[PROPOSAL] Hordes for BI.exe

**cherryfunk** · October 21, 2009, 01:01 PM

Someone asked about this in the Preview thread and I think it's an excellent idea.

Some of the factions in RS2 were noted for hordelike behavior. In fact the Cimbri are most famous for their exploits as a horde and resultant war with Rome.

Hording adds quite a bit to the campaign, since factions tend to stick around longer, which greatly reduces the 'superfaction' problem. And many of the RS2 factions could legitimately be given the horde ability:

- Sarmatians
- Scythians*
- Parthians
- Arverni
- Belgae*
- Cimbri*
- Boii*

[*Unique to RS2]

In other words fully 1/3 of all factions in the mod could be given this ability. And we already know that many players use BI.exe because it provides better AI and unit abilities. So no doubt many fans would make use of this variant if it existed.

Question: does anyone know how much work would be involved in creating an alternate set of files to add the horde ability to the mod?

**Squid** · October 21, 2009, 01:54 PM

We don't have the unit space to do it properly. Basically you'd need a special descr_sm_factions.txt and EDU for BI. The big issue is that unless you want the horde units to be the same the regular ones, which doesn't make much sense since its the families, elders, children, etc you need to have a duplicate set (or subset) of units which have a lower combat ability to represent that they weren't front line soldiers.

Also I don't think the parthians were a horde type faction, nomadic maybe but I'm not sure I'd go as far as to say a horde faction.

**cherryfunk** · October 21, 2009, 02:03 PM

What about using regular units, but decreasing the number generated when a faction hordes? Might that be a workaround?

**Squid** · October 21, 2009, 02:16 PM

Sure you could use that as a work around.

**tone** · October 22, 2009, 04:27 AM

Good idea - maybe as a post release add-on if it's not able to be implemented in time

**Squid** · October 22, 2009, 09:59 AM

The implementation is simple, the balancing might be difficult. For EDU changes you just need to add the can_horde ability to any unit you want to be able to horde, and then just add corresponding lines to descr_sm_factions.txt.

**dvk901** · October 22, 2009, 10:56 AM

You can't use hording in RS2. For one thing, a 'horde' unit can ONLY horde if it has that attribute. So any unit made a horde unit can't be recruited at all. (you'll get an error, I've tried it). That unit would also be unavailable in regular RTW completely, and would have to be removed from EDU. The way units share models in RS2 would make it extremely hard to even separate any units out that could be horded, because once the unit has that attribute, it's useless for anything else.

**Squid** · October 22, 2009, 11:08 AM

I didn't realize that horde units couldn't be used regularly, I assumed it was like the mercenary_unit attribute where it was a regular unit with extra things it could do.

**dvk901** · October 23, 2009, 08:01 AM

So did I...until I actually gave the attribute to a unit and tried to start the game. It told me right away that a 'horde' unit couldn't be recruited, as I remember. I know there was an error.

**Squid** · October 23, 2009, 10:24 AM

Sigh I wish we could release a patch for the exe. Games like morrowind have code patches which fix problems with the exe, so why can't we do the same?