Does Imperial Splendour still "slow things down" ? If so, then Darthmod. If not, I'll have to re-evaluate it. But I've been playing Darth since 0.3 and I've loved it. I recommend the artillery submod for it, as well.
IS if you can't handle the Commander editions.
I played Darth at the start, but the Tighter Formations mod intergrated ruined everything, as they marched too close and jostled for space, ruining the atmosphere of the marching lines, so I switched to IS and don't have any real reason to turn back, especially now Darth's unit sizes are fps-killing for me
Right now I'm using IS but I like Darthmod just as much. The main reason IS is installed and Darthmod is not, however, is the raised unit prices. I find it really makes the player plan more carefully and it places more importance on single battles. It doesn't remove tracers, but I just downloaded the reduced tracer mod. But those are the two main differences. Again, both are good mods, especially how both alter the naval game, and you should try each out.
Depends on what you want really.
IS gives you more food for thought and careful playing, whilst Darth just lets you pump out giant armies(both units-wise and unitsize-wise.) for cheap.
If you like longer more strategic campaigns I'd say go IS.
With Darth you generally reach the point where it's just "Oh, i'll just go take them and them..." much much earlier.
I disagree completely about the tighter formations being a problem. They have their flaws, but without them I find that artillery is weak and pointless.
As far as the unit sizes go, it just changes the scale, change to Normal or Small in your settings and you'll be back to where you were.
And yeah, you can eventually plow through the enemy in Darth, but that's where for me self-discipline comes in. But you're correct, even then at some point you just decide "I'm going to do [x] because theres no way the enemy can stop me." And that's fun to do sometimes too.
I have tried both and I would never criticize a mod.
The one thing I did notice about IS was the lack of ships. After several battles and wars, the AI does not really build up again and if it does it Sloops, Galleys, Tradeships and Brigs. That may be due to the high costs to each ship. A 3rd rate is over $6000.
I prefer Darth's mod in relation to the naval battles. They just feel more right.
About halfway through a campaign I usually quit as I have soooo much money rolling in due to the lack of agrerssiveness of the AI in the naval aspect of the game.
It's a matter of taste. For me IS works better in the beginning (interesting economics and battle changes results in more challange) but Darth gets better overall after some 40-50 turns into the game (more aggressive AI results in bigger empires to fight, more competent AI navy handling, quite balanced economy on a long term and interesting battles). Both mods are OK, i'm currently playing Darth with slow starting nations like Georgia for the best effect.
I havn't tried IS yet but I'm loving Darth Mod 1.5 + Battlesmoke + Blood + GunFX and some other goodies
My Russian campaign is quite a challenge on VH. And yes, the game gets quite interesting after 50 turns
Right now I'm trying to win a Middle east three way against the Ottomans and Persia. I have managed to secure Dagestan and Georgia but I'm fighting both the Ottomans and Persia (while Persia is both fighting the Ottomans and I). I managed to smack the ottomans but this allowed Persia to pour in Turkey. I went for a quick strike and captured Ankara but now I have 4 Persian full stacks (thats 6000 men and camels for you) running around thrashing the place! Battle lines cover half if not 2/3 of a map. Once all your units start firing, see a hundred men cavalry charge stopped dead in its track and while massive smoke clouds rise to obscure the battlefield, you'll understand why I love DM
I found that IS mostly changes the campaign part of the game, and Darthmod mostly changes the battle map part of the game. If you are one who autoresolves, go with IS, but if you like to get down and dirty in those battles, go with Darth Mod.
Darth mod all the way. Just to answer a few of the points raised against it:
Musket fire is only ineffective at long range (and the ranges have been increased) If you time your volleys well you can inflict heavy casulties.
Ships: As of 1.5 the speeds were slower and so were turning rates but only against the wind. This style of play makes the naval battles much more important, and gives smaller ships a noticeable advantage over larger ships in turns of manouvering.
Unit size. If you pc can handle the strain use the commander edition, if not then there is an unoffical mod that scales the unit sizes back down to vanilla levels.
Campaign AI. By changing the priorities darth has made it much more aggresive and it takes better decisions than in vanilla
I more of want to find out how the pucklegun has a clip because it fires without reloading for a while and muskets can only fire once and then reload. people have tried but say its hard coded
Merged mod recommendation threads.
thanks for merging! -seriously that wasn't sarcastic....
anyway i went with Darthmod i can handle the Commander Edition NP, and i quite like it so far even though Savoy Wurttemburg and Westphalia decided that paris would be better german speaking....
Sorry, I just posted a few minutes ago and got an excellent answer but now am curious about other mods because I am not one who typically likes to dl mods.
Anyway, I was just wondering what some of your favorite mods are that only make minor changes to the game, mostly graphics wise, but gameplay mods are welcome too. I'm talkin minor changes, bc I like to keep my games pretty vanilla. (For example I wanted the tracers eliminated from the bullets and django333 gave me a great mod). (also, I'm a newb to forums, how do you rep?)
I look forward to hearing some of your responses!
Mods are worthless imo until they allow the horrid battle AI to be changed.
two words: SMOKE MOD
link
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=237457
I think you need 50 posts before you can give rep. Here is another must have mod that really makes battles look so much better.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=237457
There are also a lot of retexture mods that can add some realism and variety to the game. Check out the released mods forum here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1075
If you want a mod that changes aspects of game play try either Darthmod, Imperial Splendour or A Porper Empire found here:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1071
I prefer Imperial Splendour, it seems a little more challenging than Darthmod but both are very good. I haven't tried A Proper Empire yet.
It is all about your preferences. Some people are happy with the released game, but some don't find it fits their taste perfectly for some reason. Usualy some gameplay issue, or it's too easy, or the old nugget of historical accuracy (of course there is a world of personal perspective in this area alone)...
I got into using mods with the XL mod for MTW... Loads of factions it was great fun...
I helped out on a mod in RTW for a short while, a lot of fun. Then I started using RTR for Rome, not too deep a of a change, but realisim orientated as opposed to gameplay specific...
The Kingdoms Grand Campaign Mod was (is) my choice for M2TW, again it opens up (unlocks) all available features and does a lot of tuning but does not get too carried away introducing new things...
For Empire I like Darth's so far, it is more about tweaking the existing game to produce a better expereince rather than wholesale reworking of game concepts (however it is really too early for very deep mods)...
In Darth's mod the most obvious (and still a little controversial) change is a big boost to unit numbers. On huge you have line infantry with 300 men and civilian garrsion troops with 500!. There is significant tweaking of musket combat with greatly reduced accuracy, and making the volleys much more deadly at short range. Unit experience is tweaked to have greater impact, newly recuited units are considered below average only becoming effective with some battlefield experience. Native american troops received modification to take away of european style formations and make them better at ambushing on the battlefield and very dangerous in hand to hand combat. The result is that fight them can be a nerve-racking experience where your mistakes can get your army slaughtered. Naval combat sees a lot of changes, especially slowing down the ships, reducing acceleration and turn rates especially for the large ships of the line. Hulls strength and morale is reworked to produce a more "authentic" experience (note the use of the term authentic as opposed to realistic).
Interestingly a lot of the present behavior of the CAI in vanilla after the patch matches what modders achieved previously with more agression, but focused on valid targets.
It is horses for courses but the right mod can change a fun game to the Ultimate Gaming Experience (tm)...
Last edited by Bob the Insane; April 30, 2009 at 12:41 PM.
"They are the devil's vegetable" - Captain Keeble, HMS Bulwark
Good stuff. OK so I wanna get some of these but I guess I don't have the program to dl them? I've never dl a mod before so I have no idea what I'm doing. Any help?