New Garrison Script v1.0

[Dvarnrock]

Hail!

I've made this new garrison script basing on the idea and the script code of Isengard Garrison Script By TNZ and Withwnar, so please thank those fine gents for it - I've basically just made some copy-pasting.

The main idea here is that the script creates an army in the besieged city right after a player (or an AI) starts the battle, and also the script deletes this army after the battle (or after the withdraw), so there will be no army spam after sieges.

The downside of the script is that it requires about 60 additional units in EDU (but still there is the place for some 100 more).

The script summons "Assembled" versions of some basic units (range, spearmen, "tough" guys) for each faction (so there won't be any Trolls anymore ).

To install simply unpack to Third_Age mode folder (don't forget to make a backup).

Note that script is compatible only with raw 3.1 (but can be manually merged with any other mods - just be sure not to hit the EDU units limit).

P.S. Also I fixed a pair of minor bugs of 3.1 (like wrong coordinated for spawn of the Eriador settlement conquerors armies).

[2-D Ron]

Excellent idea!

But there are ways around it, if you wait outside the Settlement for a Unit to leave the Settlement you can attack them and the Reinforcements coming from the Settlement.. Manage to kill all the Settlements Reinforcements and you can just walk into the Settlement with no resistance or Spawn Script.

[Dvarnrock]

You mean to prolong the siege so AI tries to broke out? Heh, nice tactic!
But if AI can't do this than the script still will do its' work (prevent AI from quick expansion) without causing defenders stack spam (imho, the biggest problem of the traditional garrison script).

[2-D Ron]

Absolutly lol

You don't even have to seige the Settlement, just to sneekly wait for a unit to leave settlement and pounce with a near equal force so you don't scare them back into the Settlement and walk in after Battle victorious.
Have to say the plus side of this script is during Invasions you don't have to worry about the Spawn Units being sapped away by countless besieging.. Constant refreshing of troops so it makes it harder for Invasion Forces to take a Settlement.

Hopefully this will replace future Settlement Spawnage in Vanilla Patches, till then I'm sure MOS will love to see this in their Compilation.

[zoommooz]

Yeah I agree, should definatly be looked at for vanilla. J

ust played a game as Mordor, and was about half way into Gondor. Next target was Dol Amoth (Spelling?), but I was very stretched with Rohan and SE causing problems. Harad, turn after turn, laid siege to the city (Which Gondor was leaving very poorly defended) which caused an almost endless amount of troops, at the very least doubling Gondor's total units.

I've noticed in many of my games that any factions that are on the offensive early (Ie Mordor) actually end up being at a huge disadvantage because of this. I think that perhaps garrsions scripts for AI vs AI should be very limited, with only capital and maybe one or two others at most.

In my current game, with garrison script completely removed, Mordor is the force to be reckoned with that it was supposed to be.

[Dvarnrock]

Ah, yes! Now I see... If there are no units in the city the script won't work as there is no battle... Well... It can be seen as a kind of realism - if there is no siege, and enemy sneaky aproaches the city then there is no time to assemble defenders (no time to rally them or no time to give them weapons)

[zoommooz]

Yeah I agree, should be looked at for vanilla. J

ust played a game as Mordor, and was about half way into Gondor. Next target was Dol Amoth (Spelling?), but I was very stretched with Rohan and SE causing problems. Harad, turn after turn, laid siege to the city (Which Gondor was leaving very poorly defended) which caused an almost endless amount of troops, at the very least doubling Gondor's total units.

I've noticed in many of my games that any factions that are on the offensive early (Ie Mordor) actually end up being at a huge disadvantage because of this. I think that perhaps garrsions scripts for AI vs AI should be very limited, with only capital and maybe one or two others at most.

In my current game, with garrison script completely removed, Mordor is the force to be reckoned with that it was supposed to be.

[zoommooz]

Sorry, double post.

[Dvarnrock]

Can't edit the first post yet, so I have said it here:

Also this script spawn Arnor units instead of Eriador ones in Arnor cities after the restoration.

[Dvarnrock]

Hmm... And what if we combine the scripts? Leave the Vanilla GS as it is, but reducing the number of spawn units to 1 (set to spawn just one most weak unit of the faction - as it won't be destroyed after the siege). Theoretically then this unit will be spawned at any attempt to take a scripted settlement, and then, if the player or AI attempt to assault the settlement, new GS will spawn additional "Assembled" units that will be destroyed after the battle...

This way we can greatly reduce the number of spawn units left after sieges, and fix the exploit with waiting for the settlement to be left unguarded. What do you think?

[2-D Ron]

Hmm... And what if we combine the scripts? Leave the Vanilla GS as it is, but reducing the number of spawn units to 1 (set to spawn just one most weak unit of the faction - as it won't be destroyed after the siege). Theoretically then this unit will be spawned at any attempt to take a scripted settlement, and then, if the player or AI attempt to assault the settlement, new GS will spawn additional "Assembled" units that will be destroyed after the battle...

