Official 'Third Age 1.0 - 3.2 Question & Answer' Thread

[Macilrille]

And read lots of guides from that section. TATW is difficult.

[b2ector]

In regards to law and corruption, between moving the capital and doing a significant amount of cheating to increase governors' law promoting attributes, I've virtually corruption in all settlements except four or five, and my overall loss to "corruption and other" is still 4500. There's no way the few settlements I have that do not have zero corruption are soaking up that much cash. I'm curious what else factors into the "corruption and other" category.

[Unseengenie]

Are the victory symbol's one get random or on a set program.

[Ngugi]

Victory symbols? As in the images in teh scrolls or crossed swords on the map or what are you thinking of?

[Unseengenie]

Things like the OoMM banner

[Ngugi]

Mhm, graphics; not my own field but look trough the Mod Workshop's tutorial pages for it and you should find guides for you: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...and-Animations

If not and you want directions, or there's modding matter questions, turn to the Workshop's graphics discussion section: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...and-Animations

[Withwnar]

Things like the OoMM banner

In your character's "Retinue" list, yes? That is an ancillary and while receiving one might be random* (usually is) its image is not.

* Their triggers are typically one or more conditions (e.g. defeated OotMM in battle) and a random percent chance of it being awarded. Not always, some have 100% chance of being awarded.

[Bladvak]

In regards to law and corruption, between moving the capital and doing a significant amount of cheating to increase governors' law promoting attributes, I've virtually corruption in all settlements except four or five, and my overall loss to "corruption and other" is still 4500. There's no way the few settlements I have that do not have zero corruption are soaking up that much cash. I'm curious what else factors into the "corruption and other" category.

Corruption is dependent on the income that city gives. If those few settlements have a high income, then 4500 may actually be an appropriate figure.

Also, every action that requires money has to be accounted somewhere. If there is no strict column for that expense, it will go into the "other" column. Usually, the expenses from scripts go there - Counter-Invasion comes to mind. Watchtowers for sure, bribery for armies not sure, destroying buildings will give a positive bonus to the "other" column, etc.

If you wish for us to pinpoint exactly to the root of the problem, state your faction, the cities that have high corruption and the situation there: law bonuses, governor's traits and vices, the capital. If you are playing as Dwarves and your capital is at Gundabad and you own Moria and Azanuzilbar and some Rhunnic cities, then I've got some bad news for you .

[Hugyfew]

What should I know when preparing and performing an invasion on enemy lands?

invasion, not with a big I. invasion, not Invasion.

[DrDragun]

What should I know when preparing and performing an invasion on enemy lands?

Do you mean a true Invasion, e.g. the script called by the Dark Lord, or do you mean normal conquering land from your enemy?

For an Invasion, your army will become free upkeep and gain a significant movement speed boost. However, individual units will begin deserting if you do not make progress toward the crusade target (when they desert they disappear from the game). So you cannot use your super-fast, free army to go conquering other territories away from the target.

When you fulfill the Invasion, you get to keep the conquered settlement in addition to all of your units in the army gaining experience and you gain some gold and reputation with the Dark Lord.

[Flinn]

Well it really depends on what you mean with invading: are you speaking about Invasion called by Sauron or a regular aggressive action against enemy?
It also depends on which faction you are and who you want to invade.

Anyway, some general suggestions:

- recruitment in TATW is linked with local culture and new culture takes time to spread into a newly conquered settlement (unless you already have the same culture), so it will be most probable that you will not be able to recruit/retrain troops for a long time in those new settlements, thus it is usually smart to plan to start recruiting reinforcements on your homeland few turns after you have started to invade the enemy territory. Once 1/4 stack of reinforcement is ready, send it to the frontline; keep doing this until you have secured the new lands with enough garrisoned troops and you have reinforced the invading stack/s

- use at least one spy to check carefully enemy territory, it is not unlikely the enemy has one or more army hidden in the woods

- carefully check which settlements have the garrison script

- remember that in TATW destroyed factions go horde, so if you plan to eradicate that specific faction, you have to consider that and be prepared to face the horde (usualy composed by some elite units)

- weakened factions get benefit from a special script, for details please see here http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...n-Dread-Stacks

if you want more info, give us more details

edit:

[Bladvak]

What should I know when preparing and performing an invasion on enemy lands?

invasion, not with a big I. invasion, not Invasion.

