3.5 Progress Report - April 6, 2013 - NEW UPDATE

[Papalord]

Uff, I have so many hopes in the (hopefully soon) upcoming patch 3.5
I only play ACW for European Campaign haha
But awesome mod at all
some questions:

1. Different european units (not only "prussian pickelhaube-infantry" and "not-prussian pi...") added?
2. Portraits? (Like Wilhelm I. or Bismarck)

And pleaaase add also more and bigger arty to Prussia/European factions!

Thanks for some Awesome Mod work












Northern Germany was also Vikings home!

[shokh]

In this state i can´t say much about the content and date of 3.5 as it will be a huge project.

[General Dan]

I for one think that there shouldnt be a grand campaign for this mod, it only takes away the core idea of what this mod is made for and turns it more and more into a victoria mod. I dont understand why this mod has units that we'll never see using union or confederate factions. Why not have fire zouves, union troops with over coats, exc?

Papalord you might just want to check the victoria mod when it comes out, chief. It would be more "european oriented".

[Mr Niles]

Will there be ships in 3.5?

[shokh]

Will there be ships in 3.5?

Yes.

[4th-MSM]

I tend to agree with General Dan, I like ACW: the Blue and the Gray because it focuses on the ACW. Playing in Europe or having war declared on me from a nation that was not involved in the real CW disrupts the mood for me (of course that's just my opinion, everyone has different preferences ). As General Dan mentioned, there are other mods that focus on European conflicts.

On the other hand, I do like how the ACW mod has the diplomacy aspect with other countries, as that was a very big part in the CW. For example, the South wanted to get trade agreements with England and France who needed cotton. The South also bought large orders of Enfield rifles from Britain before the U.S. could, which of course turned out to be one of the most common rifles used by the South

Anyway, just wanted to give my two cents!

[General Dan]

I tend to agree with General Dan, I like ACW: the Blue and the Gray because it focuses on the ACW. Playing in Europe or having war declared on me from a nation that was not involved in the real CW disrupts the mood for me (of course that's just my opinion, everyone has different preferences ). As General Dan mentioned, there are other mods that focus on European conflicts.

On the other hand, I do like how the ACW mod has the diplomacy aspect with other countries, as that was a very big part in the CW. For example, the South wanted to get trade agreements with England and France who needed cotton. The South also bought large orders of Enfield rifles from Britain before the U.S. could, which of course turned out to be one of the most common rifles used by the South

Anyway, just wanted to give my two cents!

Thats very true about the trading aspect. Although, i feel like the team should only focus on the countries in the american theater. I would much rather be fighting some unique british units or mexican units after winning the civil war than declaring war on prussia (and that wouldnt be a very logical idea) just to fight some picklehaube infantry. I feel like the generic european units prior too 3.0 worked fine because it didnt take anything away from the civil war aspect, but only added to the atmosphere of this mod actually being set in the 1860's

[Mr Niles]

Nice

[Ftmch]

I agree with others on focusing on america, there's enough work as it is focusing on what the mod is actually about than starting to focus it on somethign completely different, this is the American Civil War mod.
(that said, more unique units for other factions in the americas, like mexico wouldn't hurt in the future I suppose, but the focus should in my opinion remain on the civil war, as that's what the mod is about).

[delmat]

I also agree that the mod should focus only on american theatre..fix those annoying textures of some units (union regular inf, confederate sharpshooters), add several new units and make some diversity in little details with existing units (primarily cavalry ones), do something about mexico and maybe indian factions and that should be it
I fear that going to global map would be a too big bite and we would wait for a year for the mod to be finished..in current state of mod I think the battles and campaign map play are almost perfect as you were focused mainly to make them work as best as they can, but there is unfinished bussines with units as some of them need some more love&visual differences, plus adding some more of them wouldn't hurt..that is my opinion

[Papalord]

@General Dan

You're right, but there's no release of the victorian age mod!
And on top of that,I don't even see any screenshots of their work

I just don't want to wait, I want to play









Northern Germany was also Vikings home!

[Gustaw]

[QUOTE=Papalord;11773275]@General Dan

You're right, but there's no release of the victorian age mod!
And on top of that,I don't even see any screenshots of their work

I just don't want to wait, I want to play




I agree ... there are people out there who played the former ACW mod mostly for the 19th century Europe ... these people are all waiting again for Grand campaign. There is no mod alive or released out there currently to cover European theatre ( the truth is that Victoria could merge with this one to progress faster perhaps ). Not everybody is hard core US civil war fan so have some empathy .. Europe gives you more variety of factions, possibilities, wars, etc.
Great mod btw .. fingers crossed for Le Grand Campaign !

[shokh]

We have done now a break. Time to gather energy and also think about the next goal.
I for my own think we should re-define the goal for the final (sub)version.
Because of two things:
1) Half of the team is since 3.x very limited in time and the amount of the main work for 2-3 people is and was very high.
2) Instead of adding and adding, we should polish what we have and focus what we cover.

This means for me:
+ Correcting the existing unit textures/models
+ Adding other civil war units.
+ Reworking a bit the units of the other factions in america
+ Implement a own tech tree
+ Fixing small things like the general´s issue
- Cancel grand campaign as it will never be complete without rework of all factions
- Cancel optional mods as it is now fine (such things can be done as submods)

We are also looking for experienced unit modeler and texture artists.

Your thoughts are welcome.

[Virrey]

You could always tweak the building time if you wanted a smaller project. From what I understand, building wasn't the biggest priority during the war and, if any, it should be quite slow.

[shokh]

Yes this could be tweaked too. This must be balanced very well as the Ai will not build every turn as the human player do.

[Eddy Rich]

i guess i would fit into a catagory for Civil War research

[jackx]

When re-evaluating building times, would it be possible to take a regions overall development/developability into account?
I.e. further industrializing areas that already have significant industry/became centers of industrial growth would be faster than turning the middle of nowhere out west into a thriving hub of industrial activity connected to other areas by multiple railroads...

Given the very short timescale per turn, if the AI can handle it properly, increasing recruitment time for cav and arty (maybe dependant on regional development/specialties) also couldn't hurt.

Right now, the best opening move seems to be to immediately upgrade railroads everywhere, as it's cheap, doesn't take long and offers large benefits.

Another issue that I think should be looked into is the amount of ammunition carried by units - right now, if one "role-plays" the battles and lets static firefights develop for the sheer atmosphere of it, units run out of rounds rather quickly, and while they did that historically as well, there's no option for resupply in the game (nor for scavenging, or even throwing rocks, as implemented in the Secession ACW mod for M&B Warband ).

I also get the feeling that AI armies contain rather too much cavalry, particularly given the AIs inability to use it effectively, both on the strategic and battle map. Just feels odd to see inf and maybe a foot arty dispatched on a raid, while the cavalry dash themselves to ruin by means of frontal charges in pitched battles.

[shokh]

Well we can´t offer different building times in different regions owned by the same faction.
What would to be done is to increase the building times to be more realistic. A railway between two regions should really take longer to be completed then a inn.
But unit recruitment will get later partly restrictions to specific regions.

About the ammo, it will be raised a bit. But not too much because of different balance/gameplay issues.

[Murat ÖZCAN]

No grand Campaign... Damn Well,If you don't leave civil war ships plan,it can be enough

[shokh]

Yes this will be covered by the victoria mod which have 1865 as start date iirc.