I also got the impression that my widescale economy building policy did very little to boost the economy. Never had more than 1 full stack.

Uninstalled it.

Its ment to be challenging.You can't really fix what CA screwed up in the beginning and what makes you think ireland & scotland would have any less knowledge & resources than england?In case you never noticed Scotland won the wars of independence.
You just like to moan.