Too many settlements? Siegefest?

[Dirty Harry]

Looking at pics of the campaign map, it seems there's a ton more settlements than SS, which already added a lot over vanilla. A lot of them are within easy one turn march of their neighbours. Unless army movement is reduced, just seems like the majority of battles will be sieges since it will be quite difficult to intercept armies in the open as they won't be there much.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with sieges, they can be pretty fun and epic, but field battles are neat too in the mixup. Plus sieges are mostly an infantry affair, so it will kind of shuffle cavalry out of the game.

I know this mod will focus on long term kingdom building, and settlement characteristics are very important, so reducing them wouldn't be much of an option.

I think some artificial movement mechanism should be looked into. Maybe it should take a full turn of movement for a unit to cross the border into a hostile province.

[Haakon]

I dont care, as long as Norway has more than one or two settlements. :-|

[Resurrection]

Actually it hopefully won't be siegefest contrary to what it is looking. For instance if you have to wait the siege till the end, it will give the enemy time to gather and repel you in the field battle. And it can be done simply by removing the option to build equipment on the spot and reducing pools of siege engines. I don't say it's gonna be like that, but it is one of the options how to prevent too many siege battles.

[true born Lithuanian]

But reducing armys marching distance in one turn is another good option, isn't it?

[Tomato_Sandwich]

reducing army movement would be quite annoying because they already move so unrealistically slowly. which i know is neccassary for gameplay but any more would just be too unrealistic.

[sumskilz]

But reducing armys marching distance in one turn is another good option, isn't it?

The problem with that is that you'd be sacrificing realism for gameplay and this is a realism based mod. One turn equals six months so movement should at least be somewhat based on the effective range of a medieval army during one campaign season. Gameplay is important, but I think any solution should take both gameplay and accuracy into account.

There would also be more field battles if the AI would relieve its besieged cities more often. I’d like to see the AI react more realistically to invasions. Of course programming the AI to do anything in specific is not easy. I wonder if this could be scripted to some degree.

[Dirty Harry]

Anyone know if it would be technically feasible to have an army lose a ton of movement points when crossing a frontier or disembarking from a ship? Let's say %80 of a standard turn's points (before special modifiers applied).

This would be a more precise solution than a broad based movement point reduction, and is a bit more realistic as it abstractly represents logistical problems of land/sea invasions into hostile territory (something that other mods like BGR have tried to model through "supply" dynamics).

I'm not a modder though so I have no idea if this is possible in the engine.

[Hengest]

Supply dynamics are as close as it gets to that and is the easiest way to do it. An army can easily resupply within a few turns by stopping at a settlement or fort it owns. Once it is in foriegn territory then of course it cant resupply and so gains penalties which increase over sevearl turns.

Anyone know if it would be technically feasible to have an army lose a ton of movement points when crossing a frontier or disembarking from a ship? Let's say %80 of a standard turn's points (before special modifiers applied).

This would be a more precise solution than a broad based movement point reduction, and is a bit more realistic as it abstractly represents logistical problems of land/sea invasions into hostile territory (something that other mods like BGR have tried to model through "supply" dynamics).

I'm not a modder though so I have no idea if this is possible in the engine.

[AnthoniusII]

The big number of settlements of every kind is not a problem...
In fact they add to realism...
The world was not "empty" as you know...
You will need to ensure that you will have a safe place before you will start to qonquer the world...
The vanilla version was a "game"...Mods like DotS and others that respect them selvs can not allow a player to qonquer the world in 50-60 years...
The main reason realistic mods exist is to "teach" us the atmosfear of those times...Have ever read of a medeival warlord that qonquered the world?
Trust me...Realistic battles,realistic diplomacy and many unique features will "put" you in the medeival world that succefully that you wont want to come out...

[Woden]

And don't forget that war in Middle Age was fundamentally a siege matter, there were few open field battles and lots of sieges.

[Walkman810i]

The big number of settlements of every kind is not a problem...
In fact they add to realism...
The world was not "empty" as you know...
You will need to ensure that you will have a safe place before you will start to qonquer the world...
The vanilla version was a "game"...Mods like DotS and others that respect them selvs can not allow a player to qonquer the world in 50-60 years...
The main reason realistic mods exist is to "teach" us the atmosfear of those times...Have ever read of a medeival warlord that qonquered the world?
Trust me...Realistic battles,realistic diplomacy and many unique features will "put" you in the medeival world that succefully that you wont want to come out...

Amen.

[Horsa]

I love siegefests though!

[algorath]

ETW features that, once you disembark an army from a ship you have to wait for next turn to move it. I dont like that, maybe limited movement range, but thats it

[sirfiggin]

Is there any way to reduce an army's range in hostile territory?

[Rinan]

Contrary to the poster above, I don't really like sieges. Maybe it's because the AI can only defeat me when they're defending in a siege, andthat's bad for my ego.
On the other hand, it is indeed true sieges were quite frequent in Medieval times, and it's quite true that the world wasn't empty back then. I'm just hoping for a fair balance between the amount of sieges and open-field battles. Wasn't DotS going to make sieges more fun/realistic/better/etc by adding artillery on castle walls and such?

Just want to say my opinion; I'd rather not have a siegefest.

[AnthoniusII]

Contrary to the poster above, I don't really like sieges. Maybe it's because the AI can only defeat me when they're defending in a siege, andthat's bad for my ego.
On the other hand, it is indeed true sieges were quite frequent in Medieval times, and it's quite true that the world wasn't empty back then. I'm just hoping for a fair balance between the amount of sieges and open-field battles. Wasn't DotS going to make sieges more fun/realistic/better/etc by adding artillery on castle walls and such?

Just want to say my opinion; I'd rather not have a siegefest.

I dislike asaulting castles too...
That is why i beseige them waiting the ennemy to sent reinforcements to the beseiged and make an open field batlle...
Beware though ennemies may be to many...

[Nuclear95]

I like sieges if there are more then just one peasant group on both sides. But i dont like if some sieges starts repeating themselfs and you have to fight in same place with same small army against small AI army that cant never win but always comes with identical army and tries again

[Leonnidas]

I like sieges if there are more then just one peasant group on both sides. But i dont like if some sieges starts repeating themselfs and you have to fight in same place with same small army against small AI army that cant never win but always comes with identical army and tries again

Never had that prob with the mod I play

[Kaizer Merlox]

Couldn't you make the armies move more slow, but then make the turns per year longer? (Balancing out realistic movement / seigefest)?

[Hengest]

Couldn't you make the armies move more slow, but then make the turns per year longer? (Balancing out realistic movement / seigefest)?

On the contrary we are raising movement speeds depending on terrain. Supply factors will also effect movement and army morale. You will be able to move up and down England if it is owned by your faction several times in one turn without issue, even if there are several enemy occupied points. However, if these points are at key movement points, such as river crossings, you are going to find your movement options very limited. We feel that this is making the most of the engine and the way the game was intended, we also feel it represents historical realities.