IB2 VANDALORVM II DISCUSSION/FEEDBACK

[midnite]

Good Job on the mod. I just cant play any battles because the game keeps on crashing in the campaign and on quick battles. Is their away to solve this. I have already downloaded the patch 2 and the problem keeps recurring. How can i solve this problem.?

What are your game settings? This mod is graphic intensive, 32 and 16 bit graphics. The files are anywhere from 2 to 4 times larger than vanilla.

[MajorStoffer]

I've been haunting the twcenter for a while now, and after trying out this mod, it's inspired me to join yet another forum.

Anyways, fantastic work on 1.0, I've only run into a single potential problem, and it involves the beloved Comitatenses. I just played a large battle against some damnable usurpers (it seems practically every one of my generals with the exception of Aetius betrays me the moment they leave a city, note sure if this is intended or not), and I noticed something kind of odd. I had a primary army, all upgraded to 1st lvl armour, consisting of Comitatenses, Legio Palatines, Scholae and whatnot, and a secondary army with no upgrades. The reinforcing army's comitatenses, oddly enough, were all fully armoured; none of the men in the formation had regular tunics, while my primary army, with the actual armour upgrades, still had about 30% of the force with just plain clothes or lacked helmets. All the other units had the proper improvements [the reinforcing army's version of the same units had less armour, helmets, less fancy shields, etc] (I still, however, find it kinda odd that there's still men in the Palatina units[both types] which don't wear armour once upgraded, but I digress], but the comitatenses seem backwards. Any insight on this?

Aside from this little aesthetic curiosity, this is by far the most fun I've had in a medieval II mod. In terms of challenge and depth, it's right up there with Europa Barbarorum for R:TW. I'm eagerly awaiting the next area to be revealed.

Actually, now that I think about it, has a later campaigns ever been considered? Perhaps the Gothic War or something else after the fall of the Western Empire. I wouldn't mind trying my odds at being Belisarius.

[Riothamus]

I've been haunting the twcenter for a while now, and after trying out this mod, it's inspired me to join yet another forum.

Anyways, fantastic work on 1.0, I've only run into a single potential problem, and it involves the beloved Comitatenses. I just played a large battle against some damnable usurpers (it seems practically every one of my generals with the exception of Aetius betrays me the moment they leave a city, note sure if this is intended or not), and I noticed something kind of odd. I had a primary army, all upgraded to 1st lvl armour, consisting of Comitatenses, Legio Palatines, Scholae and whatnot, and a secondary army with no upgrades. The reinforcing army's comitatenses, oddly enough, were all fully armoured; none of the men in the formation had regular tunics, while my primary army, with the actual armour upgrades, still had about 30% of the force with just plain clothes or lacked helmets. All the other units had the proper improvements [the reinforcing army's version of the same units had less armour, helmets, less fancy shields, etc] (I still, however, find it kinda odd that there's still men in the Palatina units[both types] which don't wear armour once upgraded, but I digress], but the comitatenses seem backwards. Any insight on this?

Aside from this little aesthetic curiosity, this is by far the most fun I've had in a medieval II mod. In terms of challenge and depth, it's right up there with Europa Barbarorum for R:TW. I'm eagerly awaiting the next area to be revealed.

Actually, now that I think about it, has a later campaigns ever been considered? Perhaps the Gothic War or something else after the fall of the Western Empire. I wouldn't mind trying my odds at being Belisarius.

-We thank you for the encouraging comments MajorStoffer and welcome to the forums

-I'll let midnite comment on the aesthetic curiosity for thats his expertise.
-The army betraying you is somewhat a reflection of the utter decay and despair in 5th century WRE authority in Europe

We will announce something very soon of a campaign midnight and I are making plans for

[MajorStoffer]

Ah mystery, the most efficient way to get people worked up.

Anyways, is there any way I can reduce the amount of betrayals? Say, if the Usurper faction is fully destroyed (they've got 4 provinces in Africa at the moment in my campaign) or would certain units reduce betrayal rates? Or should I just hope they develop enough traits that gets them above 5 stars in loyalty? Admittedly, the system makes sense, I mean I couldn't list all the usurpers that sprang up between 400-476. The bane of the Western Empire after all.

[Riothamus]

Ah mystery, the most efficient way to get people worked up.

