Sub-mod: Campaign for BoA 2.0! (Outdated, see Download Thread)

[Malagant]

this is a very good MOD, congratulations!!! i love this one, because i love the first Total war game Shogun... so i hope you will continue your works!! will there be a update for the unit infocards and the unitdescritions??? is it possible to make the unitcards on the campaignscreen a little better??

[ccappiello]

wee I've spent about 30+ hours last two days tweaking this mod. Alex has created a perfectly functional camp map and set the ground work for this, I have simply added family trees, names, starting armies, varied rebels, and a simple, vanilla rome naval unit to allow easier travel around the southern isles. I have finished all the above, including tweaking of faction tech trees and sub_faction characters to allow certain generals to retain their family surname. All I have left is setting traits/ancillery and epithets for certain famous characters (Motoyasu Matsudaira, Hideyoshi Hashiba, Masayuki Sanada, etc should be able to pass on their name to their children, without creating late game CTDs).

If anyone is interested I can upload the files when I finish these last few things. I'm no pro but I believe I've done a bang-up job of it all, so far everything runs smooth and I've read through a LOT of threads to make sure I'm doing everything correctly. Historical accuracy is about equivalent to original STW, for better or for worse. Anyhow, at the very least it should save you alot of time for having to type it all yourself. files altered include export_units, export_buildings, descr_names, descr_name_lookup, names, and descr_strat.

Thanks for setting the ground work Alex

Thank you so much!
If I may add one thing, I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but my game crashes to the desktop every time I try to personally fight a battle in the campaign mode. Someone, somewhere else on this thread, mentioned he had problems with CTDs fighting the rebels, but I'm getting it with other factions too.

Thank you for your help!

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Malagant I agree I believe many of us loved STW and have been waiting for a sequel since ^^; Ironically, unit cards and unit descriptions are what I'm working on right now. I am a little frustrated by the quality though, I would like to give you high quality images but I'm not very good with GIMP. Still, I feel that SOMETHING needs to go on those stat sheets, so I will continue and you can always get a higher quality image if you want =)

Ccappiello I'm not sure what would cause that bug, but a few things come to mind. Your graphics options may be set too high for your graphics card to handle. Second, you are entereing a battle with more models than your computer can handle. You should try fighting a custom battle and seeing if a similar number of troops causes you to crash. It is also possible you found a bad piece of map terrain that we never found before, it is hard to test every single square inch of the campaign map.

Finally, I did a lot of testing on daimyo bodyguard units last night. The end result is that I have created smaller, more balanced ones that wont change the abilities or stats of your recruitable units. I have also made a number of fixes to incorrect unit banners, a minor problem with the animations for the Captains of each faction, and a few other little things.

My only regret is that I couldn't get my special Hatamato idea working. I will continue to test the concept but it currently seems impossible. Will update late with more info and a link

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Well its certain, my Hatamato idea wont work. I wanted to use the animal handlers unit to create a unique Hatamato, afterall the only way to have mixed units in game is with animal handlers. Butttt you can't have both a mount and animal in the same squad, you are limited to one weapon for handlers and one weapon for "animals", and I have no idea how to add additional animal categories anyhow, my attempts all caused immediate CTDs.

I may look more into it at some point to see if I can create a mixed infantry unit (not a Hatamato, just a regular unit), but it wouldn't make much sense other than for generals. Maybe for some sort of berserker or prisoner unit where the soldiers are unleashed on the enemy like animals, but otherwise...

Sigh it woulda been a great idea... just imagine the potential. Daimyo and small bodyguard (advisors, retainers, pages, etc) on horseback with bow and a personal unit of lancers that he can send out at the point of decision in a battle. The Daimyo can choose whether to risk himself in battle or not (Handlers don't get experience for kills their "animals" make), his loyal soldiers would gladly fight to the death for him, wont rout, and make the PERFECT screen for him if he needs to retreat. AND after the battle he instantly replaces all lost soldiers, which makes sense - you wouldn't leave your daimyo defenseless and there are always more men you can call upon.

