Easing back in - questions

[Cheomesh]

Got myself a copy of the gold edition. Hadn't played in ages since the map is so large it becomes tedious (I preferred the old Viking Invasion size map) and at the time I was looking for something more realistic with its units, but I thought I'd give it another go. I had a few questions:

1) Other than the official patches, are there any community goodies that fix unaddressed bugs? IIRC pretty much all two handed weapon units were bad choices because of some bug, and most had a terribly slow attack animation that made them all but useless.

2) Is there a guide to understanding the unit profiles? What each term means and how it relates to battle mechanics?

3) Any mods out there considered essential? I know the game itself had a number of fantasy units, flaws and the like. Especially with the AI.

Thanks,

M.

[~Fell~Harlequin~]

2) Is there a guide to understanding the unit profiles? What each term means and how it relates to battle mechanics?

I was recently looking for an ALL IN ONE pdf... but only found broken links. However, I did find this site:

http://totalwar.honga.net/faction_bu....php?encode=en

Go to the units tab, you can hover the mouse over the stats and get the 'labels' of the numbers, but another really cool thing is they provide visual data models of units just below the units stats to give you a very quick idea of how effective they are. Unfortunately, they don't describe what the labels mean and you have to work it out for yourself maybe through a search using this site. Att and Def are pretty obvious though.

There must be a well rounded sticky somewhere. I have forgotten or lost the links I had.
Future project for me.

[Fireright]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=397989 is a thread link regarding two handed animations.

Google VanillaMod0.93 by 'Faction Hier' on TW Guild..claims to speed up and tweak various 2handers. One of the guys tried it and said he noticed a modest improvement but didnt really go into much depth on it.

Might be worth a peek

[lafeeverted]

If you are looking for a new challenge check out the Deus Lo Vult mod with the BB sub mod. Two handers are devastating there.

[Cheomesh]

What about this "stainless steel" one? It was recommended on my IRC group. I will go check out Deus Lo Vult, though.

M.

[King Gambrinus]

What about this "stainless steel" one? It was recommended on my IRC group. I will go check out Deus Lo Vult, though.

M.

SS is pretty amazing, but you don't "need" it just yet. It's really if you want more depth in pretty much everything. SS, DLV and a few others will fix your bugs and hand you a decent AI too, but are for experienced players who want more of a challenge. You could find yourself dazed with all the features, particularly DLV, which is ing insane!

Expanded Americas and Kingdoms Grand Campaign mod are pretty self explanatory and are worth installing if you're reasonably happy with Vanilla. And I think CC/Retrofit fixes a lot of bugs as well as giving you extra campaigns.


Here are some mods that completely change the game if you ever get bored :


Eras : Total Conquest (several historical campaigns covering the whole world)
THERA (a sort of fantasy based mod where all the cultures (Romans, Amerindians, Uruk, Crusaders, etc...) from all the mods in TWC meet)
Broken Crescent (This covers the Middle East in great detail)
Third Age TW : If you're a fan of Lord of the Rings (*gags*)...still a great mod.



If you have any questions, I seem to have every M2TW mod under the sun, so just ask!

[Cheomesh]

Reading the stickied manual for DLV right now. What is the "BB" sub mod? I either missed it or didn't see it on their subforum.

M.

EDIT: A brief scan of DLV has convinced me to wait on that one. Thinking I should simply try some of the Vanilla stuff I never had before (bretannia for example). I'll get that vanilla mod so that two handers aren't pants, then try out DLV or SS some other time. Thanks!

[Ishan]

Reading the stickied manual for DLV right now. What is the "BB" sub mod? I either missed it or didn't see it on their subforum.

M.

BB is Battle Balance made by Taiji download from here.

[Cheomesh]

Well, it appears that the Vanilla Mod is MIA. Does anyone have a copy?

M.

[Ishan]

Well, it appears that the Vanilla Mod is MIA. Does anyone have a copy?

M.

What?

[Cheomesh]

All of the download links on the site that was linked above do not work. I can't download it and it doesn't look like the creator has been around for some time.

M.

[Ishan]

The links i gave above are working and the developer taiji i talked to him just now lol.
Or are you referring to something else?

[lafeeverted]

Think he is reffering to a mod for Vanilla M2TW, not the BB mod

[Cheomesh]

Oops, sorry. Yeah, VanillaMod is MIA, which is sad because it had what I was after.

M.

[Ishan]

Yep that is dead i checked and google doesn't gives anything either sorry mate. Though mods like SS DLV, KGCM have already fixed these issues.

[painter]

Didn't the VanillaMod also had crazy powerful Mongols? "To give experienced players a challenge" or so that I recall from a few months ago when I was reading up about it.

[Cheomesh]

I may just give KGCM and SS a go. I'm not exactly a total newbie, so I'm sure I can learn as I go. I think I tried SS or another mod a while back, one that started you off with low end militia units at best that quickly lost morale if you left your homeland, making early game all about internal build up over external.

M.

[Sulfurion Blackfyre]

SS, Third Age and Broken Crescent are in my opinion the most well made and polished mods for MTW2 Total War. The problem with Stainless Steel and the only reason I don't play it, is the extremely loooooooong turn endings. I seriously found myself wandering with my mind, and then coming back to me 5 minutes later, confused as due to why I was not doing anything, and then realizing I was still waiting for my turn. Other than that is surely the best mod for MTW2. I remember playing it on previous versions, and not having to wait that long, maybe I'll try to find older versions hmmm. Oooh that templar campaign...

Deus Lo Vult was kind of cool, but the immense amount of features in it was too damn confusing, and it didn't look very polished :S but it's map was one of the most beautiful and detailed I've seen.

Another cool mod for someone who is kind of happy with vanilla is the Portvcale mod by Boicote.

[Cheomesh]

Well, I've installed SS and I will be starting an early era campaign with the Savage AI, Byg's Grim Reality IV, RR/RC, Longer Assimilation, and Permanent Arrows. Limited Activities is a maybe; not done reading about the various features yet.

M.

EDIT: Grim reality sounds awesome, but I think my first time through I'd go bonkers trying to get good. So it's just Savage, RR/RC, Longer Assimilation and Permanent Arrows/Watch Towers for me.

[Ishan]

Keep in mind some of the sub mods are not compatible with each other and permanent arrows lays a stress on your GPU that can cause a battle lag so make sure you have that kinda rig to handle it.