A bag of questions.

[ProphetofProfit]

a. I'm looking for a mod which offers a long game spanning many many hours of play. Is DLV the mod I'm looking for?

b. Can I edit the army rosters for the campaign? I would like to add Aventuros, Reiters and Gothic Knights to the Venice roster if possible.

c. Can anyone direct me to a map of the Italian peninsula for DLV? I don't own M2TW at the moment (had to destroy me old game a year ago because of addiction). If I remember correctly, the map was modded to add a lot more towns, is that right?

d. What difficulty would you suggest for someone who has played a lot of total war, and playing as Venice, with the aim of eliminating Milan, Sicily, The Papal States and Byzantium? I don't want to play a few dozen hours to find that the game is too easy or too difficult at the setting I had chosen.

[kaiser1993]

DLV is good, but I suggest if you do get it install Taiji's BB2.8 submod after DLV. It adds a lot of player immersion and a challenging campaign, new units some other stuff I've long forgotten about. Personally it is the best mod out there for a new M2TW experience.

DLV+BB2.8 offers a lengthy campaign without as much repetitiveness found in other mods, you can edit your faction roster through modding the txt files which is easy. Difficulty, VH, VH to get full out of the mod, but It can seem daunting when you start off. This is with BB.28 though, DLV on its own is old.

[Slime]

Yes, definitely get BB if you try out DLV.

Since I think the mod was designed with VH/VH in mind, I suggest keeping that as the default setting and, if necessary, disabling some of the scripts presented to you at the start of the game to decrease difficulty. A lot of difficulty depends on the faction choice, and I believe Venice isn't terribly difficult from what I've heard. Still, many of the scripts are optional so you can tailor the game to your needs without leaving VH/VH.

[Ishan]

DLV is =
DLV+BB is

[ProphetofProfit]

I downloaded DLV+BB but have some troubles. When playing the historical campaign, I can't build anything, even after turn 1, with either England or Venice. In the normal campaign I don't have such a problem, which I don't understand.

[lafeeverted]

I have never tried the historical campaign but IIRC, the historical campaign was not BB compatible until a later update. Make sure you have installed all the BB updates, this might fix the problem.

[Taiji]

ProphetofProfit, did you read the notes for installing and using BB?

[ProphetofProfit]

Yes I swear I read the instructions and installed everything correctly.

The only thing I haven't done is install the 2.86 update. There were no instructions where I look and I didn't know where to install it, so I didn't bother.

[lafeeverted]

you can find the instructions for the install of 2.86 in the post that announces the release on pg203 of the BB thread.

[Taiji]

No, it's in the first post right underneath the link for downloading it.

The game cannot be properly installed if it is not working properly when you install it.

Redownload and reinstall to be thorough.

[lafeeverted]

Ahh, so true I was thinking of the batch file reminder

[cmlax999]

I'm also looking for a mod. I played the hell out of Europa Barbarorum, and now I'm simply waiting for EBII. Is this + the BB submod the same type of idea, for those who've played EB? What about this other SS mod?

Thanks

[AstroCat]

I'm also looking for a mod. I played the hell out of Europa Barbarorum, and now I'm simply waiting for EBII. Is this + the BB submod the same type of idea, for those who've played EB? What about this other SS mod?

Thanks

Yes I feel this mod is close in feel to a M2TW version of EB. I liked EB a lot, except for the CTDs after lengthy battles, ouch! Happy to say that has not been a problem with DLV.

[cmlax999]

I'll give it a try whilst I wait out EB2 (please Jesus, soon).

Is there a solid link to this BB submod, anyone?

[Ishan]

You're Welcome.

[cmlax999]

Since you's guy's have been so helpful, one more question (for now).

Ok I've got everything loaded. Seems to work - phew! Is there an optimal difficulty level, that works best with the design of the mod?

[Taiji]

VH/VH all scripts on if you enjoy a steep learning curve. Otherwise turn off the Field Costs and/or Settlement Costs scripts. Byzantium is a nice faction to start with, and I think Venice is too. Both are probably easier than most other factions, but then that depends largely on you.

Read the manual for DLV6.2, and also the feature list, notes and recent changelog entries for BB. And read the event popups at the start of the campaign. Complicated game

[cmlax999]

I like it so far. One issue: clicking on about half of the factions in the selection screen causes ctd. Other than that no probs.

I'm playing as Muwahadeen, already 3000f in the hole . Lovely mod.

[Ishan]

There is a fix for that SS guys have done it don't know about DLV though.

Taiji has someone already done this for DLV? uniame5 was the one that discovered the fix, it's nothing complicated like editing .int file etc.

[Taiji]

Yes, BB users can run 'BB run once.bat', they'll find it in the DLV_ext folder. It removes a load of DLV leftover crap, including the map tgas in the campaign folder, and various tga's that I've converted to dds for better perfomance.