Misc questions about game mechanics

[Hasefrexx]

Hi,

I've been playing at Total war games for a while... But never bothered asking them. Here are some; guess I'll come with more later on:

1. Bowmen using fire decrease morale... But, is it the casualities that decrease it, or is it the fact of using fire arrows (in other words: if 1 stack of archer is using them, will it decrease as much morale as a whole army shooting fire arrows, and will loosy bowmen decrease morale as much as ubber bowmen)?

2. I took prisonners. If I kill them, I'll get a reputation decrease. Now, will I still have a reputation decrease if they end up executed because my ennemy doesn't pay for a ransom?

3. The higher the amount of stars, the better a general... But what do is really do? Increased morale, stats of troops,...?

4. I didn't play to Total war for a while. I remember however, that I used to see the parameters affecting morale. Is it only available in some other Total war game (Rome or Empire maybe?), or is there an option or something to toogle to see it?

5. How exactly is chosen the battlefield? Sometimes, I expect a hilly field, or a bridge while it's not.

6. How come that sometimes ambushes are triggered, and sometimes not? Is it because of the mecanics of ambushes (if so, do , say, increased ability in ambush of a general will favor the ambush to work as expected?), or is it that some spy found out my ambushing army? Kinda miss loosy AI of Rome where getting them ambushed was so much easier ^^

7. Higher skill in diplomacy is better. From my experience, some things are impossible to get (ie you could offer your whole Empire and treasury for say an alliance, AI just won't agree because they will still wonder if you're trustworthy enough or not!!). Now, say they refused to that with a loosy diplomat. If I try with a great diplomat, is it possible to conclude an offer that's impossible to have with my loosy diplomat? Or will it only increase the amount of cash I could get through diplomacy (and decrease the amount I'd need to give away)?

8. Spy help catching spies. Do they help to catch murderers? What's about murderers about catching spies / murderers? Is any one better in a field than another at equivalent skill level?

9. Vassals give you gold... How much? In Empire, I liked having some, more for securing my borders (giving them away key territories) and more trade partners (nice when at war with most of the known world ^^ and since Empire mecanics made it so that trade could provide a hudge income), more than the raw income they provide. In M2, I believe that trade agreements only nominaly increase your income (if you don't take merchants in account). Considering how troublesome it is to *hope* getting some (in Empire, it is much easier), border thingy alone is not worth vassaling IMO. It only leaves raw income, which leads to my question.

That's all I can think of for now.

[Avatar]

1. In simple terms, each fire arrow decreases morale by a greater amount than each regular arrow. If you break it down to a single shot, the fire arrow would be more scary than the regular one. The number of casualties suffered does affect things, however this is balanced out by the fact that fire arrows are less accurate.

2. No. Offering ransoms is considered morally neutral so it doesnt hurt your reputation. Not paying a ransom that you can afford to pay, on the other hand, will cause problems.

3. Increased morale is the main benefit to command stars, but that means your troops will stay in the fight longer and cause more casualties, so its a pretty major benefit.

4. Not in this game that I can ever remember.

5. The general layout is based on the campaign map, however you often will get surprised and find yourself in a forest when you were expecting a nice open field. When you engage an enemy army, the square that flashes around both armies is the potential map area.

6. In general I dont even bother trying to ambush, however given that the AI uses a lot of spies it wouldnt surprise me to find that they are spotting your armies.

7. Better diplomats will get better results in diplomacy, yes. So trying for a tough negotiation with a 0 star diplomat is a waste of time, while a 10 star diplomat/princess might get a result. This does still hinge on the small matter of diplomacy in the vanilla game being a bit of a mess.

8. I dont think spies assist in foiling the actual assassination attempt, but they do allow you to see Johnny Stabman coming before he attempts to stick a knife in your general. That means you can counteract with an assassin of your own. So in terms of "which is better" you want both units hanging around.

9. Again vassals are something I dont bother with, they are only going to turn around and backstab you 10 turns down the line. Aside from anything else I'd rather have direct control of the cities myself rather than having an incompetent AI lackey building completely stupid stuff there.

[Hasefrexx]

Oh, vassals are not forced to stay as is? Doesn't sounds very good indeed. as per ambushing, I don't do that often; there aren't many spots that you know AI will go through, but now I'm playing Americas, this is a must... When it triggers ^^

Thanks.

Here's more:
10. I'm France. I trade Paris to England. HRE takes Paris from England. If I take Paris from HRE, will I suffer from a reputation decrease?

11. Same as 10, but England took Paris from HRE, and then I take it back.

[PapaRosario]

Disregard what I wrote if you read it. I misread what you had asked. I'm not really sure about this situation as I've never run into it.