So basically an expedition of a greater size and force.

You should know three things:
-that which you know beforehand
-that which is in the present
-how to use that which you know and apply it into practice

-that which you know beforehand is mainly about the general strengths and weaknesses of each and every faction - everyone knows that the bane of orcs is cavalry, everyone knows that the elves have low replenishment rates but powerful units, etc. seeing how active you are in the forums, I will presume you already know this about the faction that you wish to invade
you will know the settlements of the enemy faction, where the recruitment centers are and what you can use of them once you get a hold (if they are compatible with your faction's recruitment ground - grass, desert, mountains, etc). ideally, you should go for these first even if it means skipping one or two settlements, so that you will be able to replenish your forces once they start getting casualties.
you should also try to be the first to chokepoints or better yet, to get a hold on chokepoint settlements (Black Gate, Cair Andros, Osgiliaths, Pelargir, Tharbads, OotMM settlement next to Imladris, to name a few)

-that which is in the present : you will need spies and/or spying armies. I presume you are preparing to fight against a distant, powerful faction: much like HE against Mordor, Harad against HE, Dwarves against Rhun, etc. I suggest that you train and have some spies with you, that will reveal the enemy territory for about 1, 1 and a half turn inside. If you are at the Black Gates, that should mean that you know the enemy movements at Barad-dur and Minas Ithil (spies will have to be successfully infiltrated in Black Gate and then go beyond)
For spying armies: these are usually 1-cavalry unit armies, scouts or cavalry BG, scouts because they are cheap and BG because they replenish. spying armies are used to clear the path in the forest of ambushes (sometimes spies fail) and to also reveal enemy movements. they also draw out the enemy armies to a terrain of your choosing.

depending on the distance between you and the target, size of your faction, of the enemy faction and of the rapport between your units' strength and the enemy's units' strength, I would suggest between 2-4 stacks of units.

The first city that you conquer should be kept in good order, since it will become a stable, safe settlement once you move on. You will need some basic infrastructure there: roads, siege works (building siege engines right in the enemy lands is a sure strategy). barracks for garrisoning needs, etc.

Let's take an example: in MOS 1.5 (?Ithink) I was owning the North of ME with Dwarves. Rohan and Gondor were getting a beating. I took 2 stacks of my most elite units (Iron Guard, Axemen of Erebor, Dwarven Halberdmen and some miners for garrisoning) and conquered Moria. After that, I replenished some of my units and went straight to Hornburg (owned by Isengarad, with mountains as the recruitment ground). Once there, I started to slowly but surely gaining a foothold on former Rohan lands (Rohan still owned the capital at about turn ~100ish, figure that!). In a few turns, I had managed to break a wedge between Isengard and Mordor (who owned much of Rohan lands) and I was able to let Rohan breathe. The unit were hard pressed to maintain their numbers, but I had managed to bring one or two more stacks from up north, fighting through Mordor lands and getting losses, but at least I reinforced Hornburg. I did not finish that campaign, as I upgraded the MOS version, but at least it was one of my most epic campaigns and one where I had finally started to love those bearded midgets. Hard-hitting infantry should be fighting on city walls, facing downward on valleys or on bridges. The cavalry and the archers are masters anywhere else.

There are other advices, but I hope I have given you a fair idea about what to take into consideration.

[b2ector]

Corruption is dependent on the income that city gives. If those few settlements have a high income, then 4500 may actually be an appropriate figure.

Also, every action that requires money has to be accounted somewhere. If there is no strict column for that expense, it will go into the "other" column. Usually, the expenses from scripts go there - Counter-Invasion comes to mind. Watchtowers for sure, bribery for armies not sure, destroying buildings will give a positive bonus to the "other" column, etc.

If you wish for us to pinpoint exactly to the root of the problem, state your faction, the cities that have high corruption and the situation there: law bonuses, governor's traits and vices, the capital. If you are playing as Dwarves and your capital is at Gundabad and you own Moria and Azanuzilbar and some Rhunnic cities, then I've got some bad news for you .

