Shogun 2: Art of War [1.0.4]

[kerrfox]

I completely accept that, just like there would likely not be any pure Katana or Bow Samurai units However, this adds to the game play experience. If all units are the same it reduces your tactical options in a battle; it becomes a bit bland. For me game play always trumps historical accuracy...

Hmmmm... really? Adding bazookas wouldn't be historically accurate .. but it would "improve gameplay."

Ah well ... the mystique of the katana I supose .. nevertheless I'll download your mod and give it a try.

Not sure what to make of the "historically accurate is too boring" mentality though .... I really don't get it. The first computer wargame (in the 80's) that I played was set in 400 B.C China - one of my buddies thought it would be "cool" if the game included AH-64 Apache attack helicopters - in ANCIENT CHINA!

Like I say, I truly do not understand why so many feel historically accurate depictions of the units that actually engaged one another in battle at a given place and time isn't good enough and should be "improved" by adding units that never existed.

Anyway, don't mind my whining, I do appreciate all you modders' efforts and will try this one out (in 2 weeks when my hitch offshore is over).

[AveiMil]

Hmmmm... really? Adding bazookas wouldn't be historically accurate .. but it would "improve gameplay."

And space aliens? Good ideas for 1.0.3.

Ah well ... the mystique of the katana I supose .. nevertheless I'll download your mod and give it a try.

Not sure what to make of the "historically accurate is too boring" mentality though .... I really don't get it. The first computer wargame (in the 80's) that I played was set in 400 B.C China - one of my buddies thought it would be "cool" if the game included AH-64 Apache attack helicopters - in ANCIENT CHINA!

Like I say, I truly do not understand why so many feel historically accurate depictions of the units that actually engaged one another in battle at a given place and time isn't good enough and should be "improved" by adding units that never existed.

Anyway, don't mind my whining, I do appreciate all you modders' efforts and will try this one out (in 2 weeks when my hitch offshore is over).

It's not that historical accuracy can't be fun but in many ways it is rather limiting. The Katana is an iconic weapon and even though formations of samurai or ashigaru did not fight with it as their primary weapon it does provide more unit variety in the game. Just having different kinds of spear units ain't as interesting. The line has to be drawn somewhere in terms of historical accuracy and gameplay (even realism mods needs to do this), I simply chose to draw it a bit closer in favor of gameplay mechanics.

As a polar opposite to you I've never understood the fanaticism over historically accuracy in games. Historical warfare is not fun, it's brutal, unforgiving and unfair. As long as I'm able to suspend my disbelief I'm fine with any historical inaccuracies, even more so when it comes to unit battle performance that has to be balanced so that the game mechanics remain fun and challenging.

I understand that many enjoy more of a role playing experience instead of a strategy game experience and those users will definitively prefer hardcore historical accuracy. This is of course perfectly fine, everyone can enjoy the game as they see fit and there are already mods that cater to these players; however that's not what my design philosophy represents.

[rummtata]

Don't let them get to you, AveiMil, I trust you will not add any helicopters, bazookas or dinosaurs to the game (though I must say, the idea of yari-samurai riding on on raptors and bow-ashigaru riding on brontosauruses is quite compelling ^^)

May I ask what kind of visual mods I could use in combination with yours? Would there be any conflicts with

1) portrait / event window mods
2) texture overhaul like 'epic textures'
3) unit appearence mods like 'clan retexture'

?

Something else: Are you going to rebalance missile units? Just like in other TW games, in vanilla S2 they are way overpowered, like you're only supposed to play Chosokabe

cheers

[AveiMil]

Don't let them get to you, AveiMil, I trust you will not add any helicopters, bazookas or dinosaurs to the game (though I must say, the idea of yari-samurai riding on on raptors and bow-ashigaru riding on brontosauruses is quite compelling ^^)

Oh and nobody is getting to me , people are free to express their opinion.

May I ask what kind of visual mods I could use in combination with yours? Would there be any conflicts with

1) portrait / event window mods
2) texture overhaul like 'epic textures'
3) unit appearence mods like 'clan retexture'

?

Something else: Are you going to rebalance missile units? Just like in other TW games, in vanilla S2 they are way overpowered, like you're only supposed to play Chosokabe

cheers

I believe all of those (1,2,3) should work fine with AoW, worst case scenario you'll overwrite some information from AoW if you ensure those mods are loaded after AoW, however as it's purely visual it doesn't really matter much.

In regards to missile units I'm not entierly convinced they are that overpowered. Bow Ashigaru might have been in relation to Bow Samurai and I've done minor changes to tweak that balance already (lower ammo, accuracy and reload skill for Bow Ashigaru in addition to a slight buff to Bow Samurai armor).

If you still feel missile units (matchlock as well?) are overpowered compared to cost/upkeep in the campaign I would most welcome to hear your opinion and how to fix it. Definetly try to include custom battle examples that highlights battle performance inbalances.

[Drtad]

Got a chance to play a little more. Encountered the first full AI stack and a significant amount was made up of Katana Ashigaru units (about 60-70%). They also had a lot of light cavalry (four units and then a general, I had 3 generals) and the rest was archers and one naginata. My army was mainly naginata/yari/1 yari sam with three generals (besides archers which were about equal to theirs). Their light cavalry with their anti-cavalry bonus was a good general killer and by the time I was able to use a yari unit to beat back the cavalry my naginata/yari lines had been overwhelmed by the katanas. It seems as though a good army build with this system is katana ashigaru for the infantry and light cavalry to wipe out generals/other cavalry (early tech of course). The AI realized that before I did unfortunately.

I'll play some more later.