Had to go with idea #2, which was simply creating smaller, personal bodyguards using units already in game. They are ready to be used, and I'll upload the files soon as I get to my home computer. Oh actually, I'm still making unit cards for them, so soon as I finish that they will be ready. I went to some effort to make the units stand out on the battlefield. Each bodyguard consists of a small group of above average (but not overpowered) warriors, a group of 3 officers which stand out from regular units, and an offset number of banner carriers. By offset, I mean some have only one banner carrier, some have a ton, but I couldn't give them all the same number even though I wanted to. At least this way you can differentiate between a regular unit and a bodyguard unit... until both have taken alot of casualties. The problem is that I can't create new textures, so I've sent a inquiry to the BoA team.


Anyhoowwww, I have also decided to create some mercenary units, using the textures already available but not used (or not used much at least). Their stats will be average, making them primarily valuable early in the game. Ikko-Ikki infantry and archers (In other words, weaker sohei and uesugi sohei archers available from the start), early teppo units, Iga infantry (A light spear unit that can hide), and some Chinese/Korean mercenaries are the plan. If anyone has 3Dmax, it would be nice to simply change some of the cloth to the mercenary green and remove the clan symbols, but this isn't strictly necessary it will jsut help differentiate the mercs from regular units.

[GERMANICUS]

I am a liking what I am reading!
Question though did the Diamyo employ foriegn mercenaries during the Sengoku period?
Would it be more correct to make them Ronin instead?

Cheers

[Hayami Kagemusha]

As far as I know, no Japanese did not employ foreign mercenaries. It wouldn't make much sense to, as foreign warriors don't readily "drift" unto an island nation like they might on the mainland, and Japanese Daimyo typically provided basic provisions and some equipment to their warriors. However, there were many Japanese that used foreign weapons and armor, especially in Western parts of Japan. The Ouichi family in particular imported heavily from China prior to being conquered by the Mori. Ryukyu, (Modern Okinawa) under the control of the Satsuma Daimyo, was heavily influenced by Chinese immigrants. Other, poorer regions of Japan also relied on the old Chinese weapons and armor. True these units were not mercenaries, rather they were part of the main armies of the Daimyo. But it wouldn't make much sense to give factions units entirely equipped with foreign gear... so instead I will allow them to recruit a few mercenaries with such equipment.

Also, yes there will be a ronin unit or two but not much. Primarily because ronin are equipped and fight the same way as other samurai units, and thus add very little to the game play, other than perhaps providing cavalry units early on.

My current plan is this: provide every clan a way to boost their numbers in an emergency, by providing some sort of basic infantry and cavalry mercenary to each. In some regions it is Chinese style, in others Ikko-Ikki warriors or ronin. Note that I cannot currently create new textures, so a chinese style unit will be equipped entirely with chinese equipment, instead of just some specific parts which would be more realistic.
In a few specific regions special units will be provided, primarily to give a faction a unit type they can't normally recruit. For instance, Mori cannot recruit teppo units at all, but an early Teppo mercenary gives them the chance to recruit a weaker variant, also allowing neighbors to have one earlier than normal. No mercenary unit will be powerful... even famous ones like Band of Iga or Saiga Rifles. But they will add extra dimensions to gameplay and a way to quickly bolster numbers in an emergency.

Speaking of Saiga Rifles, I'm not sure that one will go in. It depends on whether I can give a teppo unit the sohei skin, or get someone to add that to the Sohei model.

Okay so time to get to work on the unit cards, I got distracted writting unit descriptions tonight ^^;

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Bug Error update, found some bugs in the export_descr_building.txt file involving incorrect faction/culture ownership of a few buildings. Most of the problems seem to relate to the "romans_scipii" faction aka Uesugi Clan. Usually the problem is that I left out the "s" in "romans_". Also a few cases where I took a faction out from a one tier but not the tier above it, which of course causes bugs. If you have -show_error, you can easily fix this yourself but regardless I'll be submitting a fixed file tomorrow along with the new daimyo bodyguards.

[Reverend Scott]

Thanks for your continued hard work, dedication and professionalism.

[Hayami Kagemusha]

I appreciate it reverend.

