Gondor recruitment/soldiers overhaul RELEASED v1.1
Gondor recruitment/soldiers overhaul
Just as the description says ,in my first mod ever(if you can actually call modding just changing some stuff that exist already of course …anyway ;D ) I am attempting a whole out overhaul of the Gondorian war machine ,focusing on their core units entirely,and leaving AoR / Elite’s unaffected.
Testing is over.Actually i am most certainly not satisfied with the testing,there are many things id like to see ,but there is no more time (exams are starting) ,so ill have to release now and hope you be soft on it.
Before i begin i would like to stress ,that your feedback ,especially concerning balance is ESSENTIAL. Ideas and criticism are more than welcome ,provided they are constructive. Thanks!
This Sub-mod must NOT be used if the AI controls Gondor.It cannot survive!(use the anti-installer if you wanna play an other faction.)
I am attaching a picture that shows the base idea.
Features Features:
This submod alters the war machine gondor possesses in the game ,by removing entirely the need for militia to pre-professional ,and from pre-professional to professional unit transition. To be more precise ,there are no more militia and professional core units but one unit that is characterized as militia ,post-militia,pre-professional or professional only by 3 factors ,its experience ,armor upgrade and weapon upgrade. So now:
a)Smiths are now needed. Survival without them is harder.Army tier is measured by them and them alone.
b)Experience plays a greater role since before. A general must take care of his veterans.
c)Less blitzing ,since:1) the core units have increased upkeep. 2)Culture requirement has increased.
d)The transition from militia army to professional army is more dynamic ,takes course over the length of the campaign, and does not involve disbanding lower tier units and recruiting higher ones from scratch.
e)You don’t play 150+ turns just with militias. You shouldn't gameplaywise.You wouldnt normally.You wont now.
f)The unexprienced-poor equipped levied soldier can reach the professional armoured and deadly soldier…if he survives long enough.
g)The game is a bit more simplified recruitmentwise. Army diversity depends on the elite units.
Explanation/Thinking behind changes: Explanation/Thinking behind changes:
I’ve been a fan of gondor since I read the books. Although I did consider the full plate soldier present in the trilogy as a lore rape, I found it a good looking lore rape. With fewer words, I love gondors units as they are presented right now.After playing gondor endless times, sometimes without submods ,sometimes with MOS or Baron’s stuff ,I always loved the never ending struggle to stay alive ,a task quite easy if you could fully take advantage the game mechanics and AI (I’ve finished a campaign with gondor maintaining a quite fragile peace with harad since turn 40 for example),but quite hard if you decide not to (peace/exploits are for pussies!).
But I didn’t like at the fact that militias were the units I used 80% of the time. I didn’t also like the fact that I was forced to just send units on the frontline, and care little for their experience and longevity. Sometimes the challenge was to just send reinforcements and fight countless seemingly similar battles. I choose not to blitz ,found it kind of too much. And most and foremost I wanted my units to maintain their usefulness throughout the campaign, and evolve from companies of simple men to full fledged soldiers, just as my faction war machine does. And, since asking others to do what you want for you is a bit tad too much, that’s how all this came to be.
Simple example: Simple example:
Forget gondor militia and gondor swordsmen. You now have a new unit, gondorian soldiers. Your unit enters play with the basic equipment gondor militia posses ,meaning that your soldiers will wear leather /padded/mail armor and carry homemade shields and basic swords. But after having built the blacksmith for example ,and having them upgraded, their equipment now matches the new level of the unit. They now wear chainmail and use army shields. They are not militia units anymore ,their equipment is better and standardized. Now they are post-militia troops ,and visually they appear just as the unupgraded gondor swordsmen. The same principle goes along ,including two more levels of the unit ,the pre-professional and professional ,accompanied by the other two models ,and obtained only by building the neccesery buildings (barracks and smiths)and upgrading them. Thus for a unit to increase its armor value the smith buildings are neccesery .And since the are no professional units that come heavy armored from now on, you are now forced to invest there ,to ensure your survival .The unit has 11 armor (buffed from the militia original 9)and increases by 2 with upgrade ,reaching 17,the average level of defense professional gondor swordsmen have usually(it might be 2.5 and the increase at final stages 18.5 ,don’t know if its 2 ,or 2.5,tests show somewhere there).
Regarding the attack values of your troops ,here come into play the weapon upgrade and the experience. The attack values of the unit are the same as its militia version. In our example 7.The professional gondor swordsman has 9.Experience can give you up to 3 bonus ,plus 2 from the weapon upgrade(its actually 2.5 I think).The weapon upgrade ensures that fresh troops in the later stages of the campaign wont start the game with militia level attack but with the professional one(since 7+2(.5)=9),and past that point , betterment is only achived by experience. You can send them into death missions ,blitz, and care little of their longevity but later when you will need their higher attack to match the higher tier enemy troops, you wont have them. Thus ,taking care of our units is now necessary to survive later, and the veteran soldier is properly reflected and valued.