This way we can greatly reduce the number of spawn units left after sieges, and fix the exploit with waiting for the settlement to be left unguarded. What do you think?

Sounds Fab! there shouldn't too many Elite units in say Edoras Etc.
Always think that the Garrison should be a reflection of it's population, mostly Peasant Militias and a couple of Noble Men Units, like a Poor majority and Rich minority taking arms when the Army is away, like Fryden conscripted to fight.

[Sobibor]

Sounds Fab! there shouldn't too many Elite units in say Edoras Etc.
Always think that the Garrison should be a reflection of it's population, mostly Peasant Militias and a couple of Noble Men Units, like a Poor majority and Rich minority taking arms when the Army is away, like Fryden conscripted to fight.

And how about if the GS launch only if there are a caracter on the settlement? The caracter (noble men) force the peasant recruitment. If there are no caracter, no organized defence.

[Withwnar]

Well, then if I cut down number of units that will be left after the siege to one, I think the garrison counter can be set to 2 for AI and Local sieges both.

But doesn't TNZ's garrison script replace the vanilla one? There is no turn timer in TNZ's script.

And how about if the GS launch only if there are a caracter on the settlement? The caracter (noble men) force the peasant recruitment. If there are no caracter, no organized defence.

That could be easily done: GovernorInResidence condition.

[Dvarnrock]

But doesn't TNZ's garrison script replace the vanilla one? There is no turn timer in TNZ's script.

RIght now, I'm merging two GS systems, as 2-D Ron has found an issue with "raw" TNZ's script - the point is that if there are no any unit in the city the garrison by TNZ won't appear, as there is no battle. So now I'm planing to do it like this:
1. Preserve a part of vanilla GS but reduce the number of summoned unit to one (two in rare cases), as this one won't be deleted and will be added to the army of the faction. This unit will be summoned anytime a player or AI tries to capture a city (even if there no currently any garrison)
2. And then I'm adding the script by TNZ that will summon additional "Assembled" troops right before the battle itself.

Sobibor, maybe it will be a part of next versions (thou I think it should be optional - just like cities management).

Another idea to add to GS was to make the size of the garrison dependable of the size of the city. But this one can easily increase the size of the script itself 3x times.

[Aldor]

A question. Can the AI factions still capture a city with a garisson script? They will probably send a minor army (as normal). But now they might not send a bigger army after the spawn script because the city still seems empty (not empty if a permanent stack spawns --> AI send appropriate force to capture city). The defenders thus send minor stack after minor stack into oblivion. Or is this not a problem?

[Dvarnrock]

That was my concern too, Aldor. So I've played a couple of games with the new script (played for Eriador and Dwarves for 50 and 100 turns correspondingly), and saw that AIs still capture garrisoned cities, but it happens a little bit later in the game (as AIs tend to use small stacks to assault the settlement at the beginning (till 40-60 turns) and half/full stacks later (even if there is few defenders in the city)). But, yes, capitols are harder to get for AI with the new script. Btw, the Black crusade against Rohan was still succesfull, but only after 4 assaults (and Mordor stack was defeated, and Rhun nearly halfed in the process).
---
2-D Ron, I'll download 3.2 and implement my idea of mixing the scripts then )

[Aldor]

Ok. It's actually good that capitols aren't taken easily. Keeps most factions alive. Invasion armies aren't dependent on the garrison currenly present in the invasion target, I think.

[Withwnar]

Nice one Dvarnrock.

I guess that the number of new units per faction isn't many but 60 is a sizable chunk. Not a problem when there are plenty of free slots left (i.e. vanilla) but anybody wishing to combine this with other many-new-units submods could run into trouble (e.g. MOS?).

It could be reduced a bit by sharing some units between factions. e.g. You could make generic units (no faction-specific banners etc.) for groups of factions:
1) Orcs
2) Good Men
3) Evil Men
4) Elves
5) Dwarves

It would be a lot of work though, retexturing units to remove insignia etc. (and chasing down permissions). And not as fun to fight against. Anyway, just putting it out there.

(P.S. Thanks for the credit but this was all TNZ: I was only involved in some unit choice discussion.)

[Dvarnrock]

Thank you, Withwnar! I've done some calculating - there are just 44 new units in this one (and the number can be reasonably lowered to 20). I hope to left it as it is, cause I'm haven't any exp in modeling )
I have a question thou. Can anyone tell me, how vanilla GS truly works? Does it create garrison units just once per 5 turns? I.e. if I assault the city, the script will work once in each 5 turns?

[Withwnar]

True enough, retexturing a lot of units is not something to take on lightly, even if you could get permissions to do so.

Can anyone tell me, how vanilla GS truly works? Does it create garrison units just once per 5 turns? I.e. if I assault the city, the script will work once in each 5 turns?

That seems to be the way it works, yes. The same city won't auto-garrison within 5 turns.