Well I keep getting branching out into too many things at once. Daimyo are practically done but I found out how to do some basic skinning work in GIMP and started working on a few mercenary units as a test. The Ikko Ikki archer and infantry unit both came out great, very pleased with what I can do though limited it may be. I can't create new models, give a model a new weapon, or create an entirely new unit texture, but I can give change unit's animations, alter their colors, and even import other textures and combine them. For instance, the Ikko Ikki infantry unit combines the standard sohei look with the light armor of ashigaru to make it distinguishable from regular sohei. The sash and midsection are colored a "mercenary green" while the armor plates are given a "rebel grey" to make them stand out further. I finished and tested it in game right before leaving for work, so no screenshots till I get home. I have a couple to share of some of the Daimyo, the two mercenary units, and the fix for the EDB.txt file.

Anyhow, for the most part my goals for the units are pretty simple, I don't want to mess too much with the BoA teams work, just the necessary stuff to get Daimyo and mercenaries properly dressed and working in game ^^; A short list of what I want to do:

- give a banner carrier a spear, so the Yari-equipped daimyo bodyguards will standout from the regular troops
- A new cavalry archer model for the Uesugi Daimyo Bodyguard. I want to use one of the elite samurai skins for the unit, but only the cav archer and foot archer skins fit the model.
- Add rifle and spear to sohei model for mercenary units.

Of course, without 3Dmax I can't do any of these so we'll see. The rest I should be able to do, especially now that I know how to switch unit animations around. Its just a matter of time now, though I will warn you several of these things are time consuming, like creating unit portraits for every unit... Plus every little change I make to units has a whole list of potential issues that could cause the game to crash, so testing it to make sure it works takes even more time >.>

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Okay here is the export_descr_buildings.txt fix that will avoid any errors with Uesugi family tech tree.

IMPORTANT FILE FIX!
export_descr_buildings.txt
It goes directly in the Data folder.

And then a few screenshots of units in action.

First, Imagawa Daimyo Hatamato fighting Oda lancers
Imagawa Daimyo Bodyguard Sample.jpg


Next an Oda Hatamato engaging Mori Naginata Elite. Note that movie cam doesn't work in campaign mode, so this is just the captain not the wonderful daimyo skin the BoA team made. You can see why I want to attach a banner to the yari cavalry unit, to make them stand out from other yari cavalry. Oh well at least they have several elite officers with them
Oda Daimyo Bodyguard Sample.jpg


Next the new Ikko Ikki Bushi and Ikko Ikki Yumi
Ikko Ikki Warriors Sample 2.jpg


Ikko Ikki Bushi fighting Shimazu Sohei. This picture was taken to show you the changes made to the Ikko Ikki Sohei model. They still need to standout more so I'll be changing their hoods to a different, earthen color soon. However, only Shimazu Sohei look at all like them, so I'm rather pleased with how they came out
Ikko Ikki Warriors Sample.jpg


A battle between Ikko Ikki Yumi and their model predecessor, the Uesugi Yumi Sohei. The Ikko Ikki Yumi have "rebel grey" armor plates, "mercenary green" clothes, and no symbol or banner like the Uesugi troops. Still I will probably change their hood color as well to make them match the Ikko Ikki Bushi.
Ikko Ikki Yumi Sample.jpg


Finally, the two in action against a regular uesugi army. I nearly won this battle until the enemy captain lead his superior elite sohei archers into the fray.
Ikko Ikki versus Uesugi Sample.jpg



Thats all for today, I'll update the previous link with a new zip file later. Also should have the new units ready with basic unit cards and full descriptions.

[Reverend Scott]

I am having occassional CTD's, but they are pretty rare. Overall, the campaign mod is really stable. I had more with units set to "huge", but on "large", there doesn't seem to be much of a problem.

[Hayami Kagemusha]

ah yeah I should add something about that in my original download link. The models used by the BoA team are high polygon, thus the game has always been prone to crashing if you load more than your graphics card can handle. When BoA was a custom battle mod, it wasn't a problem as the game would tell you if you had too many troops before you started hte battle. Unfortunately in campaign they don't count them for you. Save often and if you encounter a problem, reload and change the default unit size, or just get through that battle with less troops.