Anyways, is there any way I can reduce the amount of betrayals? Say, if the Usurper faction is fully destroyed (they've got 4 provinces in Africa at the moment in my campaign) or would certain units reduce betrayal rates? Or should I just hope they develop enough traits that gets them above 5 stars in loyalty? Admittedly, the system makes sense, I mean I couldn't list all the usurpers that sprang up between 400-476. The bane of the Western Empire after all.

It should not happen often where a general such as Aeitius betrays you but unfortunetly it will at times. Yes, Its important to try and keep his loyalty high as possible through traits and ancillaries.

[MajorStoffer]

I just did a little more experimenting;

I loaded up a custom battle, and built 2 of every legionnary unit (Legios Palatina, Scholae Auxilia, Veteran Scholae, Comitatenses) with one with no upgrade, and one with; the results were rather interesting:

Legios Palatina: No discernable difference, save for "officers" (flagbearer, leader, banner bearer) who undergo visual change, quite a nice one at that.

Scholae Auxilia (And veterans, changes are mimicked): Clear change; unupgraded are maybe 50% armoured, unarmoured officers. Upgraded are completely armoured, with a mix of Lorica Hamata and Squamata (sp?) with full helmets.

Comitatenses: Completely identical, oddly enough. Both have the fully armoured appearance, same shield, helemts, etc, while in Campaign their upgrades are inversed (unupgraded have full armour and helemts, red shield with sun symbol in center, like in the screenshot thread, upgraded are mostly unarmoured with red shield with inverse omega symbol). I can't really understand what's causing this.

The models and skins themselves are excellent quality, but it's a little jarring seeing "upgraded" units with no or very little armour. The only possible thing I can think of is I don't have a "C" drive, it's "F" for me, but I changed the install path in the patch, and all the other changes are present (except Lepsis Magna is still Magn). I'm going to poke around the files (I have some basic modding experience with Total War games, I might be able to find something with a bit of luck and judicious use of "ctrl + f") in the mean time.

EDIT: I am 75% certain I discovered what's goin on; regional varients. Poking around the data files for the mod demonstrated that most of the better units, i.e. comitatenses or better, have regional varients, i.e. Italian, African, Gallic, Pannonian. I just went through a battle where I had Aetius's upgraded army, recruited mainly in Arlete and Avaricum, combined with an army recruited from Rome, Ravenna and Florence. The Italian army all had the proper upgrades (fully armoured legionnares, Legios Palatina with 95% armour, etc) even the Scholae, which were already fully armoured, had different sheilds (large, round ones with lines going towards center for the Gallic, oblong white/red shields for the Italians). Is it possible that the Gallic region, and potentially others, did not recieve the visual upgrade? However, it's worth noting that the shields used, and the officers in the different units, didn't match up with the custom battle varients either.

I hate to be negative, I mean this mod is the best thing I've tried for Total War since the glory days of Rome (Total War, that is), but I'm a little OCD when it comes to aesthetics. Anyways, I'm going try changing the model used for the different regions to the Italian one, see if that confirms my theory.

[midnite]

I just did a little more experimenting;

I loaded up a custom battle, and built 2 of every legionnary unit (Legios Palatina, Scholae Auxilia, Veteran Scholae, Comitatenses) with one with no upgrade, and one with; the results were rather interesting:

Legios Palatina: No discernable difference, save for "officers" (flagbearer, leader, banner bearer) who undergo visual change, quite a nice one at that.

Scholae Auxilia (And veterans, changes are mimicked): Clear change; unupgraded are maybe 50% armoured, unarmoured officers. Upgraded are completely armoured, with a mix of Lorica Hamata and Squamata (sp?) with full helmets.

Comitatenses: Completely identical, oddly enough. Both have the fully armoured appearance, same shield, helemts, etc, while in Campaign their upgrades are inversed (unupgraded have full armour and helemts, red shield with sun symbol in center, like in the screenshot thread, upgraded are mostly unarmoured with red shield with inverse omega symbol). I can't really understand what's causing this.

The models and skins themselves are excellent quality, but it's a little jarring seeing "upgraded" units with no or very little armour. The only possible thing I can think of is I don't have a "C" drive, it's "F" for me, but I changed the install path in the patch, and all the other changes are present (except Lepsis Magna is still Magn). I'm going to poke around the files (I have some basic modding experience with Total War games, I might be able to find something with a bit of luck and judicious use of "ctrl + f") in the mean time.