[wealthmonger]

Early Chosokabe on VH. The AI does seem to be recruiting to many katana ashigaru but it's still early. My cavalry tear up their katana ashigaru but on my side I can't seem to justify the upkeep cost, do I want 4 yari ashigaru or 3 katana ashigaru, same upkeep. My yari ashigaru seem to hold the line well enough with a few naginata ashigaru helping. I'm going to go with a few more cavalry then usual in my battle groups to counter their katana ashigaru.

I also need more archers to widdle down the larger garrisons so I'm having them follow right behind the main group. That system is a little slower but it should work. I'll try out the buildings once I take over Shikoku.

It's probably unrelated to the mod. Most likely a natural game bug but I just had the game crash while my archers were widdling down the sogo garrison. I'll fight the battle again and see if it reoccurs.

[AveiMil]

Does the AI recruit 50% sword katana and 50% Spear (Yari,Long,Naginata) ashigaru? Or does it constantly recruit a higher % of katana ashigaru? The AI is configured to recruit the same amount of spear as katana ashigaru (in theory). Both have a priority of 600. I tried setting sword priority to 550, but that resulted in the AI recruiting nothing but spear ashigaru.

[Drtad]

Does the AI recruit 50% sword katana and 50% Spear (Yari,Long,Naginata) ashigaru? Or does it constantly recruit a higher % of katana ashigaru? The AI is configured to recruit the same amount of spear as katana ashigaru (in theory). Both have a priority of 600. I tried setting sword priority to 550, but that resulted in the AI recruiting nothing but spear ashigaru.

I'd say the percentages were about 75% katana ashigaru. Again that was just one army so I'll make some more tries today to see if it's different for other clans.

[king of prussia]

nice mod but i don't have shogun

[wealthmonger]

I'm turtling on Shikoku. I'm not sure if these would be the same if I was expanding more but here's some thoughts.


Stealth chain I'm thinking that I would build the stealth chain to get 5 ninjas out then destroy the buildings and replace them with markets in lower level castles and rebuild the stealth chain going the other building direction in provinces I now own where the AI clan built up the castle---In this case Miyoshi built up Awa to a fortress so I'm building the stealth chain there for the tax bonus.


Market line get out 5 metsukes then destroy and rebuild for growth. Getting as many merchant guilds as I can while still maintaining a couple food surplus.

I recently attacked Takeda so you can see what they built.

I'm doing an economic build, mostly. Vanilla plus your mod.

[AveiMil]

Very interesting! Should be a tense race for Kyoto. Can't wait to see how it ends.

[Drtad]

Played a little as Date and saw much more balanced AI armies with few katanas. Looking good.

[wealthmonger]

Finished Chosokabe. As far as balanced armies it's kind of strange. Some groups are well balanced but there's exceptions. I came across a Hatakeyama group that was almost a full stack of bow samurai. Here's the save a few turns before victory.

You tricked me with 2 years to become Shogun. What's that? I should of read the changelog first. That probably would of been a good idea.

My Ikko Ikki invasion
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/48...3A4E9F21060F7/

I've been going at this for hours and so I'm tired. I'm not sure if these have been mentioned yet or not.
I didn't get the christianity message until I took a province with a nanban port.
An Ikko Ikki retainer was one of my choices. Unless it's just against Ikko monks?
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/48...9B5D1B35113F9/
Yari Ashigaru without spearwall remind me of the starting RotS units, their horribly pathetic in most situations. So I'll have to remember to get the first spear tech in the bushido arts(enabling spearwall) fairly early in the campaign, next time.
I want realm divide called against Saito he's up to 20 provinces. I guess that can't be changed.
It seems like theirs less enemy agents but those that I saw seemed to be higher rank agents. As if they quickly gobble up the lower rank agents?

[AveiMil]

Amazing wealthmonger! Your skills never cease to impress me. I hope it was a fun experience.

I'll analyze this data further this week. Looking to get 1.0.3 ready for release next sunday.

[Drtad]

Yeah wow you're quite a skilled player.

I have noticed the Saito always growing very powerful in my games like in that one. Strange.

[AveiMil]

Looking for additional feedback! If anyone else is playing an AoW campaign please tell me about it Especially how the AI is doing in terms of army recruitment and difficulty.

[Drtad]

I'd say the AI is really taking advantage of the new buildings and concepts effectively enough. It's more than competent at times.

[SDM]

This mod sounds good to me, unfortunately I can't run it.

When I try and run the Shogun 2 -Art of War application, I get the error:

Script: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common]total war shogun 2\data\AoW_Files\AoW_Launch.vbs
Line: 9
Char: 1
Error: Invalid Root in Registry Key
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Valve\Steam\InstallPath"
Code: 80070002
Source: WshShell.RegRead

[AveiMil]

Something wrong with your steam installation.

Go to your shogun 2 data folder, if the Art_of_War_1_0_2.pack is present you can just launch Shogun 2 like you normally would and it will load.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Valve\Steam\InstallPath should point to your Steam installation folder.

[waterbbq]

Playing as Uesugi, I'm unable to recruit both Uesugi Naginata Warrior Monks and Uesugi Bow Warrior Monks. I have the required tech along with the required buildings: Monastery, Naginata Dojo, and Foot Archery Range all in my capital province. When I try to recruit them, it says "required building not present." The bug was present in 1.0.1, and I updated to 1.0.2 today and it is still present.

As a side note, a quest that required me to diversify my army by recruiting an Ashigaru unit is also bugged. I recruited a Yari Ashigaru and shouldve have received 6 turns of superior Ashigaru (+2 exp?) and 1 Yari Ashigaru. Unfortunately it did not complete for me.

I am absolutely enjoying this mod though.