A Tale of the Heike and the Genji Public BETA

[Cellfish]

Sure, take your Time ;D just dont drop it

[Ygge]

I have provided you guys with a small teaser on some of the units of version 1. Expect an open beta on thursday!

[Himster]

What does everyone think about making the Taira one faction?
Pro: The Taira were the most powerful family because they were united under a strong (but brutal) leader kiyomori.
con: This makes the Taira almost too strong, but this can be fixed by increasing the animosity other provinces feel towards the historic events.

[Ygge]

By making the Taira one faction we also unlock a faction slot for a new playable faction. Got some interesting options in my mind, will bring it up when I begin on the next version. Also, the beta has been delayed due to alot rl stuff but I will get enough free time on wednesday to release the first beta. I will then update it next week with some minor unfinished issues, features and new faces.

[Fra70]

i like the idea of the Taira as a one faction

[Ygge]

I have failed to upload the mod as an attachment for an unknown reason. I am looking into uploading it on another site, it will take a little longer though.

[Ygge]

Finally I have had time to fix a download link, in this case Workshop, for the mod. It is now in beta. Some things are not done yet that I will take care of at the end of this month. Feedback about gameplay, bugs and such is very appreciated.

Edit: Forgot to add link. Here it is: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=135731732

[Himster]

I think I'll explain the finer details of the mod that might have been missed:
Armour, the armour details have been improved, the practicalities of the o'sode (shoulderpads) on infantry has been addressed, the size is now more appropriate.
Weapons, spears have been introduced, yes the model is the wrong type, this will be fixed in the future with a leaf shaped spear-head, for how the spear troops are meant to counter-act cavalry imbalances found in vanilla ROTS, also the number of spear armed units is heavily capped due to the put-dated nature of spear based warfare.
Troop classification. Attendants have been renamed light-kachi due to the broad definition of what may or may not constitute "samurai" in this period.
Sashimono have been introduced to higher ranking samurai small number typically making up 10% of an army based on the percentage of samurai wearing sashimono in visual sources: banners are also in the works, but obviously need a lot of work to be accurate.
Horo have been introduced to a quarter of generals' bodyguards to represent the messengers and high-ranking officials a general would need to surround himself with, but obviously not all of his bodyguard would be messengers.
New hero units, this was an age of heroes: tetsubo armed samurai hero, naval monk hero, naginata samurai hero, sword hero samurai bow monk hero etc.
New faces, new Taira faces will have facial hair in the style of the contemporary court, The Fujiwara will have the previous style and the Minamoto will be slightly rougher looking (scars, stubble etc.)
Bandit units are in the game and they will be improved with tattoos.
Monastic levies are a unit that will be made in the future, to be similar to ikko-ikki ashigaru but can be recruited by any faction that holds a fortified monastery.
A year takes 12 turns.
Historically accurate events will be introduced.
Province specific units are in the works also, such as Kai cavalry, Emishi skirmishers, Rykyu raiders, Miidera warrior monks and many others.

[Elianus]

The link does not work for me

[Ygge]

Hi. Sorry about that. I will try to fix the link.

[Ygge]

Okay, fixed now. It was a workshop agreement that I had to agree on. Sorry for the inconvenience. The link is working now anyway!

[Himster]

So we have 444 downloads and still no feedback? Come on dudes, help us to help you, so you can help us to help you by helping us, which in turn helps you because you're helping us.

[CnConrad]

Ok, I am going to ask you to sell me on this mod. I realize you don't have to but it sounds like it could be interesting but I really don't understand has been changed.


All I understand is that you are adding a few new units and turns per year. Are you adding other stuff? Will the game play differently than ROTS?


The reason is I have beaten it a few times modded and in vanilla and other than AI changes and battles it was still the same game.

[Himster]

The goal is historical accuracy, the philosophy is that historical accuracy inherently improves game-play. Obviously the gameplay can't be totally different from ROTS as both are set in the same era with the same clans who have the same goals and the same technology, the same culture/language/religion(s) and the same proto-feudalistic system. If you didn't like ROTS it's unlikely that you'd like this mod, that being said we like to think we've improved on the expansion made by CA because of the additional time, care and attention to detail that we've added.

We are working on adding very ambitious ideas also in the future, such as adding unique cities, an Emishi faction (in the north) and a pirate faction (based off the coast of Iyo province) and maybe one day a Ryukyu faction (in the south), there are many obstacles to these ideas, but Ygge almost always finds a way, so watch out.

[Himster]

A few nice pics of the mod.

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[NeonCrayon]

Are there custom unit cards for the new land and naval units in this mod?
If so, can I see them?

[Himster]

Are there custom unit cards for the new land and naval units in this mod?
If so, can I see them?

They aren't finished yet, we've substituted existing ones for the time being in-game, not ideal but it'll do for now. This mod is quite ambitious, so the "mere" aesthetic/interface aspects are among the last things to crop up. Fear not, it will be done.

[Carmichael]

Hi, first of all, great mod!
Second, do you plan on improving the naval battles? They were of great importance in the Era and I am disappointed by how fast and easy they actually are. Same for the general ,there is no naval specialisation possible when they was several great decisive battles fought on the sea (Dan no Ura being the last of them). Do you plan to tweak that?

[Himster]

Hi, first of all, great mod!

Thanks very much

Second, do you plan on improving the naval battles? They were of great importance in the Era and I am disappointed by how fast and easy they actually are.

We will be improving them.......... well we think we will.
More hero units, capping the larger ships, (one large and two medium). We can customize the small ships now and we have some ideas about that. We're looking at a way of of having an ammo limit thus making dramatic boarding actions necessary (and more historically accurate). I've been trying to convince Taira about the idea of doubling all defence values, this was done in the last kingdom mod for med 2 and worked amazingly, this would lengthen the battles considerably and allow for actual maneuvers (as opposed to a single charge 30 seconds later the battle is over.) But obviously the amount of work involved in such a ambitious and dramatic alteration would be enormous and I'm incompetent on the technical side, so it'd be up to Taira to do it on his own pretty much

Same for the general ,there is no naval specialisation possible when they was several great decisive battles fought on the sea (Dan no Ura being the last of them). Do you plan to tweak that?

I don't know if there is a way to edit the skill tree.

[Carmichael]

Thank you for your response.

I don't know if there is a way to edit the skill tree.

I say this because in Vagros mod (I think) they actually changed it and precisely added Retainers that gave bonus to the navies. The problem I have with both Sengoku and Gempei war is precisely that your general may be a 6 star by winning only Sea Battles you can't have any bonus to the navies since the movement improvement concerns only Land Units, same for all stats improvement.

Otherwise I totally agree with your vision, that would be awesome if it could come to that. An ammo limit would be great but you would also need to improve greatly armors since 3 to 6 well placed volleys are enough at the time to take out even a Large Samurai Ship.