EDIT: I am 75% certain I discovered what's goin on; regional varients. Poking around the data files for the mod demonstrated that most of the better units, i.e. comitatenses or better, have regional varients, i.e. Italian, African, Gallic, Pannonian. I just went through a battle where I had Aetius's upgraded army, recruited mainly in Arlete and Avaricum, combined with an army recruited from Rome, Ravenna and Florence. The Italian army all had the proper upgrades (fully armoured legionnares, Legios Palatina with 95% armour, etc) even the Scholae, which were already fully armoured, had different sheilds (large, round ones with lines going towards center for the Gallic, oblong white/red shields for the Italians). Is it possible that the Gallic region, and potentially others, did not recieve the visual upgrade? However, it's worth noting that the shields used, and the officers in the different units, didn't match up with the custom battle varients either.

I hate to be negative, I mean this mod is the best thing I've tried for Total War since the glory days of Rome (Total War, that is), but I'm a little OCD when it comes to aesthetics. Anyways, I'm going try changing the model used for the different regions to the Italian one, see if that confirms my theory.

Actually your theory is correct. I redid the upgrades for the lighter roman infantry to show a change between the standard units and upgraded units. The roman heavy infantry have separate texture and shield files depending on their area of recruitment. I started to work on them and then put the heavy inf text aside so that I could work on the merc units and then forgot about them and never went back to finishing the upgrades. My fault.

With the next patch when I redo the aux and foederate units I will also upgrade the armor on the roman heavy inf.



glad you like the mod and welcome to the forum!!

[MajorStoffer]

Ah, well that makes sense. I just switched out the upgraded models for the Italian ones, and it works without a hitch. A decent stopgap in the meantime if nothing else.

Now to deal with that massive gods damned hunnic army, I swear, they're more dangerous than the Mongols in vanilla.

Speaking of which, do they come in multiple waves over time, like the mongols? This first batch is brutal enough as is.

[midnite]

Now to deal with that massive gods damned hunnic army, I swear, they're more dangerous than the Mongols in vanilla.

Speaking of which, do they come in multiple waves over time, like the mongols? This first batch is brutal enough as is.

You never know.

[Aethelstan]

Hi

To start with: A big THX to the whole team of IB2. Great job so far, beautiful units, buildings and and and + a "game-feeling" thats a little closer to RomeTW which I liked much more than M2TW, especially my beloved ArthurianTW.

May I suggest a stickied bug-thread where to post your observations and with updated first post with known issues? That would make it much easier to see if you found something new or just something well known but not yet solved.

I tried a quick campaign with the vandals.
Already a Fun thing and very promising for future releases. The foundry doesnt work though: No 2cd mellee upgrade and it also gives no armour bonus (this intentional?).
In winter 433 a (from start available) general named Reudilo died at Rusaddir. Or lets say he disappeared. No message, he is just gone the next turn. I reloaded, and again a turn back, moved him around, searching for assasins etc. and he was "lost" everytime, so I believe it to be something scripted. Well I moved on, but was lucky to do another reload soon to found out the saves from there on were corupted, causing CTD.

I finally found a way around, by loading him on ship and ordering suicide attack at a minor army - wasnt easy to get him killed cause it was a weak one

Overall I had some nice hours - congrats on what you have done so far. I hope you will still work on this campaign and not only on your new one, although I´m much interested in your second campaign as If I already said: ArthurianTotalWAR is my altime favorite mod. Maybe you could even contact those modders and use something? Cause I really doubt if they plan anything for M2TW.

[midnite]

Hi

To start with: A big THX to the whole team of IB2. Great job so far, beautiful units, buildings and and and + a "game-feeling" thats a little closer to RomeTW which I liked much more than M2TW, especially my beloved ArthurianTW.

May I suggest a stickied bug-thread where to post your observations and with updated first post with known issues? That would make it much easier to see if you found something new or just something well known but not yet solved.

I tried a quick campaign with the vandals.
Already a Fun thing and very promising for future releases. The foundry doesnt work though: No 2cd mellee upgrade and it also gives no armour bonus (this intentional?).
In winter 433 a (from start available) general named Reudilo died at Rusaddir. Or lets say he disappeared. No message, he is just gone the next turn. I reloaded, and again a turn back, moved him around, searching for assasins etc. and he was "lost" everytime, so I believe it to be something scripted. Well I moved on, but was lucky to do another reload soon to found out the saves from there on were corupted, causing CTD.