Neccesery changes: Neccesery changes:
In some cases gondor units are slightly buffed. For example if the militia unit has a charge of 4 and the corresponding professional unit has 5 ,it is buffed from the beginning. These changes are minor regarding attack values and charge bonuses. But they are greater in defense bonuses. All that is balanced through raising the units upkeep and recruitment cost significantly .I do not know if I could change somehow core stats with a script on specific turns inside the game, and I do not know if it would be practical to do so ,if it is possible.
Culture requirements have been increased to prevent recruitment of units from newly captured frontline cities with low dunedain population.(45% dunedain requirement).
Economically the money required is roughly the same as before ,but smithies are a necessity now ,thus requiring money you didn’t have to invest before.
Im taking the swordsmith guild out of the equation enclosing its bonuses to the smith buildings .Actually a high tier smith building will provide the same bonus. The money for building it will be more of course.
The barracks building retains its importance. You may be able to train those units from the beginning but the smith tier is closely tied with the upgraded barracks. So no big changes here either.
So yes ,you are getting slightly better militias ,but:
a) you pay more to get them
b)more to keep them
c)are forced to pay a lot to upgrade them
d)possible loss of them hurts more
e)cannot recruit the best soldiers without smithies
f)cannot recruit in borderland settlements with low culture.
Thoughts: Thoughts:
a)Im very,very,very,very concerned about overall campaign balancing. I don’t have the time to fully test them now, and I do not know how they would fare on the campaign. Logic implies that campaign will be the same or harder, but I wont put my hand to the fire.
b)Ive searched everywhere trying to find a way to increase the armor bonus (say from 2-2,5 to 3)provided by smiths, since the armor upgrades are limited to 3 by the game. Im also certain that there should be a way to add more weapon upgrades save the one there is already (RTW had 3),but I haven’t found anything like it either, now I am sure if I should add it.I bet they are hardcoded. If you got any ideas though, please shoot. Suffice to say I originally thought the upgrade bonus was just +1 ,and recalibrated all stats when I found it was around 2-2.5 .
Changelog in detail. Changelog in detail.
I. Gondor militia and gondor swordsmen are removed from the game.Replaced with Gondorian soldiers.
II. Gondor archer militia and gondor archers are removed from the game.Replaced with gondorian archers.
III. Gondor cavalry militia and gondor cavalry are removed from the game .Replaced with gondorian cavalry.
IV. Gondor spearmen are removed from the game.Replaced by gondorian spearmen.Yes they don’t have a spear ,but they act as having one.
V. Gondorian units in general have undergone some buffs ,small in size.
VI. Gondorian units have increased upkeep,culture requirement,recruitment cost and upgrade cost.
VII. Armourer (and its upgrades) now increases meele attack of units as well as armor level.
VIII. Armourer’s cost has increased.
IX. Swordsmith guild is not available for Gondor.
Past-Testing:
I.Smithy buildings require the corresponding barrack,bowyer and stables being built as a requirement.
II.Master Armorer also gives +1 experience to units.
III.Core unit morale is reduced to the militia one.Morale improves only through experience.
IV.Gondorian spearmen use the gondorian levies model (By ALHIMIK).
V.Gondorian cavalry use shields on their models.Stats are reconfigured to change that.(By Intel).
v1.1.:
I.Smithy buildings require only the barracks building as it was originally.
II.Officer's academy and its tier of buildings is removed from Gondor.
III.Officer's academy experience bonus potential is not lost.Now Tier 3 bowyer and stables buildings provide +1 experience.
IV.Bowyer tier 2 and tier 3 building cost has increased ,intergrating the cost of the officer academy you should build otherwise.
V.Stables tier 2 and tier 3 building cost has increased ,intergrating the cost of the officer academy you should build otherwise.
Installation: Installation:
1)Just copy paste the data folder over the mods data. http://www.mediafire.com/?g9doykg910nayhj
2)If you want to remove it ,paste the anti-installer data. http://www.mediafire.com/?ofjsoq7vdkc7wdj
3)For v1.1 ,copy paste the ebd file i am attaching.
Future changes : Future changes :
1)Increase the number of upgrades ,and therefore unit models.Most likely use a fifth model.Wont go past 6.
2)Perhaps do the same for another faction.Will think about it.
Many thanks to Ngugi for giving me a nudge out of the door.Gosh i needed it!
Many thanks to Intel for allowing me to include his sheild fix .:-)
Praise ALHIMIK for allowing me to use his gondor levies as the base spearmen unit.Big thanks to you man!
Thanks for your time.
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Originally Posted by paradamed