[Aeratus]

3. (General's Command) - Command stars don't affect the magnitude of morale effects. Stars only affect the range of the morale effects. So the morale of troops right besides the general is the same regardless if the general is 1 star or 8 stars (assuming they are equal in chivalry/dread). But the 8 star general affects the morale of troops that are farther away from him than the 1-star general.

6. (Ambush) - An ambush battle is triggered when the one army moves adjacent to another army that is deployed in ambush mode. Armies are in ambush mode when they are kneeling down on the ground.

9. (Vassals) - Vassals give you half their net profits each turn once as long as they are above a certain minimum gold threshold (I think it's 10,000, but not sure).

[Hasefrexx]

6. (Ambush) - An ambush battle is triggered when the one army moves adjacent to another army that is deployed in ambush mode. Armies are in ambush mode when they are kneeling down on the ground.

Yes, but still, it doesn't always work. Sometimes, when I'm in ambush mode, I still get a standart type of combat, me being attacked. Now I mention it, I think that sometimes in Rome, it was saying that my general spotted an ambush (and then you have the choice either to attack, or not). Guess this is what hapened, too. Still curious about wether or not some traits or other factor might influence the probability of a successfull ambush. Thanks for info about the general, I would have never expect it to work this way.

[tudor93]

3. (General's Command) - Command stars don't affect the magnitude of morale effects. Stars only affect the range of the morale effects. So the morale of troops right besides the general is the same regardless if the general is 1 star or 8 stars (assuming they are equal in chivalry/dread). But the 8 star general affects the morale of troops that are farther away from him than the 1-star general.

wow ... so command stars only affect the range ? lol, then I don't understand why so many people complain that generals get command stars too hard (especially in mods like SS), they are almost useless IMHO

[Sitalkes]

3. The higher the amount of stars, the better a general... But what do is really do? Increased morale, stats of troops,...?

It does nothing if your general has low chivalry or dread but for a general with a lot of battle traits and chivalry/dread it makes a big difference, as it means the more stars, the more troops are affected - particularly important for the dread general, as the effect has to reach further as dread only affects enemy troops.

5. How exactly is chosen the battlefield? Sometimes, I expect a hilly field, or a bridge while it's not..

An important skill to develop is manoevering your troops to get them into the right position for a battle - when you move them into the brown blob next to the enemy, try to have your troops on a hill and your enemies below them and that is how the army will fight. If you are in woods then there will be woods on the field. A river won't usually be on the battlefield unless it is a bridge battle but sometimes if a river might form a border for a battlefield and prevent routers from escaping. If you have allied armies, if the allied army is on the right of your main army when deployed in the brown blobs then that is how it will appear on the battlefield.

6. How come that sometimes ambushes are triggered, and sometimes not? Is it because of the mecanics of ambushes (if so, do , say, increased ability in ambush of a general will favor the ambush to work as expected?), or is it that some spy found out my ambushing army? Kinda miss loosy AI of Rome where getting them ambushed was so much easier ^^

There is an ambush trait a general can get if he successfully ambushes an enemy army but it doesn't make him more likely to ambush, just gives him a combat bonus in ambushes. You have to have some movement left when you set the ambush for it to succeed. What does "loosy" mean?

8. Spy help catching spies. Do they help to catch murderers? What's about murderers about catching spies / murderers? Is any one better in a field than another at equivalent skill level?

Spies do make it more difficult for assasins to succeed and they can spot assasins before the assasins attack. Their skill level matters but your generals also get traits that can make them more or less succeptible to assasination.

[Hasefrexx]

Thanks; this is instructive

There is an ambush trait a general can get if he successfully ambushes an enemy army but it doesn't make him more likely to ambush, just gives him a combat bonus in ambushes. You have to have some movement left when you set the ambush for it to succeed. What does "loosy" mean?

That might be why it sometimes wouldn't trigger. Will it *always* work if the ambushing army has some movement points left?
In this context, loosy would be close in meaning to bad or stupid... To me at least, but I'm not a native.

[Silverheart]

That might be why it sometimes wouldn't trigger. Will it *always* work if the ambushing army has some movement points left?
In this context, loosy would be close in meaning to bad or stupid... To me at least, but I'm not a native.

Yes, it should work. If an army has no movement points left when placed at an ambush site, they won´t set an ambush and will usually be seen by the enemy (until the next turn, when they get new movement points and set the ambush). In my experience, the enemy must also pass close enough by the ambushing army, otherwise the ambush might not be triggered.

As for "loosy", that´s just a spelling error.
I believe the word you´re looking for is "lousy".