I'm out of town for the weekend, but I'll check in a few days. Are you referring to the construction cost of watchtowers or do they have a "upkeep" cost, as well? The cost of watchtower construction goes into the regular construction costs (I build them like crazy). I never bribe armies or settlements and I didn't think there were counterinvasions.

What are the various faction events for all the different factions? All I know of is rebuilding Arnor as Eriador and rebuilding Osgiliath as Gondor.

Is there any way to help Sauron regain the ring? AI evil factions possess the ring all the time but whatever script allows Sauron to emerge never takes place. I've even taken the ring and marched the lone ring bearer into Mordor hoping he'll be killed and the ring taken. I've never fought Sauron and want the challenge.

[b2ector]

Oh, and I seem to remember in M2TW that units' appearances would change if you upgraded their armor, but in TATW that seems not to be the case. Is there a patch or submod to correct that?

[Ngugi]

That comes down to a matter of choice; a mod can chose to have all between one to five or so versions of a units that change with armour upgrades. The majority of units in TATW has two (basic + one upgraded) or more, while I can not tell how great difference there is from the top of my head (as I just confirmed there's different models for basic and upgraded units from looking into the export_descr_unit-file).

[Bladvak]

I'm out of town for the weekend, but I'll check in a few days. Are you referring to the construction cost of watchtowers or do they have a "upkeep" cost, as well? The cost of watchtower construction goes into the regular construction costs (I build them like crazy). I never bribe armies or settlements and I didn't think there were counterinvasions.

Yes, I was referring to the upfront cost, watchtowers do not have an upkeep. Well, if you're saying it goes into construction costs, there goes my surety .

What are the various faction events for all the different factions? All I know of is rebuilding Arnor as Eriador and rebuilding Osgiliath as Gondor.

Arnor-Gondor, ok.
HE and SE can rebuild their Ancient Kingdoms, respectively, if you have chosen the script at the start. The leaders of the factions have a trait/ancillary that describes the conditions. HE gets Mithlond Nobles and Eregion Smiths (2 ap, AoR units) and SE gets to build Ent Houses. Never restored these kingdoms myself, so cannot tell you more
OotMM - it can get the Balrog if Moria is attacked or if the Mithril Mines conditions are followed
Mordor can get Sauron is if gets the ring.

Is there any way to help Sauron regain the ring? AI evil factions possess the ring all the time but whatever script allows Sauron to emerge never takes place. I've even taken the ring and marched the lone ring bearer into Mordor hoping he'll be killed and the ring taken. I've never fought Sauron and want the challenge.[/QUOTE]

Afaik, if your ring bearer would have been killed by Mordor, that would have given the ring to Mordor automatically and Sauron should have re-emerged. There's something fishy about this, maybe you have an older version or not all your scripts are working properly? Or maybe the stack that had killed the ring bearer did not have a general? Not sure about the intricacies of this special side of the game.

Oh, and I seem to remember in M2TW that units' appearances would change if you upgraded their armor, but in TATW that seems not to be the case. Is there a patch or submod to correct that?

That is the case. The best way to view that is by looking at the lowest Gondor cavalry or Lossarnach Axemen - they get about 2-4 upgrades and the difference is quite nice to behold. There are some units that cannot have their armour upgraded, but that's another thing. Just remember : in TATW, modders and skinners made it so the differences apply only to the armour-parts you can see in battle, you need to really zoom in to behold them in all their splendour . Also, if your video settings are on the low-side, then you might not feel the difference between chainmail and heavy chainmail.

[Funeh]

1. Is there a distance limit for a naval trades? For example, just hypothetically if I would be playing as Umbar, could I trade with Havens of Lindond all across the world via the sea?

2, Can I make a thread poll about sub mods popularity?

[riuk881]

I'm getting a new computer soon, having only played 3 vanilla campaigns which submod do you all recommend I try? Mos or Dac? Or are there others I'm not even aware of?

[Macilrille]

There are also FRoGs and Perilicious, check the submod forums. And a myriad of smaller mods.

One does not rule out the other, I have both DaC and MOS.

[Flinn]

I'm getting a new computer soon, having only played 3 vanilla campaigns which submod do you all recommend I try? Mos or Dac? Or are there others I'm not even aware of?

you can check here, the list has been updated last week http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...pdated-for-3-2