*edit* solution found, it was rather obvious. Custom Maps are just battlefields taken from specific regions of the campaign map itself. Thus when Alex made the current campaign map, the coordinates for most of the custom maps became obsolete. I just need to find new sections of the current campaign map that are similar to the original, and change the coordinate of the custom map.

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Just figured I should mention something here. Taking a short break from work, as the Uesugi cavalry archer problem has become really frustrating. Let me know if you guys are having problems with it too, will help me figure out if the problem occured before or after I changed the files. It will be quite noticeable if it happens, its an errorless CTD (crash to desktop) that occurs when you try to fight a battle with the Uesugi Cavalry Archer (Kihei to Yumi) that happens either when you try to start the battle, or during the loading screen. It does NOT happen every time, which is the most frustrating part of this bug, but it is clearly limited only to that specific soldier model/skin.

If this problem persists, I will first try reverting the unit to its original form, and if that doesn't solve it I will just have to change the Uesugi Daimyo to a different unit, and make the Uesugi Cavalry Archers unrecruitable, which would really suck.

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Little update, I found the issue with ports and ships with different experience levels, it will indeed cause a ctd though it isn't likely to happen. Still it will need to be patched, I'll handle it soon. So the next update will have a fix for custom maps, for the ships/ports issue, and hopefully, if I can figure out this issue with the Uesugi Cav Archers, the new daimyo hatamato units and two mercs (which can be played with but not yet recruited). I have also changed the recruitment costs for all units, They may not be balanced yet but they reflect the costs BoA gave them for custom battles, hopefully I got them all right.

Beyond these current issues, here are some of the future updates I'm working on. expect that I will be adding the spies back in, I feel they really are needed. The EDB (Building file) will be rebalanced and some new building bonuses will be added. For instance, the Morale bonus for troops provided by the shrines does not actually work, a problem inherent with the coding which can't be changed. I suppose I can give them higher valor or something else instead. Mercenary units will be made recruitable in appropriate regions, unit descriptions will be finished (I've already done all the non-elite ones), additional rebel subfactions will be created and their recruitment problems fixed, and there will be upgraded daimyo hatamato to keep them balanced in late game.

There are other things I want to get to eventually, but these are the major issues I need to deal with first. But first of all I need to figure out this freaking Uesugi Cavalry Archer problem, it bothers me to no end T_T

[knight of virtue and valor]

nice work, Hayami.

[paradamed]

I suggest you to release an all in one version, maybe not for the next version but in the near future. It would be cool to have the mod and the campaign in a single installer.

[Hound of Ulster]

wow keep up the good work!

+rep

[Hayami Kagemusha]

I suggest you to release an all in one version, maybe not for the next version but in the near future. It would be cool to have the mod and the campaign in a single installer.

yeah thats the plan, but I just feel there are so many things still missing to call it a complete submod yet. When the main bugs are worked out, and the major play balance issues are worked out I'll be content to call it ready for a single installer. I probably shouldn't have called the first release version 1, but rather version 0.5.

Let me make it clear I'm not complaining about anything the BoA team or Alex did, they did more than their share of the work I am just picking up where they left off. Units were not designed for campaign play so they were balanced for instant battles, not the gradual tech tree, garrission costs, and recruitment of campaigns. Likewise there was no need for rebel or mercenary forces, and that was a big change that requires quite a bit of work.

And thanks Ulster, I appreciate it.

[Hayami Kagemusha]

Well I apologize for all the delays, but things got really busy for me last week and a half. But that doesn't mean nothing is getting done, I have edited some files, but more importantly Helloween offered his aid and has made a number of text edits already. No longer will factions appear with inappropriate Roman and Greek elements, Helloween has changed all the strat models to display the correct names. Julii Faction Leader will now be Mori Daimyo, Brutii Spy will be Shimazu Shinobi etc. Campaign Descriptions, Unit Descriptions, and other elements are also be fixed. So thanks to Helloween, the next update will contain his fixes, while I focus on units and bugs.

Good news is I have tomorrow off so I should definitely get some things settled. I plan to make a final decision about the Uesugi Daimyo Hatamato and release what I have for now. Will update again soon, later.

[Hound of Ulster]

very cool