I finally found a way around, by loading him on ship and ordering suicide attack at a minor army - wasnt easy to get him killed cause it was a weak one

Overall I had some nice hours - congrats on what you have done so far. I hope you will still work on this campaign and not only on your new one, although I´m much interested in your second campaign as If I already said: ArthurianTotalWAR is my altime favorite mod. Maybe you could even contact those modders and use something? Cause I really doubt if they plan anything for M2TW.

Welcome Aethelstan. The IB2 team is glad you like the mod. We will be bringing you new updates with hopefully alot more content in the future. Right now we are concentrating on preparing a 1st beta release for ATW. Riothamus has been in contact with the RTW Arthurian Total War team. We have permission to use some of their material for this version of ATW. Many improvements are planned for both IB2 and ATW.

[airborne guy]

Welcome Aethelstan. The IB2 team is glad you like the mod. We will be bringing you new updates with hopefully alot more content in the future. Right now we are concentrating on preparing a 1st beta release for ATW. Riothamus has been in contact with the RTW Arthurian Total War team. We have permission to use some of their material for this version of ATW. Many improvements are planned for both IB2 and ATW.

I love the mod, but I also have ctd right when the battle starts. The Romans are a bit over powering but I like it. What is ATW?

[Aethelstan]

Thank you for the warm welcome midnite.

Are you intersted in feedback concerning the Vandal campaign? If yes, what kind?
I think its clearly "beta" - so most thing you could mention as a player wouldnt tell you anything new?

That you have permission to use some ATW-material is great news. I hope to see some of my favorite units again (some were shurely not tooooo historical accurate - but fun, like wulfbyrnan for example - any chance for scyldingas btw?) - think I already had some "deja vu" with the pictish preview.
More important in my preferences though would be to transport some "game feeling" especially regarding the combat.
Don´t mean to be rude, but I never liked IB Rome combat much. But ATW battles felt epic and great!
For example most M2TW-modders seem to avoid multiple hp like hell - but for monsters.
But I think the wide use of different hp in ATW made the combat lasting, "real" and those STRONG elite "pet units" are fun.

@airborne guy:

I love the mod, but I also have ctd right when the battle starts.

Strange - It worked for me fine without any probs - I´d check installation - maybe you missed the patch?

What is ATW?

Well, for a while it seems to be the (soon to be?) newest release of IB2, but looks like they are already searching for a new name.
Originally its a mod for RomeTW http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=107

Its a great one, but never became really free of bugs. So I cant speak of the latest version and/or the modfoldered one, cause I´m still playing an older raven feeders version (which I edited and wiped out all known issues, like ctd etc.) with an ongoing jutae campaign for ... hm ... might be over a year now

edit:

The Romans are a bit over powering

? I found them weak - totally ruled them, also largely outnumbered, without any probs. At least those legio palatinae should be a 2hp unit - I belive that hp-thing the only way to get real elite units.
The romans also lack really good cavalry - something "near" to a cataphact maybe - or hunnic mercenaries for aetius ...
Of course it may only seem weak because the AI is still poor - mainly vanilla I persume.

[Deutschland]

I had a nice battle where not a single horseman was loaded. It was cool to see my horses killing people looked very weird though

[Nabukadnesar]

hi
i didnt find any uninstaller, so i am asking if do i need it, or its ready only to delete the file?
thx

[Riothamus]

hi
i didnt find any uninstaller, so i am asking if do i need it, or its ready only to delete the file?
thx

The Ib2 Folder can easily be deleted if you wanted...look inside the mods folder and there it should be

[achwell]

Hi
by attacking the romano hispanic there where units in the colour silver see image link

[achwell]

Hi
can the silver unit problem be fixed? is there sommething i must do?

[juvenus]

I'm about to install this mod so if you may answer something, I'd really appreciate it.....Just to let me know what I'm playing and what to expect from this:
Is this version (Vandals 1.0) considered as the finale one?

I realize you're working on the Arthurian campaign so I'm wondering whether you have any plans to continue the Africa vandalorum or this is it?

[Riothamus]

I'm about to install this mod so if you may answer something, I'd really appreciate it.....Just to let me know what I'm playing and what to expect from this:
Is this version (Vandals 1.0) considered as the finale one?

I realize you're working on the Arthurian campaign so I'm wondering whether you have any plans to continue the Africa vandalorum or this is it?

Hi juvenus,
The 1.0 Greatly improves upon the beta thus we no longer consider it a beta now with the patch...the additions you can read on the 1.0 patch thread. Its not the final version..there is still much to do and we will probably tweak it some soon but currently we are focused on the Arthurian-Britannia campaign